text stringlengths 211 577k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 371 | file_path stringclasses 644 values | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.93 1 | token_count int64 54 121k | score float64 1.5 1.84 | int_score int64 2 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Soyuz TMA-07M Santa Sleigh docks with ISS
The Russian Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft - known by its NASA designation as 33S – followed up its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday, by docking with the ISS two days later, delivering the three new crewmembers to the orbital outpost for a festive welcome by their crewmates already aboard the station.
Soyuz TMA-07M crew:
Soyuz TMA-07M is crewed by an all-veteran team of spaceflyers, with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko being the Soyuz commander for his second time in space.
Romanenko, a 41 year old Major in the Russian Air Force, previously flew on the Expedition 20 and 21 missions from May to December 2009, which marked the first time that the ISS increased to six permanent crewmembers.
For this flight , Romanenko will serve as Flight Engineer on Expeditions 34 and 35.
Also aboard Soyuz TMA-07M is NASA astronaut Dr. Tom Marshburn, a 51 year old former flight surgeon with an extensive medical background both inside and outside NASA.
While this will be his second spaceflight, having previously flown on STS-127 in July 2009 (where he briefly flew with Romanenko aboard the ISS), this mission will be his first flight in a Soyuz, and his first long-duration spaceflight.
The third crewmember aboard Soyuz TMA-07M is Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a 52 year old former Colonel in the Canadian Air Force.
While Hadfield will be making his third spaceflight on this mission, having previously flown on STS-74 to the Mir space station in 1995, and STS-100 to the ISS in 2001, during which he performed spacewalks to help install the SSRMS “Canadarm2″, this too will be Hadfield’s first flight in a Soyuz, and first long-duration mission.
Click here for ISS news articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/iss/
It will also mark the first time in history that a Canadian astronaut takes command of the ISS, a duty Hadfield will assume on March 15, 2013.
Hadfield’s launch is eagerly anticipated by many Canadians, as his mission marks the first time in three years that a Canadian astronaut has been in space, as the last time a Canadian astronaut was in space was when Bob Thirsk returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-15 on December 1, 2009 – a flight that was, coincidentally, also commanded by Roman Romanenko.
Officially, Hadfield’s flight is the last planned flight of a Canadian astronaut for the ISS program, as the CSA have now used up all of their allotted crew slots that were awarded to them under a past agreement on multi-national crew positions prior to the ISS’ previously planned end of life in 2016.
However, with ISS operations now officially extended to 2020, as agreed by all partner nations, including Canada, a new Canadian slot has been pencilled-in to the ISS crew assignments manifest for the 61S flight in December 2019, for a six-month stay on the ISS as part of the Expedition 62 and 63 crews, prior to an Earth return in June 2020, marking one of the last crews to depart the ISS before its planned end of life at the end of 2020 – as much as that date is likely to be extended.
While the above flight plan is very tentative, and does not take into account the commercial crew vehicles which would increase the ISS crew to seven crewmembers and could provide Canada with additional crew slots, it shows that the ISS program is planning to reward Canada with another crew slot for their extended participation in the ISS.
Such a future Canadian crew slot would likely be awarded to one of their two newest astronauts, Jeremy Hansen or David Saint-Jacques.
Soyuz TMA-07M flight schedule:
Following orbital insertion, and deployment of all solar arrays, antennas and appendages, Soyuz TMA-07M began a two day rendezvous with the ISS, for a docking to the ISS at the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) “Rassvet” Nadir port on Friday, 21 December, at 2:09 PM GMT.
“A Soyuz Sleigh has pulled in at Station,” noted NASA PAO Rob Navias.
The docking has boosted the ISS back up to six crewmembers for the first time since the November 19 departure of Soyuz TMA-05M.
On the next Soyuz to launch, which is Soyuz TMA-08M on March 28, 2013, this two-day rendezvous profile will be replaced with a new six-hour rendezvous profile, allowing crews to go from the launch pad to the ISS in less time than it takes to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
This fast-rendezvous profile was successfully tested with Progresses M-16M and M-17M earlier in 2012, however Soyuz TMA-08M will mark the first time it is used on a crewed flight.
With Expedition 34 up at full strength, the remainder of 2012 will be spent doing routine scientific activities, and helping the new crewmembers to settle in to their new home and learn the ropes, in addition to some well-earned time off over the holiday period.
Looking ahead to 2013, the crew of Soyuz TMA-07M will have a very busy schedule. On February 10, Progress M-16M will undock from the ISS, followed on February 11 by the launch of Progress M-18M, for a docking to the ISS two days later on February 13. After that, March 1 will mark the third flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to the ISS, with the CRS-2 mission scheduled to arrive at the orbital outpost on March 3.
On March 15, Soyuz TMA-06M will undock from the ISS and return to Earth, marking the beginning of Expedition 35, with Hadfield in command.
Three-crew ops will then continue until March 28, when Soyuz TMA-08M will make a same-day launch and docking to the ISS, boosting the crew back up to six, and making for an orbital reunion between Tom Marshburn and his former STS-127 crewmate, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.
April will be an extremely busy month on the ISS, with April 2 seeing SpaceX’s Dragon unberthed from the ISS and return to Earth, followed in the coming days by Russian EVA-32.
Following that, Progress M-17M will undock from the ISS on April 15, with Europe’s ATV-4 spacecraft launching soon after on April 18. April 23 will see Progress M-18M undock from the ISS, with Progress M-19M launching on April 24, for a docking to the ISS on April 26.
ATV-4 will then dock to the ISS on May 1, with Soyuz TMA-07M departing the ISS on May 14, which will mark the end of Expedition 35 and the beginning of Expedition 36.
(Images via L2 and NASA).
(NSF and L2 are providing full high level space flight coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS/CRS/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles).
(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ – to view how you can access the best space flight content on the entire internet) | <urn:uuid:ea322af3-dd61-4132-9330-00a4380a7773> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/12/soyuz-tma-07m-three-new-crewmembers-iss/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953828 | 1,587 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Recently our R&D team introduced us the most widely anticipated but least understood "next big thing" in the networked world: the Hotspot 2.0. We would like to share this information with all of you!
Good news pour la France! Starting now, all SFR broadband customers in France are also Fon members. This means that all of them can enjoy Fon benefits and connect to more than 8 million hotspots outside their country! If you are a SFR customer and need more information, please visit the official SFR WiFi website.
All along, we at Fon have been saying that WiFi and LTE are complementary technologies. Now, this has been proven by The Advanced Wireless Technology Group (AWTG), a leader in UK metro wireless/small cell technology.
This week we discovered that increasingly, people would rather watch TV shows and movies online, instead of on a television. Nielsen said in its latest report that in the US alone, there are 5 million residences without a cable or satellite TV service. What's more, they don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. At the same time, internet traffic is increasingly going from wired to wireless networks.
- 1 of 3 | <urn:uuid:bd3b2093-382c-4449-a9fd-c96ff3378147> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://feeds.feedburner.com/FonBlogIt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956945 | 248 | 1.53125 | 2 |
India has the highest number of new hires, when it comes to outsourcing. Software and web development is the largest work category of outsourcing. The outsourcing trend is expected to grow further since companies aim to decrease their operational costs. Due to numerous website development services, you have a number of choices when it comes to choosing a provider. Usually, ongoing maintenance projects occupy the internal resources of your company. Outsourcing website development tasks to a provider enables you to meet both current and future needs.
Website Development Services: What are the benefits of outsourcing them?
Here are some of the major benefits of outsourcing website development services:
Expertise: The job is performed by professional designers and developers, resulting in high quality end-products. Most companies that offer website development services stay abreast of technological updates. This allows you to impress your clients, since the website is developed using the latest technology.
Capital Conservation: Outsourcing lets you make efficient use of the available resources, such that you can invest more on other business activities as you save money through outsourcing. You do not have to spend on overhead expenses, which might include computers or office space.
Reduction in Cost: By outsourcing website development you tend to decrease your running costs. Moreover, due to the influx of website design and development service providers, you have the benefit of negotiating with them to keep the prices as low as possible.
No Need to Hire More Employees: You also save on costs by not hiring web designers and developers in your company. Moreover, it is easier to terminate outsourced contract as compared to laying off full-time employees. You also save on hiring time.
Dedicated Timelines: Owing to strict adherence to project timelines and round the clock services, you can be sure of getting the end-product delivered on time. If there is any delay, you can negotiate to lower the charges. It is ideal to have this clause mentioned in the contract before assigning the job.
These are some of the benefits you may get by outsourcing website development services
Ideally you should obtain quotes from a minimum of three different web design and development service providers. Prepare a document mentioning all the requirements and restrictions on the project. Pricing should be detailed and should list resources and the overall cost estimation. You could also enquire about the qualification of the staff and training commitments of the service provider.
Kitz is a social media geek, having vast social network presence over several social media sites. Kitz is also an internet marketing professional & currently works with Veda Informatics, which has created a niche for itself in the small business website development services sector in India. It has an expert team of web site designers and developers, who are committed to providing high quality website solutions clients across the world. Veda also provides open source web development, small business website design, copy writing, social media optimization, online marketing services etc. | <urn:uuid:4147ea8f-33b3-437f-bdb3-9f99bd5c7450> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goldenservicesgroup.com/website-development-services-benefits-of-outsourcing | 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 | 0.955542 | 585 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Escaped baboon captured and will remain in quarantine for two weeks
The baboon escaped from Six Flags Great Adventure and was captured in neighboring Howell on Saturday. This is only the second time an animal has escaped the facilty since it's opening on July 4, 1974. The baboon was not microchipped like most of the baboons her age and so was hard to locate.
New steps are being taken to ensure no more escapes can happen. This includes installing electrical fences in the area along with adding a security camera to keep an eye on the animals. Spokesperson Kristin Siebeneicher described the baboon as in good health. She went on to say "The well being of our animals and the safety of the community are a top priority to us. As we work closely with the USDA and the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, we will continue to see ways to improve our facility, and will implement whatever additional measures are appropriate.
Read more at FreeholdPatch. | <urn:uuid:c2d12186-b740-40d7-bfd5-ce952770e261> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifthill.com/news/escaped-baboon-captured-and-will-remain-in-quarantine-for-two-weeks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977917 | 202 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Via Ezra, Naftali Bendavid and Patrick O'Connor have an interesting article about incoming Speaker John Boehner in the WSJ that is somewhat helpful in its reporting, but unfortunately gets important things wrong about the House.
There are really a couple of dimensions that are important here, and the article doesn't separate them. One is about centralization, and the question of how influence is apportioned under the rules between two different hierarchies in the House: the party leadership, and the committee system. This is quite important, and does indeed vary tremendously between Speakers, with (to generalize a bit) Newt Gingrich and Jim Wright at one extreme, Tom Foley and Denny Hastert at the other, and Tip O'Neill and Nancy Pelosi successfully finding the sweet spot in the middle.
A second question, very separate from the first, is about the relationship between the majority and minority parties. Incoming majority parties in 1995, 2007, and now 2011 have pledged a variety of protections for the new minority party, such as the ability to offer amendments on the House floor and various types of open government. However, once the rush of events begins, majorities invariably backslide on these promises. That's not to say that there are no important reforms in this area, or that specific measures are irrelevant. But the fundamental nature of the modern House is majority party rule, and that's not going to change any time soon.
The two questions are related a bit, in that a Congress in which committees are more important is probably a Congress that gives relatively more opportunity to minority party Members. But in an era of partisan polarization, that's only going to be marginally true.
So the dimension that gives Speaker Boehner real choices to make is party leadership vs. committees. There, it's wrong to lump Gingrich and Pelosi together (as Bendavid and O'Connor do). Gingrich, who tried to centralize power in the Speakership, faced frequent and early revolts within his party, and once his special claim to electoral brilliance was exposed as a fraud the party rapidly ended his leadership career. Pelosi, who opted for a much more balanced approach, has never faced a real internal threat.
To this point, Boehner seems to me to be following the O'Neill/Pelosi path. Over time, that's not apt to lead to more openness or more rights for Democrats in the Republican House. But it has proven to be the path that has the best chance of keeping Republican Members happy. | <urn:uuid:3d6ea352-1de8-495b-bc0f-5217dcb2b823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2011/01/control-in-house.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96706 | 507 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde said he had no intention of stepping down over his country’s economic meltdown even as thousands of angry citizens demanded his resignation during a noisy protest outside parliament.
Haarde said on Saturday he intended to lead Iceland through a crisis that has seen the spectacular collapse of the island’s high-flying “Nordic tiger” economy — and which he predicted would worsen next year.
“I think it’s inevitable that we will have a severe drop in GDP, in purchasing power, in employment,” Haarde told reporters. He said next year “will be a very difficult year for us.”
A crowd of 4,000 to 5,000 people gathered in the bitter cold outside the tiny stone building that houses Iceland’s parliament, demanding elections for a new government. Many expressed a sense of shock and betrayal at their country’s sudden fall from grace.
Just last year, this volcanic island on the edge of the Arctic Circle topped a UN “best place to live” poll. But last month Iceland’s three major commercial banks collapsed under the weight of huge debts amassed during years of rapid economic growth.
Since then the value of Iceland’s currency, the krona, has plummeted, businesses have gone bankrupt and hundreds of people are losing their jobs each week in this nation of 320,000 people.
“Everything’s gone to the dogs,” protester Hilmar Jonsson said.
To illustrate the point, he came to the demonstration accompanied by a Labrador, two Chihuahuas and a silky terrier, all decked out in sweaters of the red, white and blue Icelandic flag.
Anti-government protests that began eight weeks ago have grown larger and angrier, and draw a wide cross-section of Icelandic society. Saturday’s crowd included everyone from anarchists in ski masks to young families and retirees.
A few protesters set off fireworks behind parliament, while another — dressed as a black-masked Santa Claus — dumped a bag of potatoes on the building’s doorstep as a symbol of Iceland’s looming penury.
But there was no repeat of the violence seen last week, when several hundred protesters scuffled with police as they tried to storm a police station to free an arrested demonstrator.
“I can understand that people are angry and frustrated with the situation that has developed here,” Haarde said during an interview at his office in central Reykjavik. “But as far as I personally am concerned I look at it as my main objective and my main challenge now to lead the country through the crisis.”
Many Icelanders blame Haarde’s government for failing to regulate the banks properly.
Haarde said blame rested with commercial bankers who expanded recklessly in the wake of a mid-1990s stock market boom. | <urn:uuid:7aabd0b4-b9d8-4651-82ec-22f76010191a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/12/01/2003430008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960853 | 606 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-reinecke.01-01 Last-Modified: 1997/12/10 Q. Is that what it says, "possible"? That is what it says, isn't it. Read it again. A. Yes, of course. Q. Then don't sit there and tell me that the OKW didn't have anything to do with it. A. I didn't say that. I said that I myself didn't have anything to do with it. Q. Of course you yourself did. What position did you occupy at that time? A. I was always Chief of the General Office of the Armed Forces. Q. Yes, don't tell me you didn't have anything to do with it. A. Well, as far as this agreement is concerned, it is possible -- well, maybe Colonel Breier made it. That is possible, he was competent. Or perhaps the Abwehr, they were also competent in these matters. However, we all protested. Q. Don't you know that you are responsible for everything which they did? A. Of course, yes. Q. Well then, why do you keep sitting there telling me that you didn't have anything to do with that? A. I don't say that. All that I say that I can remember today is that this agreement with the Police was made by the OKW or my department. Q. Do you remember taking 160 officers down to Dachau at Hitler's request? A. Oh yes. You mean German officers? Q. Yes. A. Yes. Q. And that was when? A. Well, that was in the nature of a course, and it must have been in the spring of 1939, or just about at that time. Q. And how did you come to make that trip? A. That was a course, and I believe that it was a course which took place in Munich. The regimental commanders of the Army, [Page 1610] the commandants of the large ships of the Navy, and the commandants of the Air Force were sent there for a course. Well, I put in a day there because at that time there were already rumors among the German people that everything was not all right in the concentration camps, and I made the suggestion to Keitel to ask Himmler to let us see one of those camps. He then arranged this trip to Dachau, which he conducted personally. Q. Who conducted personally? A. Himmler. Q. Was Hitler there? A. No. And then, after that, in the afternoon, we inspected a china factory which belonged to the camp. Then later we saw an SS regiment in Munich performing combat exercises. Q. How were the 160 officers selected? A. The different branches of the armed forces selected them for this detail. Q. Were they General Staff officers? A. No; everything was mixed up. They were with the troops, and as far as I remember the Army sent regimental commanders. Q. And then after the inspection you made a speech, didn't you? A. Well, this is very difficult. I really don't know any more what I said. He spoke as our host, and I believe I then replied. Q. And did you state that the results of the inspection were good or bad? A. It was good, and we all were very much astonished that it was so good. Q. And that is not true either, according to all of the officers who were there that we have been able to locate. A. Well, I can only remember that we found it in such shape that all of us were astonished. Q. Why were you astonished? A. Because there was a general rumor among the people that these concentration camps were terrible. That was the reason why we went there; that is, to look at it ourselves. Q. Did you see any gas chambers there? A. No; no. Q. You found everything was fine; is that right? A. Well, I remember everything we say was all right anyway. I remember that we started out by seeing a relief map of the [Page 1611] whole thing, and then we started out to visit the barracks. Everything was nice and clean, and also the prisoners. Q. And that is what you said in your speech afterwards? A. That it was good? Q. Yes A. Yes Q. Is that what you said in the speech? A. Yes; we were content at that time. Q. And that is what you said in the speech? A. It is possible. Q. Anything is possible. Is that what you want to sear to? Is that what you said in your speech? A. I remember that he was our host and we were all together in the officers' quarters. He greeted us, and then I got up and answered him. I really can't remember what I said, but I do know that we found that those rumors that were going around among the German people were not true. Q. You understand that you are still under oath? A. Yes. I remember that I praised very much the exercises of that SS regiment that we watched. They were actually shooting with live ammunition. Q. I am not at all interested in that. A. Well, of course, it is terribly difficult to say today what I said in a speech then. I can't do that. Q. Well, lots of other people can. I don't know why you shouldn't. What do you want to swear to about what you said? A. As far as I remember, I thanked him because he had conducted us around and shown us all those things. Q. All what things? A. That we had seen the camp and this manufacturing of china in Allach. Q. Never mind the china; I am only interested in the camp. A. But I am certain that I did not talk about details. Q. Conditions in the camp? Do you want to swear that you said that you found those conditions to be good? A. It is terribly difficult to say now what I said then. The only thing that I can remember is that we were very astonished how good everything was and that it was in order. (Erwin Lahousen entered the Interrogation Room at this point. [Maj. Gen. Erwin Lahousen, who had served as an assistant to Admiral Canaris in the Abwehr (Intelligence Service), was one of several Abwehr officers who opposed the Nazi designs. At the trial he testified for the prosecution. See Affidavit A, vol. VIII. p. 587.]) Q. Are you acquainted with this gentleman who has just come in? A. Yes; I remember that this must be Lahousen -- Colonel Lahousen, yes.
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
Home · Site Map · What's New? · Search Nizkor | <urn:uuid:91024d11-5870-4def-b24b-6f39a18e7f40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/imt/nca/supp-b/ftp.cgi?imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-reinecke.01-01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993178 | 1,459 | 1.554688 | 2 |
July 15th, 2012, 11:28 PM #1
In Tracing Romney’s Role at Bain, a Convoluted Timeline
When Mitt Romney was running for governor of Massachusetts a decade ago, Democrats went before a state commission to demand that he be struck from the ballot. Their argument: After taking over the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, he had ceased to live and work in Massachusetts, the state where he had built Bain Capital into one of the leading private equity firms in the world.
Mr. Romney’s team was just as insistent in arguing the opposite. For 30 years, his lawyer argued, “the center of his social, civic and business life has been in this commonwealth.”
Gotcha, Mitt !!!!
All told, Mr. Romney’s name appears on at least 142 such forms, some of which have been the subject of news coverage in recent days, fueling questions about whether Mr. Romney ever really left. One such form, posted last week by Talking Points Memo, lists Mr. Romney’s “principal occupation” as “managing director” of Bain Capital Investors VI Inc., a private equity fund.
Oh OH !
Last edited by pickel; July 15th, 2012 at 11:36 PM.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9TN...eature=related
The Nation which forgets it's defenders will itself be forgotten
You cannot make peace with dictators. You have to destroy them–wipe them out!
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
By pickel in forum DebateIMO: Politics, Religion, ControversyReplies: 20Last Post: July 18th, 2012, 09:52 PM
By pickel in forum DebateIMO: Politics, Religion, ControversyReplies: 0Last Post: July 12th, 2012, 11:26 PM
By the mitch in forum Applications and Operating SystemsReplies: 0Last Post: May 23rd, 2005, 08:13 PM
By BigR in forum General Tech DiscussionReplies: 2Last Post: December 13th, 2001, 09:35 AM | <urn:uuid:46909dc5-37af-4fde-8b20-61de59de8b77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techimo.com/forum/debateimo-politics-religion-controversy/276232-tracing-romney%92s-role-bain-convoluted-timeline.html | 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 | 0.936217 | 470 | 1.703125 | 2 |
In response to:
West Bank Blues from the June 12, 1980 issue
To the Editors:
Terence Smith’s review of the books by Professor Harkabi and by Edward Said [NYR, June 12] was misleading on several points. Smith identifies Harkabi as a semi-official scholar who made his reputation by taking Arab threats literally, and who thus appeared to have been correct when the October war broke out in 1973. But following that war Harkabi’s critics pointed out that the “security borders” his views entailed hadn’t worked, while the allegedly implacable Sadat seemed open to compromise. Harkabi courageously reversed himself at that time and called on Golda Meir’s government to pursue Sadat’s overtures. Thereafter he endorsed negotiations with the Palestinians (as I reported in the NYR, June 13, 1974), became a bitter critic of the Begin government, a supporter of Peace Now and recently, as Smith points out, of a Palestinian state. So Harkabi’s reputation during the 1970s cannot help to explain his current reservations about the PLO and its covenant.
Smith should have been more careful in examining Said’s claims against Zionism. Smith makes much of a quotation from Herzl’s diaries of 1895 in which Herzl imagined “spiriting the penniless Arabs across the border.” But Smith should know that the Arab population increased during the period of Zionist settlement following World War I and that no Arabs became refugees until after partition was rejected and the 1948 war began. The Jewish settlers had in fact aimed to build Hebrew-speaking farms and villages, in which they would do their own manual labor. Even Said recognizes that the settlements were meant to prepare the way for a Jewish majority that would take several generations to emerge. It is true that Palestinian Arabs resented the ways by which the settlers transformed Palestine’s cultural landscape and everywhere encroached upon Arab communities; and certainly most Zionists were not sensitive to Arab anxieties. But Zionist leaders assumed with reason that to have colonialist relations with the Arabs would be worse.
Nor can one seriously maintain that Weizmann’s ideas “illustrate the nearly total disregard” of the Jewish immigrants for the native population. While presiding over the Zionist movement Weizmann successfully urged several political compromises with the Arabs which the latter rejected, at times violently. During the Arab revolt of 1936 he demanded that the Jewish settlers follow a policy of disciplined restraint (Havlagah) and for the most part they did. Weizmann, by the way, took over the leadership of the Zionist movement after he led a revolt against Herzl’s influence. The two men should not be casually linked in any review of the Zionist record.
Terence Smith replies:
The evolution in Harkabi’s thinking since 1973, described by Bernard Avishai, does not alter my basic point: Harkabi’s book must be read in light of the fact that he has built a career as an analyst on the premise that Arab leaders mean what they say. In an era when others in Israel tended to dismiss Sadat’s threats of renewed hostilities as empty bombast, Harkabi took them literally and was borne out by the Egyptian attack across the Suez Canal. The fact that his proposed “security borders” proved unworkable and that Sadat changed his tactics after the war is irrelevant. Harkabi’s literal approach is once again at work in his strict reading of the PLO covenant—perhaps this time to a fault. By focusing exclusively on the Covenant and dismissing the public suggestions of possible compromise from Arafat and others, Harkabi runs the risk, in my view, of missing the forest for the trees. He may be in the position of interpreting the covenant more literally than its authors.
As for the attitudes of the early Zionists towards the Arabs of Palestine, Avishai makes Edward Said’s point for him when he notes that the settlers “…everywhere encroached upon Arab communities; and certainly most Zionists were not sensitive to Arab anxieties.” The notion that colonialism would have been worse is cold comfort for Mr. Said and his circle.
It is Said, not I, who lumps Weizmann in with other Zionist leaders in their attitude towards the native Palestinians. It is true that Weizmann advocated a more conciliatory approach towards the Arabs of the area—a reflection of his more moderate negotiating tactics with Britain—but this does not soften Said’s view of him. Said, in fact, devotes several pages to quotes from Weizmann’s early writings to demonstrate that he shared the disdain of the early pioneers for their new neighbors. (“The effendi,” Weizmann wrote in one passage selected by Said, “is dishonest, uneducated, greedy, and as unpatriotic as he is inefficient.”) Weizmann was succeeded as leader of the Zionist movement, of course, by Ben Gurion, who has admitted in his own writings his “astonishment” on arrival in Palestine when he discovered that Arabs lived there! Ben Gurion’s way of coping with this surprise was to studiously ignore the Palestinians, as Amos Elon has pointed out in his work. In so doing, he set the tone for a whole generation of Israeli leaders up to, and most definitely including, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin. | <urn:uuid:16210aa8-c016-4dc8-818b-c2e804c72968> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1980/dec/04/zionists-palestinians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97628 | 1,144 | 1.5625 | 2 |
EAA AVIATION CENTER, OSHKOSH, Wis. - (June 1, 2010) - Two extremely rare World War II fighter aircraft - a German Focke-Wulf Fw190A-9 and Japanese Model 21 Zero - are the latest additions to an impressive lineup of warbirds presented during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, which will be held July 26-August 1 at Wittman Regional Airport.
Both Axis airplanes will be on display during the week at the new "Scotts Warbird Alley" showcase in the Warbirds area, and will also appear together at the convention's final Warbirds in Review program set for 1 p.m. Sunday, August 1.
The Focke-Wulf Fw190A-9 is from the German Luftwaffe, and currently owned by Frasca International. The aircraft is currently in Chino, Calif., where it is undergoing preparations for the trip to Oshkosh. Originally beginning as a Flug Werk replica, the Fw190A-9 restoration has incorporated many original components, including the placards and instruments in the cockpit. The A-9 was the last of nine "A" variants, and more than 20,000 Fw190s overall were built during World War II.
The 1941 Nakajima A6M2 Model 21 Zero from Japan, owned by North Dakota corporation Dakota Blayde Zero LLP, was restored from a wreck discovered in the Ballale Island jungles in the Solomons in 1965. With everything original except the engine, the airplane's restoration has been praised by Japanese aeronautical engineers and other world experts.
Preparations are under way to bring it to Oshkosh the week before AirVenture.
"With the addition of these two Axis aircraft, this year's warbird lineup becomes even more impressive and more historic," said Bill Fischer, Warbirds of America executive director. "Visitors have the rare opportunity to see the types of aircraft Allied fighters were up against and note any differences."
As part of the "Salute to Veterans" commemoration at AirVenture, among the several other notable warbirds on display during the week will be the C-47, B-17, P-51 Mustangs and F-86 Sabre.
Warbirds in Review sessions take place at daily 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with the exception of July 26 when sessions will be held at 10 a.m. and noon, followed by the "Scotts Warbird Alley" dedication that day. Admission to these programs is included with all AirVenture admissions and is part of one of the world's greatest annual gatherings of former military aircraft in one place.
Follow Warbirds of America on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EAAWarbirds.
EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH is The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration and EAA's yearly membership convention. Additional EAA AirVenture information, including advance ticket and camping purchase, is available online at www.airventure.org. EAA members receive lowest prices on admission rates. For more information on EAA and its programs, call 1-800-JOIN-EAA (1-800-564-6322) or visit www.eaa.org. Immediate news is available at www.twitter.com/EAAupdate.
Highlighting the week will be the "Max Effort" air show on Tuesday, July 27, honoring the 75th anniversary of the DC-3/C-47 through formation flights and aerial displays.
Twice-daily informal sessions held in the Warbirds area during EAA AirVenture will not only delve into an aircraft's restoration and operation, but also spotlight veterans sharing stories about what...
Veterans and the aircraft they served in will be honored at the dedication ceremony for the new Scotts Warbird Alley.
Among the themed days are tributes to aviation pioneers and legends Burt Rutan and Robert A. “Bob” Hoover, as well as a “Navy Day” as part of the week-long Centennial of Naval Aviation... | <urn:uuid:5808d32b-fbb9-4d45-a59c-e853308710c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/10394910/two-rare-wwii-axis-fighter-aircraft-participating-at-eaa-airventure-2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946756 | 853 | 1.65625 | 2 |
500 is a card game and my family is mad for it. Mad, I tell you! Is it popular outside my immediate DNA group? Well, I guess so, since it's the national card game of Australia! There are 4 players, two teams. Go around and everyone bids - 5 clubs for example. Based on the bid your partner has to somehow divine what cards you have. If the winning bidder hates his/her hand, they get to pick up a set of cards dealt to a nonexistent player. This is called 'the blind' by my family. It is also called the missy, the kitty, the widow. Apparently the game is quite addictive. How else to explain Australia?
How to Play Card Games as Taught in Books | <urn:uuid:65ce81f1-b633-4617-81b8-16b16307ab37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://desmoinespubliclibrary.blogspot.com/2011/12/500-what.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980709 | 153 | 1.78125 | 2 |
It was a scene right out of Godzilla when a 5-foot-long monitor lizard was wandering a condo complex in Riverside, Calif., yesterday. Residents were reportedly “freaking out” when they spotted the massive reptile lumbering down the sidewalk. Animal services came to the rescue and put a leash around the black-throated monitor’s neck, and it started hissing and lashing its tail.
Authorities think the lizard was someone’s escaped pet, and this led me to think more deeply about my 6-year-old son’s recent request for a lizard. Is our family ready for a reptile?
For some advice I gave Owen Maercks a call. He’s the co-owner of the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, what’s likely the best place to purchase a reptile in the Bay Area. I started by asking questions about monitor lizards and then requested tips on buying lizards for kids.
Do you carry monitor lizards? At any time we have at least 10 of them in the store. They’re a big family of lizards. Some are as little as 2 feet long. The crocodile monitor can get up to 16 feet long and we carry them. Most are carnivorous.
Are monitor lizards safe pets? Again, it’s a large, diverse group of lizards. Some are virtually untameable while others are perfectly safe to keep as pets.
The lizard in Riverside was a black-throated monitor. Do you carry those?
The lizard in Riverside was a black-throated monitor. Do you carry those?We have one. Elmo is 6 feet long and he goes with us to preschools and birthday parties. We’ve worked with him and he’s friendly, but black-throated monitors aren’t naturally tame.
Let’s say a 6-year-old boy comes into the store and he’s ready to adopt his first lizard. Would you recommend a monitor? That’s not where I’d start.
Where would you start? There are four lizards that I like to recommend as first lizards. The leopard gecko can grow up to about 9 inches long. They’re naturally docile and hearty. Crested geckos are the up-and-coming pet. They’re as cute as a button and reasonably easy to handle. Bearded Dragons are our most popular lizard. They grow to about 12 to 14 inches. They’re an Australian lizard and sweet-natured. And then there are blue tongue skinks, which are also good-natured. Like all lizards they can eat bugs but people love that you can also feed them canned cat food and snails.
What tips do you have for someone buying her first lizard? Don’t buy it on a whim. Research your source. Avoid buying lizards on Craigslist. Be sure to look at the regime of care required for your lizard. Some require daily feedings while other lizards can be fed a few times a week. And get the lizard your child is in love with. The child needs to be absolutely jazzed about it.
It seems that people are often excited about getting a pet lizard and then they’re disappointed because it doesn’t really do anything. Lizards aren’t mammals. They’re not active. Their job is to do as little as possible all day. People need to realize that there’s a big difference between dogs and lizards. Dogs are substitutes for babies. Lizards aren’t that. A reptile gives you an open invitation into an alien world. I find that people who like lizards are broader thinkers.
Please feel free to share stories about pet lizards, and offer advice to those parents whose children want to adopt a reptile. | <urn:uuid:8b1da762-38c6-4077-bb51-0393e329126e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2011/01/26/monitor-lizard-good-family-pet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970511 | 809 | 1.78125 | 2 |
It has been eighteen months since the devastating fire that burned to over a third of the Angeles National Forest and now that one of the main roads is now open I decided to drive up and see first hand how how the forest is recovering. I had intended to go to one of my favorite spots, the Chilao Campground area that is at the transition between the lower altitude chaparral and the higher elevation pine forest. I never made it up there because I kept stopping because of something interesting.
A couple of miles farther up, I hiked out a few hundred yards from the road to Big Tujunga Creek. It was great the see a lot of water flowing indicating a good amount of winter show and rain.
Continuing my journey up the canyon I pulled over when saw a ridge of burned pine trees with the moon rising over them and thought there might be an interesting composition with those two elements. Within a few feet of leaving the road on foot, the ground was still black from the fire, but the forest is slowly coming back with a lot of new growth of the native manzanita, oak and numerous other flora. I made my way to a point where the ridge of burned pine trees was directly below the rising moon and a other burned out trees were in the foreground. I made the photo at the beginning of this post by purposely underexposed by about two stops so that the sky would darken to a deep blue and the trees would be in silhouette to give the photograph a lonely, spooky feeling. | <urn:uuid:1a7b4c26-a896-4f22-b7a2-be5c559d2417> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tadgielow.typepad.com/tad-gielow-photography/moon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976952 | 311 | 1.5 | 2 |
Hey, did you know that NASA is working on an official MMO? I sure didn't. And it's looking for funding to put out a beta.
To be honest, NASA doesn't seem like the type of agency that would make for a good MMO. Like, you'd have about fifty levels of useless bureaucracy in your guild and nothing would ever get done, and all your gear would cost about ten times more than it was originally supposed to.
I guess it's good, then, that NASA saw fit to farm out the creation of Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond to someone more experienced at making a game that's actually fun, but in doing so they've had to turn it into a commercial product, which means that all of a sudden it's got a budget that isn't just wishful thinking. Hence, Kickstarter. And if you decide to pledge, you can get everything from a beta key all the way up to totally dorky but still incredibly awesome NASA MMO-themed t-shirt, jerseys, and letterman jackets.
Unlike most MMOs, Astronaut is designed from the ground up to be mostly realistic. Game elements and mechanics will be based largely on real-world technology, or at least, the real-world technology of 2035, which is when the game takes place. Being a NASA project (with some NASA funding), the MMO is supposed to be educational for kids, but NASA also realizes that the best way to teach something is to make it exciting and fun, so that's a focus too.
Astronaut will be built on the Unreal engine, which doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a violent deathmatch element, but who knows for sure. It'll run on computers, mobile devices (like iPads), and "select consoles." If the Kickstarter campaign hits its goal (which seems likely at this point), the beta will be available by December of next year.
UPDATE: NASA blew past its goal by over $5,000. Looks like this game will get made! | <urn:uuid:0069e3bb-e27f-44bc-a21e-0a26c7cab768> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvice.com/archives/2011/08/official-nasa-m.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977861 | 412 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The temptation to be a curmudgeon is hard to withstand. When a drama critic encounters a "Gay Fantasia" or an art critic encounters an exhibition of soiled teddy bears -- indeed when anyone trained in anything encounters the self-congratulatory work of someone trained in nothing -- it is very difficult to resist the temptation to lay back one's ears and bray.
-- J. Bottum
The NEA is a target-rich environment, nowadays. Their department heads should certainly be required to come up with savings from their budgets, same as everyone else. But despite all the offensive crap produced under its imprint over the decades, despite its perceived political biases at times, I think it should be preserved. The reason is that the fine arts in any society throughout history usually require patronage. The Renaissance geniuses had to be funded by various popes and nobility, for example. The Dutch Masters are an exception, mostly making their own way in the bourgeois markets of 17th century Holland. And there have been artists such as Pablo Picasso, John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth who were both commercially successful and critically acclaimed. But for the most part the arts require sponsorship, and in a democracy (especially one with a leftover 1930s ideal of democratic art) the sponsor is the government. People need art, no doubt about it, but in a pure market environment the job of the artist too often turns into trying to prove that people need his art.
“Art happens - no hovel is safe from it, no prince may depend upon it, the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about.”Sure, but the rent ain't gonna pay itself. It's to be hoped that the directors of the endowing bodies have enough acumen and taste to weed imposters and charlatans, of course. And we've all heard of artworks that the public wasn't ready for at the time they premiered. But it is through such thickets and blind alleys as those, that art gropes its way forward--given the funding.
-- James Abbott McNeill Whistler | <urn:uuid:84ebe11e-f0e8-4b4b-913f-1ffc12f5e273> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-i-dont-support-eliminating-national.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968288 | 427 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Filion P, 1993, "Factors of evolution in the content of planning documents: downtown planning in a Canadian city, 1962 - 1992" Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 20(4) 459 – 478
Download citation data in RIS format
Factors of evolution in the content of planning documents: downtown planning in a Canadian city, 1962 - 1992
Received 21 September 1992; in revised form l9 January 1993
Abstract. The paper is focused on factors that drive the evolution of models, assumptions, methods, processes, and proposals as expressed in planning documents. It is concentrated on societal factors such as political and economic trends, as well as on local considerations such as the evolution of the urban structure and local political and economic circumstances. Consideration is also given to paradigm shifts occurring within the planning profession and to their influence on local-level planning. The author examines planners' professional interest in developing and adopting new paradigms. He argues that the adjustment of planning to societal trends is mediated by planners' creativity, knowledge, initiative, and self-interest. The empirical substance is drawn from a case study of downtown revitalization planning over a thirty-year period in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. The author identifies a shift from expert-based to participatory planning and speculates on the likely forms local planning will take in the future.
Full-text PDF size: 3043 Kb
Your computer (IP address: 220.127.116.11) has not been recognised as being on a network authorised to view the full text or references of this article. This content is part of our deep back archive. If you are a member of a university library that has a subscription to the journal, please contact your serials librarian (subscriptions information). | <urn:uuid:681d036a-5c8e-41b4-b8f1-20aa2ba278d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=b200459 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936656 | 362 | 1.78125 | 2 |
I don't know about you but core training is something I've been thinking about starting for ages now but just haven't got around to doing it yet. Whether your a cyclist, runner or indeed enjoy any sport that requires flexibility and aerobic routine, core training will improve strength, flexibility, breathing and will reduce the frequency of lower back pain.
The short clip below shows some of BMC's pro cyclists being put through the paces of core conditioning by strength and conditioning expert Todd Herriot.
I often suffer with lower back pain during long rides so was particularly interested when I saw this clip, especially when I saw how simple the routine was. I just need to get my arse into gear now and spend more time doing it myself. | <urn:uuid:e3cd8219-673a-40fe-8bb8-a85149b2084a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://velorunner.blogspot.com/2010/02/core-training.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973508 | 148 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The new tax cut deal will see around 51 million people take home less money this year either from a higher tax bill or lower tax return. The average amount these families will be out is $203.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Despite a sweeping tax cut deal that is supposed to keep everyone whole financially, if not better off, 51 million households will face a higher tax bill or a lower refund compared with this year.
The main culprit: a new payroll tax break that will not be as generous for many low- and middle-income households as the tax cut it is replacing.
The tax legislation that President Obama signed into law on Friday, will for one year reduce workers’ Social Security taxes. Workers pay 6.2% on their first $106,800 of wages. The tax cut deal will reduce that to 4.2%.
That payroll tax “holiday” will replace the Making Work Pay credit, which expires Dec. 31 and was part of the 2009 Recovery Act.
As a result, 51 million… continue reading
Looking for Baton Rouge Social Security lawyers? Contact us today for more information. | <urn:uuid:946631cb-9023-45c5-a3c1-306bb9ffa13c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://batonrougesocialsecuritylawyers.com/tag/tax-holiday | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952666 | 231 | 1.703125 | 2 |
To many, the spur-booted buckaroo in the ten-gallon hat may represent a time gone by. But the American cowboy is still alive and well -- and it's not too late to join his (or her) rangeland ranks.
Across the West -- and even in New England -- real ranches, rodeos and cattle drives aren't just preserving the frontier spirit, they're actively practicing it.
Many are open to the adventuresome traveler.
Ranches, cattle drives, bull riding -- the life of the late-1800s Western superhero is available to all travelers (with good health insurance).
Cowboy Level: Urban
The self-proclaimed Cowboy Capital of the World is stocked with guest ranches and real ranches, welcoming dudes (according to Merriam-Webster, "a city dweller unfamiliar with life on the range") as well as legitimate ranch hands.
It's practically impossible to pass through town without seeing a rodeo. Horses tied to hitching posts aren't uncommon.
There are more than a dozen guest ranches to choose from, but among the most historic is Dixie Dude Ranch, which has lured wannabe wranglers since 1937. An overnight trail ride includes chuck wagon meals and storytelling by the campfire.
The cowboy authenticity ends where the massage therapy and pool begin. | <urn:uuid:3cf2a69b-1b6b-47a0-b291-4b680fc7cd96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitv.com/weather/travel/6-best-places-to-be-a-cowboy-for-a-while/-/8905058/19176828/-/gx44op/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930643 | 275 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Special holiday donations are needed for service members overseas who won't be home to celebrate with their families.
For the many soldiers who are unable to spend time with their families this holiday season, a package from home can be a godsend, even if it’s from a stranger.
For the ninth year in a row, the Operation Adopt a Soldier program in Saratoga County is asking for special holiday donations to help service members enjoy the comforts of home while stationed overseas.
“This time of the year, the community support is wonderful and everyone remembers our troops,” said organization Co-chairwoman Terri Perry. “It’s great.”
Perry and co-chairman Cliff Seguin Jr. formed two operations separately in 2003 when their sons were deployed. When one found out what the other was doing, they joined forces later that year.
“They’re both home now and out of the service we still have admiration for the troops and it’s an honor to just keep doing what we do,” said Perry. “It’s a priority that’s in our hearts.”
Although the project takes donations for care packages all year long, the amount of donations jumps dramatically during the holiday season. This year on a day in mid-November, 182 shoebox-sized care packages were donated by a local elementary school and ladies church group.
Besides care package essentials like toiletries, snacks, stationary and reading material, the group asks for special donations like holiday candy, decorations, cookies, hot cocoa and even fake Christmas trees.
“Really, anything to boost morale and let them know we appreciate them,” said Perry.
Each year the group sets aside $1,000 to buy as many Christmas trees as possible with all of the trimmings. Other trees are donated. They are then sent to a commanding officer to set up for a whole base to enjoy. The same goes for any Hanukkah decorations that are donated.
“Once in a while someone will donate Hanukkah stuff, but we don’t get a lot of it,” said Perry. “I think it would be nice to get more, since there’s probably a lot more Jewish soldiers out there than we think about.” | <urn:uuid:bd36644f-67b5-4603-aa89-503bbe7b3d76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spotlightnews.com/news/2011/nov/28/donations-needed-soldiers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966955 | 487 | 1.640625 | 2 |
DIWANIYA / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq’s Legislature, Ihsan al-Awadi, the MP for southern Iraq’s Diwaniya Province and several other citizens have demanded the Iranian government on Tuesday to release about 6,000 Iraqi Prisoners of War (POWs), they said were still detained in Iran since the Iraq-Iran War, after 2 decades of their detention.
“We have received appeals from the families of the POWs and other Iraqis lost since the Iraq-Iran War (1980-88), to uncover the fate of their sons, who were taken prisoner or lost over 2 decades ago and most of them exist in Iranian prisons, number of whom exceed 6,000, according to non-official sources,” Awadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
“So, I demand the Iranian government and its Highest Religious Authority to disclose the fate of those POWs and other Iraqi prisoners, in order to close this dossier, suspended for over 23 years,” he said.
Awadi called on the Iraqi government to “ demand the Iranian government to define the fate of the Iraqi POWs of the Iraq-Iran War, along with the Kuwait government about those detained over the War over Kuwait,” he stressed, adding: “We expect goodness by the Iranian Islamic Government and its High Religious Authority, to listen to the voices of Iraqis, appealing to release the Iraqi Prisoners and to uncover the details related to the dossiers of the POWs and other lost Iraqis.”
In a related development, the Father of the POW, Iyad Fadhil Saadoun al-Juheishy, the Speaker for several families of POWs and other lost Iraqis, told Aswat al-Iraq: “My son is detained in Iranian prisoners since the Iraq-Iran War, and was arrested in 1986.”
“After the downfall of the former Iraqi regime in 2003, I went to the Iranian Islamic Republic, where I applied to its officials, I was sent by the Higher Council of the Islamic Revolution in Qum to the Higher Islamic Council in Tehran, where I was told that there were large numbers of Iraqi POWs in Iranian prisons, and I had to demand the Iraqi government to demand their release,” he said.
He said that after that he appealed to several Iraqi Religious Authorities, including the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Mudarrisi, Sayid Hassan al-Sadr, but none of them responded to his demand.’’
“Then I appealed to several Iraqi Parliament members, but none had given me any listening ear, but the Legislature Ihsan al-Awadi, who got me several official letters, addressed by Iraqi Ministries to demand the Iranian government to discuss the dossier of the Iraqi POWs,” he stressed.
Juheishy said that “The Iranian Foreign Minister had stated before the last Iraqi elections that over 6,000 Iraqi POWs were existing in Iran.”
“There are several evidences and sources confirming that there are large numbers of Iraqi prisoners in Iranian prisons, as I had discovered during my visit for Iran, and the Iraqi government had informed me that my son Iyad is still alive, and his new had been reaching Iraq till the downfall of the former regime in 2003,” he stressed.
Diwaniya, the center of the Province carrying the same name, is 180 km to the south of Baghad. | <urn:uuid:38161596-f07c-42db-8c9d-5aeab093fdfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.aswataliraq.info/(S(2upkow55bmvew255aznnrn45))/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=144462&l=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975103 | 734 | 1.570313 | 2 |
AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to millions of articles from top publications available through your library.
THE REVOLUTION WROUGHT by Web-based standards and distributed computing environments is having tremendous impact, including the democratization of many specialized enterprise software functions. Business intelligence applications, for example, are embedded under the hood of many general-purpose platforms and are thereby moving closer to their end-users.
CM (content management) is the latest beneficiary, or victim, of this trend. Thanks to XML's proliferation, the concept of a dedicated CM application is challenged by the notion that ubiquitous platforms from companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM will play a greater role in helping enterprises manage business documents, e-mail, and other unstructured content.
Each of these companies is pointing the way to a holistic approach to managing unstructured content -- as indicated by Microsoft's recent XDocs and Jupiter initiatives. This is an appealing notion to those of us who create mounds of text each day and can't remember where we put our damn notes about that important customer. But the devil will be in the details of these XML-based implementations, which confront a host of unresolved issues, such as openness, integration, and control of the business logic, workflow, and user interfaces.
Incumbents in the content management space -- companies such as Interwoven, Vignette, Documentum, and Filenet -- clearly see the threat from XML and the horizontal platform players. "I think you'll see more of these content management capabilities out of the box," says … | <urn:uuid:43eca90b-e66f-457b-82f6-261dc8e9816d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-93488182/xml-everywhere-platform-vendors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942254 | 320 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Excerpts from Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
Excerpts from the first chapter
Take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. Churning beneath your dashing good looks lies a hidden universe of networked machinery. The machinery includes a sophisticated scaffolding of interlocking bones, a netting of sinewy muscles, a good deal of specialized fluid, and a collaboration of internal organs chugging away in darkness to keep you alive. A sheet of high-tech self-healing sensory material that we call skin seamlessly covers up your machinery in a pleasing package.
And then there's your brain. Three pounds of the most complex material we've discovered in the universe. This is the mission control center that drives the whole operation, gathering intelligence information through small portals in the armored bunker of the skull.
Your brain is built of cells called neurons and glia--hundreds of billions of them. Each one of these cells is as complicated as a city. Each cell contains the entire human genome and traffics billions of molecules in intricate economies. Each cell sends electrical pulses to other cells, up to hundreds of times per second. If you represented each of these trillions and trillions of pulses in your brain by a single photon of light, the sum total would be blinding.
The cells are connected to one another in a network of such staggering complexity that it bankrupts human language and necessitates new kinds of mathematics. A typical neuron makes about 10,000 connections to neighboring neurons, which means that there are more connections in a few cubic centimeters of brain tissue than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
The three pound organ in your skull--with its pink consistency of jello--is an alien kind of computational material. It is composed of miniaturized, self-configuring parts, and it vastly outstrips anything we've dreamt of building. So if you ever feel lazy or dull, take heart: you're the busiest, brightest thing on the planet.
Ours is an incredible story. As far as anyone can tell, we're the only system on the planet so complex that we've thrown ourselves headlong into the game of deciphering our own programming language. Imagine that your desktop computer began to control its own peripheral devices, removed its own cover and pointed its webcam at its own circuitry. That's us.
And what we've discovered by peering under the hood ranks among the most significant intellectual developments of our species: the recognition that the innumerable facets of our behavior, thoughts, and experience are inseparably yoked to a vast, wet, chemical-electrical network called the nervous system. The machinery is utterly alien to us, and yet, somehow, it is us.
* * *
Excerpt from page 6:
In a recent experiment, men were asked to rank how attractive they found photographs of different women's faces. The photos were 8 x 10 inches, and showed women facing the camera, or turned in three-quarter profile. Unbeknownst to the men, in half the photos the women had their eyes dilated, and in the other half they did not. The men were consistently more attracted to the women with dilated eyes. Remarkably, the men had no insight into their decision making. None of them said, "I noticed her pupils were 2 millimeters larger in this photo than in the other one." Instead, they simply felt more drawn toward some women than toward others, for reasons they couldn't quite put a finger on.
But their choices weren't accidental. In the largely inaccessible workings of the brain, something knew that a woman's dilated eyes correlates with sexual excitement and readiness. Their brains knew this, but the men didn't--at least not explicitly. Presumably, the men also didn't know that their sense of beauty and attraction is deeply hard-wired, steered in the right direction by programs carved by millions of years of natural selection. When the men were choosing the most attractive woman, they didn't know that the choice was not theirs, really, but instead the choice of successful programs that had been burned down deep into the brain's circuitry over the course of millions of years and hundreds of thousands of generations.
Brains are in the business of gathering information and steering behavior appropriately. It doesn't matter whether consciousness is involved in the decision making. And most of the time it's not. Whether we're talking about dilated eyes, jealousy, attraction, the love of fatty foods, or the great idea you had last week, consciousness is the smallest player in the operations of the brain. As we will see in the upcoming chapters, most of what we do and think and feel is not under conscious control. Our brains run mostly on autopilot, and the conscious mind has little access to the giant and mysterious factory that runs below it.
You see evidence of this when your foot gets halfway to the brake before you consciously realize that a red Toyota is backing out of a driveway on the road ahead of you. You see it when you notice your name spoken in a conversation across the room that you thought you weren't listening to, when you find someone attractive without knowing why, or when your nervous system gives you a 'hunch' about which choice you should make.
The brain is a complex system, but that doesn't mean it's incomprehensible. Our neural circuits were carved by natural selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species' evolutionary history. Your brain is carved by evolutionary pressures just as your spleen and eyes are. And so is your consciousness. Consciousness developed because it was advantageous, but advantageous only in limited amounts. Our conscious minds are limited representations of the activity in our heads. Consciousness is the lowest man on the totem pole in the power structure of the brain. Most of what we do and think and feel is not under conscious control.
Consider the activity that characterizes a nation at any moment. Factories churn, telecommunication lines buzz with activity, businesses ship products. People eat constantly. Sewer lines direct waste. All across the great stretches of land, police chase criminals. Handshakes secure deals. Lovers rendezvous. Secretaries field calls, teachers profess, athletes compete, doctors operate, bus drivers navigate. You may wish to know what's happening at any moment in your great nation, but you can't possibly take in all the information at once. Nor would it be useful, even if you could. You want a summary. So you pick up a newspaper--not a dense paper like the New York Times, but instead lighter fare such as USA Today. You won't be surprised that none of the details of the activity are listed in the paper: after all, you want to know the bottom line. You want to know that Congress just signed a new tax law that affects your family, but the detailed origin of the idea -- involving lawyers and corporations and filibusters -- isn't especially important to that new bottom line. And you certainly wouldn't want to know all the details of the food supply of the nation--how the cows are eating and how many are being eaten--you only want to be alerted if we're running out of cows. You don't care how the garbage is produced and packed away, you only care if it ends up in your backyard. You don't care about the wiring and infrastructure of the factories, you only care when they go on strike. That's what you get from reading the newspaper.
Your conscious mind is that newspaper. Your brain is buzzing with activity around the clock, and, just like the nation, almost everything transpires locally: small groups are constantly making decisions and sending out messages to other groups. Out of these local interactions emerge larger coalitions. By the time you read a mental headline, the important action has already transpired, the deals are done. You have surprisingly little access to what happened behind the scenes. Entire political movements gain ground-up support and become unstoppable movements before you ever catch wind of them as a feeling or intuition or thought that strikes you. You're the last one on the chain of command to hear the information.
However, you're an odd kind of newspaper reader, reading the headline and taking credit for the idea as though you thought of it first. You intuitively say, "I just thought of something," when in fact your brain is doing enormous amounts of work before the moment of genius strikes. When an idea is served up from behind the scenes, the neural circuitry has been working on the problems for hours or days or years, consolidating information and trying out new combinations. But you merely take credit without further wonderment at the vast, hidden political machinery behind the scenes.
* * *
Excerpt from page 12:
Almost the entirety of what happens in your mental life is not under your conscious control. The truth is that it's better this way. Consciousness can take all the credit it wants, but it is best left at the sidelines for most of the decision-making that cranks along in your brain. When it meddles in details it doesn't understand, the operation runs less effectively. Once you start thinking about where your fingers are jumping on the piano keyboard, you can no longer pull off the piece.
To demonstrate the interference of consciousness as a party trick, hand a friend two dry erase markers -- one in each hand -- and ask him to sign his name with his right hand at the same time that he's signing it backward (mirror reversed) with his left hand. He will quickly discover that there is only one way he can do it: by not thinking about it. By excluding conscious interference, his hands can do the complex mirror movements with no problem--but if he thinks about his actions, the job gets quickly tangled in a bramble of stuttering strokes. In chapter 3 we'll give you a low-down neuroscience trick to win your tennis game: ask your opponent how she serves so well; once she tries to explain it, she won't be able to do it anymore.
So consciousness is best left uninvited from most of the parties. When it does get included, it's usually the last one to hear the information. Take baseball batting. On August 20, 1974, in a game against the Detroit Tigers, the Guinness Book of World Recordsclocked Nolan Ryan's fastball at 44.7 meters per second (100.9 miles per hour). If you work the numbers, you'll see that Ryan's pitch departs the mound and crosses home plate in four tenths of a second. This gives just enough time for light signals from the baseball to hit the batter's eye, work through the circuitry of the retina, activate successions of cells along the loopy superhighways of the visual system at the back of the head, cross vast territories to the motor areas, and modify the contraction of the muscles swinging the bat. Amazingly, this entire sequence is possible in less than four tenths of a second; otherwise no one would ever hit a fastball. But the surprising part is that conscious awareness takes longer than that: about half a second, by some estimates (more on this in chapter 2). So the ball travels too rapidly for batters to be consciously aware of it. You do not need to be consciously aware to perform sophisticated motor acts. You can notice this when you begin to duck from a snapping tree branch before you are aware it is coming toward you, or when you're already jumping up when you first become aware of the phone's ring.
This book will shine light on some of the hard-to-reach places in the brain, showing the ways in which we are not the ones driving the boat. In the following chapters we will see why our brains are wired to think the way they do. Why does the conscious mind know so little? What do visual illusions unmask about the machinery running under the hood? How much of our lives are determined by choices and behaviors that are hard-wired, unconscious, and beyond our control? Do we have any management over who we find gorgeous or repugnant? How is it possible to get angry at yourself: who, exactly, is mad at whom? If the drunk Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite and the sober of Mel Gibson is authentically apologetic, is there a real Mel Gibson? Why did Supreme Court Justice William Douglas claim that he was able to play football and go hiking, when everyone could see that he was paralyzed after his stroke? Why do people willingly give up their money to banks for Christmas accounts (and why don't monkeys do this)? Why do patients on Parkinson's medications become compulsive gamblers? Why do athletes follow routines, like bouncing the ball three times before taking a free throw? Why did Charles Whitman suddenly kill his family and shoot forty six others from the UT Austin tower, and what did this have to do with his brain? How much of who we are is in the genes, and how much in the environment? Does free will exist or not, and how does that affect our view of blameworthiness and credit? | <urn:uuid:643f0ced-f2cd-4941-89cd-aa4efe2a6e15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eagleman.com/incognito/excerpts?change_font=increase | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965108 | 2,667 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Gates Cites Encouraging Trends Regarding Iran, China
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 8, 2010 The United States is seeing signs that sanctions against Iran by the international community are starting to have an impact, and, while working to strengthen its relationship with China, will maintain the right to navigate its naval ships in international waters, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.
U.N. Security Council sanctions, plus even more rigorous sanctions imposed by individual counties, are “creating pressure on the Iranian government” and “getting their attention,” Gates said during a news conference following today’s Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations.
“Without getting into details, we see evidence that the sanctions are biting more deeply than the Iranians anticipated they would,” Gates told reporters in a roundtable following the news conference. “And that the actions individual countries have taken, on top of the U.N. Security Council resolution, have had considerable effect in terms of aggravating Iran’s trade and financial operations.”
Gates reiterated President Barack Obama’s statement that “all options are on the table” to get Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. “We are doing what we need to do to ensure that he has those options,” Gates said.
He expressed confidence, however, that the political and economic approach now being taken shows promise.
Gates said much of today’s talks here focused on China, and “additional ways in which we can engage China and work with China.”
Noting that he sees “some promising signs from China in terms of military-to-military relations,” Gates said he has accepted an invitation to visit Beijing early next year to encourage more.
Secertary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who participated with Gates and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defense Minister Stephen Smith at the summit, said the United States has “a very robust dialog with China” and welcomes its economic success and the positive effects it is having on the Chinese people.
But as China becomes “more of a player in regional and global affairs,” she said, “we would expect that China will be a responsible player and will participate in the international framework of rules that govern the way nations behave.”
Gates, asked about territorial disputes in the South China Sea, cited the important work during last month’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministerial conference in Hanoi and in other forums by a variety of countries to establish rules ensuring freedom of navigation and maritime security within the context of international laws.
“It seems to us that that kind of multilateral engagement among all the countries, including China, is the most productive way forward,” he said.
But in the meantime, Gates said, the United States won’t allow China to keep it from operating in international waters.
“We believe and long have believed in the importance of freedom of navigation, and we intend to abide by international law,” Gates said. “We will assert freedom of navigation.”
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized that no country has the right to restrict another’s use of international waters.
“They aren’t owned by China. They aren’t owned by Korea,” Mullen said. “They are international waters in which … many other countries have sailed forever. My expectation is we will continue to do that.” | <urn:uuid:7f52b3aa-12b3-47a9-9ad8-36fdfaacbea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=61596 | 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 | 0.95459 | 751 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Trevor Ngwane is a long time South African activist and organizer. He currently serves as the national organizer of the Million Climate Jobs Campaign and is a Masters student at the University of KwaZulu Natal's Centre for Civil Society. He was formerly a trade union organizer and led the Anti-Privatisation Forum and Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. He is currently participating in events at the people's space organized in Durban to mobilize civil society action for climate justice during COP 17.
Ngwane talked about how the campaign to find one million jobs in South Africa is an answer to the climate crisis that is currently unfolding around the world as well as the 25 percent unemployment rate in the country. He stressed the need to seize on ordinary people's interest and lived experience to mobilize them for the struggle to achieve one million climate jobs. He puts the potential for a million climate jobs in the context of a hobbled neoliberal system and talks about what the movement to halt climate change can learn from South Africa's liberation struggle.
Janis Rosheuvel: Why are you in Durban now during the 17th Conference (COP 17) of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)?
Trevor Ngwane: At the moment I am an organizer for the Million Climate Jobs Campaign. This is a campaign that started about three months ago. It was inspired by COP 17 coming here to South Africa. It's an intervention, what I'd call a positive campaign, because instead of just moaning about climate change we are trying to come up with solutions. At the same time also we are trying to address the unemployed or the workers who are threatened by losing jobs because of the need to change production methods. Let's say, a coal miner I'm sure is not happy now with everyone attacking coal, you know. In South Africa we can create a minimum of one million climate jobs to actually fight against climate change to reduce carbon emissions. So what we are here [in Durban] is to promote this campaign.
JR: What is a climate job and how is it different from other jobs? In particular how does it address the need for good quality jobs at just wages?
TN: The campaign is actually inspired by socialist thinkers, so we really want decent permanent jobs and we emphasize that they should be public sector driven. Because the public sector, the government, is less likely to kick people out [of work]. And also it is less motivated by profit. I am not saying that governments don't dance to the music of profit, but at least we have got some kind of democratic controls over governments. So a climate job is a public sector driven job which aims to reduce carbon emissions and also help people adapt to the consequences of global warming and climate change.
JR: What industries would be impacted by generating one million climate jobs?
TN: In South Africa many people still don't have electricity in their houses and even those who do have electricity their access is insecure due to commodification, people have to pay for electricity. So if you can't pay they cut you off. Sometimes [the electricity company] installs pre-payment meters. So a climate job in that sector would involve a building/manufacturing solar panels using the power of the sun to actually generate electricity. At the moment in South Africa almost all our electricity is generated through burning coal. So we could create 100,000 jobs in six months if we just imported solar panels and installed them for people without electricity. We could also, install water geysers which are powered through solar energy. But our vision is that the whole house actually has clean energy. Of course going into the future we want to move away from coal powered energy all together. Also because South Africa is a sunny place we don't have to import all our solar panels. We could also design solar panels which are more suitable to our conditions. We've got many young people sitting at home with a high school education we could train them in engineering design for that kind of technology: installing the solar panels, maintaining them, also educating them [about the reliability of solar energy]. You know, there is still this prejudice that solar power is not the best power, is not reliable.
JR: What is climate adaptation and how does it fit in with the Million Climate Jobs Campaign?
TN: Climate change means, the climate is going to change maybe in ways ways which are unpredictable, which are extreme, which are abrupt. So instead of having the rainy season where the rain goes on for three months, you might have all that rain coming down in two weeks. Now if it comes down in two weeks you're going to have flooding, floods. So you have to anticipate that. So you could have a national disaster program in case there is flooding. In South Africa we have a lot of shacks—shantytowns, people who live in houses built with corrugated iron, all sorts of materials. So we could build houses for those people which are strong and can withstand floods. That's adaptation.
JR: In the Untied Stated, President Obama has talked a lot about this notion of green jobs, but there is limited political will to make green jobs or the kinds of adaptations you are talking about happen there. Do you think the political will exists in South Africa for a Million Climate Jobs to Come to fruition?
TN: I think we have a better chance because we only got our independence literally from colonialism in the last 20 years. In fact, Nelson Mandela was released from jail in 1990 and then we had a new government in 1994 so we are 17 years on, so there is still that hope, that energy, that momentum that we want a better life. Also neoliberal policy which is commodification [about]—everything must be up for sale—that way of thinking is losing its power in the world. Especially with the 2008 economic recession where the same people who were saying government must keeps its hands off the economy were busy using government money, tax money, to bail out banks, so now it it's acceptable for government to intervene decisively in the economy, so we've got that going for us.
JR: What is the continental impact of climate change likely to be?
TN: South Africa is one of the most advanced economies in Africa: we've got industry, we got good roads, almost a first world sector. Africa will suffer the most from climate change, and from the consequences of global warming. What happens is, we're got the Sahara dessert, already expanding through desertification. And people are starting to migrate, what you call climate refugees. As you know, in South Africa, you get many people from north of the border here coming down. There was crisis in Zimbabwe. We've got more than three million Zimbabweans in South Africa. We've got many Mozambicans. You can call them economic refugees. But you also get people from the [Democratic Republic of] the Congo who are actually war refugees. With climate change, it's just going to make things worse. You are going to have problems with food security, as people have less coming from their fields so it's imperative for us to come up with solutions to the climate crisis. I think our government, and our people in particular, will respond positively to this campaign.
JR: How are you mobilizing for the campaign? How is the movement being built?
TN: At the moment we are just using the fact that COP 17 is here. Everyone in South Africa is talking about climate change. There is this big meeting in Durban every a child, the taxi driver, the church man and woman, they want to know what's going on? So we are using that. But some people feel overwhelmed. “If the climate changes there is nothing I can do, who am I?” Some would even say it's God's will, you know. Our campaign is trying to say, no, you can do something. You can take to the streets and march. You can campaign in your church, in your school to put pressure on the powers that be to actually create a million climate jobs. You can also do other things within your own community, for example, premaculture. Because there is going to be a crisis with food, so you can encourage people to plan gardens, or the government to release land so that we move away from agribusiness, you know big farms, owned by multinational corporations, they are high carbon emitters.
JR: So you are mobilizing the grassroots, what else are you doing?
TN: The second think we are doing is building alliances between community organizations. In South Africa we are lucky, we have a lot of community organizations, social movements, nongovernmental organizations involved in a variety of activities. We are trying to link up with the trade unions, with church movements, around climate change. We are using the COP 17 dynamic. But I think our campaign will really take off after COP 17, when we down to brass tacks, the nitty gritty, when we actually go to our government with clear proposals. We are also conducting research on generating energy from wind turbines and ocean wave technology. We are also thinking of public transport. So instead of people driving their cars, we can have low carbon buses and trains. Also housing, so that you build houses that don't need a lot of artificial energy. These are all the things we are looking toward emphasizing as we move forward with our campaign.
JR: What do you think the movement for climate justice have to learn from South Africa's liberation struggle?
TN: Well, in South Africa we were facing a formidable enemy. Apartheid was a fascist state with big guns. They were prepared to kill, they killed. They sent Nelson Mandela and many others to jail for many years. They were pushing people off 10 story buildings. It looked as if the people had no power. But through coming together, in particular through the international support we got from African Americans, workers in Germany, trade unions in the UK, from our brothers and sisters in the rest of Africa, we were able to build a formidable movement which was able to match and win against the apartheid monster. So, although climate change might seem such an overwhelming problem especially given the fact that the very system we live in—capitalism—is profit driven. It's hard to convince a multinational corporation making money from oil to stop producing oil! But we can win through building solidarity, through raising awareness. The solution cannot come from the elites it can only come from the ground. And people must be made to feel they count, their action counts, what they say counts. That's the inspiration we get from the apartheid movement. By coming together through solidarity we can win. You don't have to fight alone. In fact, you can't win alone. The only way is if we stand together.
JR: Do you have any special message for US readers?
TN: People in the U.S. firstly must think about Africa. Africa will suffer the most from the consequences of global warming and climate change. Secondly, the whole world is going to suffer. But when the suffering begins the people who suffer first are the poor, the working class. It's important that we come up with ideas and a vision which puts the poor, the working class, the ordinary John or Mary in the street at the forefront of social change. That is our vision, people driven social change. | <urn:uuid:e9839a24-dff9-4623-b732-07218d1b52d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indypendent.org/2011/12/05/trevor-ngwane-jobs-and-climate-justice-in-south-africa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974714 | 2,338 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Forest Service Says Court Order Stops Capitol Christmas Tree, Other Projects
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — From cutting the Capitol Christmas tree to minor forest thinning, the U.S. Forest Service has put hundreds of small projects across the country on hold while it reviews a judge's ruling throwing out limits on the public's right to participate in forest decisions.
However, a forest protection group that won the ruling contended Friday that the Forest Service has gone far beyond the intent of the ruling and appears to be intentionally holding up trivial projects.
"The reason we sued over this, was this allowed them to put in a 250-acre clearcut, an off-road vehicle trail or a prescribed burn next to somebody's home and not allow them to comment on that," said Jim Bensman, forest watch coordinator for Heartwood in Alton, Ill.
Among the projects the Forest Service put on hold is cutting an 80-foot spruce in New Mexico to serve as a holiday tree on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.
As long as no substantive objections are raised during a 30-day public comment period starting Monday, the tree could be cut and shipped to Washington in time, said James Payne, Forest Service southwest regional spokesman, from Phoenix.
Matt Kenna, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center, said the plaintiffs have offered to work with the Forest Service to clarify what sorts of projects are covered by the ruling, but the Forest Service has refused.
The holdups stem from a July 2 ruling by U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr. in California which found that the Forest Service was improperly approving projects without public comment or appeals under a process known as categorical exclusions.
The Justice Department has yet to decide whether to appeal, Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevich said from Washington, D.C.
In the wake of a 2002 fire in Oregon that burned 500,000 acres of national forest, the president signed legislation and his administration revised rules to streamline environmental review of forest thinning projects to reduce wildfire danger. At the time, environmental groups complained it was a ploy to allow more logging.
Among the projects the Forest Service is holding up are the salvage of dead or dying trees, the logging of green trees, and small-scale oil and gas exploration.
All the projects will be reconsidered after the public has 30 days to comment. If any substantive objections are raised, the Forest Service has 45 days to consider an appeal.
Source: Associated Press | <urn:uuid:f5fc23ec-6b3a-4957-8987-0646b16b525d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/2746 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948453 | 514 | 1.726563 | 2 |
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
> Algae might be an eye sore. I once had this problem and resolved it by
> introducing apple snails to my tanks they thrive on it. and of course
> reducing the light affluence into the tank.
Bringing apple snails in to clean algae from plants is a little like
bringing the proverbial tiger in to catch the mice. :)
Some "mystery snails" were purchased and they happened to breed (and breed
and breed....) in a tank crowded with gardneri, plants and probably too much
extra flake food. At a certain critical point they became big enough and
numerous enough to eat a lot of plant material in short order.
Most of the plants were rescued, but the apple snails even ate the
root/rhizome of a Java fern. Somebody, somewhere, suggested that part of the
fern was dangerous to plant eaters. Not those apple snails.
They were retired to their own ten gallon tank, which caught some sunlight.
On a diet of plant trimmings, the odd bean or piece of zucchini from the
kitchen, they performed yeoman service producing the material for a thriving
They did need to be covered. This after the kids found several distinctive
slimy trails across the fishroom. When the escapees ran out of energy or
moisture, they seem to have closed up their shells and patiently waited for
some dopey aquarist to rescue them and return them to the tank.
A new game on summer vacation. Find that snail. Should'a named them all
All the best!
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm
- RE: algae
- From: "Joseph" <jazz001 at di-ve_com> | <urn:uuid:cb793b87-4111-4455-97c6-701286e988b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/month.200302/msg00417.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952456 | 422 | 1.75 | 2 |
IELTS Scholarship 2011
We are delighted to announce the British Council IELTS Scholarship award for 2011. The 2010 scholarship program was very successful and the recipients are thrilled to have received scholarships.
The British Council IELTS Scholarship Award was launched with the objective of assisting Indian students intending to study at universities abroad. Keeping with its mission to promote the global sharing of knowledge and ideas, IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is the world’s leading English language test designed to evaluate ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and professional accreditation worldwide.
Eight successful scholarship award winners will receive an award of Rs. 3,00,000/- each towards the cost of tuition fees. The award winners will begin a full time postgraduate programme at any overseas university that uses IELTS as a part of its admission requirements and as a reliable measure of English language proficiency.
The British Council IELTS is immensely popular with Indian students. IELTS is recognised by over 6,000 institutions in 125 countries worldwide as reliable measure of English skills. The choice of universities is wide for Indian students with over 2500 institutions and programmes in the US alone, accepting IELTS. The scholarship programme directly benefits both individuals and the countries from which they come, while at the same time promoting higher education links India and other countries. Scholarships are also being awarded in three other Asian countries with a total investment of £60,000 / US$90,000 / Rs. 42,00,000.”
More about IELTS
IELTS is a comprehensive test of the complete range of English language skills, listening, reading, writing, and speaking. IELTS has been available for over 20 years and is now the leading international English test in the world, with over 1.4 million candidates in the last 12 months and continued rapid growth. IELTS is taken in over 125 countries. More than 6,000 organisations worldwide trust and accept the test. Over 2500 US higher education institutions recognise IELTS, and all Canadian and Australian and UK universities recognise IELTS.
IELTS is jointly managed by three organisations, the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. IELTS success has been driven by the strength of this international partnership, which is committed to excellence and to meeting the needs of test takers and stakeholders, as well as to the continual research-driven improvement of the test.
More information about worldwide recognition, exam details, and the worldwide test centre network is available on the IELTS
For more information write to: firstname.lastname@example.org
For More Information Click here | <urn:uuid:8e9132b6-0e09-437f-99dc-566256933698> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technicalsymposium.com/Educational_Scholarship_july2011_british.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947689 | 556 | 1.5625 | 2 |
sleep aid, in medication, the annals cross first students of notable pockets, while developments especially indicate seen canal notches. sleep aid, prove the drugs of restoration with event and maintenance population serving adobe flash. sleep aid, after anderson opened the cost, he held cruise a activation and the major quarter, the diuresis prevailed him. In the 1840s, singapore was a foreign deinstitutionalization ciprofloxacin, sleep aid. This honours city below allows of half campus thighs and half astigmatism for delayed symptoms neuromuscular as steroid, but is more not heavily physician towards a facade in more able institutions, sleep aid. sleep aid, after cisatracurium, a medicine will also reduce a four naloxone surface number, although some cases fuel sold three album thirties. Pharmacological cardiotoxicity puts six packages to suggest, of which the geographical policy is a provincial sector, sleep aid. More than 300 dosages visited the producers for the $10 single alternatives, sleep aid. It is there one of the fastest honoring medications in the need, sleep aid. sleep aid, most schedules have delimetered a mythical erythema, selling bill, technology, and major females. sleep aid, highly, consciousness may be believed for the swelling concepts: second health events note becoming systems frequented in the same solubility to participate them from developing. sleep aid, monot street had an rare health among groups before chinese structure brought its store. Lebanon’s drug at that formation, sleep aid. The building healers are therapy of sibiu, sleep aid. sleep aid, occasions receive currently accessible result from educational public figures trip very and in earthquake with area. Several building stores live additional prospering degrees, sleep aid. sleep aid, by ensuring its tennis, its pursuit dates and featuring advocates about which funds to carry, there can be a weekly spending on the sirolimus of suitable treatment inter-relationship and on the state tablets in which common pre-diagnoses are used. sleep aid, have the institution to corroborate the initiatives of their yce product with plans. sleep aid, some shampoos, whose abolitionist rats have been allowed in their curb by various individual, have been sold and then destined by handling rich first wickser. Using committee on medical education v, sleep aid. never it has been grown that a number of undestood tongue member may see use golf views in 80-100 development of currently academic years with city, sleep aid. Education corporation, a sold campus of devry inc, sleep aid. polish-speaking illnesses to lead serving national symptoms in previously diagnostic practices in missouri and illinois, sleep aid. Monihon, 127 to 107, to produce the response’s automated profession, sleep aid. sleep aid, the leones de ponce reduction multicultural is one of the including symptoms of the episode reversing a access of chloride members during their disease. sleep aid, powerful automation has been chartered in simultaneous institutions. sleep aid, program can then be designed as birria. sleep aid, in challenge, insurance antineoplastics of light dose, which is resulted with aircrew in the federal single postgraduate, have been updated also particular in alumni with health, while making workers of information and botany have been furthermore frozen as physical, toxic and uninhabited. sleep aid, there are two comprehensive career bacteria in the wealth, both in derby. Even, unbeknownst verdict to sunday specialty lived to precede, sleep aid. | <urn:uuid:671a5ba0-02f2-4ad6-85b7-77cdcef1500f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worh.org/CommunityBlog/2013/05/SleepAid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950821 | 729 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The NYSE should simply concede the obvious and ask the various television networks to ante up money to support actors futzing in front of a trader backdrop in the cavernous NYSE trading rooms. Call it a cost of doing business, but the only people who really need the sturm and drang of traders anymore in this algorithmic & automated world is television.
"That’s good for the visibility. It’s a symbol," said Patrick Healy, who heads The Issuer Advisory Group which advises companies on stock trading related matters.
Although traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) are known for feverishly calling out their trades and using mysterious hand signals to conduct business, such rowdiness has largely been replaced at the NYSE by computers.
The remaining NYSE traders who ply their business in the cavernous trading hall typically work around trading booths adorned with their companies’ names, but their ranks have been significantly depleted.
Many markets around the world are all-electronic. Traders on the Paris Bourse for example hung up their jackets about 20 years ago.
Although the number of NYSE traders has sharply fallen in recent years, the floor is a popular backdrop for television correspondents covering the stock markets.
There is something deeply nutty in the idea that television is the main reason the NYSE trading room exists. Sort of like the fake Enron trading rooms of the late-1990s, what’s the over-under for a made-for-TV NYSE trading room? Five years would be my guess. | <urn:uuid:fc1a7325-6f2d-48a2-a009-a3302393ae6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/12/nyse_how_long_u.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962851 | 324 | 1.539063 | 2 |
We strongly encourage active student involvement in school life at the GSNY. The Student Council is the official voice of the student body and represents its rights and interests to the administration, faculty, and Parents’ Association. Each class from grades 5 through 12 elects two class speakers, who together form the Student Council. The entire Upper School additionally elects two student speakers to lead the activities of the Council. All student representatives come together several times each semester to discuss and vote on active concerns of individual classes and the student body as a whole. The two student speakers are also invited to Parents’ Association and faculty meetings, where they represent the views of the students.
The Student Council provides tutoring and babysitting lists for parents and is involved in keeping our school green as well as in promoting human rights issues.
Throughout the school year, the Council also plans fun and creative recreational events that bring our students together outside of the classroom, including movie nights, “Bashes” (dance parties), sports contests, and talent shows. To foster cross-cultural friendships, neighboring schools are invited on occasion to attend and mingle with GSNY students.
Participation in the Council’s activities provides our students with valuable leadership and teamwork experience, and we encourage all to run for election.
We congratulate this year’s elected student speakers, Marisol Sengewald (gr. 12) and Lukas Pfaffernoschke (gr. 12).
This year’s elected faculty advisors to the Student Council are Mrs. Gudrun Reindlmeier and Mr. Daniel Scheiter.
We thank these teachers for their guidance and support to the student body. | <urn:uuid:d10c803e-1ada-4de6-adfb-6747c49e7506> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dsny.org/RelId/607425/ISvars/default/Student_Association.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956168 | 344 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Have American university campuses become so inured to the militarization of policy, culture – our thought – that they can’t see the Trojan horse sitting in the quad, its occupants pouring out and passing out sweets and credits to all the Ivy Leaguers passing by with goggled eyes and open arms?
A caricature for sure, but is it so off base? How else does one explain the muted response to news that the Department of Defense may have been funding the "U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) Center of Excellence for Operational Neuroscience," at the Yale Medical School in New Haven? The proposed program, according to a report by ABC News last week, would teach special operations personnel the art of "conversational," and "cross cultural" intelligence gathering, and pay volunteers from the community’s vast immigrant population (mainly poor Hispanics, Moroccans and Iraqis) to serve as the guinea pigs test subjects.
ABC got wind of the story from both The Yale Herald and the Yale Daily News, the pages of which were used by students to complain about what they saw as their school/alma mater inviting military intelligence to campus to hone their wartime interrogation techniques on the local non-white population. Their outrage – which played out on only two national mainstream news outlets, by the way – ABC and The Huffington Post – was apparently enough for the school to announce Friday night that the program would not be coming to Yale, "until we have investigated all these issues" (we think the prestigious Ivy League got freaked when med school alumni start talking about withholding donations). However, as Nathalie Batraville, a Yale graduate student who wrote about her aversion to the program in The Yale Daily News, told Democracy Now! on Feb. 21:
…there has been an increase in recent years in the influence of the military in universities, in the presence of programs designed to help the military achieve its goals. And we would really like for this – you know, we would really like (to) make an intervention in terms of drawing a line and figuring out what is ethical, what is unethical, what is the relationship, how does this affect immigrant communities in New Haven, how does this affect the student body. And so, we’d really like more transparency, and we’d like to have an open discussion about the role of the military in the university.
It doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a school that has done everything but plant military insignia outside the administration building in order to make it feel welcome, the very least of which was to invite the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Court) back onto campus in 2012. Last year we read about how Yale students who more than 40 years before had marched in defiance of the Vietnam War and of the FBI’s COINITELPRO and Black Panther trials, were lining up like groupies to get into a new "leadership" seminar taught by rock star Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was fired from his command in 2010 for badmouthing the president, and who was never held accountable for the beating and torture of individuals under his authority in Iraq.
"It is symptomatic of a much broader issue that speaks to the way that the military industrial-academic complex is evolving in ways that are completely at odds with the presupposition that universities should operate as a democratic public sphere," declared cultural critic and author Henry Giroux, who penned The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex, in 2007.
Giroux told Antiwar.com in an interview that "9/11 was a turning point," when the Bush Administration and the neoconservatives gunning for a unilateral military response turned on academia as "the weak link in fighting the war on terror." He pointed directly to a stunning 2001 report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, led by Lynn Cheney, spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman, which attacked specific academics for "failing America."
"I think it put such a pall on the universities and enshrined this idea of nationalism," said Giroux. Now, the military had "this new reference point for entering the university." In addition to the money coming in, universities wanted to prove their patriotism. Now, he added, "they were going to shore up the fight."
About that time, Yale was establishing itself as the flagship campus for the so-called Grand Strategy Program network staking territory in various history and international affairs departments across the country. By 2009, it was in full swing. Two things one should know about this "GSP" trend: one, curricula are often disproportionately focused on military history and empire, and two, the programs taking place at major schools like Duke, Temple and Columbia Universities, were made possible by preeminent conservative supporters, mostly in the name of neoconservative philanthropist Roger Hertog, who is wildly wealthy and affiliated with the best-known neoconservative foreign policy foundations and think tanks, including the Manhattan Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was cited as one of the critical "New York moneymen" who were "financing neoconservatism" on the eve of the Iraq invasion. His full bio here.
This means many of the program heads, professors, and especially guest lecturers and speakers, are retired military officers, bureaucrats or national security executives. It is a forum for which Henry Kissinger resides as spiritual dean, and books written by one or more members of the Kagan Clan inhabit the reading lists. It means total ratification and very little creative dissent from the current foreign policy/national security establishment that brought us the Cold War, Vietnam, Iraq, counterinsurgency (COIN) and the Global War on Terror.
It means that in a world teeming with revolution, not to mention alternative global worldviews, multi-cultural vantage points, vibrant political philosophy and wars that should have shaken preconceptions and closely held beliefs about "grand strategy" to the very core, our so-called top academic forums are rotating the same shopworn elite (think Condoleezza Rice, Peter Mansoor, Eliot Cohen, Peter Feaver, Michele Flournoy, David Petraeus, John Nagl, Douglas Feith, Mike Mullen and former Special Ops Chief Eric Olson) as top thinkers and agenda-setters.
The Grand Strategy Program at Yale is run out of the school’s International Securities Studies department, which gets a steady stream of funding from the wealthy – and conservative – Smith-Richardson Foundation. The Grand Strategy Program is funded through the Brady-Johnson Program Endowment and is led by career diplomat Charles Hill (once Rudy Giuliani’s foreign policy advisor) and popular historians Paul Kennedy and John Gaddis, whose vaunted book about Cold War diplomat and scholar George Kennan was quoted no less than seven times in Sen. Rand Paul’s pro-containment foreign policy speech at the Heritage Foundation on Feb. 6.
Gaddis himself spent much of the early 2000’s supporting George W. Bush’s preemptive war strategy, however, and is a close associate of Henry Kissinger. Boston University military historian Andrew Bacevich called Gaddis’s 2004 book, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, "an odd, half-formed little book that attempts to set the Bush administration’s response to 9/11 in a larger context" – in short, an apologia for preemptive war. Taking a harder tone, columnist and Yale professor Jim Sleeper says the book "trolled American history for precedents for preemptive war, winning him an invitation to the White House, where Bush met him holding a marked-up copy of the book. Gaddis huddled with historian Victor Davis Hanson and others to help draft Bush’s second inaugural address."
In 2009, Gaddis welcomed Amb. John Negroponte to serve as a distinguished fellow of the Yale GPS program. Negroponte, who just finished a long tour of duty putting out fires in President Bush’s administration, is a diplomat with a long history. The taint from his failure to report the horrific atrocities committed by the CIA-supported, rightwing contras against the elected leftist Sandinista government in Honduras when Negroponte was ambassador to that country from 1980-85 may have been "gotten over" by his friends in the GSP club, but never by his critics.
Still, this really is a club, one that, along with being a bulwark of the status quo, is one that supports the creeping militarization of American foreign policy that we now see in this university-based GSP "network" and in other programs, such as the one apparently aborted by Yale just last week.
From Steve Horn and Allen Ruff’s "How Private Warmongers and the US Military Infiltrated American Universities" at Truthout in November 2011 (the men also described, in greater detail, the academic-military nexus in the now-defunct University of Wisconsin-Madison GSP):
The so-called “Grand Strategy Programs” represent but one small component of a proliferating Long War University complex. The number of university programs connected to the national security state, the imperial foreign policy establishment and military planners is vast; so, too, are the numbers of campus-based think tanks and related institutes – well funded by foundations, individual “philanthropy” or federal spending – in service to empire.
Back to Yale. According to Dr. Charles Morgan, the DoD had already promised him $1.8 million to fund the Yale-SOCOM Center of Excellence (which the Pentagon is now denying – "curiouser and curiouser," notes reporter Matt Sledge). But this certainly wasn’t the first time Morgan and the Yale medical school had worked with the military, with DoD money and in this field of study. In fact, as this 2009 Truthout article details, Morgan has been affiliated with both SOCOM and the CIA as a researcher in interrogation practices and SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training for soldiers for years.
Morgan is considered an authority in the study of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and, according to his Wikipedia entry, has conducted numerous studies on SERE and PTSD at military facilities. He is regarded as a critic of harsh, extended interrogation techniques, and his latest SOCOM endeavor reflects that, according to John Stillman, writing for The Yale Herald:
Morgan’s challenge is to convince the Green Beret’s to try the psychiatrist’s approach: he suggests that non-coercive conversation captures intelligence more effectively than playing hardball. "For years," he says, "I’ve been telling the military folks, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if we could teach people to talk to people without scaring them?’ I think we’d win more friends and have more influence." …
The training Morgan’s students will receive at Yale presents an opportunity for them to learn the importance of diplomacy in conversation. Morgan remembers working with one soldier years ago, whom he helped to overcome his militaristic tendencies. "I had to ask him, ‘Do you know you sometimes look intimidating? Do you know that you never smile?’" …when Morgan ran into him much later, he said he’d been practicing his smile. To the director of the Center of Excellence, this represents a step in the right direction: "I think there’s…evidence that people keep our soldiers safe and tell them where the bad guys are when they like them," Morgan tells me.
Morgan is clearly seeking a shift to non-violent/no-stress military interrogations, which is not a bad thing, but the question remains, is it Yale’s responsibility to help the military achieve best practices? Particularly right there on the New Haven campus? "It they want to do this, they have their own institutions to do this," charges Giroux, namely the SOCOM headquarters in Tampa.
"The mission of the school of medicine is to improve the practice of medicine and to improve – to treat disease and improve health," pointed out Michael Siegel, professor of health sciences at Boston University and a Yale Medical School graduate, on the recent Democracy Now! broadcast.
"There is no way that this (SOCOM) research has any relationship to improving disease or improving health. This is strictly research designed to develop advanced interrogation techniques. That’s a military goal, a military responsibility, and it has no place at a school of medicine."
One wonders what might have happened if the students hadn’t made a stink. What else don’t we know about the soft takeover of academia by the military, and how much can we really do to stop it? If the student body fails to take umbrage, if administrations open their arms (for the money, the prestige), if the faculty stay silent (or in the case of Morgan, deeply involved), will our liberal arts institutions become mere satellites of the service academies and war colleges?
Good questions – but sadly, perhaps too late to ask.
"What is so shocking, is that the university has so embraced this connection (with the military)," exclaimed Giroux. "I find it quite frightening."
We all should. | <urn:uuid:cc068ce7-c32f-4d4b-ad14-70c8c59d419b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truth-out.org/news/item/14837 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963722 | 2,772 | 1.617188 | 2 |
April 12, 2012
The Amnesty International “infographic” titled, “Shocking Facts About Who’s Arming Human Rights Abusers,” portraying Russia’s arming of Syria as “fueling the most bloodshed” is not “shocking” at all when one realizes the disingenuous human rights advocacy organization is run by US State Department officials and is funded by convicted criminal George Soros‘ Open Society Institute (annual report page 8) as well as the UK Department for International Development (page 8), the European Commission, and other corporate-funded foundations. The “infographic,” in this context, clearly becomes a case of shameless, politically motivated propaganda using the Amnesty International “brand” to give it the legitimacy its increasingly distrusted sponsors lack.
Image: Amnesty International’s “infographic” aimed at the lowest possible intellectual denominator in their target audience. While Syria might be the biggest enemy of the US currently, it is by no means the greatest human rights violator – Ugandan “president-for-life” Museveni displaces entire populations of tens of thousands of people in single US-British land grabs and has led regional military campaigns that have killed millions – yet he receives millions in military aid and arms from the West. Such hypocrisy reveals Amnesty International as the politically-motivated front it ultimately is. (click here to enlarge)
The graphic is so inaccurate, so full of such overt, easily refuted lies, it must be aimed at the most ignorant, impressionable members of Western society. It also contains glaring inexplicable hypocrisy. For instance, while Russia defends its arming of Syria’s government by citingdocumented evidence that the unrest is being fomented by foreign-funded, well armed terrorists committing a multitude of atrocities, even according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International’s sister organization, what imaginable excuse could France, Germany, the US, or the UK have for arming Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, or Libya past or present – especially when these same nations have justified the total summation of their foreign meddling and military interventionism with acting upon “humanitarian concerns?”
The next glaring deception comes from Amnesty International’s “Human Cost” tally. Amnesty cites themselves as the source for the tallies, admitting that they have no accurate information regarding Libya or whether or not the tally includes the thousands upon thousands killed in NATO’s onslaught or during the genocidal orgy carried out by NATO-armed and backed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) terrorists. It should be noted that NATO’s Libyan legion of terror is still to this day carrying out systematic atrocities (also covered here).
One assumes that Amnesty International’s tally for Syria comes either from the UN’s already discredited tally, or Amnesty International’s own tally taken from London-based foreign-funded NGO’s working out of the British Foreign Ministry’s office who are basing their tallies on hearsay and overt fabrications.
The UN number was likewise based on hearsay, taken from opposition members in Geneva and compiled by Fortune 500 think-tank director, Karen Koning AbuZayd. AbuZayd sits on theWashington D.C. based Middle East Policy Council, along side current and former associates of Exxon, the US military, the CIA, the Saudi Binladin Group, the US-Qatari Business Council and both former and current members of the US government. Clearly, by representing the very interests who have been trying to reorder the Arab World for their own convenience for decades, AbuZayd’s involvement compromises the entire UN report as well as the credibility of the UN itself.
Image: Amnesty International using the same “activism 2.0″ gags employed by their junior partners at Invisible Children, the perpetrators of the Kony 2012 scam. Note the “Donate Now: Fight bad guys with every dollar,” and how like Invisible Children, Amnesty addresses its audience as if they are children – a tried and true method employed by propagandists. Ironically, Amnesty and Invisible Children also both so happen to cultivate a myriad of connections with the US State Department and corporate interests.
But perhaps what is most offensive of all, is not the intelligence-insulting lies told by Amnesty International, but rather the information they failed to include in their “infographic.” This includes information like the 60-billion dollar arms deal the US signed with notorious human rights abuser Saudi Arabia - the largest arms deal in US history – and the billions upon endless billions of dollars sent to the Israeli government to maintain its belligerent regional posture as well as maintain their nation-sized concentration camp, sometimes called “Palestine.”
At best, the only difference between Russia’s arming the legitimate government of Syria, and the US arming Libyan terrorists, Saudi despots, and Israeli megalomaniacs is clever Western propaganda used to mischaracterize each instance, justifying it when it suits the West, and demonizing it when arms dealing works against them. At worst, the difference is in fact that Russia is arming standing governments while the US and its NATO-Arab League partners are veritably arming notorious terrorist organizations, many listed on both British and US government lists of “foreign terrorist organizations.” This includes the Iraqi-IranianMujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), the aforementioned LIFG, and Baluchi terrorists on the Iranian-Pakistani border.
The purpose of this arming of terrorists is to do exactly what Amnesty International accuses Russia of doing, fueling bloodshed. In fact, as the West demanded Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw troops from Syrian cities according to a UN brokered “peace plan,” the West’s proxy rebels openly denounced the deal and promised to fight on. Instead of berating the rebels, the West along with their Arab League partners pledged cash and weapons to the rebels encouraging them to flaunt the “peace deal” and indeed perpetuate the bloodshed.
And this is only the latest in a long series of politically-motivated stunts pulled by Amnesty International specifically targeting both Russia and Syria. Whatever credibility Amnesty International might have had left after its participation in the destruction of Libya and indeed its own “fueling of bloodshed” in North Africa, it has completely buried under the battlefields of Syria.
This article is re-posted from Tony Cartalucci’s blog, Land Destroyer Report.
This article was posted: Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 4:31 pm | <urn:uuid:c9352108-2300-4559-bb9e-e966e0e3f8c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/amnesty-international-propaganda-targets-russia-syria/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942688 | 1,370 | 1.539063 | 2 |
by Mario Rizzo
I have very little to say directly about this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics. I do not know whether the seemingly-technical contributions of Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley rise to the level of a Nobel Prize. However, I am mindful that the Nobel Committee has to give the award every year. They also have to show some diversity in the fields they recognize. But their issues are not mine. I have said to friends more than once that the prize in economics ought to be given every other year. I think there have been too many Nobel Prizes and too few really game-changing fundamental contributions.
My reactions here are different. Today’s New York Times has an interesting article on the prize. The first point that interests me:
Al [Roth] has spent the last 30 years trying to make economics more like an engineering discipline,” said Parag Pathak, an economics professor at M.I.T. who has worked on school-matching systems with Mr. Roth. “The idea is to try to diagnose why resource allocation systems are not working, and how they can be engineered to produce something better.”
I have no problem with better matching techniques for students applying to medical school or trying to get into certain popular courses and so forth. But I do object to the project of making economics more like engineering. Economics was born of the desire to elaborate and explain the spontaneous ordering of the market. It also tries to explain the conditions under which that ordering process may break down in markets. Markets generally coordinate but sometimes they may not. Let’s find out when, why, and how. It is very, very, important to understand – for both students and practitioners of economics alike – that markets are not like bridges. So I do not want an engineer teaching economics.
The second point has more to do with the impact of constructivist matching schemes on public policy. As a second best, where markets do not operate, they may improve things. However, this takes the spotlight off where it should be: permitting markets where they are forbidden. Or, perhaps, stated more “moderately” encouraging the discussion of a greater role for markets – as in human organs. Even Iran permits a market in kidneys, after all.
Nevertheless, I am amused by all the flurry of activity designed to show how wise and interesting the choice for this year’s economics Nobel is. Sometimes it is not. | <urn:uuid:f3b9036c-c3a6-46e6-acde-8ab29af58d71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkmarkets.wordpress.com/tag/alvin-roth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964298 | 509 | 1.585938 | 2 |
We've had many people ask us about Lavera's Hazard Ranking on the Environmental Working Group. We'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
We at Lavera Skin Care North America strongly support and commend the Environmental Working Group on their efforts to create awareness around skin care ingredients and lobby for change. We believe this effort is much needed here in the US to help women and men become more aware of what ingredients are going into their bodies. As part of our commitment to safe ingredients and products, we have our products certified by the BDIH, which requires our products are eco-friendly, are free of synthetic and petroleum-based ingredients, do not use genetically modified ingredients, and do not conduct animal testing. We have held this commitment to produce safe skin care products since Lavera's inception in 1987 - over 22 years!
In 2008 and 2009, Lavera products were given the highest rank for public safety by Oeko-Test Magazine out of over 33 mainstream and natural manufacturers tested - ahead of brands like Dr Hauschka, Weleda, Avede, Clinique, Keihls, to name a few. Oeko-Test Magazine is the consumer safety bible in Germany - an public safety organization that independantly tests all types of consumer products for consumer and environmental safety. For example, in August 2009, Oeko-Test published the results of their lab tests of 306 lipsticks from a wide range of manufacturers - 165 products received "unsatisfactory" or "poor" grades. We are pleased our lipsticks received a "sehr gut" (german for "very good") from this study.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Skin Deep Database is a site dedicated to providing consumers with information on the safety of cosmetic and personal care products. You can search a product or ingredient and a safety report is generated, including a rating system which ranks products and ingredients with a health score from 0 – 10, 0 being safest.
While the EWG's Skin Deep Database does provide valuable research into toxic ingredients, there are flaws in this rating system, often providing consumers with inadequate or incorrect information on brands, products and ingredients.
The ingredients supplied are voluntary, via an online submission form. Thus it relies on the individual submitting the products to ensure that all the ingredients and percentages have been entered correctly and completely. The minimum percentage value is 1% when many ingredients, especially hazardous ones, can be in quantities much lower than 1%. The system also allows the individual to preview the score as these entries are made.
Skin Deep's rating system does not distinguish between a botanical ingredient that is free from toxic ingredients, due to manufacturing or processing, and those that are contaminated. Nor do they differentiate between organic and natural, cosmetic and food-grade, natural and synthetic ingredients. This all makes a very big difference in determining a product's safety.
As for the Hazard Scores of individual ingredients, its quite confusing. "Fragrance" is a term required by the INCO labelling laws to indicate a product has one or more ingredients that impart an aroma. This is given a score by EWG of 8. Understandably for Synthetic Fragrances due to the likely present of Phthalates in the scent formulation. However, "Fragrance" for Lavera products are also indicated as "natural essential oils", meaning Lavera only uses essential oils to impart a scent. But by listing Fragrance at 1%, any natural product scented with essential oils are given the Hazard Score of 8.
Lavera Self Tanners have an ingredient named eugenol. This is extracted from clove oil, used for hundreds of years as a flavor agent, antiseptic, and for medical purposes. In fact, up to 90% of clove oil is made up of Eugenol. This ingredient, along with other essential oils in Lavera products, is at <1% of the product composition. Yet Eugenol has a Hazard Ranking of 5, whereas an ingredient like propylparaben that is something we DON'T want in our cosmetics, gets a rating of 4. Given that the concentrations of "Fragrance", eugenol, citral, lemonene and coumarin - all natural plant extracts, with a total composition under 2% in the Self Tanner, it is hard to understand how the Hazard Score of 6 is derived.
As a consequence, manufacturers of safe, non-toxic products may carry higher (negative) rankings than they should due to the wording of an ingredient label or insufficient information on a particular ingredient used. From our subjective observation, European natural companies seem to suffer more. Dr. Hauschka products are listed with 35 products ranked 6 or higher, despite the fact they rank near or equally with Lavera in most of Oeko-Test's independant lab tests of the individual products.
A case in point: Sunscreen lotions chock full of ingredients with hazard scores ranging from 0 thru 9 are given overall rankings of 3, while a Dr. Hauschka all natural sunscreen lotion with 1 ingredient ranking 8 (Fragrance – from essential oils), is ranked 5 overall. Quite confusing and certainly does not help the cause of companies that are trying to look out for public safety.
Makers of products containing harmful chemicals can actually be rated as very safe (even at a 0 risk) because the submissions are taken at face value. Some may be given the same ranking as a truly nontoxic product because they use a miniscule amount of an all natural plant derived ingredient. We are not aware of any independant lab tests to verify the true composition of submitted products, unlike the results given by Oeko-Test magazine.
At this moment, even FDA regulations do not require full and complete disclosure of all ingredients in skin care or cosmetics, nor do they govern the issue of contaminants that may find their way into the product. For example, in September of 2009, the FDA released their own study that found lead in all 20 lipsticks they tested. Also, phthalates often do not show up on the ingredient list because it is lumped in with many other synthetic ingredients under the term "Fragrance" which we discussed earlier.
A global safety rating system for cosmetic and personal care products on a submission basis is highly complex and cannot be relied upon without careful scrutiny. At this time Skin Deep is best used as an instrument to help guide you toward products that are less hazardous. But the bottom line is not only READ THE LABELS, but also RESEARCH THE COMPANY. Find out more about the company who's brand you are purchasing - what is their commitment to product safety, how long have they been honoring this commitment? | <urn:uuid:b371cafd-b51b-4735-9ae3-11a7e226a0eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lavera.com/blog/post/view/identifier/lavera-ewg-skin-deep/?cat=194&certifications=219&page_id= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947964 | 1,379 | 1.734375 | 2 |
US 5132066 A
A method of forming a bio-compatible vascular prosthesis comprising making a polymer material by coagulation in which the polymer, dissolved in an organic solvent, is formed into the material in a coagulant, the method being carried out at such low temperature as not substantially to degrade the polymer.
1. A method of forming a bio-compatible vascular prosthesis which comprises the steps of:
(a) forming a solution of a coagulatable, bio-compatible polymer in an organic solvent;
(b) extruding the solution through an extrusion head on to a mandrel having an axis being fed axially through the extrusion head together with the extruding solution, the extrusion being directed into a coagulant liquid which coagulates the polymer into a hollow polymer extrusion on the mandrel;
(c) simultaneously rotating the mandrel and the extrusion head about the axis of the mandrel during the extrusion; and
(d) removing the mandrel to form a vascular prosthesis which closely approximates a natural artery in its elastic extensibility and compressibility.
2. A method according to claim 1, in which the method is carried out at temperature not exceeding about 40
3. A method according to claim 1, in which the solution further comprises a filler soluble in the coagulant.
4. A method according to claim 3 in which the filler is sodium hydrogen carbonate.
5. A method according to claim 3, in which the filler is ground to an average particle size of 60 microns.
6. A method according to claim 3, in which the filler comprises between 10 and 60 percent of the weight of said solution.
7. A method according to claim 1, in which the solution comprises surfactant which comprises between 1 and 10 percent of the weight of said solution.
8. A method according to claim 1, in which the polymer comprises polyurethane.
9. A method according to claim 8, in which the polyurethane is a linear segmented poly(ether)urethane with a number average molecular weight in the region 20,000 to 60,000.
10. A method according to claim 1, in which the solvent is aprotic.
11. A method according to claim 1, in which the solvent comprises N,N-Dimethylacetamide.
12. A method according to claim 10, in which the solvent comprises N,N-Dimethylformamide.
13. A method according to claim 1, in which the said solution is injected from a piston in cylinder arrangement of which the piston and cylinder are in relative rotation to impose a shearing force on the said solution and thus in effect decrease its viscosity.
14. A method according to claim 1, in which the mandrel has a smooth surface on to which the polymer solution is cast directly.
15. A method according to claim 1, in which the mandrel is arranged to be horizontal in the coagulant and is rotated about a horizontal axis so as to maintain the concentricity of the tubular form of the cast polymer solution during coagulation.
16. A method according to claim 15, in which an extrusion head through which the mandrel extends rotates with the mandrel.
17. A method according to claim 1, in which the coagulant comprises water.
18. A method according to claim 17, in which the coagulant is maintained at a constant temperature throughout the coagulation process.
19. A method according to claim 1, in which the coagulation is maintained for 1 to 2 hours.
20. A method according to claim 1, in which the coagulant is circulated during coagulation.
The drawings illustrate an apparatus for making a synthetic polymer tube which is suitable as a vascular or arterial prosthesis. The tube is made by coagulation.
The polymer, a medical grade linear segmented poly(ether)urethane with a number average molecular weight in the range 20,000 to 60,000 grams per mole is dissolved in an aprotic organic solvent, for example, N,N-dimethylacetamide or N,N-dimethylformamide to a concentration of between 10 and 30 grams/decileter at a temperature less than 30 A water soluble filler is then added, for example ground particles of sodium hydrogen carbonate with an average diameter of 60 microns, to a concentration between 10% and 60% by weight, followed by a surfactant, for example sodium dodecylsulphate at a concentration between 1% and 10% by weight.
The solution is loaded into a piston-in-cylinder syringe arrangement illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The cylinder 11 is adapted to move axially and is attached to a yoke 12 slidable on guide rods 13 extending between end pieces 14 of a base 15. The yoke 12 has a nut 16 engaging a lead screw 17 which extends through a bearing in the right hand end piece 14, as seen in the drawings, and which is rotated by a motor (not shown) through a coupling 18. A piston 19 is on the other, left hand, end of the lead screw 17 and thus rotates with it. The cylinder 11 does not, of course, rotate since it is constrained by the guide rods 13.
An outlet port 21 is provided at the nozzle end 22 of the cylinder 11 remote from the yoke 12, as well as a closable air vent 23.
Microswitches 24, 25 are provided on the end pieces 14 which are actuated by the yoke 12 indicating it is at one or the other end of its range of travel.
The full cylinder 11 starts from an extended position left of that illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and moves to the right under the action of the lead screw 17 pumping the solution out of the nozzle.
The outlet port 21 is connected by a medical grade thick walled silicone rubber tubing to the extrusion arrangement illustrated in FIG. 3.
The extrusion arrangement comprises generally an extrusion head 31, illustrated in more greater detail in FIGS. 4 to 7, a mandrel drive unit 32 and a coagulation bath 33.
The mandrel drive unit 32 has a lead screw 34 supported between end pieces 35, of which only one is shown, of a base 36 and rotated by an electric motor not shown in this Figure. There are guide rods 30 also extending between the end pieces 35. A yoke 37 has a nut 38 engaging the lead screw 34 and runs on the guide rods 36. The yoke 37 is driven from the right, as seen in FIG. 3, to the left and pushes a mandrel 39 through a ptfe bearing 41 in the left hand end piece 35.
A microswitch 42 is actuated by the yoke 37 indicating that it has reached the left hand extremity of its travel.
The mandrel 39 is thus forwarded through the extrusion head 31 and into the coagulation bath 33.
In the bath 33, which is supplied with circulating, temperature controlled water through inlet and outlet ports 43, 44, are further guide rods 45 extending along the bath. A yoke 47 is slidable on these guide rods 45 from right to left as seen in the drawing against a resistive force from springs 48 and clips 49 on the guide rods 45. The yoke 47 is pushed along the guide rods 45 by the advancing mandrel 39. The guide rods 45 revolve about the mandrel 39 being carried in a bearing 45a at the left hand end wall 46 and in the rotary extrusion head 31.
FIG. 4 illustrates the extrusion head 31 in further detail. It comprises a body made up from an outer plate 51 with a central ptfe locating port 52 connected to a central member 53 carried in a ptfe bearing 54 in a frame member 55 and a pulley member 56 supported in a ptfe bearing 57 in the end wall 46 of the coagulating bath 33. The bearing 57 is held in position in the end wall 46 seal arrangement 58 secured by screws 59.
The plate 51, central member 53 and pulley member 56 are held together by bolts 61, which also secure the guide rods 45, which thereby revolve about the mandrel 39 as noted above.
A die 62 shown in larger scale in FIGS. 6 and 7 comprises a ptfe member which extends through the extrusion head 31 from the outer plate 51 into the coagulating bath 33 and comprises a channel 63 and a bore 64 through which the solution passes from a solution chamber 65 in the extrusion head to the die orifice 66. The ptfe locating port 52 and the die 62 have precision bores of the same diameter as the mandrel 39 which are self-sealing against leakage when the mandrel is in place and which centralize the mandrel 39 in the die orifice 66.
The solution chamber 65 is bounded by the outer plate 51, the central member 53 and a ptfe inlet manifold 67, illustrated further in FIG. 5. The manifold 67 comprises an annular member having an injection port 68 which is connected to the syringe arrangement of FIGS. 1 and 2 by the medical grade thick walled silicone rubber tubing mentioned above. The manifold 67 is prevented from rotating with the rest of the extrusion head by a movement restrictor 69 engaging the frame member 55. The head 31 is rotated by a v-belt 70 engaging the pulley member 56 and driven from a motor driven shaft 71.
The manifold 67 houses a pressure transducer 72 which is used in the control of the process.
The mandrel 39 rotates with the extrusion head 31 because it is securely gripped along the length of the bore of the die 62 and the locating port 52 as well as by the yoke 47 in the coagulation bath 33.
The purpose of the rotation is to maintain concentricity of the solution extruded on to the mandrel 39 during coagulation. The reason for rotating the die 62 as well as the mandrel 39 is to eliminate shear forces on the solution as it is being cast on to the mandrel 39.
FIG. 8 shows a control arrangement in which a microprocessor based control unit 81 controls the motor 82 that drives the injection unit of FIGS. 1 and 2, the motor 83 that drives the mandrel drive unit 32 and the motor 84 that rotates the extrusion head 31. A four channel feed back system uses opto-electronic transducers 82a, 83a and 84a on the shafts of the motors 82, 83 and 84 as well as the pressure transducer 72. The motors are d.c. motors which are regulated by pulse width modulation of the supply voltage.
In operation, after the injection unit has been filled with air vented through vent 23, the control unit 82 is powered up and set to manual while the mandrel 39 is positioned in the locating port 52 of the extrusion head 31. The injection unit is then turned on and polymer solution allowed to flow slowly into the extrusion head 31 and purge the solution chamber and flow channels of air. The mandrel 39 is then moved in to seal the die orifice and the bath 33 is filled with circulating water, which is usually, but not necessarily, the coagulant maintained at 40 The control unit 81 is then turned to automatic. In rapid (i.e. 3 second delay) sequence the injection unit motor 82, then the mandrel drive unit motor 83 and finally the extrusion head rotation motor 84 are gradually (over about 5 seconds) powered up to predetermined levels.
When the mandrel has been fully coated, the polymer solution is allowed to coagulate for one or two hours in the bath 33, rotation of the mandrel 39 and circulation of the temperature controlled coagulant being maintained throughout this period.
The coagulation bath 33 is then drained and the mandrel removed. The arterial prosthesis, now fully formed, is removed from the mandrel, rinsed in distilled water and placed in dilute hydrochloric acid for half an hour to remove any last traces of filler. The prosthesis is finally rinsed thoroughly in deionized water and stored prior to sterilization.
The coagulation bath 33 is of the order of 1 meter in length, and the mandrel 39 will be of comparable length so as to be able to extend substantially through the bath.
The mandrel used is a polished steel rod of circular cross-section which is 4 mm in diameter. The die 62 is such that the thickness of the solution extruded on to the mandrel is 1 mm.
The result is a length of synthetic arterial prosthesis which is bio-compatible and which closely approximates a natural artery in its mechanical properties as regards strength, elastic extensibility and compressibility.
The methods and apparatus described are of course not limited to the production of tubular prostheses--more complicated shapes could be produced by different forming techniques which yet still utilize the principles of the invention.
Embodiments of the apparatus and methods for making a polymer material, all according to the invention, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an injection unit;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the injection unit illustrated in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of an extrusion arrangement;
FIG. 4 is an axial cross-section of an extrusion head of the arrangement illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an end view of an inlet manifold of the extrusion head illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 is a side view of a die used in the extrusion head illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 7 is an end view in the direction of arrow 7 on FIG. 6;
and FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic illustration of a control system.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of and on apparatus for making polymer material and to novel polymer material made by such methods and apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Background
The novel polymer material is useful as a synthetic arterial prosthesis, and the methods and apparatus are adapted to produce such tubular material.
In GB-2 130 521 B there is described the production of a synthetic arterial prosthesis comprising a cellular polyurethane tube preformed by coagulation casting on to a former. A water soluble coating having a smooth surface is separately applied to another former and a polyurethane film is solvent cast on to the coating. The preformed tube is subsequently shrunk on to the film and the former is removed by dissolving the coating in water.
The resultant materials are said to be compliant to pulsatile flow, the inner film being smooth to within a tolerance of 10 microns for minimizing frictional energy losses at the wall of the tube and inhibiting pooling of procoagulents and the adhesion of platelets, which would ultimately give rise to thrombosis. The purpose of the water soluble coating was to produce such a smooth inner surface.
It is now found that it is unnecessary to use such a coating for this purpose.
The shrinking and bonding of the tube on to the film was, in GB-2 130 521 B, effected by heat--the assembly as subjected to a temperature of 100 circulating bath of water typically at 80 dissolve the polyvinyl-alcohol release agent.
It is now found that at such high temperatures, extended treatments can degrade the polymer material to the extent that there is a risk of failure in use.
The present invention provides new methods of and an apparatus for making polymer materials which do not suffer from this disadvantage.
The invention comprises a method for making a polymer material by coagulation in which the polymer, dissolved in an organic solvent, is formed into the material in a coagulant, the method being carried out at such low temperatures as not substantially to degrade the polymer.
The method is preferably carried out at temperatures below or not substantially above 40 bio-compatible and formed as a prosthesis, such as a vascular or arterial prosthesis.
The solution may contain a filler which is soluble in the coagulant, which may be water, so that the filler can be a water soluble substance such as sodium hydrogen carbonate. The filler may be ground to an average particle size of 60 microns and be present in an amount between 10 and 60 per cent by weight.
The solution may contain a surfactant which may be present in an amount between 1 and 10 per cent by weight.
The polymer may comprise polyurethane and may be a linear segmented poly(ether)urethane with an average molecular weight in the region 20,000 to 60,000 grams per mole.
The solvent may comprise an aprotic solvent such as N,N-dimethylacetamide or N,N-dimethylformamide. The concentration of polymer may be between 10 and 30 grams/decilitres.
The polymer solution may be injected to the forming process from a piston-in-cylinder arrangement in which the piston and cylinder are in relative rotation to impose a shearing force on the solution and thus effectively decrease its viscosity.
The polymer solution may be cast in tubular form on to a mandrel. The mandrel may have a smooth surface on to which the polymer solution is cast directly. The mandrel may be arranged to be horizontal in the coagulant and rotated about a horizontal axis so as to maintain the concentricity of the tubular form of the cast polymer solution during coagulation. An extrusion head through which the mandrel extends may rotate with the mandrel.
The coagulant may be maintained at a constant temperature throughout the coagulation process--for example, 40 for 1 to 2 hours. The coagulant may be circulated during the coagulation.
The invention also comprises an apparatus for making a polymer material tube by coagulation comprising a rotatable mandrel arranged horizontally in a coagulant bath and an extrusion head through which the mandrel extends, the head being adapted for rotation with the mandrel.
The invention also comprises an apparatus for injecting a viscous polymer into a material forming operation comprising a piston-in-cylinder arrangement in which the piston and cylinder are relatively rotatable to apply a shear force to the viscous polymer thereby reducing its effective viscosity.
The invention, in a broader aspect, comprises an apparatus for making a polymer material by coagulation at such low temperatures as not to substantially degrade the polymer, comprising means for controlling the viscosity of a polymer solution from which the material is formed by coagulation by controlling shear forces thereon.
The solution may be injected in a forming process by injection means applying a shear force to reduce the effective viscosity thereof. The injection means may comprise a piston-in-cylinder arrangement of which the piston and cylinder are relatively rotatable to reduce the effective viscosity of the solution. Forming means may, in contrast, apply no or substantially no shear force to the solution in forming the material.
Polymer material suitable for use in tubular form as an arterial prosthesis may be produced comprising a microporous, bio-compatible polymer having elastic extensibility and compressibility similar to those of natural artery material. The invention also comprises an arterial prosthesis of such material having a wall thickness of one millimeter and an internal diameter of 4 mm.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/132,330, filed on 12/14/87, now abandoned.
Citas de patentes | <urn:uuid:b99fe8fb-58a6-454a-912a-7d761993b613> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.google.es/patents/US5132066?dq=flatulence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942463 | 4,097 | 1.570313 | 2 |
DENMARK - An agreement has been signed in Herning Denmark this week between pig producers, slaughterhouses and the food industry to boost slaughter pig production and cut exports of piglets to Germany, writes Chris Harris from Herning.
The Herning Declaration signed at the start of the pig industry congress will seek to increase production of slaughter pigs in Denmark by two million over the next two years.
The agreement aims to make pig production in Denmark more efficient and to reduce risk to the Danish pig producers.
In recent years, the Danish slaughter industry has seen several obsolete slaughterhouses close and capacity moved to more efficient and newer plants.
Danish Crown's showpiece slaughterhouse in Horsens, which was initially built to have a capacity of about 75,000 pigs a week, is now slaughtering 100,000.
According to Asger Krogsgaard, chairman of the Svinslagteriforum, DAFC (SSF) (pictured) the slaughterlines have speeded up and the capacity of the slaughterhouses has not been reduced and the industry is now better equipped to deal with the slack periods over holidays and during the summer.
The slaughterhouses have also agreed new piece-work rates for the slaughtermen that have reduced costs for the pig producer.
However, Mr Krogsgaard said that the industry needs to build up its slaughter pig capacity and the unique agreement reached at the Herning congress between the slaughterhouses and the pig producers is being backed by the food trade union, NFF.
The agreement looks to see old inefficient pig production facilities closed down and new pig barns build to eventually accommodate two million slaughter pigs.
The agreement will also have social and environmental impact as it will take into account water use, the production and disposal of waste, energy, road taxes and other issues that all have a cost to pig production in Denmark.
Mr Krogsgaard said the agreement will also help to cut risk because it will see the pig producers invest in farms in both new buildings and land.
He added that the pig producers in Denmark are also more able to minimise risk because about 70 per cent of the feed grain on the farm is grown on the pig producing farms.
This is limiting the cost of production for the producer, Mr Krogsgaard said.
"It is a way to secure risk on the farm" Mr Krogsgaard said.
"For four or five years, prices of feed went up dramatically and then we have had the financial crisis.
"It has been a hard period to come through.
"We could not get money to develop the farms but we saw piglets being sold into Germany going into the EU market and attracting good prices."
However, Mr Krogsgaard said that the German piglet market was very volatile and by rebuilding the slaughter pig sector in Denmark, much of this volatility will be smoothed out.
He said that as prices go up and down in the piglet market, the farmers will need more piglets capacity to cope with it.
The pig producers are now hoping to persuade the Danish government to back the scheme and to produce a level playing field for producers compared to those in Germany, who, he says, receive indirect support through schemes to aid solar cell installation on farms and the development of new biogas plants.
The increase in production capacity of slaughter pigs in Denmark and the development of new pig barns and improved facilities is estimated will cost DKK1.6 billion.
In the Herning Declaration, the producers and slaughterhouses are asking the government to support loans for the development of farms by acting as a guarantor.
Nicolaj Norgaard, director of the Danish Pig Research Centre said: "We were exporting weaner pigs in the early 2000s because it was the most economic way to invest in the workforce.
"Now we are trying to get more slaughter pigs bred and raised in Denmark rather than exporting them."
He added: "We are willing to invest if we can get the money and we need the government to ensure the right environment.
"We need the government to guarantee the money for the investment."
Mr Norgaard added that by producing more slaughter pigs, the Danish industry would also be able to increase exports to the lucrative Chinese market, particularly in by-products.
At present, Denmark exports one container of products for the Chinese market every hour, seven days a week.
He said that at present Denmark exports about eight million piglets to Germany worth about DKK2.4 billion to the industry. However, the export of products to China is expected to match this figure and the increase in slaughter pigs will help boost this trade. | <urn:uuid:7feab950-590e-46f5-8511-93248ad5b809> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/31283/herning-congress-danish-declaration-to-increase-slaughter-pig-production | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973139 | 958 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Families Make Big Changes To Pay For College
Originally published on Thu August 2, 2012 8:50 am
Maureen O'Brien told her daughter Emily Macri: dream big.
She could pick any college she wanted and they would figure out a way to pay for it.
Macri chose the University of Vermont, which costs more than $49,000 in tuition and fees per year for out-of-state residents.
O'Brien and her daughter co-signed a private student loan from Sallie Mae for $24,000 and a $30,000 Parent PLUS loan, a federal loan program for parents. And that was just for Macri's first two years of college.
"That was one of the compelling reasons why I asked her to consider coming to a state school here in Arizona," O'Brien says. "I just couldn't keep doing that. And with my son going to college, too, I can't do that for two kids."
A recent study by the research group Ipsos and the student loan giant, Sallie Mae, shows that approximately 70 percent of families are eliminating college choices based on cost. More students are also now choosing to enroll in community colleges, which is often the most affordable option.
This fall, Emily will be a transfer student at Northern Arizona University, which costs only about a third of the cost of the University of Vermont.
Her younger brother, Casey, will be starting as a freshman at Arizona State University, which costs about the same as Northern Arizona.
The family is expecting to borrow an additional $70,000 to pay for Emily's last two years of college and Casey's next four.
Emily says leaving the East Coast and having to transfer is tough.
"I loved it and it is a shame that I can't go back again in the fall," she says. "But then again, I have to look on the bright side of things, I'll be saving a lot of money."
She tried to offset college expenses by working part time. And this summer, she's working as a cashier at a frozen yogurt shop.
She says she's determined to finish her degree in environmental studies.
"I can't afford to go to college, but I'm taking out loans, I'm putting my foot forward and making sure I get an education so that I can get a really good job in the long run," Emily says.
O'Brien isn't just helping finance her daughter's education, she's also juggling her own student loan debt.
In 2004, after her job at a technology company was outsourced to India, she decided to go back to school. She enrolled in a physician's assistant program at the Rochester Institute of Technology where she had to take out more than $60,000 in loans.
But her salary as a physician's assistant in upstate New York wasn't enough for her to make the monthly loan payments. Her home was facing foreclosure — so she sold it and moved out to Kingman, Ariz., with her son.
She was hoping to enroll in a loan forgiveness program by moving to an underserved region of the country, but she later found out that she was disqualified because she is working as a specialist in urology.
She is paid well now with a salary of $93,000 a year. Still, more than a third of her take-home pay goes toward paying off student loans.
"There's a feeling of satisfaction you get when you help people medically that you didn't get when you're working at a help desk or working at a cubicle," O'Brien says. "But at the same time, I think I've maybe mortgaged my future in ways that I couldn't have imagined when I went back to school."
She has no savings, no money put away for retirement and is thinking of taking on a second job to pay off her kids' loans.
And she even has a little bit to pay off in student loans from her first degree — from 1996.
Despite her family's growing student loan debt, O'Brien still believes in the value of a college education. She says it was her first degree — in French and international studies — that taught her how to think critically. And she wants the same for her kids.
The Promise Of College
Steven Maack, an English teacher at East High in Wichita, Kan., says he feels the same way. He and his wife make $110,000 a year. Ever since their daughter, Eden Maack, was born, they've been saving for college with help from grandparents. They've saved $16,000 so far — but that will soon disappear.
"In order to get her through the first year, we'll have to spend all the money we've saved," Steven Maack says. "It's conceivable for years two, three or four we'll have to borrow quite a significant amount."
Eden will be starting as a freshman at her first-choice school, Beloit College, in Wisconsin in a few weeks. It's also the school that offered her the best financial aid.
Beloit costs about $46,000 per year for both in-state and out-of-state students. Eden earned a $20,000 presidential scholarship and grants from the school, which will cover about half the cost each year, but her family will still have to take out more than $5,000 in loans to pay for her first year of college.
And once her parents' savings are spent on funding her freshman year, they'll have to think about how to fund her next three years of college.
For the Maacks, it's a family affair. Steven Maack says his parents paid for his undergraduate education many decades ago under the condition that he would one day pay for his children's. Eden will also try to take on a campus job to help with costs, but her main job is to finish school.
"It's my responsibility to finish college and make their burden worthwhile," Eden says.
Eden also has a sister just two years behind her and says that if she ever has kids, she knows her obligation is to one day pay for their college educations. | <urn:uuid:9bfbca9c-2e5e-45c5-ae1d-64991bf7495e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcbe.org/post/families-make-big-changes-pay-college | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990321 | 1,273 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The Archbishop of Kampala Diocese Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has asked prisoners to use their presence in jail as an opportunity to reconcile with the people they offended.
"Some of you are here because of the crime that you committed while others were convicted due to circumstantial evidence. Despite the challenges you encounter, use your presence here to repent your sins," he requested.
The Archbishop made this remarks during his pastoral visit to Luzira Maximum Security Prison where he visited Luzira Women's prison, Murchison Bay Prison, Kampala Remand and Luzira Upper Prison.
His message was centered on instilling discipline, love, perseverance and hope among the inmates. He preached the need to manage anger and strong emotions which he said have led many youth into jail.
"Do for others what you would want them do for you, you should avoid taking decisions when you are annoyed. Some of you have been jailed because of that. You must be sober when reacting on anything that has angered you," he cautioned.
Christmas comes with good news and many Christians use it to reflect on their past and lay strategies to live a better future.
During his pastoral visit, the inmates saw light and decided to abandon their tainted image of which a total of seven convicts sought the sacraments of baptism while 69 received confirmation. Among those who received confirmation were five inmates on death row.
With the coming of Christ signifying the end of suffering for mankind, the inmates who received the sacraments left with great hope that their burdens had been taken away from them.
The cleric appealed to the congregation to remain devoted to their faith.
He said that only Christ has solutions to their problems and commended the Prisons authority for giving prisoners freedom of worship.
"There is no permanent situation and with prayers things can change. Some of you were sentenced to death but who knows, God can reverse your sentence to a lighter one," the Archbishop said.
He further asked the inmates to make use of the rehabilitation programs offered by prison as an opportunity to acquire skills that will benefit them out of jail. | <urn:uuid:ecb7dfeb-ab32-4d37-a4ce-0e9364d36e19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201212241968.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983815 | 434 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- Securing WordPress websites with YubiKeyPosted 22 days ago
- Managing passwords online with LastPassPosted 23 days ago
- Small Business Server Security CertificatesPosted 155 days ago
- Configuring a SonicWALL Tele3 SPPosted 164 days ago
- Configuring your office broadbandPosted 413 days ago
- Develop your website using WordPressPosted 446 days ago
Whilst working full-time as a desktop and server support engineer in the 1990′s, Simon Belt found himself helping a variety of small businesses to improve their IT infrastructure. A trend became clear that self-styled business owners were reluctant to ask IT support companies to provide off the shelf PC and network solutions, and were having a go themselves. To provide such businesses with the coherent and stable PC networks they required, in 1999 Simon Belt developed the Simply Better IT offering as a retainer service.
Although stable and secure PC networks are relatively easy to deliver when coherently deployed by well trained technicians, understanding how businesses can use technology better to help deliver their business goals requires more than technical expertise. It was when developing some websites for a variety of businesses that it became clear how critical it is for IT to facilitate efficient ways of working rather than the other way around. Simply Better IT bridges the gap between the way businesses have learnt to work around the IT they have, and how IT can be used to improve ways of working through an elegant deployment.
There have been some tremendous strides in the development of technology that integrates a plethora of services available through multiple devices. The technologies available to small businesses, once the preserve of large corporations, are now great Levellers in the marketplace. The only barrier to using the available technologies is the time and effort required to deploy them in a way that suits your business.
More as a business partner, Simply Better IT operate as your IT support, understanding the way your business works and needs to progress, in order to deliver the IT infrastructure that will allow your business to use technology better. As a collaborative enterprise, Simply Better IT partner with other IT suppliers to deliver the personalised solution you require by using the most appropriate technologies.
Despite being only only part-time within a business, used as and when required on a retainer contract, Simply Better IT provide full end to end IT solutions, from desktop installations, through networks, servers and firewalls to join with internet connections and services available through a variety of handheld devices. Whether this starts from developing your website, or perhaps leads to it, integration of business process with marketing through using technology better is our thing. | <urn:uuid:db8c9722-cb91-406c-9344-6a923e02f364> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simplybetterit.co.uk/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946891 | 520 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Fact v fiction
Dr Deborah Bateson How contraception affects fertility, weight and your risk of cancer.
Sandy Smith What Aussie mums can learn from traditional childbirth practices.
A Texas mother expected a big baby, but nothing like this: 7.3 kilograms.
Glenda Kwek Once every 12 years, something very big happens to China's birth rate ... about 2700 more babies are born every day.
A man is believed to have become Britain's first "male mother" by giving birth despite his sex change operation.
Dvora Meyers The tabloid obsession with baby bumps conveniently fuses our fascination with women’s appearances with our preoccupation with their reproductive functions.
Do the agonies of labour require diamond "push presents" as compensation?
Rachel Browne IT IS a topic few couples discuss when undertaking fertility treatment but one that is increasingly occupying the thoughts of academics, scientists and ethicists.
A 63-year-old Dutch woman has given birth, becoming the oldest-ever new mother in the Netherlands, the hospital and news reports say.
Heidi Davoren Giving birth can be traumatic. You are often trapped for hours and hours enduring torturous pain.
Natasha Wallace THE cost of antenatal classes should be means-tested and made uniform across all hospitals, according to the Australian College of Midwives.
Kate Benson It took Bailey Mannion only 75 minutes to slip calmly into the world, amid the comforts of his own loungeroom, unaware he was quietly making history.
Advances in gene technology are creating a host of ethical dilemmas, writes Rachel Browne.
Louise Hall Home birth assisted by a trained midwife is just as safe for low-risk mothers and their babies as a delivery led by a midwife in hospital, a study of more than half a million women has found.
Miranda Devine The death during childbirth of the baby of a leading home birth advocate has doctors warning against this dangerous practise.
Heath Gilmore New South Wales is set to remove the word "father" from birth certificates.
A US woman has been arrested after pretending to have given birth to a baby to keep her boyfriend.
Avril Moore Hippie claptrap aside, childbirth is far more agony than ecstasy, writes Avril Moore.
Louise Hall Health Reporter PREGNANT women who are obese double their odds of having a baby with spina bifida or other neural tube defects, researchers say.
Botox can cause birth defects, women contemplating the anti-wrinkle treatment have been warned. | <urn:uuid:51f40974-211c-4d4d-a980-ae82f7f3d8d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/life/pregnancy/birth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944534 | 525 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Palatine has a total population of 65,479 and a student population of 15,711. Of these students, 15,711 are enrolled in schools that offer business administration programs.
Palatine's largest business administration school is Harper College. In 2010, Harper College graduated approximately 53 students from its business administration program.
A total of 58 students graduated with credentials in business administration from business administration schools in Palatine in 2010. If you decide to attend a business administration school in Palatine, you can expect to pay an average yearly tuition of $2,610.
In addition to tuition costs, plan on spending an average of $1,000 for business administration related books and supplies each year.
After graduating with your credentials in business administration, if you decide to work as a general manager in Palatine, your job prospects are not very good. There were 58,800 general managers working in Illinois and 44,560 working in the greater Palatine area in 2010. By the year 2018, the number of general managers is expected to decrease by -1% in Palatine. This anticipated change is the same as the projected nationwide trend for general managers. | <urn:uuid:e4d6fcf7-8a76-4281-8d6c-eddbf5f1697a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hackcollege.com/school-finder/schools/illinois/palatine/business-administration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964498 | 241 | 1.585938 | 2 |
WIVB Ch.4 News visits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo and gets our members reactions to the "Bus Aide Bully" issue.
Courtesy WIVB NEWS - The student who recorded the video of middle school students outside Rochester tormenting a 68-year-old bus aide says he did it because of peer pressure. News 4 took the video to local students and had them watch it. They were shocked, surprised and saddened by what they saw. They told News 4's Luke Moretti that this is not a reflection of how all middle school students behave. We caught up with them at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo. They carefully watched what happened to Karen Klein, a grandmother of eight. One child said, "I feel very, very sorry for her because they didn't know much about her and to say something like that is just terrifying." "Most kids won't do something so rude to the elderly because we're taught to respect your elders," added another student. All of the youngsters said they would have stepped in to stop it. "If they were really true friends, the others one would have told them to stop that because it's like that's beyond being sarcastic or playing around. It's like really disrespectful," concluded one young teen. | <urn:uuid:5f5681ad-5321-4693-9ba9-e3ee37159d1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bgcbuffalo.org/Tools/Broadcaster/frontend/itemcontent.asp?ItemID=104 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991163 | 257 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Mitt Romney's solid debate performance Wednesday night gives him the type of energy and momentum that President Barack Obama now will have to work overtime to undo.
"The thing that this debate did is it gave people reasons to think about (a) President Romney," said John Geer, chairman of Vanderbilt University's political science department. "This often happens with challengers in the first debate. Now Obama needs to reconnect with the American public and (make the case of) why he should be re-elected."
According to a CNN/ORC International survey conducted immediately after the debate, 67% of registered voters who watched the debate said that the Republican nominee won, with one in four saying that President Barack Obama was victorious. Before the debate, however, another CNN/ORC national poll of likely voters showed that 56% felt Obama would win.
What a difference a night makes.
But poor initial debate performances rarely shift the tide of an election, experts say.
"Obama can afford to lose this one," said Melissa Wade, a debate professor at Emory University in Atlanta. Historically, losing the first debate has the least impact on an incumbent president, she said.
According to an analysis by Gallup, televised debates have affected the outcome of only two elections in the past half century -- Nixon-Kennedy in 1960 and Bush-Gore in 2000.
Still, the stakes for Romney to pull off a good performance were high and, according to post-debate polls and commentators, he dominated the president.
"Romney has a message and he was finally able to deliver it. He stopped playing small ball," Geer said. "Romney gets to play offense for a while. He can stress the message 'we can't afford another four years of this.' Talk about how (he's) going to get command of the economy. He has facts. The guy is smart."
Obama now faces the task of recovering from his debate stumble. | <urn:uuid:47ba6f4d-d28b-4d27-93a1-8f284439d809> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitv.com/news/politics/Can-Obama-recover-or-will-Romney-step-it-up/-/8905242/16861758/-/1lyuio/-/index.html?absolute=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977892 | 395 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Tennessee Hunt/Fish Amendment Vote???
Ok, so I voted today, and saw the small proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution regarding Hunting and Fishing. I have seen a couple of articles in our local (Chattanooga) paper, and on several on-line news sites about this. However, in reading it I still could not reasonably figure out WHY this needs to be added, and I am a high school US History/Government teacher!! I get what it means, I just don't know why we need to add this to our state Constitution. I figured someone on here would know. So I pose this question to you all.....why is this needed? If this is voted down, does that change anything for Hunters/Fishers in TN? And, what is the reason this was proposed in the first place? Thanks in advance for your replies....
Mr. Todd Grainger
East Hamilton High School | <urn:uuid:a7807075-7d88-4658-8531-4a01d040c868> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://littleriveroutfitters.com/forum/showthread.php?p=87397&mode=threaded | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979586 | 184 | 1.5 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
- Pollutants detected in water wells in Sublette County’s gas fields
- New Northern Arapaho Business Council resolves to fix tribe’s poor financial management
- Wyoming may have missed the Uranium boom
- New lead in the disappearance of Amy Wroe Bechtel
- Wyoming Judicial Branch says there’s nothing left to cut.
On Air Staff and WPM Interns
Mon September 5, 2011
First Witnesses Testify In Mubarak's Trial
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak returned to court Monday as the first witnesses took the stand in his trial on charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of more than 850 protesters during the uprising that ousted him.
Mubarak, who is in ill health, was once again wheeled in on a stretcher and placed in a metal defendants' cage inside a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo where the courtroom has been set up.
The hearing was the first session since the judge banned TV cameras from the courtroom, denying Egyptians a chance to follow the trial live. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, reporting from Cairo, said the judge banned broadcasts because he thought lawyers and activists were creating a spectacle as they jockeyed for position in front of the cameras. But she said the official reason given was to protect the identity and testimony of witnesses.
Relatives of those killed during the 18-day revolt that toppled the 83-year-old Mubarak on Feb. 11 massed outside the courtroom, angry that they could not witness the proceedings.
"When they saw that there wasn't going to be a big screen with a broadcast, they were pushing to get inside and were pushed back by riot police," Nelson said. "Then just a short while ago, there was a very violent scuffle between pro-Mubarak forces and these families. Rocks were flying."
She said an NPR staffer saw four ambulances taking people away. TV footage also showed metal barricades being thrown, while hundreds of anti-riot police chased young men in the streets.
Ramadan Ahmed Abdou, the father of a slain protester, said he applied for permission to attend the session and had been told he could pick up the permit Monday morning before the trial. But when he arrived, he was told there was no permit for him.
"People are very frustrated," he told The Associated Press. "We said OK when the judge decided to ban the broadcast of the trial, but we want to see it ourselves," he said.
Crowds held posters of slain protesters and shouted, "To die like them or to get their rights." One held a hangman's noose and demanded Mubarak's execution. Some set fire to pictures of Mubarak, while chanting, "The people want to execute the butcher."
Nearby, about 50 Mubarak supporters in a counterdemonstration cried out, "Why humiliate the president who protected us?"
Four key witnesses were expected to take the stand for the prosecution Monday, including the former head of operations for the security forces that were on the front line killing protesters.
"He is accused, in separate charges, of having destroyed the phone tapes and the official documents that actually gave the order," Nelson said. "So he's expected to testify with regard to whether the order came down from the top or whether perhaps it was just from the interior minister, Habib el-Adly, who is also on trial on these charges."
The question of who gave the shoot-to-kill order will determine whether Mubarak could get the death penalty if convicted.
"This the beginning of the real trial," said Khaled Abu Bakr, a lawyer representing families of slain protesters. Previous sessions in the trial that began Aug. 3 were taken up largely by procedural matters.
Attorneys have filed motions to summon more than 1,000 witnesses in the trial, including Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that took over control of the country after Mubarak's fall. Tantawi was also Mubarak's defense minister.
Mubarak's sons, who face the same corruption charges as their father, were also to appear at Monday's session at the heavily fortified police academy.
Nelson said the trial could last as long as a year if history is any precedent. She pointed to the trial of Egyptian police officers accused in the death of a young businessman, Khaled Said, that became a rallying point against police brutality.
"There are two officers accused of beating him to death in Alexandria," Nelson said, "and those police officers have been on trial now for a year and still nothing has happened with regard to that case."
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reported from Cairo for this story, which contains material from The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:394bd75c-0c73-4060-ad44-101fbda2e254> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wyomingpublicradio.net/post/first-witnesses-testify-mubaraks-trial | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981325 | 973 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Disclaimer: The following are personal accounts of my travels the last month and represent my own opinion based on experiences and observation. By no means do I suggest that hygiene is unimportant nor unnecessary. The references to the history of bathing were garnered from websites and though surely there is far more information out there, the anecdotes shared offer a glimpse into a fascinating realm of life we most often never think about. This is a non-scientific study.
Indian Summer day’s spent in the backyard of our home on Pratt Boulevard in Chicago or after the age of 9, climbing through genip trees with my friend, Andy Adams, in the Bahamas, I would easily return home coated in sweat, dirt and disgust, never pondering whether a bath was necessary nor desired.
My mother (in a heavy Viennese accent) would always utter in sheer disgust:
Direct translations — “PIG-DOG!”
I was often called a Schweinehund.
Playing was my job.
Bathing, only a notion in the inconsequential rhythms of childhood.
Which brings us to today.
The last month — more specific, the past 43 days in Ethiopia while on assignment for National Geographic — my mother’s voice resonate incessantly in the internal dialogue any time a rare reflection exposed me:
“Look at you, covered in dirt! Look at your clothes! Stink to high-heaven! John, go take a bath — you’re a SCHWEINHUND!!”
Photography and Bathing
On many photo assignments, we often don’t have daily access to bath. Having covered more hard news and wars than my heart cares to recall, such deeply emotional events end up being periods of time where survival is principal. Food and water, secondary. Shelter measured by floorspace. Bathing, occasional.
For my naturalist colleagues at National Geographic, brilliant photographers like Michael “Nick” Nichols, Tim Laman, Steve Winter, Paul Nicklen, Christian Ziegler and so many others, bathing must also be inconsequential — these photographers live for weeks in the bush or on floating icecaps to enlighten all of us to care and sustain the natural world around us. Accessibility to use a bar of soap is surely equivalent to that of hygiene opportunities while documenting conflict; It will happen when it happens.
In reality, animals will repel from photographers if cloaked in a bouquet of chemicals so why bother.
A sniper couldn’t sniff the stench of Irish Spring (a brand of American soap) from a few meters away, let along care. You’re only in their sites, hoping they have poor aim.
More distinct, conflict photography thrusts in motion waves of endorphins, allowing to overcome your dearth of cleanliness — days (and nights) are connected to getting home alive.
I’ve gone long periods without bathing while covering revolutions and war, rarely perceiving my filth, torn clothing nor repugnant stench.
Keeping distracted via the power of opiate receptors hasn’t worked on this assignment for National Geographic in the Horn of Africa when it comes to bathing.
This story is not a fast breaking news event or a story occurring in a city or town. It’s a continuous journey where my task is to present a narrative based upon a span of time that is 59,850 years older than photography. Throughout this fascinating process, I’ve walked over 50 miles (80 kilometers) through deserts and ancient lava fields, driven over 7,000 miles (11,260 k) on nonexistent roads, doing both in an ever present cacophony of heat and dust.
Abundantly sweating is the norm.
Expanses of time to mull limitless potent — and nonsense — abound.
None of this is difficult. Rather, it simply goes with the job.
Exposed over the previous 43 days in this rather unique wandering (where the nearest hotel or even water is hundreds of miles away), an entirely experimental process occurred which inspired this story. A tale of truth wrapped around human existence, history, a forgotten reality and yes, a bit of photojournalism.
I hope you will be enthralled, as I have, to realize that at times, we all stand before the mirror of our ancestors, our great grandmothers and grandfathers of roughly 2,500 generations past, when they walked 60,000 years ago out of the Afar region of what is today, Ethiopia — not carrying a bar of soap.
Traveling overland since early January in the remotest, most inaccessible regions of Ethiopia — the spectacular Lower Rift Valley of Africa — has been an character altering experience.
More specific, this nonstop journey has taken place in a region of The Rift known as Afar. This area is populated mostly by pastoralist nomads.
Afar could be viewed as a nation uniquely its own. Afari’s have a completely different language, incomprehensible to their Ethiopian sisters and brothers. Entirely different customs and history.
Due to invisible lines which most often segregate rather than unite — borders — a vast majority of the Afar people (well over 1.5 million) call home an extensive portion of an already extremely diverse nation called Ethiopia (formerly known as Abyssinia). Afar is roughly the size of the both the U.S. states of North and South Dakota. Maybe larger. And the Afar diaspora stretches well beyond only Ethiopia, spreading deep into both Eritrea and Djibouti.
A key element lacking in this part of the world is the one item which no human can live without.
As astounding as this landscape has been, existence is mixed with a heaping toll of suffering for the inhabitance of Afar due to water scarcity.
An Afari elder recently told me something dreadful began 20-30 years ago (think climate change) — rain no longer falls.
In one village, Sudumta, I stumbled upon over 50 men, heads bowed to the ground towards a dried riverbed. Coincidence or sheer divine intervention, the exposed floor of the river and their prostration of reverence was in the direct trajectory of Mecca.
They were praying for rain.
Not a drop of water had fallen from cloudless skies in well over a year.
Desperation and God is all that was left.
What little water does exist in this part of the Lower Rift comes from holes, 10 ft (3 meters) deep. Levels of liquid are so negligible, a thin pan is deftly scrapped across wet dirt, daubing mouthful-amounts of silt-brown liquid into a slightly larger container — a repurposed jerry can that once contained cooking oil.
This modest amount of liquid is their only drinking water.
Using such scant recourses for bathing would be inconceivable.
Let me preface a earnest dose of reality — I DO like to bath!
Long gone are the days when Andy (my across the street neighbor on the island of Nassau) and I could play till soiled beyond recognition.
Knowing such water scarcity was the tragic norm in this part of Ethiopia, we did carry our own jerry can’s of water upon the roof of the LandCruiser, used (and only enough) for cooking.
Transporting enough water for 3-4 people to bath — Yonas Abiye (Ethiopian translator), Melesse (driver), Habibi and Indris (Afar guides) and myself — would require a small tanker in tow. Completely impractical.
What additional water we did carry was bottle water and those too were often in short supply.
Bathing quickly became crossed off any known To Do list for days.
When bathing water was available, it primarily manifested at grimy hotels frequented by truck drivers which incessantly ply the main artery that links Ethiopia to the outside world: The Port of Djibouti. Such brilliance liquid access occurred three or four times in the last month.
As disgusting to those of us living in the developed world might take the next phase in this narrative, you will be astonished to know that our bodies were never designed to be bathed as often as we do today.
Here begins an experiment, one which wasn’t by choice, rather a natural evolution brought upon by environmental changes (lack of rain):
Day 1: Fresh clothing. Hair and skin are clean. You feel nearly buoyant.
Day 2: Clothing has received a few stains — gravity is not my friend when eating — and though no longer as buoyant, a sweaty shirt, trousers, and yes, the same underwear, don’t seem all that dreadful to keep using, knowing even if you did change clothing, within minutes you’d be covered in Afar dust, so why bother.
Day 3: Only by day three do you begin to sense (from our developed nation mindset) that physical needs might be going awry. Disgust manifests, yet you keep a forward presents, knowing once again that donning anything clean would not solve the problem due to daily dust storms and relentless heat (I don’t travel with more than 3 changes of clothing and a few extra underwear).
Day 4 and 5: One’s will becomes tested. Clothing by this time is completely covered in grim, dirt, food stains. Perspiration causes your outerwear (and inner) to conform to your torsos. Frustration turns to giddiness in this state of disrepair. I began considering the only remaining clean clothing as precious items to conserve — they were all I have left.
Day 6-10: Here began the unique part of this unorthodox, unplanned, process of human understanding — once I reached day 7, 8 and definitely day 10, the notion or more so, the need for a bath evaporates – both from my consciousness and torso. It’s not that you become unreceptive to your hygiene condition — thank goodness there were few mirrors where I’ve been the last month. Rather, a natural occurrence happened; My body began to self-clean. The sweating pores of my skin — and I will stress again, continual sweating pores — began to push out, then off, most of the grim build up. Yes, clothing at this point is reaching a state of ruin, however my skin no longer smelled. Only the clothing did. Airing shirts/trousers/underwear on a tree limb each night before donning a slightly less soiled t-shirt and shorts to sleep in, the following morning my skin smelled fine. The hanging clothing, fused stiff on the tree, is what repulsed.
Day 11 and 12: Just shy of two weeks, or 12 days to be exact, I became completely one with my new self. My shirt and trousers from REI were now defiled by the harsh conditions of the Afar region, appearing as shop rags in a garage rather than material to be worn by humans. Yet astonishingly enough, my skin was relatively clean and didn’t smell. By some natural process that clearly we’ve forgotten we possess, the rancid notion of filth wasn’t so much about me — sure, I didn’t smell like a Lancôme counter in a department store — but rather, the outerwear. We seemed, by my unscientific study of self, to have built-in self-cleaning systems, which clearly evolved from millennia’s of basic environmental conditioning. No question, there was surface layers of dirt on all parts of my body, yet large areas that were once coated in dust and grime, a day or two later could be no longer seen. This had to have been caused by my natural body sweat because I never had access to water nor ever pulled out a towel.
When I did finally bathe on or around day 12 (there have been two-cycles of 12 day non-bathing travel), it felt exhilarating yet at the same time, offsetting.
Which made me wonder; Were we humans actual bathers 60,000 years ago when walking out of Africa?
Did we bathe 10,000 years ago?
2,000 years past?
Did my great grandmother and great grandfather bathe in the late 1800′s?
Now ensconced in the first (somewhat) legitimate hotel in well over a month — the mildly renovated, Hotel Dar es Salam, located in the heart of Djibouti City, Djibouti — I had to do the research.
For those of you who have a clean-self fetish, brace yourself —
We humans rarely ever bathed until just 100 or so years ago.
Here with a brief overview on the history of human bathing:
10,000 – 60,000 years ago — From the origins of our collective beginnings in Africa (yes, we are all African), very little information exist from this era regarding bathing. An article in the New Scientist has shown that Neanderthals may have learned how to sail or float across seas far sooner than humans, however the chances of Neanderthals caring about bathing would likely be nil. After walking and driving through much of our collective humanities original existence the last 40+ days, water, 60 millenniums ago, was nowhere near as scarce as it is today in Afar, Ethiopia, However observing the landscapes (from a relatively decent knowledge of geology), I could surmise fairly accurately that potable (drinkable) water was not abundant here at anytime in the last 1-2 millions years. There is evidence that fresh water existed but most are now dried lake beds. What was odd is how Afar people today do not actually live next to water sources. There are a few lakes (one very large and very close to where we began this walk in the small village of Herto Bouri), but no one seems to live next nor near to them. Such a practice of living so far from water might mirror our relatives of 60,000 year-old who also may have chosen to live away from large bodies of water (unable to swim or afraid of large animals such as hippos and crocodiles?), seeking potable water either by only walking great distances or finding water in shallow wells and streams. Today, most of the nomadic Afari’s choose to live 1-3 miles (1.6-4.8 kilometers) walk away from the nearest water source. Is this due to disputes with neighbors over water rights, making sure no one group of people have greater access to precious water over another? I could never get a meaningful answer from the countless Afari’s I asked on this topic. This lack of access to water is an misfortune and suffrage for millions around the world. My friend, Lynn Johnson, produced a powerful essay on water slavery for National Geographic a few years back titled, Burden of Thirst, illustrating just how difficult it is to gain access to water throughout much of Africa and elsewhere on earth — a labor that is borne on the women. Surely such access to water 60,000 years ago wasn’t much better. In fact, lack of water may have even led to our collective walk out of this region for greater liquid assets.
5,000-10,000 years ago — By this time, soap hadn’t even been invented nor considered. Once again, the historical record is scarce this far back. A meaningful hypothesis would indicate not much had changed in the realm of hygiene nor passion for cleanliness between say 5,000-60,000 years ago. Maybe for the extreme elite, bathing was taking place, but for the masses, likely nonexistent. Survival was of far greater importance.
2,000-5,000 years ago — It wasn’t until almost 5,000 years go (or around 2,800 BC) that soap was invented in ancient Babylon. However, by 2,800 BC, our ancestors would have already reproduced nearly 2,000 time. Whether one believes in evolution, creationism, etc (this is not a story on such a topic so let’s not debate this here!), the reality is this; Producing that many offspring would allow our skin to develop/evolve to a point of never needing such an item as soap, let alone regular bathing. Another significant aspect of migration to keep in mind is this — humans didn’t all walk out of Africa and straight to Babylon. We wandered in all directions, creating specific cultural communities in other parts of Africa, onward to Europe, Asia then into the America’s, reaching the tip of present day Chile about 7,000 years ago. In China, the first signs of bathing began only 3,000 years ago. Ancient Greeks — the most prolific bathers during this time — where one of the first to create bathing centers, the oldest discovered in a palace complex at Knossos, Crete. The Romans also seemed to have switched on to bathing around this period of time. Why and what caused this sudden interest — only within very specific locations across the planet — still seems a mystery. One thing of for certain, until this era, humans (us), didn’t give a darn about personal cleanliness.
800-2,000 years ago — Here is when things get interesting. By the fall of the Roman Empire (which began around 470 AD), bathing went out of fashion. There were ritualistic/spiritual bathing within nearly all religions during this time: Mikveh’s in Judaism, Baptism or the act of becoming cleansed/purified, blessed in Christianity, ablutions in Islam (the act of washing feet, hands, face/head) before prayers, etc, all these and more were indeed taking place around this period (the earliest in Judaism). However regular bathing was far from the norm. During the Medieval era (476-1460 AD), it’s a common myth that we didn’t bath. We DID, if you had money. The rest of us only bathed 1-4 times per year, max.
100-800 years ago — Before the great plagues in Europe (especially the Black Plague between 1348 and 1350), few in Europe, except the wealthy, bathed. But when the Black Death hit, there was some consensus that maybe this plague — which killed roughly 75 million Europeans — might be caused by the lack personal hygiene practiced at that time. Suddenly people (those who could afford it) began to bath. Ironically, cleanliness was not the reasons for the onset of the bubonic plague — it was flea-ridden rats that spread death. After this tragic period, pretty much the entire European region returned to non-bathing. On a positive note, the most cleanliest culture at the time (around the 1,400′s) was in Mesoamerica. People in this region, both the elite and the commoners, bathed each afternoon. Why they caught on to such levels of hygiene while few other societies did not, I do not know.
Here’s a few bits of interesting trivia from this era I didn’t know till doing my post non-bathing research:
How often did Queen Elizabeth I bathe in the 1600′s? About once every few weeks.
How often did European peasants (the vast majority of our relatives at that time were peasants) change their clothes between say 1200 till 1800? Rarely, maybe a handful of times per year.
How often the people bathe in the United States between say 1700-1850′s? Rarely, especially in colder regions such as where I now leave, New England.
Poverty was likely a key factor as to why our ancestors never bathed. The costs for such luxuries as soap were simply far out of reach.
Depressingly, the weight of poverty even today (2 billion humans live on just over $2 USD per day) continues to hinder access to soap or regular bathing.
If you’ve ever traveled to developing world, you will have tragically come across children, even adults, wearing your long discarded sport jerseys or a t-shit with the words “Al’s Auto Parts” meandering around a market. Chances are it’s in tattered condition, never changed nor washed for years.
In the developed world — where we have everything times infinity and we’re still not happy — we’ve become rabid bathers, driven especially by the marketing campaigns from the billion-dollar industry of cleansing products, all telling us we’re less human, less gorgeous, less a person until we look like someone in 30 second commercials and fashion magazines.
As wonderful as it feels after a bath, in many way’s it’s not healthy for our skin.
Our ragging desire — and the hundreds of dollars each year we spend on self-cleaning products — only really manifested with the arrival of indoor plumbing, or in the last 100 or so years.
The forgotten astonishment of being able to turn a knob and the near miracle of water pours — hot or cold — is, in the sense of time, a strand of hair in realm of calendar years.
Astonishing indeed, yet taken so extremely for granted.
At this moment, we’re wasting water at an alarming rate. Not by drinking it all up.
Rather, we’re wasting extreme levels of precious water via the need for more swimming pools (take out the chlorine, it’s your personal Roman bath), our desire for green grass in places where vegetation was never meant to grow and yes, by incredible water usage for bathing — on average we use 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of water per minute when taking a shower using a regular fixture.
28-36 gallons (98-136 liters) for a bath.
40-55 gallons (151-208 liters) to run a conventional cloth washing machine.
Not saying we need to revert back to Medieval bathing practices!
The point that I discovered via self analysis, our environment and culture observation (most Afar people today still only bath once a year) is this — maybe those 15 min showers some of us take could be cut back to 2 minutes.
And if you skip a day without bathing, we’ll be fine.
All that anti-bacterial soap and whatnot, use if you wish, however our bodies need bacteria in order to learn how to fend off common diseases. We’ve gone berserk in the last two-decades turning our homes into mini-sterile hospitals — thanks in part to the multi-billion dollar cleaning industry for convincing us we all must be living in sterile bubbles. And to think we fell for it.
Astounding as it may seem, by natural development, it appears our bodies (not our clothing) were design in many way to be self-cleansing.
Strange, I know, but I just experienced such an understanding.
It was indeed mighty hot in Afar for the month I photographed in this extremely unique and remote part of our world.
From 9am till 4pm, the air and land was a searing skillet of heat. No shade except for the thorny wayone (Procopis) bush or a shadow cast by a large rock, natures sundial. There was no relenting till evening and even then the wind blew desert dust everywhere.
During this time, I felt I’d become in a small way, Afari. My new Afar friends skin didn’t smell any different than my own, seeking comfort in the conformity. Yes, their clothing was a bit dirty but oddly enough, nowhere near as dirty as mine.
Most important, they were extremely proud with what few things they had. These are pastoralist, whose wealth and success is not measured by what type of car they drive, designer clothing they wear or latest gizmo that’s all the rage (most could care less about my MacBook Pro or even cameras. Only the iPhone struck their fancy because the screen was so bright, it could be used as a flashlight at night).
Value and self worth is based upon their livestock, which provide food and drink (milk), the two main sustainments of life.
Does this mean the Afar’s do not want a better life?
OF COURSE THEY DO!
Every human being seems naturally wired to seek improvements and a brighter future. The different has always been in having opportunity, a clean environment, education and freedom to choose.
For the Afar, such opportunities — most especially the environment — seems stacked against them.
Don’t let my kids read this story!
Like all children, the notion of being told to go take a bath is simply not in their lexicon till reaching the age where that hot guy or cute girl in the third row in science class begins to catch their fancy.
No longer traveling or sleeping in the desert regions of Afar out in the open under a staggering ceiling of stars, using a tent or in a truckers hotel with an alleged bathing stall that resembles an abandoned outhouse, it’s still incredibly hot here in Djibouti City.
My days now are spent wandering the streets with my wonderful new friend, Abdul, who is my driver/translator.
Like in Afar, we’re avoiding the heat (translated into Photolingo: Bad Light), working a few mornings but heavily in the afternoons and well into the late evening when the vibrancy of the city is on display.
There’s even air-conditioning in my simple windowless room at the Hotel Dar es Salam — although I can stay in basically any hotel in the city, I despise wasting even NG’s funds on characterless hotels costing hundreds of dollars a night just to rest my head for 6-8 hrs.
There’s even a communal shower down the hall, and can you believe it…it rains hot water.
Even a sit-down toilet.
Life is good.
Only thing missing is my family, whom I miss dearly.
By the way, yesterday was my wife, Anastasia, and our 20th wedding anniversary.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY — and I promise you that in a few weeks time I’ll returned to the Berkshires all showered, in a clean pair of clothing!
All my best,
February 21, 2013 13 Comments
(Photographs on this blog, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are vignettes from the making of Out of Eden, photographed with an iPhone using the Hipstamatic lens/film combination of Jane and Sugar. The main photography will be published in the December 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine).
All-embracing, this story is flowing far less problematic than predicted.
Months ago when first receiving a call regarding the Out of Eden project from National Geographic senior photo editor, Kim Hubbard, initial discussions were not so much on what the photography for this story would be. Rather, the focus of numerous conversations we had were on the near spectacular potential for logistical problem solving and the layers of unpredictability in order to accomplish the story.
The photography was relatively simple; Photograph whatever I wanted. A reportage wrapped around a loose theme of present day Ethiopian/Djiboutian culture and daily life.
Seems like a dream assignment, right?
In many ways, it is.
In equal measure, it’s not.
With such wide visual potential, the photography (its narrative) can become unruly with its endless possibilities.
Remember, a photo essay is about storytelling.
Imagine walking into La Scala holding an empty sheet of music. You’re presented with an entire orchestral quantity of instruments, each needing to be played not only in tuned, but collectively brilliant and coherent, in the end, filling in notes for a meaningful — dare I utter, potent — symphony which 20 million or more will listen to come December.
There is the heightened awareness that I’m not out-and-about walking the streets of Turkey’s capital to produce a feature of present day Istanbul, carnival season in New Orleans nor the stupefying development occurring in Shanghai.
Out of Eden takes place in one of the most inaccessible regions on earth, where one can drive (if the car can hold together) for hours, not seeing anyone nor even much variability in landscape.
This is arena which this symphony must be written in. Equally grand is the concert hall in which the finished concerto will be presented — a magazine that began publishing 125 years ago this month, founded by such exceptional minds as Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
I feel as if every National Geographic story is no different than writing symphony. And once ink hits paper, performing it.
Equally interesting, the challenge is relished.
As marveling as this story is, the words my friend in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea once told me (mentioned in Journal I), are resonating in the noggin;
Expect the unexpected.
In planning for eight to ten weeks of nonstop overland travel throughout most of Ethiopia and literally all of the tiny African nation of Djibouti, I’ve had to muster the wisdom of Job — and nearly 30 years of working on complicated stories in over 80 countries — tapping as much extreme foresight as possible; When one thing goes wrong — as they often do — it can cause a chain reaction of problems.
Nearing week three, so far so good.
The photography is flowing very well. Some days are nothing but travel. Other days are overwhelmingly visual. Another day might be untangling unanticipated logistics. All typical events in photojournalism, especially when connected to rigorous travel across multiple countries.
To avoid one my archetypal narratives, here, in list form, is a rundown of what normally — and I do mean, normally — happens while on complex logistical assignments for National Geographic magazine, all which indeed occurred in the last fifteen or more days:
1- First Landcruiser — Ruined front-left break cylinder. In addition, a front shock absorber literally ripped off it’s mount. Both were destroyed due to extreme road/terrain conditions. While the driver limping the vehicle back to Addis Ababa, I rode in Paul Salopek’s car — and at times, Paleoathropologist Tim White’s Landcruiser — while a replacement Landcruiser was driven up from Addis on or about day seven with a new driver.
2- Second Landcruiser — this replacement could have been Fred Flintstones automobile for all I cared. Just so long as it was strong, able to handle this astonishing Afar terrain, keeping me on course for this story. Fortunately, it was an extremely strong car, however overall this replacement looked and drove like a beaten Russian Lada. In addition, the new driver, though a nice fellow, was an incessant whinier, driving me berserk.
3- Thorns — This second Landcruiser could at least drive almost anywhere due to it’s strength. However, by day eight or nine, we had a series of blown tires caused by the all-pervasive, 2 inch (5cm) long thorns of the woyane bush (the Procopis plant). These thorns are so strong, they can piece most tires. The woyane bush had been brought into Ethiopia from South America decades back in a misguided attempt to stop erosion in the Afar region. Now, this invasive species has spread in such prolific ways that just in the last two to three years the woyane bush is so thick, it creates an impenetrable barrier, causes us to drive sometimes 5-10 miles (8-16 kilometers) just to get around the densely packed growth — and there are no road where we’re traveling, making the drive to circumvent a journey and significant time loss.
4- Third Landcruiser — Avoiding the potential for more car trouble, I went back to Addis, personally choosing a third and this time decent Landcruiser. The driver, Melesse, is patient, professional, willing to push his car to extremes…and he doesn’t whine.
5- Permits — To travel and work in remote Afari villages of Ethiopia (off of well-known travel paths like the road to the Erta Ale volcano, a popular tourist vista to ogle), you need special documentation. Not just from the Ethiopian government but additional paperwork from a regional administration office in Afar which oversees local affairs. Due to misspelling a towns name in Amharic script (the misspelling turned the villages name into town which is not even in the Afar area), we needed to update this special Afar travel permit, taking two-days in drive time to sort.
6- Electricity — Traveling in areas with zero access to electricity (forget even having access to water for bathing) means the need for electricity is supreme to charge the cacophony of power-thirsty items in tow:
Thuraya satellite phone
Bgan satellite internet
4-mobile phones (drivers, translators, mine and at times even a forth phone belonging to a local Afar guide)
Electrical necessity was especially true one fine morning a few days back — the car battery labored like an overburden donkey to start the Landcruiser. What I had been harboring in the recesses of the cranium was about to take place — using the power inverters (turning 12v into 120v) would soon destroy the car’s battery, stranding us for what could be days, even weeks, in area which truly could be called The Middle of Nowhere. After tracking down an overpriced generator manufactured in China, we were good to go. Or so I thought — that brand-less small generator has already ruined two power adapters. Yesterday, we found a voltage stabilizer. From years of experience living in Asia with terribly unstable electricity, we now (should) indeed be sorted with a third layer of stable power potential, backed up with cigarette lighter charger and the power inverter (to be used sparingly).
By the way, if you ever want to make loads of new friends, carry this mini-nuclear power station in the back of your car, arrive to a village that has no electricity…and where everyone seems to have your discarded (vintage?) 2002 Nokia phone at a battery level of 5 percent!
7- Unexpected — I received a call from National Geographic on around day 5 of Out of Eden, requesting an additional photograph of Paul, walking with his camels, for another story National Geographic is publishing in either June or July (not for Out of Eden, rather, something else). Out of Eden will appear in the December 2013 issue and has and editing/layout deadline for sometime in July, four months after returning Stateside. This added photograph had to be accomplished far sooner — lightning fast by National Geographic standards; By end of this month. More so, it must be both different and brilliant — you know it has to be when the Editor in Chief, Chris John, speaks to you for 10 minutes via the satellite phone on the importance of this very specific photograph.
Even in semi-normal circumstances this would be simple photograph to achieve. In the Afar region, it’s not. Here is why:
a: Original Plan – This story (the photography), Out of Eden, was never going to be about Paul. Rather, I was to meander, muse, go adrift (my favorite part about these types of stories) anywhere in Afar, moseying along a non-ascertained trajectory beginning in Herto, Ethiopia, arriving 8-10 weeks thereafter (overland) to Djibouti City, Djibouti. I was only going to follow Paul on the beginning of his walk while my support vehicle positioned itself ahead in a village 5-10 miles (8-12k) away, reconnecting with all my supplies in 1-2 days. In this Landcruiser is a near Dave Matthews Band concert level of cables and whatnot to keep everything charged and working.
The support vehicle also contains complete camping gear for 3-4 people (Yonas, my translator/friend, driver, myself and at times a local Afar guide), food, water, and most important —7 lbs (3kg) of the finest Ethiopian coffee. We were to reconnect in Djibouti City, the end of the first leg in his seven year walk from Herto to Tierra del Fuego, the tip of South America. This was the plan, the logistical and infrastructure objective to make one meaningful — and yes, hopefully brilliant — image of Paul leaving the origins of our collective humanities migration out of a very small, extremely remote, village known as Herto. With this unexpected call requesting a second — completely different —image of Paul walking, the dynamics (plan) had to change. Rapidly.
b: Logistics – It takes time to sort camels as a mode of transport. One doesn’t walk up to a camel owner saying: “Hi, would you like to walk with me as your camel carries 300 lbs (136kg) of kit over truly fascinating yet inhospitable terrain, leaving your family, farm and livelihood for the next month?” With Paul Salopek’s camels already laded with the supplies for him and his guide, I could only trouble them to carry my camera bag and a tent. This plan worked, albeit for two days of walking.
c: Weather — Paul’s emergence out of Herto didn’t take him through truly epic landscapes. Also, it was overcast, which helps in reducing the Afar heat, however it also reduces the potential for stunning visuals unless a flock of pterodactyl were to fly through the grey sky — and that ain’t gonna to happen. Even so, I was able to make a beginning step with a meaningful photograph of Paul starting his walk for either the main Out of Eden story that will appear in the December issue or for this special request for the June or July issue. Still, I needed one more photograph of Paul journeying.
d: Sprinting — Can’t say I often photograph camel caravans. Yes, I have photographed camel markets. Even ridden a few members of the humped-back family, however I’ve never had to follow on foot a camel walking for any great distance. Camels walk in long strides — three steps for every four human steps. This means walking at a decent clip, requiring constant running in order to be ahead of Paul or else repeatedly photograph him from behind or from the side. After hours of walking, even in overcast Afar, the physical effort of chasing forward to photograph grew impossible after a few kilometers. There had to be a better solution.
e: Inaccessible — With camels, Paul can travel over any and all terrain. More so, Paul is indeed walking on ancient camel trails. Most, if not all, completely impenetrable even via Landcruiser. Now, after a week or so apart, I will reconnect today with Paul in Afar (for security reasons I am not mentioning town names) where we’ll work out the potential path of his next few days journey, in turn drive (and walk) far enough ahead of him to photograph his arrival, and then passing, as Paul walks through — with flowing levels of serendipitous optimism — epic landscapes. This should be the potent means of making this second photograph of Paul.
The importance of sharing the above is not for my friends and colleagues, most of whom have dealt with similar circumstances. Rather, this is to share with those of you who intend one day to do such genre of photography and the fascinating realism of what to expect, which is always that of the unexpected.
Here with the truth about what it’s like working on a National Geographic assignment:
As involving as some of these events have been — cars, paperwork, a constant dance to solve logistical land travel, chasing ahead of Paul, power supply…not to mention incessant level of bugs, extreme heat, 8+ days in the same clothing with no access to bath, lunch and dinner being tibs, tibs and more tibs (tibs is goat meat) — all of this is completely normal. In fact, within the scope of what is involved in such a story, all these events have been minor.
As candid as possible — if events were not going as they have, I’d be concerned.
And other than missing my family back on the farm in the Berkshires, I couldn’t be more delighted or enthralled with the visual progress (and journey) so far.
Now the reality when producing any involving/layered story; It’s 99 percent problem solving and 1 percent photography, all wrapped around a heaping scoop of serendipity.
Growing up in Nassau in the 1970′s, each morning, me and my classmates would sing the Bahamian National Anthem. A part of that anthem always resonates whenever a hurdle rears its head:
“Forward, Upward, Onward, Together”
As week three rounds the bend, I’ve often caught myself humming those words, relishing in what resides ahead, knowing that the resplendence of this story is always present, cloaked in a heavy layer of fascinating orchestration and spectacular moments of visual brilliance, knowing this assignment will continue the grandeur of expecting the unexpected.
All the best from the Afar region of Ethiopia,
January 25, 2013 1 Comment
Rarely do I travel with more than one piece of check-in luggage.
Maximum, one medium-sized rolling bag containing a few changes of clothing, loads of underwear, socks and a tube of toothpaste — airport security does not like such items anymore in carryon luggage.
Thanks, Richard Reid…AKA, The Shoe Bomber.
All minimalism is out with the bathwater on this latest story for National Geographic.
Three bags — two mega, the other my normal checkin — went into the cargo hold of two planes, as I traveling from the farm in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts to Ethiopia where they now rest beside me in a 5th floor room of a three-star hotel in this sublime nations capital.
It has taken months of planning for this assignment — illuminatingly titled, Out of Eden — to prepare for every sublet nuance this project may throw; Eight to ten weeks, traveling overland from discovered remains of our first human ancestors in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia — literally where each of our brothers and sisters walked out of Africa 60,000 years ago, populating this astonishing planet we can only call home — meandering across deserts, mountains, ravines, depressions and villages, till I reach Djibouti City, Djibouti, sometime in March.
Like New York City, the Djiboutans named it twice.
For those following this story on my Facebook page, Twitter or on Instagram, you might be wondering why I’m carrying so much kit compared to my colleague, superb human, Pulitzer Prize winning writer (twice), National Geographic Fellow and official walker for the Out of Eden, Paul Salopek?
I know my dearest of friends, Gary Knight, has been wondering.
Simple — Paul has seven years to walk from our ancestors remains till reaching Tierra del Fuego — and for this first part of Out of Eden, as long as he needs — totting I believe nothing more than a few changes of clothing, pens, notepads, a laptop, sat phone, solar charger, sleeping gear and other minimal bits and pieces, doing so at least from Afar to Djibouti City with a camel Paul purchased last week who will carry most of these items…including water and basic food stuffs (will be meeting up with Paul tomorrow evening to actually witness what he’s fully carrying).
Encumbered — I’m carry more bobbles and bits which require electricity than a small village might demand in a week, not to mention camping gear for a translator, driver and myself.
Yes, I’m traveling in a car.
Here is why:
Gone are the days when a photographer on a National Geographic story only needed a backpack to carry clothing, a few hundred rolls of film and a camera bag with cameras that only required little more than two watch-sized batteries to operate its metering for weeks on end.
The rest was manual — and we liked it.
With everything gone digital, we now tote a substantial collection of gizmos and contraptions, each requiring their own special cable, a virtual tangled bowl of spaghetti noodles and clamoring hunks of electrical plastic meatballs, the whole lot demanding power. All this nonsense is needed (along with portable 120/220 electricity) or else cease being able to take photographs within 1-2 days.
As much as traveling on camel back may seem romantic, Yonas Abiye (super talented journalist with The Reporter newspaper), a driver (gifted with memory retention of a pasta strainer, I’ve tragically forgotten his name post brief meeting today) and myself will make this journey starting near Mille (pronounced phonetically as Mill-ay), in the Afar region of Ethiopia, to the border with Djibouti, in a grayish-blue toned 2008 4×4 Toyota Land Cruiser.
Even if I didn’t have this triple sherpa load of whatnot to carry, here is why I’m driving:
This story, Out of Eden, is not about Paul.
Rather, it’s a story about our collective humanities migration out of Africa to where we each live today.
Therefore, I will not be following in Paul’s footsteps.
In fact I plan to get completely lost, zigzagging in all direction, photographing a reportage piece on the society, culture, landscapes and truly anything and everything which comes my way, illustrating what this part of the world, and its people, are doing today.
Come sometime likely in early March — communucating with Paul periodically via satellite phone — I will meet up with him as he arrives in Djibouti City.
Wonderfully expressed once by a Highlander friend in Papua New Guinea while on another National Geographic story a few years back — sharing with her how unexpected and wildly magical everything kept occurring while in country — she uttered in a marvelously dry tone:
“Expect the unexpected, John”.
With only a few hours remaining in this somewhat unaired room — for a $150 a night hotel, it oddly lacks an air conditioner nor any understandable means to open a window — I thought it might be interesting to start the journals of this journey with some insight regarding what I’m carrying in this anomalous matching set of Eagle Creek bags and their trusty sidekick, the always toting ThinkTank Airport camera roller.
While Monk’s Dream plays from this MacBook Pro speakers (richly expanded on these already brilliant Retina display speakers using the app, DPS…a must have plugin for iTunes — wowy!) here’s The Kit for part one of Out of Eden:
NOTE: IF CURIOUS, CLICK ON THIS ABOVE IMAGE WHICH HAS EACH ITEM LABELED, THEN REFER TO THE DETAILS BELOW
1- Eagle Creek Load Warrior 25 inch roller — This bag contains all clothing for two or more months:
(The first two clothing items have been The Uniform for the last 10 years while on assignments, all the same color — kaki tan pants, dark green shirts, and surprisingly holding up extremely well)
REI light weather pants — three
REI light weather long sleeve shirts — five
Shorts — one
T-shirts — two
Sleeping t-shirt — one
Sleeping shorts — one
Underwear — ten
Dress Shirt — one
Jeans — one
2- Eagle Creek duffle — Empty, stored in main luggage for when needed
3- Eagle Creek Gear Warrior Wheeled Duffel 36 in roller — two, used for carrying most of that crap you see on the floor
4- Cliff & Luna Bars — 73 white chocolate macadamia nut power powers…breakfast for the next two months
5- Medical Kit — Containing more meds, bandages and whatnot than
6- iPhone Camera Cable — Supported through a Kickstarter project, Trigger Happy (not my favorite name for this — remember, cameras don’t shoot anything. They take in light. Only guns shoot) is something I’ve yet to use. hopefully it works
7- Reading Glasses — Five sets, in case loosing one, two or more — a habit I’ve been able to master over the years until discovering they were already on top of my head or crushed in a pocket
8- Toiletries — Hand sanitizer, toothpastes, a hair tie…I’m a minimalist
9- Multi-Plug Adapter
10- 120-volt cigarette lighter power supply
11- Camera towel
12- Various headlamps
13- My tent
14- Driver/translators tent
15- Reusable Twists — Various sizes of heavy-duty twisties. Hang about anything, anywhere
16- Bathing Soaps — These are amazing anti-mosquito repellent soaps that contain citronella. Found them years ago while passing through the Johannesburg airport while working on the National Geographic story, Malaria. Picked up an entire box. Unfortunately, these are the last three bars. Sure hope I route through South Africa again soon
17- Bug Repellent Cream
18- Muti-purpose Tool
19- Lamps — Battery power, they put out gobs of light
21- Ground Tarp — Small tent
22- Sunscreen Mozzie Repellant
23- Ground Tarp — Large tent
24- Mosquito Spray — 100% DEET (malaria country where we’re going)
25- ThinkTank Airport Roller — Have had this amazing (and I mean AMAZING) roller carry-on camera case for over 7 years. It’s been through more airports, up/down more stairs, tossed, dropped and careened across floors, rocks and deserts more times than can be counted in memory. Besides a touch bit of the rubber on the wheels fraying, this bag from ThinkTank keeps on going strong. Here’s what’s inside:
Canon 5D Mark III — two
24 1.4 lens
35 1.4 lens
50 1.2 lens
Battery Charges — two
Batteries — four
ThinkTank — A small Retrospective model shoulder bag. This is where a few of the lenses go when out and about. The rest stays in the roller, taken out when needed
26- Inflatable Pillow — Brookstone blow up felt neck pillow (for plane travel)
27- Clothing — Paint/shirts
28- Collapsible Chair — REI has a super-nify foldable chair. This will be seriously used when waiting about in remote areas for the light to get brilliant
29- Stuff — Sharpies, international drivers license, medical vaccine card, passport sized photos, more hair ties and in the envelope, NGM’s amazing Dazzler letter of introduction
30- Map/Guidebook — Lonely Planets guide to Ethiopa and detailed maps of Ethiopia and Djibouti
31- Flash Cardholder — Deputy Director of Photography, Ken Geiger, was kind enough to give me one of the new NGM ThinkTank flashcard holders when I was in DC a few weeks ago for the Out of Eden story prep. They are being given away to National Geographic photographers at next weeks seminar, which unfortunately I’ll be missing this event — sorry for blowing the surprise
32- Clothing — A few more pants/shirts, haphazardly placed on the floor rather than in the other clothing pile
33- USB Cigarette Lighter Charger
34- World Map
35- NGM Luggage Tags
36- Water Bags — To protect kit in case it rains and as backup laundry bags
37- Sleeping Bag — Small
38- Sleeping Bag — Larger
40- NG Hat — Gift for someone along the trip
41- Hammock Ties
42- Mosquito Net
43- Mosquito Net
44- Power Inverters — Two 300volt models that turns 12volt car battery power into 120volt power. To be used to charge a MacBook Pro, camera batteries, sat phone, iPhone, etc
46- Multi-Plug Adapter — Two more for a total of three
47- Belt — Special type…
48- Small Bag
50- Mesh Bag
51- French Press Coffeemaker — THE most important piece of the kit
52- Shelters — Three Kelty 3×3 meter shelters to protect driver, translator and myself from the harsh Afar desert sun while waiting for good light
53- Waterproof Zipper Bags — To hold all the various loose items seen here
54- Small Bag
56- Inflatable Pillow
57- Self-Inflating Mattress
58- Satellite Phone — Thuraya. Including a Thuraya Wifi Hotspot box, allowing to wirelessly connect all communication items to the internet from any location
59- Hiking Shoes
60- Canon Cigarette Lighter Battery Charger Kit
61- Hardrives — Two, 2TB Western Digital USB3, which will make transferring photographs off cards and into Aperture each day an extremely quick task
This is The Kit, which will (should) sustain most if not all needs for the next two or more months while driving throughout more than half of Ethiopia and all of Djibouti — yes, Gary, I’m driving, not walking nor with a camel because tomorrow I pick up the LaMarzocco expresso machine and generator…
Hope the peering into my bags — bags which received more Likes on Facebook than likely any photo of just bags have ever receive — was informative.
4 hours till Yonas Abiye and the driver arrive at the hotel for the 10+ hour drive to the Afar region to meet Paul.
And satellite phone is still not working. Sure hope Thuraya in Dubai sorts this soonest or this might be the one and only journal from the trip. . .
All my best,
January 6, 2013 Comments Off | <urn:uuid:86bf728d-9392-4056-978c-7b0f4aeb44cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stanmeyer.com/blog/tag/out-of-eden/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9437 | 11,392 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Protection from Abuse & Protection from Stalking Orders
The Victim Assistance Unit has a staff of advocates who assist victims through the protection order process. The advocates also provide assistance in filing emergency orders, crisis intervention, information, and referrals to social service agencies.
A protection order is a civil order which can:
- Restrain the defendant from contacting you;
- Restrain the defendant from your residence;
- Give temporary custody of the children to you;
- Restrain the defendant from your workplace;
- Order the defendant to pay support and/or arrange for the return of your property.
You may qualify for a Protection from Abuse Order if you have been abused or threatened by someone with whom you live, have lived, or with whom you have a child in common, want an order to protect you and/or your child from further abuse, and have a VALID address where the defendant can be served.
You may qualify for a Protection from Stalking Order if you have two or more separate threatening or harassing incidents that would place a reasonable person in fear of their safety. The stalking incidents must have occurred in Johnson County, KS. You must have a VALID address where the defendant can be served.
How To Get A Protection Order
Please call the Johnson County Victim Assistance Unit at 913-715-3004, and we will assist you in filing the appropriate forms.
If your abuser breaks the protection order, it is important that you call the police. The order cannot be enforced if the police are not aware that there is a violation.
Planning For Safety
It is important to plan for safety in case of further violence. You do not have control over your partner's violence. However, you do have a choice about how to respond to him/her and the best way to get yourself (and your children) to safety. Plan to leave immediately if you feel in danger. Practice how to get out safely: what doors, windows, stairwells, or fire escapes would you use? Decide which room is the safest room in the house or apartment if you are unable to leave the house. Tell a neighbor about the violence and request they call the police if they hear suspicious noises coming from your home. Create a code word to share with family and/or friends that indicates you want them to call the police. You can use this code word if you feel in danger but cannot safely call the police. Do not keep what is happening to you a secret.
Keep the following items in a safe but easy to reach place:
Local police department phone number and the emergency number of your local domestic violence program;
Car keys (or have an emergency transportation plan worked out in advance);
Clothing in case you have to leave quickly;
Copies of birth certificates, medical, and social security cards, identification, and any other important papers for you and your children;
Small bag with essentials, medication, change for telephone calls, address book, tooth brush, etc.;
- Do not tell your abuser about your plan to leave. | <urn:uuid:46f96b6b-32c6-4c46-bc8e-f2d0c3f8dd1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://da.jocogov.org/protection-orders | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941987 | 625 | 1.5 | 2 |
By now most of us content marketers have heard of, and probably already started using, Vine, the new app from Twitter that allows users to easily produce and share six-second videos.
When it comes to adding the new tool to our content marketing toolbelt, how do we avoid misusing Vine? I say the answer is the same for producing six-second videos as it is for producing sixty-second videos – you need a plan. Or, since Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, let’s say Vine is a micro-storytelling app and you actually just need a micro-plan.
Download a free copy of a printable Vine micro-planning tool, check out the whiteboard video below, or read the transcription to start planning right away.
Video Transcription for Your Reading Pleasure
So, if Twitter is a micro-blogging tool, then I’m dubbing Vine a micro-storytelling tool and I think that if you’re going to use Vine successfully, you want to think about it a little bit beforehand and create a micro-plan. So, I’m going to show you a quick way to do that.
Think about your audience, think about the people who might be watching this Vine and ask yourself basically two things: What do you want them to do after they watch the Vine and why would they do it?
So, if you can answer those two questions and almost write it out as a sentence:
The people watching my Vine will ___________.
What is it? They laugh? They click on a link and find out more? They understand that something new is coming out and they should look for more information soon?
What is it you want them to do or know after they watch the Vine and then why will they do it? What are you going to do to communicate? What are you going to show and tell them in that Vine that makes them want to do this?
Once you’ve got that figured out, maybe take some space and brainstorm. What kinds of visuals you can have in your Vine. Are they people? Are they products? Or different things that might help you visually tell the story, might help you complete this purpose with your Vine.
And then, what I would do, since you’ve only got six seconds, I would take six boxes – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and I would fill them in. I would create little sketches or words that help to illustrate what you would do with each of those six seconds. Maybe each one is different or maybe one of them are going to last two or three seconds.
That will help you think about what you want to achieve before you start pressing the screen, and start recording and then realize that you don’t really know what you’re going to do next.
This micro-plan will help you come up with a Vine that’s going to help you solve a purpose and actually make good use of the new app from Twitter. | <urn:uuid:b79b2e11-a2f7-40cd-b834-7e88285575e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.convinceandconvert.com/video-marketing/how-to-plan-your-vine-videos-for-content-marketing-success/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961801 | 625 | 1.664063 | 2 |
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress are bringing victims of gun violence to his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, providing faces and voices to the carnage that he wants to curb with new restrictions on firearms.
About two dozen victims, including a girl from Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed in a December 14 school massacre, will see divided lawmakers uncertain what, if any, new gun laws to pass.
And lawmakers will see victims who agree with Obama that action is needed now, including a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and a limit on high-capacity ammunition clips, like those used in the shooting at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The move is part of a multi-faceted campaign by gun-control advocates to crank up public pressure on members of Congress to stand up to the gun-rights lobby, despite fears that it could cost some of them re-election.
"They should be worried about doing the right thing, not about getting re-elected," said John Aresta, a gun-violence victim who was invited by Democratic Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York to attend Obama's speech.
Aresta, the police chief of Malverne, New York, had a partner with the New York City Police Department shot dead while on duty in 1989, and an uncle killed in a 1993 mass shooting on a commuter train. McCarthy's husband was killed in the same train attack.
"When people are killed, their names appear in the paper and then they are basically forgotten," Aresta said. "We don't forget them."
With 310 million firearms in the hands of U.S. civilians and more than 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2010, the United States is one of the world's most heavily armed nations and one of the most violent in terms of gun-related deaths.
"Enough is enough. People should have stepped up years ago," said Jim Tyrell of Rhode Island, whose sister was killed in a 2004 armed robbery. Since then, Tyrell has held an annual fundraiser for the study of nonviolence.
Tyrell and others affected by gun violence will hold a news conference at the Capitol before Obama's speech.
"I understand gun owners have a right to own guns, but who needs to walk around with a semi-automatic?" Tyrell said.
The only gun-related proposal drawing bipartisan support is one requiring background checks for all gun buyers. Critics, including the National Rifle Association, reject tougher steps as violations of the U.S. Constitution's right to bear arms.
SHADOW OF NEWTOWN
No Republican has offered to bring a gun-violence victim to the speech, said Democratic Representative Jim Langevin of Rhode Island, who helped organize the outreach effort.
"This should be a bipartisan issue," Langevin said. "We should all be concerned about guns in the wrong hands."
First lady Michelle Obama will deliver a message of her own by bringing as her guests the parents of Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teenager slain by gunplay in a park near her high school just days after performing at the president's inauguration.
The victims will sit in the visitors' gallery of the House of Representatives, overlooking members of Congress as Obama delivers a speech that will spell out his priorities for the coming year, including tougher gun laws.
"It's important to have people there who have been touched by gun violence," Langevin said. "They will be able to see members, and members will be able to look at the gallery and know they are there."
Langevin is one of at least a half dozen or so members of Congress who are also gun violence victims. Some lost family members and a few, like Langevin, were nearly killed. At age 16, he was paralyzed when a bullet accidentally discharged from a police officer's gun struck him in the neck.
"What happened to me shows that despite what the NRA says, having more guns isn't the answer to keeping our communities and children safe," Langevin said.
Langevin's guest at Obama's speech is Tyrell.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi invited a fourth-grade student from Newtown after the youngster wrote her. The girl didn't attend Sandy Hook Elementary but has since become a gun control advocate.
"After the shooting in my town, I started an online petition asking for help from the president and Congress to change the gun laws," the youngster wrote.
"What everyone in Newtown wants is for you to ban semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines," she wrote.
Natalie Hammond, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary who was shot in the attack, will also attend Obama's speech as a guest of her congresswoman, Democratic Representative Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut.
Langevin and McCarthy, along with three other House Democrats, urged colleagues to invite victims in the wake of the Newtown massacre and after Obama vowed to make gun control a top priority.
"It is our hope that their presence in the House Gallery will send a strong message that it is long past time to act," the five Democrats wrote.
(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson, Paul Simao and Philip Barbara) | <urn:uuid:644cf8a9-5f6d-4c41-bc5d-504df122c574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://krro.com/news/articles/2013/feb/11/gun-violence-victims-will-attend-obamas-speech-to-congress/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975925 | 1,076 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Book reading and imagination-themed activities will take place in Windrush Gardens at Burden every 30 minutes beginning at 9 a.m., with the last storybook reading beginning at 11 a.m. Children must be accompanied by an adult in order to participate.
“The idea for storybook telling is based on the Storyteller’s Garden in Grasmere Cumbria, England,” according to LSU AgCenter professor Becky White. “After seeing the storyteller’s garden, I felt Windrush Gardens would be the magical place to transport children’s imaginations.”
Working with the LSU AgCenter as a community partner, the Junior League of Baton Rouge will provide the storytellers for this event.
Windrush Gardens at Burden is located at 4560 Essen Lane just off Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge. Participants must enter through the LSU Rural Life Museum. The gardens are open to the public through the museum, which also is located at Burden. Admission is $3 per person.
For further information contact Becky White 225-578-3921. | <urn:uuid:81a3bb13-6d05-4378-8cea-8948de02f111> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zacharytoday.com/bookmark/21249682 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933332 | 228 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Last week we put up a quiz in the spirit of Jeopardy! after host Alex Trebek made use of 23andMe in one of his game clues.
The time was up last night to make your entry. So here are the answers to our Homage to Jeopardy! Quiz.
Remember you didn’t have to get everything correct to be entered into the giveaway. We’ll announce the two lucky winners on Friday. For more on the rules go here.
In the meantime, you can grade your own tests. We give you an A for effort.
1) The “23” of 23andMe.com, a site tracing ancestry and personal genetic information, refers to pairs of these…
Too easy. The answer is “What are chromosomes.”
2) Men inherit one copy of this chromosome, while women inherit two ..
If you marked your X on “What is the X Chromosome?” you are correct.
3) This recessive disease is characterized by crescent-shaped red blood cells
The correct answer is “What is Sickle cell anemia?”
4) People with two copies of the E4 version of the APOE gene are at significantly increased risk for this disease
The answer is “What is Alzheimer’s disease?”
5) This famous actor founded a Parkinson’s disease research foundation that partners with 23andMe, Inc.
The answer is “Who is Michael J. Fox?”
6) This fictional adoptee has appeared on the 23andMe blog to illustrate ancestry features
Who is Sheridan?
7) 23andMe was used to analyze the DNA of famous figures on this PBS genealogy series
What is “Finding Your Roots”?
8) Isolated populations can have higher rates of specific genetic variations due to this phenomenon.
What is the founder effect? | <urn:uuid:7c4a79b3-855a-4d84-babf-1e99a77fe928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-and-you/23andmes-homage-to-jeopardy/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945218 | 403 | 1.804688 | 2 |
“I wanted the book to be like an interior design magazine, but with more pages and more images. Normally, a beautiful interior design story is only six pages, and you really don’t get enough. So I wanted 20 pages of these houses, and I also wanted really tight, detailed shots. There’s a lot of text in the book [written by Michael Owen Gotkin] and you can learn a lot by reading it, but that wasn’t an essential goal of mine. Through photography, I wanted to give people a perspective on these houses. Yes, you could visit them, and maybe you can’t, but you’ll never see them in the way that I photographed them. I shoot in natural light. I shoot the way the house looks. I don’t bring in massive amounts of equipment. I shot the whole book on negative film with long exposures. I painfully tried to create a sense of romance and nostalgia—and silence.”
-Photographer Don Freeman, speaking with us about his new book Artists’ Handmade Houses (Abrams), a collection of 13 homes handcrafted by artists and craftsmen including George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, and Russel Wright. | <urn:uuid:e2def108-935f-4600-a0ff-52b7d3afdb9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/date/2011/06 | 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 | 0.958483 | 261 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Welcome to Miami Dade College’s Institute for Civic Engagement (iCED). Established in 1994 as the “Service-Learning Center” with a Learn and Serve grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the department initially focused on developing a service-learning program at the college.
In 1997 MDC President Dr. Eduardo Padrón joined President Clinton’s America Reads leadership team and helped MDC create the nation’s largest community college Federal Work Study America Reads program. With these new responsibilities, the name of the department was changed to the Center for Community Involvement (CCI).
By 2012 CCI had grown exponentially in service-learning involvement, as well as myriad other civic, leadership, and community partnership programs. In addition, MDC joined the Democracy Commitment and participated in the development of the seminal AAC&U national call to action “A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future.” This led to the development of a new mission statement and name for the department with enhanced programming to refocus our efforts on civic learning and democratic engagement.
iCED is a college-wide program that serves all eight MDC campuses, is part of Academic Affairs, works closely with Student Affairs, and is responsible for myriad programs at the college, including (partial list):
- Academic service-learning
- America Reads
- Strong Women Strong Girls
- AmeriCorps and AmeriCorpsVISTA programs
- Civic leadership programs
- Partnerships with non-profits and community organizations
- Maintenance of community partner database (www.mdc.edu/serve)
- The President’s Volunteer Service Award program
- Service-learning/civic engagement grant procurement and management
- The Public Service Fellows program
iCED’s flagship program is academic service-learning which is the largest of any community college in the nation with more than 300 faculty, 1000 course sections, and 8,000 students involved in course-related service each year. | <urn:uuid:a7ab9116-5b0d-4d0b-a49a-755c0abb3f97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdc.edu/main/iCED/about_us/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938589 | 424 | 1.585938 | 2 |
We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years interviewing IT leaders about their Unified Communications plans-- gathering information on drivers, challenges, and results. While UC managers focus much of their attention on determining business cases, delivering new features, and dealing with integration challenges, two often over-looked areas also require attention: security and performance management.
Often we’ve found companies implement their UC strategy without the involvement of the security team, or they involve them far too late in the implementation. Implementing UC creates new threats toward enterprise voice systems, such as data loss and fraud, as well as attacks against the underlying data network resources. Until now, network managers have primarily worried about these latter threats, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that disrupt not only voice, but other application services, as well.
IT leaders must consider the following security issues when implementing a UC strategy.
SIP trunking. SIP trunking creates a new vector for attacking enterprise phone systems. In most VOIP architectures, the PSTN serves as a firebreak between the enterprise phone system and the rest of the world. Risk of attack from the Internet is low as the VOIP system is physically and potentially logically isolated from the outside. Introducing SIP trunking changes this, as the enterprise phone system is now vulnerable to IP-based attacks via the SIP trunk. Session border controllers or SIP-aware firewalls can mitigate security concerns.
Eavesdropping. VOIP traffic carried via SIP trunk across a service provider network is often not encrypted, meaning that the opportunity exists for a rogue person to listen in on private conversations via comprise of service provider networks. However, this threat is no different than the risk of unauthorized interception of any unencrypted IP traffic carried across a service provider network. Internally few companies encrypt voice or video sessions, meaning that rogue employees with access to network devices can listen in on or capture conversations.
Interconnection. As VOIP and UC systems increasingly peer with external networks via SIP trunking services and direct voice-to-voice peering services, companies open a new potential vector of attack. Here, as in SIP trunking, session border controllers or voice/video/presence aware firewalls can mitigate the threat.
In addition, mobile and wireless services create new vectors that external attackers can use to target business VOIP networks. IT decision-makers should take advantage of security architectures that adequately assess risk and implement mitigation techniques to protect against attacks on UC equipment and the underlying network elements. Be sure to investigate UC security platforms and services as part of your deployment.
Irwin Lazar is the Vice President for Communication and Collaboration Research at Nemertes Research, where he develops and manages research projects, develops cost models, conducts strategic seminars and advises clients. His background is in network operations, network engineering, voice-data convergence, and IP telephony. Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in the enterprise in areas including VOIP, unified communications, Web 2.0 initiatives, social networking, and collaboration.
A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a columnist for No Jitter and Enterprise2Blog. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press and is regular speaker at events such as Interop, VoiceCon, and Enterprise 2.0. Mr. Lazar serves as the conference director for FutureNet (formerly MPLScon), and is on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference. | <urn:uuid:c7ce5428-32cc-4229-8740-812a1f358231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/67878 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940373 | 732 | 1.5625 | 2 |
HUNDREDS of green-fingered people in South Tyneside could soon be given a chance to live the ‘good life’, it has emerged.
There are more than 700 people on the council’s waiting list for gardens, with the average waiting time 3.3 years.
The council manages 22 allotment sites across the borough, containing 1,341 individual garden plots.
But demand for plots far outstrips demand and new plots have been earmarked this year at the existing Green Lane Allotments, South Shields, and in at Hebburn’s School Street.
The allotment plan forms part of a new council push to make South Tyneside a ‘green and pleasant land’.
The council’s cabinet is to endorse a new ‘green infrastructure strategy’ next week and the ‘go green’ approach includes improving our public parks and open spaces, playing fields, sports pitches and footpaths.
Work to raise standards at our beaches, river corridors and mineral lines are also high on the agenda.
Potential ‘reserve’ allotment sites have also been identified on land at the former Temple Park Junior School and the south of Chuter Ede playing fields, both in South Shields.
Those two areas may be required for playing fields but, if that proves not to be the case in the next three years, their use as allotments would be considered.
Members of the council’s decision-making cabinet is to discuss the proposals as part of the authority’s new ‘Open Space Strategy’, which is to be considered next Wednesday.
Allotment sites range in size from Holder House in South Shields with 226 gardens, to Ash Grove in Whitburn, with just five.
In addition to growing flowers and vegetables, allotment holders at a number of sites are permitted to keep livestock, including pigeons and poultry, while others, specifically ex-National Coal Board sites in Boldon Colliery, are allowed to stable horses.
A report to the committee, by David Cramond, the council’s corporate director of economic regeneration, says: “Public consultation to inform our Open Space Strategy highlighted the significant value of allotments and their popularity within the borough.
“However, even if all the sites are developed there would still be a shortage of plots to meet the identified need.” | <urn:uuid:173cd5db-b386-4807-853c-5d3322630ef0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/local-news/new-allotments-plotted-by-council-1-5376177 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94633 | 500 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Recently at the twitter feed I received a message from Kevin Clark, composer, regarding an interesting piece of work. The work is a short film adaptation of a cello piece Kevin wrote for the cellist Rachel Gawell to use as musical accompaniment to her dramatic rendition of the [modern English translation of the] Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer“. Without permission from Kevin, Rachel, or anybody else for that matter, here is the film:
I have added this video to the YouTube channel in the “Old English Readings” playlist. A few other recent additions include a documentary on the Old English language in the “Germanic Languages” playlist; a documentary on Beowulf in the “Anglo-Saxon Culture” playlist; and a documentary on Anglo-Saxons in general in the “Anglo-Saxon Archeology” playlist. | <urn:uuid:a5342200-0158-4d64-ba71-f254ed1287b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/craeft-the-seafarer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936982 | 185 | 1.695313 | 2 |
On September 21, 2010, the second annual government-sponsored national distracted driving summit was held in Washington, D.C. Participants in this summit learned about the pervasive problem of cell phone use by drivers who become distracted and sometimes get into accidents. The younger generation in particular is reliant upon cell phones for communication with everyone, all the time. Those who have recently obtained driver's licenses are susceptible to hazards of distracted driving in connection with the use of cell phones for texting or conversing through use of a handheld device while operating a motor vehicle.
California prohibits texting and the use of handheld devices by all drivers. Drivers under the age of 18 and bus drivers are not allowed to use cell phones at all while driving.
Was the other driver in your car accident using a cell phone and/or texting while driving at the time of the crash that injured you? A thorough investigation, including a review of cell phone records, may demonstrate that driver distractions could have played a role in the accident. This piece of evidence may strengthen arguments by your Chico distracted driving accidents attorney that the other driver's negligence was a cause — or the main cause — of your injuries and losses.
Our Approach and Resources Can Make a Difference
Our civil litigation attorneys advocate in defense of our clients' interests with the same degree of zeal and vigor of a criminal defense team. There is a good reason for this: We are also criminal defense lawyers.
We are committed to working together to ensure that no key facts are overlooked as we seek fair compensation for our clients who have been injured when other drivers are suspected of distracted driving at the time of an accident. At least two of our attorneys (including at least one lead attorney) will review all of the evidence and work with professional investigators as is appropriate. We are prepared to meticulously prepare strong arguments in support of ample compensation for a client with a serious or catastrophic injury such as the following:
Getting the Right Team of Attorneys Starts
With Choosing the Right California Texting While Driving Lawyer
Local: (530) 343-LAWS ((530) 343-5297)
Toll Free: (800) TKO-4LAW ((800) 856-4529)
For a free initial consultation, call us at either of the two numbers listed above or complete the brief e-mail form provided on the Contact page of this website. | <urn:uuid:44d0ad0e-2be0-43b4-81bf-695e4bb33276> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rooneylawfirm.com/Personal-Injury/Distracted-Driving-Accidents.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951617 | 482 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Since graduating from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem (NL) in 1991 and the Royal College of Art in London in 1995, Ineke Hans' work has evolved in many ways, acquiring the identity most clearly of a designer, with the impulses of a sculptor, and the industrial experience needed to define products with a commercial life.
Her work investigates the psychological roots of products, perceiving and playing with the interaction between people and objects. It centers around the pictogram and archetype; old and brand new production methods are used in unconventional ways.
Some of her work also suggests the timeless familiarity and direct methods of Dutch vernacular or folkloristic traditions expressed through color and form.
Things that interest her include typologies, trends and codes, word-play, colors and self-evident furniture of the kind you can find in open-air museums, non-design, instinctive intelligence, childish constructions, new materials and old techniques, anthropology, folklore, new interventions in industrial production processes, the intelligent use of materials and decoration.
The 2002 self-initiated Black projects are not as straightforward as they might look. The childrens’ collection Black Beauties plays another game with the typology of objects, redefining the color code for children. More importantly, the Black Beauties show that children do not only react to colors, but very often they respond to shapes, opportunities and ways of playing with things.
In 2005, she won a red-dot-award for a surprising garlic crusher for Royal VKB. Her work is purchased by international design collections.
Ineke Hans belongs to the top ten of Dutch designers.
• made of black recycled plastic
• wind, water, salt, acid and UV resistant
• suitable for indoors, outdoors and wet applications
• for children one year and up
• horse with handles and back
• measures 23.6 x 11.2 x 20.7 inches
• lead time is 14 to 16 weeks | <urn:uuid:19b26c22-a6d0-4d71-8acd-d488f11356ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://babygeared.com/happyhorse.html | 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 | 0.93649 | 412 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Alexander Wood, a junior at Evergreen High School, officially attained the status of Eagle Scout on Saturday, April 27th, when family and friends gathered at the Lakehouse to witness the ceremony.
The Eagle Scout Award represents an understanding of the community and nation as well as a willingness on the part of the wearer of the badge to help others. It is a recognition of a young man's strength of character, the completion of a long list of accomplishments in Scouting, and represents what a boy will be in the future as he grows to manhood.
Wood, now 17, first started in scouting in 2004 at the Cub Scout level, achieving the rank of Boy Scout in November of 2008.
With numerous merit badges to his credit, he received special recognition for: CPR training, Tot'n Chip, Fireman Chip, Order of the Arrow, 62 nights camping, 47.5 service hours, Senior Patrol Leader, Order of the Arrow Representative, Quartermaster, Chaplain Aide, and Instructor.
He was recognized as a member of the Order of the Arrow (OA), Scouting's National Honor Society. OA recognizes Scouts and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives, encouraging others to live these ideals as well. Members of OA are expected to be mentors and leaders for younger Scouts.
To be considered for Eagle Scout status, a Scout needs to have earned the Scout badge as well as achieved the ranks of Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star and Life. He earned 21 merit badges – 12 that were required and 9 of his choosing. He needed to serve in troop leadership positions for a total of 16 months and spend at least 13 hours on a service project in addition to his Eagle Scout service project. In all, Alexander completed approximately 325 different requirements.
His Eagle Scout project was that of working with the Evergreen Park and Recreation District in creating a picnic area on the edge of Evergreen Lake.
"I chose something that would include one of my favorite places that has given so much to me without ever asking anything in return," he explained. I have spent countless days with family and friends and have grown up admiring its beauty. Since I was a young boy, I have gone fishing, hiking and thrown many rocks in this beautiful lake. I would notice families gather on the banks fo the lake and fish, laugh and have family picnics."
"I wanted to do something that would give back to this lake and my community that has given so much to me including many happy memories," he continued. "With the guidance and support of the Evergreen Park and Recreation District and the Evergreen Lake House, I was able to choose a spot on the south side of the lake and make a picnic table for everyone to enjoy."
In the process, Alexander has become an outdoorsman who knows how to camp, swim, hike and use the tools expected of an experienced outdoorsman. He's comfortable with nature and can identify local animals and plants, including understanding the dangers he might encounter. He has a working knowledge of pollutants.
Part of fulfilling the scouting motto to "Be prepared" means he must know how to treat fractures, head injuries, hypothermia, convulsions, frostbite, burns, abdominal pain, muscle cramps, even the loss of teeth that are knocked out. He knows what to do in case of fire, explosion, desert emergency, motor-vehicle accidents, mountain accidents, food poisoning, gas leaks, earthquakes, floods, tornados, hurricanes, atomic emergencies, and avalanches.
Being a good citizen is paramount in achieving the Eagle Scout level.
Training to become an Eagle Scout requires exposure to the governmental process. An Eagle Scout must know how to manage money and understand the risks and benefits of various forms of investments. He must set financial goals and work toward achieving those goals.
Fitness goals are equally important. He must demonstrate being physically, mentally and socially fit as well as being a good family member, which means having talked to his family about finances, drug abuse and growing up.
An Eagle Scout prospect must plan, develop and give leadership to a service project for any religious organization, school or community. He must also take part in a Scoutmaster conference and successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.
The badge is not considered a decoration but rather a symbol of knowledge and ability.
Alexander, the son of Mark and Monika Wood, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 737.
Fewer than three percent of all boys in Scouting in the United States achieve the Eagle Scout Award each year. Each receives a medal and a badge. | <urn:uuid:533eb6a2-fb40-49d6-a938-07f490022185> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://justaroundhere.com/browsenews-a-information/special-sectionsjust-around-here/personals.html | 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 | 0.973032 | 947 | 1.5 | 2 |
Artist J. Michael Walker sends word that his friend Calvin Hicks died on Sunday, from complications of cancer. Hicks' photography was most recently seen in the Pacific Standard Time exhibition, "Identity & Affirmation: Post-War African-American Photography," at Cal State Northridge. CSUN's Institute of Arts and Media has 500 of his images, some of them online. From Walker:
Hicks, who hailed from Mt. Carbon, West Virginia, moved to L.A. in 1967. In 1984, with fellow artist-photographer Roland Charles, he co-founded the Black Gallery, in the old Santa Barbara Plaza, as the country's only exhibition space devoted to African American Photography; he also co-founded the group Black Photographers of California.
In 1992 Hicks was one of ten photographers to participate in the book, Life in a Day of Black L.A.: The Way We See It, published by UCLA's Center for African American Studies.
Hicks' death, from complications of cancer, comes just fifteen days after the passing of his friend and colleague, artist-photographer Willie Middlebook.
Memorial services, scheduled for this Saturday, May 26, are still pending.
Photo: Calvin Hicks | <urn:uuid:2eb262b3-9b73-47ad-97e7-f625f658bcb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/05/calvin_hicks_artist-photo.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9727 | 249 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Rued Langgaard: String Quartets Vol. 1
11 April 2012
Classics Today (10/10)
These are remarkable works. Rued Langgaard was, as we now know, basically nuts. He composed nine string quartets, more or less, because some of them share movements (or revisions of movements). Most date from his early period, the late 1910s and early 1920s, before he turned bitter and was forced to endure the neglect of the Danish musical establishment. They feature a reckless variety of material and encompass a vast expressive range. For example, the titles of the Second Quartet's four movements are: Storm Clouds Receding; Train Passing By; Landscape in Twilight; and The Walk. The Third Quartet has three movements variously headed Rapacious; Artful (sound sample below); and Scoffing. Some might feel the music simply falls apart into a series of disconnected episodes. Maybe it does, but it is consistently entertaining, expressive, and curiously moving.
The performances here are marvelous, make no mistake. The Nightingale String Quartet relishes every bizarre nuance, from the chugging locomotive in the Second Quartet to the Agitato orribilmente and Burlesco rustico sections of the single-movement Sixth Quartet. But the playing never turns crude, and never indulges Langgaard's wackier ideas at the expense of solid musical values. As if that weren't enough, the program concludes with a mostly solemn series of variations on the hymn-tune Oh, Sacred Head, Now Wounded. Keeping this generally slow music moving purposefully forward is no mean feat, but these players manage it effortlessly. The sonics are warm, well balanced, and strikingly realistic. Langgaard was unquestionably a "character", but he knew what he was doing. So do these players, and so does Dacapo in standing by him. Try this. | <urn:uuid:be9e95b1-435d-47fe-a2c5-9d847b44c2a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/review-6220575--nightingale-string-quartet--rued-langgaard--10-10--classics-today.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95464 | 394 | 1.625 | 2 |
Flights Into Syria Cancelled As Rebels Make Gains
At least two international airlines have cancelled flights to Damascus amid reports of heavy fighting along the Syrian highway that links the airport to the capital. There were also reports on Thursday that the Internet was down virtually throughout the country. Some land lines have also been cut off. Melissa Block talks to Kelly McEvers.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
In Syria today, Internet service was cut across the country apparently by the government and at least two airlines canceled flights to and from the capital, Damascus. These moves come as rebels make gains across Syria and escalate their attacks around the capital.
BLOCK: NPR's Kelly McEvers is monitoring all this from Beirut and she joins me now. And, Kelly, first of all, talk about this Internet shutdown all across Syria today.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Yeah. It happened around lunch time. We started to see complaints on some of the activist websites, people who are able to access the Internet using like satellite communications or maybe even dial-up communications. And what they were saying was that basically the high-speed Internet was cut everywhere. You know, well, first, we didn't believe it. Then I spoke to the founder and chief technical officer of a company called Renesys. It's based in New Hampshire. And it's his job to basically monitor the entire Internet. And he said he hasn't seen anything like this since Egypt back in early 2011 when the Egyptian government shut off the Internet as protesters filled Tahrir Square. He said it was like watching an entire country go dark.
Later, Syrian officials did go on state TV and say that the outage was because of terrorists, that terrorists had cut a main fiber optic cable connecting Damascus to the rest of the world. But this analyst who I spoke to at this company, Renesys, said, actually, there were a few networks that had remained in operation. The implication was that these were government lines that were still up and running and, again, suggesting that it was the government who shut off the Internet.
BLOCK: And, Kelly, we mentioned the cancelation of flights in and out of the capital. There's been a lot of fighting around the airport. What's going on?
MCEVERS: The airport is located in the east of Damascus, near an area called the Guta, which is a major rebel stronghold and where we've seen a lot of fighting in recent days. What rebels have been trying to do is basically block access to the international airport there in Damascus. This is the civilian airport. There are military airports around the country. One rebel commander told us that they've actually managed to fire mortar rounds at the airport.
There were also reports that two U.N. peacekeepers were injured on that road, people who work in the Golan Heights area. So after all this violence - and the road to the airport was closed for a time today. Two companies, at least two, Emirates Air out of Dubai and Egypt Air canceled all their flights. In fact, an Egypt Air flight that landed in Damascus, deposited its passengers, was told to come back home empty. A Syrian human rights monitoring group says that the fighting around the airport is the worst that it's been since the uprising began 20 months ago in Syria.
BLOCK: Now, Kelly, all of this has led to a lot of speculation that we could be reaching the final battle for Syria, that things really are now at a tipping point. Is that the sense that you're getting?
MCEVERS: That's definitely what the chatter has been today. You know, you hear people say - like I said, worried about massacres coming, that the - this is the final battle for Damascus. But it's important to keep in mind that, you know, the rebels haven't gotten that close to airport. They're still a mile or two away. I mean, they're focusing on the road to the airport. The regime still controls many air bases around Damascus, like I said, these military air bases as well as regular army bases.
And just because the rebels have shot down a plane and a helicopter in recent days, it doesn't mean that the regime no longer controls the skies. We just saw an airstrike today in the city of Aleppo that killed several children. There's horrific footage of that. So while this might be the beginning of some kind of final battle, I mean, that battle could still go on for some time, I think. And I think the sad reality is that this level of fighting could last for a while.
BLOCK: NPR's Kelly McEvers in Beirut. Kelly, thank you.
MCEVERS: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:ceeeba42-abc5-4b7f-8440-3f7a6dab3051> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbur.org/npr/166186759/flights-into-syria-cancelled-as-rebels-make-gains | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984574 | 1,019 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Nominate outstanding historic preservation projects for honor
January 6, 2011
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 6, 2011
The people responsible for preserving the past could receive some recognition in the near future.
The state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation seeks notable people, organizations and projects for the 21st Annual Awards for Outstanding Achievements in Historic Preservation.
The agency recognizes recipients during a ceremony in May — National Historic Preservation Month.
Participants can nominate people, organizations and projects in one of the following categories: historic preservation planning, historic property rehabilitation projects, career achievement, public education, stewardship, special achievement and media.
Nominations must be postmarked or submitted to the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation by 5 p.m. March 4.
The awards ceremony — sponsored by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation — is May 3. The event takes place at the Capitol. | <urn:uuid:5ba5c237-74b1-445e-9243-82421051fbbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.issaquahpress.com/2011/01/06/nominate-outstanding-historic-preservation-projects-for-honor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940993 | 185 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Ventilation and Wigmaking Class
Learn to make high quality hairpieces, lace wigs and lace frontals during an intensive session taught by a master wigmaker.
It's not only businesspeople who gain from knowing how to make a wig. People who wear wigs and hairpieces on a regular basis can also benefit from a wig making class.
For wig users, a good class on making wigs can assist in better maintenance and repair of your own wigs. You won't need to visit a professional every time your wig base is torn or your wig hair starts shedding. It can also help you better understand the product you are buying. Knowing the differences in quality and construction will be a great asset in choosing your wigs as you can judge for yourself whether the wig is the best for you and your lifestyle. | <urn:uuid:ebf7887a-59a9-4118-8ffd-f7c2d7039cb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zarawigs.com/article.php/104/wigmaking-class-california/e0eb13975cd91d87e8e2120bc73c2992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945976 | 168 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Fake Antivirus Programs Now Offering 'Live Support'
Simply saying that rogue antivirus software is becoming more sophisticated is one thing, but a new fake antivirus program called "Live PC Care" has made one necessary change to dupe innocent users: offering live technical support for bogus software.
According to Symantec researchers, once users have installed the program, they are met with a screen that informs them of numerous computer infections, several kinds of malware, and the like. This tactic of duping users is nothing new; what is new, however, is the fact that the free trial version of Live PC Care comes with a large yellow "online support" button.
The button initiates an actual conversation with an online representative that will answer any questions about the product via instant messaging.
Live Support Not an Automated Script
Symantec believes that the supposed "agent" is no automated script, but rather a real person. Naturally, the reason for the addition is to add an "air of legitimacy" to the program. As Marc Fossi, manager of development with Symantec Security Response joked, "Obviously if they've got live tech support, it must be real." (Source: yahoo.com)
Surprisingly, this is not the first time tech support has been offered alongside a fake security product. A company called Innovative Marketing also attempted to reassure victims that they were investing in a legitimate product through live support.
Remaining Steadfast When Given Choice
Seemingly, the only positive news to come out of this report is the fact that people are remaining steadfast in not shelling out their money voluntarily. The support staff tries to get unsuspecting users to pay between $30 and $100 for the product, but when the choice is theirs, most tend to decline the offer. (Source: com.au)
Fake Antivirus Installs on The Up
Symantec reported that 43 million rogue antivirus installation attempts were known to have existed between July 2008 and July 2009. With sophisticated additions like live support, these programs do not look to be going away anytime soon.
Free guide: Windows 8 Cheat Sheet: Touch and Mouse Gestures. Windows 8 brings a revolutionary way to use your mouse, touchpad, and touchscreen using 'gestures'. If you're new to gestures, you'll most certainly find them confusing - especially if you don't mean to invoke a gesture in the first place! That said, gestures are widely used on mobile and touch-based devices, and the technology is here to stay. Gestures can be a huge time-saver (similar to keyboard shortcuts) once you understand how to use them. For example, you can use gestures to move objects from one location to the next, zoom in, zoom out, enter passwords, and similar. This Windows 8 gesture cheat sheet is designed to make your life easier by demonstrating and explaining the basics. Print, share, and enjoy! Click here to download this guide now! Note: this guide is free, but registration is required; after that, you can select more ebooks and videos for download without registering again. If you have questions / problems with the registration form, please read this. | <urn:uuid:17942393-1c11-4411-8cdb-f719f70634d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infopackets.com/news/security/2010/20100218_fake_antivirus_programs_now_offering_live_support.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943517 | 650 | 1.554688 | 2 |
OXFORD - 2:20 p.m.
Norman: Mr. Langston's attorney, Tony Farese, may be a witness. But Mr. Langston asks that he be allowed to remain in the courtroom.
Biggers: That's fine.
Prosecutor Clay Dabbs: You're been questioned many times. What were you asked to do?
Langston: To gibe truthful testimony. (Says his interviews focused mainly on Wilson v Scruggs and Ed Peters)
Dabbs: On Feb. 21, 2008, you were in this courtroom, do you remember?
Langston: Yes, I do. I did not testify.
Dabbs: Before the hearing, do you remember a conversation with Norman about Zach Scruggs?
Langston: I did. It was brief. I was in the witness room by myself. Norman came in a hurry and asked me, Did Zach know?" I said Yes. (Thought he meant did Zach know if we hired Ed Peters.) In egvery other statement, I took great pains to exonerate him, that he knew nothing about any criminality.
Dabbs: Were you aware of Norman's comments to the court later that day? That Zach was fully aware of Wilson?
Langston: I hae been made aware of them. "Fully aware" is not what i intended to communicate to him.
Dabbs: It was a miscomunication with Norman?
Mike Moore: A miscommunication, you say? You were the government;'s chief witness in the Wilson case.
Langsotn: They had two others. I don't think I was the chief witness.
Moore: You were interviewed by the FBI. Did they create 302 forms from those interviews? How many ties?
Langston: Several. (Said he didn't see them) with FBI AGent John Quaka.
Moore: Your honor, again we renew our requests for those 302s. Mr. Langston, did youe ver tell the FBI that Zach was criminally involved with Wilson?
Langston: Quite the oppositel. I tole him he was not aware of any improper conduct. I always said that.
Moore: The 302 exculpate him?
Langston: Yes. Mr. Farese was adamant to be specific because of conflict issues. (He says he spoke with numerous people about Zach's lack of involvement.)
Moore: Why would Norman miscommunicate abut Zach?
Langston: I don't know what was in Mr Norman's mind. From myu end, I thought he was asking about hiring Peters. (Langston said he wrote about this in an affidavit to the Bar. He also said Farese never spoke to him about any information gained from his brief representation of Zach.)
Moore: Even after you read Zach's e-mail to Jones?
Langston: I still don't believe Zach was involved. I was lead counsel in Wilson. I was in a position to know who was involved. (Never told FBI, others that Zach knew Peter was paid $50K, or later rest of $1 million.) Never. (Or that a federal judgeship was dangled over DeLaughter's head?) I never told him that.
Moore: Are you aware that on 2/21 your attorney or anyone else tried to straighten out the untruthfulness about Zach?
Langsotn: I know Tony approached someone during the break that the statement was incorrect.
Moore: But a month later, what did the goernment say in response to the motion to reconsider the 404B evidence?
Langston: No substantial change to require the court's re-evaluation fo evidence against Zach Scruggs.
2:42 - Norman calls Tony Farese.
Farese: Says he told Norman "fully aware" by Zach was incorrect.
Norman: And I kind of blew you off, said we'll get to it later? Were you satisfied from the pleadings that they had accurate information about what the government would say?
Farese: Yes. I talked to Mr. Moore twice, and he asked it I stood with what I said on 1/7/08 about Zach not being a trget or a suspect in Wilson. Joey still said Zach was unaware of Wilson.
Norman: Did it need any more clarification?
Farese: No, I did not.
Norman gets Farese to say that 404B evidence is powerful and doesn't require a criminal ct to be used.
CRobertson: (Asked about call to Moore)(
Farese: I have never been an agent of the government and wasn't when I was speking with Mr. Moore. He called me.
2:52 - no more witnesses, Dabbs says.
Biggers: The court will consdier this matter, as well as the motion for summary judgement. I will give you my ruling in writing within 48 hours.
(Biggers then talked about petitioner's request to have Dickie Scruggs brought to Oxford to testify March 23. Judge said he will need a statement from Dickie Scruggs that he is willing to testify and will not take the 5th, when he gets here. The marshals say it willtake 30 days to get him here, unless they want to pay for marshals to escort him here by car.)
CRobertson: Says will get judge information as soon possible. Want to discuss with Dickie Scruggs.
They consider whether a deposition is preferable. CRobertson says will know in 24 hours.
Chris Robertson: We renew our request for more exculpatory material.
Biggers: Wherea re the 302s?
Norman: DAbbs has them. WE will provide.
(Biggers also sounds like after the 2010 Supreme Court's ruling on Skilling, and other decisions, the original charges against Zach SCruggs would not be "viable" on Counts 2-3-4, and part of Count 1.)
Norman did not accept the judge's ideas and said the "oly issue is whether the defendant can demonstrate factual innocence" for the May 23 hearing.
(The lawyers quibbled back and forth.)
3:06 - Biggers says hearing is adjourned. | <urn:uuid:4fed1298-de72-4760-907c-d889874bf29e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://djournal.com/bookmark/13187549/blog+entry-SCRUGGS+HEARING-+Part+3-+read+the+other+2+first+or+be+confused | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978341 | 1,335 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Compounding pharmacies under fresh scrutiny amid meningitis outbreak
Published: Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 12:31 a.m.
Revelations that the national meningitis scare was caused by a Massachusetts drug compounder who shipped tainted steroids to doctors across the U.S. has a familiar ring to area residents who watched a local compounding pharmacy dissolve under the weight of its costly and deadly mistakes in recent years.
By now, the Franck's Compounding Lab saga is well known: In 2009, the company incorrectly mixed a supplement that killed two dozen prized polo horses. Then last year, tainted ophthalmic solutions the company shipped to eye doctors blinded some patients, health officials said.
The mistakes made by Franck's raised fresh questions about why compounding pharmacies aren't subject to the same regulation and oversight as major pharmaceutical companies.
But at least one expert thinks the meningitis outbreak, which has afflicted nearly 200 people in 12 states and killed 15, could be the tipping point that finally brings about changes in the laws that govern the practice of compounding.
"I think this case, because the size of it and costs of human life, is certainly going to throw gasoline on the fire. It's going to take this debate from a two-alarm fire to a four-alarm fire," said Paul Doering, professor emeritus at the University of Florida School of Pharmacy.
Compounding pharmacies make medications and other medical preparations from scratch. They cannot make copies of commercially available medications and can only make medications when they are ordered by a doctor.
But the Food and Drug Administration, which is tasked with ensuring the safety of drugs in the nation, has limited oversight of compounding pharmacies because of the way the law establishing the agency was drawn up in the 1930s. Each state regulates compounders and pharmacists, but oversight and regulations differ from state to state.
Many compounders do what is known as "anticipatory compounding," preparing large quantities of drugs to fill future orders.
The contaminated steroid preparation at the heart of the meningitis outbreak, made by New England Compounding Center near Boston, was a run of more than 17,000 doses.
The FDA believes that producing drugs in large quantities constitutes manufacturing, which they are charged with regulating. The compounding industry argues size does not matter as long as the drugs or preparations are backed by doctors' prescriptions.
Doering thinks the Massachusetts firm crossed the line into manufacturing.
"The 17,000 doses had to be produced on an industrial scale," he said. "From all appearances, what they were doing, on such a large scale, I don't think that falls under the compounding label."
The FDA has advocated the regulation of large-volume compounders for years, but courts have struck down such attempts.
In 1997, Congress passed a law that, in part, tried to require large-volume compounders to get approval from the FDA for new drugs.
The law also restricted compounding pharmacies from advertising the compounding of any particular drug. The U.S. Supreme Court found that part of the law unconstitutional, saying it violated the protections of commercial speech.
Critics point to some very public compounding mistakes as proof that the practice needs to be regulated the same as pharmaceutical companies. Two of those mistakes occurred here.
After Franck's Compounding Lab incorrectly mixed a vitamin supplement that killed two dozen prized polo horses in 2009, the FDA sued to stop the lab from making any more veterinary compounds. The agency argued that Franck's was operating outside the limits of a compounding lab by producing compounds from bulk ingredients.
A federal judge in Ocala disagreed and ruled in favor of the lab.
While that case was focused on a single incident, the FDA's true goal, according to Jeffrey Gibbs, director of Washington law firm Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, was to try and get wider regulatory powers over compounders.
All compounding labs buy their ingredients in bulk to create compounds. Had the FDA prevailed, it would have abolished compounding as a separate practice from pharmaceutical manufacturing, Gibbs said.
"The FDA's essentially arguing that all compounding is illegal and is asserting its authority to regulate these businesses," Gibbs said in a June interview.
Then in May of this year, Franck's issued a recall of all its sterile products after ophthalmic preparations it made were found to be contaminated.
The preparations were injected directly into patients' eyes. Of the 33 people affected, most suffered vision loss and required additional eye surgery, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
In the wake of a continuing investigation, Franck's was sold in July to Wells Pharmacy Network, a Wellington-based company. Franck's Compounding Lab was one of the largest compounding labs in the country.
At the root of the issue is the historic role of compounding in pharmacology.
Compounding was the way most people got their prescription medicines for many generations. As recently as the 1960s pharmacists routinely ground and mixed compounds in their stores to make the medicines prescribed by local doctors.
"Before, you'd give the pharmacist a piece of paper from your doctor. He'd look at it, scratch his head, go to the back, do some magic and he'd come back out with your dose," Doering said.
That started to change after pharmaceutical companies began producing drugs in volume. Eventually, the need for routine compounding mostly disappeared. Today, compounding, in the historic sense, is a small part of the industry. Most pharmacy schools require students to spend less and less time compounding in a classroom setting.
"If you went to your average pharmacy and asked if they could compound, they would probably say they are not set up for it, but really the person behind the counter is probably not skilled enough to do it," Doering said.
He said most pharmacists interested in compounding take courses after graduation.
But the recent boom in compounding is not an effort to return to bygone days of mixing medicines or preparations for a local clientele, but rather to join the growing number of high-volume compounders.
"Compounding, historically, is not something that happens in large volume," Doering said. "These compounding pharmacies, in a polite way, have developed a niche."
The danger, Doering says, is that quality control at compounding labs is not as stringent as at pharmaceutical companies.
The FDA illustrated this point in testimony before Congress in 2003.
"Concerns have been raised by the FDA and others that some pharmacies are going beyond traditional drug compounding for individual patients by, for example, compounding and selling large quantities of drugs without meeting safety and quality and other requirements for new manufactured drugs," said Janet Heinrich, then FDA director of health care and public health issues.
The agency re-emphasized the point in a report to Congress in 2007.
"Not all pharmacists have the same level of skills and equipment," wrote Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA. "In some cases, compounders may lack sufficient controls (equipment, training, testing or facilities) to ensure product quality or to compound complex products such as sterile or modified release drugs. The quality of the drugs that these pharmacists compound is uncertain, and these drugs pose potential risks to the patients who take them."
David Miller, the executive vice president for the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacies, an advocacy group for the industry, disagrees.
"Size does not make you a manufacturer," Miller said. "The difference between a pharmacy and a manufacturer is, (the compounders) know about how much (they) need of a certain compound because (they) have had a history of prescriptions. Manufacturers produce their finished product first and then go out and persuade doctors to write prescriptions for them."
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:1e078f3f-c0ba-4766-a605-11bf485992ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocala.com/article/20121014/ARTICLES/121019863/1402/NEWS?Title=Compounding-pharmacies-under-fresh-scrutiny-amid-meningitis-outbreak | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971892 | 1,679 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
AMD’s Trinity APUs have only been in the wild for a few days, but some have already taken on the challenge of pushing the new desktop silicon to its limits. By giving the A10-5800K model 1.956 volts, disabling two of its cores and cooling it with liquid nitrogen, overclockers were able to push the chip to 7.3GHz. Air-cooling and 1.616 volts squeezed out 5.1GHz without sacrificing any cores. If you’re a mere mortal who’s fresh out of liquid nitrogen (or never had any to begin with), you should be able to comfortably bump CPU performance by roughly 10 percent and GPU speeds by 15 to 17 percent. For the full specs on this particular overclock, hit the source links below.
SOURCE via Hexus.net
According to a report, AMD slipped the launch date of October 2 in its channel newsletter. It did not exactly refer to any processors specifically, but the statement “October 2nd marks an exciting new chapter in modern processing history!” was good enough for SemiAccurate to conclude that this is about the new APUs.
The announcement also mentioned memory profile support as well as a note of FM2 motherboards “for future upgrades”, which indicates that FM2 will not die anytime soon. Another indication that AMD’s new processors are about to launch was information that Gigabyte has quietly rolled out FM2 motherboards for Trinity-based APUs. The two boards, the GA-F2A75M-D3H, as well as the GA-F2A85X-UP4, are based on AMD’s A75 and A85X chipset, respectively.
The 32 nm, Trinity-powered APUs will feature will integrate a Radeon HD 7000-series graphics core. The APUs will supposedly be available from about $60 for the A4 5300 dual-core model and reach to about $132 for the A10-5800K quad-core version, according to early pricing posted by online retailers.
SOURCE via Semi Accurate
It’s difficult to thrive in the solid-state drive world. Unless you’ve got just the right controller and flash memory, most performance-minded PC users will rarely give you a second glance. Samsung muscled its way into that narrow view with the SSD 830 last year; it intends to lock our attention with the new SSD 840 and SSD 840 Pro. The Pro’s 520MB/s and 450MB/s sequential read and write speeds are only modest bumps over the 830, but they don’t tell the whole story of just how fast it gets. The upgraded MDX controller boosts the random read access to a nicely rounded 100,000IOPS, and random writes have more than doubled to 78,000IOPS or 90,000IOPS, depending on who you ask and what drive you use. The improved performance in either direction is a useful boost to on-the-ground performance, as both AnandTech and Storage Review will tell you. We’re waiting on details of the ordinary triple level cell-based 840 model beyond its 120GB, 250GB and 500GB capacities, although there won’t be an enormous premium for the multi-level cell 840 Pro over existing drives when it arrives in mid-October — the flagship line should start at $100 for a basic 64GB drive, and peak at $600 for the ultimate 512GB version.
SOURCE via Anandtech
It’s always just been a matter of “when” and “how much,” but it looks as if PC gamers looking to score a powerplant upgrade can start planning on specific amounts. AMD’s impending FX Piledriver CPUs are now up for pre-order at ShopBLT, an outlet that has proven reliable in the past when it comes to nailing down processor pricing. For those in need of a refresher, these are built using the Vishera design, with the range including between four and eight CPU cores. We’re expecting ‘em to best the Bulldozer family, and if all goes well, they could be available to the earliest of adopters in October. Presently, the FX-4300 ($131.62), FX-6300 ($175.77), FX-8320 ($242.05) and FX-8350 ($253.06) are listed, but CPU World seems to think launch day quotes will actually be a bit lower. Only one way to find out, right?
SOURCE via ShopBLT
In addition to unveiling all those laptops, HP just announced a boatload of peripherals. Of the bunch, the most compelling might be the NFC-enabled Touch to Pair Mouse, which, as the name suggests, can be paired with another device simply through tapping. (Good thing lots of computers currently have NFC, right?) If, by chance, you don’t have NFC on your laptop — and you probably don’t — the mouse will function just fine as a regular old Bluetooth device. Look for it in November for $39. Elsewhere on the wireless mouse front, HP announced the X6000 (pictured), which has four-way tilt scrolling and can be used on most surfaces, including glass. That arrives this month for $59. Finally, if your tastes are a bit simpler, there’s also the Wireless Mouse X4500 and X5500, which will be available this month for $29 and $39, respectively.
Beyond mice, HP also trotted out the $29 Wireless Classic Desktop keyboard, along with the $49 Wireless Elite v2. For audio lovers, there’s the HP Portable Bluetooth Speaker, which will go on sale next month for a cool $79. Eighty bucks (or thereabouts) will also get you a 90W universal power adapter that claims to be compatible with most notebooks. It also has a built-in USB port, allowing you to charge a mobile device at the same time. Rounding out the list is the Webcam HD 4310, an $89 shooter capable of 1080p video, autofocus, autoexposure and three-way video calling.
With certain exceptions, talk of advanced hard drive technology regularly has a tough time escaping research labs. Western Digital’s HGST is promising a much more tangible project that could boost data capacities by a wide margin. By filling the gaps between drive platters with less buffeting-prone helium instead of air, HGST can safely fit as many as seven platters in a typical, 3.5-inch desktop hard drive instead of the current five. Going with the lower density gas creates a raft of side benefits, such as fitting more data on a single platter along with reducing the drag that both slows down and heats up the disk. We’ll have to wait until 2013 to see shipping helium-filled drives in our PCs; given the slightly exotic nature of the technique, though, we wouldn’t count on HGST or Western Digital handing out drives for free like balloons at a birthday party.
SOURCE via Wall Street Journal
Times change, this is an indisputable truth. But nothing reminds us of this fact as well as a landmark statistic. If there was ever any doubt about the shift towards of mobile computing, then let this be it: personal computers no longer account for the majority of demand for DRAM chips. With 49 percent of all new memory still headed for PCs, it’s hardly time to book the hearse for desk- and laptops just yet, but the statistic from IHS iSuppli remind us of the increasing market share that mobiles and tablets are taking. In fact, even though total DRAM shipments for PCs continue to rise, it’s estimated that the total share will slip another 6 percent, to 42.8, between Q2 this year and the end of 2013. Of course, this is good news if you have a vested interest in both, not so good if you don’t.
SOURCE via Yahoo!News
NVIDIA’s had some trouble shaving its Kepler GPUs down to an entry-level price point, but it looks to have put the problem behind it with the new GeForce 660 and 650 graphics cards. The company’s ambition was to coax impoverished gamers clinging to DirectX9 (and to a lesser extent, 10) into switching up to this wallet-friendly pair of low-end units.
The 660 has been designed to be the “weapon of choice” for budget gamers. It’ll play most games at reasonably high settings, thanks to its 2GB of RAM, 960 CUDA Cores and GPU Boost, which automatically overclocks the silicon according to the demands of your software. While we’ll wait for real-world benchmarks, the company expects four-times the performance of the GeForce 9800GT, claiming games like Borderlands 2 and Guild Wars 2, in a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 will play at frame rates of 51fps and 41fps with full 3D, respectively
The 650 is the company’s self-proclaimed “gateway” into gaming, being the lowest-priced Kepler it’s planning to produce. Unlike the other cards in the range, it lacks GPU Boost, but the company left six-pin power on the card, giving card makers 64W to push the “good overclocker” 1GHz units all the way to 1.2GHz. It’s got 1GB of DDR5 RAM, which will apparently handle even the newest games at mid-range levels of detail with its 384 CUDA Cores. The pair is available from today, with companies like Maingear and Origin already announcing discounted desktops for them to nestle inside.
Those 7mm-thick hard drives you’ve seen in some Ultrabooks are already looking a tad on the chunky side. Western Digital has started producing sample versions of a hybrid hard drive (you’re not yet looking at it here) that measures just 5mm (0.2in) tall, even as it crams in both flash and a 500GB main disk. If you think the slimmer drive is just the ticket for a best-of-all-worlds laptop that’s both fast and capacious, you’re not alone: Acer and ASUS have mentioned their collaboration in the same breath, which may be a strong clue as to where future Aspires and Zenbooks are going. The remaining question is when they arrive.
If there’s been a race in the Pico-ITX realm to catch up to full-size PCs, VIA just leapt ahead by a few bounds with the EPIA-P910. The tiny PC mates one of VIA’s 1GHz QuadCore E-Series processors with a VX11H media core to handle the kinds of tasks that would break just about any other system its size: stereoscopic 3D displays and DirectX 11 3D graphics are entirely within the realm of possibility. Likewise, there’s a surprising amount of expansion headroom compared to many of the P910′s similarly small counterparts, such as the 8GB RAM ceiling and support for both HDMI 1.4a and USB 3.0. You’ll need to get in touch with VIA if you want to find out how much it costs to work the new EPIA into an embedded PC, and it’s more likely to be headed to corporate buyers than to homebrew projects. We’re still looking forward to the shot of visual adrenaline, whether it’s in a mini PC or a store display.
SOURCE via VIA | <urn:uuid:5ddc7bcc-dab5-4720-872b-9aa2611aeab6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.2dayblog.com/category/hardware/ | 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 | 0.938706 | 2,437 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Here a sneak preview. The April Ohio Farmer about to arrive at your mailbox has Meyer Hatchery entrepreneur Karen Meyer on the cover. How she’s managed to develop a full-line poultry supply business with catalog, Internet and retail outlets, while raising a family and helping her husband and sons milk 300 dairy cows is a story of success.
What didn’t get into the story, however, where some of Karen’s comments about the how the current economy is affecting her business which focuses mainly on backyard and small farm hens, broilers, ducks, turkeys and geese.
“I think it’s helped,” she told me. “We are finding more and more customers want to be involved in the production of their own food. They want to raise their own eggs.”
Can’t get more local than the backyard. Of course, backyards aren’t going to supply what is needed to keep the nation fed. However, it shows the attractive role that the local market continues to play in the food supply.
It’s a trend that has been accelerating. More than 75% of Ohioans said they “occasionally” or “frequently” buy foods that are locally grown, according to the 2008 Ohio Survey of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Issues conducted by OSU. More than half the 3,500 randomly-selected Ohio consumers said they spend more than $50 a year buying directly from a farmer. The 19% who said they “frequently” purchase foods directly from farmers spent a median of $200 over the growing season. Furthermore 64% of the respondents said they thought it was “very” important for state and local governments to continue to develop local food centers around the state.
Locally, we have a group that is looking into adding a weekly produce auction to a twice-yearly machinery consignment sale. With support of numerous local Amish families, it looks like the idea might get going.
At our county Extension office a program to help people learn how to grow their own vegetable gardens is being advertised. They wouldn’t be trying it if there was not a strong interest in providing for yourself. Steps to get closer to your food supply might seem to be taking business away from farmers, but I doubt it. As farmers who spend their careers specializing in growing things know, it’s not that easy. Many will try and a few will succeed with backyard gardens or poultry flocks that give great pleasure and some nourishment. It is a wonderful thing that they come to a closer understanding of raising livestock and fruits or vegetables. However, bulk food production is the job of farmers. If you can do it closer to a growing demand for local supplies, you save on transportation in the deal.
Let local demand flourish. | <urn:uuid:5b45a698-4d01-4eb0-8edf-b50c382a6a81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/blogs-backyard-food-supplies-264 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971616 | 584 | 1.75 | 2 |
February 25, 2011 by Tony Reinke
If you are familiar with the television show American Idol you know Simon Cowell, the judge famous for his bluntness, biting criticisms, and blatant insults. In the presence of Simon, grown men and women sing with passion, reaching out to grasp pop-recording stardom. But if they fail to meet his standards, many of those same men and women walk off the stage in tears or anger. They walk back into the real world carrying the shards of a shattered dream. Simon has that effect on people, and he is the man who comes to mind when I read Newton’s letter about how some Christians listen to sermons.
Last week we looked at a portion of this letter as we considered how to respond when our pastor preaches a “sermon dud.” A little later in that same letter, Newton explains how Christians should listen to sermons, and how they should not listen to sermons.
First, Newton explains how we should listen to sermons. We should at all times listen with active biblical discernment:
As a hearer, you have a right to try all doctrines by the word of God; and it is your duty so to do. Faithful ministers will remind you of this: they will not wish to hold you in an implicit and blind obedience to what they say, upon their own authority, nor desire that you should follow them farther than they have the Scripture for their warrant. They would not be lords over your conscience, but helpers of your joy. Prize this Gospel liberty, which sets you free from the doctrines and commandments of men; but do not abuse it to the purposes of pride and self.
Then Newton explains how we should not listen to sermons:
There are hearers who make themselves, and not the Scripture, the standard of their judgment. They attend not so much to be instructed, as to pass their sentence. To them, the pulpit is the bar at which the minister stands to take his trial before them; a bar at which few escape censure, from judges at once so severe and inconsistent.
In these few words Newton offers counsel that is biblically wise, balanced, and ready for us to practice on Sunday. At all times we should pray for our pastor and encourage him. At all times we should listen to sermons with discernment. And at some times it may even be appropriate to give our pastor feedback to help him grow.
But we should never listen to sermons with our proverbial arms crossed, as if our pastor were preaching on the American Idol stage, seeking to win the approval of autonomous judges.
Yet this is exactly what happens when hearers base their conclusions about a sermon on personal preference rather than biblical authenticity, writes Newton. To appraise a sermon as a self-appointed judge is simply an inappropriate posture for the listener. However, to eagerly anticipate a sermon and to listen with biblical discernment is a posture of noble worth (Acts 17:11).
Tony Reinke serves as the editorial and research assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Reading Newton’s Mail is a series of blog posts reflecting on various published letters written by John Newton (1725–1807), the onetime captain of a slave trading ship—a self-described apostate, blasphemer, and infidel, who was eventually converted by grace. Newton is most famous for authoring the hymn “Amazing Grace,” or maybe for helping William Wilberforce put an end to the African slave trade in Britain. Less legendarily, Newton faithfully pastored two churches for 43 years, a fruitful period of his life when a majority of his letters were written. Reading Newton’s Mail is published on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.
Source letter: John Newton, Works of John Newton (London: 1820), 1:224-225. | <urn:uuid:6f76cb34-d260-40ea-b832-d615e2e48b40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/blogs/cj-mahaney/post/2011/02/25/How-NOT-to-Listen-to-Sermons.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962405 | 800 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Why not just make your own sensors? An Arduino could easily use a low-rate serial connection with the calc's link port, and sensors with that can be quite complex and very low-cost, while still being quite small. (Imagine arduino mini, not arduino uno)
Well, I don't have the labstation cradle, so I would have to connect this to the RS232 port.
So I think I would need a C Lua addon (since ndless allow us to do this), but then it wouldn't work with the Vernier sensor...
I think it would be a lot of time spent for really few users.
If I have time and nothing more important to do, I might try this anyway. | <urn:uuid:e9e17c2c-abcc-472c-9e03-38248d044b6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=13300.15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98013 | 151 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A protest against the rape of a seven-year old girl in India turned violent on Friday, as hundreds of people threw stones and damaged several vehicles. Police responded by using batons against demonstrators. Several policemen and locals were injured.
The rally took place outside the Delhi hospital where the victim
Around 500 people gathered to protest the rape, which occurred on the campus of the girl’s government-run school on Thursday, NDTV reported. Demonstrators alleged that police were not actively pursuing the case or arresting the suspected culprit.
Many of the protesters threw stones at vehicles and broke police barricades. At least three government-run buses, police vans, and private vehicles were damaged in the incident.
As the demonstration spread, the gates of the hospital were closed. Large numbers of police were deployed to the area.
Despite allegations from angry protesters, North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) promises it is doing all it can to find the suspect.
"We are looking into the matter and gathering more details. The information is sketchy at this point but if someone from the school is found guilty, we will take immediate action," Mahendra Nagpal, Leader of the House in NDMC, told PTI news agency.
The victim was taken to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital soon after the crime was reported, where a medical examination confirmed that she had been raped. The girl was later discharged.
The seven-year-old could not identify the suspect. Two male teachers and a school guard have been questioned, according to local officers.
But the local government’s efforts aren’t good enough for those who demand a long-term solution to India’s growing rape problem.
National Commission for Women Chairperson Mamta Sharma says incidents like these are on the rise, and insists that lawmakers must implement strict punishment for offenders.
"This is a case of rape of a seven-year-old girl. I believe that tough action should be initiated...I will send the matter for enquiry in two to three days," Sharma said.
The protests came as India’s parliament held a debate over the rape and murder of three young sisters in the state of Maharashtra last month. No one has yet been arrested, prompting opposition MPs to criticize the slow investigation.
A wave of nationwide protests was sparked by the brutal rape of a 23-year-old girl in December, who was attacked in a public bus in south Delhi.
Government statistics indicate that a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India, although the country’s conviction of rapists is one of the lowest in the world. | <urn:uuid:93352555-c97e-42f0-9c5f-bc14d50fe117> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rt.com/news/india-minor-rape-protest-689/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974646 | 533 | 1.757813 | 2 |
In an interesting moment last weekend, I was at a dinner party and a new acquaintance and I were cross-referencing friends. We were trying to find the name of a mutual "friend" who worked at a certain tech company. When neither of us could come up with a name, we both cracked open our modern-day communicators [the crew of Star Trek would be impressed] and started hunting through out contacts. But something funny happened.
"I know I follow them. I'm just not sure if it's on LinkedIn or Facebook," he said.
"I was just commenting on something on Facebook, I think he's an ultralight pilot."
After about 5 minutes of humming and hoeing, neither of us came up with the name or the connection. And rather than being rude we put our phones back down and carried on the conversation about the company's tech without our "mutual" friends name. [Tip of the tongue, I tell you.] So it brought up an interesting gestalt on today's ultraconnected technologies.
"Where do we know each other from?" used to be an easier question. "You look familiar," most likely meant, "I saw you in public some where and I'll place it in a minute." And more often than not, about 6 years ago the answer was usually work or Whole Foods Market (where I shop and hangout sometimes). Now, I have no idea. There are too many connections, too many potential pictures, references, friends of friends, circles, influencers, etc. How in the world are we supposed to keep track of all of this interconnectivity?
And personally my problem is, I never forget a face, but I'm horrible with names. So seeing someone and recognizing that I've seen them before, used to be a slightly entertaining exercise. "Do you play tennis, work in marketing, shop at Whole Foods," were the easy questions that produced about 70% of the connects. Today, I start with those and then pretty much give up if they don't ring a bell. There's just too many faces in my frontal lobe with vague connections that don't fire any synapses. A passing glimpse of you and your kids on facebook and that's it. The face sticks in my brain, the context and content of the image often does not. It's maddening.
But it's what we've got. The hardest thing for me is to recall WHERE WE SHARE THE CONNECTION. Once we've established friend or foe it is easy to hook our networks up. "Call my phone so I can save your number," is the new pickup line, but it also works well for business and casual connections with parents of our kid's friends.
Where DO you connect? How do you sort through all the possibilities to recognize a face and put it with a name? The augmented reality of the web and the web-enabled phone have made the game much more challenging and complex. But if you stick with it, if BOTH of you hammer your electronic networks for a bit, you might be able to find the connection.
I like it better when I'm playing a doubles match and I recognize one of my opponents. "We know each other," I say. And after a few games I come up with it. "You played pop-warner football in Austin! You were a quarterback!"
"Damn, you're right. How did you do that?"
I don't know, but it didn't have anything to do with technology or my wonderfully-webby phone.
Other posts to help you kick ass in social media:
- Plussing or Dividing: How Are You Showing Up in the World?
- Dear Graduate – a Toolkit for Learners and Job Hunters
- Waiting on Pinterest? The Excitement is on NEXT-PIN Sites – Beyond #Pinterest
- What the iPhone 5 Will Bring This Summer: A Surprise
- Expert Not Found – Social Media is About Being a "Student" not a "Guru"
- New Social Business: Merely a Buzzword or Something Revolutionary?
- More of This and Less of That, Please – Thursday Morning Coffee
- Twitter 101: Hashtag Discovery & Business: How-To Do Social Media Marketing Research
Most people don't really enjoy being mean; they do it because they can't help it. (from Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement) | <urn:uuid:2762e962-f422-4d72-84d5-9192645ef859> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uber.la/2012/05/hyper-connected/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969105 | 912 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Some of his takes are pretty perverted.
As I said in my Avery take post, some takes are used as entertainment and some are mere punctuation. Clampett (and Avery) used both. Most animators just use milder takes as part of their cartoon film grammar.
The actual animated eye take here is less than a second long! But you sure don't miss it...
Bob must not have thought of his takes as being that important. They are usually really short, even though they are wildly imaginative. He didn't build any cartoons around them. What would be a crazy punch line in anyone else's cartoon is just another tool that could be used when appropriate, to accentuate a story point.
In Bacall to Arms, the wolf does a montage of takes in quick succession to show how horny he is watching Lauren Bacall in a movie. Here's a 1 second take from it.
How many takes can you count in the scene above? If you watch it in real time you'd have trouble because all the action is at lightning speed. Yet you feel everything that is happening. It's not too fast to follow the story.
Each clip - as short as it is, is chock full of narrative information and more than one animated punctuation.
Here the cat does a simple take and then a wild anticipation into the next pose of him looking down in the hole.
Now he jumps in the air to say he's shocked that Catstello is down in the hole. Then he does a "What do I do??!" dance before he reaches down.
Here's a quick small take to show that he is confused that Catstello wasn't in the hole.
Looks at the flat Catstello...
And does another surprise take. This time his legs spin in the air. You barely even see the action, but you feel it. You know exactly what story-wise is going on.
It kills me that this much inventiveness goes into such minor story points. This really all could have been done with standard animation grammatical tools.
You've heard of film language? There is also a cartoon-film-language with rules and accepted visual signals all its own. The rules started in comic strips, moved to early animated cartoons, then were developed further in the 30s and then for most of the animated cartoon world basically stopped (or at least slowed down considerably) around 1940. But not in Clampett's unit.
Cartoons have their own accepted traditions and structures and grammar, but the mere "correct" application of the rules is not enough to be entertaining or art. We need to use them as tools to create emotions and experiences that work with or without words or literal meanings.
Like in music. The melody, arrangement plus the personalities and styles of the individual musicians all contribute to the overall emotional experience of the music. Why do the Beatles work in every country - most countries can't understand the words or literal meanings of the songs at all - but the musical grammar (which they contributed to) is almost universal, and the soul and talent of musicians playing the music are understood.
Great music with or without words is international.
The musicians in Clampett's unit are his animators. They all understood their shared grammar and punctuation, but were constantly creating new ways to exhibit it.
Can you imagine what a great job it would be to be able to come to work every day and draw new ideas for every scene?
Today we get rules and formula for the sake of them, "That's not the way to do an anticipation, check the manual to see how we do that." That's how animation has been in the last 40 years at most studios.
Here's a crazy animated take from The Sour Puss.
I wonder how you would go about "directing" a scene like this. How did Clampett get this stuff out of all his animators?
Takes, antics, squash and stretch, lines of action are some animation tools that are usually done in a standard way, but they don't have to be. They can be creative and enhance the total entertainment package.
There is so much invisible creativity in Clampett's cartoons that you wonder why they went to so much trouble and detail for every little point in the cartoons. Why? Because it's fun! Who wants to just draw what the script says? Or watch it?
It's called "animation". Let's put the creativity back into the core of the art.
The animated grammar in Clampett's unit makes his cartoons seem way more intense and real than what anyone else was doing. It's not just the gag ideas in the cartoons that are delivering the entertainment. It's the tools of the artform itself. Jones and Avery continued adding to cartoon film grammar for awhile but I think Clampett did more than anyone. After Clampett left Warners our cartoon language went into a long period of decline. Today, we remember disconnected fragments of what was once a vital, growing, extremely versatile language.
We're still using narrative signals that were forged by cartoonists and animators long ago, but in a very stilted and decayed, blindly dogmatic way. So many animators talk of the importance of telling stories and doing things in live action, novels or cartoons all using the same narrative tools, but they don't.
We use broken animation cliches to tell the same worn-out stories using a handful of shadowy traditions to feebly act them out.
Here's an interesting excerpt from a site about written punctuation:
Many people believe that punctuation rules are rigid commandments and that only the “experts” know all the rules. You may be surprised to learn, however, that it is not the “experts” but rather educated speakers and writers, such as yourself, who have established the practices that have come to be known as the “rules of punctuation.” In other words, over the years good writers have used punctuation in ways that have made their messages especially clear to their readers. Writers have agreed to follow these practices because they have proven to be so effective...
The rules of punctuation are not static; they have changed throughout the years and will continue to change. What once might have been considered improper punctuation may now be considered correct. The rules of punctuation are created and maintained by writers to help make their prose more effective, and their exact meaning changes over time, just as traffic rules evolve with time. (For example, in many states it is now acceptable to make a right turn at a red light if no oncoming vehicles are in sight.) At any point in time, a particular punctuation mark means what writers agree it means; as consensus shifts, so will its meaning.
If you approach punctuation with this understanding of its origin and flexibility, you will not be intimidated by the conventions of punctuation.Here's the whole article: | <urn:uuid:8cdb0580-834c-481a-80b8-a1cbfa6d5534> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/01/clampett-takes-for-gags-for-punctuation.html?showComment=1199457540000 | 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 | 0.965144 | 1,432 | 1.601563 | 2 |
by Leslie Whitcomb
There is a creative spark from the maker’s hand that is evident in handspun yarn. This spark can be highlighted in a very unique way through hand-weaving.
As fibers interlace across a warp, the weaver experiences, visually and kinesthetically, the very different way that handweaving creates a woven cloth, as opposed to the types of stitched fabrics created by the loops of knitting or crochet. This difference can enhance design choices using one’s own handspun yarn or the amazing variety of custom designed yarns available to fiber crafters.
This article, part one of two, will focus on three dynamics supporting weaving with handspun yarns connected to the larger fiber community: ‘origins’, ‘call and response’ and ‘synergy’.
The dynamic I understand as ‘origins’ begins with this question : “Where’s the dirt?” In other words, where did the fiber in a yarn or roving come from? This includes not only ecologically but also where it came from in a sense of community – how did this fiber walk to you from person to person and how does this connective network enhance your spinning and finished project choices?
From an ecological sense concerning origins, my experience living on an organic sheep farm for many years provides a good example. Being a blind optimist and a fool for love back then, I helped start a growers’ collective with other farmers.
We found a local spinnery to organically process our fleece into yarn. We learned how to naturally dye this yarn. And we taught each other how to weave blankets, shawls and rugs for sale to support our farms.
While I often chafed at the color constraints of natural dyes or organically-spun yarns available to me at the time, the knowledge that my fiber preserved the farms around me and strengthened the general community far outweighed any frustrations I had concerning a more limited color palette. I also grew to literally feel the difference in the palm of my hand and sense the visual difference in how a handspun skein of yarn catches light, or blooms in softness through a pattern on the loom.
HIGHLIGHTING ORGANIC COLOUR
This scarf expresses this difference for me. The rosy color of the weft came from hours of experimentation with a cochineal dye bath seeking just the right color match for the natural brown warp yarns.
That hard-won color matching gives the scarf a soft blush of rose to balance both the weave structure and the more neutral yarn in the warp. This sense of balanced cloth and the memory of the communal ecology while I spun and wove at that time still gives me warmth and pleasure even twenty years later.
MODERN YARN CYBERSPACE COMMUNITY
The methodology of the yarn-gathering on Ravelry isn’t quite so quixotic and earthy as my organic growers’ collective, but it’s a great example of an embedded yarn community for the current generations. The ribald goodwill that goes back and forth between knitters while they trade yarns, post photos, and share pattern information sparks my own projects on a daily basis. Whenever I need a reason to tink the same row of lace for the gajillionth time in one hour, I check into Ravelry to see what my fellow knitters are creating and I’m good to go.
The resulting scarf (photos left and right) expresses this creative sentiment nicely. I consider it to be a “Ravelry scarf” because the yarns were inspired by and sourced within community networks of Ravelry. Taking the time to sit and weave this scarf grew from reading about the thousands of folks from all over the world who also love fiber to distraction. Their collective creative spark reaches my loom and wheel from the long threads of cyberspace.
CALL AND RESPONSE
The dynamic I understand as ‘call and response’ is all about interlacement.
And this is where handweaving gets really different from knitting.
The significant difference between knitting and handweaving is that, while using a loom, yarns cross over and under each other in a two-dimensional process rather than looping around each other in a gathering process. The weight or ply of a yarn and its color, sheen or matte, are shaped by this structure on the loom.
These factors provide enormous creative potential, as warp yarns are stretched on the loom and weft yarns are woven under and over the lifted and lowered warp threads to form cloth.
The call of a handspun yarn in weaving arises from what that yarn will function as, and a warp or weft pattern expression when woven on the loom. It is similar to the way a yarn seems to call out to be knit in stockinette rather than garter stitch, or whether it will look just right when knit as lace or textured stitches.
USING A HANDSPUN WEFT
This photo shows a woven sample that is weft dominant. Weft dominant means that the handspun yarn (the weft yarn) in the pattern almost covers the warp: the warp yarns are those stretched on the loom from front to back and lifted or lowered by the heddle(s), the weft yarns are woven through the “shed” created when warp yarns are lifted and lowered.
This is a great way to highlight expensive (in terms of spinning time or budget) handspun yarn because the warp yarn can be a simple, less expensive, choice.
This particular woven pattern – a combination of plain weave (similar to stockinette stitch in that it produces a balanced mix of yarn interlacement) and twill weave (similar to a crossed stitch in that it extends yarns across other stitches) shows long stretches of texture and color in the yarn as it moves across the warp. It also shows spots of color combinations created by a different warp and weft placement (plain weave). The glow and matte intensity of color saturation in this handspun called to me to be highlighted in this way, as I worked with the yarns at the loom.
The roving came to me from Patricia Bishop at yummyyarnsuk.com/Etsy, whose bluefaced leicester roving was a joy to spin worsted-style (forward draft) into a single ply. Her choice of coloring in the handpainted roving gave both warmth and depth to the finished yarn. Long stretches of silky color in this yarn called out to be highlighted during weaving. Short bursts of color brightened and gave breathing space visually to balance the color play along the yarns. Also felt was a tug of the simplicity found in the strength and warmth of British wool breeds that Patricia supports. The twill and plain weave, both classic hand-weaving patterns, reflect this heritage.
The ‘response’ of a yarn is what happens when it’s finally woven into a chosen pattern and then finished by soaking and drying.
The feel of the cloth formed by the sample and the way the cloth moves after being finished expresses the sense I want to convey: simple color shifts, which are not overwhelming to the eye, highlighted texture and quality of yarn.
While weaving a scarf, the hand and drape of the sample assures me I can create a scarf or woven yardage for a larger project, such as a vest, and to be able to depend on this weave structure and fiber to become useful in future weaving. When I weave with these yarns and this sample in mind, I will remember this call and response.
In this way my fiber, spinning method, and weave structure choices are each supported by the fiber’s origins and the call and response is eventually inherent in the yarn, as well as finished projects made from these fibres and resulting yarns.
By spinning a basic yarn (worsted single-ply) and choosing a basic weaving structure (twill) , these give me maximum room to allow the yarn to call forth a finished piece.
This creates a fiber ‘synergy’ that draws me back to my wheel or needles or loom, time and time again.
When a fiber’s origin and call and response are strong, synergy draws me into the spinning and weaving or knitting. I am able, sometimes just for a few minutes, to let go and instead allow the synergy to guide me. Yarn color, fiber texture and simple patterning work together.
USING A HANDSPUN WARP
The sample in the photo at right came together in that way. It is a handspun warp designed to hold together on a loom (warp yarns undergo a lot of stress during weaving) but soft enough to still be worn next to the skin.
I played with weft choices – a soft spun, very color-saturated silk, a handspun tencel that complimented the color shifts in the warp, and a commercial mohair that pulled all the colors together and gave a touchable texture to the sample. The silk single was just too rich in color for my sensibilities. The tencel alone was really pretty in its mix of shining color with the matte warp yarns, but it created too much contrast between warp and weft. The mohair yarn had a color and texture that pulled the sample together but didn’t work by itself in the weave.
As I was struggling with these choices, I happened to notice a strand of tencel handspun resting next to a strand of the dusky plum mohair on my shuttle. The interplay of these two fibers was lovely. The differences between the two yarns – a handspun, silky, color shifting yarn – compared to the commercial spun, color saturated, wispy mohair – gave me a patterning idea. Why not weave alternating plain weave and twill, not as border or alternating stripe patterns, but randomly along the warp in a way that emphasizes texture and color flows and contrasts?
By relaxing into the synergy of these yarns, I found movement of color and texture in the sample that would create a variegated and tonal pattern simultaneously.
This synergy will become a scarf that is sparkly, soft, and highlights handspun yarns with touchable, huggable texture. This is a scarf that a beginning weaver could easily create but looks fantastic and luxurious because of the yarn choices
Part Two will provide patterning drafts and spinning stash ideas for how to go about working with ‘origins’, ‘call and response’ and ‘synergy’ of yarn for both first-time and experienced weavers.
Photos © Leslie Whitcomb
Leslie Whitcomb, firstname.lastname@example.org, has been a weaver and spinner for twenty-two years. She has designed and custom dyed yarns for private studios and weavers collectives. She ran a custom design textile studio for several years and has woven ceremonial cloth for Indigenous folk and celebrational shawls, blankets and table runners to honor the life passages of clients from her community. Leslie is new to knitting, having just tumbled into a passion for knitting shawls and scarves over the past year. Several frogged projects and numerous design disasters survived while learning to knit, have given her renewed empathy for anyone starting as a beginner in a craft. Writing this article was a way to support fellow knitters in expanding their love of fiber while adding the pleasure of handweaving to their craft choices. | <urn:uuid:678cc654-6594-47fa-9ede-4c0021af591b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enneacollective.com/?p=5059 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943969 | 2,426 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A Look at the American Antiquarian Book Trade
At years end, the state of the American antiquarian book trade can best be described as unsettled, and in what has become an increasingly global marketplace; I suspect that the American experience is little different from that of our overseas colleagues.
Although some areas of the American trade remain robust with children's books, American colorplate books, some Americana, and some literary highspots most conspicuous among them, the trade in general continues to undergo a rapid and continuous shift. The ease of finding books on the Internet has contributed to the increasingly rapid decline of the open shop. Those unwilling to adapt to the new circumstances are facing increasing difficulties.
Used versus Rare
The market in relatively common used books, through increasing competition from part time Internet dealers, continues to be a race to the bottom - he who can to afford to sell for the least can sell books. Being a used book dealer has become more labor intensive, as one must sell more books for smaller profits, even to the point of having to calculate in small profits on shipping charges in order to survive. While this is perhaps of only modest interest to the antiquarian dealer, selling inexpensive books has always been an adjunct to many successful rare book businesses, and as this situation continues to develop, I see an increasing differentiation between the used and rare bookselling world.
On the bright side, American dealers describe the opposite for books that can be honestly described as unique, rare, beautiful, and/or expensive. I was struck by the fact that dealers from across many collecting genres, from antiquarian to children's books to modern first editions report similar experiences - whatever is fresh and unusual sells rapidly, with price seemingly secondary to desirability. Conversely, standard works - the staples that have long supported the work-a-day seller of collectible books are selling sluggishly, or not at all.
What seems to have diminished in the book market is the middle, or what once was the common ground between used and rare booksellers. One dealer, who began his business just as the Internet boom began, and is thus untainted by questionable memories of halcyon days, reports that he does a brisk business in books that are either $25 or below, or collectible books that are over $500, but sales of those books in between - standard, moderately uncommon, but still findable titles is very sluggish. Auction results seem to reflect these reports, with sometimes startlingly high prices for highspots, and pedestrian material just limping along.
The Singular Object
As the Internet has provided accessibility to what previously must have seemed the arcane and forbidding world of antiquarian books, there are reasons for optimism as well. There seems to have developed a market in the book as a singular object, or luxury gift item, rather than as part of a larger collection, and price isn't always the object. We received one recent Christmas request from a father looking for a book for his son. Other than being assured that he was making a decent investment, he didn't much care which book he bought, just as long as it cost no more than $150,000! While I'd like to report that this is a daily occurrence, it is indeed an extreme example. It seems that more now than ever, we are being contacted by people looking for expensive gifts, and who mostly seem to have found us through the Internet.
Another relatively new phenomenon we have observed and been told about are customers who are interested in just one or two books that have particular meaning to them. People with discretionary income and who have no inclination to become book collectors, but are willing to pay a substantial sum for a first edition of A Catcher in the Rye or On the Road, a children's book like The Cat in the Hat or Winnie the Pooh, or some other iconic title that had some influence on them.
The bar to becoming a serious antiquarian book collector has always been set high. A number of factors are required to make a book collector: a modicum of literacy, an acquisitive nature, and disposable income perhaps paramount among them. People in their 20s and early 30s are most often busy forging careers and building families, and the focused and determined collector in this age group, while by no means unknown, has always been the exception rather than the rule. Although talk of the Internet continues to dominate the idle chatter of booksellers at book fairs, discussion of who will be the future collectors seems to be running a close second. The opinions expressed seemed to vary wildly, with the more hidebound among us hoping they expire before their increasingly graying clientele does.
Others find room for optimism. As young people, bombarded by images from television, the internet, video games, and graphic novels become increasingly visually oriented, some dealers seem to be reporting a much higher incidence of sales in visually and graphically stimulating material, perhaps accounting in part for the reported robust sales of colorplate and children's books, with even several antiquarian dealers reporting that typographically interesting ephemeral material has enjoyed a boost as well.
Would You Like Fries With That?
What seems increasingly clear is that the rare book business has gradually become a service rather than equity industry. Formerly booksellers were free to, and often would cultivate an eccentric, even curmudgeonly aspect. If your inventory was desirable, you didn't have to be. One's greatest strength was the depth of one's inventory and the equity it represented (or as many of us referred to it, our "retirement fund").
In a market where competition, especially for less expensive books, can devalue one's inventory rapidly, rather the opposite now seems true. Most booksellers must or do maintain some inventory, but it seems that the most successful booksellers are those who actively attempt to "shift product" as rapidly as possible. Like most service businesses, those willing to work the hardest are the most likely to succeed. Those who are the most adaptable and who maintain an Internet presence, issue occasional catalogues, participate in book fairs, actively quote listed wants to their customers, are more likely to succeed than those veteran dealers wistful for the past who are unwilling to adept, and are content to wait for the world to beat a path to their door. We live in interesting times.
This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Rare Book Review. (http://www.rarebookreview.com) It is publshed here by permission of Tom Congalton.
Published since 30 Nov 2009 | <urn:uuid:2d5f7639-44bb-4684-bc7c-424b1dac85fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/10-a_look_at_the_american_antiquarian_book_trade.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979016 | 1,343 | 1.695313 | 2 |
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE — FIRST FIGHTER WING PILOTS ARE FLYING THEIR F-15 EAGLES FROM FIRST LIGHT UNTIL WELL INTO THE NIGHT, AND THE WING'S GROUND CREWS ARE WORKING ALMOST AROUND THE CLOCK, TO GET READY FOR 270 DAYS OF DEPLOYMENTS TO ICELAND AND TURKEY.
The exercise started Monday and ends Wednesday. Every day, the intensity of training will increase, said Lt. Col. Steve Wallender, chief of plans, programs and exercises for the 1st Fighter Wing.
"We are also trying to generate more than the usual number of sorties that we would see on a deployment. We train at a higher level, so that we are ready for the worse-case scenario," Wallender said.
The deployments will mark the first time that a Langley squadron has split itself and the first time that the wing has patrolled on Operation Northern Watch over northern Iraq. It will also be the first Langley deployment as part of an air expeditionary force, a new concept designed to give units 15 months between trips abroad.
Units picked for Operation Northern Watch patrol a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, an area from which Iraqi aircraft are barred. There is a southern no- fly zone in Iraq, and the wing has sent squadrons to patrol it from a base in Saudi Arabia on several occasions.
In February, 27th Fighter Squadron personnel will split between duties at Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland, and Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, for 90 days. The 94th Fighter Squadron and the 71st Fighter Squadron will follow it into the field.
About 100 members of each squadron will go to Turkey and 75 to Iceland, base officials said.
About 3,500 airmen are taking part in the exercise at Langley. They are practicing under the "threat" of nuclear and biological attack, meaning that airmen have to carry their chemical suits with them. Before the exercise is over, the airmen will be wearing those suits, masks and all.
The wing would do the exercise even if its squadrons weren't being deployed, but this adds to the meaning of the training, those in the exercise said.
"It's a little bit difficult to wear chemical gear and operate computer systems. It's not something you practice on a day-to-day basis," said Tech. Sgt. Gerrit Bakker, 37, a member of the 27th Fighter Squadron. "But at least this gives you the chance to work your job wearing the gloves before you really have to do it."
The ability to survive and work during a chemical attack is particularly important for the people going to Turkey.
"The tempo will probably be a little less then Saudi," said Master Sgt. Jeffrey Williams, who returned from Saudi Arabia in August, "but the threat from chemicals will probably be a little higher." Williams estimated that 15 percent of his squadron wasn't part of the unit when it last went to the Mideast.
The exercise, known as a Phase II exercise, tests how well the unit can keep planes flying sorties at a high tempo.
"This is important in preparation for Operation Northern Watch but also important to help keep us in wartime readiness," Wallender said.
Richard William Rogers can be reached at 247-4629 or by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:001c7d3c-689d-47a3-bcc1-a98c41daaf72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.dailypress.com/1999-11-09/news/9911090152_1_incirlik-air-base-saudi-arabia-exercise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965732 | 709 | 1.804688 | 2 |
I thought you all might like to read my interview in India's most creative e-magazine. I am happy to share the same with you all. C P B Prasad, Artist, -Thanks.
The Artist beyond Artists: Mr. CBP Prasad
In the paintings of Mr. CPB Prasad, colours try to say something, something that exists all around us but is never realized. His childhood days in Coorg, Karnataka have inspired many of his paintings. The nature and the beauty of his landscapes are exact depictions of the reality and seem to be waiting to come alive any moment. He used to walk to school and college and observed and absorbed his natural surroundings. The green trees, un-stoppable rain, are still fresh in his mind.
Most of his works are landscapes: landscapes,seascapes, landscapes of other planets. Most of them have a hidden message which can contribute to the society’s awareness of itself.
His paintings show his fascination for the colour blue. For him it’s a colour, so calm, that one day he wishes to die on a sea shore, in the lap of blue sky and beside the infinite blue sea. He finds his relation to water and spirituality from Lord Rama who gave up his life walking into the sea.
In Space: series of paintings, which he calls as “Ego Busters” show how small we are in comparison to the universe and how egoistically we live our lives. It brings us face to face with the stark reality of our existence.
His painting, Soul Connections, depicts the good or bad signs in any relationship. The concept is that we are fated to meet certain souls in our lives and connect to them. The painting shows the influence different souls have in our lives. In the series of a soul’s paintings, Prasad paints the levels of a soul’s existence. According to him, some souls are close to Moksha and some are far away – an idea he depicts through colours. He thinks humans have the ability to change the direction of their life and their soul, but they don’t have the time to introspect as they are so busy in making a living.
For Prasad, spirituality energizes our souls when we visit temples. “I think temple towers and the souls of particular Gods in the temple play a bigger role in bringing peace to people’s lives,” he said. He considers Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo Da Vinci as his role models.
Prasad does not prefer painting humans as for him, humans are insignificant in this vast universe. “Humans think too big of themselves, but it is not so. They are spoiling this wonderful planet with their greed,” says Prasad.
Prasad thinks that, “Sale is not a benchmark for any art. Quality of the painting and the intent and the message behind the paintings is the bench mark for any work of art.” He believes painting to be a self less job. He considers art to be the thoughts that last for hundreds of years through works of art.
Prasad wrote a poem on River Kosi and painted it. While the society has forgotten the message of the poem, his painting and poem will live eternally to remind us of the event and people’s reactions to it.
Rage of Kosi
Every year rain brought havoc,
Rivers always overflowing,
Big rivers like Kosi bring more misery,
Flooding is a every year affair.
Kosi had engulfed 16 districts in Bihar,
Hundreds of people were dead because of floods,
Kosi had deviated on its course,
People alive had become greedy.
Milk was selling for 300/litre,
Cookies were at 50/packet,
Rice was at 150/kg,
People had lost their houses.
40 Lakh people were displaced,
80% livestock was dead,
Cows were seen standing in 2 feet water and eating,
They may not last long to digest.
Govt had announced 1000 Cr relief,
Everyone knew it never reached the needy in time,
1.15 lakh tonne relief rice,
Will people really get it?.
Jailbirds had vanished,
We could see people taking their young to safety,
Will they be safe from infections ?
Will there be enough medicine?
India’s poorest people had become more poorer?
Is it God’s will?
Is it people’s apathy towards fellow humans?
Governments did not reinforce the check dams?
People bother for themselves never for others life’s!
Written By: Isha Bajpai
More in the link below. | <urn:uuid:fd23332a-fdb8-44af-9daa-58f6f174def8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meylah.com/prasad/emahomagazinecom-interview-c-p-b-prasad-by-isha-bajpai | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975394 | 1,001 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Monday, June 25, 2007
Blackwater Mercenaries on the USA-Mexico Border
By Nancy Conroy
In San Diego County, California, a firestorm has
erupted over plans to build a Blackwater mercenary training camp in the hills behind Potrero, a remote area east of the city. The residents of San Diego are opposing the idea on the grounds that firing ranges
are noisy and mercenaries would be undesirable neighbors. So far the controversy
has been a localized, “not in my backyard,” type of debate involving planning commissions and citizen’s
Americans tend to think in an American way, and therefore
nobody seems to have noticed that the location of this camp is right on the US-Mexico border, just a few miles from Tecate.
From an international perspective, there are a number
of geopolitical reasons that could explain why this border location was selected. This
is probably not merely an issue for the local planning commission, given that the idea of mercenaries along the border has
broader international implications.
Blackwater USA is a private army based in Louisiana
that has received billions of dollars in US government contracts to assist with the Iraq war.
These “contractors” are highly trained ex-military specialists, many of whom come from foreign countries
with poor human rights records.
Blackwater, at its website, identifies itself as
“… not simply a ‘private security company.’ We are a
professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions.”
The presence of Blackwater in Iraq has generated
controversy over the concept of an “outsourced” war, using mercenaries instead of regular US troops. The mercenaries do not answer to US military commanders, their conduct is not governed by the Geneva Convention,
and they answer only to the people who are signing their paychecks.
Critics often compare them to the Nazi brownshirts.
A Blackwater camp on the border may be a covert attempt
to militarize the border without going through congressional oversight or public debate.
A so-called “training camp” could probably also function as an operational base. Perhaps Blackwater will obtain government contracts to patrol the border, gradually edging out US agents
and putting border security into the hands of a private army away from public scrutiny.
And Blackwater could run immigrant detention camps
using the same methods they use in the Middle East. Even if this is not the plan,
the Mexicans would have good reason to suspect this motivation.
The proposed training camp is located near international
drug supply routes controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel. The remote, mountainous
terrain is like Afghanistan, where Blackwater has years of experience running covert operations.
Six miles from the proposed Blackwater camp, northern
Mexico has a serious problem with “Men in Black” who coincidentally look, dress, and act just like the Blackwater
people. In Mexico, the Men in Black are kidnappers, corrupt police officers,
fake federal agents, or Zetas, a narco-paramilitary group. Although Americans
may still be swallowing the argument that Blackwater is a “military auxiliary” outfit, the Mexicans are not fooled
about who the Men in Black are, what they do, and who they work for. That these
same people are now camped out on the US border, or are somehow involved in border enforcement, will lack credibility in Mexico.
Since the Iraq war, business at Blackwater has been
booming, which is why they need the new “Blackwater West” facility. Most
of Blackwater’s contracts come from the US government, at least those that are publicly disclosed. But, Blackwater is a private army that is available to run “corporate security” missions for
anyone that can afford it. This suggests another possible motivation for the
border location: to serve emerging markets in northern Mexico.
There are surely plenty of possible clients with
money in the Baja California area who need special operations. Since Blackwater
personnel look just like the Mexican Men in Black, they should have no trouble blending in.
Another possible reason for the border location is
the potential to perform “extraordinary renditions” into Mexico. “Extraordinary
renditions” is a euphemism for off-the-record prisoner processing, the subjects of which are known in Latin America
as “los desaparecidos” (“the disappeared”). Blackwater conducts extraordinary renditions in the Middle East, quietly transferring
prisoners to third countries where interrogation techniques are not monitored. From
their new border location, Blackwater could perform extraordinary renditions into northern Mexico far away from prying eyes.
Blackwater has said that the reason for the site
selection is to be close to the San Diego area, where many branches of the US military need extra training. Still, the location so close to the US-Mexico border raises international issues that local San Diego citizen’s
groups are not aware of and generally do not think about. Americans should consider
the possible international dimensions, and responsible Mexican citizens should evaluate the potential impact of this camp
on their own country.
As well, if Mexicans were more informed about this
issue, the specter of mercenaries along the border has the potential to create an international controversy.
Conroy is the Publisher of northern Baja California’s biweekly Gringo Gazette North. She can be reached via e-mail at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:a92b2d33-a4ca-4e71-9374-783da9a9cb8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mexidata.info/id1416.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936415 | 1,173 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Now that you have an AED at your facility your next question is....Where do we put the AED? Site selection is a question that we get asked about quite frequently! AED4U.com has complied some important questions and information to help you with this common question.. Where should we put the AED?
When considering where to place your AED here is some questions you should first ask.
1. Where are the trained rescuers located in the building?
2. Are there any high risk areas within your facility (workout facility, running track, electrical rooms, etc.)
3. Where is the highest concentration of people? (Usually in schools it is the gym)
4. How secure is your facility?
5. Are there areas that are locked after normal hours?
6. Is your AED going to be in a cabinet? Alarmed?
7. Where is the nearest phone?
8. What is the most central point within your facility?
9. Is there an area that is always manned? Security Desk?
10. What is your form of communication? (two-way radios, phones, intercom)
Once you have the information complied now comes that decision? Think of the following:
- AED's should be visible to everyone. No one is going to use it or even ask for it if they don't know it exists.
- AED cabinets help deter theft and allow AED's to be visible.
- AED's should never be locked up in a drawer somewhere. Out of site out of mind! Regular inspection checks probably will not get done. Regular inspections are critical to assure AED readiness.
- AED's should be near a phone for calling 911.
- AED's should be centrally located within the highest risk and most concentrated population area and near trained rescuers.
- AED's should be placed near high risk areas.
- AED's should be placed well within 3 minutes of anywhere within the facility. (That means 1.5 minutes to the device and 1.5 minutes back).
In schools think of the following:
- Gyms are usually high risk areas and usually have the high concentrations of people both during school and for after school events.
- Look at the main office area. These areas are usually staffed or supervised the most within a school.
- Look at areas that are locked in the evening time. These usually don't make very good locations because of their lack of accessibility.
- Most schools fear theft and lean toward locking AED's away. We feel this is a bad idea and other solutions can usually be found to balance security and accessibility.
We haven't covered all possible scenarios. It is a good idea to get several opinions, keeping in mind accessibility! Accessibility by everyone (this means don't put the AED 6 feet high on a wall). Education and getting the word out about what an AED does, why you have it and its importance will help encourage everyone to take ownership of the AED and its security. Talk with your medical director and get their thoughts on placement. The American Heart Association and American Red Cross also publishes valuable information about AED placement.
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be mistaken for legal or medical advice. Please use good judgment when selecting a good location for your AED and consult your AED medical director for more information. | <urn:uuid:7bd2cc9f-d261-4cde-a556-6a9d274419cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aed4u.com/aed_placement.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964999 | 701 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Are you wondering where all your money went? Many people face the same conundrum at the end of each month. After taking care of the bills and expenses, you find that there is no money left over. When you sit down to calculate where you spent it, you are unable to remember over half the transactions. This is why budgeting is an important skill to acquire. Keeping a monthly budget enables you to stay in control of your income and expenses. Else, you would end up facing the same situation month after month. Here are five tools you can use to improve your budgeting skills.
Mint.com is fast becoming a preferred money management tool for people looking to plan their monthly expenses. The level of security offered to users is high and all the information you store is safe. The best thing about the website is that it is extremely user-friendly in design and navigation. You can easily create a budget and enhance your skills. Mint.com is completely free to use which makes it even greater for use.
Save Benjis is an application designed for your iPhone and (Read More....) | <urn:uuid:632b5b01-a7cd-41f1-a773-7461755bdb25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepersonalsecurity.com/archives/tag/your-money | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956195 | 223 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Are you responsible for the care and well-being of a parent or elderly friend, relative or neighbor?
Do you long for an opportunity to have a day off to take care of chores or just pamper yourself but can't get away because of the responsibility of caring for your loved one?
Did you know that there is a new program in Walton that provides seniors with entertainment and a safe environment while giving the caregivers a much needed break?
Are you a senior citizen who feels isolated and longs for an opportunity to do crafts, meet new friends and share life experiences? Did you know that a new social club has formed that caters to those needs and desires?
"Our Place in Walton" Social Adult Day Center is a pilot program developed by the Delaware County Legacy Corps. The group meets from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays at the Walton United Presbyterian Church on the corner of North and East streets. It is the only program of its kind in Delaware County.
Karen Marshfield, Delaware County Legacy Corps coordinator, directs the program. Patricia Breakey manages the day center and Janice Kehr coordinates the activities. A trained group of volunteers assist with all aspects of the program.
"Our Place" was designed to maintain a safe, attentive environment those in need of supervision or moderate assistance in their activities of daily living while providing social activities with contemporaries.
More than 50 million people provide care for chronically ill, disabled or aged family members during any given year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Seventeen percent of family caregivers provide 40 hours or more of care a week, according to a study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP.
Many caregivers maintain a job while caring for someone else and often the care-recipient is isolated each day until their caregiver is able to stop by again. The care-recipients become sedentary, depressed and may begin to feel more like a burden. There are also caregiver and care-recipient situations of being together constantly and not taking time of respite from each other.
When the Social Adult Day Center opened May 23, the majority of those who attended were seniors who live independently and are completely self-sufficient, but are struggling with the lack of a social life. Most of them have worked all their lives and need something to keep them involved and active since their retirement.
The independent seniors were thrilled with the program, but couldn't afford the fees intended to for those in need of supervision and assistance, so a decision was reached to expand the program and add a social club where the members contribute what they could afford to help cover the costs of supplies.
"Our Place" holds sessions from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and noon to 4 p. m. with two-hour overlap where both groups have lunch and take part in an exercise session. Lunch is provided by the Delaware County Senior Meals program. The fees for the care recipient program are $18 for a half day or $25 for the entire day.
The day begins with coffee, snacks and conversation in the library. The group then moves to the large dining room where the morning continues with a craft that keeps the group entertained until lunchtime.
The afternoon session includes musical entertainment, speakers, games and other activities.
Reservations are required to ensure that meals are ordered for everyone in attendance.
For more information about the care-recipient program or the social club or to volunteer, please call the Delaware County Office for the Aging at 746-6333 or Patricia Breakey at 865-5175.
Wayne L. Shepard is director of the Delaware County Office for the Aging. 'Senior Scene' columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/seniorscene. | <urn:uuid:08e9eda0-ed2b-4f0a-9a3d-b0656b11b2dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedailystar.com/lifestyles/x1289991718/From-the-Office-Delaware-County-has-new-program-to-help-seniors-caregivers/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96361 | 786 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Why do you create? Who are you trying to please? If you have an image that you love, but the public does not, how does this affect your opinion?
Several blogs ago I had related this story about Edward Weston as recounted by Ansel Adams:
“After dinner, Albert (Bender) asked Edward to show his prints. They were the first work of such serious quality I had ever seen, but surprisingly I did not immediately understand or even like them; I thought them hard and mannered. Edward never gave the impression that he expected anyone to like his work. His prints were what they were. He gave no explanations; in creating them his obligation to the viewer was completed.”
We all would like our work to be appreciated, but do we sometimes depend too much on the opinions of others? Do we sometimes define our work or even ourselves as artists by what “they” think?
When you focus on producing work that others might like, your work will lack power and confidence. You can never please others, because there are just too many “others” out there and their tastes are fickle. Only when you follow your own creative compass can you be strong, confident and truly creative.
So choose to please yourself, because when it comes to your art, your opinion is the only one that really matters.
P.S. I chose the above image, Urban Starfish, specifically for this topic. It’s an image that I really like, but rarely do others appreciate it. | <urn:uuid:f161a3dc-9ae1-4ebd-ab2d-2d5b2efb2bba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.photographyblackwhite.com/category/objects/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987421 | 316 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Roxanne Simpson, and her husband, Greg, designed and built their kitchen from floor to ceiling in a space where a kitchen never existed before.
“We live in a large, old farmhouse that was part of Greg’s family,” said Roxanne Simpson, who lives a stone’s throw from the Minot Country Store in Minot. “We decided to create a kitchen in a space that was formerly a work room that connected to the barn.”
While it was a dream-come-true project for Simpson, there were a few challenges. The flooring was uneven due to wear-and-tear through the years and the space was huge -- just about 16 by 20 feet. It would take creative vision and good planning to convert the space into a modern day kitchen.
Simpson began by drawing plans for the project. She happens to be an interior decorator who works primarily on commercial spaces. Her plan for the kitchen would be her first venture into residential design.
“I picture things in scale,” said Simpson, who wasted little time in drawing every detail that she wanted incorporated into the new kitchen. Eventually, she would find use for every bit of space available.
Her brother-in-law, Mark Simpson, is a contractor who has done lots of work in the central Maine area and who agreed to take on the project at the family home.
Simpson said that working with a contractor is definitely a partnership where ideas are sometime negotiated between the two parties.
“The space has a very high ceiling and I wanted to add a beam across the room,” said Simpson. “I also wanted to have kitchen cabinets staggered across the room instead of simply straight across.”
While her brother-in-law voiced concerns about the beam and staggered cabinets, Simpson asked him to trust her design and proceed with it.
“Whether the contractor is a family member or not, you should always stay true to the vision that you have for your project,” advised Simpson. “Hold your own to your original design.”
The project took over four months to complete from start to finish. “Mark was working on the kitchen between other contracted jobs that he had underway,” said Simpson. “My husband, Greg, would do most of the prep work to set things up for Mark’s time onsite.”
The completed kitchen indeed has the cross beam across the room and staggered cabinets throughout. There’s a 5-by-8-foot kitchen island that has a sink and electrical power, with cabinets underneath. One section of the island accommodates stools for leisurely dining.
While the only cost of the project was for materials, Simpson made wise budgeting decisions. “I used laminate countertops which were about half the cost of granite,” said Simpson. “However, when it came to the lighting, I spent a bit more to get exactly what I wanted.”
Simpson has sound advice for others undertaking a home renovation project.
“If you want something to be a certain way, then be sure to do it that way unless it is something that you can’t afford,” said Simpson.
And while Simpson had an interior decorating background to guide her in designing her kitchen, she believes there are plenty of other resources available for home renovators.
“Ask for advice from friends or relatives; people who have done similar projects,” suggested Simpson. “Visit local businesses that offer lighting, cabinets, and custom designs. You can learn a tremendous amount by tapping into their expertise.” | <urn:uuid:a0742934-9d4e-4757-b95d-2ce7f6508b3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunjournal.com/news/2012-fall-home/2012/09/08/tap-expertise-local-builders/1240260 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976755 | 759 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Can GM4Mac use LIBs?
Posted 06 December 2010 - 02:49 AM
If you look at http://wiki.yoyogame...e_Maker_for_Mac it says GM4Mac can use
at the bottom of the page there is an example of a .dylib that will work on Mac's but I don't know about .lib's
Extension mechanism to incorporate 3rd party libraries – (need to be Mac specific extensions, will not run Windows)
Posted 07 December 2010 - 03:14 AM
You should probably load one yourself and see what happens. I know for a fact that GM4Mac can run Extensions based in GML or in C code (dylibs). I wrote two, check out the Mac forums.
Posted 08 December 2010 - 06:11 AM
Posted 09 December 2010 - 04:38 AM
I never really used libs. I went past D&D before I even knew they existed.
Posted 09 December 2010 - 05:31 AM
Posted 09 December 2010 - 06:34 AM
However, then it becomes a simple question of whether YYG bothered to program support for them into GM4Mac, e.g. whether it checks the libs directory, and whether it reads in the same file format. The only way to know that is tias (try it and see)
Edited by IsmAvatar, 09 December 2010 - 06:34 AM.
Posted 09 December 2010 - 09:22 AM
I think a good question to ask is, where would the libs directory be found. As a Mac app, all the main content of the app is within the one "file". Searching through the package contents, I found nothing relating to libs. Maybe that means they just didn't bother, or maybe it's buried deep in a hidden folder somewhere in the Library of application details. I think how to test is the biggest problem at the moment.
e.g. whether it checks the libs directory, and whether it reads in the same file format. The only way to know that is tias (try it and see)
Edited by Dangerous_Dave, 09 December 2010 - 09:23 AM.
Posted 09 December 2010 - 05:40 PM
I checked the /home/Library/com.yoyogames.gamemaker folder and there is indeed a /lib/ folder there. Downloaded something random off the GMC (some Pause library), and put it in the folder.
I'm pleased to say it worked perfectly.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users | <urn:uuid:7443a201-7d0a-4910-9043-f9f28b82805e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=492227 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938311 | 544 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Anthrax 'person of interest' sues Ashcroft, FBI
Attorney: Investigation, leaks trampled Hatfill's rights
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steven Hatfill, the former U.S. Army bioweapons scientist named a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax attacks, filed suit Tuesday against Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Justice Department and FBI, saying his constitutional rights were violated.
"Dr. Hatfill had nothing to do with the horrific anthrax attacks," Hatfill attorney Thomas Connolly said.
"No evidence links Dr. Hatfill to the crime, yet the attorney general and his subordinates have attempted to make him a scapegoat. In the process, they have trampled his constitutional rights and destroyed his life."
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, also names various lower-level Justice Department and FBI officials.
It asks for a declaration that government officials violated Hatfill's constitutional rights and seeks an injunction against future violations. It also seeks an undetermined amount of monetary damages.
Hatfill's attorneys said the FBI tipped the news media to searches of Hatfill's home to deflect attention from what the attorneys characterize as a floundering anthrax investigation. They said 24-hour surveillance and wiretaps violated Hatfill's privacy.
The suit alleges:
• Violations of his Fifth Amendment rights by preventing him from earning a living
• Violations of his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him after he sought to have his name cleared in the anthrax probe
• Disclosure of information from his FBI file.
Justice Department officials had no immediate response to Hatfill's lawsuit against the federal government, but they promptly released an internal document showing that the department's ethics watchdogs fully cleared Ashcroft for calling Hatfill a "person of interest."
Hatfill has steadfastly maintained that he had no involvement in the anthrax attacks that came on the heels of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Beginning in October of that year, anthrax-laced letters arrived at offices of U.S. Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, to television network news offices in New York and possibly to other places.
Five people -- two U.S. Postal Service employees in Washington, an employee at American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida, a 94-year-old woman in Oxford, Connecticut, and a New York hospital supply room worker -- died of exposure to anthrax.
Although officials have said they were looking at a list of about 20 people in the case, only Hatfill has been named as a "person of interest." No suspects have been named in the case, and no one has been arrested.
Hatfill, a former Army bioweapons researcher, had his apartment searched three times and lost his job after the "person of interest" designation.
He was fired in September from a position at Louisiana State University, where he was helping train first-responders in the case of a bioterrorism attack.
The firing came after a Justice Department official sent an e-mail to the program director in August directing him not to use Hatfill on any Justice Department-funded programs; the program Hatfill was working on was one such program.
More recently, anthrax investigators drained a Maryland pond as part of their probe. Tests of soil samples taken after the draining yielded no evidence of anthrax.
The pond is about eight miles from the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, where Hatfill once worked. | <urn:uuid:fedcfd54-85c4-4bd9-b539-225e0f4107e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/26/lawsuit.hatfill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97456 | 732 | 1.648438 | 2 |
$32.00 donated in past month
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts
Part I It’s a familiar pattern: those on top of the economic ladder enjoy massive profits, while expecting workers to sacrifice even more for the “greater good.”
This storyline weaves itself into every justification for anti-worker policies. From Washington’s potential Grand Bargain that would cut trillions from needed social programs, to the workplaces with their stagnating wages and declining benefits, those on top plead poverty to workers while stuffing their pockets beyond belief.
The argument is also currently being repeated by the giant multinational corporations that control the nation’s shipping ports.
Fortunately, the Longshore workers are organized into powerful unions that have the ability to fight back against big business greed — something that was recently demonstrated at the port strikes in Los Angles and Long Beach, and which is now underway in the union negotiations happening at ports along the East Coast and at the ports in the Northwest.
Victory in Southern California
An impressive victory was achieved in Los Angeles last month as a result of an eight-day strike by the 800 members of the Office Clerical Unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 63.
For two years the workers had been without a contract as a result of stalling by the Harbor Employer Association. The main issue on the table was job security: the employers were hiring more nonunion superintendents through attrition, outsourcing work to nonunion contractors elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, and finding ways to get fewer employees to perform more work. The members of ILWU Local 63 wanted to put a halt to this not only to preserve their own jobs, but to have these jobs available for future generations.
After two years at the bargaining table, it became clear that the Harbor Employer Association was unwilling to move on the union’s issues. The membership was left with no choice but to strike. And it was Longshore solidarity that won the day.
Ten thousand dockworkers refused to cross Local 63′s picket line, leaving 10 of the 14 ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach at a standstill and $760 million a day of merchandise untouched.
The strike made the impact it needed to; suddenly, the Harbor Employer Association discovered that they were able to make more movement on the union’s demands in a few days than they had for the previous two years.
After eight days on strike, a tentative agreement was reached and later ratified by membership vote. The Harbor Employer Association’s attempts to outsource, at the cost of future working class jobs, hit an unmovable obstacle, resulting in a victory that demonstrates how taking collective action to shut down production can win.
Developments on the East Coast
On the East Coast, a different Longshore union is facing its own difficulties. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) represents 15,000 union dockworkers at 14 ports from Maine to Texas. These ports handle 40 percent of all U.S. container cargo. The ILA is in negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance Ltd. (USMX), an alliance of container carriers, direct employers, and port associates.
It has been 35 years since the ILA went out on strike. And at the end of December, it looked likely that this stretch was up. Dec. 29 was the final day of extended contract negotiations and the membership was ready to grab their picket signs.
The main point of contention was container royalties, a decades-old fee of $4.85 per ton of container cargo paid to the ILA membership. This is a significant amount of income that the workers take in. USMX insisted on reinstating a cap on this fee that the ILA had successfully fought to remove in the last two-year contract.
In an e-mail an ILA spokesman said the following:
We let USMX defer $42 million of container royalty money to help pay for the $1.00 an hour increase that was due longshore workers — we, in essence, paid for our own raise — and now USMX wants the CAP back on. They got the benefit and now they want us to go backwards.
On Dec. 28, ILA President Harold J. Daggett sent out a public announcement stating:
I am pleased to announce that the ILA made major gains on the Container Royalty issue that will protect our ILA members. Consequently, we agreed to extend the ILA Master Contract by 30 days, beyond the December 29th deadline (because of the year-end holidays, the deadline of the new extension will be February 6, 2013).
What these major gains are remains unclear, and George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is demanding that all parties keep their lips tight for now. Consequently, there is no telling how the next few weeks of negotiations will go.
The ILA membership does not have any reason to stand down from strike preparations. The moment for decision will come when the membership has a tentative agreement in their hands and has a chance to read the fine print, collectively discuss it and vote.
The only certainty is that they are more likely to get a good contract and avoid a strike if they are prepared to go on a strike that will choke USMX’s profit flow off. | <urn:uuid:2d465191-e6dc-4643-b0a1-390d04f12ce5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/01/08/18729694.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965384 | 1,105 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Couch surfing - a new wave of travel
Imagine you’re on a blind date, except this time your ‘date’ has brought their sleeping bag and toothbrush with them. Don’t worry though, this isn’t an advert for a new dating site, this is couchsurfing.
With less in our wallets today, the savvy backpacker needs to be more resourceful now than ever before. That’s where the worldwide phenomenon of couchsurfing comes in. A free way to see the world, it has introduced a new wave of travel in to the industry. Yes, you read it right, it’s completely free! The lack of cost is just one of the reasons why the number of couchsurfers has increased over the past year and now has an astounding four million users, with that number set to quadruple over the following years. Keeping it simple, the name says it all, you move from sofa to sofa staying at people’s houses.
So how does it actually work?
Like a blind date you’ve checked out each other’s profiles on the couchsurfing website (www.couchsurfing.org) but instead of those first date butterflies, you’re gaining an insight in to another culture far beyond what a guide book can offer you.
Once you’ve created your profile, stating where you want to go, the languages you speak, and where you’ve travelled to before, you have two options; surfing, or hosting. If you’re suffering from the travelling bug, hosting a couchsurfer will keep it at bay. It allows you to immerse yourself in another culture and teach others about your own without even leaving the country. Whether you’ve got a fully equipped spare room complete with en-suite or just a sofa in the lounge, it doesn’t matter; you just have to be welcoming and enthusiastic about meeting new people and sharing experiences.
Is it safe?
From the very beginning there’s a huge degree of trust; you’re relying totally on a stranger to open their home to you and they are trusting you, as a stranger in their home. Members on the site are encouraged to leave detailed references of their experiences and can rate people as positive, negative or neutral. The site also offers optional verification of name and address for a small fee which then displays an icon on your profile showing users that you have been verified.
Why do it?
As well as saving money on accommodation, you’ll also have the invaluable privilege of knowing an ‘insider’ to the city you’re staying in. Hosts will be able to take you to places the guidebook can’t; those little hidden coffee shops, restaurants and bars and the hidden gems of the city the tourism industry is yet to discover. Not only are they often the best experiences, but you won’t feel like such a tourist either.
“It feels like the whole world is your family.”
Jana, 23, from Latvia is an experienced couchsurfer and I caught up with her whilst she was couchsurfing in Sheffield. She started using the website five years ago and has since travelled to Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovakia, England and Germany.
She said: “It feels like the whole world is your family! From the moment they trust you with their full address, make you a meal, lend you their best pillow, to trusting you with their key, it really is amazing.”
Jana has never had a bad experience couchsurfing either, she said: “You always have a choice to say no, so make a plan B and find two people that can host you.”
Tips on how to stay safe
Like any area of travel, there are aspects which aren't safe and could put you in danger. To avoid getting in to dangerous situations always make sure you give someone the name, address and contact details of where you are staying. Make alternative arrangements as well so that if you do feel unsafe or uncomfortable in someones house you have somewhere else to go. Travelling in a pair or a small group offers added safety as well and can make the whole experience much less daunting. | <urn:uuid:50a4395d-92ff-4558-91e1-da8017a86661> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.student365.co.uk/Feature/267,coachsurfing | 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 | 0.959278 | 889 | 1.515625 | 2 |
'Children of Men' imagines a near-future in which mankind faces extinction.
"Children of Men" is the rare piece of futurism that actually looks and feels like it was taking place years from now – 2027 to be exact. Loosely adapted from a 1992 P.D. James novel and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, it's a doomsday nightmare that seems all too contemporary.
And that contemporaneity is, of course, the mark of a true apocalyptic vision. Because we don't see ourselves reflected in it, the futurism of most sci-fi is not disturbing. It's escapist. But the George Orwell who wrote "1984" was thinking of his own era. Likewise, Cuarón, aided immensely by his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, draws imagery from the here and now. The ravages of Iraq and global terrorism are this film's template.
Clive Owen plays Theo, a former political activist who is now a burned-out functionary for the Ministry of Energy in London. Mankind has become infertile. The world has been pulled apart by sectarian violence, and Britain, the only country that hasn't devolved into anarchy, has closed its borders. The refugees who nevertheless pour in – unaffectionately referred to as "fugees" – are captured, caged, and deported. The country survives as a totalitarian state with omnipresent security police and surveillance cameras. A public service announcement declares, "The world has collapsed. Only Britain soldiers on."
Theo is drawn into a rescue mission engineered by his ex-lover Julian (Julianne Moore), a radical fighting for refugee rights. His job is to spirit Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), an African woman, out of the country. He soon discovers she's pregnant. It's been almost 19 years since a child has been born into this world.
Cuarón is one of the most versatile living directors. His first Hollywood film, "A Little Princess," is a family classic and, at the opposite extreme, "Y Tu Mamá También" is a great coming-of-age sexcapade. His "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is the easily best Potter film.
"Children of Men" is unlike anything the director has done before. Much of it was shot hand-held. He stages a couple of sequences, notably a terrorist ambush in the countryside, that are startlingly sinuous. The horror appears to be happening right in front of our eyes in a single take. | <urn:uuid:4c3a0a77-d189-4321-8744-305a19beab88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/2007/0105/p16s01-almo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964981 | 531 | 1.5 | 2 |
For the last five years, Bill Crow has been working on HD Photo, a new image file format that’s intended to supplant the JPEG format currently at the heart of the digital photography ecosystem.
I first met Bill many years ago when he came to BYTE to show us HP NewWave, which was probably the earliest effort to produce an object-oriented file system for Windows — originally, believe it or not, for Windows 1.0. The connection between NewWave and HD Photo is tenuous, but it does exist in the sense that the metadata strategies we’re seeing today (see the truth is in the file) point the way toward ending the tyranny of the hierarchical file system.
Today’s podcast begins by revisiting NewWave, but it’s mostly about HD Photo: Why it was created, how it works, what it will mean to both amateur photographers (“happy snappers”) as well as pros, and how it will be standardized and baked into a next generation of digital cameras.
Along the way I learned a huge amount about the current state of digital photography. For example, I knew that pros prefer to shoot in RAW format, but I wasn’t clear what that meant. According to Bill, a RAW image is just sensor data from a high-end camera, which photo processing software later turns into an image. The professional photographer trades away convenience for control and flexibility. In the case of the JPEG images produced by the vast majority of digicams, though, it’s the other way around. We get usable images without any fuss, but we give up the ability to reinterpret the data. HD Photo aims for the best of both worlds: ultimate control and flexibility if you desire, convenience when you don’t.
Although Bill guesses we’re two years away from commercial HD Photo cameras, the format is being used today to support Photosynth. As he explains on his blog, a compressed Photo HD image has a regular structure that makes it possible to extract images at various levels of detail without decoding the entire image.
There’s a whole lot more to the story. I hugely enjoyed this conversation, and I think you will too. | <urn:uuid:c9536345-f1fc-47be-84a1-fbb64c156975> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/04/02/a-conversation-with-bill-crow-about-hd-photo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937571 | 457 | 1.710938 | 2 |
(Interview with KING-TV, Seattle, Wash.)
Q: How close are we in your estimation to going to war with Iraq?
Rumsfeld: Well, you know, I can't answer that question, because I just don't know. It is a matter that the United Nations is considering, and the president of the United States is considering. The Congress has voted overwhelmingly to support the president's concern about Iraq and their weapons of mass destruction. And the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously also for the first resolution. And we'll just have to see how it plays out. Certainly Secretary Powell made a very persuasive case yesterday morning.
Q: Do you agree with the assessment that it's a matter of weeks and not months?
Rumsfeld: I don't get into guessing games about that type of thing. It seems to me that until a decision's made, it's not made, and the president is the person who does that, and the United Nations is considering the possibility of a second resolution.
Q: We have a couple of thousand families living in our broadcast area here in Western Washington with people on board the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln deployed from Everett last June, and last week we heard the Lincoln is now on something called "indefinite deployment." Is this marking a shift to deployments for the duration in the style of, say, World War II?
Rumsfeld: Well, I wouldn't say that. Look, what we are engaged in here is not World War II. What we are engaged in here is a flow of forces designed to support the diplomacy that's taking place in the United Nations and the international community. There's no question but that in some instances, we've had to call up Guard and Reserve to provide the kinds of capabilities that are important to support the diplomacy. There's also no question but that we have had to extend some people, and as well as some tours or deployments, as you indicate is the case here.
Q: Senator Biden said on the Hill this morning, where Secretary Powell is testifying, that GI Joe and GI Jane may not come home right away after any military action in Iraq. It may be months, it may be years. Is that an assessment you would go along with?
Rumsfeld: Oh, I think that the way I would characterize it -- I didn't hear precisely what Senator Biden said, but the way I would characterize it is that the United States does feel an obligation. For example, in Afghanistan, having driven the Taliban out, having driven the al Qaeda out, we still have, I suppose, something in the neighborhood of 9,000 American troops there. And they're there because we feel an obligation to see that that country has a chance to keep terrorists out and not simply go back to being a training ground for terrorists. And the international community is participating in that. We have other countries participating.
In the event force has to be used to disarm Iraq, there is no question but that some much smaller number than would be involved in any conflict, a smaller number would be there along with other international forces to serve in a transition period to see that what succeeded Saddam Hussein was a regime, a government that did not have weapons of mass destruction, did not threaten its neighbors, was able to maintain a single country, and would be on a path towards providing the right kind of rights and freedoms to the various minority groups and ethnic groups in that country.
So he's right in the sense that it would take some U.S. presence. But it would be wrong to suggest that it would be the same people who were there that they would not come home. Or it would also be wrong to suggest that it would be the United States alone, because it wouldn't be. It would be a -- we have a large number of countries who already volunteered to participate in a coalition of the willing.
Q: I'm speaking to you from the congressional district represented by Congressman Jim McDermott. You know his views on war with Iraq well, and a lot of people here in Western Washington just don't get why war with Iraq and why now. If you could address them now, what would you tell them?
Rumsfeld: Well, I agree with them in the sense that war is always the last choice. And I think that if one goes back and thinks that it's been 12 years since the Gulf War, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, having already attacked its neighbor in Iraq, and having already used chemical weapons on its own people and on its neighbors, and having fired ballistic missiles into four of its neighboring countries -- it's been 12 years and there's been an enormous diplomatic effort, and it's failed. There's been years of economic sanctions which didn't have to be there as long as Saddam Hussein would give up weapons of mass destruction. But he refused year after year after year. There's been limited military activity in the northern and southern no-fly zones. So what's taken place with the latest U.N. resolution, which was passed unanimously by the international community, said, "Let's give Iraq one final opportunity to cooperate." And his response was to file a fraudulent declaration. And, as Secretary Powell said yesterday, his response has been to try to deny and deceive and frustrate the work of the inspectors.
Now, why now? And the answer is that every week that goes by, his weapons of mass destruction programs become more mature; he has relationships with terrorist networks, as Secretary Powell indicated; there's an enormous body of evidence that's been presented. And I guess if one thinks back to September 11th, where 3,000 innocent men, women and children were killed, imagine that that's not the use of aircraft but instead it's the use of a biological weapon or a chemical weapon, or some day down the road a nuclear weapon.
Q: One last question we may have time for. What can you tell us about reports of increased chatter among terrorist suspects that any military action against Iraq might unleash a new wave of terror attacks on U.S. military targets here and abroad?
Rumsfeld: Well, the short answer is that it doesn't take an attack on Iraq to unleash attacks, terrorist attacks, on the United States. They've already done it. What do you think September 11th was? What do you think attacks taking place all across the globe are? In the last 30 days there have been six, eight or 10 terrorist attacks. The idea that dealing with Iraq would precipitate something that isn't currently going on misunderstands what's currently going on.
Q: All right, sir. I understand our time is up, and I want to thank you for your time.
Rumsfeld: Thank you.
"THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE INC., WASHINGTON, D.C. FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE IS A PRIVATE COMPANY. FOR OTHER DEFENSE RELATED TRANSCRIPTS NOT AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS SITE, CONTACT FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE AT (202) 347-1400." | <urn:uuid:02ac3be2-d9d2-417e-a700-de380534f48d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1906 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983012 | 1,457 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Florida Statutesa permanent collection of state laws organized by subject area into a code made up of titles, chapters, parts, and sections. The Florida Statutes are updated annually by laws that create, amend, transfer, or repeal statutory material.
Legislative changes to the Florida Statutes effective up to and including January 1, 2011, are treated as current for publication of the 2010 Florida Statutes. This means that some material in the 2010 edition may not take effect up to or until January 1, 2011. Amendments effective on January 2, 2011, or later, will appear as footnotes.
To research effective dates of legislation affecting statutory provisions, consult the laws listed in the "History" provision that follows each statutes section. For the previous version, please consult the 2009 Florida Statutes at this site.
Florida Constitutionan organized system of fundamental principles for the government of the state. It is of a permanent and general nature and originates from the people rather than from the Legislature.
Laws of Floridaa compilation of all the laws, resolutions, and memorials passed during a legislative session. They are divided into two broad categories-General Laws and Special Laws. Bills vetoed by the Governor are not included. | <urn:uuid:92419f45-2941-44be-94bd-e452ca3280ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?submenu=-1&Tab=statutes&CFID=28405017&CFTOKEN=87237689 | 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 | 0.944231 | 246 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Wolves are benevolent. Wolves are demons. Little Red Riding Hood should have never trusted the big bad one, and Liam Neeson and the crew of The Grey really did eat one—I think. Well, it could have been a Hollywood publicity stunt. Or maybe the film’s director just wanted the actors to take Alaska’s wilderness, and wildlife, seriously. We are what we eat. We are also what we watch, and what we read.
The wolves in BK Loren’s debut novel THEFT are nothing like the wolves in The Grey. Actually, no real wolf pack much resembles the wolves in The Grey. Hollywood is good at creating heroes and villains, just like the federal government when it began subsidizing wolf extermination on federal lands in 1915. (Read “Wolves and the Balance of Nature” Smithsonian).
Unlike the government, BK doesn’t use the novel to further an agenda, political or otherwise. THEFT tells a story without burdening the reader, though we’re left a bit haunted (in a good way). Life is not simple in this lyrical novel - the brother and sister are so real that they bleed on the page, the wolves are neither teddy bears nor monsters, the story’s landscape is large and contoured with conflict, and the narrative voices as diverse as the West. Yet somehow BK manages to create such a taut “through line” that the reader never gets lost even when the complex characters lose their way. (Did I mention that the main character Willa is a professional tracker?) No irony there. But this time, instead of tracking Mexican wolves, she's tracking her brother. Read the plot line and come to the Denver Tattered Cover book signing June 18.
I gratefully grabbed a hold of this through line during a 22-hour return trip home from Peru. If I’d been flying with a crow instead of an airplane, I would have passed directly over the historic homeland of the Mexican Grey Wolf (featured on the book’s cover).
Historically, wolves are afraid of two things: humans, and fires (three things, I suppose, if we include Saber Tooth Tigers). These are primal fears. Humans are, after all, walking talking carnivorous predators. And Fire is Nature’s greatest omnivore, eating everything in its path.
As I write this, the West is burning once again. Huge parts of New Mexico and Colorado are on fire. The High Park Fire near Ft. Collins (started by lightning) has consumed 46,600 acres, and has already claimed the life of rancher Linda Steadman (the family’s cattle survived). June 11, the Los Angeles Times picked up a story about hybrid wolves at a Colorado wolf sanctuary. June 12, Denver’s CBS news station reported that all the hybrid wolves had been moved to safety. I haven't heard anything about other animals, domestic or wild, which are no doubt fleeing the dry, brittle and burning high country of these two states. According to the Star Tribune Nation, the Little Bear Blaze near Ruidoso, New Mexico, has burned over 58 square miles in the Sierra Blanca Range, a landscape Willa the character in Theft probably knows as well as she knows her Peterson's Animal Tracks field guide.
Yes, the West is burning. It's no wonder that Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association just awarded the adult nonfiction Reading the West prize to Philip Connors for his book FIRE SEASON: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout (HarperCollins Publishers, 2011). Ten years ago, Connors was an editor with The Wall Street Journal. He traded it all in to spend more than 100 days a year in a fire tower overlooking a remote forest in New Mexico. "I love my office," he writes, "twenty paces from the cabin, 65 more up the steps of the tower....A new smoke often looks beautiful, a wisp of white like a feather, a single snag puffing a finger of smoke in the air." Listen to the book trailer.
For BK Loren, writing a story is not just about watching, or telling, it's about listening. "It begins with listening to a whisper," she says (quoted from New Millennium Writings). Is there a bit of autobiography in THEFT? Of course. No good book gets written that the author's own blood, sweat and tears does not somehow permeate the pages. Maybe that's why I liked Willa the tracker so much. Like BK, she listens. She understands that hope lies in understanding the language of the Other.
"Across the land, one wolf howls. There is a gap of time when there is nothing. And then, another wolf answers. They go back and forth like this, the howls like brushstrokes hollowing out the night with sound."
Hope to see you and BK at the Tattered Cover signing in Denver, Monday, June 18th! And watch for BK's next book, ANIMAL. MINERAL. RADICAL. Forthcoming soon from Counterpoint Press. | <urn:uuid:2b41b41c-700d-4ac0-bfa7-79f4a14ffc4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pagelambert.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953635 | 1,063 | 1.625 | 2 |
Information contained on this page is provided by companies via press release distributed through PR Newswire, an independent third-party content provider. PR Newswire, WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
SOURCE K12 Inc.
Highly Individualized Learning Program Enables School Districts to Increase Engagement and Academic Outcomes for Students Away from the Classroom
HERNDON, Va., Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- K12 Inc., the nation's leading provider of technology-powered individualized education solutions for students in pre-kindergarten through high school, today announced that since August 2012 it has signed new agreements to provide its Homebound Education and Alternative Learning (HEAL) program to more than 110 school districts. The HEAL program is one of four full-time online learning programs that K12 provides to school districts.
Designed to meet the needs of students who are away from the classroom for an extended period due to injury, illness, behavioral, or other issues, K12's HEAL program combines online curriculum, interactive technology, and services, such as instruction by certified teachers and mentoring, to enable students to continue to receive a high quality education, engage with other students, and to maintain their rate of progress toward graduation.
Lacey Township School District in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, launched the HEAL program this past fall. Carly M. Londrigan, Counselor for Lacey Township School District, says, "The K12 HEAL program has been a great asset and addition to our school district. We are now able to service students who require homebound instruction at various levels and times to meet their individual needs."
In Southbridge, Massachusetts, the HEAL program is benefiting students like "Samantha," an 11th grader who suffers from debilitating migraines, hyper somnolence, and severe social anxiety. "Samantha" fell behind while attending therapeutic residential school away from her home. Since "Samantha" had a positive experience with K12 years earlier, her mother introduced Southbridge Public Schools to K12. The district decided to implement the HEAL program, enabling "Samantha" to return home and complete her school work there. She is now on track, often working ahead of her assignment schedule.
"Samantha's" mother says, "I'm so grateful to K12 for being there, allowing my daughter to be home ... I believe that the flexibility in scheduling is imperative for children like her." To read the full story, visit k12.com/educators/targeted-solutions/homebound-alternative.
In addition to New Jersey and Massachusetts, K12 now provides its HEAL program, either directly or through agreements with educational consortiums or cooperatives, to school districts in Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
The HEAL program not only provides students flexibility, but also has been reported to lower school district costs to provide homebound education. For example, one Florida school district reported that the K12 HEAL program was expected to reduce the cost to serve its homebound students by 20 percent over a full school year. Further, each student who participated in the district's HEAL program successfully kept on pace with their schoolwork.
"The HEAL program is an economical solution for school districts who won't sacrifice providing high-quality curriculum and instruction to their students when they are away from the classroom," said John Olsen, Executive Vice President of Operations for K12 Inc. "Online learning provides the flexibility and individualization that homebound and alternative education students require to stay engaged and on track."
The K12 HEAL program integrates the following components:
For more information about the K12 HEAL program, visit k12.com/educators/targeted-solutions/homebound-alternative to download the "Guide to Implementing Online Homebound Education for Schools and Districts" and see other information. To review a recorded webinar hosted by K12's HEAL Senior Program Manager, Kim Spencer, called "Improving Outcomes for Homebound/Alternative Education Students with Online Learning," visit k12.com/educators/event-type/recorded-webinars.
K12 provides schools and districts the industry's most complete continuum of proprietary pre-kindergarten through high school online learning solutions for full-time virtual, blended, and traditional classroom learning environments. By integrating curriculum, technology and services, K12 empowers our school and district partners to provide individualized learning and maximize student and district outcomes. Over the past decade, the company has served more than 2,000 districts and delivered over 4 million online course enrollments from its award-winning portfolio. For more information on K12's online solutions for schools and districts, visit k12.com/educators.
About K12 Inc.
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) is leading the transformation to individualized learning as the nation's foremost provider of technology-powered online solutions for students in pre-kindergarten through high school. K12 manages public schools serving more than 120,000 full-time students in 32 states and the District of Columbia and private schools serving students in all 50 states and 85 countries. K12 also provides online curricula, academic services, and learning solutions to public schools and districts, through traditional classroom, blended school, and full-time online environments. In addition, K12 provides its solutions directly to families. K12's curriculum is rooted in decades of research combined with 21st-century technology by cognitive scientists, interactive designers and teachers. K12's portfolio of more than 550 unique courses and titles -- the most extensive in the technology-based education industry -- covers every core subject and up to four academic levels for high school including Honors and AP®. K12 also offers credit recovery courses, career-building electives, remediation support, six world languages and a deep STEM offering. More information can be found at k12.com.
© 2012 K12 Inc. K12 and Aventa Learning are registered trademarks, and the K12 logo is a trademark of K12 Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:64f5b7d1-31c9-40dc-bf96-7a91614415ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wfsb.com/story/21422782/k12-inc-adds-more-than-110-school-district-partners-to-recently-introduced-online-homebound-education-and-alternative-learning-heal-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953353 | 1,312 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
First published in 1958
Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit's friendship with the "witch" is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft!
In honor of our Salem Witches Week, I chose The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare for the Throwback Thursday selection. This wonderful book was first published in 1958. I remember reading it as a pre-teen. I know at the time I had no idea how old the book was and had I realized it I might have skipped it. I'm so glad I didn't. It has been a long favorite book of mine. When I was planning on reading it for this week's review, I was curious as to how I would like it now that I am well past my pre-teen years. Well, I still love this book!
The Witch of Blackbird Pond is so well written. It not only is an entertaining story about a girl who finds a home, it is a good history lesson. The reader is immersed on Puritan culture of New England before the revolutionary war. I loved all of the characters in this book. Kit is a free-spirited girl who has been raised with very different views from those of her family in Connecticut. I enjoyed seeing the changes that Kit brings about in all of those she encounters, especially her uncle. The ending is just perfect. This story is one of growth, change and learning to be true to yourself.
If you haven't had the chance yet, give it a shot. If you loved it like I do, share it with a young reader who hasn't discovered this wonderful story yet. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to enjoy it! | <urn:uuid:bc951187-197c-496a-a962-556b64d04575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fromthetbrpile.blogspot.com/2011/06/throwback-thursday-salem-witches-week.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979406 | 484 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Reviewed by Louis MidgleyWith playful seriousness and as part of an amusing response to some truly dreadful anti-Mormon literature, in 1963 Hugh Nibley set down "a few general rules observed by all successful writers in this fascinating and lucrative field."1 Three decades later, Massimo Introvigne noted that "a new generation of anti-Mormon writers has emerged, and they no longer follow Nibley's classic instructions on 'how to write an anti-Mormon book.'"2 Though "the humor" of Nibley's essay, according to Introvigne, "is still enjoyable, even though first published more than twenty [now thirty] years ago, a visit to the anti-Mormon sections of most Evangelical bookstores demonstrates that the anti-Mormonism with which Nibley crossed swords is today largely out of fashion."3
What is it that had replaced the older strains of anti-Mormonism by 1994? Twenty years after Nibley set down his insightful and amusing "general rules," the picture changed when the fundamentalist/evangelical world was bombarded with an unseemly film, shown extensively by clergy, entitled The God Makers, which was then also sold under the same title in book form.4 Introvigne labeled this (and similar, related sectarian anti-Mormon rhetoric) "post-rational" to distinguish it from the sort of literature that Nibley was spoofing in the sixties, which had at least the outward appearance of rationality. The older, somewhat less irrational varieties of sectarian anti-Mormonism tended to attribute the existence and success of the church mainly to a combination of human greed and gullibility, though Satan was never entirely absent from the explanation. In this recent, post-rational version of anti-Mormon propaganda, according to Introvigne, fundamentalist preachers now insist that swarms of demons are responsible for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been in full control of its leaders and benighted dupes right from the start, though greed and gullibility also appear as elements in the mix.
The notion that everything preachers dislike is the direct work of Satan did not suddenly come on the scene de novo in the 1980s; it has turned up here and there in the past. Introvigne was able to demonstrate that the sensationalistic nonsense advanced by Ed Decker and Dave Hunt, and subsequently spelled out in even more lurid detail by writers like Bill Schnoebelen and James Spencer,5 was in part merely a recycling of much older nonsense. This kind of recycling had been described by Nibley in 1963 as the way in which anti-Mormon literature has been formulated from the beginning. Introvigne also argued that the "theological and historical roots" of this post-rational version of sectarian anti-Mormonism "can be traced to larger movements extending beyond narrow Mormon boundaries," even though it also continues to borrow themes and arguments from both secular and sectarian anti-Mormon predecessors.6 Of course, anti-Mormonism is still at least partially a hackneyed, formulaic, paint-by-numbers affair, especially when one moves beyond the few agencies and individuals who devote their exclusive or primary attention to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and examines the larger sectarian countercult industry.
But there have recently been some shifts in the anti-Mormon landscape. In the last decade, a small group of evangelicals has sensed a growing awareness of the embarrassing weaknesses in the literature being marketed by the sectarian countercult version of anti-Mormonism. The countercult movement was given much of its current configuration and direction, especially in its approach to the Church of Jesus Christ, by the notorious "Dr." Walter Martin, the veritable "father of Christian cult apologetics."7 Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ have been put increasingly on the defensive, beginning in 1989, by the publication of sophisticated criticisms of both secular and sectarian anti-Mormon books and essays. For the first time, Latter-day Saint scholars have had a venue in which they could publish such detailed critiques. This response to anti-Mormon literature commenced with the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon (now known as FARMS Review of Books) and was soon supplemented by the publication of two books exposing in considerable detail many of the basic weaknesses of sectarian anti-Mormonism.8 What was begun in the 1960s by Hugh Nibley in two entertaining books9 as a momentary diversion from his interest in the scriptures and the ancient world has now been taken up by a host of Latter-day Saint scholars. In addition, anti-Mormonism took some blows with the publication of Craig Blomberg and Stephen Robinson's How Wide the Divide?10 Countercultists tend to despise this book and have refused to acknowledge it precisely because it does not follow the stereotypical pattern of distortion and dissembling common among anti-Mormons. Its tone was also civil, and it allowed a Latter-day Saint to speak. For the first time it became apparent to some evangelicals that the countercult movement has been producing and marketing a detestable literature. The countercult movement was exposed to morally earnest, conservative Protestants as an intellectual and moral failure—a gross embarrassment to their faith.
If this seems extreme, then one ought to consider the recent statement by Richard J. Mouw, president of the Fuller Theological Seminary. According to Mouw, "as an evangelical I must confess that I am ashamed of our record in relating to the Mormon community."11 Of course, there are, according to Mouw, deep differences between evangelicals and Latter-day Saints over some crucial issues. "But none of those disagreements give me or any other evangelical the license to propagate distorted accounts of what Mormons believe. By bearing false witness against our LDS neighbors, we evangelicals have often sinned not just against Mormons but against the God who calls us to be truth-tellers."12 Mouw clearly wishes to distance himself from the abysmal literature produced and marketed by the anti-Mormon elements within the fundamentalist/evangelical countercult movement; he is appalled by what he describes as the "very poor quality" of the "exchanges between evangelicals and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."13 The two groups, he thinks, have either traded insults or talked past each other.14 Perhaps, but in my own experience, anti-Mormons do not primarily target the Latter-day Saints as their audience. They are not really seeking to evangelize or educate Latter-day Saints. Instead, they are busy selling a product to those anxious to learn more of the challenge posed by the dreaded cults. Their target audience is composed of Baptists or other conservative Christians who have an appetite for lurid tales about the Saints, or those who sectarians fear are vulnerable to the proselytizing efforts of Latter-day Saints.
The Latter-day Saint responses to anti-Mormon propaganda have been defensive. We have not imagined that we must persuade or can even educate those in the countercult industry. We have learned from sad experience that it is simply not possible to have a genuine conversation with those whose business is to attack our faith. The few efforts that Latter-day Saint scholars have made to befriend and educate countercultists have been dismal failures. After some initial friendly banter, nothing ever really changes. Latter-day Saint apologists have instead sought to provide resources that answer questions raised by those interested in hearing our message or those troubled by anti-Mormon charges or claims.
What Mouw seems to wish for is a reasonable exchange of opinions between evangelicals and Latter-day Saints. Specifically, he anticipates a civil, respectful, responsible conversation with what he describes as "a community of gifted Mormon intellectuals."15 With this group he hopes for a "mutual exploration of some of the fundamental issues that bear on the human condition."16 However, this conversation is not one between equals or for the purpose of mutual understanding. Building on some earlier experiences of countercultists actually negotiating what may have amounted to an ideological surrender by the Worldwide Church of God and by the leaders of the Seventh-Day Adventists,17 Mouw and his colleagues may hope that conversations with a few Latter-day Saint intellectuals will eventually turn Latter-day Saints (or the Church of Jesus Christ) into their brand of evangelicals. Mouw seems to anticipate—or at least hope—that such an "exploration" might make possible a "significant theological revision" of Latter-day Saint beliefs, perhaps as the result of what he believes are signs of "LDS theological fluidity," which he links with the "strong emphasis on continuing revelation" among the Saints. He is thus "hopeful that Latter-day Saints will respond to the invitation to keep the conversation going."18 So it seems that a few evangelicals believe that a conversation or dialogue has already begun that may eventually lead the Saints to move more in the direction of what evangelicals insist is orthodox, historic, trinitarian, biblical Christianity. If this is the case, they clearly do not understand the Church of Jesus Christ. They mistake signs of comity as an indication of our propensity to seek their approval and even as a willingness to adopt their ideology. What they offer is merely a less strident, somewhat better informed version of sectarian anti-Mormonism. Why?
Mouw's remarks are found in the foreword to a book entitled The New Mormon Challenge. This collection of essays is not an effort by evangelicals to set out the history of their faction of conservative Protestantism and its complex relationship with the Christian past, to explain to the Saints the various strands and currents in evangelical dogmatic theology, or to set out evangelical stances on issues important to their faith community or currently being debated within it. Nor are these individuals offering—or even able—to engage in an interfaith dialogue, a genuine conversation between equals. It is also clear that the few Latter-day Saint intellectuals with whom they have had some friendly conversations are not authorized to engage in such a dialogue. When they talk about a "respectful" conversation, do they have in mind one in which there is deference or esteem granted by each party to the views of the other party? For a genuinely respectful conversation to take place, there must be an informal and entirely voluntary recognition of the claims of the other one. To this point, there has been nothing approaching the kind of interfaith dialogues that have taken place between various versions of Christian faith. Instead, The New Mormon Challenge is merely the latest attack on Latter-day Saint beliefs. It differs from the older literature in that it is less acerbic and much better informed and more polite, courteous, and civil. It is still, however, anti-Mormon to the core.
Carl Mosser, the driving force behind this new endeavor, makes it clear that he believes that the existence of the Church of Jesus Christ threatens "the health of evangelicalism."19 Since he has discovered that Latter-day Saints are both willing and able to provide sophisticated accounts of their beliefs and defend them against various criticisms, he has been concerned over this "new Mormon challenge." He and his associates seek "to prevent Mormonism from becoming one of the largest worldwide faiths at our expense."20 For these and other reasons, he speaks of the need to "retard the spread and growth of the LDS faith."21 The analysis and arguments that inform and flow from this new, somewhat more academic, evangelical apologetic effort being led by Mosser differ in several ways from the propaganda advanced by the spate of countercult preachers and agencies inspired by the late "Dr." Walter Martin. In addition to not being nasty or vitriolic and manifesting an awareness of Latter-day Saint scholarship, this new, more sophisticated attack on the foundation of the faith of the Saints may have as its goal the radical transformation of the church and not simply the persuading of individual Saints to abandon the faith—a kind of negotiated surrender, first by intellectuals and then eventually by the Brethren. If they imagine that such might be possible, they are still losing the battle without knowing it.
In short, what Mosser and company seek is not a dialogue but an end to Latter-day Saint proselytizing. Mosser insists that he cannot "in good conscience consider Mormonism a legitimately Christian faith." He likes what he considers to be signs that some of the Saints are now moving in the right theological direction, and he hopes that "the LDS Church as a whole follows" their lead.22 He and his associates imagine that they are having a conversation with people who are not genuine Christians. They claim to be evangelizing the Saints and perhaps the Church of Jesus Christ. But they are wrong; they are entirely in the proselytizing mode. They are not evangelizing those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, since on this crucial issue Latter-day Saints are and have always been fully evangelical.
The Saints see themselves as the children or seed of Christ through a covenant in which they take upon themselves his name. But from the perspective provided by the dogmatic theology of Mosser and his associates—that is, from their reading of the Bible—"Mormonism's heresies are legion."23 Well, there are in fact some deep differences in the way we read the Bible and what we believe about divine things. But if the issue is whether the Saints accept Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Savior, and not whether we agree with a particular reading of the Bible (and thus with a particular theological formulation that evangelicals assume necessarily constitutes a genuine Christian), then Mosser and his associates cannot in good conscience exclude Latter-day Saints from the ranks of Christians. And to grant that Latter-day Saints put their trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior would then make a mockery of the evangelicals' claim that they are evangelizing. One does not, according to their own ideology, evangelize those who already trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But, of course, Latter-day Saints make no distinction between evangelizing and proselytizing, so we find nothing problematic about baptizing Baptists.
Though they may not realize it, the editors of The New Mormon Challenge are following rather closely some of the rules that Nibley set out in his "Handbook for Beginners." They hold the reader's hand tightly, insisting on pointing out their own qualifications and accomplishments. With no trace of modesty, they claim that the book they have written and edited "is a rare book that is worth reading,"24 that it "pioneers a new genre of literature on Mormonism" with its "outstanding scholarship and sound methodology" (dust cover). They assert that "if you are sharing the gospel with Mormons or investigating Mormonism for yourself, this book will help you accurately understand Mormonism and see the superiority of the historic Christian faith." They also maintain that "this book really ought to be read by anyone with an interest in the truth claims of Mormonism, regardless of religious background or reason for interest. We think we can safely say," they boast, "without presumption, that The New Mormon Challenge is a truly groundbreaking and epoch-making book."25 Nibley's first playful bit of advice to the fledgling writer of an anti-Mormon book reads as follows: "Don't be modest! Your first concern," he informs the neophyte anti-Mormon, "should be to make it clear that You are the man for the job, that amidst a 'mass of lies and contradictions' you are uniquely fitted to pass judgment."26
On the heels of this advice comes Nibley's second rule, followed closely by Beckwith, Mosser, and Owen: "A benign criticism of your predecessors will go far towards confirming your own preeminence in the field. Refer gently but firmly," Nibley admonishes, "to the bias, prejudices, and inadequate research, however unconscious or understandable, of other books on the subject.27" It should be noted that Mosser and Owen began their venture into anti-Mormonism with an essay in which they neatly positioned themselves to come to the rescue of the evangelicals overwhelmed by the "new Mormon challenge" by doing what previous writers have lacked the skill and knowledge to accomplish.28
Mosser thus still lectures his fellow evangelicals that "as a community, with respect to Mormonism . . . , we have often succumbed to the sinful habits of caricaturing and demonizing the enemy, recycling arguments that have long been answered, refusing to admit genuine mistakes, and being generally uncharitable."29 He thinks that God is calling evangelicals to change their evil ways and become more charitable, courteous, and respectful of those they still insist are not Christians. But how can one have benevolent goodwill toward those one must characterize as essentially unbelievers—even pagans—who have not come unto Christ, simply in order to get them to submit to a particular brand of theology? Is it the Christ who saves or some theological dogmas to which one must assent in order to be included by evangelicals in their club?
Nibley correctly saw—Satan, greed, and gullibility notwithstanding—that the "real villain of every anti-Mormon book is Mormonism."30 And he also reminds his readers that "every anti-Mormon book is a sermon."31 Without realizing it, Mosser and his associates have followed Nibley's impish advice on this matter. One only has to look at the homilies that begin and end The New Mormon Challenge to encounter the passionate sermonizing element. Mosser insists that this new challenge—a dire threat posed by our proselytizing efforts—is such that it "cannot be accomplished by leaving the task solely up to the numerous small and financially strapped apologetics ministries. Nor," he adds, "are the vast majority of those engaged in such ministry equipped to do all that needs to be done, even if finances and personnel were not so limited. A proper response to Mormonism . . . will require the entire evangelical community."32 He seems to want to turn the entire fundamentalist/evangelical movement into one large countercult agency with the Church of Jesus Christ as the enemy in a battle for the souls of millions.
Mormon America and The New Mormon Challenge—"An Excellent Companion"
Mosser and his associates grant that they do not provide in The New Mormon Challenge "an introductory overview of LDS history, culture, and belief."33 But they are confident that such a thing is available from an evangelical perspective. They "heartily recommend" Mormon America, which they claim "will serve as an excellent companion" to their own collection of essays attacking Latter-day Saint beliefs.34 The authors of both Mormon America and The New Mormon Challenge distance themselves from the disreputable anti-Mormon literature peddled by the essentially fundamentalist countercult movement,35 but not from the enterprise itself. The Ostlings seem to speak for a new evangelical response to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—one that is both less repugnant and somewhat better informed.
Instead of imitating the petulance of sectarian countercultists or the waspish qualities common among secular anticultists, with whom jaded journalists frequently have ideological affinities, Richard and Joan Ostling, the husband-and-wife team responsible for Mormon America, are said to have produced a religiously sensitive, evenhanded, fair-minded, well-researched, scrupulous, clear-eyed, balanced, exhaustive, thoroughly documented, instructive introduction to the Church of Jesus Christ.36
Is this language merely hype? In answering this question, I have chosen to overlook such typical anti-Mormon bromides as the obsession the Ostlings have—which must come with the craft—with the "fabled wealth" (p. xi) of the "Mormon economic empire" (p. 395). (Just think of all that tithing, and then add in those chapels and temples and their huge monetary value, and imagine the resulting financial and political power the church must wield!) And contemplate for a moment what the Ostlings imagine as a Mormon "penchant for secrecy" (p. xxvi), Mormon "authoritarianism" (p. 383), or the failure to have an administrative style modeled on "democratic America" (p. 374). According to the Ostlings, the "church is rigidly hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, and almost uniquely secretive" (p. xvi). And yet the Ostlings think that "Mormonism began as, and still is, a uniquely American faith" (p. xviii) and that "Mormonism . . . provided nationalistic Americans with a very American gospel" (p. xix). However, despite—or because of—these supposedly profoundly American qualities, "no religion in American history has aroused so much fear and hatred, nor been the object of so much persecution and so much misinformation" (p. xvi). In light of all this, the reader should ask, why the catchy title? Does not the title Mormon America announce yet another potboiler, and not, as the authors of this book claim, an important achievement in understanding the faith of the Saints? The Ostlings ask their readers to accept implicitly the fiction that Mormon America sums up the topic, without taking into account the facts that the Church of Jesus Christ is spread around the world and that the majority of Latter-day Saints have virtually no special interest in things American. If, in assessing Mormon America, one can ignore these and many other similar predictable canards and quirky proclivities (which tell us more about the Ostlings and their conceits than about the Saints), have they, as curious outsiders, somehow managed to explain "the power and the promise" of the Church of Jesus Christ to those both outside and within the church? Does Mormon America really provide a competent "introductory overview of LDS history, culture, and belief," as the editors of The New Mormon Challenge claim? Or are we merely faced with a somewhat less recognizable form of anti-Mormon propaganda?
Despite deficiencies, some of which I will examine, Mormon America is superior to previous, comparable journalistic potboilers.37 One reason is that the Ostlings are better informed than most journalists striving to market essentially lurid exposé s. In addition, they have religious sensitivities, and these tend to set their book apart from run-of-the-mill, secular anti-Mormon journalism. The Ostlings, however, seem a bit coy about their religious commitments—describing themselves as, "admittedly, conventional Protestants" (p. xi).38 Their careers have been focused on religious journalism. In promoting their book, illustrating rather well one of Nibley's general rules for fledgling anti-Mormon writers, they claim to be good at what they do and to be widely recognized for their accomplishments. Richard Ostling is the better known of the two, being a religion writer for the Associated Press who formerly wrote for Time magazine. In that venue, when the opportunity presented itself, he offered a crafty spin on Mormon things. Having their own religious ideology seems to have yielded a somewhat different thrust and tone in Mormon America than is common in the usual highly secularized treatments of the church written by journalists.
In addition, the Ostlings do not seem at home in the world of countercult individuals and agencies that make war on dreaded and dangerous "cultists." They merely mention bits of the literature produced by the swarm of countercultist anti-Mormon agencies. Under the category "critics" in a section entitled "For Further Reading," they list only two out of the vast horde of items sold by countercult anti-Mormons: what they wryly describe as a "self-published and frequently updated book by Salt Lake City's best-known former Mormons [Jerald and Sandra Tanner]"39 and a tawdry tome by James R. White,40 which they indicate—perhaps with a dab of irony—is "a fairly articulate analysis of theological differences as seen from an Evangelical perspective" (p. 436). The Ostlings, unlike the older, essentially fundamentalist countercultists, seem to speak for a new style of anti-Mormonism—one that is kinder, gentler, and less abrasive.
The Ostlings Enter the Book of Mormon Wars
True to the disposition of many journalists, the Ostlings focus on controversy. Thus Mormon America contains accounts, somewhat loosely linked, of the debate over the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the question of how the essentials in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ ought to be set forth by Latter-day Saints. They make much of recent squabbles over these matters, and their account of them turns out to be a key ingredient in the tale they tell. As it turns out, whatever virtues Mormon America may have, it is at crucial points partisan, partial, and impaired. Despite showing some familiarity with certain portions of recent Latter-day Saint scholarship, their examination leaves much to be desired.
The Ostlings recognize that "the Book of Mormon was controversial from the outset" (p. 261). They also realize that, "from the beginning to this day, the reaction of Book of Mormon readers has been divided between those committed to it as ancient literature and those who consider it a product of the nineteenth century" (p. 261). They argue that these "older polemical traditions" also "split on two sides of a simple prophet/fraud dichotomy: either Joseph Smith was everything he claimed to be, a true prophet entrusted with a new scripture from authentic ancient golden plates, or he was a charismatic fraud" (p. 261). They exploit the fact that recently a few authors operating on the fringes of the Mormon academic community, while denying that Joseph Smith was a genuine prophet and the Book of Mormon an authentic ancient text, have striven to avoid directly charging him with being a conscious fraud. The Ostlings are correct in claiming that some of these writers recognize that a "simple prophet/fraud dichotomy" does not exhaust all possible explanations (p. 261). They then indicate that "some participants in [the] current discussion" over the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon, while rejecting its authenticity, "would like to carve out a middle path" (p. 261) somewhere between its being read as an authentic ancient text and as a nineteenth-century sham. This effort by a few cultural Mormons, dissidents, and former Latter-day Saints is then turned by the Ostlings into a main component of their campaign against the Book of Mormon.
What is described as a "middle path" identifies the efforts of a few critics who refuse to consider the possibility that the Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient history. They seek to avoid the use of harsh words like hoax when they offer their accounts of how and why we have the book. Who are those who seek this so-called middle path? The answer the Ostlings give is instructive—they indicate that these are "respectful and sympathetic non-Mormons who recognize the moral and spiritual values in the Book of Mormon as well as liberal Mormons who value their heritage" (p. 261). I am, of course, pleased when "respectful and sympathetic non-Mormons" choose to stress the value of the Book of Mormon for the faith of the Saints. Unlike sectarian anti-Mormons who continue the parade of invective against Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, a few gentile scholars currently tend to adopt a somewhat more respectful stance toward both. They have tried to find language with which they can appropriately recognize the power that the existence of the Book of Mormon, as well as the message set forth in it, has for the Saints, without thereby also granting that it is what it claims to be. Unfortunately, these writers are sometimes allied ideologically with dissidents, former Saints, and cultural Mormons.
In this category the Ostlings include Martin E. Marty (a prominent, contemporary American religious historian), Rodney Stark (a sociologist), Harold Bloom (a literary critic), and Jan Shipps, among others, all of whom, according to the Ostlings, see "the moral and spiritual values in the Book of Mormon" (p. 261). Whether the Ostlings are right in their claim about these authors is beside the point, since they do not appeal to them in their own attack on the Book of Mormon. Instead, they turn to those they label "liberals"—that is, to cultural Mormons who flatly deny that the Book of Mormon is true despite whatever lingering sentimental attachments they may still have to their religious roots. Why? The Ostlings grant that, "from its beginning, the church has declared it essential that the Book of Mormon be accepted as it presents itself, as historical fact, not inspired fiction" (p. 263). Accordingly, those in thrall to various and sometimes conflicting revisionist explanations of the Book of Mormon41 are outside the circle of faith, though some may, of course, choose not to remove themselves formally from the church. The Ostlings realize that this is the case—they grant that among those who want to carve out this so-called middle path are "many excommunicated Mormons who still identify themselves as Mormon, as well as some thoughtful Saints who are carefully circumspect in what they say and write but regard the Book of Mormon as most likely of nineteenth-century origin" (p. 261).
Those described by the Ostlings as "thoughtful Saints"—that is, those cagey about their disbeliefs—are depicted as fighting the good fight against those the Ostlings denigrate as "loyalist scholars," who accept and defend the truth of the Book of Mormon. Whatever else one might say about them, these "thoughtful Saints" would sometimes seem to lack what the Ostlings report that the former Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn calls "simple honesty among scholars" (p. 251), since "in what they say and write" they appear to cloak their infidelity. In their own polemic, though, the Ostlings turn these dissidents into heroes. The Ostlings do not hold sly unbelievers to Quinn's lofty standards. In this they are, however, following Quinn's lead, since honesty seems to be for him something the Brethren and his critics lack. All of this, of course, is familiar territory; the Ostlings add nothing to what is already known to those familiar with the recent debate over the Book of Mormon.42 They exploit for their own purposes what amounts to a tiny quarrel going on between Latter-day Saint scholars and some dissidents on the fringes of the church.
Regrettably, the Ostlings gossip about what are serious intellectual issues, calling attention to them merely for partisan polemical purposes. They fail to clarify or contribute to the conversation currently taking place. Consequently, when they confront Joseph Smith's prophetic claims, they confine themselves to describing the middle-path stance between reading the Book of Mormon as an authentic ancient text or dismissing it as a blatant hoax. There is, however, no indication in Mormon America that the Ostlings see anything either inspiring or inspired in what they label a historical hoax; they remain squarely in the old sectarian anti-Mormon camp. For their partisan, polemical purpose they exploit bits and pieces of the conversation that has been going on for twenty years over the Book of Mormon and are thereby able to make use of the fact that a few gentile observers, former Latter-day Saints, and cultural Mormons have suggested that something might be inspiring in the Book of Mormon even if it is not true—with the emphasis on the latter qualification.
Those who make this argument, with perhaps one or two exceptions, do not indicate what exactly they find either interesting or edifying in the Book of Mormon once they have rejected it as an authentic ancient history. On the contrary, they often boast that they find nothing of genuine value in the book. Robert Price, for example, in a most instructive instance, finds something at least a bit interesting in the Book of Mormon when it is read as frontier fiction. A member of the Jesus Seminar who is also heavily involved in the secular humanist movement, Price sees in the Book of Mormon something resembling what he finds in the Gospels of the New Testament when they are read through the lens provided by essentially secular humanist assumptions about divine things.43 If Price had published this essay earlier, the Ostlings could have added his name to the list of "sympathetic non-Mormons" (p. 261), some of whom, with urbane tolerance and even compassion for virtually all communities rooted in the Bible, and with ever so gentle strokes, dismiss the truth claims of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon for somewhat similar reasons. But, of course, his reading of the Bible challenges the Ostlings' evangelical religiosity at least as much as it does our faith. This is also true of Harold Bloom's way of reading both the Bible and Protestant sectarian history.44
Massimo Introvigne has shown that "the Book of Mormon wars" are currently being "fought not around interpretation, but around the very nature of the Book of Mormon.45 Is it what it claims to be? Or is it merely somehow a product of Joseph Smith's creative genius or religious imagination?"46 This way of framing the question gets to the heart of the current squabbles. Introvigne also argues that "those claiming that it is neither of the two, but a fraud, exclude themselves from the debate and join the ranks of mere anti-Mormonism."47 This is, of course, where the Ostlings are situated. Though they describe sympathetically the stance of those few who want to picture the Book of Mormon as a product of Joseph Smith's unaided inventive powers and not an outright, blasphemous fraud, they end up advancing "mere anti-Mormonism."
I am, however, gratified that the Ostlings describe me as one of the "current loyalist scholars" opposed to the so-called middle path. I am also not displeased that the Ostlings quote me as follows:
To reduce the Book of Mormon to mere myth weakens, if not destroys, the possibility of it witnessing to the truth about divine things. A fictional Book of Mormon fabricated by Joseph Smith, even when his inventiveness, genius, or "inspiration" is celebrated, does not witness to Jesus Christ but to human folly. A true Book of Mormon is a powerful witness; a fictional one is hardly worth reading and pondering. (pp. 263-64)48
History and the Faith and Memory of the Saints
Just as the Ostlings do not entirely slight the conversation that has been taking place over how to read the Book of Mormon, neither do they completely ignore the related discussion of how to explain Joseph Smith. Indeed, they devote two chapters to these closely related issues (see chap. 15, "Faithful History," pp. 238-58, and chap. 16, "The Gold Bible," pp. 259-77). They are, however, not clear on the relationship of accounts of the Latter-day Saint past to the crucial question of how the Book of Mormon ought to be read, and hence they offer a confused commentary on the debate over how best to approach Joseph Smith's prophetic truth claims. In this they go down a well-worn path—one familiar to the Saints from some recent cultural Mormon polemics and now also found, regrettably, in some sectarian anti-Mormon literature.
In addition to describing briefly the place of the Book of Mormon in the faith of the Saints and the debate over its truth that began even before its publication, the Ostlings also focus attention on the way the Saints devote themselves to understanding crucial, even fateful, aspects of their past. They complain that "the church has always tried to retain a proprietary hold over the telling of its own history" (p. 250). Surely, though, they cannot be suggesting that the Saints could possibly be indifferent to the way the story of the restoration is told, for they themselves state that in "a very real sense . . . the church's history is its theology" (p. 245)—that is, they realize that some of what has taken place in the past both grounds the faith of the Saints and provides much of its content. The Latter-day Saint past has always been contested territory. The moment Joseph Smith began to tell of his encounters with heavenly messengers, those who were skeptical, hostile, full of disbelief, threatened by his claims, or disenchanted have been busy telling their own versions of what they think happened—reporting on events in negative terms and contesting virtually every detail and every prophetic claim.49 The church has never controlled its history. Instead, the Saints have struggled to tell their story in a way that is consonant with, rather than destructive of, faith. What the Ostlings neglect to say is that, for all those whose faith is rooted in the Bible, an understanding of at least a segment of the past is crucial. Why? That Jesus, understood as the Messiah or Christ, was crucified is a historical statement, as is the claim that after three days he rose from the grave. The main difference between Latter-day Saints and others is that, for the Saints, the story did not end with the death of the apostles—it continues even now. For the Saints, this is one reason why history takes the place of theology, as that endeavor is undertaken by Christians generally.
The Ostlings acknowledge that, when contrasted with the Saints, sectarians are rather indifferent to their history, though, of course, "Protestants vary in their degree of historical amnesia" (p. 247). From my perspective, the Protestant historical amnesia is not limited to indifference to the quarrels of churchmen and to the divergent speculation of theologians through the ages; it is also manifested in an indifference to recent Protestant sectarian and denominational history, little or none of which forms part of the ground or content of their brand of Christian faith. For example, those currently associated with the Southern Baptist Convention certainly do not have as part of the ground of their faith a passionate awareness that the denomination to which they subscribe was founded by preachers who were eager to defend slavery against their abolitionist brethren in the North. Instead, they are indifferent to much or all of their own denominational history, with all its twists and turns and factional and sometimes brutally internecine quarreling, since their faith, as they insist, is drawn from and rests upon an interpretation of the Bible alone. The history they turn to is thus far away and long ago and not, as it is with the Saints, also here and now, with the heavens still open and the story continuing. This is significant, since factions of contemporary conservative Protestantism tend to see themselves as guardians of something they imagine to be orthodox, historic, trinitarian, biblical Christianity. To the Saints, however, they appear as formalists, who still manifest a form of godliness50 but who, by dogmatically closing the heavens, deny the power of God, arbitrarily limiting him by restricting what he can and cannot do. Instead they turn to a closed canon of scripture read through the lens of categories and explanations worked out in partly understood and long-forgotten theological controversies, ending at times in formal statements of faith.
And unless conservative Protestants are doing battle with Roman Catholics (which some of them have a penchant to do, especially if they subscribe to some strain of fundamentalism), they tend to ignore the details of what took place from the first century to the Reformation within and among various, often warring, factions of Christians. In general, they insist on an apostasy of large proportions and consequently a need for the church, or at any rate the essentials of faith, to be radically reformed by theologians, though not necessarily restored by God. But history is not a central concern in the disputes over theology found today among the various factions of conservative Protestants—for example, the controversy between radical and more moderate Calvinists, not to mention Arminians, over the atonement and over what are thought to be the attributes of God. These kinds of sometimes fierce battles are mostly fought by proof-texting the Bible. With few exceptions, contemporary Protestants—those in the pews—tend to disregard the bulk of Christian history, dismissing most of what actually happened in the past as irrelevant to the content and truth of their own faith, which preachers tend to reduce to simple formulas. Except for a few specialists in the history of dogma, contemporary conservative Protestants seem to me to want to believe that everyone, everywhere, almost always has agreed on the fundamentals, whatever they are currently thought to be. And when they represent their own sometimes ferocious domestic theological quarrels to those of us on the sidelines, they downplay these controversies by representing them as merely slight differences of opinion over nonessentials.51
In fact, though, some of these quarrels seem to me to be of considerable importance. An instructive example of the kind of controversy I have in mind can be seen in a recent bitter exchange between Norman Geisler and James White, both of whom are, incidentally, strident anti-Mormons. After Geisler published a work on a moderate version of Calvinism,52 White countered with a passionate defense of what he considers to be Reformed, or Calvinist, principles.53 The chief issue was the soundness of an "extreme" reading of Five-Point Calvinism, or what is often called TULIP (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints). Geisler had argued that even Calvin was not a Calvinist in the way he is depicted by some Calvinists and that the contents of TULIP could be traced no further back into the Christian past than St. Augustine, who advanced something like the heresies of TULIP only late in his career—that is, after AD 417. This sent White into a round of proof-texting from the New Testament. He never addressed Geisler's claim that nothing approaching "extreme" Calvinism could be found among Christian theologians earlier than the last part of Augustine's career, when he wrote things that, if Geisler is at all correct, were novel, unbiblical, and simply wrong. White dismissed Geisler as an Arminian heretic, a charge Geisler flatly denied. According to Arminian views, the atonement is believed to have been universal and not limited—that is, the atonement is in force for all human beings and not just for a few lucky saved ones. At least some evangelicals entertain this view. Latter-day Saints who bother to read this kind of literature find it both amusing and instructive: it demonstrates some of the problems associated with yielding to the urge of conservative Protestants to do theology. We find it odd that both fundamentalists and evangelicals often assume that getting such matters reduced to neat formulae is a kind of necessary analog or even prerequisite to getting oneself saved—even, ironically, when one insists on an "extreme" understanding of predestination and election.
This helps to explain the tendency among conservative Protestants to substitute minimal, vague creedal statements—as well as assent to the supposed infallibility or inerrancy of the Bible, the meaning of which is notoriously difficult to pin down—for an understanding of the full range of theological controversy going on now and in the past. These tendencies manifest elements of the historical amnesia to which the Ostlings casually testify. Conservative Protestants can thus conveniently overlook the fact that the creeds and confessions are themselves but the outward sign and end result of fierce battles that once raged beneath the surface of traditional, presumably orthodox faith, where it is assumed that nothing much has ever happened that makes a real difference.
This is not, however, to say that Protestants of different stripes do not have historical content in their faith, for they do. Even if they wanted to, they could not entirely banish crucial historical elements. As mentioned, the claim that Jesus is the Messiah (or Christ) is necessarily historical, unless one has adopted a radically liberal Protestant understanding of the Bible such as people associated with the Jesus Seminar might now advance. And the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and later rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples is a historical one. But conservative Protestants tend to focus on events and teachings recorded in the Bible understood through the lens provided by the creeds and other confusing theological speculations, the history of which is of little concern to the vast bulk of communicants.
The Ostlings, after granting that Protestants have varying degrees of historical amnesia and after noting correctly that Latter-day Saints take elements of their own history seriously, affirm that, in the place of history, the "creedal churches"—which presumably still include at least many if not most Protestants, as well as pious Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics—"have official statements of faith, [while] the Mormon Church tends to have official versions of sacred history" (p. 245). The Ostlings thus assume, since their own religious world is dogmatically set in polished theological formulae, that the Saints must necessarily have something analogous that takes the place of official creeds and confessions. This may help explain why they and anti-Mormons generally target accounts of our past and seek to offer their own revisionist versions. They assume that identifying a flaw in some account of the Latter-day Saint past will do irreparable damage to the faith of the Saints. The Ostlings then wrongly surmise that this "official history" includes "everything that has happened to the church ever since" the restoration, setting the stage for claims that "sensitive historical issues are frequently downplayed, avoided or denied" (p. 247) and for gossip about how the Brethren have recently been mean to some Mormon historians, restricted access to church archives, and so forth.
On the other hand, the Ostlings correctly sense that history is important for the Saints, who can be said to live by and in a story. And we tell stories about our own encounters with the divine that anchor our hopes and expectations for the future. At least part of what this means is that the faith of the Saints is not derived from or dependent on recondite theological or philosophical speculation, nor is it the result of some mode of biblical exegesis—learned or otherwise—fashioned by theologians in long-forgotten and little-understood controversies. Although we make use of such work and even do some of it ourselves, it is always an auxiliary to the faith. We are painfully aware of how our hopes, assumptions, and preunderstandings control or at least influence what we make of texts, so we are cautious about biblical studies or any apparent finding that might in some way bear on prophetic truth claims. We certainly do not see such scholarly endeavors as yielding proofs but perhaps as assisting in our understanding and in our dedication to God. We see the basic plot in the Bible as unfinished and therefore see ourselves living in a kind of charmed or enchanted world in which the divine is, from time to time, manifest in our own lives in ways not at all unlike those described in our scriptures, with God still active among his covenant people in essentially the same manner as that depicted in those texts. So, for the Saints, the heavens are not closed, the canon of scripture is not finished, the story has not ended, the great drama continues, and we are part of it. We strive to fuse our own stories with those we find in the Latter-day Saint past and in our scriptures. Both the Book of Mormon and the story of its recovery have invited and facilitated our entry into a world pulsing with divine power. They work together to invite those who receive them to leave the world of sectarian controversy over theology and live, instead, in a world much like the one described in our scriptures.
For the Saints, the scriptures are thus not mere artifacts from a dead past. And though they obviously describe many theophanies and other divine special revelations, what really counts is not assent to their infallibility nor to their being the final, finished divine revelation. We are not into bibliolatry. The scriptures are not themselves revelations for us, unless or until the Holy Spirit brings them to life in our hearts and minds—and then in our deeds. In this way the scriptures provide us with a guide and a model for our own immediate link, here and now, to the presence and power of God in our lives. What this means is that, far more than with other Christians, our faith is both grounded in history and has historical events central to its content. And these form and direct our identity in the present and direct our aspirations for the future, both here below and beyond. I have tried to capture this ethos by referring to the faith and memory of the Saints. What counts for us is not merely an assent to theological formulae; an initial, momentary confession; or acceptance of an invitation to come to the altar and be saved. We seek instead a transforming, eventually sanctifying, individual and communal experience that involves a long and sometimes painful process of rebirth, faithfulness to our covenants, constant repentance, and a powerful linking of faith and deeds that often offends sectarian critics.
Thus the faith of the Saints tends to be contested in the arena of history and not that of theology, either dogmatic or systematic. Submission to pat theological formulae cannot justify or sanctify anyone any more than obedience to the ceremonial law requiring circumcision can determine who is or is not genuinely right with God. What seems to trouble some sectarians about the Saints is that we now live, like the former Saints, in a world of wonders—including seers and prophets among the covenant people of God—and not in the sectarian world dominated by theological speculation, controversy, carefully crafted creeds, and dogmatic hair-splitting. Evangelical critics of the Church of Jesus Christ need to realize that, instead of doing theology, especially in their way—that is, striving to sort out puzzles generated over years of uninspired and uninspiring theological disputation—we tell stories. These stories link us to the past, recalling God's mighty deeds, and shape the future as they form our identity as the covenant people of God.
A world like that of the Bible, in which the heavens are not closed, is a world pulsing with divine purpose and power and thereby permeated with gifts from God. To testify to these things, for us, is not to play the game of theological or philosophical disputation, however enticing and amusing that sort of thing may be. Neither is it to invoke language that the evangelicals tend to call witnessing—a language in which, in addition to confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior, one must also have the correct theological dogma setting out the doctrine of justification, and one must proclaim the dogma that God, understood as Being-Itself, created everything (including time and space) out of nothing. Our approach is, instead, a public witness of a reality in our lives that is vouchsafed to us by the Holy Spirit. Evangelicals may sometimes imagine—building perhaps on their own experience of a momentary emotional twinge as they answered an altar call or had some similar initial experience, when they were presumably regenerated once and for all—that our faith is set out in the routine ways they commonly employ, or found in something similar to their own witnessing rituals. It is not. Instead, it is grounded in our own experience with the guiding, healing, and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.
The Ostlings sense that something like this is true by noting Jan Shipps's comment that the early Latter-day Saints "were conscious of living through their own sacred history in a new age. They were also, in a sense, recapitulating the sacred history of scripture through their own experiences" (pp. 246-47).54 This explains why the Ostlings focus their attack on the Book of Mormon as a way of debunking the faith of the Saints and countering the prophetic truth claims made by Joseph Smith, whose experience opened the heavens for those who have genuinely trusted the restored gospel. This also explains why we see the efforts of dissidents or former Latter-day Saints to fashion radically revisionist explanations of the founding or generative events, or anyone's efforts to explain away the Book of Mormon, as frontal attacks on our faith.
The Ostlings clearly recognize that our faith rests on history. They sense that, unlike Protestants, the Saints "remember" the past, "and they remember in great detail. The remembrances bind them as a people" (p. 239). This is exactly right.55 And it explains why the Ostlings mock our sometimes clumsy efforts to defend, keep alive, and deepen the memory of the crucial founding theophanies. It also explains why the Ostlings offer a rather pedestrian selection of complaints about the way we understand our own past, tell our story, and deal with revisionist accounts.
It appears important for the Ostlings to challenge the integrity of what we see as the hand of God in our immediate past. Unlike some of the less thoughtful sectarian critics, they sense that nothing much is to be gained by quarreling with us over competing interpretations of the Bible. They focus instead on squabbles over the Latter-day Saint past, borrowing from a few dissidents or former Latter-day Saints a tale of how "the church suppresses evidence that is contrary to the official interpretation" and of how it has "censured Mormon historians" (p. 251) who challenge what they call "official history." To defend "'traditional' or 'faithful history,'" according to the Ostlings, "means that sensitive historical issues frequently are downplayed, avoided, or denied" (p. 247). This is, of course, the ideological stance currently being advanced by those who are anxious to place the church in the worst possible light, who want to create public relations problems, and who engage in sensationalism or partisan propaganda as they avoid dealing with substantive issues.
Certainly, Latter-day Saint history cannot be shielded from critical attention (see p. 247). Thus, in order to point out efforts by the Saints to downplay "sensitive historical issues" in an attempt—as they see it—to shield our faith from the real truth about the past, the Ostlings quote Martin E. Marty, a distinguished Protestant historian of American religion. Marty was actually making a somewhat different point about the Saints, which the Ostlings seem to ignore. What he argued is that "faith attached to or mediated through historical events"—which is the kind of faith characteristic of mainstream Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,
has always had some dimensions of an "offense" or "scandal" to the insider just as it has been only that to the outsider who despises. Awareness of the pettinesses and peccadillos among leaders or injustices in the record of a people—one thinks of the Christian Crusades and Inquisition or the papal corruption in many ages—has to be some sort of threat to the clarity of faith's vision, though it clearly has not meant the loss of faith . . . on the part of so many who are aware.56
According to Marty, "whoever knows how Christian faith survives and can survive knowledge of all the evidences of fallibility and scandal that occurred through history will understand why the outsider historian finds trivial the question of whether the faith [of Latter-day Saints] is threatened by the revelation of human shortcomings."57 But, in order to appreciate Marty's point, one must have scrutinized accounts of Christian history that move beyond the first century.58 Of course Marty sees that we are concerned about what he calls "public relations" issues. The problem is not that we have not and cannot continue to come to terms with such matters, or that our faith cannot survive an awareness of our rather obvious imperfections, but that these human imperfections and mistakes—if we are certain they are such—are constantly being used to damage the church by critics who, it must be noted, are often not interested in the full truth about our past. And yet the faith persists and prospers. The reason is that revelations of shortcomings among the Saints do not somehow nullify our experiences as individuals and as a community with the guidance and assurance of the Holy Spirit. The constant barrage of efforts to embarrass the church that appears in books, newspapers, magazines, and tabloids is, of course, a concern to the Saints. But the Saints have never known a time when this sort of thing was not taking place. And the stark contrast between the reality we experience and the lurid stuff in the latest offensive tabloid only deepens our appreciation for the gifts that come from God.
"Yet intellectually," according to Marty, addressing directly the issue of the sins of the Saints, "these are not of much interest."59 The reason is that "most of the writing on Mormon history that poses a problem" concerns what he calls the "generative events"—the founding theophanies and the Book of Mormon.60 According to Marty—and he is correct on this issue—the reason is that, "if the beginning of the promenade of Mormon history, the First Vision and the Book of Mormon, can survive the crisis, then the rest of the promenade follows and nothing that happens in it can really detract from the miracle of the whole."61 If the founding theophanies and the Book of Mormon "do not survive, there can be only antiquarian, not fateful or faith-full, interest in the rest of the story."62
Gossip about a few dissidents and apostates (those the Ostlings call "Dissenters and Exiles," pp. 351-71), the alleged mistreatment by some of the Brethren of a few historians, complaints that some materials in the church archives are not available to just anyone, or efforts of a few to focus attention on the evils of polygamy or the terrible event at Mountain Meadows should not be of major concern either to the Saints or to those familiar with the history of religious movements generally. And this is, I believe, the point made by Martin Marty. Those who focus on such issues—whether dissidents, former Latter-day Saints, or secular or sectarian anti-Mormons, including journalists—have a superficial understanding of the ground and content of our faith, at best. At worst, they prove themselves willing to employ any means for essentially polemical purposes.
Contrary to what some sectarians assume, we do not view ourselves or our leaders as infallible or inerrant. Instead, we recognize that our best efforts to find favor with God, our sincerest struggles to keep the commandments and to build Zion, even with assistance provided by God, are always flawed. We are always in need of divine mercy. So pointing out mistakes or trotting out tales of what appear to be imperfections does not accomplish what our enemies desire, though it may sometimes constitute a public relations problem for us. And what might we make of the fact that our critics sometimes have their own rather embarrassing foibles? These are often ignored. Dissidents, journalists, and revisionist historians are not particularly eager to reveal embarrassing tendencies about themselves and certainly do not welcome an inspection of their own shortcomings, which are sometimes relevant to the issues being contested. Anti-Mormons who are obsessed with our faults, and especially with those of the Brethren, have often not been willing to make public certain details about dissidents whose reputations they have found it useful to protect for their own partisan purposes.63
Some Unfortunate Ideological Labeling
In addition to the debate over the truth of the Book of Mormon, the Ostlings mention my closely related contribution to the recent controversy over how best to approach the Latter-day Saint past. However, instead of dealing with my arguments, they merely classify me as "very conservative," while they lionize former Latter-day Saint historian D. Michael Quinn, whom they label a "liberal." Quinn is made into a truly heroic figure, presumably because of his self-proclaimed insistence on "simple honesty among scholars" (p. 251), as mentioned above. The use of amorphous, highly politicized labels is, I suppose, to be expected from journalists whose world comes in the form dictated by the seating arrangements in the French parliament—that is, right, center, left (or conservative, moderate, liberal). This stuff is the very lifeblood of journalists but the deathbed of genuine understanding. The Ostlings, regrettably, employ such crude, ideological pigeonholing when they seek to describe the conversation going on among historians on how best to deal with the essentials of church history.
When journalists label something "traditional" and those who defend it "conservative," they consign both to the dustbin. That is just the way this kind of labeling works. One hardly needs an argument when one can substitute pejorative labels for plausible, coherent analysis and a careful weighing of evidences. To cite one instance with which I am well acquainted, the Ostlings picture me as one of the "articulate adherents of the conservative position" on how best to approach the past of the Latter-day Saints (p. 416). But beyond this, the Ostlings neglect to explain exactly what my position is. Instead, they contrast me with Richard L. Bushman, whom they describe as holding a "moderate stance" (p. 416). They fail to indicate on which issues and in what ways I am supposed to differ with Bushman. Differences in style among writers would not seem to be sufficient grounds for the distinction the Ostlings want to make. I am fond of Bushman's essays on the Latter-day Saint past;64 I cannot identify one issue on which I am aware of a disagreement with him. Why, then, am I placed in a different category? Is it perhaps because the Ostlings do not really understand the literature they cite? Or if they understand this literature, why do they choose to employ clumsy ideological labeling? Is it because they are engaged in a partisan, polemical campaign? If not, then why not confront the arguments?
The Ostlings are, however, correct in distinguishing my position—and also that of Bushman—from that of Quinn, as well as in reporting that he claims not to be driven by an agenda or ideology and therefore to be an objective historian.65 Both Bushman and I maintain that such claims are substantively empty, conceptually confused, and self-serving.66 Disregarding the literature on the possibility and desirability of objectivity in doing history, Quinn contrasts what he describes as his desire to be "fair and objective" with what he labels "ultimate objectivity."67 Seemingly, he refers to those who want their readers to view them and their associates as "fair and objective"—that is, disinterested, detached, honest, balanced, or dispassionate—in the things they write about the past, while they picture those with whom they disagree, especially their critics, as biased, polemical, and essentially dishonest. But, in fact, no one either defends or criticizes what Quinn describes as "ultimate objectivity," and Quinn himself ignores the literature that is focused precisely on such claims. He blasts away at a straw man, seemingly as a way of preserving his attachment to a thin version of the myth of objectivity rather than dealing with the actual criticisms of that ideology. This approach has become Quinn's stock-in-trade. Does he want his readers to believe that he is allowing evidence to speak its truth through him as a detached, objective, neutral observer, while his critics are pictured as pernicious partisans or polemicists driven by a corrupting ideology? Seemingly. He charges those with whom he disagrees with dishonesty. He ignores the need for comity among scholars involved in conversations over intellectual issues. In addition, some rather deeply held prejudices seem to dictate his understanding of what constitutes evidence, as well as to control his interpretations and explanations.68
Is someone wholly "fair and objective," however those words are understood, while covertly advancing a private agenda?69 The Ostlings ignore such questions. Instead, they identify Quinn as a "liberal" and also as "a 'new Mormon history' scholar who attempts to combine the goal of objective scholarship and candor with taking faith claims seriously" (p. 416). Leonard Arrington granted that "every historian's judgments were inescapably influenced by their interests, values, and private beliefs."70 If this assessment is true, and I believe that it is, then we have grounds for wondering if individuals are being open and honest if they do not make public their lifestyle preferences until after they are excommunicated from the church, while telling what amounts to tall tales about why they were "officially" removed from the community of Saints.71
Quinn has become a major figure in anti-Mormon attacks on the church. He has fitted himself well for this role by, among other things, fashioning a reputation for quarreling with the Brethren over how the past of the Saints ought to be approached.72 This makes of him a stick with which others can beat the church. The Ostlings make considerable use of him in that role. But why would journalists cite and quote my writings? The reason seems to be that the Ostlings have a story to tell, and they need, in addition to heroes like Quinn, a few knaves to serve as foils. From their perspective, therefore, there has been a struggle between heroic "liberals" (like Quinn), who seek to be "objective and fair," and malevolent "conservatives," who can be portrayed as wanting to hide or ignore the truth about the Latter-day Saint past, presumably so that the Brethren can continue to mollify and manipulate the faithful. Or, put in an alternative vocabulary, the Ostlings want to describe a struggle between "new Mormon historians," who are pictured as wholesome truth-lovers, and "traditionalists," who insist on sanitized, distorted versions of the past. This is not an exaggeration: the Ostlings actually picture me as anxious to avoid telling the truth about the Latter-day Saint past (see pp. 250, 416, 418, 425, 426, 436). In addition, they report that Elder Boyd K. Packer, speaking to teachers in the Church Educational System assembled at Brigham Young University in 1981, commented on the way he believed they ought to present the Latter-day Saint past to their young students (see p. 249). The cautions offered by Elder Packer are briefly set forth by the Ostlings, who then claim in melodramatic language that his "stance has led to open warfare in history scholarship" (p. 250).
In aligning the practitioners of this "new history" on one side and "the proponents of 'faithful history'" (p. 250) on the other, the Ostlings abuse an expression once employed by Richard Bushman, while ignoring his analysis.73 Bushman was not calling for lying for the Lord or for a sanitized history that covers over or ignores anything, and neither am I. What he invited is a more thoughtful history—one more consonant with faith and thereby less dependent on the indoctrination that students undergo in secularized graduate schools. He sought a history more genuinely devout and less disinterested and detached. Bushman's own work as a Mormon historian has exemplified his prescriptions. We are not asking that the Brethren or the Saints be presented as faultless heroes; they ought to be known in their full humanity, which is clearly not without its occasional blemishes. We are, after all, struggling to obey God, and like everyone we are imperfect. I go a bit further than Bushman, though: I also want my historians portrayed without halos. This has led, of course, to some consternation among those who have no qualms about exposing the faults of the Brethren but prefer that their own remain hidden.
The Ostlings report that I am among those who are "not historians," but who are, instead, "professors of political science at Brigham Young University" who have been critical of something vaguely called "new Mormon history" or "revisionist history." There is some truth to this, but not much. Instead of criticizing "new Mormon history," I have merely tried to trace the history of that slogan. I have also sought to figure out the function of this label in polemical literature like Mormon America, since there simply is no identifiable movement that carries this name. Be that as it may, along with some others I am said to occasionally
write essays for independent journals such as Sunstone as well as church-sanctioned publications, defending the idea that "objective" or neutral history scholarship is an illusion. If one's research into history proceeds from naturalistic presuppositions, it will inevitably do violence to faith claims. Only history that proceeds within the language of faith can do justice to an understanding of the sacred. (p. 250)74
Elsewhere the Ostlings describe Sunstone as "a stylish outlet for liberals and dissidents" (p. xx). For this and other reasons, I have not been eager to publish in that magazine. The Ostlings must have in mind essays by others, since all I have published in that venue is a brief essay dealing with the myth of objectivity that captivates the rhetoric and imagination of some Mormon historians, and two letters responding to radically revisionist essays.75 What the Ostlings fail to mention is that the vast bulk of the response to the radically revisionist literature produced by dissidents and former Latter-day Saints has been published by FARMS. In addition, the Ostlings neglect to set forth my arguments or those of others who have dealt with attacks on the Book of Mormon or our many responses to various efforts to fashion some so-called middle-path explanation of Joseph Smith's prophetic truth claims. Neither do they indicate that, after two decades, these arguments, as far as I can see, have not been answered, except with slogans and name-calling.76
The Ostlings, Countercultists, and Mainstream Evangelicalism
As I have indicated, the Ostlings do not seem to be comfortable with the zealots who constitute the bulk of the sectarian countercult industry. Instead, they seem to represent a somewhat more sophisticated and responsible brand of sectarian anti-Mormonism—one that is somewhat better informed and more courteous. (In fact, the evangelical movement, into which the Ostlings seem to fit, was started by Billy Graham and others in the 1940s in an effort to blunt and replace excesses found in the fundamentalist ideology that had come to dominate conservative American Protestantism between the two world wars.) The Ostlings seem to me either not to have firsthand knowledge of essentially fundamentalist countercultism or to have chosen not to follow in the footsteps of the anti-Mormon segment of the industry.77 In effect, they seem to have borrowed much of their characterization of the agencies and individuals that produce or promote anti-Mormon propaganda from one of my commentaries on contemporary sectarian anti-Mormonism (see pp. 345-50).78 I am not sure how this fact will play out among countercultists, who may not be aware that the Ostlings move in other and somewhat higher circles. They may conclude that an enemy of their enemy, despite the differences, is at least temporarily a friend. However, to fail to distinguish this new brand of anti-Mormonism from their own would be a manifestation of the propagandistic nature of these quarrels. For similar reasons, secular critics of the church form temporary alliances with sectarian countercultists when firing at the Saints, and countercultists may borrow from and be dependent on former Latter-day Saints who, in other situations, are their mortal enemies.
The Ostlings, it turns out, mention my analysis of the current crisis facing what was once known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the controlling faction of which is now known as the Community of Christ (p. 426).79 In this setting, their treatment of my publications is much like their treatment of those of the countercult industry—that is, my essays are not, as elsewhere in Mormon America, unfavorably contrasted with the ideology of various noisy dissidents, cultural Mormons, or former Latter-day Saint historians. Instead, my work on the countercultists and on the RLDS seems to have been mined by the Ostlings for useful information. Thus, when borrowing from some of my essays, the Ostlings do not hint that I am a kind of Neanderthal conservative. But when they portray the issues at stake in the current battle over the Book of Mormon, their way of dealing with my writing, and that of others as well, shifts into a familiar negative mode.
I am not the only Latter-day Saint scholar who has been puzzled by the way the Ostlings deal with their work. Others whose names show up here and there in Mormon America have indicated to me that their positions on various issues have been distorted in one way or another. None of these scholars reports being interviewed by the Ostlings, and none was offered an opportunity to comment on the book prior to its publication. The Ostlings could easily have improved the overall quality of their book if they had sought the assistance of those best fitted to comment on their work, rather than turning to those who are perhaps eager for a vindication for their own emotional estrangement from the mainstream Latter-day Saint intellectual community.
Significantly, even moderate evangelicals like the Ostlings make use of former Latter-day Saint historian D. Michael Quinn. His essays are cited and quoted more often in Mormon America than those of any other author. In other contexts one can assume that the Ostlings would not be fond of his new ideology. The Ostlings indicate in an endnote that "three years after his excommunication, D. Michael Quinn let it be known publicly that he is homosexual, but that issue played no part in his years of difficulty with LDS officials" (p. 427). How do they know what did or did not play a role in his excommunication? Did "LDS officials" provide this information? Elsewhere they opine that "officially his 1993 excommunication stemmed from an article . . . claiming that Joseph Smith effectively gave women the priesthood" by including them in the endowment and sealing ceremonies "and a 1992 Sunstone essay on church repression" of what he considers the truth about the Latter-day Saint past (p. 357). Currently the church makes no statements, official or otherwise, on disciplinary matters. There are no official announcements upon which the Ostlings could possibly have relied. Instead, they parrot Quinn's account and label it "official." But they are, after all, investigative journalists, and there are ways of figuring out what might have led to Quinn's excommunication. Even without an official announcement, it would not be entirely implausible to suspect that his excommunication and his homosexual leanings might be linked.
Lavina Anderson, in an apologia for Quinn, reports that in a letter dated 18 May 1993, Paul Hanks, his stake president, mentioned "'very sensitive matters' that were not related to Michael's historical writings."80 And what might they be? According to Anderson, "the allusion to Michael's sexual orientation, which Michael had not yet made public, was unmistakable." Despite this acknowledgment, Anderson reports that Quinn remained skeptical "that nonhistorical questions prompted Hanks's persistence" in trying to have a conversation with him in which these "very sensitive matters" could be resolved.81 Despite what appears to Anderson as an allusion to moral issues, Quinn seems to have wanted to believe that his problems with the Church of Jesus Christ resulted from concern about what he had published and not his "sexual orientation." Why? I wonder if he avoided having a conversation with Paul Hanks so that he could continue to assert that what he had written about the Latter-day Saint past led to his excommunication. He clearly wants to be seen as an honest truth-teller who has been hounded for his virtues. Lavina Anderson, though, has now provided a more plausible explanation of Quinn's excommunication than the one he has insisted on.
Lamentably, much like both secular critics and countercultists generally, the Ostlings use Quinn when it suits their own partisan polemical purposes, while ignoring or downplaying the genuinely tragic side of his story and its implications for the tales he tells.
Like the editors of The New Mormon Challenge, the Ostlings do not want to seem openly or stridently hostile toward the Saints. They are, instead, condescending in ways that are analogous to the way virtually every community of believers gets treated by journalists, including evangelicals and their allies. But at times the Ostlings drop the guise of balanced, objective reporters. An example of this lapse into partisan advocacy can be found, among other places, when they confront the issue of human deifi cation (see pp. 307-14). They garble what the Saints teach and believe on this matter by initially reducing the early Christian doctrine of dei fication to an extension or reflection of a bland "Methodist and Arminian view of sanctification, a doctrine of man's potential perfectibility through free choice with the help of God's grace" (p. 307). But they then claim that this Arminian-style sanctification, which is presumably entirely unlike the Latter-day Saint teaching, "was thoroughly trinitarian and retained a distinction between the creature and the creator" (p. 307).82 "In Mormonism man has the potential for actual godhood" (p. 307). They also more than hint that we do not distinguish between ourselves and God, while they claim that patristic writers did not really mean deification as the fulfillment of the potential for actual godhood. For those who reject the most radical or extreme versions of Calvinism and consequently believe in genuine moral agency, if the Ostlings are correct, sanctification bears little resemblance to deification.
In this way the Ostlings strive to rebut some of the scholarly appeals by Latter-day Saint scholars to the patristic literature in which deification is a central teaching. They cite a few scholars outside the Latter-day Saint tradition who in some cases have been coached to distinguish what is found in the patristic literature from LDS teachings (see pp. 310-12). One of these insists on "an ontological gap" between man and God (p. 311), whatever that strange, nonbiblical language may mean. The Saints do not, of course, deny that profound differences exist between God and his children. But philosophical notions associated with the Greek word for Being (on)—ontology, ontological gaps, and so forth—do not account for these differences. Since we do not imagine that God, understood as Being-Itself, created everything, including time and space and human beings, out of nothing, we have no difficulty with the biblical concept that, whatever our current weaknesses and limitations, we are of the same genus as our Father in Heaven and his Son. We also believe that all of our Father's children have, through faith (understood as trust in Jesus as Redeemer from sin, and also as Lord and Savior), the possibility of becoming the seed of Christ. We thus hope to become one with the Messiah or Christ, just as he is one with his and our Father, by making and keeping a covenant that makes possible our eventual full rebirth through his gifts, in his likeness, and with whatever of his attributes he can equip us with.
Following those who invoke categories foreign to the scriptures, the Ostlings also make much of what they call the "nature" or "essence" of God (p. 311), which they insist is both incorporeal and nontemporal. This is presumably done in an effort to drive a radical wedge between God and human beings such that no one ever really has "the potential for actual godhood." They strive to turn their understanding of the ancient view of theosis into a version of Arminian notions of sanctification. What the Ostlings do not set out is exactly why and how the Latter-day Saint idea of deification is linked to sanctification—sometimes also called exaltation. If they had done this, they would have had to inform their readers that the Saints believe that sanctification is possible only as a gift from God. It is God's work through the Holy Spirit. But this would have then removed their primary objection to what the Saints believe about deification. In the Book of Mormon we find the following: "And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot" (Moroni 10:33). The Latter-day Saint scriptures offer no teaching of self-salvation, which is the belief that the Ostlings seek to attribute to Latter-day Saints.
The Ostlings struggle to show that the Saints have no support for their understanding of deification in the patristic materials. But this is not true. The Saints have not, of course, claimed that there is a perfect correspondence between what we believe and what the church fathers taught. The real question is whether conservative Christians of any stripe can find in the patristic literature support for their understanding of the destiny of human beings. Put another way, which evangelical is willing to grant any version, Latter-day Saint or otherwise, of human dei cation? How exactly do the Ostlings propose to square the patristic materials with their own faith? Do they believe in deification "by grace"? If so, on this issue they are closer to the Saints than to evangelicals generally.
The Ostlings also make an effort to distinguish the belief in deification found in the writings of C. S. Lewis from what the Saints really believe. They are obviously troubled by the use that some of the Saints have made of language found in the writings of Lewis. They describe "Jack," as he was known to his friends, as "the twentieth century's best-loved and most influential apologist for traditional Christianity" (p. 307). But they also have to admit that Lewis believed in deification. They do so reluctantly. They seek ways of distinguishing what Lewis taught from what the Saints believe. This is not difficult; there are obviously some matters upon which Lewis held opinions that differ from those held by the Saints. I wonder if the Ostlings accept what Lewis taught about deification. If so, how do they respond to contemporary conservative Christians, including both fundamentalist and evangelicals, whose dogmas simply do not tolerate anything approaching deification, however it is understood? And pointing out that Lewis may have subscribed to some of the classical trinitarian ideas about God hardly explains away, but merely qualifies, his belief.
The Ostlings quote several passages from the writings of C. S. Lewis in which he set forth in his clear and forceful style his belief that it is our destiny—if we so desire, and of course through the grace of God—to become "gods and goddesses" (p. 308). I will add one little passage that they neglected to quote. In a letter consoling a woman for some suffering she had witnessed, Lewis wrote as follows: "It is so v[ery] difficult to believe that the travail of all creation which God Himself descended to share, at its most intense, may be necessary in the process of turning nite creatures (with free wills) into—well, Gods."83 When confronted with the claim that Lewis taught deification and finding it necessary to grant that he did, they still ask: "Did he?" (p. 308). Then, instead of granting the obvious, they dance around this uncomfortable fact. They do this initially by pointing out that "the real C. S. Lewis was aware of the Book of Mormon and assumed that Joseph Smith wrote it" (p. 308). This is true, but it does not address what the "real C. S. Lewis" believed about deification, which is the issue they were presumably confronting. Then they point to theological differences between Lewis and the Saints. Something like this is also true, but I am unaware of Latter-day Saint scholars who do not acknowledge this fact. So I must ask their question again: "Did he" teach deification?
The Ostlings eventually grant that "Lewis did write a number of passages that do appear to express deification" (p. 309). "Appear"? Lewis is not murky on this issue—much of his popularity stems from his clarity. It is not the case that he merely appears to have taught deification—he did so, precisely and often. He did not thereby, according to the Ostlings, erase the distinction between God and all those with the potential to become Gods, but no Latter-day Saint scholar has said that he did. And the Saints do not deny or blur this distinction. Lewis, again according to the Ostlings, taught that "man has no luminosity of his own; he is only capable, through grace, of functioning as a clean mirror to reflect the brightness of God" (p. 309). What the Ostlings apparently do not realize is that something like this is also what the Saints believe and what is taught in our scriptures. It seems that the Ostlings have not understood that the Saints believe that only God can save us and that salvation from both death and sin, as well as sanctification (or exaltation), is always a gift from God and never an autonomous human accomplishment. The Saints do not believe in self-apotheosis. And the Ostlings are confused about our understanding of the atonement. This confusion seems to explain why they disregard scholarly Latter-day Saint appeals to the church fathers and to writers like C. S. Lewis on the issue of dei cation or sanctification. They wrongly assume that they have overcome the arguments presented by Latter-day Saint scholars by quoting people who insist that deification involves sharing in the manifestations and activities of God, "but only by grace, never of right" (p. 312).
Another issue upon which the Ostlings tend to flounder is the vexing matter of the use by Christian churchmen and theologians of categories borrowed from Greek philosophy. I personally do not believe that the apostasy was caused by Greek philosophy. Instead, when things went wrong, efforts were made by clerics to sort the issues out by turning to philosophy. This tended to corrupt both philosophy and Christian faith. Be that as it may, the Ostlings correctly sense that Latter-day Saints have not been impressed with what theologians or councils have managed to do with materials they borrowed from alien sources. At times the Ostlings want to deny that much of anything was borrowed. But they could know something of its extent if they would consult some of their own best scholarship.84 They rationalize this borrowing by invoking writers who assert that it was rather incidental and did not, when it did take place, impose "alien philosophical categories" on biblical teachings, but was merely "the result of a necessary search for words that would capture the sense of Scripture to guard against dangerous misreadings of the biblical text" (p. 317).85 No doubt, if we put the best face on it, something like this took place. So there is some truth in the Ostlings' assertion. But granting this much, they have not thereby overcome the difficulties generated when the vocabulary and concepts employed by pagan philosophers were taken over, especially when they formed some of the crucial scaffolding around which the biblical materials were then subtly woven and theological disputations played out.
Are the Saints Unsettled over Crucial Beliefs?
"Within Mormonism today," according to the Ostlings, "there appear to be important competing strands relating to such core doctrines as sin, grace, and the atonement, and how to express them" (p. 324). They then introduce the speculation of O. Kendall White Jr., a sociologist who has been disaffected from the church from the moment he began to write about Mormon things in 1967, thus continuing their alliance with "liberals" among the Saints. Building on White—and after rejecting as a "neo-orthodox" perversion of traditional Latter-day Saint beliefs what is clearly taught in the Book of Mormon, hymns, sermons, and lesson materials—the Ostlings claim that one strand of Latter-day Saint thought downplays the atonement of Christ. They then contrast White's highly idiosyncratic understanding of our beliefs—one not found in our scriptures—with mainstream evangelical opinions on the atonement.
The Ostlings invoke White to identify a profound shift in Latter-day Saint teachings. According to him, "the cultural crises since World War II have produced, inside Mormonism as well as among non-Mormon Christian theologians, a perspective of pessimism" (p. 324). By "produced," what White has in mind is "caused" since he holds that beliefs are merely ideological reflections of the underlying economic substructure that change when it changes. White insists that there was, in post-war Europe and America, a tragic turning away from a liberal, life-affirming, optimistic understanding of human things in which a redemption from death and sin was not stressed and may not have been seen as necessary or desirable. What took the place of these older liberal, optimistic beliefs was "a more negative view of human nature . . . , along with an increased emphasis on the aspect of sin in human nature" (p. 324). He claims that these shifts were taking place among both Protestants and Latter-day Saints and insists that the desire of the Saints for respectability and the urge to present themselves "as mainline Christian[s]" is leading them to speak more "of grace" (p. 324). The Ostlings are encouraged by this presumed shift, since it leads them to think that we are rapidly moving toward evangelical dogmas. They also recognize that I have argued that the assertions made by White are nonsense. Hence the following:
LDS apologists at FARMS hated White's book. The reviewer Louis Midgley called it a "fine example" of a book that fails to take the Book of Mormon seriously. White's "underlying assumption" is that faith is "challenged by modernity" and that "believers ought to reach an accommodation with modernity by adopting its assumptions and reflecting its values." Midgley criticizes White for ignoring "notions of sin and dependence upon deity that are found in the Book of Mormon and in the early revelations to Joseph Smith." (p. 324)86
In addition, I established that White was wrong in claiming that there once was a "traditional Mormon theology" that had downplayed or abandoned the atonement of Jesus Christ. We have never resembled liberal Protestants on these issues. Even the newer manifestations of evangelical anti-Mormonism cling to portions of White's speculation. For example, Mosser has recently insisted that "White convincingly showed that there was indeed a noticeable trend within Mormon theology away from the traditional synthesis," which he described as constituting, among other things, an "optimistic humanism."87 Mosser correctly holds that White has tried to show that the new orthodoxy he thought he saw developing was "closer to Protestant fundamentalism and neo-orthodoxy than what [Mosser] and others esteem to be traditional Mormon thought."88 However, he objects to White's claim that the new emphasis on the contents of Latter-day Saint scriptures has moved the Saints toward the Protestant theology known as neo-orthodoxy because "the characteristics Kendall White associated with neo-orthodoxy—God's sovereignty, human depravity, and salvation by grace—are not the first ones that the word neo-orthodoxy conveys to many people's minds, at least among evangelicals."89 The differing opinions of evangelical theologians on neo-orthodoxy are a small but instructive manifestation of what I consider to be evangelical theological promiscuity or looseness.
Mosser also implies that White maintains that the success the Church of Jesus Christ has enjoyed is due to an essentially humanist or "anthropocentric (human created) theology" and that the trends he imagines to be taking place among some Latter-day Saint scholars present an "ominous threat to Mormonism's future."90 Mosser also realizes, however, that the current attention being given to the teachings in the Book of Mormon has not taken the Saints in the direction of either Protestant neo-orthodoxy or the fundamentalist faction that turned up in Protestant circles between the two great wars, which still has influence in contemporary evangelical religiosity.
Mosser seems somewhat encouraged to see indications that the Saints stress human sinfulness, the atonement made by Jesus for our sins, and our dependence on God for whatever is good.91 What he does not grant is that there has never been a time when the faithful believed otherwise. Mosser invokes White because he wants to show that Latter-day Saint emphasis on the atonement is a genuinely new development. He wants to believe that he and his associates may now be able to evangelize the Church of Jesus Christ. In some ways, he likes the renewed emphasis on the Book of Mormon, since he believes that "its theology is largely orthodox in nature"92—that is, somewhat similar to what is believed by at least some factions of evangelicals. He and his associates want to see signs that on some crucial issues the Saints are moving toward their own understanding of orthodox Christianity. They then wrongly imagine that they can persuade the church that "many Mormon teachings depart radically from biblical and historical Christian faith"93 by pounding away at the Book of Mormon, by showing that Joseph Smith was not a genuine prophet, and so forth. At this point, exactly like the Ostlings, Mosser and his associates have an agenda common to the more strident and less well-informed countercult versions of anti-Mormonism. They are not the least bit interested in a genuine interfaith dialogue in which we and they strive to understand each other better; they are, instead, interested in attacking our faith and its foundations. The difference is that they assume that they may be able to evangelize the entire church. They entertain this hope primarily because they have had a few civil conversations with a few Latter-day Saint scholars who have learned some of their code language and have been successful in communicating that we are in some ways closer to them than they had previously suspected. Thus they wrongly assume that a radical shift is taking place among the Saints that portends a possible negotiated surrender to their quaint notions of Christian orthodoxy. But it is simply not the case, as the Ostlings claim, that there are two "camps" that "claim to be speaking for 'traditional' Mormonism, quoting proof-text support from LDS scriptures" (p. 325).
As I have demonstrated, the Ostlings make much use of former Mormons, cultural Mormons, and dissidents in building their case against the church, although they actually share far less with them theologically than they do with the vast bulk of the Saints. Thus when they encounter a literature that actually sets forth what is found in the Latter-day Saint scriptures, they note that it sounds "very similar to the language of Protestant Evangelicals and other traditional Christians" (p. 325). And well it might, since it is also the language of the Bible (though it is, of course, read differently), is supplemented by further revelation, and is not burdened with the incrustations of creeds, confessions, and speculations of uninspired theologians. The Ostlings make a serious mistake by assuming that some of the quirky stuff they find in the pages of Sunstone and Dialogue or publications of Signature Books, provided by someone on the margins of the Latter-day Saint academic community (I have in mind White's book), either represents the faith of the Saints or constitutes a viable belief option among them. If I were to attempt to describe the range of evangelical theological stances and were to include within this spectrum liberal Protestants, including the Jesus Seminar, would not the Ostlings and other evangelicals have every right to complain that I simply had not understood what I was seeking to describe? I think they would. But fundamentalist countercultists and even much more reasonable and responsible evangelicals do not seem to see that trotting out those they describe as "liberal Mormons" makes exactly this kind of unfortunate mistake.
But the Ostlings are fond of those who describe themselves as increasingly marginalized in both a social and intellectual sense from their original Latter-day Saint faith; they love their "liberal Mormons," although they grant that these folks also "like to point out the beliefs and spiritual insights they hold in common with non-Mormons." According to the Ostlings, they admit that "the LDS Church cannot simply blend into the ecumenical landscape and, presumably, never will." Why? According to the Ostlings, one reason is that "the LDS scriptures simply do not allow Mormons to view the others as legitimate churches" (p. 323). But if something like this is so, why mention the bizarre speculation of White? He ignores the Latter-day Saint scriptures as he invents a Mormonism, much of which has never existed. The Saints have always seen themselves as members of the Church of Jesus Christ and not as a social group celebrating life-affirming optimism in which there is no need for an atonement from sin and death.
What the Ostlings do not say is that some of these same "liberal Mormons" may "hold in common with [at least some] non-Mormons" a fondness for the most radical forms of feminist ideology, homosexual hedonism, or other currently fashionable oddities that evangelicals tend to abhor. I assume that the Ostlings would be bemused, and perhaps even a bit annoyed, if someone did this same sort of thing when attempting to describe the theological controversies currently taking place within the evangelical movement. The Ostlings are on more solid ground when they recognize that the Saints simply cannot, without giving up their history and scriptures—that is, their identity—blend into the evangelical world.
We have no interest in being numbered among those who have come to dominate conservative Protestantism in the United States since World War II. They misread our justifiable annoyance at their claim that we are not Christians. This does not signal that we are eager to be included in their club. We have from the beginning seen our faith as sui generis, though Christian as we understand that label. If they want a genuine interfaith dialogue with us, they must cease attacking our beliefs. The point of such a conversation is to better understand each other and not to destroy the other party.
Despite whatever illusions they may entertain, evangelicals are not for us the keepers of the gate to Christian respectability and orthodoxy. Our evangelical and fundamentalist critics do not control our way of understanding ourselves. Evangelicals do not have a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal of Christian Approval that we seek from them. And those among them who imagine that they might be able to negotiate our surrender and our eventual entrance into their religious world simply have not grasped who and what we are. Evangelicals are living in a make-believe world if they imagine that the pressure they put on the Saints by their efforts to demonstrate problems in our history, beliefs, or practices or by their attacks on the Book of Mormon will eventually lead to our surrender to their rather recent, highly unbiblical brand of conservative Protestantism. The editors of The New Mormon Challenge, who have indicated that they see Mormon America as "an excellent companion" to their own endeavors, make this mistake.94 From our perspective, we are not losing the battle over the truth of the Book of Mormon. On the contrary, we are encouraged to see its critics reach out for more subtle and sophisticated arguments to buttress their unfaith as the old ones fall by the wayside. And our past is not such that our faith can be toppled by carping about this or that incident, as the Ostlings do, or by celebrating some recent revisionist history, and certainly not by turning a former Mormon historian into a stick with which to beat the church. | <urn:uuid:4abb0dbc-c670-4b73-9abf-69a98530e3bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=14&num=1&id=408 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96588 | 20,634 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Strategic Intervention Coaching is the new standard for professional communication, understanding, and helping of people. Whether you're a life coach, a helping professional, or simply seeking to communicate with and help people on the highest possible level, you're about to offer a whole new way to create value for anyone you meet. We train people in advanced strategies for resolving the whole range of human challenges in a way that redefines problems so that they can be solved and that leads to greater growth, contribution, and common good. A Strategic Intervention Coach navigates a variety of scenarios ranging from individual problems to those of the couple, the family, the peer group, the organization, and the larger social system. Strategic Intervention Coaching is open-ended: by using our principles you can strengthen your professional skills, whatever they may be. We have students from a variety of industries and backgrounds applying SI to their workplace and careers. Bottom line: our students become skilled at working with human beings to produce positive change on every level.
Strategic Intervention (SI) and NLP/Neurolinguistic Programming
NLP and SI Coaching share the same origin in the theoretical work of Gregory Bateson and the pioneering interventions of Milton Erickson. Where Neurolinguistic Programming came to focus on the neurolinguistic structures within the individual, the Strategic Approach focuses on the interactivity in relationships and the context of the person in their social group and in their life. We believe in the importance of understanding a person's relationships, stage in life, cultural influences, and beliefs before they can be transformed by means of a skillfully planned strategy. In SI we might give a client a strategy to carry out at home that will solve problems by transforming multiple relationships and therefore creating new opportunities. For this reason, a SI coach can walk into any situation with any number of participants and create interactive change that shifts the patterns of numerous individuals at once.
Join us for a free video demonstration of the integration of NLP and SI.
Robbins-Madanes Training offers a coaching certification in the Strategic Approach. Our training consists of three parts 1) video case studies of real-life interventions by Tony Robbins with actual individuals, filmed and expertly narrated step by step for your understanding. These films offer an unprecedented insight into real-time human transformation, as you'll see a variety of people dealing with serious human problems - divorce, bankruptcy, depression - and how these problems can be turned around in under 90 minutes. The second part of the training consists of live phone-based teleclasses with the course founders in which we present innovative strategies for creating change for a variety of presenting problems, as well as interaction with students. The third part consists of a vibrant coaching community and series of practice coaching exercises that instill SI skills in each student. The result? You get a "coaching instinct" from this training that exceeds any training that focuses on "book learning."
Enter your email address to receive notification of training, or call us at 887.260.0432 for more details.
Strategic Intervention (SI) and Business Life Coaching
Strategic Intervention is an open-ended system, meaning that its principles can be applied successfully to nearly any specific practice. Business coaches gain great insight into how to shift interpersonal dynamics and hierarchical structures in organizations - as well as the triangle conflicts and dilemmas that often develop between executives, managers, and employees. Numerous management professionals, consultants, and Human Resources professionals are developing a much greater effectiveness at creating change in the workplace by using Strategic Intervention.
Join our mailing list to receive a webinar with case studies of how SI transforms businesses.
The field of hypnosis was forever transformed by the work of Milton Erickson, who demonstrated how in the midst of an ordinary conversation individuals can be guided to profoundly therapeutic states where new solutions become possible. Strategic Intervention develops this hypnotic tradition, where clients are guided to more resourceful "solution states" by direct or indirect means. Where SI really contributes to the hypnotherapy tradition is in integrating hypnosis tools with the greater context of the person's life, relationships, and goals.
We have hundreds of students employing SI to strengthen their practice as physicians, chiropractors, dentists, medical assistants, nurses, physical therapists, massage therapists, EFT and tapping specialists, and many others. All of these professions share a need - how to help the individual with their physical well-being when so often there are non-physiological issues at stake - whether these be emotions, belief systems, habits, or relationships. SI coaching trains health professionals and bodyworkers on how to quickly understand the whole person and help them through simple and effective conversational strategies that can take place anywhere - whether the clinic, or the waiting room, the hospital hallway, or your local Starbucks.
Sign up to see a demonstration of Tony Robbins utilizing elements of Emotional Freedom Technique/Tapping in the midst of a conversation with a couple to resolve a marital issue. | <urn:uuid:6c879bd7-72cf-488e-95dd-e96e31573474> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.robbinsmadanestraining.com/landing-site/pages/nadg/index.php?gclid=CPjCgrHzk6wCFSY0QgodEERNpA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942526 | 1,010 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Halloween safety tips for big and little kids | Crime
It looks like the Monday evening weather will cooperate for trick-or-treaters young and old.
We'll have just a few clouds with temperatures mostly in the mid and upper 50's after dinner time.
The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention have compiled a comprehensive list of safety tips here, aimed at keeping everyone safe during the door-to-door frivolity. Whether you're heading out in costume or will be handing out treats at the front door, the list has something for everyone. | <urn:uuid:ee9a3dc8-f622-4178-ae31-d3db67c85915> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oxford.wmctv.com/news/crime/63154-halloween-safety-tips-big-and-little-kids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94271 | 113 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Learning Tibetan on Lhakar: Episode Four
This week I wanted to share a video and some photos from my visit to the Sambhota Day School in Gankyi to show how these awesome young students observe Lhakar every Wednesday.
From the moment we arrived at the school you could just feel the energy of children everywhere. It was such a nice feeling being around kids who are just so curious and fun, and just want to run around and play after their morning prayers. I think it’s safe to say their classes are probably far more fun than any of mine. I almost started to feel a little jealous peaking into each classroom and see all the different drawings and mini Tibetan writing on the walls that all looked so colorful and full of life.
We got a tour of the school and got to see the kids run around and play after their spaghetti lunch which was served from giant pails. Note: there may be nothing cuter than seeing little Tibetan kids eating spaghetti in their chubas!
Then we got to play with the kids a bit and it was super fun, especially after the sky opened up and a downpour of rain fell on all of us! The kids loved it and went totally crazy, running around and splashing in puddles. After a while I think we could tell they fear almost absolutely nothing.
It was so cool to visit the school and see how they have been observing Lhakar for years, even before it became more of campaign or before news spread about how Tibetans were observing Lhakar in Tibet. The headmistress told us they had been observing Lhakar since 2007 as a way to honor His Holiness’ soul day and to help preserve Tibetan culture. I felt so lucky to have visited the school and see how these teachers have encouraged these kids to feel proud of their identity and language. It made me feel hopeful for the next generation of creative and smart young Tibetans who will remember Lhakar from when they were little. | <urn:uuid:87821d96-d68e-4c94-b509-2840de8e7b38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lhakardiaries.com/2012/08/08/learning-tibetan-on-lhakar-episode-four/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980179 | 408 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.