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A Mouthful Of Glass
For South Africans the murder of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966 was a defining moment comparable to Kennedy’s assassination. The difference of course is that for the vast majority Verwoerd was a racist despot whose death was greeted with widespread rejoicing. Strange then that Demetrios Tsafendas, the parliamentary messenger who plunged a knife into the chest of the architect of apartheid, is a shadowy, almost-forgotten figure.
Forty-four years after being dismissed as a ‘meaningless creature’ by the judge who tried his case the full tragic story of Tsafendas has finally been told in Henk Van Woerden’s fascinating biographical reconstruction. So who was this man who some believe belongs in the pantheon of liberation struggle heroes? Born the illegitimate son of a Greek father and a Swazi mother in Mozambique in 1918, Tsafendas was always an outsider, his life spent in rootless drifting between marginal jobs and incarceration in mental asylums on three continents. Always his wanderings led back to South Africa despite repeated exclusion orders and constant re-classification of his ambiguous racial identity. His dabbling in both Communism and Christianity suggests a heartfelt need to belong and repeated rejection eroded his fragile mental stability. Verwoerd’s killing was a last mad, desperate act in a country that was itself mad.
Tsafendas stands as an uneasy symbol of the country that refused to acknowledge him and, in A Mouthful of Glass, the man described on his funeral wreath as ‘Displaced Person, Sailor, Christian, Communist, Liberation Fighter, Political Prisoner, Hero’ has his fitting, if deeply unsettling, memorial.
The Fat Lady Sings
Jacqueline Roy’s fine novel is set on a psychiatric ward and tells the stories of Gloria and Merle, two women of Jamaican descent who are admitted to the unit. Both women have been tipped into mental illness by tragedy. Gloria is grieving for her dead partner Josie and her illness takes the form of wild, unpredictable acts and bursts of loud public singing. Following a miscarriage, Merle starts to hear voices in her head. She also hides a secret about her strict religious father.
Through direct narrative, notebook entries and taped diaries we gradually build up a picture of these two women and how they have come to be incarcerated and on mind-altering medication. Jacqueline Roy’s approach to the realities of mental illness is sensitive and unsentimental. She is particularly good at catching the small increments by which mental instability grows out of ‘normal’ behaviour and her picture of patient-staff communications, based on mistrust and contempt, is depressingly accurate. The arrogant psychiatrist Dr Raines, who interprets Merle’s troubled childhood as a case of sexual abuse, is typical. In fact her father had spent much of her childhood in prison wrongly convicted of murder.
Although the novel ends with both Merle and Gloria leaving hospital and attempting to pull together the scattered strands of their lives, there is no cosy pretence that there are easy answers or happy endings to the messy complexities of life. The Fat Lady Sings is an honest and spirited portrait of suffering and dignity, individual despair and institutional failings.
Business As Unusual
Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, unorthodox entrepreneur and frenetic campaigner, has written a book. It would be easy to mock and, indeed, that was my first impulse. Everything about Business As Unusual – that awful title, the garish design and the bitty, tabloid layout – suggests disposable coffee-table dross.
Then I began reading Roddick’s actual words and it became apparent that not only is her writing informed and passionate, she is prepared to go the extra mile and engage with the debate taking place among the activists opposing globalization. How many CEOs of multinationals are prepared to do that?
Perhaps the book’s design is a marketing ploy, deliberately pitching for a readership that would pick up a book like this expecting a standard autobiography or a history of The Body Shop. If so, it is a smart tactic for, in this book, Anita Roddick puts forward clear and radical ideas on feminism, business ethics and global economics. Entwined with these more didactic passages are extracts from the diary Roddick kept while attending the Seattle anti-capitalist gathering in 1999.
Business as Unusual will not be to everyone’s taste; Roddick’s certitude verging on smugness and her preachy tone will have some readers heading for the hills. However her book will have served a very valuable purpose if it puts the vital issues of neo-liberal piracy and the corporate theft of our rights before an audience who wouldn’t dream of opening a book by Vandana Shiva or Susan George or, indeed, reading the NI.
Pip Pip - A Sideways Look at Time
Jay Griffiths’ splendidly quirky book could be summarized, in an echo of EF Schumacher, as ‘Time as if People Mattered’. Declaring emphatically that a book about time needs to be more than a mere history of clocks, she takes our western, work-ethic concept of time (‘time is money’) by the scruff of the neck and shakes loose a wealth of alternative wisdoms. In 13 fascinating chapters (one for each hour and one for unclocked ‘wild time’) the author challenges the assumption that there is such a thing as the time. She shows how other cultures have viewed time, from Navajo Sundance time to the Dreamtime of Australian Aboriginal people.
This extraordinarily wide-ranging book touches on, among much else, the age-old relationship between time and power; from Druids and stone circles to the globalization of time in the ‘24 hour society’. Particularly impressive is the description of the profusion of pagan festivals that have celebrated time and chaos and how we have gradually been dispossessed of these life-affirming carnivals.
Griffiths perhaps tries to cover too much ground, leading to a scatter-gun approach and a relentless pace – odd for a book that is a hymn to ‘slow time’. That apart, Pip Pip is an absorbing and radical study of the uses and abuses of time; provocative, impassioned, often outrageously witty but also emphasizing the political import of the subject. After all, as the anonymous authors of The Cloud of Unknowing wrote in 1370: ‘There is nothing more precious than time. Time is made for man, not man for time.’
European Klezmer Music
Klezmer music takes its name from the Yiddish word for musician. But thereafter attempts to define the genre fall short. Here’s an attempt: it’s Central European – or is that Greco-Turkish? — dance music whose cadences come from the prayers of Askenazi synagogues, with Gypsy lauteri tunes and Balkan folk melodies thrown in too.
Klezmer music was born in the early eighteenth century and, as the Nazis swept through Europe, fell silent in the twentieth century. But not entirely. Steven Greenman and W Zev Feldman – the two Americans who form the mainstay of Khevrisa – are part of a recent movement to research and preserve the music which even before the Holocaust was changing under the weight of migration and urbanization. Theirs is a labour of love. Extensive sleeve-notes give clear histories of klezmer’s developments and changes: how the clarinet took over the violin’s lead and how the quavering mysteries of the cimbal — a kind of dulcimer — were translated, in modern klezmer, into a rhythmical powerhouse. For their part, Khevrisa are firmly in the old camp. No clarinet or sax here. With Greenman leading on violin and Feldman on cimbal, the pair’s freylakhs – or dances – are vibrant affairs, even in their more melancholy aspects. Three leading latterday klezmer exponents – Alicia Svigals, Stuart Brotman and Michael Alpert – flesh out the works, making this an album to be reckoned with.
Rough Guide to Klezmer
It’s still klezmer but from the first few bars of ‘Fun Tashlikh’ played by the Klezmatics, it’s clear that this 18-track compilation is approaching the music from a very different direction. Whereas Khevrisa has a scholarly touch, the Rough Guides’ disc picks up klezmer in all its US-based history and mutation. And not just America. The Klezmatics’ track – taken from their album Rhythm and Jews – blends Arabic beats and a bit of ululating in with their wild violins and squawking clarinet. It’s immediately balanced by the crazy energy of the next track, a version of the same tune by the great clarinettist Naftule Brandwein who dominated the scene from the 1920s and turned the music towards a jazzy overlap that’s still heard today. That’s the way this album works: by threading modern klezmer (Brave Old World, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, David Krakauer Trio) with the old (Harry Kandel, Brandwein and the Balkan rootsiness of Di Naye Kapelye), the sense of both history and a future for the music is created. The Krakauer Trio’s ‘Bogata Bulgar’ looks towards Latin American fusion, while the Klezmokum’s ‘Der Gasn Nigun’ uses a sonorous jazz piano to tease out connections with jazz. There is a necessary duplication of names from the Khevrisa album, although the material is quite different. Some musicians appear in quite separate guises: Alicia Svigals’ Romanian Fantasy No 1, for instance, marks out its own reflective mood. This CD also offers some enhanced features — essentially the klezmer chapter from the Rough Guides’ World Music book (Volume II).
The King of Masks
Rarely does a film so successfully deal with gender discrimination without proselytizing and while delivering good art.
Interestingly, King of Masks comes from China – a country where 98 per cent of aborted fetuses are female.
It tells the story of an elderly masked street performer who longs for a male successor – girls are forbidden – to whom he can teach his secret ancestral art. In 1930s Sichuan, where children are sold or given away as servants, he finds such an heir in a starving eight-year-old boy nicknamed ‘Doggie’ whom he adopts as a beloved grandson. The old man is delighted until he discovers that Doggie is female – masquerading as a boy because she was abused by seven previous owners who didn’t like girls.
Bitter and betrayed, he gives her money and leaves. When Doggie jumps into the river trying to reach him on his houseboat, he grudgingly allows her to stay; but now he is ‘Boss’ instead of ‘Grandpa’. She can never learn his craft but he will tolerate her if she cooks and cleans. He teaches her acrobatics and she becomes his performance partner. Unable to reconcile his growing fondness for a child of the wrong sex, he berates her for not being a boy. Desperate to be loved, Doggie rescues a kidnapped little boy and presents him to the street performer as the long-desired grandson. But it all goes horribly wrong and the girl ends up risking her life to save the old man’s before the film reaches a happier resolution.
Sexism, poverty and government corruption are all explored in this film. But so are more nebulous issues such as the masks behind which we hide and the dissolving boundaries between theatre, philosophy and real life. Beautiful, thought-provoking and moving.
Vanessa Baird meets two new
There’s an absolutely haunting line in Okey Ndibe’s debut novel Arrows of Rain: ‘The story that wants to be told never forgives silence.’
The fact that the writer is Nigerian and comes from a continent that is saddled with some of the world’s most repressive governments – supported by Western business interests – gives added poignancy and depth to the phrase. The hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa, a writer who did not remain silent, is not forgotten.
But what does one do in the face of tyranny? What would you do if you saw an act of evil committed – but to speak out could well cost you your life?
To tell this story (see review in NI 328) and explore these issues Ndibe, a seasoned journalist and magazine editor, has chosen fiction and a narrative style that lies somewhere between a ‘thriller’ and a ‘confession’. But he goes way beyond this to create an emotional atmosphere that is at once brooding, sparse and lyrical. The story, which starts with a body washed up on a beach, explores issues of moral complexity and human frailty that are universal and eternal. As Ndibe says: ‘I was writing this story and I felt it was grappling with an important human drama that just happened to be set in Africa.’
Both Okey Ndibe and his compatriot Ike Oguine acknowledge the tremendous debt they owe to the liberating works of such giants of African literature as Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe. But they are not overwhelmed by the legacy. Ndibe and Oguine belong to a younger generation who need to find new ways of telling stories, partly because the stories of themselves have changed.
‘[In Africa] we have countries whose leaders are deliberately setting them towards a state of anarchy for their own interests. The corruption is far greater than in Achebe’s time,’ Ndibe explains. ‘Our story is becoming impossible to understand through our conventional forms of story telling. Our experience is beginning to outstrip the metaphors we have for capturing it.’
Ike Oguine has approached the story he needs to tell from almost the opposite position. He lives in Lagos but his novel A Squatter’s Tale is set mainly in Oakland, US. It’s hero, Obi, is a young Nigerian engaged in the hectic pursuit of the ever-elusive ‘American Dream’.
‘Immigrant novels’ are not new to African literature, but Oguine’s humorous and fast-paced offering is something else. According to Oguine: ‘The earlier generation of African immigrants felt they were outsiders and so culture clash was a central theme. But this generation almost feels entitled to belong to Western culture; they have been exposed to Western culture through TV, films, music and books and think it is theirs. They feel sophisticated enough to cope with any culture anywhere in the world. But the reality is not quite that.’
With its aggressive, hedonistic pursuit of success, measured in cars, designer suits and sex, Squatter’s Tale could be seen as a universal story of contemporary mores. But it has a more serious core in the sense of alienation its characters feel, made worse somehow by the web of self-agrandizing fabrications with which they surround themselves with. What interests Oguine is how people, uprooted from home, have to create value systems afresh for themselves. He describes his work as ‘a sideline’ to the core themes of war and the crisis of the African state that preoccupy the continent’s literature. But like Ndibe he is touching upon themes of moral integrity that are global and universal.
And for both these interesting new writers, silence is clearly not on the agenda.
Arrows of Rain by Okey Ndibe (ISBN 0 435 90657-7) and A Squatter's Tale by Ike Oguine (ISBN 0 435 90655-0) are both published by Heinemann African Writers Series.
This first appeared in our award-winning magazine - to read more, subscribe from just £7 | <urn:uuid:de69f4dd-3acc-4565-ac63-8b9b50663c29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newint.org/features/2000/12/05/mix/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955437 | 3,411 | 1.828125 | 2 |
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Barack Obama will appeal to Northern Ireland's youth to sustain their peace in his first opportunity to highlight the role the United States has played helping bring about reconciliation in the country.
Obama arrived at Belfast on Monday morning. After his Belfast speech he will attend a two-day summit of the Group of Eight industrial economies.
Later Monday he was to meet on the sidelines of the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Topics for the two leaders range from Syria to arms control. Russia has criticized Obama's decision to arm Syrian rebels and has dismissed U.S. claims that President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons against Syrians.
Russia is a member of the G-8. So are Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Germany.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will tour the damage from the massive tornado that devastated the Oklahoma City area.
Obama plans to meet with affected families and thank first responders during a visit Sunday to Moore, Okla. The White House says Obama wants a firsthand look at the recovery from the tornado that killed 24 and damaged an estimated 12,000 homes Monday afternoon.
The town of Moore is a community of 41,000 people located about 10 miles from Oklahoma City.
Obama offered prayers for the people of Oklahoma from the White House in recent days. He said that "while the road ahead will be long, their country will be with them every single step of the way."
Meanwhile, commencement ceremonies went ahead for high school grads from Moore. They took place in nearby Oklahoma city. Many of the grads say Moore is home and they don't plant to stray too far.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror.
Obama isn't claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he's steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat: a country in a state of perpetual war.
He gave a landmark speech Thursday in which he sought to refine and recalibrate his counterterrorism strategy.
The president asserted that al-Qaida is "on the path to defeat," reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels.
That means that with the Afghanistan war winding down, Obama is unlikely to commit troops in large numbers to any conflict unless, as his critics fear, he tragically has underestimated al-Qaida's staying power.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting bipartisan criticism, President Barack Obama is conceding that his proposed budget is not his "ideal plan." But he says it offers "tough reforms" to the nation's benefit programs while closing loopholes for the wealthy.
Obama argues his approach will provide long-term deficit reduction without harming the economy.
In his first comments about a budget he is to release next week, Obama says he intends to reduce deficits while providing new spending for public works projects, early education and job training.
Obama says in his weekly radio and Internet address that he's willing to compromise to move beyond what he calls "a cycle of short-term, crisis-driven decision-making."
In the Republican address, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says that ideas for fixing the federal government are coming from the states.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is proposing cuts to Social Security as an attempt to compromise with Republicans on the budget.
A senior administration official says the budget Obama will offer to Congress next Wednesday would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years. It includes a revised inflation adjustment called "chained CPI" that would curb cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefit programs.
The senior administration official stressed it is not the president's preferred approach but a compromise proposal to try to reach a long-term budget deal. Obama first made the offer to House Speaker John Boehner last year.
The official spoke on a condition of anonymity since the budget has yet to be released. Technically, the administration actually would be limiting the growth of Social Security.
Senate Democrats dropped the ban from the bill they plan to debate next month out of concern it could sink the whole package. But Obama says he's pushing for it.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says Americans have spoken on gun control. He says they support the ban, plus limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines, school security funding and a crackdown on gun trafficking.
In the Republican address, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah says the Senate Democrats' budget raises taxes by $1.5 trillion without saving entitlements. He says Republicans want a balanced budget.
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says one rocket exploded in the courtyard of a house in the border town of Sderot, causing damage but no injuries. The other landed in an open field.
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama visited Sderot, which is frequently targeted by rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. The territory is ruled by the militant Palestinian Hamas group.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, which came as Obama was in Jerusalem. He is to visit the West Bank city of Ramallah later in the day.
Obama arrives today in Israel for his first visit to the country — and only his second to the Middle East, outside of a quick jaunt to Iraq — since taking office.
He will also be making his first trips as president to the Palestinian Authority and Jordan this week. But on an itinerary laden more with symbolism than substance, an Israel that is increasingly wary of developments in Syria and Iran will be the main focus of his attention.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama promotes a plan to direct $200 million a year into an energy security trust to fund research for alternatives like electric car batteries and biofuels. He says the trust would use revenues from federal leases on offshore drilling without adding to the deficit.
Obama says investing in clean energy will help create jobs. He's envisioning cars that can one day go coast to coast without using any oil.
In the Republican address, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin says Republicans have a plan to balance the federal budget in 10 years by cutting spending.
The committee voted Tuesday to adopt the measure sponsored by Sen. Brian Munzlinger, of Williamstown.
Obama signed 23 executive actions in January, including orders to make more federal data available for background checks and end a freeze on government research on gun violence.
Munzlinger's bill initially would have criminalized the enforcement of all federal gun laws, even those enacted by Congress, passed after Jan. 1, 2013. But those provisions were revised to include only the enforcement of executive orders.
A House committee endorsed similar legislation last week, but that measure seeks to criminalize enforcement of all federal gun laws. | <urn:uuid:2e926edf-06a4-4414-b31e-bc8605e49028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ktrs.com/news/health-news/itemlist/tag/President%20Obama | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966216 | 1,403 | 1.765625 | 2 |
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Another Needless Confrontation
Posted By Doug Bandow On May 9, 2008 @ 12:00 am In Uncategorized | No Comments
For decades most Americans weren’t aware that there was a Georgia other than the southern state. Today most Americans probably still aren’t aware that there is another Georgia.
Yet U.S. officials are breathing fire at Russia for confronting the country of Georgia, a former Soviet Socialist Republic, which won its independence from the dissolving Soviet Union in 1991. At issue: the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two territories within Georgia that have declared their independence in turn.
The normal reaction of any normal American who learned about the controversy would be, who cares? Surely an arcane territorial dispute between two former parts of the Soviet Union over the disposition of two even smaller parts doesn’t concern the United States. But one should never underestimate Washington’s determination to micro-manage global affairs. The Bible says that God cares about a sparrow falling from the sky. If the sparrow were flying in a foreign country, the U.S. State Department would demand to know who shot it down.
Throughout its history Georgia was a target of foreign invasion by competing empires, including the Mongols, Ottomans, and Persians. Georgia turned to Russia for assistance and found itself forced into the Russian empire in 1801. Georgia achieved a brief independence after the Russian Revolution, before being forcibly incorporated into the Soviet empire in 1921.
Another revolution, the collapse of communist rule in the Soviet Union, led to Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1991. The path to democracy was not easy, however. The first democratically elected president – Zviad Gamsakhurdia – was ousted by a coup later in the year. He was replaced by former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, who in turn was forced to resign in 2003 by massive street demonstrations protesting his government’s rigging of parliamentary elections.
Mikheil Saakashvili rode the so-called Rose Revolution to power in 2004, but he has demonstrated his own authoritarian tendencies. Jonathan Wheatley of the Swiss AARAU Center for Democracy argues that Georgia is one of several former Soviet republics stuck "halfway between authoritarianism and democracy." He explains that Saakashvili prefers "to impose change by decree in time-honored Soviet style," forcing debate and conflict to be "played out on the streets rather than in parliament."
This all may have been interesting political theater for foreign observers, but it was of little concern to America and Europe. After all, freeing Georgia was never a U.S. objective during the Cold War. European capitals spent no time worrying about Georgia’s role in Soviet planning. When the U.S.S.R. came apart, Georgia’s independence was a happy afterthought to Ukraine’s departure, which materially weakened the Soviet giant.
However, one consistent Georgian policy has been to seek U.S. and European support in resisting Russian encroachments. Tbilisi wants to join the West, and who can blame it? America and Europe offer bountiful markets, potential foreign aid, and possible military protection from Russia. As a result, Georgia, a one-time constituent part of the Soviet Union far from Europe, let alone America, wants to join NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization would become the North Atlantic-Asia/Caucasus Treaty Organization, or NAACTO.
The idea is nutty on its face. Georgia is irrelevant to allied security and brings no military assets to the table. It has put a few troops into Iraq, but while the burden on Tbilisi might be real, the value to the U.S. is minimal. Most importantly, including Georgia in NATO would force the alliance to take Georgia’s side against Russia in any territorial disputes.
Such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
Abkhazian separatism led to conflict in 1992-93 and was concluded after a severe defeat of the Georgian forces, followed by a cease-fire monitored by the Commonwealth of Independent States, namely Russia. Fighting in South Ossetia ran from 1991 to 1992, when Georgia accepted a cease-fire under Russian pressure. The peacekeeping force there too is dominated by Moscow. Russia cites American and European support for Kosovo’s declaration of independence as a reason to consider accepting similar Abkhazian and South Ossetian claims. De facto absorption by Moscow is a possibility.
Tensions, which never fully abated between Georgia and its secessionist territories, have recently flared anew. Russia has upgraded its diplomatic ties to the territories while both Tbilisi and Moscow have enhanced their troop presence around the disputed areas. Georgia claims that Russia shot down a Georgian unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, a charge Moscow unpersuasively denied.
Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly lobbied NATO not to begin membership talks with Georgia at the alliance’s summit last month. Georgia retaliated by breaking off talks with Russia over the latter’s accession to the World Trade Organization. Moscow has increased its pressure, and Georgian President Saakashvili has called on NATO to respond in this "moment of truth" since "This is not just an attack on a piece of Georgian territory" but "on what some politicians in Moscow regard as the dangerous virus of democracy and freedom spreading in Russia’s neighborhood."
These are nasty little conflicts to be sure, but of no consequence to the West. First, neither side is obviously right. As the U.S. and leading European nations acknowledge regarding Kosovo – and other parts of the old Yugoslavia, including Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia – secession can be a valid demand. If yes for Albanian-Kosovars, then why not for Abkhazians and South Ossetians?
Second, Russian support for secession might offend Georgia, but outside involvement in otherwise internal struggles is a constant of international relations. Indeed, given Georgia’s proximity to Russia, right next door, Moscow has a lot more at stake in the future of Abkhazia and South Ossetia than Washington had in Kosovo, which it "liberated" through direct military intervention. The West’s sudden concern for proper international protocol when it comes to dismembering Georgia warrants at most a horselaugh from Russia in response.
Yet American and European officials and pundits are treating the Georgia-Russia confrontation as if it involved someone, anyone in America or Europe.
London’s Independent denounces Russia for acting like a "colonial bully." Helle Dale of the Heritage Foundation calls Russia a "bully." NATO spokesman James Appathurai complains that Russia has "undermined Georgia’s territorial integrity." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack accuses Russia of engaging in "political mischief." Senators Joseph Biden and Richard Lugar, chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, argue that "Russian actions require a timely, robust and intensive diplomatic response from Washington" and NATO. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain insists that "We must not allow Russia to believe it has a free hand to engage in policies that undermine Georgian sovereignty."
Let us stipulate that Moscow should avoid NATO’s Balkan precedent and America’s Iraq precedent and stay out of Georgia’s internal affairs. "Do as I say and not as I do" seems to apply to countries as well as parents.
But Russia views territorial conflict on its border as a matter of its national interest, rather like the U.S. perspective regarding Mexico and the rest of Central America, as well as the Caribbean. Over the last 15 years Washington has twice forcibly removed governments of Haiti. Washington had its reasons and wouldn’t have reacted well to a condemnatory lecture from Russia – or most anyone else.
Still, assume Moscow to be in the wrong. The U.S. and Europeans should tell Russia so and move on. Put bluntly, Georgia doesn’t matter.
Biden and Lugar call Georgia "an important friend," but by that standard there is no country on earth that is not an "important friend." So is Chad. So is Fiji. So is Nepal. So is Paraguay. So many "important friends," so little time and money. Georgians are a fine people and many thirst for real liberty. But their country is of no particular interest to the U.S. or Europeans.
Tbilisi doesn’t matter to Western security. Georgia is an imperfect democracy at best. And control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia isn’t even critical to Georgia, let alone the West. Their combined population is less than 300,000, compared to Georgia’s 4.6 million inhabitants.
In contrast, America and Europe have much at stake with Russia. It remains a nuclear-armed power with significant, if much weakened, conventional forces. As in Georgia, Moscow is capable of intimidating other countries, some NATO members, along its borders. Russian energy resources give it a strong card to play in Europe.
Moscow’s veto on the UN Security Council matters to Washington, since controversies involving Iran, Iraq, and Kosovo all come before that body. Russia also has a role to play in Asia, including in negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program. Moreover, mutual antagonism toward U.S. dominance and arrogance is the lifeblood of improved Chinese-Russian relations. So far, other nations have been more inclined to balk when pushed by the U.S., rather than to coalesce against Washington. But that could change.
In short, nothing going on in Georgia is worth a confrontation with Moscow. Certainly nothing concerning Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The United States is the globe’s sole superpower. Washington really doesn’t have to worry about everything that goes on everywhere. If a sparrow falls to the ground somewhere else, it really doesn’t matter to America who shot it down.
Does that mean that small states stuck in a "bad neighborhood," such as Georgia, might face unpleasant pressure at times? Sure. But it is not America’s duty to right every wrong, especially when doing so interferes with Washington’s ability to achieve more important objectives elsewhere. The principle duty of the U.S. government is to protect America – its people, liberties, constitutional system, and territory. It’s time America’s leaders focused on the interests of their own political community rather than planned crusades, always expensive and often bloody, on behalf of other countries to slay imagined monsters around the globe.
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Who and what is Kotori? Kotori is Japanese for "little bird". Kotori is a creature living on your wallpaper; also when your phone is sleeping. Kotori will sleep, eat, talk, and age -- it is your job to keep Kotori well-fed and healthy. The scenery itself will also change depending on the time of the day. Kotori will also help you; Kotori will let you know if you have a new text-message, email, missed call or notice if your device is low on battery. All artwork is authentically hand-drawn on paper with the use of a graphite pencil!
No feature requests available. | <urn:uuid:ee402a8a-3fef-44ff-83cd-3d95230305cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://featurelist.org/projects/details/kotori | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950172 | 134 | 1.664063 | 2 |
It's an island about the size of Connecticut so there are many beaches, about 300 according to some estimates. In the capital, Isla Verde Beach is good for swimming and lolling on soft sand, groomed daily. Playita del Condado is a protected cove that is ideal for young kids and a surprisingly good place to snorkel for being in the middle of San Juan.
Things get much better outside the capital. Crash Boat, about an hour west of San Juan, is great for swimming and snorkeling. Farther west in the west coast town of Rincon is Maria's, which has great surf. Also recommended are the beaches along the entrance to the Guanica Dry Forest Reserve as well as Seven Seas in the east coast town of Fajardo. A good tip for all Puerto Rican beaches is to go early in the morning when the water is calm and there are no crowds. Otherwise, go to Vieques, which has spectacular beaches and that are secluded even in the high season.
About a half-hour drive from San Juan, thanks to a relatively new toll road, is an actual tropical rain forest, the only one that is part of the U.S. forest system. El Yunque National Forest is a cool oasis on a hot day. The well-maintained trails are often shrouded in misty clouds and you can cool off in a waterfall or a river pool along the relatively easy Big Tree Trail.
There's an entrance fee to enter the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, but the best way to enjoy this U.S. National Historic Site requires no money at all. The fort that towers over San Juan Bay, known universally as just "El Morro," is a great place to stroll, especially at sunset. The massive rolling expanse of grass at the foot of the fort has spectacular views in any direction. It's a popular place to picnic and fly a kite, sold by nearby street vendors.
OLD SAN JUAN
At the foot of El Morro is the old city, the colonial heart of San Juan. In recent years, Old San Juan has been on an upswing; its cobblestone streets are cleaner and livelier. New stores, restaurants and coffee shops have opened and many of the old homes have been restored. It's a working city, home to the governor's office and mansion—said to be the oldest in the western hemisphere—as well as other government offices and an increasing number of professional firms. It's also become an increasingly busy cruise ship port and outlet and luxury goods shops have proliferated in response.
MUSIC AND SALSA
A good place to catch free live music several nights a week is the Plaza Mercado, a fruit and vegetable market in Santurce, a neighborhood that is also home to what are considered some of the best restaurants in Puerto Rico. The lobby of the El San Juan in Isla Verde usually has live music and dancing on weekends. The bar of course isn't free but there's no charge to get in. The dancers can be intimidatingly good so the less-skilled may be content just to watch the scene. A number of restaurants and hotels also regularly advertise free salsa lessons. | <urn:uuid:57f9d75d-d5ee-4594-9527-0ea03336dd95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkdispatch.com/weekend/ci_22488963/websubscribe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958609 | 662 | 1.625 | 2 |
Role of Engineering Brochures in business
In engineering field to develop a product and make them reach the market at the best value matters a lot which calls for a perfect supporting marketing stationeries like brochures. There are many design poster templates put to use in building an efficient promotional posters online. Consistent brand identity is what a professional designer would be expected to present with high quality engineering component design services. When it comes to development of engineering project you need to look out for the trademark quality of design layouts and reassure the quality of work to enhance business a level higher.
Perfect design for your project
Designs and quality of the engineering brochure components play a major role in building the best brand names and companyís marketing management. When it comes to designing brochures and stationeries for engineering categories we have a collection to offer with unique themes and design patterns that well suit your industrial aspects. Civil, mechanical, research, commercial and other online advertising industries look out for a commercial brochure creation with professionally designed outline that helps in reaching new customers. As most of the company is estimated with their marketing stationery identity, it is important that we must give the right form of attention in creating them more information friendly with apt presentation for our clients.
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A brochure acts as an index, providing an impression on the company's products, services and finally the complete profile of the company on what it is all about, to the customers! As stationeries are one of the most common ways to introduce the company to the market, to meet our clientís attention it is to be framed in such a proficient manner as to meet the standard of professionalism. There are several marketing brochures that talk about various companies and their profile, but what can make you look perfectly outstanding among the rest matters when it comes to competition is the appearance!
Ready to use engineering tri fold brochures and design poster templates has got a good shake-up in the advertisement and marketing terms to take your profile to reach most visitors with outstanding outward look. As the templates are pre-designed they save the excess time and energy that are being spent to develop a new design and template layout for your online personality. There are several categories that one needs to meet up with when one thinks about the product type and value of the service they carry.
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Itís all with the help of pre-designed engineering design brochure samples and templates you can design your marketing stationeries that are best in looks and workability. An efficient template is one that is easily understandable, flexible to customize and are user friendly to attract most of the customerís interest and attention among thousands and more brochures on the same list of category. It is the duty of the designer and the template developer to make them look amazing and unique with the basic requisites. Pick the designs that are best to fit your need with respect to the industrial requirement.
As engineering brochure templates help in formulating the best design that delivers the right content to the target views in a clear way. As far as the engineering brochures are concerned all that matters is to reach the right potential customers with the right form of marketing strategies showcasing the best deal on information, profit terms projected to the visitorís attention, and must talk more on their product feature and services as a whole.
At brochuremonster you can find the best engineering design brochure samples that help the clients to check if the sample is worthwhile to try out for their best site creation. We also offer free online engineering brochures and sample design models for public view with trail packages and templates for sale at affordable price that fit your pocket budget with discounts and attractive freebees. Besides wide range of pre-designed brochure templates we also have several other services offering high-quality flyers, posters, banners, postcards, folders, designs and layouts for online projects at reasonable price. Implementing the best standard of technology and features to meet the market trend we bring in the best creative designs and layout models with uniqueness in content that are best to attract more visitors. | <urn:uuid:efa71640-6616-4bec-8dfa-8b56e270e849> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brochuremonster.com/products/search/1/Engineering/Anytype | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939139 | 1,020 | 1.523438 | 2 |
posted on October 18, 2005 00:00
No firearms safety certificate, no hunting license for those under 25; Hunters encouraged to complete training NOW (2005-10-14)
Completion of a Hunter Education/Firearms Safety course is a must to purchase a hunting license for anyone born on or after Dec. 31, 1979.
"A previous hunting license, that does not indicate hunter safety training was completed, is no longer enough to buy a new hunting license in Minnesota for anyone born after Dec. 31, 1979," said Capt. Mike Hammer, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Education Program coordinator. Hunters born before that date and those with proof of completing the training in another state are not affected.
Hammer said previous license buyers on record as not completing the training were sent a letter in August outlining the requirement. But DNR officials want to make sure everyone has gotten the word.
"We've had indications that some hunters in that age group never completed a Hunter Education/Firearms Safety Training course and were still somehow able to purchase a hunting license in past seasons," Hammer said. "But during the recent extended Legislative session, lawmakers clarified legislation that was passed in 1992 that mandated a person born after Dec. 31,1979, could not purchase a hunting license without first completing the training and having proof of that training. So, no firearms safety certificate, no hunting license for people in that age group."
Anyone born after Dec. 31, 1979 must have completed a training course in Minnesota or another state before obtaining a license to hunt wild animals by firearms and must have proof of having taken the training.
"When you attempt to purchase your license this year you will be required to show proof of having taken a Firearms Safety/Hunter Education course," Hammer said. "Unfortunately, the 2005 Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook went to print before the clarification requiring "hard copy" proof of training was made in statute. "
Of particular concern to DNR officials are those preparing for the upcoming Firearms Deer Season, which gets underway on Nov. 5. "We're encouraging those hunters to complete a hunter education course on line or through home study now," Hammer said. "They can also attend a local hunter education class."
For assistance in locating a class or for assistance in locating proof of having previously taken a Firearms Safety/Hunter Education course in Minnesota, contact the DNR Information Center at (651) 296-6367 or toll free 1-888-MINNDNR (646-6367) or visit the DNR Web site at www.dnr.state.mn.us.
Otherwise, be sure to bring proof of completing a Firearms Safety/Hunter Education course with you to the license agent this year. Proof of having completed the course can include:
- A valid Firearms Safety/Hunter Education certificate from Minnesota or an equivalent certificate from another state.
- A Minnesota Driver's License or Minnesota Identification card that has a valid Firearms Safety/Hunter Education indicator on the back side of the license/card.
- A previous hunting license from Minnesota or another state with a valid Firearms Safety/Hunter Education indicator. The 'indicator' is a Firearms Safety Training identification number that appears on the license. PLEASE NOTE: A previous license that does not have the indicator is no longer acceptable, and is not acceptable as proof of having completed the required course.
- Other documentation that you have completed a Firearms Safety/Hunter Education course in Minnesota or another state.
Failing to complete the Firearms Safety/Hunter Education course as required and unlawfully purchasing a license can be a misdemeanor violation with a maximum fine of $1,000. If a wild animal is taken under the license, the penalties can include loss of hunting privileges, loss of firearms, and wildlife restitution costs, in addition to the criminal fine. | <urn:uuid:6574e008-ca53-4ecf-98a2-8a8209e9d74c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamebirdhunts.com/Resources/PheasantHuntingNews/tabid/77/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/246/categoryId/24/PostComment/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954047 | 773 | 1.78125 | 2 |
-In 1994, I was living in Dearborn Heights, MI, where there was a city ordnance banning feeding pigeons and doves. At the time, I had a bird feeder in my backyard which was kept clean and provided food during a very hard winter. My neighbor (neighborhood problem neighbor) called and complained that doves and pigeons were also eating out of my bird feeder which violated the ordnance. When the Police came they informed me that I was in violation of the new ordnance. When I asked how I could keep doves and pigeons away from my feeder they had no answer and simply suggested that I make an attempt to prevent it.
A few days later the neighbor complained again, and once again...the Police were called. When they came to my house they found a sign next to my feeder which read, "No Pigeons or Doves Allowed". The Officers had a good laugh and reported to our neighbor that we had taken steps to comply with the ordnance...we never heard anymore complaints.-
This is so funny I actually had to join this blog so I could lol in public! (Above)
I'm actually interested in this since I'm about to set my babies free in the back yard that has mucho 'dangerous' plants. My friends in the area haven't had any problems with their chickens and they have the same plants.
As a plant geek(Extension Master Gardener/Horticulturist) I would love (if possible) latin names for the plants in question. One mans clover(common name) is another mans ??????? Common names vary by region. | <urn:uuid:d73d7d80-d983-43bd-8c10-6a4354f28910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/626927/what-chickens-cant-eat-clover/40 | 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 | 0.988651 | 343 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Melinda Gates will be traveling shortly to Bangladesh to look at maternal health, child health and women’s issues (including family planning and reproductive health) — and she has agreed to answer your questions about these topics while she’s there. So please post your questions for Melinda and me about these issues in the comments below, and we’ll choose some and give you our best answers.
Why these topics? They’re among the most important challenges we face. Women continue to die needlessly in childbirth, especially in Africa and South Asia, when we know exactly how to save their lives. And infant mortality — especially neo-natal deaths — remain a huge problem in many countries. As for empowering women, this isn’t just about justice; it’s also often the most cost-effective way to save lives and benefit entire societies. These are issues that Melinda and the Gates Foundation have thought long and hard about, and that I’ve tried to popularize in my column and on Twitter and my Facebook page (and, of course, in “Half the Sky”).
I also have lots of admiration for Bill and Melinda Gates. Until relatively recently, philanthropy tended to be about supporting art museums, universities and the symphony — all worthy causes, but also ones that disproportionately benefit those who are already better off. And much of that giving seems to me to be about networking, raising one’s own status or getting one’s grandchildren into the right university. Bill and Melinda helped refocus attention on the world’s neediest citizens, and they also brought a tough-minded business-like focus on measurement, metrics and getting the most bang for the buck while saving lives. That’s as important as the amount of money they’ve thrown at development problems.
So post questions below for Melinda and me. Tough, skeptical questions welcome. | <urn:uuid:c3b48b5c-7280-4100-bb53-c775254977f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/q-a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954265 | 395 | 1.554688 | 2 |
§ Dr. MACNAMARA
I am not aware of any restrictions being placed on the dispatch of service kits to officers interned in Holland as suggested in the question, but if my hon. Friend can give me particulars inquiry will be made. As regards the men, the same is true, though I should add that in their case it would scarcely seem necessary for them to order clothes from tradesmen, inasmuch as all that is considered necessary is supplied to them.
§ Mr. MALCOLM
asked the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs to give the names of those composing the Government Committee appointed to deal with questions relating to prisoners of war; and will he define their powers and duties, and state whether they issue Reports and in what relation they stand to Government Departments concerned with the same subject?
I have been asked by my right hon. Friend to answer this question, as it is understood that the hon. Member2276W refers to the Committee appointed by my predecessor. The members of the Committee are:
Its duties are to collect, verify and record information as to the treatment of British subjects who have been made prisoners of war (military or civil) by the enemy, and it embodies the information from time to time in Reports which are kept in the Home Office and the Foreign Office for use as occasion may demand.
- The Hon. Mr. Justice Younger.
- Sir Reginald Acland, K.C.
- Adeline, Duchess of Bedford.
- Colonel W. C. Anderson.
- Mrs. Pope-Hennessy.
- Mrs. Livingstone.
- The Right Hon. Sir Louis du Pan Mallet, G.C.M.G., C.B.
- Mr. Percy Lubbock. | <urn:uuid:60f44b54-481a-457c-9b28-c73e812ff190> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1916/mar/16/prisoners-of-war | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947002 | 366 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In 2005 I left CBS News and forfeited the comfort of a steady paycheck to tell a story. The story was of my childhood in Newark, NJ and my journey through my family’s history to find answers to today’s racial disparities.
Along the way I discovered a plantation in North Carolina where my family was once enslaved. The owner of the plantation was a 62-year old white man who was a direct descendant of my family’s former slave-owner and his name was the same as mine-David Wilson.
I made this story the subject of a documentary film that focused on our encounter and the issues surrounding race in America. The film, Meeting David Wilson, aired last year on MSNBC.
What was most unique about my story was that it was being told. Everyday there are countless stories from within the African-American community and from the black perspective that will never be given their fair weight of importance or be shared with the rest of the world. Even with the expansion of media through cable and the Internet, it seems as if we are still underserved when it comes to stories and issues that reflect and affect us.
This is why I am overjoyed to present to the world the Grio, or “the storyteller.” TheGrio.com is the first video news community focused on black stories and perspectives that go underreported or unnoticed nationally. TheGrio.com is where the diversity of our voices can be heard and where we stay connected.
What makes the Grio different from any other existing site is that we have the reach of a major news entity, and the focus on the sensitivities and interests of Black America. We have an unrivaled amount of video coverage as well as articles and blogs from some of the leading figures and fresh voices in our community.
This is perhaps the most fascinating time to launch this site. We have an African-American occupying the White House with his beautiful family; yet one in every third black male born today will spend time in prison, furthering the crisis of broken black homes.
We have black CEOs heading American Express, Xerox, and Aetna; yet some black communities see unemployment at levels comparable to the days of the Great Depression. It seems as if the disparity between our individual potential and our collective reality has never been greater.
I believe we work to bridge that gap by creating dialogue within ourselves and by staying informed of our politics, business, and communities throughout the country. So whether, you are a liberal or conservative, young or old, rich or poor, business executive or ex-convict, theGrio.com represents a platform that allows us to engage each other, celebrate our community, and reflect on our culture.
As we hope that you will make theGrio.com the place to watch and read the news that matters to us, we encourage you to contribute with comments and your submission of blogs and video. Be a part of the conversation, or in other words, tell your story. | <urn:uuid:87f97d02-b438-456f-a55e-40280f947ef0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegrio.com/2009/06/08/welcome-to-the-grio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970283 | 616 | 1.539063 | 2 |
By Mary Martin, Ph.D., Animal Person
I couldn't help but juxtapose all of that care for one individual of another species with the individual who would be on the table today. Dead.
Yesterday, I was on my way to the Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, which has a "store" and allows those parents to "shop" for clothing, toys and baby gear at no cost to them. Basically, they give stuff away, unlike Goodwill and the Salvation Army and others, who charge for their donated goods.
Everyone was slamming on their brakes on a major road and as I crept around the mayhem I saw the reason: a turtle of some kind. His shell was probably ten inches in diameter, and when I looked in my rearview mirror as I was about to pull over I saw several other cars pulling over. Four people emerged from the cars and were practically tripping over one another trying to get to the turtle to carry him to safety.
One small act of kindness perhaps, but for the turtle a life-saving one.
I wondered what these people would be doing for Thanksgiving. All of the brakes and the hazard lights and the cursing and the near collisions and the concern for this one individual. The inconvenience, the worry about the creature, the relief when he was, at least for that moment, free from harm. I couldn't help but juxtapose all of that care for one individual of another species with the individual who would be on the table today. Dead.
And not just dead, mind you, but cause for celebration.
Yet the turtle . . . cause for concern about his welfare. Concern about his life. Kindness. A hope for his life to continue. Even putting yourself in harm's way to help him.
Turtle . . . Turkey... | <urn:uuid:b5b9d5ec-a534-4156-8634-f3b5d56d3626> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-individuals.html | 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 | 0.981713 | 369 | 1.640625 | 2 |
LETTER FROM TEHRAN; Seeking Signs of Literary Life
By Azadeh Moaveni
Published: May 27, 2007
When I moved to Iran in 2000 to work as a journalist, I aspired to belong to a literary circle not unlike that of the engaged women of Azar Nafisi's ''Reading Lolita in Tehran,'' who found relief from their authoritarian society in the imaginative world of novels. That bookstores did not exist as such -- there were only bookstore/stationery stores, or bookstore/toy stores -- was the first sign my plan might not work. I initially mistook Tehran's most popular bookstore, with its windows full of weathered copper pots and other bric-a-brac, for an antique shop. Inside, the floor space dedicated to books was roughly a quarter of that taken up by kilims, cactuses and Lego sets. ''I'm embarrassed to call myself a bookseller,'' one store owner told me recently, gazing at the wall of Hello Kitty accessories that dominated his shop. In the hour we spent talking, customers came in to buy watch batteries, a condolence card, wrapping paper and a compass. Not a single person bought a book.
When I failed to persuade any of the women I knew to form a book club (they found the suggestion precious and downright impractical, given Tehran traffic), I began to wonder why books figured so little in the lives of my otherwise intellectually curious friends. But during the long afternoons I spent exploring the cramped storefront shops attached to the publishing houses on Karim Khan-e Zand Street, I grew to understand their reluctance. By and large, the books Iranians seemed to be reading did not lend themselves to discussion, except with a therapist.
Self-help books and their eclectic offshoots, on topics like Indian spirituality and feng shui, enjoy the most prominent position on bookstore front tables. The emergence of the genre, which did not exist before the 1979 Islamic revolution, may suggest a culture trying to cope with the erosion of traditional gender roles, or with rising rates of divorce and premarital sex. But Iranian intellectuals are quick to blame ''cultural repression and spiritual crisis,'' as one prominent magazine editor said to me, or as a friend who owns a bookstore put it, Iranians who have ''lost their minds.'' The success of translated titles like ''Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus'' has given rise to some homegrown authors' specializing in more culturally specific advice. The title of one current best seller, Mahmoud Namany's ''Please Do Not Be a Sheep,'' is borrowed from Ali Shariati, the Islamist sociologist who helped inspire the revolution. With chapter titles like ''Grief Therapy'' and ''How to Choose Friends,'' it tailors its vision of self-fulfillment to a society where you are expected to commemorate even the anniversary of the death of your paternal great-aunt. ''Do you want to be an exalted human, a cud-regurgitating animal, filth or an angel?'' Namany asks in one chapter.
When Iranians aren't reading about depression or the harmonious arrangement of furniture, they're drawn to soap-opera-ish novels about family life and chaste, unrequited love, bearing titles like ''The Solitude of Lonely Nights.'' After the revolution, which created a caste of literate women with no more social clubs or cultural centers to frequent, the market for women's popular fiction swelled. Demand is highest for Persian translations of Danielle Steel (with intimate scenes either blotted out or obliterated by euphemism) and her Iranian equivalents, Fahimeh Rahimi and M. Moaddabpour, neither of whom has ever been seen on television (used in Iran mainly to promote state ideology, soap and rice). The most popular novel of the last two decades, Fattaneh Haj Seyyed Javadi's ''Listless Morning,'' about an idle aristocratic family under the 19th-century Qajar monarchy, has sold an unheard-of 185,000 copies since 1998 and spawned dozens of imitations.
When I arrived seven years ago, writers and publishers were making the same predictions about the impending death of reading heard perennially in the United States. In a nation of 70 million with a nearly 80 percent literacy rate and a centuries-old literary tradition, they argued, book sales -- 40,000 copies for a typical commercial best seller and 2,000 to 5,000 for novels and literary nonfiction -- were dismal. According to Mohammad-Reza Neymatpour of the Nashr-e Nay publishing house, sales have been declining steadily since 1979. Though books are inexpensive by any standard -- generally costing no more than the price of a couple of sandwiches -- little in public life encourages reading. There are few public libraries, no reading contests in schools and scarce promotion of any book apart from the book. (Billboards inform Iranians that if they can memorize the Koran in its entirety, they will be awarded a formal university degree.) Even the government is growing concerned. In advance of the Tehran Book Fair, held earlier this month, the state newspaper, Iran, published a scolding article under the headline ''Let Us Learn How to Read.'' In April, an announcer on state radio lamented that the average Iranian spends only 16 seconds a day reading. | <urn:uuid:fc1ad9c7-a564-4852-b723-6b05a929b781> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F15FB3B550C748EDDAC0894DF404482&fta=y&incamp=archive:article_related | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949753 | 1,087 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Why there are not more vehicles like this moving shrub by Justin Shull is beyond me.
Tags: driver, Justin Shull, Terrestrial Shrub Rover, vehicle
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on Sunday, September 11th, 2011 at 4:40 am and is filed under architecture, interactive, performance.
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Mail (will not be published) (required) | <urn:uuid:678496ee-b91f-452a-8aa8-9ecdf2d81441> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deadwingsandpaperkites.com/terrestrial-shrub-rover/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938307 | 107 | 1.742188 | 2 |
In my first attempt at making jelly, I seem to have veered off course. I'm following this recipe for Cranberry-Pepper Jelly: Ingredients 3 red bell peppers, finely chopped 2 Fresno or ...
I have a raw fruit relish that I'd like to like to thicken into more of a jam consistency. I'm thinking about heating in a saucepan with some cornstarch or syrup, but I don't have any idea how much ...
I just read on the side of a Cranberry Juice pack that one of its ingredients was Cranberry compound? What does it mean?
Are there any good ways to chop fresh cranberries? It tends to end up a bit tedious for me, not catching too many at a time with the knife, and chasing after the ones that roll away. (And I don't have ...
I once tried to make a cranberry sauce like the one I tasted on Long Island, but the one I made tasted differently (it was more sour). I guess I used less sugar that I should have done. Do I wrongly ...
I just came across this recipe that calls for 1 1/4 cups of fresh cranberries. I was wondering if it was possible to substitute frozen cranberries instead. I am assuming that I have to thaw the ... | <urn:uuid:e99e67b5-c19f-419b-a713-f7c5dc194832> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cranberries | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968838 | 264 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Have you ever been sure that something was going to happen, a movie was going to be a big hit, a diet was going to be the next big fad, people were going to march in the streets, and they it wasn’t and they didn’t? That’s how I feel about the recent changes to Facebook’s privacy settings.
When they were announced a few months ago – to an opt-out system for your data rather than an opt-in one – I expected a huge outpouring of outrage and protest. Three years ago, Facebook users protested so loudly about the Beacon advertising system that Facebook reversed course. And yet, in a huge reversal of default settings there’s hardly a murmer. Why?
What’s really worrisome is that rather than a user and citizen revolt, we have Senators, politicians!, threatening legislation to protect user privacy on social networks. What could be worse for our networked world than politicians fooling around with privacy settings.
Boing Boing has a great post on the timeline of Facebook’s privacy policies. In short, they have gone from here in 2005:
No personal information that you submit to Thefacebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.
To here in 2010:
When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. … The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” … Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing (or not making) the connection.
It’s the default setting that is the operative phrase here – we’ve gone from private to public for the benefit, really, of Facebook not users.
So, where’s the outrage? Are we numb to the concerns about privacy? Have we just reconciled ourselves to the fact that the only way to keep sites like Facebook free for end users is to sell their data? Really, I don’t know, would love to hear what others have to say. | <urn:uuid:8b43ef77-e276-4085-8944-52a2110cf4fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://afine2.wordpress.com/2010/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948938 | 503 | 1.65625 | 2 |
WT - Immigration post-mortem
Walter E. Williams
July 14, 2007
President Bush and his pro-amnesty allies both in and out of Congress suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the American people. Like any other public controversy, there are vested interests served on both sides of the amnesty issue, but I'd like to raise some ordinary non-rocket-science questions to the pro-amnesty crowd, many of whom are my libertarian friends.
Do people, anywhere in the world, have a right to enter the United States irrespective of our laws pertaining to immigration? Unless one wishes to obfuscate, there's a simple "yes" or "no" answer to that question. If a "yes" answer is given, then why should there be any immigration requirements, such as visas, passports and green cards, for anyone who wishes to visit or reside in our country? Why not abolish the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services?
If your answer is "no," one does not have a right to enter the U.S. irrespective of our laws, what does that make a person who does so? Most often we call a person whose behavior violates a law a criminal. If people commit criminal acts, should there be an effort to apprehend and punish them? In general, my answer is yes, with one important exception.
I was summoned for jury duty some years ago, and during voir dire, the attorney asked me whether I could obey the judge's instructions. I answered, "It all depends upon what those instructions are." Irritatingly, the judge asked me to explain myself. I explained that if I were on a jury back in the 1850s, and a person was on trial for violating the Fugitive Slave Act by assisting a runaway slave, I would vote for acquittal regardless of the judge's instructions. The reason is that slavery is unjust and any law supporting it is unjust. Needless to say, I was dismissed from jury duty. While our immigration laws are overly cumbersome and in urgent need of streamlining, they do not violate human rights and should be obeyed.
Many pro-amnesty supporters offer the canard that there are 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in our country. We cannot keep every illegal immigrant out or expel the ones living here. That might be true, but it is also true we can't prevent every rape and murder. Does that mean we shouldn't attempt to enforce the laws against rape and murder and try to prosecute the perpetrators?
In addition to greater efforts to secure our borders, there are several non- rocket-science steps we can take. People who are here illegally should be denied access to any social service such as Medicaid, public education and food assistance programs. An exception might be made for temporary emergency medical treatment. In some cities such as Los Angeles, police are prohibited from asking people they stop about their immigration status. While state and local police shouldn't be turned into federal agents, they shouldn't knowingly conceal criminal acts.
The United States is a nation of immigrants from all over the world. The resulting ethnic mosaic goes a long way toward explaining our greatness as a nation. Immigration has always been a blessing for us, and it still is.
But yesteryear's immigration and today's differ in several important respects. For the most part, yesteryear's immigrants came here legally. Because there was no welfare state, we were guaranteed that they would work rather than live off the rest of us. Furthermore, they sought to assimilate and adopt our culture and become Americans. That's not so true today, where Hispanic activists seek to impose their language and culture on the rest of us. At some public schools, they've raised Mexico's flag atop the U.S. flag. They've announced that they seek to take back parts of the U.S. that were formerly Mexico.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University and is a nationally syndicated columnist. | <urn:uuid:38d03b52-1a66-4f8e-9330-e1c4024c1751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/10/wt-immigration-post-mortem.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972514 | 810 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Heartwell Golf Course, tucked in a sleepy residential neighborhood in Long Beach, Calif., does not have the air of the historic. It lacks the grandeur of, say, the Colosseum or the Pyramids, and it offers no windows into the soul, as do Graceland or Monticello. Still, strolling around Heartwell is a journey back in time because this will forever be remembered as one of the places where Tiger Woods blossomed as a golfer, never mind that it remains nothing more than a scruffy par-3 course where the longest hole measures 140 yards and grass is a precious commodity.
However humble, Heartwell and the other courses of Woods's youth are the Elysian fairways that formed his earliest dreams. "You see the 3rd hole, over there, through the trees?" asks Rudy Duran, Woods's first teacher, during a tour of the Heartwell course. "It's less than 100 yards, but when Tiger started playing here, at 4�, he couldn't carry that front bunker, even with his driver. It was frustrating for him, but it was also a good learning experience. He was introduced to strategy on that hole—where was the best place to lay up, the best angle to attack the green."
Serendipity brought Tiger and Duran together. Heartwell was the nearest par-3 course to the Woods home, in the adjacent town of Cypress. One day Tida Woods, Tiger's mother, showed up with her Mozart in spikes, and asked Duran, Heartwell's head pro, if he would take a look at her son's swing. To that point Woods had been tutored by his father, Earl. Tiger had only a three-club set back then, and he employed a baseball grip because his tiny fingers were not strong enough to hold a club conventionally. Nevertheless, Duran was flabbergasted by what he saw. "He was like a shrunken-down Jack Nicklaus," he says, and on that day a relationship, both professional and personal, was born.
Unlike Woods, Duran was late coming to golf. He had been introduced to the game as a teenager on what he calls "divorce weekends," when he would visit his father. (That the lifelong bachelor would later become a father figure to thousands of young golfers is probably less than coincidence.) Duran grew up in the San Fernando Valley; joined the Air Force out of high school, in 1968; and was stationed in West Germany, not a bad assignment considering that the Vietnam War was raging. While in the Air Force, Duran played golf nearly every day, and he turned pro upon his discharge in 1971. He spent most of the 1970s on the fringes of the game, going broke trying to make the PGA Tour from 1976 to '78.
That bitter experience led him into teaching, and by the time Woods was dropped on his doorstep, in 1980, Duran had established a thriving junior program at Heartwell, allowing his pint-sized charges to play the course for free, without restrictions. Every Saturday there was a sprawling tournament in which as many as 100 kids played off preestablished handicaps. "For a while it seemed like every good golfer who came out of Southern California was part of that junior program," says Kelly Manos, who graduated from Heartwell to a scholarship at Southern Cal, where he played alongside Dave Stockton Jr. Among the other Heartwell regulars were Cypress native Amy Fruhwirth, the '91 U.S. Women's Amateur champ and subsequently an LPGA winner, and another dozen or so players who became touring or club pros.
Woods thrived in this environment. Heartwell has 18 par-3s and measures 2,143 yards. Because Tiger wasn't strong enough to reach most of the holes with his driver, Duran, adjusting for distance, established a "Tiger par" of 67 for the course.
At five Tiger received his first complete set of clubs (including, at his insistence, a one-iron) and shortly thereafter shot an eight-under 59, which greatly impressed Duran. As he got older, Tiger became more competitive in the Saturday tournaments, which were already the "peak of his week," according to Earl. Says Manos, "When Tiger was six, I was 16, and we were playing together one Saturday along with some other guys my age. We got to the 16th tee, and I said to the fellas, 'Do you realize this little s—- is tied with us?' Damned if he didn't go on and beat all of us. It was incredible. I mean, he was hitting three-woods, and we were swinging wedges. There was no animosity—we were all kids, you know? It was like, 'Wow, cool, the little guy did it.' "
Says Duran, "Tiger's genius wasn't his swing, although it was very good. His genius was using his swing to shoot low numbers. It was like an artist with a tool, carving something." Recognizing the potential of his prodigy, Duran sought to expand his education at every turn. In 1984, when Tiger was eight, Duran took him to watch his first pro tournament, the L.A. Open at Riviera. Later that year Duran teed it up in the Queen Mary Open, a minitour event in Long Beach, and Tiger served as his caddie, chugging along with a pull cart.
By 1985, Heartwell was but a fond memory. American Golf had snapped up the course and put the kibosh on the junior program. Duran moved one town to the north, to Bellflower, and its eponymous golf and tennis center. The Bellflower range was shoddy at best, but its nine-hole par-3 course forced Tiger to expand his game. Five of the holes exceeded 140 yards—the length of Heartwell's longest hole—including the 7th, which played to 167 yards, and the 9th, a robust 190-yarder. Tiger spent more than two years mastering the course.
In reconstructing the time line of Tiger's development, 1986, when he was 10, was the pivotal year, the one during which he lost a teacher but gained an important golf course. In '86, Duran spent all of his time managing two excellent 18-hole courses in Paso Robles, a dusty farming town in central California. "It was a major career opportunity," he says, "and I couldn't say no." To continue Tiger's instruction, Earl hired John Anselmo, who was teaching at Los Alamitos Golf Course, a muni one mile from the Woods house. Even closer to home was the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, with its minimum-age requirement of 10. After his birthday on Dec. 30, 1985, Tiger was finally eligible to play there, although he already had a history at the course. | <urn:uuid:d8283f8f-4ff1-4f13-8ad9-cbd6cdd2653a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1018852/index.htm | 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 | 0.991304 | 1,440 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I'll skip most of the biography, since it's available on Wikipedia. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, moved at age 6 to Britain, and has lived there most of his life since. B.A.'s in English and philosophy, M.A. in creative writing. Around that time he met and was briefly mentored by Angela Carter. It's notable that he doesn't seem to consider himself a very "Japanese" writer (although a few of his works are set there), having stated several times in interviews that he is only indirectly influenced by its culture and literature.
Forewarning?I?m going to speak in generalities here, since I don?t have time to fully explore each work individually. While I might be in danger of disregarding important aspects of individual novels, I feel that there?s enough commonality among them to justify this approach. I also haven?t read any of his short fiction or screenplays, which might skew things a bit.
Ishiguro?s novels tend to be fairly similar stylistically and thematically, although their settings and narrators differ widely. They tend to deal with people recounting their memories from late in life. The narrators, while often recording events which have fully played out, remembering phases of their lives which are over, are never in a privileged position?that is, they haven?t fully resolved the issues brought up by their recollections, and have lost the chance to ever do so. As such, there is often regret, and a sometimes poignant, sometimes seemingly desperate attempt to make sense of the past. The approach reflects the nature of memory itslef; it is inconclusive, unreliable and self-contradictory. Often events which shape the protagonists? very lives can be maddeningly incomplete or contradictory. Often succeeding memories cast prior ones in a different light (which is why I recommend at least two reads if you have the time). Within this framework some very interesting things happen. The narrative is often highly implicative, without the speaker ever even directly stating the concerns linking his/her memories or motivating their recollection in the first place. This is especially true of The Remains of the Day. Often it is difficult to immediately grasp why particular memories are being evoked. There is also sometimes a surreal quality present, with impossible comminglings among earlier and later events, clearly distorted by the narrator's unreliable grasp of his/her own life history or inability to come to terms with how things have played out.
Above all what draws me to Ishiguro is what, if anything, can be called the central concern of his oeuvre?the irreversibility of the past. It?s incredibly moving on a very basic level?we all face the same in our lives?and it serves to remind us of our fugacity and mortality. At the same time his works are celebrations of the joys others can bring to us, and moments which seem all the more valuable because they can never be repeated. They are unapologetically sentimental and subjective.
I'd really recommend anything but The Remains of the Day and The Unconsoled for a suitable and representative first read. The former because I believe its subtlety is best appreciated once one already feels familiar with Ishiguro (and has time for a reread) and the latter because it's substantially different from anything else he's written, and at least in my experience a rather frustrating read. However, if you?re only planning to read one, The Remains of the Day is it! | <urn:uuid:c8385285-abeb-445b-a321-8bccf62fb614> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/22461-Kazuo-Ishiguro | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981384 | 724 | 1.726563 | 2 |
New Hanover school board approves marine science academy
Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 2:10 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 2:10 p.m.
To Ashley High School teacher Sandra Cecelski, marine science is about more than "fish and whales and things." And with the creation of a new marine science-focused academy in New Hanover County Schools, she's going to help students dive into the subject.
Inside the academy
What's involved? In addition to coursework that will give students six hours of college credit in marine science classes, students will hold marine science-related internships, participate in a weeklong summer research cruise expedition and complete a graduation project based on a marine science topic.
When would it start? The first academy would start in the fall semester of the 2013-14 school year. Interested students will apply in the spring semester of the 2012-2013 school year.
Who's eligible? For the first year, the program will accept 25 rising seniors from throughout New Hanover County. After that, 25 rising juniors and 25 rising seniors will be accepted each year.
Members of the New Hanover County Board of Education unanimously approved a proposal to open a marine science academy at Ashley High School in the fall of the 2013-14 school year. School officials say the program will strengthen the district's marine science offerings, give students a taste of college-level marine science work and, as program leader Cecelski put it, turn out "highly trained individuals to fill my mud waders."
The academy was developed by former Ashley High principal Kenneth Bowen and Cecelski, who has taught marine science classes in New Hanover County for 25 years. Students who complete academy classes will receive six hours of college-level marine science coursework through either the University of North Carolina Wilmington or Cape Fear Community College.
They'll also hold local marine science-related internships, participate in a weeklong summer research cruise expedition through UNCW's MarineQuest and complete a graduation project based on a marine science topic.
The academy will open with 25 seniors in the 2013-14 school year, then expand to 25 juniors and 25 seniors for the 2014-15 school year. High schoolers from anywhere in New Hanover County can apply to the academy, as long as they can provide their own transportation to Ashley High School. About $50,000 will be set aside for the program in its pilot year, said Superintendent Tim Markley.
The academy would expand on the current marine science curriculum in New Hanover County Schools, which consists of an oceanography class, a marine science class and hands-on research projects.
The program was born out of a challenge Markley issued to high school principals to create a "signature program at each school that would define that school," he said.
New Hanover High School's Lyceum Academy, which offers a faster-paced learning environment for students, is an example of that signature program. Lyceum has been in place since the 1998-99 school year.
The marine science academy proposal also comes a month after charter school consultant Norman George submitted a proposal to the state Board of Education to open Maritime Academy, a charter school focused on marine science, in New Hanover County. If approved by the state, that school would open in fall 2014.
Markley said the timing of the charter school's proposal was just coincidental, noting that teachers at Ashley High had been working on their proposal for a year before presenting it to the board.
Pressley Baird: 343-2328
On Twitter: @PressleyBaird
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:618a8738-0e23-49ba-ab27-d045c869be8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130205/articles/130209780 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954226 | 766 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Morgan’s Rehabilitation and Release Plan
It includes fall-back contingency plans and Morgan’s welfare is of the utmost priority.
It also includes a detailed step-by-step training program which will take into account Morgan’s personal progress and which will be adapted to her rate of rehabilitation.
As part of the process, Risk Analysis was carried out by experienced personnel and a detailed transport plan formulated with close consultation with veterinarians.
A sea-pen, similar to that used for Springer (a young orca with remarkable similarities to Morgan), will be also used for the rehabilitation of Morgan. Springer, like Morgan was alone, emaciated (starving) and required help. Her story of rehabilitation and release is given in the videos below. Springer has been resighted this past research season (2012), making it 10 years since her release.
Sea-pens are not new in when rehabilitating cetaceans for a return to the wild. The Free Morgan Foundation visited the Born Free Foundation, in Turkey, where they were working to release two dolphins, Tom and Misha. Head trainer was Jeff Foster, the head trainer for Keiko (Free Willy). Jeff is also on the Expert Board for the Free Morgan Foundation.
Morgan’s story could have had an outcome like Springers, but instead Morgan now languishes in an ‘abusement’ park in Spain, doing tricks to earn the owners money.
Additionally, to ensure that Morgan’s release back into the wild will be successful the Free Morgan Foundation has received a pledge of financial assistance from Mr Ady Gill (please see our Supporter page for more details)
- Visser & Hardie July 2011 Morgan the orca can and should be rehabilitated
- FMF Morgan Rehabilitation and Release Proposal
- FMF September 2011 Detailed Step-by-Step plan for rehabilitation training for Morgan the orca
- Examples of Rehabilitated and Released Cetaceans
- Letter from Dr. John Ford regarding Morgan’s release | <urn:uuid:e7f243fd-6ff6-481a-8475-3f3e248c2592> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freemorgan.org/morgan-2/morgans-release-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944426 | 423 | 1.601563 | 2 |
by Alan McArthur
A new animal ordinance was adopted on Monday by the Weston Board of Aldermen. The ordinance provides new regulations on how residents must restrain animals and provides penalties for violations.
The ordinance includes a section prohibiting dogs from running at large. The provision says owners of a dog must restrain the dog and keep it from threatening or biting any person on a public street or sidewalk.
Another passage prohibits a person allowing a dog to defecate on any place except the owner's property.
“It shall be unlawful for any person, or persons, owning any dog to allow such animal to defecate upon any sidewalk, gutter, street, park, or other public area, recreation area, any subdivision or residential common ground, or private property of another, unless such feces is immediately removed by the person responsible for the animal.”
Another section lists the actions of an animal to classify it as a public nuisance. Some actions include chasing vehicles or bicycles; continual barking, howling, whining or yelping; interfering with trash collection; or causing damage to private or public property.
A written complaint is required before the Weston Police Department notifies the owner of the animal.
The ordinance limits the control of vicious animals within city limits and says them must be properly restrained with muzzle and leash. The ordinance also says an animal owner must not allow a vicious animal to bite a human being or other domesticated animal. However, the ordinance does provide a defense if the person is bitten while committing a crime or unauthorized entry to property of the animal owner.
Animal owners are also prohibited from neglecting or abusing any animal under the ordinance. A person would be fined if they killed the animal, caused injury to the animal, abandoned the animal, or failed to provide adequate care.
It is also against the law now to injure or kill animals within the city limits. The provision includes exceptions for poisonous snakes, insects or animal killed to protect the life or health of any person. The provision also excludes the hunting of lawful game animals.
Residents are also prohibited from keeping a snake or poisonous insect on their property.
Penalties for violating the ordinance will be a misdemeanor with a fine ranging from $25 to $500 for a first offense and $50 to $500 for a repeat offense. If a person keeps a vicious animal then the fine increases $100 to $500 for a first offense and $200 to $500 for a second offense.
The board approved a new traffic ordinance defining that passing on the right, or shoulder of the road, is illegal within the city limits.
Bids were requested for several items. The items include the recodification of the city ordinances, reroofing 526 Main Street, a new contract for recycling and trash hauling, constructing the Lewis and Clark Museum entrance at city hall, and work to chip and seal Weston's streets.
The board also turned down an option to purchase additional terrorism insurance for the city of Weston. | <urn:uuid:151f911b-2df2-4d0a-b341-7bd0877eeeae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plattecountylandmark.com/Article10730.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932327 | 606 | 1.53125 | 2 |
When I was pregnant with my first child I was a sponge for advice. Every mother I met would be inundated with questions about labor, best diapers, breast feeding or formula, best car seat, and on and on. I am sure many of those poor mothers were glad to see me waddle away.
Now on the other end of the spectrum I find myself giving advice to pregnant moms to be about child rearing and discipline. I am discussing with older parents how to teach kids to respect parental authority, deal with teens who are sexually active, kids being bullied, kids on drugs and often how to communicate with their children. It seems many parents these days are either afraid to discipline their children for fear of “not being their friend or hurting their feelings” or are indifferent to their behavior. I find this very concerning. Am I the only one noticing this trend in America?
I recently read some reviews of Amy Chua’s book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." It is a memoir written by an American born Chinese mother of two teen girls. Tiger Mother is Amy Chua's own assessment of herself as she was born in the Chinese year of the tiger. She is a strict disciplinarian who micromanages all aspects of her children's lives which may include calling them "garbage", rejecting hand crafted birthday cards or forcing a 7 year-old child to practice at the piano hour upon hour without a bathroom break. She states that this was how she was raised by her Chinese immigrant parents. Her goal is to prepare her children for the harsh world reality. It is tough out there and you need to be prepared.
I certainly do not agree with her harsh and humiliating tactics but she does point out that in our western culture we are raising a generation of weak children who are indulged for the sake of their self esteem. We have lost sight of the fact that children need to learn from failures, solve difficult problems, that there are rules, and that they will be held responsible for their actions. America is back sliding but are we helpless to stop it?
I would hope not. I can only challenge each of us as mothers and physicians who can influence parents and children alike to put forth the energy to change the culture we have developed. Do we want to put our future into hands of adults who expect life to be handed to them on a fluffy pillow to soften their falls? We are doing ourselves, our children and country a disservice if we don’t encourage families to focus on staying together, push parenting with the goal of responsible adults even if it means some discomfort now, and being honest with our children that our country needs strong, creative, hard-working adults to fix the many problems we have created. Will you join me? | <urn:uuid:2214dcf6-d317-4933-a369-484a55ce747c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mothersinmedicine.com/2011/03/mother-load.html?showComment=1301260488409 | 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 | 0.983037 | 565 | 1.71875 | 2 |
How he'll help the down-and-out businesses of the Gulf states—despite the law.
The BP oil spill: another mass disaster, another compensation fund, and another opportunity for Kenneth Feinberg to mete out economic justice to the victims? Probably, but it won't be routine. Feinberg is the master of mediation who helped sort out compensation for Agent Orange, Sept. 11, and the financial bailout. But the $20 billion BP oil spill fund will present pure legal challenges he hasn't encountered before.
One problem has been much discussed: the inability of fishermen or others who rely on the Gulf waters to make a living, but who don't keep careful records, to prove their losses. Cash businesses like that may have no way to compare their monthly revenue before and after the spill.
But there's another, deeper problem that hasn't received enough attention: The state law Feinberg says he'll rely on offers nothing to many, even most, possible claimants. Unless he ignores clear rules of law, the promise of this fund won't—and can't—be fulfilled. To see why, it's useful to compare the oil spill aftermath with the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.
When Congress created the VCF, it clearly spelled out who was eligible: only those present at one of the three terrorist attack sites, either at the time they occurred or shortly thereafter. Regulations further limited the pool by requiring claimants to have sought medical assistance within a few days of the disaster. So, much of Feinberg's admirable work revolved not around deciding who was eligible for compensation but rather assessing damages. Feinberg was a whiz at getting victims (mostly surviving family members of those who died when the Twin Towers fell) to see that taking the generous compensation offered was better than putting their hopes into a protracted and uncertain lawsuit.
Not so in this case. No legislation or executive order from the president created the oil spill fund. It is the result of an informal agreement between President Obama and BP. And so Feinberg has been given neither formal guidance nor limitations on who can recover. To determine who's eligible, Feinberg says he'll look to the law of the state where the injury was suffered. Most victims will surely hope he's not serious about that, because the law on recovery in the Gulf states—and in most states—is terrible for many potential claimants.
To be sure, some victims will still benefit. Those who were injured by the spill, or the families of those who were killed, are the clearest cases. People who suffered the damage or destruction of their property are also good candidates. For example, if oil causes property damage to a beachfront hotel, the owners have a sound claim for recovery—both for the property damage and for any resulting economic loss.
But claimants who suffer only economic loss, such as loss of profits or increased costs, face longer odds, legally speaking. In an almost unbroken line of decisions, state courts that have considered the issue have drawn a clear, firm line against recovery for such economic losses in virtually every case and context. Consider the 1984 Louisiana case PPG Industries Inc. v. Bean Dredging. There, Bean Dredging Co.'s negligence had damaged a gas pipeline belonging to Texaco. The plaintiff, PPG Industries, was a customer of Texaco's that claimed it had to buy gas from another seller, at a higher price, because of the pipeline damage. But PPG was not even permitted to make its case against Bean Dredging. Why? Because the court could not figure out a way to limit the class of plaintiffs once it recognized any claimants at all. Quoting a well-known line from an old New York case (written by legendary jurist Benjamin Cardozo), the Louisiana court expressed a fear that allowing PPG to recover could lead to liability "in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class."
The court then gave pointed examples of the possible, ever-rippling consequences of Beam Dredging's negligent act. Here's one of them: "If any of PPG's employees were laid off while PPG sought another source of fuel for its plant, they arguably sustained damages which in all likelihood would not have occurred but for defendant's negligence." The court made a policy decision to limit recovery "[b]ecause the list of possible victims and the extent of economic damages might be expanded indefinitely."
John Culhane is professor of law and director of the Health Law Institute at Widener University School of Law and co-author of Same-Sex Legal Kit for Dummies.
Photograph of Kenneth Feinberg by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images. | <urn:uuid:d81b921f-a679-4834-bece-0497c525ec32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2010/07/feinbergs_wizardry.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967409 | 953 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Ben Stein hopped on the "global savings glut" bandwagon today in a New York Times article entitled The Hedge Kings Are Rich, but Will They Be Noble? Let's take a look.
HEDGE fund managers and traders make an astounding amount of money. This is now part of the lore of the nation. Young millionaires, young billionaires, all hunched over trading screens and manufacturing money while the rest of us toil for peanuts.Stein goes on to talk more about hedge funds, Warren Buffett, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and philanthropy. I am stopping the post where I did because once again we see the idea presented that there is a "global savings glut" and that is the idea I want to focus on as well as refute. Before we get there, let's look a few previous articles on the subject.
How did it happen? Why do they make so much more money than other people in finance do, or than people in industry in general? Do they deserve it? What will they do with it? And who makes it all possible?
These questions would take an entire book to answer. But I’ll just try to give a few answers that occur to me, and I invite anyone who knows more about this subject than I do to chime in.
First, the money is basically being made by “positive carry.” (By coincidence, this is also the name of a yacht owned by a supersmart, supersuccessful friend in finance named John Devaney.) That means the hedge funds can borrow money, invest it safely and make enough to repay the loan with interest and still have a profit. They can do this because the cost of money is so low these days.
Why is it so low? Because the Chinese people save about 40 percent of what they earn and use a lot of it to buy United States Treasury securities, keeping overall interest rates low. The Japanese do the same, and so do the immensely wealthy petro-states. So when the hedge fund managers cash their huge checks and sail their yachts and fly in private jets, they should thank people living carefully elsewhere. Savings in Guangdong, China, mean mansions in Greenwich, Conn.
In March of 2005 Bernanke proposed the idea of a "savings glut" in his speech The Global Saving Glut and the U.S. Current Account Deficit.
In July of 2005 BusinessWeek reported A global savings glut is good for growth -- but risks are mounting.
Look around the world, and extra money is piling up in all sorts of places. Japanese corporations are recording record profits, but not doing much spending. Chinese companies are on an investment tear, but the country is getting so much money from exports that it has billions to spare, including $18.5 billion that China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) bid for Unocal. The surge in oil prices -- now about $60 a barrel -- is giving oil-producing countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia far more money than they can use right away. And the aging workers of Europe are building nest eggs for an uncertain future.In July of 2006 MacroBlog reported The Chairman Speaks: The Savings Glut Persists.
The International Monetary Fund predicts that in 2005 the worldwide savings rate should hit its highest level in at least two decades.
A Jan. 31, 2005, article in BusinessWeek noted that a "global glut of savings" could explain low interest rates. Then, in March, Fed Governor Ben S. Bernanke -- now head of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers -- unleashed the flood gates with a speech on the "global saving glut."
More from Chairman Bernanke's exchange with Senator Bennett during yesterday's testimony:If you do a Google search of "Savings Glut" you will find over 400,000 hits.
BENNETT: Do you still believe there's a global savings glut and that we can expect people to continue to want to put their money here?
BERNANKE: I think there still is a global savings glut. It may have moderated somewhat because of increased growth in some of our trading partners. But on the other hand, there's also been, of course, these large revenues that the oil producers are accumulating because of the high price of oil. They are not able to absorb - - use those revenues at home very quickly. So they are taking that money and putting it back into the global financial system. And so that's contributing to this overall global savings glut...
Even articles attempting to refute the idea such as Investment dearth, not savings glut on Mises.org do not adequately explain exactly what is happening.
The simplest (and best) refutation to date of the silly notion that there is some kind of "Global Savings Glut" came today from Professor John Succo on Minyanville. In Response to Ben Stein, Professor Succo had this to say.
Dear Mr. Stein,Key Points
I have been running a hedge fund for almost seven years now and prior ran derivative trading at several wall-street firms. My fund trades derivative instruments with our $1.5 billion in capital.
In addressing your first assertion, that hedge funds make their money on positive carry, I would say that you are partially right. There are most likely many hedge funds borrowing low and lending high in “safe” investments, but the key word is “safe”. There are many likely scenarios where these safe investments would turn toxic quickly. It is not only hedge funds that are speculating in this way; you can say the same thing of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
I disagree for the most part on your thoughts of where this cheap money is coming from: It is not coming from a high savings rate from Asian investors but from the creation of credit by all central banks.
The Federal Reserve creates credit through its open market operations like REPOS and coupon passes. If the Fed wants to inject liquidity (credit) into the system, they simply call up large broker dealers and buy some of their bonds with credit they create out of thin air (this expands their balance sheet). The dealer then passes this credit on to “the market” by making loans to mortgage companies or margin accounts or whatever. Because each layer of lender is only required to keep marginal capital on hand, a $1 billion REPO done by the Fed eventually creates as much as $100 billion in new credit to the consumer.
That credit creates the liquidity for additional consumption in the U.S., but these days we are buying our stuff from China (other countries too but we will just say China to make it easy). When a Chinese company receives dollars in trade, this normally would drive up U.S. interest rates: the company goes to the central bank of China to exchange Yuan for dollars; the central bank of China would normally sell those dollars into the currency market for Yuan thus driving up U.S. interest rates. But in our world of today these dollars are being sterilized: the central bank of China prints the Yuan to give to the company and takes the dollars and buys U.S. securities.
It is not the excess savings of Chinese investors that are buying U.S. securities. It is central banks creating credit themselves to buy those securities. The tick data that measure foreign inflows of money does not distinguish between private investors and central banks going through brokers to buy U.S. securities. We believe that as much as 90% of foreign money buying U.S. securities (not just Treasury bonds, but corporate bonds, mortgages, and yes, stocks) is not private investment, but central banks.
In order for other central banks like China’s to print the Yuan necessary, they too must create credit. Public debt in Asian countries is expanding as a result and creating worries: this is why Thailand came out essentially raising margin requirements to reduce speculation that is occurring as a result. Notice how they were quickly slapped down by their trading partners who do not want to rock the boat at this time.
This situation is very unstable in the long run. The Federal Reserves’ balance sheet this year alone has expanded by $30 billion in this way and created $3.5 trillion of new credit in the U.S. Public debt around the world is growing exponentially and total debt in the U.S. now stands at nearly 3.6 times GDP (1929 was 2.8 times).
My hedge fund’s position is the opposite of the carry trade you mention. There is coming (timing is unclear where it may be tomorrow or may be years away) a massive correction in debt and derivatives whose magnitude is only growing with time.
I invite you to visit and spend a few hours with me to discuss in depth hedge funds, their role and growth, and specific positioning and risk control we employ.
- There is not really a savings glut in China.
- What people mistake for a savings glut is in reality a process in which the Chinese Central Bank prints Renminbi in exchange for US dollars and then has to figure out what to do with those excess dollars.
- In the long run the situation is very unstable.
- There is nothing "safe" about the massive carry trades in play.
- Public debt around the world is growing exponentially and total debt in the U.S. now stands at nearly 3.6 times GDP (1929 was 2.8 times).
- A massive correction in debt and derivatives whose magnitude keeps on growing with time is coming. Timing the event is difficult to predict.
Mike Shedlock / Mish | <urn:uuid:ac4c0003-8c10-4c41-98aa-789ab3530d22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2006/12/global-savings-glut-revisited.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962845 | 1,985 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Experts give views on gun violence, mental health debate
By Susan Frick Carlman email@example.com January 26, 2013 4:56PM
A victim moved treated after a shooting on the Northern Illinois University campus Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, in DeKalb. | AP File Photo~Northern Star, Jim Killan
Signs of trouble
While policy makers consider options for reducing gun violence through increased focus on the mentally ill, experts in human behavior say there are red flags to look for in a young person who may be struggling with a psychological disorder. Early intervention is critical, they say, to prevent the behaviors from escalating.
In young children, troubles may be expressed outwardly through defiance or other stubborn behavior inconsistent with their age, or frequent complaints about physical discomfort. Young kids also may cry often.
Adolescents may show they are struggling by isolating themselves in their rooms and generally withdrawing from social interaction.
A teen with mental illness also may shift to a new circle of friends, or show a greater inclination to become angry or verbal, or both.
Impaired school performance and substance abuse can be signs of emotional disturbances as well.
Updated: February 28, 2013 6:23AM
Part of an occasional series looking at how the national debate on gun laws and gun violence is playing out in local communities.
Although one in 17 Americans suffers from a serious and debilitating psychological condition, one in four has a diagnosable mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Of that 25 percent, three out of four begin to experience symptoms before age 24.
Yet officials say fewer than half of children with behavioral health challenges receive the diagnosis and treatment that can help prevent them from growing into troubled adults who one day may become violent.
“Most people who have been married, have had kids or have had a boss they can’t stand have had thoughts of committing violent acts,” said therapist Stephanie Willis, a Sun-Times Media columnist who runs a private group therapy practice with a location in Naperville. “It isn’t just the one in 17 who have a serious illness that could potentially be harmful, but it is the one in four people who have any diagnosable disorder.
“We have to understand what mental health issues are and recognize when we are not managing life mentally well.”
Willis is one of the local professionals who see promise in President Obama’s call for expanded access and more thorough identification of people who struggle with mental illness — particularly those who could be driven to violence by their disorders.
Obama last week outlined nearly two dozen measures intended to reduce the frequency of gun violence in the U.S. Authorities see potential benefit in the proposals that focus on the psychological state of those who use firearms.
Several of the young men who legally purchased guns and then committed mass shootings in the U.S. in recent years had histories of mental illness, including some of those responsible for the seven incidents last year that left a record 140 people dead or injured.
The young gunmen implicated in the deadly rampages in Tucson, Ariz., and Aurora, Colo., and on the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University campuses had behavior disorders documented in their pasts as well.
Reported to have exhibited symptoms of mental illness years before his shooting spree, 20-year-old Adam Lanza used his mother’s guns to fatally shoot her, 20 first-graders, six adults and finally himself in Newtown, Conn., last month — and brought discussion of gun control and mental illness back to the national table.
“This is something we’ve been asking for and crying for the last 20 years, because the mentally ill are housed in our county jails,” said Kendall County Sheriff Richard Randall.
The law enforcement community, which long has supported efforts to ban the public sale of assault weapons, is showing support for a piece of Obama’s gun violence package that would result in collecting more information about mentally ill people believed too volatile to own guns.
The state keeps some records on those individuals, but Hiram Grau, director of the Illinois State Police, said funding limitations have held up the transfer of that information into a federal database.
Support for the plan falls short of full consensus. St. Charles psychologist Peter Coe, who for 30 years worked with veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, suggested the idea could backfire. Coe emphasized the confidentiality of a therapist’s office, where people can safely voice fantasies arising from their anger, guilt and other feelings. A reporting requirement that goes much beyond existing rules for acting on people deemed an imminent threat could jeopardize that sense of security, he said.
“Lowering the bar on when mental health practitioners are required to report their clients to the police, and to inform authorities about the presence of weapons, would increase the risk of violent outbursts since they would leave the treatment that is lowering depression and turmoil,” Coe said.
Because it can be all but impossible to accurately pinpoint violent criminals before they have acted, Coe believes the proposals could risk overreaction, despite the tragedy that launched them.
“A nuanced and respectful view of mentally ill people is a fragile position to maintain and can be shaken in times of stress and fear,” he said.
Youth at risk
Among the pillars of the administration’s plan, some of which will require Congress to act, are new funding to expand prevention and intervention programs for young people; more open discussion of mental illness; and increased collaboration among school districts, police and mental health agencies to ensure help gets to those who need it.
According to the White House, 22 percent of teens age 14 to 17 have witnessed a shooting in their lifetimes. Studies have established links between exposure to community violence and children’s emotional health, including a significant increase in some kids’ risk of later developing mental disorders that contribute to them eventually committing violent crimes themselves.
To many of those in the behavioral health profession, prevention is key.
“That’s really important, because you can really change someone’s life if you intervene early enough for people at high risk,” said Diane McLaughlin, director of behavioral health at Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora.
The patterns of behavior that culminate in random violence are often established years earlier, said Naperville therapist Kimberly Groll, also a Sun-Times Media column writer.
“I have parents bringing their teens to me when they’re 17, or they’re 20 and they’re no longer in school,” said Groll, who often is told that the child’s behaviors took a turn long ago. “My question is, ‘Why wasn’t it addressed then?’”
She also usually inquires whether the child’s friends have changed, or she has become more verbal, or he is displaying more outward anger, such as punching walls or doors.
“Parents will say, ‘I’m constantly repairing this or repairing that,’ or ‘We’re afraid to say anything, because we don’t know what’s going to set him off,’” Groll said, noting that adults often have trouble admitting their children may be mentally ill.
“It’s just like the heroin issue. Nobody wants to talk about it, ‘My child would never be involved in heroin.’ And I think it’s the same thing with mental illness.
“I think what the biggest problem is, is the word ‘mental’ being put into it.”
Also problematic, Groll said, is the high cost of behavioral health treatment, which insurers don’t always cover comprehensively.
“That’s the biggest reason that parents stay away, I feel,” she said.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, which has chapters in Kane, Kendall and Will counties, lauded the proposals. In a statement released after Obama’s Jan. 16 news conference, NAMI Executive Director Michael J. Fitzpatrick said the plan to boost mental health services reflects many of the suggestions his agency made in meetings with Vice President Joe Biden’s task force in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shootings.
“Out of tragedy, Americans today have an opportunity that probably comes only once in a generation,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement posted on the organization’s website. “The mental health care system has long been broken. The challenge is not to fix it, but to build it anew, focusing on early screening, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. The President’s plan takes important steps toward meeting that challenge.”
Assorted factors can keep families from seeking treatment for a troubled child, and young people from looking for help. The cost of services can be prohibitive, even for those with insurance coverage, if deductibles and co-pays are high. The expense especially hits home for those who are neither wealthy nor very poor.
Karen Beyer, executive director of the Ecker Center for Mental Health in Elgin, said the problem is not exclusive to Illinois.
“Access is being reduced. It’s been going on for several years now,” she said. “There are many people who don’t have Medicare, who don’t have Medicaid, and can’t afford to go out and get these services.”
Until a few years ago, Beyer said, mental health treatment was subsidized for many low-income households.
“Those subsidies have been dramatically, dramatically reduced,” she said, noting that coverage also has been sharply cut back. “In some cases there’s really almost nothing except emergency services.”
She is encouraged by recent policy shifts that require equal levels of coverage for physical and mental health treatments, and by provisions in the Obama administration’s health care overhaul that will extend Medicaid coverage to nearly 17 million more Americans.
“That has far, far-reaching implications in terms of people having access to care,” Beyer said. “And with the Affordable Care Act, most people have insurance now.”
One element that continues to stymie efforts to aid those with behavioral challenges is a lingering perception that mental illness is something shameful, rather than an illness.
“I think that the stigma of mental illness still affects people’s willingness to get help, as well as the availability of resources,” McLaughlin said.
Beyer also sees that at the Elgin center.
“It’s not simply a matter of money. There is, we have to admit, a real stigma attached to mental illness. Especially for young people, it’s very difficult sometimes to admit that, ‘Maybe I do have a mental health issue, and maybe I do need treatment.’”
McLaughlin appeared cautiously optimistic that Obama’s proposals to connect people with treatment may prove effective.
“If what he’s proposing increases access to mental health services as well as allows more services to be available,” she said, “that would mean people can get the help they need.” | <urn:uuid:adea0072-598b-41d2-9c29-81af4a72c0f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/17719739-418/experts-give-views-on-gun-violence-mental-health-debate.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 | 0.959811 | 2,349 | 1.75 | 2 |
Apple to offer 24-bit files? One thing to consider
CNN recently reported that Apple may soon start offering high-resolution 24-bit recordings through the iTunes® music store. While a lot of sites have posted opinions both pro and con about this possible upgrade, there's an important point (we think) that's been missed. And it concerns what happens when a 24-bit file meets a 16-bit processor.
It's out of spec!
Some critics claim that whatever improvements in sound quality would be gained from the proposed upgrade would be moot. Many computers — as well as current iPods®, and iPhones® — can only handle a maximum bit depth of 16 bits. So audiophile recordings down-converted from 24 bits by the playback device would lose much of the music's detail in the process (when you drop from 16.7 million bits to 65,000 bits, something's gotta go). In essence, critics say, you'd be back to where you started from with the 16-bit audio files currently offered by iTunes.
It's a valid point. But only if you let the device's resident DAC (digital-to-analog converter) do the processing.
There are a growing number of external DACs on the market that can address that problem. When you plug one of these into the USB port of your computer, it bypasses your PC's soundcard and processes the digital music file through its own DAC. So if you have a DAC that can handle 24-bit/96kHz processing, such as the NuForce Icon 2 desktop amp, (shown, right) then you should enjoy the full benefit of these higher quality audio files.
What about my iPod/iPhone/iPad?
From the research I've done, it's not clear yet what would happen when you synced your iPod and transferred these proposed iTunes-purchased 24-bit files over to your player.
Right now iTunes offers you the option of down-converting high-resolution files down to 128kbps in order to store more songs on your iPod. Since the iPod's built-in DAC can only handle 16-bit conversion it's possible that Apple might program iTunes to automatically down-convert purchased 24-bit tracks for transfer. If so, then the naysayers would be right.
There are several quality iPod/iPhone powered speaker systems and docks that bypass the player's built in DAC. With a Wadia 170iTransport, for example, you could send those stored 24-bit files to a 24-bit/96kHz DAC (either a stand-alone component, or one found in your receiver) and not lose any audio quality. The same would be true of Peachtree Audio's line of docking components (shown, left).
We don't know all the details about this proposed upgrade yet, but one thing we can be sure of. If higher-quality digital files are offered through iTunes, we'll have ways to help you enjoy them in all their audiophile glory. | <urn:uuid:cb7348e9-717e-4b05-abf0-cb686c6a5b38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crutchfield.com/S-StKCUP0PgIj/learn/blogs/av_tips/archive/2011/02/23/apple-to-offer-24-bit-files-one-thing-to-consider.aspx?g=320350&tp=36855 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950148 | 616 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Judge Rules Suburban Schools No Good for Now
(Memphis) US District Judge Samuel Mays has ruled the creation of municipal school districts in Shelby County is not allowed under the Tennessee constitution.
In effect, the referendums in August to create municipal districts and the election of suburban school board members in November are all void.
Therefore in August 2013, no municipal districts will be allowed. All students will be under the Shelby County School District.
Mays wrote that although this law was written generally, it violates the state constitution by affecting only one county. Only Shelby County had the exact circumstances for the law to apply.
Since its effect is local, local approval would have been needed from the county commission. But Mays wrote that no such provision was written in the law.
Meanwhile, he invited the parties involved to submit more arguments addressing only Chapter 970, which allows for municipal districts after the merger takes place.
At a Shelby County Schools board meeting Tuesday night, Chairman Billy Orgel said that he would not debate whether municipal districts should happen.
However, he urged the unified board to sit down with representatives from suburban Shelby County to solve issues related to the children’s education, including the use of school buildings.
“As a community, we need to act like adults. And we need to sit down and talk, and look for solutions that don’t involve going to court, that don’t involve a judge to make decisions. But we need to think first and foremost about our children,” Orgel said.
That sit-down talk may now be more important than ever, considering that everyone will be part of one district in 2013-14.
Martavius Jones, school board commissioner, said, “At this point, there’s no choice. The judge has invalidated the results of the election. And so instead of taking the divisive actions that we’ve taken over the last couple of years, let’s do what’s best for all children in Shelby County.”
What’s “best” may be a matter of disagreement, especially as suburban cities are already vowing to continue their fight to break away.
Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald said there are still a lot of options for the municipalities.
“I said for two years this is a long process. There’s a possibility, depending about what it [the ruling] says, whether there would need to be any appeals. There’s a possibility for legislative relief in this next session, certainly the possibility for some type of municipal charter schools in the interim, as well as other possibilities that are going to be going on in Nashville in January and February,” Mayor McDonald said.
But while there are a lot of avenues the suburbs can consider, the big question is whether the people who live in the municipalities are willing to keep paying for the fight. Bartlett alone has already spent $350,000 and voted Tuesday to spend $250,000 more in legal fees. | <urn:uuid:ab98049d-3367-46e6-8eb3-af8801b7eb34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wreg.com/2012/11/27/municipal-school-districts-not-allowed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967667 | 625 | 1.664063 | 2 |
ATLANTA -- Fulton County commissioners are delaying a vote on whether to spend $5 million to fix hundreds of faulty locks at a county jail, saying sheriff's officials need to do a better job of supervising inmates.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the board voted Monday to postpone the decision until Dec. 5.
Jailers told the newspaper the locks are so shoddy that inmates can open cell doors, leading to attacks on staff and inmates.
The locks are so old they have been discontinued and replacement parts are no longer available.
A lawsuit over the jail's deteriorating conditions forced county officials to operate the jail under federal oversight. A consent order requires the jail's locks to be in working condition.
Commissioners voted to discuss the issue at a meeting on Dec. 5. | <urn:uuid:cd9a15d4-ad4d-4ec8-8614-457be2fffc7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/article/283277/5/Fulton-Co-delays-vote-to-fix-faulty-jail-locks | 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 | 0.940217 | 161 | 1.5 | 2 |
Amitai Etzioni University Professor and Professor of International Affairs, GW University :
Obama’s soaring rhetoric and magical speechmaking leads one to overlook that, at least recently, especially during the State of the Union, his vision is a rather modest one. In effect, it much reminds one of Tom Friedman’s flat earth.
Obama hopes for an America that will be green, clean, and not mean—second to none. (He sounded as if he feared that explicitly going for the number one spot was both too unrealistic and arrogant.) True, he did go on about us all leaving our differences behind, and did mention—toward the very end, in passing—his commitment to social justice for minorities, women, and gays. But no shining city on the top of the hill. Maybe the times call for modest goals, and true—even these will be hard to come by. But there is little here that will make one’s heart go pitter-patter, that will make young people reach for the stars, or inspire most anybody to do much of anything. | <urn:uuid:f87632ad-320f-4340-9e07-f0d5a21e9f42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Amitai_Etzioni_71C991DE-E6AD-4017-A652-179FDB26F4C3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962997 | 225 | 1.546875 | 2 |
In this short but thought provoking interview legendary “Smashing Pumpkins” guitarist Billy Corgan sits down with Brian Solis to discuss the state of the music industry and why he feels today’s musicians are treated like sex workers.
As powerful as the ideas expressed are, to my mind there is still a very dominant ‘marketing’ drive evident in this discourse. Is this the only basis from which to evaluate the arts?
The present capitalist economic/advertising/self-promotion market system is the only context we have at present, but could it be seen as being similar to a picture of condemned prisoners on death row squabbling over who gets the best cell with regards to proximity to the exit door leading to the inevitable gallows? Is there not another way?
Should artists be like common disposable commodity hawkers? … going around with cap in hand, desperately peddling their art as commercial wares almost exclusively to the demands of the mostly uneducated and consumer driven masses, usually at minimum rates just to fill our stomachs?
Another angle is whether musicians and artists are themselves not selling their own souls to the “pimps” who offer the promise of sustenance or “fame?” Many musicians perform under the false allure of “exposure”. .. not unlike the sex worker on street corners selling themselves in hope for a fee essentially determined by the buyer. Are musicians and artists themselves not living lives just like sex workers when they participate in this type of seedy transaction?
Personally I am very concerned at the toll this is taking on the arts and culture on a deep level. Perhaps the desperation for survival, scratching out an existence, is only adding to the degradation of society and humanity as we see it in our day?
For me this is no more glaring and disturbing as in the Christian music and specifically the so called “Worship” industry today.
Music and the arts in the spiritual realm of human consciousness is an expression of the ethereal in the most powerful way. Through it we are able to explore new dimensions of meaning, new frontiers of communication and understanding. The arts were there long before we ordered and symbolized our means of communication in symbols and cognitive speech and thought patterns. The example a Christ reveals how he chose the metaphor in parables and the mysteries of “supernatural” demonstrations in word and deed to convey deep and challenging ideas to a culture essentially stuck and locked in to superficial memes and limited two dimensional language.
To harness the creative arts and bring it under the power and control of popular culture and the surface tension of linear thought and communication is to place a lid on spirituality.
In the New Testament writings we are challenged not to conform to the patterns of the world but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in order that we might test and approve the perfect will of God for our lives and for our times. But at least to my mind it is blatantly clear that in churches world wide we seem mostly if not exclusively to follow trends and popularity stakes. We follow ‘feel-good’ consumerist systems in our ‘worship.” And the standards of this interaction are determined and set by the Christian worship industry and the “pop stars” who parade as its front, its representatives. Our “worship leaders’” and Christian “Pop Stars” do not seem to operate from a platform of a biblically renewed minds but rather seem blatantly to conform to the patterns of popularity and the success it offers in the world today – looking, speaking and sounding exactly like the regular music industry celebrities. Relevancy and spiritual accuracy and authority is measured by popularity and accessibility to the common ground of consumer sentiment.
In our churches we seem only willing to play that which we are led to believe has been tried and tested by the Christian worship industry as if it has the divine anointing and authority with respect to the sounds of the Kingdom of God but which is instead almost exclusively run on aggressive capitalistic, strictly profit based, manipulative economic strategies, – methods copied verbatim from the successfully implemented patterns of a greedy and an undeniably profit motivated secular music industry. After all, it’s pure business, right?
I have asked as many pastors of churches as I can if they would feel happy if instructed not to preach from their own individual heart perspective but instead to copy a great audio or DVD teaching by one of the great present day popular Christian preachers as their regular congregational church sermon, … following each word exactly (or as best they can) , using the same analogies, the exact same visual prompts and effects. The answer I received each time, even though the “popular Christian preacher” was deemed acceptable and even highly regarded and embraced as theologically sound and “anointed by God” was always, “no.”
Yet amazingly those same pastors instruct their worship leaders and musicians to copy verbatim (or as best as they possibly can) what is popular and selling in the Christian retail outlets worship CD and worship DVD racks.
If we believe that there is a “Holy Spirit” amongst us who dwells in each believer and leads each believer into all truth, taking what belongs to Jesus and making it know to each as the bible says, … why do we only permit the singing of songs by the industry backed and promoted superstars?
What is this repetitious sensual liturgy amongst us?
Where are the “new songs” expressed in and from the hearts of the local redeemed of the Lord?
Sometimes it even feels like God lives exclusively in USA or Australia these days.
I also ask the question, “why are today’s Christian musicians and creative artists being treated like sex workers?”
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I want you to open your Bible to the seventh chapter of Mark as we continue to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and ministry in this wonderful history written by Mark. We are in chapter 7 and the text of verses 14 to 23 is our text for this morning.
It again is a very, very important portion of Scripture. It is paralleled in Matthew as well. It is a very, very definitive portion of Scripture. You might even conclude that of all the teaching places in the gospels, this has to rank as one of THE most important because it is so defining. And we’ll see that as we look at it.
I’ve entitled the text, “The Inside Story of Defilement.” The Inside Story of Defilement. I suppose if you lived fifty years ago, to a hundred years ago, you might not understand how really defiled the world is, how really defiled the human race is. You might be limited to the people in your little world and you would only experience extraordinary evil in your community when extraordinary evil happened, or in your circle of friends, or within the framework of your knowledge. But living in the world we live in today, it’s really had to hide how wretched man is. There are not a lot of defenders anymore of the goodness of man. We all, because of mass media and because of ubiquitous cameras everywhere, every human hand on the planet, I think, has a camera in it in the form of a cell phone. And we have cameras watching us everywhere we go in every building along the streets and at the intersections and just about everywhere else...we are then fully informed on the evil of mankind. We know the world is full of defilement. We know it is full of corruption. We know that evil runs deep and it runs wide. We understand that. It is inescapable.
And the question then is no longer is there evil in the world, but the question is where does it come from? What is the cause of evil? What is the point of origination of evil?
Well I don’t really think that psychologists any longer are interested in trying to defend the fact that extraordinary evil is only done by some sort of extraordinary human beings who are outside the pale or normalcy. I think that’s gone by the wayside. I think we’re pretty well acquainted with the fact that seemingly normal people can do things that are horrendously evil. Seemingly normal people are engaged, if not in the purveying of evil in being entertained by things that are vile and wretched. I think we now know that evil is pervasive throughout our society and that even ordinary people can do things that are extraordinarily corrupt.
All of that came clear to a psychologist by the name of James Waller in the year 2002. He published a psychological book, the title of it, Becoming Evil....Becoming Evil. The subtitle, How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. The thesis of the book is that extraordinary evil can be done by what are apparently ordinary people, that extraordinary evil does not arise out of some human abnormality but rather extreme evil can be done by very common, normal people. That’s the unsettling results of the study that is behind the book, extraordinary evil arises from ordinary people. There’s no way to escape that anymore and that is correct.
But that poses the question: What causes this? Why does it happen? Where does it come from?
Following up on that book was a book written in the year 2007 by a social psychologist by the name of Philip Zimbardo. In that work titled The Lucifer Effect, subtitle “Understanding how good people turn evil,” he concludes that this pervasive far-reaching in our society is environmental. That is, what corrupts us is outside of us. We are all exposed to hostile and I guess you could call the Ascetic situations we find ourselves in and our proclivity for evil are ranging far from human goodness into extreme evil is the result of over exposure to things that are outside of us.
Now this is in direct conflict with the Bible. The Bible says our problem is not outside of us, our problem is inside of us. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” That’s the collective heart. Men are wicked. “There’s none righteous, no not one.” We are capable without any outside influences, according to James 1:14, of conceiving lust in our hearts, turning it into sinful attitudes that become sinful acts...deadly sinful acts. Sin works its way from the inside out.
That is a definitive Christian view of man. That is a biblical anthropology that what defiles is on the inside, not the outside. Society doesn’t want to admit that., You hear people being interviewed all the time in our society who say, “Well, the reason I did this, the reason I have this problem, the reason I have this anti-social or criminal behavior, or bizarre behavior is because I was misunderstood as a child.. I was molested as a child. I was denied privileges as a child. I was unloved as a child. I was bullied...that’s the latest one.”
All of these kinds of external things have created this kind of behavior because I’ve lived in this toxic kind of environment. That is not what the Bible teaches. The problem is not outside of you, the problem is inside of you.
Listen to the words of Mark beginning in verse 14, speaking of Jesus, “He called the crowd to Him again, and began saying to them, ‘Listen to Me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.’” And then verse 16, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” There’s a note on that, while certainly Jesus said that many times, it doesn’t appear to be in the better manuscripts here, but in some manuscripts and thus it’s included in brackets. “When He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable.” The parable being the words in verse 15. “And He said to them, ‘Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him because it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach and is eliminated,’ and thus He declared all foods clean. And He was saying, ‘That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man for from within, out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceits, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All of these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Five times in that passage you have a form of the word “defile” from the verb koinoo. It means to be dirty, to be unclean, to be impure, to be corrupt, to be defiled, used often in the New Testament, very frequently in the New Testament. Even more frequently, the Hebrew counterpart of that word chillel in the Old Testament used probably over 225 times. Why? Because impurity and purity is a biblical issue, because it’s an issue with God. Throughout Scripture we are told to be able to distinguish between what is impure and what is pure. So it’s a common theme and therefore it’s a common word.
The Jews were very much aware of the ideas of impurity and purity, very much aware of that. The Jews of Jesus day had developed a very, very sophisticated external religious system, as we learned last time. We won’t go over all the detail of that. They have gone way beyond the Law of God, they had adhered to the Law of God as much as was possible in the ceremonies and the rituals and the rites that God had ordained in the Levitical Law but they had added many others, literally hundreds of other prescriptions to the things that were scriptural.
Out of that had come the notion that defilement was something outside of them. They were under the illusion that on the inside they were good and godly. You would have to say that’s what all Pharisees thought. You do remember the Pharisee in Luke 18 who prays, thus with himself, “I thank You that I’m not like other men, even like that wicked tax collector. I tithe, I fast, I do all the right ceremonies and rituals.” That was the illusion they lived under. The Apostle Paul had the same illusion, according to Philippians 3, where he says that according to the Law, he was blameless, he was zealous, he was a Pharisee, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, kosher, kept all the traditions, all the prescriptions. And he put that in the achievement column in his former unbelieving life. That’s the way they thought. And so, they thought because they were good on the inside and everybody who followed them bought in to that theology thought the same thing, and that was pervasive all over the land of Israel, they all thought that they were basically good on the inside, they were righteous on the inside, they went to the synagogue, they observed the traditions of the elders, they followed the ceremonies and the ritual washings that they were told to do and so they therefore were good and righteous. And the only thing they had to be afraid of was something on the outside because the inside was fine. That was the illusion.
They were like modern psychologists. The only thing that was going to defile them was something outside of them that might pollute them. So they lived thinking that they were holy and pure and virtuous. In order to maintain that, they just had to make sure they never got near any corrupting influence. And that is what is behind this particular lesson from our Lord Jesus.
Now remember, this is a pervasive viewpoint in the land of Israel and this is what the disciples of Jesus and even the Apostles of Jesus had always been taught, that the only thing to avoid is outside of you. The system of salvation by works in a system of self-righteousness where you earn your way to God by showing up at the synagogue, by giving deference to things biblical, by making sure you followed the traditions of the elders, by going through all the symbolic ceremonies that were described, you therefore had made yourself right with God so you were okay on the inside, you just had to make sure you didn’t get touched by any polluting influence from the outside. That’s how they lived, that’s how they thought.
Now Jesus is about to shatter that and teach a lesson on the inside story about defilement. Now He states the truth in verses 14 and 15. The truth is stated in verses 14 and 15. “He called the crowd to Him again,” what crowd is this? Very likely the crowd mentioned in chapter 7 verse 1, “Some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem.” They wouldn’t be the only ones there, everywhere He went there were crowds. In fact, on that very occasion, the end of chapter 6, He had landed on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee near Gennesaret which is near Capernaum, tied up the boat when they got out, verse 54 says the people recognized Him, ran about the whole country began to carry here and there those on their pallets who were sick to the place where He was, and this is a typical scenario.
So there’s a huge crowd there and the front of the crowd would be the Pharisees and the scribes always looking for a way to capture Jesus in some violation so they could get an indictment against Him to have Him killed. So the crowd has reconvened here in verse 14. He’s directing His conversation at them, whereas in verses 1 to 14 He was talking primarily to scribes and Pharisees, now the crowd is the object of His lesson. So He calls the crowd again to Him and He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand.” I want to help all of you who have been basically under the teaching of these Pharisees and scribes. This is for every one of you to know. “Listen and understand, all of you. This is a very comprehensive, very important, very foundational, very essential truth. This is at the heart of what you need to know.”
And what is it? Here comes the parable, or the analogy. “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” This is an analogy and I don’t want to get too graphic here, this is a simple analogy. What goes into you is not defiling, it’s food. What comes out of you physically is defiling. You want to stay away from those unclean things that come through elimination. The parallel passage in Matthew 15 even says it comes out in the draught and the Greek word for draught means the place on which you sit. So you get the idea. This is a simple illustration but a very obvious one.
The food that you eat is not going to defile you, but you want to stay away from the results of that. That’s a very simple illustration. Anyone would understand that. So this crystallizes in their mind a kind of axiom, of course. It’s not what you take in that defiles that you try to avoid, it’s what comes out.
So that’s the truth stated and it’s stated in just simple terms of natural life. But there’s a point behind it, the truth stated is followed by the truth explained and the truth explained is really important. What does He mean by this? That is the issue. What is He getting at?
Well let’s just back up a minute and say this. Where He’s going with this is that spiritually speaking pollution is not outside of you, it doesn’t come in to you, it comes out of you because the problem is not outside of you, the problem is inside of you. That’s the point. Should they have known that? Of course they should have known that. First Samuel 16:7, “Man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on...what?...on the heart.” The heart is evil, that’s the issue, and it comes out of the man. That’s what is defiling. That’s what is corrupt. Matthew even says it comes out of the mouth. And the reason Matthew refers to the mouth is because the mouth is the most ready to express the evil of the heart...more evil is spoken than is done. It’s so much easier to do that, that’s why Isaiah said he was a man of unclean lips because that’s how he identified the wretchedness of his heart. The whole principle is that evil doesn’t come into you from the outside, it comes out of you from the inside. And this is shocking, believe me, to the Pharisees and the scribes. They don’t like this. That’s not what they think.
They are concerned about all matters of external defilement. They live by those issues and their hearts were full of all kinds of evil, even here they are plotting the murder of Jesus. Now why do they feel so strongly about these external things? Where did that come from?
Well, you know the answer to that. If they go back to the Mosaic Law, to the books of the Pentateuch as we know them, they would come across the book of Leviticus and in Leviticus there are all kinds of ceremonial prescriptions that are laid upon the people of God. Leviticus is full of lists, lists about things that defile. You’re not to touch them. You’re not to drink this. You’re not to eat that. They are there in the book of Leviticus. They were not to touch a dead body or they would be defiled, ceremonially, ritually. Come in contact with any bodily fluids, people who had...women who had a baby would be considered to be defiled until they went through a purification ceremony after childbirth. People with leprosy were considered to be defiled. People who contacted reptiles would be defiled and anybody who touched a person who had touched a reptile would be passing on the defilement. Anybody who touched a Gentile would be defiled. Anybody who had touched a person who had touched a Gentile would receive the defilement.
There were some very strict Levitical principles of external defilement that are laid out unquestionably in the Scripture. So that’s where it started. But it never was to be that and that alone and never a consideration of the heart, but rather those were to be symbolic of the heart issues.
For example, circumcision...every male was to be purified by circumcision. There was a reason for that. Throughout human history, Jewish had the lowest percentage of cervical cancer because of circumcision and diseases like that. There are records concerning that. So it was actually a healthy thing to do for Jewish women in the preservation of the race.
But more than that, circumcision was the need for a heart cleansing and the fact that man was sinful at the very, very basic element of his being and out of man would just come more sinners and more sinners and more sinners as he passed on his fallenness. So he needed cleansing. Circumcision demonstrates that at a very foundational level of life.
The symbolic kinds of cleansings that were prescribed were like pictures in a picture book before a child reads words. They were like symbols and images and visions and shadows of the spiritual reality.
Well, the Jews landed on those things and never got to the heart and so they just added to those things. They came up with further prescriptions of ritual, ceremonial defilement. And they had an elaborate...elaborate system of external cleansings, all kinds of things. I told you about that last time, right? Volumes written on how to wash your hands, how to rinse your hands. In fact, it was so complicated and so impossible that they eventually came up with what are called “Laws of Intention.” Laws of Intention so instead of trying to keep all these things, you just got up every morning and said, “I intend to be undefiled today.” And if you said that, that you could wave all the ceremonies for the day. It was all about externals. It was all about the outside.
And at this point, you know, you’re saying to yourself, if God didn’t want them to get preoccupied with this, why did He institute these in the first place? Because they needed symbols, they needed pictures, they needed types, they needed representations of a spiritual reality. Ceremonies, various kinds of rituals, various kinds of prescriptions with touching and eating and drinking simply were external representations of the fact that God wanted heart cleansing. He wanted the heart to be pure from pollution, corruption and defilement. So the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 8:5, “These things are an example and shadow of heavenly things.” “They are figures for the time then present.” In chapter 9 verse 10, the writer of Hebrews says, “Foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances were imposed until the time of reformation.” That would be the time of Christ. They had a temporary role to play. They were like the ABC’s, like the primer, like the basics that you teach a child by using illustrations. In Hebrews 10:22 it says, “Let us draw near with a true heart, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.”
You come to the New Testament and all of that disappears. All of that goes away cause along the heart was always the issue. That’s why Hebrews 6:1 and 2 says, “Leaving behind the washings, let us go on to maturity.” Abandon all of that. The Holy Spirit is telling the Hebrew believers and all of us to abandon the shadows, the types, the pictures, the sacrifices of the Old Covenant and come to Christ, the substance. Let the shadow go, the substance is here. Let the figures go, the reality is here.
But the Jews were scrupulous with the symbols and ignored the inward realities. That’s why Jesus said to the believers, “You are outside painted white, inside you’re full of dead-men’s bones.” You stink, you’re corrupt and you have the decay of death.
And take circumcision, for example, it is abrogated in the New Testament. Galatians simply says that if you put your trust in circumcision, Christ is made of no effect because you’re hoping in a ceremony and a work and Christ and you must hope for salvation in Christ alone. If circumcision means anything to you as far as your salvation is concerned, you’ve made Christ of no effect. Paul says circumcision, non-circumcision...meaningless...meaningless. And here, end of verse 19, in the words that Jesus said, He declared all foods clean. In one simple statement He obliterated all the dietary laws of Judaism. And along with all the dietary laws of Judaism came all the defilements that were connected with those dietary laws, it was all gone...it was all wiped out in one statement.
Paul saw that in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 20. “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles,” those ABC’s, those pictures, “why are you living as in the world? Do you submit yourself to those laws, such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch?” There’s no point. If you’ve come to Christ, you let that go...you let that all go, it’s all gone.
You remember Acts chapter 10? You remember Peter has a vision. He sees a sheet with all kinds of unclean and clean animals and the Lord says to him, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter says, “I’ve never eaten anything that’s unclean.” And the Lord responds to him by saying in Acts 10, “Do not call unclean what God has cleansed.” All those dietary laws are gone.
Every once in a while a book appears in the Christian bookstore advocating that we all go back to an Old Testament diet to experience the blessing of God. No, no, no, no...that’s all set apart. It says it right there in verse 19, “He declared all foods clean.” First Tim...er, 1 Timothy 4, Paul writes about false teachers who forbid you to eat certain things, right? And then Paul says, “All things are to be received with thanksgiving. Nothing is unclean.” That whole system has been obliterated. It’s gone. That’s why in the New Testament there are no rituals, there are no ceremonies, none. There are no rites. And whenever you see a religion that is basically full of all kinds of external ceremonies and rituals and rites, it is Pharisaism all over again...all over again.
Am I surprised that the Roman Catholic Church cannot get to the end of sexual abusive priests? No. Why? Because the whole religion is external. They’re all external. They’re just like the Pharisees. On the outside they’re painted white, they do all the ceremonies, they go through all the rituals, and the routine. Inside they’re full of dead-men’s bones. Inside they’re corrupt. Inside they’re wicked. Inside they’re impure. They can’t contain that. You can’t stop that. To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled, everything is defiled. Everything they touch is defiled because they are defiled. Not surprised, not at all. It just goes with being undefiled. And that’s what all that external religion is, it’s all the outside and nothing to do with the inside. And that was the Pharisees.
How tragically, really, that they were all caught up in the pictures, the child pictures. Never did get to the reality of the heart. Proverbs 4 says, “Guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life...out of it are the issues of life. The problem is the heart.
So Jesus protests against external religious system, external ceremony, external ritual, external washings like Mormon baptisms in the temple and things like that. There are a lot of examples of that. He’s after inward purity.
Now this is a monumental moment. I mean, this crystallizes the difference, doesn’t it? They’re in to external religion. The assumption...they’re good and their environment is bad and they’ve got to make sure they mitigate the impact of a polluting environment. Jesus flips that around and says, “The problem is not what’s outside you, the problem is what’s inside you. You are vile and you corrupt the environment around you.”
All the Old Testament pictures of cleansing were finally resolved in Christ. Christ came to bring the cleansing that everyone so needed. And once He came, all the pictures should have disappeared. He came to fulfill the whole Law, Matthew 5:17.
In the New Testament you have no rituals, none. The Lord’s table and Baptism, those aren’t rituals, we know what they symbolize. We have no washings. We have no ceremonies. We have no rites. We have no sacrifices. The New Testament speaks only of what defiles the inside. Matthew 15 speaks of the heart being defiled. In Titus 1 it speaks of the defiling influence of unbelief. First Corinthians 8, the defiling influence of idolatry, putting anything in the place of God. Hebrews 12, the defiling influence of bitterness in the heart. Jude 23 talks about the defiling influence of sin that is in us. All the externals are gone. So the truth is stated here by our Lord in a simple illustration, a simple little parable.
Now verse 17 brings in the disciples. “When He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable.” Questioned Him about the parable. You know, I think they probably understood what He was trying to say but it was so contrary to what they had always been taught. Your whole life, what you’re trying to do is avoid bumping in to somebody who is defiled, avoid eating something that’s defiled because you haven’t gone through a ceremonial washing or rinsing, a very complicated kind of thing. Their whole life the assumption was you’re good on the inside if you can just keep yourself from bumping in on the outside that’s bad, you’re going to be fine. This is all new. This is all new. And so they ask Him about the parable.
Now you have to understand what they say totally and Mark doesn’t give it all to us, so turn to Matthew 15...Matthew 15. Fear not, we’re going to finish. Matthew 15 verse 12, “The disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know...’” so when they came and wanted an explanation they also said this, this is the full picture. “They said to Him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the statement?’”
Oh, what does that tell you? That tells you they got it, right? They understood it. They’re so concerned about washing on the outside...you remember the incident just before? They were condemning Jesus and His disciples for eating without ceremonially going through the hand rinsing rite. They weren’t talking about dirt, they were talking about ceremony. So when Jesus said, “You don’t need to be afraid of what’s outside of you, you need to be afraid of what’s inside of you because that is what corrupts you.” They got it and they were offended when they heard the statement. “And so He answered and said to them...that is to the disciples.... ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.’” You know what that says about them? They’re not wheat, if we can borrow the language of Matthew 13:28 to 30, Matthew 13:28 to 30, there is wheat and there are tares, right? Who sows the tares? The devil sows the tares. So you have people in the Kingdom of God that look like wheat and they’re actually tares and they’re sewn by Satan and that would be the Pharisees and the scribes. That would be any false religionists in our time or any time.
Jesus said, “That’s a plant My heavenly Father didn’t plant and they’re all going to be uprooted.” And it describes it in Matthew 13, the angels are going to come, right? And they’re going to bring in the harvest and they’re going to barn the wheat and they’re going to burn the tares. So He says, “Look, they’re going to be judged, they’re going to be condemned.”
And then in verse 14 He says, “Let them alone.” Boy, you never want to hear that, do you? You’re pass the point of grace, you’re pass the point of invitation, you’re pass the point of hope, you’re pass the point of salvation, let them alone. That’s what the Old Testament said. Ephraim, or Israel is joined to idols, let them alone. “My Spirit will not always strive with men.” God has an end to His patience. Let them alone. They’re headed for judgment. They’re blind guides of the blind. They are blind, all the people they lead are blind and if a man is blind, guiding blind man, both will fall into a pit. They’re all headed for disaster and all the people they influence are headed for disaster and that disaster is an eternal hell. Humph.
Of course they’re offended because they have a completely different approach to religion. They think they’re good on the inside and they have to avoid bad influence on the outside. The truth is they’re bad on the inside and they poison the environment wherever they are. The Pharisees were offended. Jesus says, “But they’re under judgment, let them alone. Everybody who follows them along with them will end up in hell.
Them the next verse says in verse 15, “Peter said, ‘Explain the parable to us.’” Now go back to Mark. Explain the parable. Get specific. What is this thing really saying?
Verse 18, “He said to them, ‘Are you so lacking in understanding, also?’” Well they were because they were part of the blind being led by the blind guides.
By the way, I picked up a magazine this week...this week, current magazine, came out this week, a few days ago. In it is a quote from Gutteman Locks...L-o-c-k-s, 72-year old orthodox Jewish Hasidic teacher. Listen to what he said. This is a current Hasidic orthodox Jewish teacher. Quote, “Accepting Jesus as Messiah would mean the destruction of the Jewish people for Jesus was opposed to Jewish teaching.”
You know, I respect that man. He understood. Jesus was opposed to Jewish teaching. He says if we were to accept Jesus as Messiah, it would mean the destruction of the Jewish people for Jesus was opposed to Jewish teaching. Then he gave the illustration, next line. “He did things like picking food from the fields on the Sabbath,” end quote.
What? Are they still stuck on that? Two thousand years later it is still about external things, nothing has changed. That’s their religion. That’s their religion.
So our Lord clearly states the truth, then acknowledges that the truth is not understood and violated and then elucidates the truth starting in verse 18. “Do you not understand that wherever...that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him?”
Now let’s make the spiritual application of that obvious physical principle. It just...let’s talk some more about the physical. It doesn’t go into the heart, but into the stomach. So you understand, you get the analogy here about eating something, it doesn’t defile, it doesn’t go into the heart, it goes into the stomach, it’s eliminated. And He says, “Now let’s talk about the spiritual.” Verse 20, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.” Very graphic illustration. It comes in, in a sense, undefiled and goes out defiled. This is a mashal, this is an analogy. And I think the disciples were sincere. I mean, they were confused because this is what they grew up in. It’s what comes out.
Verse 21 then gets very specific. The spiritual lesson is now made crystal clear. “For from within out of the heart of man.” That is a biblical anthropology, the source of evil is in us. “Out of the man,” Matthew says, “Out of the mouth,” the mouth symbolizes in the analogy the exit, out of which the evil comes from the heart. But the real cesspool is the heart, not the physical pump but the inner self, the mind, the source of thought, attitude, motive, desire, source of all we do and say, pumps out impurity, filth.
What comes out? “Evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” Out of the heart, ektos kardias, out of the heart, ekporeuo comes forth, gushes, compound word. Gushes out of the heart. The description of what is in the heart of people, including the leaders of false religion. And by the way, Mark includes twelve items in his list, Matthew has a lesser list. But Mark includes twelve, the first six are plural, therefore they have to refer to acts. The second six are singular, therefore they refer to attitudes behind the acts. And the Pharisees and the scribes and the rabbis love to give lists of things to be avoided. They had all their external lists. Jesus here gives them an internal list.
First, evil thoughts, hoi delaguizmoi hoi kakas, Deliaguizmoi we’ll get dialogue from it the word means intentions, attitudes, thoughts, perceptions, ideas, designs, devisings, musings, process of what goes on in the mind is bad. Kakas is a strong word, bad thoughts. This is James 1, “Lust conceiving in the heart.”
Fornications comes out first on the list, as we would expect, because of the power of sexual temptation and sexual sin. Whatever else of sin may reign in the world, this seems to reign as king of corruption. That is why if you just take the Internet as a reflection of the human heart, there are millions more pornographic sites than one could even imagine on the Internet and far more people interested in that particular perversion than all other perversions combined. Fornications is the Greek word porneia from which comes pornography, all kinds of extramarital unnatural sexual sin.
And then, obviously, thefts, murders, adulteries which would be included in the word fornications, but uniquely refers moicheia to sex of any kind that violates a marriage vow and covenant.
Coveting, which literally, that one in verse 22, deeds of coveting, means greedinesses. Then wickedness, poneria in plural, all kinds of malicious evil, all comes out of the heart. Backing that up in singular are the attitudes, deceit, sensuality...that’s aselgeia. Deceit means lying, not telling the truth, deceptiveness, false witness. Aselgeia for sensuality means lewdness, lasciviousness in behavior and speech. It’s a dirty mind that shows up in conversation as well as in behavior. Envy, literally ophthalmos panerous,an evil eye. Ophthalmos from which we get ophthalmology. In Latin it means envideo, that is to look with hate, to look with anger, an evil eye, which translates in to being envious.
Slander which is the word blasphemia, that’s abusive speech, abusive toward others. Pride meaning you feel superior. And finally, foolishness, aphrosune, senselessness. Phroneo means to think, aphroneo means to be unthinking, senseless.
So, their hands were washed and their hearts were filthy, as are all human hearts, right? All of them. This is the problem. Verse 23, “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man. It’s not what goes into the man that defiles him. The same is in the physical analogy, it’s what comes out of him that’s so defiled.” All that defilement comes from inside and no ritual, no rite, no ceremony, no sacrament, no attempt at morality , no attempt at religion can alter that defilement at all.
Well, you say, “What do we do about it? What do we do about it?”
I’ll tell you what you do about it. You need a new heart. You need a new heart. That is the promise of God in Ezekiel 36 in that glorious wonderful passage regarding the New Covenant. Listen to verse 25, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within in. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you’ll be careful to observe My ordinances.”
That’s the promise of salvation. I have to change you on the inside. That’s why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You need to be born again.” You need to be born of the water and the Spirit, the water meaning the cleansing, the washing that is described in Ezekiel 36. And you need a new life, meaning a new heart. This is a change at the very core. You have to be begotten again.
In the beautiful language of the Apostle Paul in Titus 3, he says, “He saved us,” verse 5, “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. Not on the basis of any external behaviors, moral or ceremonial, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration.”
You know what regeneration means? It means that something dies and something new is born. It’s the washing of a total transformation, a new heart, a new mind, a new soul. And by renewing of the Holy Spirit we get washed, we get a new heart and the Holy Spirit takes over residence in us. That’s the transformation. It doesn’t matter what the outside is. It doesn’t matter what world you live in.
People say, “Oh boy, it’s going to be pretty hard to live in this world.” It probably was pretty hard for Paul to live in the world he lived in, don’t you think? Always been pretty hard to live in an ungodly world because no matter what’s going on in the outside, it’s never the outside that’s the issue. No matter what culture you live in, it’s always full of people who are defiled on the inside. And if you get close to the people who are defiled on the inside and how can you avoid that? You’re liable to be polluted by them. That’s why the Bible says evil company corrupts good morals. You’re colliding with these corrupt people. You know, you’re...I know you’re concerned about the future. You say, “What about my kids and the way the world is going? It’s going to get worse and worse and worse.” And it is, and the worse and worse that it’s going to get may be just a recycling of the kind of world that used to be.
But what is the answer? The answer is that your kids, as well as you, are not to fear the pollution that’s outside of you, you’re to fear the pollution that is inside of you. And if you have a new heart and if you’ve been washed, and if you’ve been given the Holy Spirit, then all is well between you and God. And that’s an eternal transaction, is it not? That’s an eternal miracle. That’s a new beginning that has no end. This is what the gospel offers when you put your faith in Christ. This is why the Lord said, “I have to fully reject your religion because it’s a religion that makes a wrong diagnosis and therefore it can’t offer the correct cure. If you’re good and all you need to do is control your environment, then you’ve missed it all together because you are bad on the inside. You don’t need a different environment, you don’t need to create a different environment. The Jews thought, “Well just like in Israel, keep the Gentiles out, get rid of the Gentiles.” That’s why they hated the Romans so much. “We’ll just keep all the bad people out, we’ll keep all the polluting influences out. We’ll have enough ritual ceremonies to keep ourselves clean.
The fact of the matter was their pollution was all on the inside. They missed it completely. You need a new heart. You need to be washed on the inside, and that’s what the Spirit of God does when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the gospel. And you make no contribution to that other than under the prompting of the Holy Spirit to repent of your sin and embrace Christ.
Father, thank You for our time this morning, looking at this wonderfully rich portion of Scripture. So much can be sad about this, so definitive is it. But we understand. I think the disciples probably understood too when Jesus finished explaining it. Thank You for that clear understanding that is given to us in Scripture. Help us to know that the problem is in us and it can only be remedied by a new heart, a new Spirit, internal washing, “The washing of the water of the Word...the Word meaning the Word of God, meaning the gospel. Only the gospel can wash us on the inside. O, Father, how we pray that there would be some even this day who would be washed, who would recognize where the true corruption lies and open their hearts to that cleansing which comes to those who put their trust in Christ. We pray in Christ’s name, amen. | <urn:uuid:d777efb7-ed1f-4e59-a8b8-b00d87c4c616> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/41-33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973329 | 9,479 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) hosted an internship fair with students from ACE Charter High School Sept. 19, offering 18 students a chance to interview for six different unpaid internships at multiple commands across the base.
ACE Charter High School, located in Camarillo, focuses on architecture, construction and engineering classes in addition to the usual high school curriculum. Internships are a requirement for graduation.
“It’s really about getting the kids exposure to the workplace,” said Principal Ron Fisher. “I found that kids graduate high school and have no idea what they want to do. Internships give them a better idea of what kind of jobs they might enjoy or have a knack for.”
Sarah Rollston, environmental engineer, and John Brito, fuels engineer, both with Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, were on hand to interview for two positions within their command.
“We’re really building that relationship with the community and maybe planting the seeds for our future engineers,” Brito said.
“Giving them that hands-on experience is important,” Rollston added. “It’s good to see how what they learn in the classroom is applied in the field.”
As the county’s largest employer, NBVC is in a unique position to offer these opportunities, explained Capt. David Sasek, NBVC’s chief staff officer and a driving force behind expanding the base’s internship offerings.
“This fair is just the beginning,” Sasek said. “Nearly 20,000 people work on the base every day doing everything from hospitality and food service work to high-tech science and engineering. Our goal is to offer many more students from our community multiple opportunities throughout the year.”
Working with a committee of individuals from tenant commands, Sasek and Monica James, NBVC school liaison officer, are working to increase awareness about internship opportunities both inside and outside the fenceline.
“Students need opportunities in every field, from administration to marketing to engineering,” James said.
NBVC plans to host another internship fair in the spring, and James is urging commands to look now and see where they might be able to host an intern. Opportunities range from one-on-one mentoring or job shadowing to group tours offering the basics about a particular job or command.
“It’s really about offering whatever we can to our community and our students,” Sasek said. “We have so much to offer these kids; we just need to tap into it a little more.”
For more information or to learn about hosting an intern, contact Monica James at 805-989-5211. | <urn:uuid:a9a3a0df-e1fc-47f0-8849-c84614dcda96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/oct/03/base-making-more-internships-available/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957437 | 574 | 1.820313 | 2 |
There had been a relative calm in my small part of the world — a gentrified area of south Tel Aviv where the tree-lined narrow streets are scattered with bustling restaurants and coffee shops — where my biggest concern was finding a working Telo-Fun bike machine.
Before last week, words like miklat (bomb shelter), Iron Dome, red alert siren and bus bombings were not part of my daily vocabulary or thoughts. How quickly that changes.
Mixed with the usual sounds of Bob Marley singing and chopping vegetables, an unfamiliar howl lofted into our studio apartment. “Is that a siren?” we said, in disbelief. Sure, the chances of rockets are more likely than rain in this part of the world. But the reality that one would actually be aimed for in Tel Aviv is a different story. After pausing for a second in shock, we followed the sounds of footsteps to the ground floor, where all of us living in the same building quickly discovered the lack of any bomb shelter.
As the unfamiliar sound that Israelis are preconditioned to know from an early age, resonated across the city, sabras acted accordingly, even though it’s been 21 years (since the first Gulf War) that red alert sirens sounded in Tel Aviv. It’s been half a decade since a bus was blown up in Tel Aviv. The goal of these attacks is to instill fear; never knowing where you might be in danger—a café, a grocery store, a bus route that many of us take daily—no place is off limits. I like to think that I have a high tolerance for challenging situations. However, the past week has got me questioning those limits. While I like to think I am not fearful, there is a certain unease that is present in the air.
Sure, business continues, but you can see the subtle differences—the news occupies television screens everywhere, drivers are laying off the horns, everyone knows someone who has been called up to the army and people are on edge, jumping at odd sounds and cautiously watching planes fly overhead.
Yes, I signed up to be here and you have to take it with the good, bad and the ugly. However, I’m a child who hails from the innocence of North America, where bomb shelter signs are remnants of a bygone era with the Cold War. I believe my North American upbringing inherently has a naiveté because war rarely touches North American soil. Instead, war is seen in images in a land far away and those who come back, scarred from what they have seen.
Populated areas like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem now know the feeling southern residents have felt for a long time. Tel Avivians, who are a primarily a secular bunch have been known to operate in the “Tel Aviv Bubble,” during past wars. This bubble burst in a matter of minutes last week and I wonder if I can ever get used to this. | <urn:uuid:431b770e-8907-4a78-a264-a0840a177907> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/166645/when-bob-marleys-drowned-out-by-sirens/ | 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 | 0.97031 | 609 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Social Media Communication ToolsSteve Adubato, Ph.D.
Social media has become an effective and efficient way to communicate and stay connected with key stakeholders and customers. However, coordinating the messages being sent by your organization and following up on the feedback you receive can be challenging. In addition, monitoring and measuring the success of your social media efforts is critical to understanding whether your communication game plan is on track.
The New Jersey Devils hockey team has launched an innovative social communication initiative called “Mission Control” that can serve as a potential model for any type of organization. “Mission Control” is a digital command center located inside the Prudential Center that manages and monitors the New Jersey Devils’ social media communication. Five staff members and a team of two-dozen fans, called “Devils Generals”, who are social media savvy, utilize Twitter, Facebook and other online channels to stay connected with Devils fans while extending the organization’s reach and building its fan base.
There are several communication lessons that any business can learn from certain aspects of “Mission Control”, including the following:
--Proactively listen to your customers. It’s critical that you use social media to poll and get feedback from your customers in real time. Then, customize and adapt your message to what current and prospective customers are looking for. Social media is not the same as simply running a static ad and hoping to get a response. Rather, by using social media to truly listen and respond to what your customers are saying, you have the ability to measure whether your message is being received as you had intended or whether you need to tweak your communication based on this instantaneous feedback.
--Have fun when communicating. Social media can help you reach people in a more casual and relaxed environment, which allows you to share information on your product or services without making a hard sales pitch. Too often, when it comes to generating new business, we are consumed with the “ask” or the pressure to “make the deal.” Nothing fun about that for the customer, however, social media can provide an innovative and fun way for your message to reach a broader audience without prospective customers feeling like they are getting the hard sell. Through “Mission Control”, it looks like the New Jersey Devils have figured that out.
--Think relationships, especially long-term ones. In this column I have written extensively about the importance of building an e-database of your current and prospective contacts. “Mission Control” is all about this. Collecting e-mail addresses and using them in a strategic communication fashion can help you foster relationships and share important information. Whether you are announcing a new product or service, or just want to share an interesting article that would be valuable to your network of “friends”, having an up-to-date list of e-mail addresses allows you to communicate in a cost-effective fashion. But remember, good relationships always involve two-way communication, so make sure you create a feedback mechanism in every message you send.
--Connect the dots. While social media is a great way to let others know about you, it can also be used as a powerful cross-promotional and information sharing communication tool for clients, customers and others. Think about it. The Devils don’t only have to talk about the Devils, they can let fans know about some terrific event being sponsored by the American Heart Association or Special Olympics. The idea is to connect causes and organizations through social media and demonstrate that your organization is involved with initiatives that make a difference in the community. This message clearly communicates that your organization doesn’t just care about the bottom line, but also about the larger good. Social media can be an effective tool in connecting these most important dots. Write to me at email@example.com with your ideas about communicating via social media.
Steve Adubato coaches and speaks on communication and leadership and is author of the new book "What Were They Thinking? Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad and the Totally Clueless" (Rutgers University Press). Write to him at The Star-Ledger, 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 07102, visit his Web site at www.stand-deliver.com, or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:f064db0d-a567-4b44-b3c3-fac7df5a4b1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caucusnj.org/adubato/starledger/2012/041512.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947949 | 896 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Those military advisers from France, Britain and Italy can't reach Benghazi fast enough. While Libya's rebels might have the zeal to fight Moammar Gahdafi, the weapons in their arsenal are laughable, pitiful or outright useless.
When the civil war started in February, anti-Gadhafi forces raided military depots in liberated areas like Benghazi. They emerged with lots of wheezing weapons: a Shilka ZSU-23 anti-aircraft gun that the Soviets stopped making in the 1970s and Dushka cannons straight out of the '80s era occupation of Afghanistan. Undeterred, rebels improved ingenious artillery delivery systems, like hooking up Grad rocket pods to a car battery and firing them using a recycled doorbell.
Then they got trounced by a far more professional loyalist military. Even while NATO planes still buzz overhead.
All this is enough to demoralize C.J. Chivers, the former Marine and badass New York Times reporter who's risking life and limb to report on the Libyan uprising. He tallies up such an thorough inventory of the rebel arsenal that he's practically auditing their quartermasters. And his findings are cringe-inducing.
Rebels don't have cartridges for the archaic Carcano cavalry carbine, pictured above, "probable refuse from Italian colonization in Libya between the world wars." But they're carrying them anyway. They're using French MAT-49 submachine guns - without magazines. They're taking PKT machine guns out of the tank systems the Soviets designed the PKT to accompany and carrying it like an infantry weapon, despite a complete inability to fire it.
It would be inaccurate to say the rebels are "using" these guns. They're simply displaying them. Chivers notes that one Libyan brandishing a magazine-less MAT-49 would be "more dangerous with a sling and stone."
What the working artillery they possess they use terribly. They don't use forward observers to direct fires. They don't adjust their aim. Chivers can't help sounding like an instructor: "In tactical terms, this is indiscriminate fire - the very behavior rebels and civilians have decried in the [Gadhafi] forces, albeit on a smaller scale."
Ammunition stocks and anti-tank weapons are coming into rebel-held ports from Qatar. That complements the mines, rockets and shoulder-fired missiles the rebels took from Gadhafi's depots. But Chivers notes that in the hands of an undisciplined force, they're all proliferation risks - in an area wracked with political and security turmoil.
Still, at least that poor discipline has a solution: advisers. The foreign advisers on their way from Europe might represent mission creep. But they can at least teach the rebels how to shoot straight. What they can't teach them is how to fire a gun with no trigger. No wonder Defense Secretary Robert Gates fears getting bogged down. | <urn:uuid:7ea8d687-ef0a-4bac-853e-a6e3cdb78968> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gizmodo.com/5794466/libyas-rebels-fight-with-ancient-useless-weapons--danger-room?tag=ancient-weapons | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957079 | 599 | 1.617188 | 2 |
I usually try to translate cultural references as I go along. I know that I have literally several readers in America, and it worries me that they may not know that "the tube" is "the subway" or that "pavement" is another word for "waistcoat".
It's a good exercise. Assumptions, as a very wise man once said, are things that you don't know you are making. Everyone in England instantly understands that "bobby" means something different from "policeman" and that "Tory" means something different from "Conservative", but it's hard to put into words what that difference is. The Union Jack "means" Britain, and the Stars and Stripes "means" America. I am pretty sure that the Union Jack means something different to a British person from what the Stars and Stripes means to an American, but I couldn't articulate what. Nor cold I articulate why I chose to write "British person" rather than "Briton" or "Brit."
So, before moving onto the one in the flat, I need to ask: what is the American cultural equivalent of "Marmite"?
I remember an article in a Doctor Who Appreciation Society fanzine: TARDIS, maybe, or Celestial Whatnot. It was probably by Jeremy Bentham who I don't think ever really concealed the fact that William Hartnell was "his" Doctor. (There was much less history in those days.) He took it for granted – all fandom agreed with him – that what was then "new" Who, the Phillip Hinchcliff seasons were an appalling travesty; nothing at all to do with the Doctor Who we grew up with, and quite open about the fact that it wasn't meant for children any more. (Whenever you see an episode of New Who that you aren't quite convinced by, remind yourself that what you feel is mild compared with the sheer, visceral hatred that the President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society directed at the Deadly Assassin.) But Bentham didn't think that fandom was being quite fair. Granted, seasons 12, 13 and 14 had nothing very much to do with the series we all loved: granted all this horror imagery was more suited to a Hammer Horror movie than Doctor Who, granted Robert Holmes had wrecked the Time Lords irretrievably. But at least Doctor Who was still travelling round the universe in a TARDIS. So fans were faced with a Dilemma. Embrace the new series, or give all your love to the early seasons: Hartnell and Troughton and Pertwee. Well, Hartnell and Troughton. But if we choose to stay behind in the past we may very well regret that staying until etc. etc. etc.
So now it comes: the parting of the ways, the day of choice that we have so long delayed.
Does it bother you that the Thing At The Top of the Stairs made absolutely no sense at all, didn't even pretend to make sense and was in any case the product of a Blue Peter "design a TARDIS interior" competition?
Leave. Leave now. Doctor Who is no longer your show.
And that's fine. It's okay to find it ridiculous when fat ladies who sing when they should be talking claim to be 15 exactly, when they are obviously 53 if they are a day. It is ridiculous. So stay away from the opera.
Your hour will come round again. 40 years from now the widening gyres will bring in a world where Inferno and Ambassadors of Death are the latest word in modernity. Until then, there must be no regrets: just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me etc. etc. etc.
You are so not meant to be looking at the wibbly wobbley timey wimey thing at the top of the stairs. You are so meant to be looking at the Doctor and Craig and Sophie. Well, at Craig.
At me. At me.
What if Dr Who came to my house?
If you have enjoyed this essay, please consider buying a copy of The Viewers Tale or Fish Custard which collects all my writings about Doctor Who to date. Alternatively, please consider making a donation of £1 for each essay you have enjoyed. | <urn:uuid:163c5f7c-3a1d-4e85-8563-edd07ba53323> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2010/07/fish-custard-14.html?showComment=1278372781531 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972263 | 882 | 1.554688 | 2 |
September 20, 2009
"Comments posted on and messages received through official White House pages are subject to the Presidential Records Act and may be archived," the language just added to the popular sites says. (Naturally, the version posted on Twitter had to be abbreviated a bit.)
In a post Saturday night on the White House blog, Obama internet maven Macon Phillips said the National Archives and Records Administration has concluded that the White House is legally obligated by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to preserve all comments it receives through or on its site or the pages it maintains on social media sites. So officials recently proposed hiring a contractor to record that data.
"It’s less expensive and more reliable to meet this obligation through an automated archiving process. That’s why we posted a draft request for a proposal for an automated archiving process. Recently, some have characterized this as a secret, sinister plan to catalog the activity of individuals on all social networks and capture personal or private information about individuals without their consent, " Phillips wrote.
"That’s just not reality. The draft request is and has been posted on a public website. The White House is not archiving all content or activity across social networks where we have a page – nor do we want to. The only content archived is what is voluntarily published on the White House’s official pages on these sites or what is voluntarily sent to a White House account," Phillips added.
The proposed data-retention contract seems to have been first disclosed by the National Legal and Policy Center back on August 31. The issue seems to have gone dormant for a while before being picked up last week by the Washington Times, which billed its September 16 report as an "exclusive" and by Fox News.
The recent stories built on concerns some conservatives and privacy activists expressed back in August after the White House asked the public to email in any "fishy" information being circulated about President Barack Obama's health care plan. The White House eventually disabled the e-mail "tip" box, moving instead to a Web page that asked submitters not to send in other people's e-mail addresses or personal data.
In response to another e-mail-related glitch highlighted by Fox, the White House also conceded that it was sending blast e-mails to some people who never submitted their addresses directly to the White House. Officials said procedures have since been tightened to confirm that people are only signed up voluntarily. | <urn:uuid:ecc431d6-b378-448d-b6a0-c60f95f6ed91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0909/New_privacy_warnings_on_WH_social_media_pages.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962899 | 498 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Praise be to Allaah.
We put this question to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih
al-‘Uthaymeen, may Allaah preserve him, who replied as follows:
He should not do that, because the Bible may have an effect on the Muslim,
but it seems that the Qur’aan will not have an effect on this evil person, because he
is insisting that the Muslim should take the copy of the Bible. So he should not agree to
that. If he goes right, then it will be for the benefit of his own self, and if he goes
astray, it will be to his own loss.
Should he pretend to agree to read [the Bible], without really meaning it?
He should not agree to anything, because that will make this person feel
proud. And Allaah knows best. | <urn:uuid:1d36f1e7-a4a7-47b5-bafe-78e2a18ba7c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://islam-qa.com/en/ref/8885 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946918 | 177 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Do you see value in taking unpaid internships? Would you recommend that students who are having a hard time getting a job in their field take on relevant unpaid internships? Or is that just a way to sell yourself (and your pocketbook) short?
Unpaid internships can be worthwhile if both the company and the intern use the opportunity in the right way. The intern can benefit from networking opportunities, listing real world experience on his or her résumé, and gaining valuable on-the-job training. The company can benefit by having a new person share fresh perspectives on the business, having additional hands-on support, and giving back to the community by investing in new talent.
The challenge with unpaid internships however, is that some companies take advantage of this set up to gain free administrative labour, rather than offering a valuable on-the-job training opportunity for new workers. Unfortunately, I have met too many individuals who take on long-term unpaid internships during the day, where they are not gaining valuable career experiences. Consequently, they take on non-career related jobs after work in order to pay their bills. Technically, this arrangement doesn’t fit into the proper definition of an intern, but aspiring job seekers often feel they have no other choice.
The good news is, when it comes to unpaid internships, while many job seekers don’t realize it, they can exercise some level of control in the arrangement.
In a paid internship position, you’ll likely be given a job description, be considered an employee, and if that means you have to fetch coffee, file and photocopy papers on a regular basis, so be it, it’s all part of the intern-level job. In an unpaid internship however, you don’t have the same obligations to a company, so you can set some of your own parameters to negotiate the type of training you want to get. If your target company doesn’t agree to your recommendations, you can decide to turn down the opportunity and look for something else.
Some companies will offer unpaid internships, but they’ll cover public transit costs or offer a per diem for lunch, so do your research to find out what norms exist in your industry. Armed with that information, you’ll be able to negotiate a better opportunity for yourself.
Here are some of the most important things to ask yourself as you’re looking for an interning position:
- Can you define what you want to get from the position?
- Do you want a blue chip company’s name on your résumé?
- Do you want to network with leaders in your industry? Or do you want hands-on experience within a smaller organization?
Such questions will help you determine whether a paid or unpaid internship is right for you.
Julie Labrie is the vice-president of BlueSky Personnel Solutions in Toronto.
Have a question about careers, labour law or management? Send it to our panel of experts: firstname.lastname@example.org Your name and address will be kept confidential. | <urn:uuid:7c0debea-edb6-4693-bdd2-7eff79ccab6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/experts/is-there-any-value-in-an-unpaid-internship/article6193696/?cmpid=rss1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942103 | 639 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|EPA Outlines Potential Plan for Housatonic Cleanup|
|By Joe Durwin, Pittsfield Correspondent|
11:20AM / Saturday, May 26, 2012
|H. Curtis Spalding, EPA regional director, explains an aspect of the PCB cleanup during Thursday's meeting in Lenox.|
LENOX, Mass. — Months of cooperation has brought some progress in the planning to clean up the southern Housatonic River, though definitive plans for remediation are still evolving, and actual cleanup is still years off.
MassDEP Commissioner Kenneth Kimmel, left, Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Mary Griffin and Curt Spalding of EPA take questions about the cleanup plan.
That was the message that emerged Thursday as representatives from state and federal environmental agencies met with more than a hundred concerned area residents at Lenox Memorial High School to discuss their current thinking on the controversial issue of river cleanup.
"We have a lot more work to do, and a lot more public comment will come in," said Kenneth Kimmel, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. "But I will say I think we're in a much better place than we were seven months ago when we heard loudly and clearly from people in the Berkshires that they wanted us to make an effort to get on the same page with the EPA."
Kimmel referred back to a public hearing in Lenox in October in which the state outlined its plan at the time. Public commentary and collaborative efforts between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state governments of Massachusetts and Connecticut since that time resulted in an eight-page report released by the EPA last week. This report, which officials are calling "tentative and preliminary," details the potential approach they hope to use to enact remediation efforts.
This new plan calls for removing about 25 percent of the PCBs currently in and around the remaining unremediated length of the Housatonic, sometimes referred to as "the rest of the river." This, the EPA says, will bring the level of pollution level to within one deemed safe for the public without destroying the natural character and diverse ecosystems of the river.
A majority of the PCB removal would take place in an area known as Reach 5, a 10-mile of stretch from south Pittsfield to Woods Pond in Lenox. This latter accounts for about 28 percent of the entire contamination in the Housatonic, and will undergo dredging, sediment removal and capping to keep remaining pollution from being stirred up. In other parts of Reach 5, found to be less contaminated, the planned remediation will skip dredging and capping and focus on specific hotspots.
"Removing all the material in this area would be virtually impossible," said H. Curtis Spalding, EPA regional administrator for New England. "I think people here would find that to be a very stark solution."
Complete removal of the toxic materials, the team of combined agencies says, would permanently alter the river and do irreparable harm to its ecosystems. However, their current approach is based on what they call "adaptive management," which leaves room for revising their strategy to embrace new technologies as they become available, and incorporate them into remediation and monitoring over future decades.
General Electric will be responsible for the cost of whatever remediation is ultimately decided upon.
Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are carcinogenic chemicals used heavily by General Electric at its former transformer plant in Pittsfield. Prior to their ban in 1977, the company is known to have illegally disposed of numerous quantities of the toxin in the area for decades. In addition to demonstrated toxic and mutagenic health effects, PCBs have been shown to be associated with certain types of cancer.
One key aspect of the current plan calls for all contaminated soil that is removed to be transported out of the county, instead of creating landfills for it within Berkshire County. The proposal to create three such landfills in Southern Berkshire County drew vehement opposition when it was put forth in an earlier 2010 plan from the EPA.
"It is a different plan than the state proposed," said Spalding. "It meets the criteria the federal government has for protecting human health."
The plan, Spalding stressed, is not finalized, and will continue to be informed by public input. This includes concerns voiced by numerous residents in two hours of Q&A that followed the EPA presentation Thursday.
"I'm concerned that only 25 percent of the PCBs are going to be removed, and this is our one opportunity to do an effective cleanup," said Pittsfield resident Valerie Anderson. Anderson also raised concerns that the cleanup of the rest of the river was taking place while contamination risks upriver in Pittsfield continued to exist, including Silver Lake, Hill 78, and PCBs buried under the former GE property now owned by SABIC.
The EPA representative indicated that while Silver Lake remediation was still a major priority, cleanup of the other Pittsfield areas was unlikely.
"That's not going to happen," said Spalding, of removing the PCB-soaked soil of Hill 78 behind Allendale Elementary School.
Rest of the River 2012 | <urn:uuid:2f8fa9f0-70f7-4771-bd2e-bed41fa93810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pittsfield.com/story/41367/EPA-Outlines-Potential-Plan-for-Housatonic-Cleanup.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96475 | 1,063 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Sackler to celebrate anniversary with a daytime fireworks display
By Maura Judkis,
The yule log isn’t the only thing that will be blazing for the holidays this season. To celebrate the Sackler Gallery’s 25th anniversary, Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese artist famous for his Olympic pyrotechnics display and his gunpowder art, plans to ignite a daytime fireworks show on the Mall that riffs on the Christmas tree lightings taking place around the country.
At 3 p.m. Friday in front of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, visitors will be able to see “Explosion Event,” a sparkling display of light and smoke, as the artist sets off 2,000 custom-made fireworks attached to a 40-foot pine tree. If all goes according to plan, his smoke air-burst fireworks will take the shape of an ethereal tree, which will gently drift away in the wind as it keeps its form.
“I’m thinking about it as reversing a typical Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Instead of seeing lights at night, you see black smoke during the day,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “I’m imagining that after the explosion, the smoke tree will look like a virtual tree. I’m hoping it will look like an ink painting.”
Cai will ignite the tree on the north side of the Freer. Of the three separate explosions that will take place, the first will last only 1 1 / 2 seconds, Cai said, “So I’ll make sure to do a countdown so you all aren’t chatting and miss the action.” Next, there will be a series of explosions on the tree, “so it will look as if Christmas tree lights are twinkling all over,” he said. In the final explosion, both smoke and twinkling lights will be activated simultaneously.
“All of the photographers — you should pay attention to the last explosion,” said Cai to a group of reporters. “It’s your last chance at capturing the action. If you do a good job, it will look like a film negative of a Christmas tree at night, except with all of the colors reversed.”
That perfect photo op, though, is entirely dependent on the direction of the wind. If the conditions aren’t right, it could create a black cloud instead.
“You’re probably thinking, have I tried this before?” Cai said. “No. I’ll be undergoing the same emotions as you are — both excited and anxious.”
The smoke is made of charcoal, so it is environmentally friendly, and the tree will be “very much alive” when the explosion is over. It will be replanted elsewhere, he said.
Cai is in town to receive the first State Department Medal of Arts, along with artists Jeff Koons, Carrie May Weems, Shahzia Sikander and Kiki Smith. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will present the medals to the artists Friday.
The Sackler performance is not Cai’s first in Washington. He created a giant tornado for the Kennedy Center and brought a massive ship to the Sackler, both in 2005. His daytime fireworks reference the Chinese invention of gunpowder, using colored smoke, rather than light, to be visible during the day.
The artist is using a different title for his work than the museum’s “Explosion Event.” On his Web site, he calls it “Black Christmas Tree.” Allison Peck, the Sackler’s head of public affairs, says that the museum is using a different title because it prepared its press materials far ahead of time.
“The work itself is not necessarily about Christmas,” Peck said. “It has the spirit of a sparkling holiday tree, but it’s more than that. It references his past work; it references Chinese brush drawing; and it’s in honor of our anniversary.”
Cai’s title is considerably darker, though, and it could fuel the annual cable news “War on Christmas” coverage. But the artist said that his explosion is a commentary on the aesthetics of a Christmas tree, not Christianity.
“It happens to be the holiday season, so it makes sense to pick a Christmas tree,” Cai said. “And because there’s the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York, and the tree at Capitol Hill, so I figured, why not add another tree?”
3 p.m. Friday, in front of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, 1050 Independence Ave. SE. 202-633-1000 or asia.si.edu. | <urn:uuid:13cbdc0c-4173-445d-b31b-158b7b433bb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/sackler-to-celebrate-anniversary-with-a-daytime-fireworks-display/2012/11/29/7fdf2104-3a35-11e2-8a97-363b0f9a0ab3_print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940842 | 1,015 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Tyler Snow is pictured with the cheerleaders at the Jan. 25 Ansley-Litchfield v Arcadia basketball game. Both teams, fans and cheerleading squads wore Team Tyler T-shirts in support of the 19-year-old Tyler, who is battling a rare bone marrow disease.
Photo by Jenelle Snow
LITCHFIELD - - There are times when two teams meeting for a competition becomes more than just a game. Friday, Feb. 25, was one of those times.
Ansley-Litchfield and Arcadia were squaring off in a basketball game that night. However, the game itself is likely not what most people in attendance will remember. With these three communities being in such close proximity with each other, most of the students in these schools know each other - or at least of each other.
So when the brother of Ansley-Litchfield player Tanner Snow was recently diagnosed with a rare life-threatening disease, the other students wanted to show their support. They got their chance to do that at the Friday night game.
Typically the stands at a high school sporting event are filled with T-shirts and sweatshirts proudly displaying the colors, mascot and team name of whichever side that individual is there to support. This night, people were there to support Team Tyler. So it was fitting that the stands were filled with fans proudly proclaiming that support, dressed in Team Tyler gear.
When the two teams took to the floor for warm-ups prior to the game, all players - on both sides - were sporting Team Tyler T-shirts. The cheerleading squads for both teams also wore the Team Tyler T-shirts.
The creation of the T-shirts was a fund raising idea, initiated by Litchfield High School senior Falicia Shephardson.
“She (Falicia) took this fund raising activity upon herself and did all the work, along with the schools assistance. They were very neat shirts,” says Tyler’s mom, Jenelle Snow.
Tyler, 19, was diagnosed in October 2012 with PNH and Aplastic Anemia - very rare bone marrow failure diseases. The diseases cause Tyler’s red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells to drop to dangerously low levels.
Tyler says he is always tired, and had to take a leave from attending Southeast Commun-ity College in Milford because of his illness. He receives weekly platelet transfusions, and an occasional blood transfusion. He is currently on an immunosuppressant in the hope that it will suppress whatever is causing his body to kill the bone marrow and the bone marrow will start producing again. If this treatment fails to put the diseases in remission, Tyler will require an IV immunosuppresant - and if that fails his only option is a Bone Marrow Transplant (stem cell transplant). The only cure for these diseases is a bone marrow transplant.
Unfortunately, Tyler’s brother is not a match for him - only 25 percent of siblings actually match. Therefore, should Tyler require a transplant, he will have to look to the donor registry for a match. The family and the community of Litchfield has been actively recruiting people to join the “Be the Match Registry.” Team Be The Match is a nationwide community committed to helping patients in need of a marrow transplant by raising funds to add more potential marrow donors to Be The Match Registry.
Anyone can support Team Tyler, and in so doing you will help raise funds for patients in need of an unrelated marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. “Together we have the potential to truly make a difference in the lives of thousands of men, women and children in need of a life-saving transplant.” | <urn:uuid:414a0201-e9eb-4cec-85a5-cb5d35b2191a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://custercountychief.com/content/area-students-rally-support-one-their-own?quicktabs_4=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969077 | 783 | 1.664063 | 2 |
In a closely-watched case tied to last year’s Occupy Wall Street protests, a New York judge ruled last week that tweets are no different from words shouted in the street and ordered Twitter to turn over a user’s account to prosecutors. The judge, who styles himself a social media expert, added that the Founding Fathers and “countless soldiers” risked their lives for the right to tweet or post on Facebook but that “there are still consequences for your public posts.”
The case itself involves Malcolm Harris, one of hundreds charged with disrupting traffic after a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge last summer. To build the case, prosecutors asked Twitter to turn over Harris’s account, which contains not just a record of his public messages but could also contain more private information such as the location of his tweets, personal messages and deleted items.
The case attracted media attention after Harris applied to quash the subpoena directed at Twitter. In April, Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. ruled that Harris couldn’t sue in the first place because the tweets in question belonged to Twitter and not to him. Sciarrino Jr. also lambasted “widely-believed” but “mistaken” notions about online privacy and attempted to show off his fluency in social media by adopting Twitter’s hashtag convention to write that the motion to “#quash” was “#denied.”
Twitter responded to the April ruling by moving itself to quash the subpoena itself — an effort that came up short today. The company said in an email statement:
“We are disappointed in the judge’s decision and are considering our options. Twitter’s Terms of Service have long made it absolutely clear that its users *own* their content. We continue to have a steadfast commitment to our users and their rights.”
Tweets: Do they belong to you, Twitter or the street?
The Harris ruling is larded with flamboyant rhetoric but also raises important questions about how privacy law should apply to social media. In ruling against Twitter and Harris, Sciarrino Jr. invoked a 1976 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that a bank didn’t violate user privacy when it turned over customer records because the records were the bank’s property. This raises the question of whether our Facebook and Twitter accounts are just like bank and phone records.
Strangely, Sciarrino Jr. said that Harris’ tweets were Twitter’s property but also found that social media companies were just like witnesses who overhear something shouted in the street:
Well today, the street is an online, information superhighway, and the witnesses can be the third party providers like Twitter, Facebook, Instragram, Pinterest, or the next hot social media application.
The judge holds himself out as an authority on social media by dropping company names and citing recent law journal articles on social media and the judiciary. He has also learned about it firsthand; in 2009, he was disciplined by court authorities and transferred from Staten Island to Manhattan after lawyers complained about him friending them on Facebook.
Sciarrino Jr.’s analysis of the Harris decision is interesting, and perhaps troubling, because it appears to offer no legal protection at all to social media accounts. On one hand, the judge concludes that users have no right to object to account searches (or even know about them) because the accounts are not their property. But at the same time, he characterizes Twitter and Facebook as passive witnesses whose role is to simply pass on information.
The Founding Fathers and the Right to Tweet
Sciarrino Jr. finishes with a flourish, noting that “Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson would have loved to tweet their opinions as much as they loved to write for the newspapers of their day (sometimes under anonymous pseudonyms similar to today’s twitter user names).”
This analogy is intriguing but also problematic. As the judge points out, some founding fathers did write anonymously but they were able to keep their anonymity. Under the judge’s reasoning in the Twitter decision, the publisher who printed the Federalist Papers would be forced to identify the authors — and the authors would have no legal rights at all.
Sciarrino Jr.’s decision also fails to address the issue of how much information social media companies must turn over to authorities. The judge points to search engines like Politwoops and Tweleted (services that collect deleted tweets) in order to emphasize that our tweets are inherently public information available to all. But he does little to acknowledge that our Twitter and Facebook accounts contain not just public utterances, but also a wealth of more personal information that we don’t intend for others to see.
The decision, which was first reported by the New York Law Journal and can be read here, means that Twitter must turn over the bulk of Harris’s account to the court which will then determine which parts are relevant to the prosecution.
It’s not immediately clear if Twitter will appeal the decision. The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a brief on behalf of Harris and Twitter, issued a statement today:
“What is surprising is that the court continued to fail to grapple with one of the key issues underlying this case: do individuals give up their ability to go to court to try to protect their free speech and privacy rights when they use the Internet? As we explained in our brief, the answer has to be no.” | <urn:uuid:237bae73-8cb0-45b5-acc6-06f09d4889e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2012/07/02/social-media-judge-says-tweets-are-for-cops/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pcorg+%28paidContent%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965806 | 1,140 | 1.8125 | 2 |
This just in: The New York Times reports that employees at General Motors’ headquarters in Detroit are being encouraged to use the brand name “Chevrolet” instead of the long-popular nickname “Chevy.”
Oh, GM. Or should I say “General Motors”?
The switch to the more formal moniker brings to mind an analogous experience in my own career. In the days leading up to the dotcom bust, I was working for a very large Web consultancy that began encouraging employees to adopt more formal attire. “In these more sober economic times…” was how the memo read, referring to the fact that the company was bleeding money at an astronomical rate. Employees were told that collarless shirts were no longer acceptable, and jeans should be worn with discretion. Rather than instilling professionalism and pride in employees, the wardrobe recommendations made us feel even more disconnected from a brand we knew was struggling.
I imagine this is the case with Chevrolet’s employees.
The soul of a brand has little to do with dress codes or names. It resides with the employees who are the brand’s daily caretakers. Legislating formality does not elevate brand perception in the eyes of employees or the public. In fact, it can underscore management’s disconnection from their own brand reality. It also runs the risk of casting the brand as inauthentic. And no brand wants to be inauthentic.
I doubt the American public will ever abandon the name Chevy. My parents drove a Chevy Impala convertible in the early '70s. That car will always be a Chevy Impala convertible. If Chevrolet wants to revitalize its brand, taking its popular nickname away from the American people is probably not the best approach.
Your name has been your name for as long as you’ve known you. At least that’s the case for most of us. Sometime between the ages of four and seven months, the neurons involved in name recognition kicked in, and you learned to recognize your own name. And so you learned the word or words that represent you.
What does this have to do with branding? Flash forward to adulthood, and “Jim” and “Karen” and “Mark” and “Hildegard” are not just random syllables. They’re signifiers of personhood and personality. Or as we say in branding, identity.
And that brings us to the brand naming conundrum: Does the name create the identity, or does the identity give meaning to the name? The answer: yes.
A name is a relatively small verbal unit. It can only convey so much. And contrary to the most earnest client aspirations, it can never tell the full story about a brand or product or service. It can suggest that story, but the experience of the brand (or product or service) is what invests the name with meaning.
On the flipside, a brand name is like shorthand. It’s a verbal label, an emblem. It stands for everything the brand represents, just like your name represents everything that makes you “you.”
Let’s go back to people names. If I described my friend “Fred” to you in detail, some of that explanation might stick. But chances are you would need to meet Fred in person to form an opinion of him, which you would then retroactively associate with his name. Your experience of my friend Fred is what gives unique meaning to his name. You might even know other Freds. But your specific knowledge of my friend gives the name Fred specific meaning in his case. It’s a contextual thing.
To take it a step further, think of an expression like “That’s so Fred.” That’s a person’s name acting as a brand in everyday speech. We’re able to take the attributes that make Fred “Fred” and apply them to someone or something else, just by using his name. This is something celebrities are fully aware of—and why they often legally protect their names.
That naming conundrum I mentioned? It’s not easily solved. And maybe it’s not supposed to be. But here’s what I know: People tend to learn more easily through experience than being told. Which is why the better you get to know someone, the more likely you are to remember his or her name.
Does this mean all names are just blank slates? No. Even coined names, which have no dictionary definition, cause our synapses to fire. The challenge is to make sure you’re activating synapses—as opposed to not activating them—with a brand name. Ultimately, how people perceive your brand is how they will understand its name. And somewhere in there, the name will come to represent the brand.
Political correctness—and the scrutiny of language it spawned—might not be the cultural neurosis it was in the early 90’s, but we’re still sensitive to it. Except when it comes to certain brand names. These names, like all brand names, are able to acquire their own meaning and associations over time. But taken out of their fuzzy, protective brand context, they have unintended—and often unfortunate—associations.
Without further ado, here is a short list of brand names whose questionable derivations many of us tend to forget or ignore.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary provides the following definition: “a small dependent country usually of the tropics; especially: one run despotically.” A pejorative expression, “banana republic” connotes human and environmental rights violations, foreign exploitation, and dictatorships. We think merino V-neck sweaters and sheath dresses.
The name as we use it is a Scottish shortening of "allhallow-even" ("even" meaning "evening") and dates from 1745.
"Allhallow-even" was itself a variation of "All Hallows’ eve," which dates from the mid-16th century and marked the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar. The Irish, being a superstitious people, claimed "Old Year's Night," as it was also known on the calendar, was a time for witches. In addition, the ancient Gaels of Ireland believed that on the night of October 31 (the end of the annual harvest), the boundary between the living and the dead was dissolved. The dead would rise from their graves to damage crops, spread illness, and wreak havoc.
Irish and Scottish immigrants brought versions of their Halloween traditions to the US in the nineteenth century. These included jack-o'-lanterns, which originated in Europe and were first carved not from pumpkins, but turnips and rutabagas. The Celts believed the head was the most powerful part of the body, and so created "heads" out of root vegetables to ward off evil. Pumpkins were used in the United States because they were larger and more plentiful.
I’ll admit it upfront, so diehard fans of AMC’s Mad Men are forewarned: I’m one of the few people who’s not completely infatuated with the show. But as someone who does branding for a living, I’m intrigued by how it reconstructs the ethos of an era using brands and pop cultural references.
There’s one indisputable truth about brand naming: your name is only as good as your company, product, or service. Consumers rarely invest in something based solely on the perceived quality of its name. They invest in a product’s or brand’s reputation. Names can influence purchase decisions, but they don’t unilaterally prevent or guarantee them.
Which leads us to the phenomenon of brand names that go bad.
In the 1950s, a top US automaker decided to elevate one of its existing brands to the level of luxury car, creating room for a new sub-luxury brand. The company did its due diligence and came up with a plan. The brand would represent a new business division. It would place the parent company in a parity position with other major US automakers.
The car launched with significant fanfare. But in just a few short years, the party was over. The company was Ford, and the brand was Edsel—a name that has become synonymous with colossal public failure. Speculation as to why the Edsel failed is endless. But one thing is fairly certain: it wasn’t because of the name alone. If that was the case, then brands like DeSoto, Chrysler, Buick, Cadillac—names that are no more or less odd-sounding than Edsel—would have failed just as quickly.
Consumer research done after the Edsel proved unpopular revealed, among other things, that the name was a problem. That’s a bit of a post-rationalization. What’s more likely is the car was a flop and took its name down with it. If the car had been a popular success, the brand name would be upheld as an example of how an unusual family name (Edsel Ford was the car’s namesake) can have breakthrough brand significance and stimulate record sales.
Two name changes—or more correctly, modifications—have received attention in the media and branding worlds recently. Pizza Hut has announced that its boxes and select locations will carry the name “The Hut,” and RadioShack plans to unveil new creative for “The Shack,” its shorter, catchier moniker.
These name shortenings are proof of what professional namers already know: names acquire meaning, they don’t create meaning. Once meaning is established, the brand name can be reduced to a shorthand version of itself, signaling its secure place in the realm of consumer awareness.
In the case of Pizza Hut and RadioShack, there’s also a more tactical motivation. As brands move away from their legacy offerings and expand product assortments, they outgrow their descriptive names. Today, Pizza Hut sells more than pizza, and RadioShack has more than radios on its shelves. The two brands are larger than their original products; their names stand for tangible and intangible experiences.
Anyone who names things for a living will tell you a name is simultaneously the most important and least important signifier of a brand. It’s the most important because it’s the most succinct verbal expression of everything the brand stands for. It’s the least important because that “everything” is what gives the name value. The name alone—or out of its brand context—doesn’t mean anything aside from its dictionary definition, assuming there is one.
Now think of all the places you’ve been—especially those places that conjure up fond memories or positive associations. The place names stand for something much larger than their geographic locations. Even places you’ve never been can have very specific associations. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr at the top of the Empire State Building. Dr. King and the March on Washington. Paris, France. Wasilla, Alaska. Each place name has its own narrative, real or fictional, that gives it significance beyond the everyday. The name represents the story that is the brand experience.
Colloquial speech is a powerful force, especially when it comes to brand names. In both cases above, a registered trademark is being invoked, but most consumers aren't aware of it. "Band-Aid" is a registered trademark of Johnson & Johnson, and "Laundromat" was a trademarked name created by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in the 1930s. | <urn:uuid:ff1e3b70-ca4e-4fd7-b6f9-1db583f9bb89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/66508 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964334 | 2,440 | 1.539063 | 2 |
They may be monitoring your social media pages and could even use what you post to raise your premium or deny your claim!
Kurt Nordland never dreamed photos he posted on his Facebook page would create huge problems. The pictures show him drinking a beer and relaxing with his pals at the beach.
Who would have guessed investigators from the insurance company paying his worker's comp benefits were watching his Facebook account?
Well, soon after the photos were posted, the insurance company canceled his payments, cut off his medical benefits and Kurt had to delay surgery to repair torn cartilage in his shoulder.
"I was extremely surprised they could just go on your Facebook and pull these pictures out," said Nordland.
We found what happened to Kurt is a new trend happening across the country: Insurance companies social media snooping. Depending on your privacy settings, they could see every Tweet, Facebook photo or Myspace update. If insurance investigators think you're dabbling in risky business you could pay higher premiums. If, as in Kurt's case, they think you're faking an injury, you could face coverage cancellation. Kurt's attorney says social media mining is now becoming standard practice in the insurance industry.
"If they find anything that's embarrassing or anything they can use to paint you in a bad light that's when it shows up in the case," says attorney Gary Massey of Massey and Associates.
The Insurance Information Institute says absolutely some companies monitor people's social media pages, mostly to find potential fraud which makes everyone's premiums more expensive.
"Insurance fraud costs the insurance industry and consumers about 30 million dollars each year," says Jeanne Salvatore with the Insurance Information Institute
Eliminating fraud is private investigator Steve Davis' specialty. When he's hired by insurance companies to root out suspicious claims the first place he now checks: social media accounts! Davis says he's struck gold many times.
He found pictures of a guy apparently pulling kids around on an ATV while collecting disability insurance for an injury.
Plus, a woman is tagged in photos taking helicopter flying lessons, yet our investigator says she was also claiming to be severely injured.
"If you're going to claim that you have a severe injury and you post pictures of you doing something crazy then shame on you! You shouldn't have those pictures on there and shame on you for committing insurance fraud," says Davis.
The insurance industry says it will continue to watch and if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to worry about.
"If you are an honest person this will not affect you at all," says Salvatore.
Kurt says he was honest and medical records prove his on the job shoulder injury is legit.
His attorney had to fight the insurance company over the pictures before a labor board and won.
But Kurt warns,
"You have to be real careful!"
Experts say if you aren't careful with your privacy settings people who are not your Facebook friends can see photos you've posted, updates you've given, even places you've "checked in". | <urn:uuid:89b99857-a2c8-4142-9dc7-1c6f5029b1d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=437317&nxd_237113_start=45 | 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 | 0.978207 | 623 | 1.546875 | 2 |
George Bush is right: Water-boarding terrorists saves innocent lives
When former American president George W. Bush claims that, by water-boarding al-Qaeda suspects, the CIA helped to prevent attacks on Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf, he has yet again raised the difficult issue of just how closely Britain's intelligence and security agencies should work with countries that indulge in torture.
Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, last month said that he would prefer to close down an investigation where suspects were being tortured than allow his officers to be complicit in ill-treatment. But what if that ill-treatment provides information that saves innocent lives?
Whether or not water-boarding constitutes torture is very much an issue for debate. Mr Bush says his legal team approved the technique, whereby suspects are subjected to simulated drowning, while his opponents – including Barack Obama - have banned its use.
But when you are dealing with fanatics who glorify in the murder of thousands of innocent civilians – as happened during the September 11 attacks – simply offering them a cup of tea and a good book to read is hardly going to persuade them to tell reveal their darkest secrets.
The Woolwich 'beheading' is straight out of al-Qaeda's terror manual
May 22nd, 2013 19:31
Seventeen-year-olds are too young to die for their country
May 22nd, 2013 10:25
Richard Beeston: the finest foreign correspondent of his generation
May 20th, 2013 12:11
Arming the Syrian rebels is the same as arming al-Qaeda
May 16th, 2013 12:22
Iran is stepping up its preparations for war with Israel
May 5th, 2013 15:58 | <urn:uuid:d7411016-44ba-47f8-9a7e-51a7c5389ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100062973/george-bush-is-right-water-boarding-terrorists-saves-innocent-lives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967895 | 349 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Offaly Good: A guide to Burns Night
Our quick guide to hosting a traditional Burns Supper
Alex Salmond will today briefly put debates about the Scottish independence vote to one side to celebrate Scotland’s most famous cultural export Robert Burns.
The First Minister will attend a performance of 'Tam O’ Shanter' by schoolchildren at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh.
Events will take place across Scotland, including the unveiling of a new £25,000 statue of Burns in Alloway, Ayrshire, where he was born 253 years ago.
Suppers to mark the birthday of the Scottish Bard will be held in homes across Scotland. But what is the correct way to host a Burns Night?
Click HERE or on the gallery above to see our guide.
- 1 Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Woolwich murder: They killed, then they performed - these men should be starved of our attention
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page. | <urn:uuid:f6ed7fbb-b51f-4d68-94df-8324cbc9dfd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/offaly-good-a-guide-to-burns-night-6294243.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931264 | 398 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It would be interesting to monitor the coloration changes to the freshly exposed rock as it is subject to the air.
I agree that it would be interesting. My panorama probably doesn't have the quality required to do serious monitoring. And image color is dependent on camera sensors, time of day, atmospheric conditions, etc. Though I think I have enough information to measure the change in tone relative to a nearby point. Perhaps someone could generate a very high resolution image like was done for El Cap (I don't have a link handy, but I'm sure you can google it).
The newly exposed rock appears to be similar in hue to Madame G's buttress, Airy Aria, and lots of other rock that I think of as being particularly orange. | <urn:uuid:f850b94d-ee44-47b7-b59b-f84ab759e4b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gunks.com/ubbthreads7/ubbthreads.php/topics/44482 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97914 | 154 | 1.5625 | 2 |
By Lady Mary of Montevale
Mistress Signy Dimmridaela (currently of Meridies), one of three people here this year who have attended all 40 Pennsics, stopped by the Pennsic Independent on Thursday to share her memories of Pennsics over the years.
Some of the features of the first Pennsic might surprise you. There were merchants, scouts, and mud. Since it was late September and the campground was located not far from Erie, it was cold enough late in the day for some snowflakes to fall, but they didn’t stick very long. She agreed it was not only the first but probably also the last time for snow to fall at Pennsic.
There was a timed woods battle fought in which each side was given a length of rope from which to mark the “walls” of their fortification. The East was situated atop the hill and were winning the battle until they decided to abandon such an easily-defended position and (in Signy’s words) “snatch defeat from a certain victory.” In the battle she was an accidental non-combatant “fatality” when a fighter emerging from the trees with steamed-up glasses was unable to tell that she was someone in garb who was not wearing a helmet. Fortunately, it was a body shot, not one to the head.
Another of the activities on that first weekend was a live chess game. Also, Mrthton the Rotund (Middle) brought a real live duck with him to the event (almost certainly another never-repeated fact of a Pennsic War). After a number of cars were towed from where they were stuck in the mud, there was a large gathering at a nearby drive-in restaurant that offered curb service.
Everyone present agreed that the first Pennsic War had been so much fun that they ought to do it again.
Mistress Signy told how at Pennsic IV (the infamous Mud/Rain/Flood Pennsic) there was one pavilion which remained dry the entire time. It was a small round pavilion belonging to Alia (now Mistress Alia) of Bhakhail on which the roof—or a cover laid over the roof—was a brocade-print plastic shower curtain which easily shed all the rain which fell. Pennsic V was notable for many of those who attended it mostly for being so much drier.
Here at Cooper’s Lake, Signy remembers pioneering Bow Street—now a merchant row one over from the open space in front of the west side of the barn. It was raining so heavily when she arrived one year and, not wanting to go down tht hill, she simply set up her camp at the most convenient spot. For many years, she was a Pennsic merchant who sold tunics she had made and was also the first merchant to carry trim. “I’m a trim-a-holic,” she confessed and admitted to having owned one length of trim for 40 years before finally putting it to use.
One of her most memorable moments at Pennsic came one night as she was trying to fall asleep in her tent and heard the voices of the young King of the East and some of his squires, singing a boisterous drinking song as they came away from the Pennsic Inn. Suddenly she heard the King comment loudly enough for her to hear, “Shhh. This is Mistress Signy’s tent. We have to be quiet.” And they were, at least until they had passed by, when they began singing again.
Signy says she keeps coming to Pennsic because it is a combination of family reunion, international convention, and “the best medieval shopping anywhere.” She still enjoys watching a good battle, although for her “Pennsic is less like a war and more like a village.”
“I’m looking forward to Pennsic 50,” she stated at the close of the conversation. | <urn:uuid:3e561d90-93b2-4423-9b28-4019a56bf3a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pennsicindependent.com/book/export/html/564 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988169 | 833 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Espresso, historians tell us, was given to the world by Italians in the early 20th century. It would take a quirky Seattle retailer with New Age proclivities to move it into storefronts, malls, airports and book stores - not to mention bowling alleys, gyms, the concession areas of gas stations, parent-teacher nights, baseball stadiums, the nearest 7-Eleven, Aunt Susan's dinner party, restaurants and several major quick-service chains. Wherever consumers gather today, chances are they'll have ...
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Port kayak park to get IDA grant
NEW WINDSOR — Port Jervis' Whitewater Kayak Park on the Delaware River got a boost Wednesday when the Orange County Industrial Development Agency approved a $55,000 grant for planning and permitting expenses.
IDA board member Stephen Brescia said the project met the agency's requirements as a potentially strong economic stimulator. He called it a "boon for the Port Jervis economy."
See full article text
"It'll put Port Jervis on the map," said fellow board member Henry VanLeeuwen.
After the approval was granted, Port Jervis Mayor Russell Potter said the permitting stage — getting approvals and construction guidelines from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Delaware River Commission — is the next challenging step toward making the park a reality.
"It'll be great for tourism, and not just for Orange County, but also for Pike and Sussex counties, for the whole surrounding area," Potter said.
Orange County's Department of Planning has estimated the annual economic impact of the park at between $10.9 million and $33.6 million from the trade whitewater enthusiasts may bring to the area's businesses.
The plan calls for creating whitewater rapids with rock formations and enhanced sections of the riverbed.
"The Delaware River's been flowing through that valley for 10 million years," Potter said, "and no one's ever thought of using it for anything more than swimming or canoeing."
He said the project will take about 10 months to complete. Costs have been estimated at $2.5 million. Additional grants may be sought from state and federal park commissions, among others. | <urn:uuid:b0be9e34-b098-4fcf-ad65-85e2110d97cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120719/BIZ/207190323/-1/WAP&template=wapart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951456 | 343 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Letter to the House in Support of the Main Street Fairness Act
November 16, 2010
On behalf of the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association (NEA), we urge Congress to pass the Main Street Fairness Act (H.R. 5660). This important legislation will authorize states to collect sales and use taxes on goods and services sold by remote sellers.
States face an unprecedented fiscal crisis worsened because they have limited authority to collect taxes on sales into their states. As a result, schools, police, firefighters, health care, emergency responders, roads, public transportation, and parks are being deprived of critical revenues. These uncollected revenues could help offset growing budget gaps in almost every state – over $27 billion in much needed revenues is not being collected.
In most states, brick and mortar stores are placed at a competitive disadvantage because they must collect sales taxes while sellers located outside their states do not. The U.S. Supreme Court (Quill Corp. v. North Dakota) said that Congress has the authority to allow states to require remote sellers (a retailer that does not have a physical presence in a state) to collect taxes.
For ten years, states and businesses have been working to reduce the compliance burden by simplifying sales and use tax administration for all types of sellers. The result of this work is the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Key simplifications include state-level administration of all local sales taxes; greater uniformity in tax bases; use of easily accessible technology; error liability relief for sellers; establishment of a standard set of tax definitions; business-friendly system for tax remittances; and safeguards for consumer privacy. Twenty-four states have adopted the simplification measures in the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. These states represent over 31 percent of the US population.
The Main Street Fairness Act will allow the forty-four states and the District of Columbia that collect sales tax to better address their fiscal shortfalls. It will not impact the Internet Tax Freedom Act, nor will it create any new, multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.
We encourage your support for this important legislation.
Director of Government Relations
Manager of Federal Advocacy | <urn:uuid:4c3535da-3f61-40be-9f97-f9428617db0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nea.org/home/41626.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93708 | 447 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Tag: Dream Act
Remember when Romney said the other day young people who got deferments under Obama's order wouldn't face deportation? Now he's issued an addendum, lowering the boom. Only those who actually get a deferment before he becomes President will avoid deportation -- because they've purchased it and it's a done deal. Once he's President, he'll end the policy and those who haven't already received a deferment will be subject to deportation.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would end an Obama administration policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the country and work, though anyone already granted a reprieve from possible deportation wouldn't see that permission revoked.
Romney told The Denver Post on Monday that people who are able to earn the two-year reprieves to stay and work wouldn't be in danger of deportation if he is elected. His campaign later clarified that while Romney would honor permission to stay as granted under President Barack Obama, a Romney administration wouldn't grant such permission.
Romney also says he'll veto the Dream Act if passed.
(2 comments) Permalink :: Comments
New details were released yesterday by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) about the application process for President Obama's new program deferring deportation for undocumented young residents for up to two years.
The cost for a work permit will be $465.00. Lawyers aren't needed. The applications will be available August 15.
Here is the press release. [More...]
(15 comments, 578 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments
The ACLU reports the Dream Act has been reintroduced in Congress.
The DREAM Act would provide affordable post-secondary education and military service opportunities for young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school....The reintroduced bill includes a critical provision that would restore states’ authority to determine students’ residency for purposes of higher education benefits, a provision that was removed from the bill voted on by the last Congress.
(41 comments) Permalink :: Comments
Tn brief, the DREAM Act would enable some immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and to eventually obtain permanent status and become eligible for U.S. citizenship if they go to college or serve in the U.S. military.
Support for the DREAM Act is not only a matter of conscience for me since it’s the right thing to do; it’s also a practical solution. Continue delay is an irresponsible waste.
“We owe it to the tax payers who have invested in these youth, the teachers who have fostered their development and our military who can benefit from the energy of these youth to move forward on the DREAM Act. ”
(27 comments) Permalink :: Comments
Via McJoan at Daily Kos, Sen. Harry Reid says the defense authorization bill will include an amendment with the Dream Act, creating a path to citizenship for the undocumented who came to the U.S. as children.
Who qualifies? Those who have lived in the U.S. for five years, arrived in the U.S. before turning 16, and have completed at least two years of college or two years in the military.
Republicans aren't happy, but they will probably vote for the defense bill anyway. This would be a welcome first step towards much needed immigration reform.
(22 comments) Permalink :: Comments
With votes like these, it's difficult to believe the Democrats are the majority party in Congress. The Senate vote to advance the Dream Act failed today.
Supporters needed to get 60 votes to advance the DREAM Act, which would have allowed illegal immigrants who plan to attend college or join the military, and who came to the United States with their families before they turned 16, to move toward legality. The final vote was 52-44.
Despite efforts of Sen. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin, the Republican opposition framing the bill as one of amnesty prevailed.
(37 comments, 319 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments | <urn:uuid:16822fe6-8447-4b51-8377-f3cf608593f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talkleft.com/tag/Dream%20Act | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971043 | 859 | 1.710938 | 2 |
She said the Hollo project will be crucial for getting Miami’s EB5 designation approved in Washington, but that the program will be open to all local businesses that qualify. She sees the city’s effort as a way to make EB5 funding more affordable to Miami busineses that don’t have the funds to pursue an EB5 designation in the private sector.
Other governments have gotten into the EB5 business, too. Dallas set up an EB5 center in 2009. Vermont’s governor, Pete Shumlin, was in Miami recently to pitch his state’s EB5 program to visiting investors.
Miami will set up a committee of city department heads to screen potential projects EB5 for consideration, followed by approval by a panel of outside experts on the program, Canton said. “We really want to have a strong say in the projects,” she said. “We want to make sure the projects do create jobs and spur economic development. ”
The details remain in flux, but she said business owners like Hollo would pay a fee for using the city’s EB5 “regional center,” which is the entity that can forward projects to Washington for approval. Developers also will bear the expense of finding investors overseas and getting the project approved by immigration officials.
Hollo will initially pay about $25,000 to be the debut EB5 project for Miami, with the city kicking in about $40,000. Future participants would likely pay more, Canton said.
In an interview, Hollo said he would not have trouble obtaining financing without the city’s EB5 program and at a lower interest rate. He said his participation is tied mainly to Miami wanting a big venture to win approval for its EB5 certification in Washington. Once certified as a “regional center,” Miami’s EB5 organization can then raise money overseas for multiple ventures and submit them for approval to Washington.
“This is the poster child for the program,’’ Hollo said.
Critics see the national EB5 program as more about wealthy foreigners jumping to the front of the green-card line, ahead of immigrants chasing visas tied to obtaining and securing employment in the United States. Each visa category has its own cap, so the popularity of one doesn’t affect limits on the other. But EB5 visa holders have much more flexibility when they come to the United States than do the traditional green-card holder. Most immigrants with green cards must maintain employment or risk deportation. But EB5 visa holders can hold a green card indefinitely without the need for work, provided the jobs tied to their projects get certified by Washington. A successful EB5 applicant can obtain a green card, plus visas for a spouse and their children under 21.
The system has no requirements for creating well-paying jobs, though high salaries help developers claim more economic impact. Attorneys like Hart who sell the investment slots can take credit not just for jobs on a business’s payroll, but also for “indirect” job creation from the money a business generates. And the investment dollars that pour in can mean healthy profits for developers, without the normal restrictions and costs associated with traditional financing from a bank or domestic backers.
“Frankly, it’s cheap capital,’’ said David Schubauer, a securities lawyer with Bilzin Sumberg who has worked on local EB5 projects. While most investors expect at least 8 percent back on their initial investment each year, Schubauer said he finds the typical EB5 applicant is happy with earning a return of only 1 or 2 percent. | <urn:uuid:9f200ce4-54cb-434b-a17e-ab2a37688d9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/10/3227014_p2/green-cards-for-sale-at-a-south.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953589 | 753 | 1.570313 | 2 |
As Google and Oracle have failed to reach a settlement in their ongoing patent infringement dispute before the judge-imposed April 13 deadline, the trial will start today, set to begin with jury selection. According to Oracle’s potential witness list, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page will both called to the stand in the following days.
In 2010, when Oracle filed their initial complaints, Google’s Android OS was believed to break seven patents and copyright claims related to the Java programming language, intellectual property owned by Oracle since their acquisition of Sun Microsystems – the creators of Java – back in 2009. Since then, Google was able to narrow down the list to just a couple of patents, thus bringing down Oracle’s damage estimates from north of $6 billion to “just” $1 billion, although it is believed that Oracle won’t actually receive more than $100 million.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Oracle’s claims, you should read this article here, but to sum it up, the creators of Android are accused of illicitly using 37 Java API packages. As APIs are not subject to copyright, Google does seem to be in a slight advantage as far as the current law goes. According to a Google filing on the matter: “Computer programming languages are not copyrightable, and neither are Oracle’s APIs. Oracle accuses Google of infringement for doing what the Oracle API specifications describe. That is a classic attempt to improperly assert copyright over an idea rather than expression. The Court should hold that the structure, selection and organization of the APIs are uncopyrightable.”
According to the aforementioned Oracle witness list, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will try to point out that Oracle has acquired Sun Microsystems exclusively for the Java programming language and that Android caused a lot of harm to Oracle’s business. The same list mentions that Google CEO Larry Page will be required to explain the business plan and marketing strategy behind Android, as well Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
The trial takes place in San Francisco, is presided by U.S. Judge William Alsup, and will be divided into main chapters: copyright liability, patent claims, and damages. The Oracle vs Google court dispute is expected to last a couple of months (8 weeks). | <urn:uuid:41980227-8c26-42c8-bdc9-b4f8f89dbc1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.androidauthority.com/oracle-vs-google-trial-starts-today-both-ceos-to-testify-as-witnesses-76085/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93587 | 474 | 1.617188 | 2 |
With Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s ruling Labour party heading towards defeat in Thursday’s British general election, the European left may soon be in even worse condition than it was just one year ago. The trouble started in last June’s European Parliament elections, when centre-right parties swept to victory in the European Union’s six biggest countries – France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK.
Then came the Social Democrats’ crushing defeat in September’s German election: the SPD took a mere 23 per cent of the vote, its worst result in the Federal Republic’s 60-year history. Finally, Hungary’s ruling socialists were decimated last month in an election that saw the triumph of the centre-right Fidesz party and a strong performance by the ultra-right Jobbik party. Read more | <urn:uuid:9cff9a9d-ad6a-4666-9567-90d65347d0c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/brusselsblog/tag/european-left/ | 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 | 0.955978 | 176 | 1.609375 | 2 |
And the list of the world’s great living directors just got a little shorter. Japan’s Nagisa Oshima passed away of pneumonia today after a reportedly long bout of ill health. He was, along with Shohei Imamura, the most important figure of the Japanese Nuberu Bagu (“New Wave”) of the 1960s. I haven’t yet seen his short first feature, 1959′s A Town of Love and Hope, but his next two films, Cruel Story of Youth and The Sun’s Burial (both 1960), were groundbreaking portraits of post-war Japanese malaise whose sheer ferocity still has the power to shock and awe. Oshima was always the most transgressive of the Japanese New Wavers – he embraced radical leftist politics while simultaneously reacting against the “humanism” associated with the Japanese cinema of the 1950s. As the 1960s progressed, he increasingly experimented with form, introducing Brechtian distancing devices, a la Godard, in movies like Violence at Noon (on the short list of great films about serial murderers) and Death By Hanging (a powerful indictment of bigotry against Koreans in Japan). He is best known in the west for In the Realm of the Senses, a 1976 art movie featuring hardcore sex scenes that is still banned in its native country, and its less explicit follow-up, the 1978 ghost story Empire of Passion (an important influence on The Ring). In the 1980s he upped his international profile by making the WWII prison-camp drama Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (partially shot in English and co-starring David Bowie) as well as the French-set Max Mon Amour (a comedy about Charlotte Rampling having an affair with a chimpanzee, to which Leos Carax paid explicit homage in last year’s Holy Motors). Oshima had a debilitating stroke in 1996 but managed to direct one final masterpiece with 1999′s controversial gay-themed samurai film Taboo.
Nagisa Oshima was previously on my list of the 10 Best Living Directors (his place has since been taken by Clint Eastwood). Here is what I originally wrote about him there:
“With his wild, provocative, darkly humorous, misanthropic but highly personal brand of political cinema, Nagisa Oshima single-handedly dragged Japanese movies kicking and screaming into the modern age. No other director was willing or able to depict the pessimism of post-war Japanese society with the savage incisiveness of early Oshima classics like The Sun’s Burial and Cruel Story of Youth. As with most provocateurs, Oshima’s movies became increasingly extreme over time and while he’s occasionally run off the rails (I think it’s particularly regrettable that In the Realm of the Senses remains his best known work), he’s also made more than his share of trailblazing masterpieces; my personal favorites are Death By Hanging, an infernally funny examination of Japanese racism against Koreans, and his likely swan song, the mysterious and haunting ‘gay samurai’ film Taboo. Reportedly in ill-health, it is doubtful Oshima will direct again.
Essential work: Death By Hanging (1968), Boy (1969), Taboo (1999)”
I didn’t always “get” Oshima and he occasionally drove me up the wall but he also provided me with more magic moments than most other directors. I’ll never forget seeing a 35mm revival of Death By Hanging at Facets Multimedia in the 1990s and being blow away by the strangeness and audacity of it. I also caught Taboo on its initial theatrical run at the Music Box and was haunted for weeks by the mysterious finale where “Beat” Takeshi Kitano chops a cherry blossom tree in half with his samurai sword.
I would now say my favorite Oshima film is 1969′s Boy. It is based on the true story of a Japanese family who intentionally got into roadside accidents in order to shake down the “culprits.” It is number 18 on my list of the best films of the 1960s: http://whitecitycinema.com/category/all-best-of-lists/best-films-of-the-1960s/
Taboo is number 18 on my list of the best films of the 1990s: http://whitecitycinema.com/category/all-best-of-lists/best-films-of-the-1990s/
Needless to say, Nagisa Oshima will figure prominently on my Japanese New Wave cinema primer when I eventually get around to compiling it. In the meantime, I raise a metaphorical sake cup in his honor.
Listen to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s very beautiful and justifiably famous theme song to Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence below: | <urn:uuid:56344468-4b6d-4411-ac24-79e1031523e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whitecitycinema.com/2013/01/15/nagisa-oshima-r-i-p-1932-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954352 | 1,023 | 1.695313 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — Penn State University faculty member Jonathan H. Marks wants interrogation documents that the Pentagon insists on locking up.
The resulting struggle over sensitive information, now entering its seventh year, has become an unexpected master class in government secrecy for the Oxford-educated Marks. Hoping to shed light on harsh U.S. interrogation techniques, he has simultaneously undertaken a long and instructive legal journey.
“What I did not expect is that we would still be at this in December of 2012,” Marks, director of the university’s Bioethics and Medical Humanities Center, said in an interview. “What’s striking to me is the resistance and the reluctance, and the (government’s) willingness to spend attorneys’ fees.”
The long fight for government documents has cast Marks, a 44-year-old associate professor of bioethics, humanities and law, into a wilderness only partially penetrated by the Freedom of Information Act. Others know similar terrain well. Federal information, it turns out, is not always free.
Defense Department agencies received 74,117 FOIA requests in fiscal 2011. Though nearly half of the requests are generally granted in full, according to the Pentagon’s annual FOIA report, many others are denied or riddled with redactions. Some requests are resolved quickly. On the other hand, the Defense Intelligence Agency reports it is still processing a FOIA request filed Dec. 8, 1997. Frustrated, some information-seekers turn to litigation.
On Dec. 3, while Marks was in Pennsylvania, his attorney was on the sixth floor of a federal courthouse in Washington, arguing the latest round of a FOIA lawsuit filed by Marks and Georgetown University-based researcher Dr. M. Gregg Bloche in November 2007. The lawsuit followed up on the researchers’ initial June 2006 FOIA request – the first of Marks’ career – for interrogation documents kept by various Defense Department agencies.
In particular, the researchers sought records concerning the participation of health professionals in the interrogation of military prisoners and suspected terrorists. The topic hits many nerves.
During the George W. Bush administration, authorized interrogation techniques for selected prisoners included sleep deprivation, enforced stress positions and the partial drowning technique called waterboarding. Reports in the New Yorker magazine and elsewhere have recounted how U.S. psychologists applied lessons from the military’s own survival school to help shape these harsh, real-world interrogation techniques.
In September 2007, the American Psychological Association advised the Senate Intelligence Committee that “psychologists have important contributions to make in eliciting information that can be used to prevent violence and protect our nation’s security.” But, underscoring fears about abuses, the organization has felt moved to reiterate its opposition to “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of subjects during interrogation.
To inform their inquiries into medical ethics, Marks and Bloche submitted requests to nine agencies, from the CIA and the Department of the Navy, to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“Their original response was not to respond at all, or to say there were no responsive documents,” attorney Brian Wolfman recalled. “Then, when we pushed them a little, it turned out there were lots of responsive documents.”
Pressed, Pentagon officials subsequently released thousands of pages of documents. Despite numerous redactions, some have proven helpful. The researchers, for instance, obtained a 24-page October 2006 memo from the U.S. Army Medical Command on the proper use of “behavioral science consultants” in interrogations. Other documents have shed less light; except, perhaps, on the workings of the Freedom of Information Act itself.
“What’s comical,” Marks said, “is that in some cases we’ve been sent back our own articles that have been photocopied.”
Penn State is among the top recipients of Defense Department contracts and grants for basic and applied research, according to the school.
A potential treasure trove remains in Defense Department vaults. Some of it may stay there. Even under FOIA, federal officials can withhold documents for reasons including attorney-client privilege and personal privacy. The Defense Department, for instance, blacked out the email domain addresses from some correspondence, thereby shielding the identity of the agencies involved.
“Agencies regularly redact email addresses,” Justice Department attorney Susan Ullman said at the Dec. 10 court hearing.
Ullman further argued in legal briefs that the Defense Department has “conducted a reasonable search and produced all responsive documents that are not exempt from release.” The Navy alone, Ullman noted in a brief, released 692 pages in 2008, while the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs released some 1,700 pages. More has been released in the years since.
Following the Monday court hearing, Defense Department officials will be preparing a more detailed index of additional documents. This will be reviewed by Bloche, Marks and Wolfman, who directs the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center, which funds the ongoing FOIA lawsuit.
“I’m happy to report,” Marks said, “that I’m not paying for this myself.”
Email: email@example.com; Twitter: @MichaelDoyle10 | <urn:uuid:9220601c-0e68-4c4a-b1e2-b575d91067f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/12/13/3220811/this-seven-years-war-is-a-battle.html | 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 | 0.943218 | 1,100 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Independence Day Every Day
By Missey Butler
- I can honestly say I never knew the real meaning of freedom.
I thought I knew what it meant because I am "American made."
I was born and raised in the United States of America
like those 'amber waves of grain'. I would stand tall and proud
while abiding under the mighty banner of the red, white, and blue!
I loved apple pie and hot dogs. As a high school majorette, I
faithfully twirled my baton in many Fourth of July parades. My
family would beam with pride as they waved their sparklers under
the evening sky. The illuminated showers of cascading fireworks
I would stand proud, shoulder to shoulder, with my fellow patriots
at the baseball park, straining through the heartfelt stanzas
of the "Star-Spangled Banner". I was always quick to
place my hand over my heart while nudging my brother to remove
his cap as the national anthem was beginning to play.
My heart still swells with pride and my eyes get a little glassy
at the sight of our flag waving in the breeze. I am, for the most
part, one of the ones who sings the loudest when reaching the
part about 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'.
The bottom line was that I could no longer shake the feelings
of contradiction nor the whispers of hypocrisy that seemed to
mock me and my supposed claim to liberty. So I decided to embark
on my own private search to find the missing key that would unlock
the chains that held me captive.
One of the advantages of sitting under good biblical teaching
was that early on, I learned about three major forces that make
it their business to ensure that you and I never find out about
our God-given spiritual heritage. These diabolical enemies are
the world, the flesh, and the devil.
I want to share with you my own recent battle in winning this
fight for my spiritual freedom. You see, I struggled with a desire
to own many of the pretty things I saw. I believe the biblically
correct term for this would be that I am sometimes strongly influenced
by the lust of the eyes. I had a desire to covet things that did
not belong to me.
I would often think, Maybe it's just a woman thing --
you know, part of that whole nesting instinct ladies seem to
have. The only problem was I wanted my nest to look the best!
Therein lies the problem.
I spent much of my time and energy (not to mention my pocketbook)
at modern-day temples known as malls. Many people worshipped there
religiously, as shown by endless, frivolous spending (myself included).
I was returning home from one of those shopping sprees, when
my attention was drawn to a one-line message displayed on a local
church sign. I hesitated to read it because I knew from past experience
that many times what was written on one of those marquees would
zap me with conviction. My eyes insisted on looking, so my heart
had no other choice but to reluctantly follow. The words were
simple, but they really packed a punch. What it said was life
"IT COSTS TOO MUCH TO BE OUT OF THE CENTER OF GOD'S WILL."
Wham! God allowed the words to pierce right through my idol-ridden
heart. I found myself pulling into the church parking lot, turning
off the car, and lowering my head. I quietly pleaded with God
to take from me this desire for material things, as it had consumed
me to the point that I was losing my precious freedom. Immediately,
I sensed my spirit lift. It happened the moment I agreed with
God that the price was too high. I knew that anything replacing
Him as the center of my life was an idol. It had to go!
Together, we did an inventory of my heart, and later that same
evening, He took me to Galatians 5:1: "It was for freedom
that Christ has made us free; stand firm, lest you fall again
under a yoke of slavery".
I soon began to discover that in Christ, we have already been
made free (John 8: 36). There is a fight of faith that must be
won in order to maintain that freedom. After all, it cost the
very life of Jesus Himself. Why wouldn't it cost me something?
I've learned a very valuable lesson. Freedom does NOT come free.
For me, it's a matter of prayerfully placing a guard on my heart
and standing firm with my shield of faith.
One of the keys to walking out this freedom is in knowing that
the battle has been won. We simply believe that the jail door
has already been swung wide open and that at any point we can
walk out and stay out! Many times we are the ones who lock ourselves
up because we lose sight of who we are and what we have in Christ.
My heartfelt prayer is that all of us who are called by His name
would know and understand that it is His desire that we recognize
our freedom, not just one day out of the year, but instead rejoice
in claiming our own individual emancipation proclamation every
day. Our day of reckoning will arrive when we truly let freedom
ring by celebrating our spiritual, as well as physical, Independence
Day -- today and every day!
More Spiritual Life
More Devotions on Spiritual
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need. | <urn:uuid:8ad242e6-b5c3-4925-9d78-975428c5b8bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/Devotions/Butler_IndependEveryday.aspx | 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 | 0.967927 | 1,212 | 1.734375 | 2 |
But Tennessee's situation is far worse than Washington. That state has an income tax to fall back on, and people hurting will ultimately pay less of their incomes back to the government. It can be raised to only touch those making more and able to pay.
Teneessee's reliance on sales tax, however, means everyone pays the same no matter how much they are hurting. That's unfair. And now it really can't be raised politically and economically. So deep cuts into the bone of government must follow.
Ultimately, that's price of cowardice and lack of integrity by radio talk show hosts and state leaders -- most prominently Gov. Phil Bredesen -- we the people must pay.
Bredesen campaigned twice for governor on the state not needing an income tax. He put getting into elected office his first priority over what was right -- a trademark of his political career. And he still calls himself a Democrat, and even touted himself as worthy of being Sen. Barack Obama's runningmate.
He is representative of the amount of political delusion and deception in Tennessee. And it's why the hard times coming to America are going to be even worse here.
A state income tax would reduce the tax bill for two-thirds of Tennesseans. It would also allow for the sales tax to be removed from food, something Bredesen has opposed.
The state faces a $600 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year when the General Assembly returns in January. And that is a conservative estimate, not taking into account a Christmas buying season that will be the worst in modern history because of growing layoffs and fear of people to spend.
Tennessee is one of 27 states considered to now be in the grips of a deep recession.
Here is what the Wall Street Journal -- a conservative publication -- sees for Tennessee's future:
The decline in state tax receipts has potentially broad economic significance. The federal government is expected to keep spending relatively steady to prop up the failing economy. But states generally have rules requiring balanced budgets, and so must either cut spending or raise taxes -- both the opposite of what many economists, including some deficit hawks, say is needed during the current economic downturn.
In addition, states often take measures that exacerbate the difficulties created by the recession, such as tightening Medicaid eligibility at a time when workers lose their jobs and health insurance.
Cuts in state spending "will take demand out of the overall economy and worsen the economic downturn," said Nicholas Johnson, co-author of the Center's new paper and director of the group's State Fiscal Project. "Furloughing teachers, or cutting reimbursements to Medicaid providers, or cutting grants to nonprofit social-service providers or raising tuition at public colleges, these are all things that take dollars out of families' pockets, and that's money they can't spend in their local economies."
So get ready for higher property taxes on your homes that are declining in value.
Get ready for teachers to be laid off in your child's school and larger classes sizes because the state of Tennessee must reduce the share of local aid it delivers to counties.
Be ready to possibly take on a parttime job and eating out less at restaurants or going to fewer Predators' games.
After your life and hopes get whipsawed, send a "thank you" note to Gov. Bredesen and his political cronies for failing to show the courage to do the right thing and enact a state income tax.
To read more, go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122488665240868147.html | <urn:uuid:afe1fd1d-3ddb-4c35-a619-34464b50004b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://politicalsalsa.blogspot.com/2008/10/tennessee-faces-worst-fiscal-situation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962506 | 736 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Hey guys, we're looking for more of your thoughts on your experiences with cancer for the marathon charity event we'll be having later this year to raise money for cancer research. We hope to have enough that we can read a selection of them on the air. As I've said, we'd really like to keep the focus on the fact that when we talk about cancer we're talking about real people's lives, not some abstract problem in need of a solution. We've partnered with the Foundation Beyond Belief and the Stiefel Freethought Foundation so that our charity drive will be included in those organizations's $500,000 matching challenge, the goal being to raise 1 million dollars for the cause!
Check out our newest interview! Dr. Daniel Simons. Previously a 5 year member of the faculty of Harvard University’s Department of Psychology, Dr. Daniel Simons is now a professor in the University of Illinois’s Department of Psychology and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. His research interests include the cognition of vision, awareness, attention, and memory. With collaborator Dr. Christopher Chabris, Dr. Simons is famous for “The Invisible Gorilla” effect. The name for an effect of attentional blindness, our tendency to miss something when we focus on other things, the effect is so incredible, a significant number of people think not that their perception has tricked them but that the researchers tried to trick them! An author as well as professor and researcher, Dr. Simons (with Dr. Chabris) wrote a book– The Invisible Gorilla– describing the cognitive psychology of perception, attention, and memory in a compelling and easily accessible style.
On the correlation between religiosity and well-being in the US.
Polls find Republicans must evolve or die on gay marriage.
Lots of talk in the media about climate denialism; the media sacrificing journalistic integrity on the altar of false balance. However, only 1/10th of Americans is a denialist.
Mother gives former church bad reviews online, pastor sues her for half a million dollars.
How can a smart woman oppose gay marriage? A look into the Prime Minister of Australia's position on the question.
Lots of books in recent years, including a few just recently, on the subject of how our minds work. Why so much thinking about thinking?
Greta Christina offers the definitive smackdown of the Secular Coalition of America's choice of Edwina Rogers as executive director.
Is the purpose of sleep to let our brains defragment like a computer harddrive?
A 100 million year old piece of amber offers up the oldest example of insect pollination.
New research offers insights into how people on different sides of the political spectrum each can feel like they're doing their best to live up to Jesus's example. Bottom line: Jesus agrees with your opinions but is a bit more extreme.
Anthropologists in France have discovered a giant engraved limestone block that at 37,000 years is the oldest example of art.
Seth Mnookin lays some destruction on a deeply dangerous stupid post on vaccines.
New study says that if you want people to trust atheists more, remind them of cops and courts.
Donald Prothero offers his takedown of the repeatedly refuted climate denialist claim that the Medieval Warm Period was just as hot as it is now.
Failure to replicate studies in psychology is a problem. A closer look at one question, priming, and the conflicting opinions in psychology.
The Council for Secular Humanism released a new report saying that citizens of the US subsidize religion to the tune of 71billion dollars!
Again and again... The only real miracles are science's. A woman uses her volition for the first time in years following a brain stem hemorrhage that left her unable to move, controls a robotic arm with her thoughts.
As oxygen filled the atmosphere, life's biological clock started ticking. An incredible thing. Do check it out.
US has warmest 12 month period on record. It's been 326 months since the planet experienced a month that was below the average 20th century temp. Nearly half the world's population hasn't experienced a month that was cooler than normal. Meanwhile, Australasia has hottest 60 years in a millennium.
Bloomberg did a comparison of the last 50 years of Democrat and Republican presidents to see whose policies are better for the economy. It's the Democrats that win, often by a significant margin.
Ignoring the creationist threat won't make it go away. Scientists have to fight back.
Another incredible discovery. Bacteria 20 meters below the deep seabed that haven't had anything to eat since back when dinosaurs roamed the planet are still alive... barely.
Texas's war on history. Attempts there to whitewash and conservative-ize the past.
In the video game of life, Straight White Male is the lowest difficulty setting there is. A great analogy. The author followed up to address criticisms.
Microbial life at the edges of glaciers offers clues to the search for life on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. | <urn:uuid:fbe5e7c1-d8a9-4faf-83e9-5a85af511965> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thinkatheist.com/profiles/blogs/sunday-school-may-20-2012?xg_source=activity | 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 | 0.947958 | 1,050 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has said that 2010 will be the year of “year of high-speed rail in the UK”, according to BBC News.
Lord Adonis’s words come as plans are announced for a new 250mph line linking London and the West Midlands, and proposals for routes further north.
Lord Adonis said: “I want Britain to be a pioneer in low-cost, mass-market high-speed rail. I want to see not just ‘Easyjet’ but ‘Easytrain’ – high-speed trains with airline-style pricing and mass market appeal so that HSR is for all and not just the wealthy.”
I wonder when Lord Adonis last got on a train. I wonder if 2010 will be a year of high speed rail for commuters stood like sardines on Clapham station on a dark January evening. And Lord Adonis will more than likely retire to the Lords opposition benches after the next General Election in any case.
As I have often written before, Britain has been left far behind in rail transport, indeed in other types of public transport too. For Lord Adonis to want Britain to become a pioneer is admirable but rather late. Practically every country in Europe runs cheaper, more frequent and faster trains than Britain.
To hope that it might be affordable for all is pie in the sky. The project will be handed over to a private company, who will be answerable to shareholders and will have dividends to protect. Has nothing been learnt of the folly of privatising rail and bus transport? Companies that have no accountability always revert to type and put profit before people. The reason they are so behind is because they have been neglected, once our rail network was the envy of the world. But we have lost that ‘can-do’ spirit of British engineering. Now in its place the Governments new policy is to throw money at problems, appoint a new manager or form a new quango.
New lines, trains and schemes are positive, but glossy new flagship projects do not make up for the dire inadequacies elsewhere. A shiny new proposals for a line from London to Birmingham does not benefit be in Portsmouth. Why not sort out the problems with the networks that we already have?
(Just a final though…. if Lord Adonis goes on holiday and comes back tanned, does that make him a bronzed Adonis?) | <urn:uuid:51d928af-06c3-485e-b015-eaa5e807e4ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dalyhistory.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/tansport-secretary-hails-2010-year-of-high-speed-rail-in-the-uk/ | 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 | 0.957677 | 496 | 1.617188 | 2 |
It seemed like some kind of long-distance magic trick. In November 1993, transportation officials cut the ribbon on the last link of Interstate 287 in northern Passaic County. Fifty miles away, on the other side of the state, tractor-trailers began to inundate a two-lane road.
But what happened is not really much of a mystery. The completion of I-287 created a toll-free alternative to the New Jersey Turnpike for north- and southbound interstate truckers, a route that includes a nine-mile stretch of Route 31 in Hunterdon and Mercer Counties. The 287 link, coupled with several more recent road projects authorized by the state, more than tripled truck traffic along the two-lane portion of Route 31 within 18 months, from 900 trucks a weekday to more than 3,000 a day in March.
All this without any improvements to the piece of road itself, a hilly, curvy stretch that winds through a patchwork of houses, cornfields, small businesses and woods in East Amwell and Hopewell Townships.
The resulting mess, residents and local officials say, shows what happens when state planners upgrade some parts of a road system but not others: three fatal accidents involving trucks in the last four months; lines of trucks that make a left turn next to impossible; trucks going too slow and boxing in cars; entire fleets giving the road the appearance of a convoy.
dd "What we've got," said John Mack, an East Amwell Township Committeeman, "is a death-causing piece of public policy that really proves the bureaucrats are sound asleep at the wheel."
State officials acknowledge that the truck congestion is a problem but have no proposals on the table to reduce it, though they do plan to reconfigure some intersections. The Department of Transportation gave up a campaign to turn the stretch into a four-lane divided highway years ago in the face of opposition from residents who feared that the widening would simply attract more traffic.
"What we're looking at at this point is potential speed limit reductions, stepped-up truck safety and that is it," said Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for the Transportation Department.
Before the completion of I-287, the usual route through New Jersey for trucks coming up from Delaware and points south was to cross at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, head north on some combination of the turnpike and I-295, and take the George Washington Bridge into New York.
Now trucks can stay on I-95 through Pennsylvania, cross into New Jersey north of Trenton, take Route 31 to 202 near Flemington and ride I-287 from Somerville up to New York State, crossing the Hudson at the Tappan Zee Bridge.
The route can save more than $61 a round trip, and allows New England-bound truckers to bypass the terror-inducing Cross Bronx Expressway without losing any time.
I-287 isn't the only thing tempting 18-wheelers westward. The treacherous Somerville Circle, where 202 meets I-287, was replaced this year with a system of high-speed flyovers, and workers completed several improvements around the capital collectively known as the Trenton Complex. A study by the Transportation Department predicted that the Trenton Complex would reduce truck traffic on Route 31 slightly. Instead, volume has jumped by a thousand trucks a day.
Nor is the congestion confined to Route 31. Route 206, which passes through Princeton as it links I-295 near Trenton to I-287, has also seen a jump in truck traffic. At a jammed regional meeting on the problem in Princeton on June 29, citizens complained that trucks were spilling onto residential streets, too. | <urn:uuid:0e35c0a9-9800-4ee8-ab7e-d3962b5dc17a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/23/nyregion/road-and-rail-truckers-carve-a-new-route-crowding-a-two-lane-road.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960641 | 750 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Airport Operations Diploma
Airports are no longer just a place to embark and disembark people or load and unload cargo. Today airports not only support the local and global economy, they are defining it. Airports are at the heart of integrated multi-modal flows of people, goods, information and capita,l and will continue to boost the economic growth as they continue to diversify their business models. This important change is reflected on the way the airports are operated and doing business.
The Airport Operations training programme is designed to expose participants to all the facets of activities associated with an airport from airside operations and landside to terminal operations, and equip them with key knowledge and tools necessary to proactively address the essential operational and business needs of 21st century airports. Participants have the option of taking each course as a stand-alone online class. A Certificate of Completion is issued upon successful completion of each training.
The new training programme consists of 3 courses to be completed over a period of three years. Successful candidates will be awarded the Airport Operations Diploma:
The course will benefit various airport, CAA and ground handling employees and other airport service providers such as:
- New employees who are responsible for landside, terminal or airside operations that need to get a sound understanding of the airport’s complex functions,
- Current staff who would like to enhance their knowledge of overall airport operations and complex relationships in providing world class customer service.
- World Business Partners looking for a global understanding of the airport business.
Up coming courses
For more information on the Programme and to register, click here. | <urn:uuid:0b260bf6-3d55-4c00-92b3-9bb4ba975003> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aci.aero/Global-Training/Programmes/Airport-Operations-Diploma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950824 | 329 | 1.757813 | 2 |
- change ups
Defined Contribution Plans Gaining
Such plans require substantial contributions by the sponsoring companies, either through cash contributions or investment returns. But are defined benefit pension plans still viable for both employers and employees today?
Defined benefit pension plans tend to be concentrated in the long-standing U.S. industries with older workers — such as the steel and auto industries — and are designed to reward long-time employees.
They’re also still common in the public sector, said John Schneider, president and shareholder/director of Law Weathers & Richardson law firm.
In 1980, more than 80 percent of workers were covered by defined benefit plans, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), the federal agency that insures private sector defined benefit pension plans.
In the mid-1980s there was a shift away from defined benefit plans toward defined contribution plans, such as 401(k) plans, that allow employees to save for their own retirement and choose how to invest their own money. In 1985 PBGC was insuring the defined benefit plans of a record 114,000 private companies.
The agency now insures about 32,500 private sector defined benefit plans that collectively guarantee about 44 million American workers and retirees a pension for life.
Defined benefit plans are still viable for some companies, particularly for employers that are highly confident about their future revenue and profits, Schneider said.
Under certain circumstances, defined benefit plans are attractive because they allow employers to put away more dollars per year for the benefit of their employees than defined contribution plans allow, he explained.
But generally, Schneider said, most employers still prefer — and in the future are going to prefer — the defined contribution plan.
“Defined benefit plans require actuarially calculated contributions every year, based on what the future benefits are,” he explained.
“If the stock market drops or if interest rates change dramatically, the contribution has to be made regardless of the financial situation of the employer.
“The difference between the employer’s required contribution commitment and the employer’s financial situation is sometimes rather dramatic,” he added.
“That’s a risk that many employers have decided they literally can’t afford to take.”
A defined benefit plan is also more complicated and expensive to operate on the administrative side, Schneider pointed out.
The financial risks have caused many employers to either abandon or never start defined benefit pension plans, he added.
Employees, too, helped drive the shift to defined contribution plans in the 1980s and 1990s. From the employee’s perspective, there were really high returns on the stock market in the 1990s and the double-digit returns were a boon to defined contribution plan participants, Schneider observed.
Defined benefit plan participants, on the other hand, did not benefit from the stock market’s exceptionally high returns.
“So the potential upside for employees is not the same with the defined benefit plan as with the defined contribution plan,” he said.
Although defined contribution plans have greater potential for really high growth in one’s retirement account, he added, the downside is that a stock market decline can have a devastating effect on funding of plans that are invested heavily in stocks.
Today, however, many young people just launching careers are likely to have several different employers over their lifetime, rather than a single employer for 30 to 35 years.
“From the employee’s perspective, there has been increased interest in what’s called ‘portability’ — which means you take your benefits with you when you go from one job to another,” Schneider explained.
“That’s much easier to do with defined contribution plans than with defined benefit plans.”
Furthermore, defined plans don’t allow participants to make decisions about market investments. Young people, Schneider noted, are more sophisticated in terms of making their own investment decisions today than people were even 15 years ago, because there is so much information available.
“It’s their money and their retirement and they would like to have something to say about it.”
There has been a sharp deterioration in the funded status of defined pension plans, according to PBGC.
The agency’s executive director, Steven A. Kandarian, informed the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging last October that the PBGC is assuming higher loses as unhealthy companies terminate under-funded pension plans or file for bankruptcy.
The system is currently under-funded by $350 billion.
“Demographic trends are another structural factor adversely affecting defined benefit plans,” Kandarian testified. “Many defined benefit plans are in our oldest and most capital intensive industries. These industries face growing pension and health care costs due to an increasing number of older and retired workers.”
He said demographic trends also have made defined benefit plans more expensive because Americans are living longer in retirement as a result of earlier retirement and longer life spans.
The average American male worker, he pointed out, spends 18.1 years in retirement, compared to 11.5 years in 1950.
Schneider said the $350 billion is likely the cost of PBGC’s obligations if all of the under-funded plans in existence terminated right now.
“That’s not going to happen,” he predicted. “Obviously, when the stock market goes up like it has this year, even if plans are under-funded, they’re not as under-funded as they used to be because they’re probably invested in markets that have appreciated in value.”
For many companies, an economic slowdown stunts revenue growth, making contributions to pension plans more difficult and increasing the risk that undefended plans will terminate, according to a U.S. General Accounting Office report released Oct. 29, 2003.
Economic weakness also raises the likelihood that companies sponsoring pension plans will go bankrupt, the report states.
Schneider has seen more evidence of companies freezing defined benefit plans rather than terminating them.
The problem with termination, he said, is that once the plan terminates, all those promises to pay in the future become promises that have to be paid now, so employers have to calculate what’s called the “present value of future benefits.”
“If the market value of the plan assets is low — which it has been because of the stock market depreciation — and interest rates are really low, the present value of calculations produce very high numbers,” Schneider explained.
“So it’s been very difficult for anyone in the last three years to voluntarily terminate their defined benefit plan without writing a big check, and people have been disinclined to do that.” | <urn:uuid:85eaf5f4-3342-482b-bbcd-5ab4df0005a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grbj.com/articles/63375 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958978 | 1,406 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Gary Wills, writing in The New York Review of Books, says the U.S. sisters are guilty at charged.The Vatican has issued a harsh statement claiming that American nuns do not follow their bishops’ thinking. That statement is profoundly true. Thank God, they don’t. Nuns have always had a different set of priorities from that of bishops. The bishops are interested in power. The nuns are interested in the powerless. Nuns have preserved Gospel values while bishops have been perverting them. The priests drive their own new cars, while nuns ride the bus (always in pairs). The priests specialize in arrogance, the nuns in humility. | <urn:uuid:7a84c6c5-b1e9-4ab1-ad2a-7adfd2490510> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/blogs/ncr-today/gary-wills-catholic-sisters-guilty-charged | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968629 | 133 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Getting down to business
ISSUES OF GOVERNANCE
Ministers must devote more time to policy and evaluation and not get locked into the minutiae of administrative detail.
With the elections dissected and the council of ministers in place, Parliament and the government must now buckle down to work. The government has a mandate and a mission as set out in its manifesto and must lose no time in getting moving. Parliament can do no better than to pledge to function as it should as a deliberative and legislative body and to resolve that the rowdy, intemperate, disruptive tactics witnessed in the last Lok Sabha will not be repeated.
There is no point in straining every nerve to get elected to the Lok Sabha and then do everything possible to prevent it from functioning. Party leaders must take responsibility to guide and discipline their members and not leave it to a harassed Speaker to discipline them. Defiant and disruptive MPs must be expelled from the House and the principle of no-work-no-allowance should be applied rigorously.
Question hour can be much more purposeful if thoughtful, non-repetitive queries fetch pointed answers that ensure both information and accountability. Earlier, twenty or more questions would be answered in the Lok Sabha. No more, as verbosity and obfuscation have tended to become the norm. A more purposeful Question Hour will make Parliament more participative.
Consultation and inter-ministerial references are necessary, but timelines can be fixed and inter-ministerial meetings and conference calls set up to expedite the process. Higher up, transparency can deter malpractice with rules, procurement policies, contract bids and tenders being posted on web sites that provide access and obviate routine queries.
The Administrative Reforms Commission, the Law Commission and expert commissions have recommended useful reforms which should not be allowed to gather dust. Indeed, each department would do well to assign a special officer to chase up implementation and advise the minister on where de-bottlenecking is required.
Matters like police reform have been placed on the back burner despite Supreme Court directives and their fundamental importance to basic security, intelligence gathering, combating corruption and the working of the criminal justice system. Within a week of the recent election results, Mayawati transferred 34 senior police officers in one go because she had fared poorly in the polls. The inference is obvious. Policing is seen as a handmaid of partisan politics. Can the country afford to countenance this kind of conduct which is widely pervasive? The elections have witnessed enormous expenditure and money openly changing hands. Are election expenditure returns and the assets and asset appreciation of MPs and MLAs being closely scrutinised? Again, should candidates facing criminal charges of a certain kind be permitted to contest elections, sometimes on bail.
A Parliamentary committee could be asked to examine such questions, including the auditing of party accounts, to see where we can go from here. Of course there will be objections by those with something to hide. But can the country continue to tolerate electoral sleaze with its sinister backward and forward linkages?
The economy is slowly picking up and, while growth must be revived, this may be a good time to review the balance between need and greed, social versus ostentatious private consumption, and corresponding lifestyles. This could call for adjustments in the content and trajectory of inclusive growth. Education, health, housing and infrastructure represent critical areas of neglect.
Jammu & Kashmir is poised for a settlement based on greater state and regional autonomy. The Northeastern insurgencies are variously ripening for resolution, especially the Naga question. Naxalism too needs to be handed not just with a big stick but with deft openings to dialogue and development that build partnerships with tribal, dalit and other dispossessed.
Neighbourhood policies must be refashioned within a framework of regional cooperation into which Pakistan and Afghanistan and AfPak issues must be fitted. There are disquieting reports of Pakistan enhancing its nuclear arsenal which could be a dangerous plaything in wrong or desperate hands. How long can we insist that the peace process in Pakistan cannot be resumed until we get satisfaction on 26/11 and credible evidence of the dismantling of the cross-border terror infrastructure? These are perfectly valid concerns but could become a circular argument. It is increasingly clear that the civil authorities are not fully in charge and need to be strengthened to contest both military and jihadi hegemony. We have to help the people of Pakistan to help us for mutual benefit. | <urn:uuid:9e3818ac-632b-489e-b650-87c5b52cbb25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deccanherald.com/content/6125/getting-down-business.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952423 | 912 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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Speculation is swirling around possible violence and a rift in North Korea's government.
This week there's been an avalanche of speculation about the ousting of Ri Yong-ho, the former vice-marshall of the North Korean army and once the military's key leader. Some evidence points towards a brutal power struggle between the country's executive and the country's 1.2 million strong military — a potentially major shift in the country.
Officially Ri stepped down because he was sick, but reports today in South Korean media suggest he may have been forced out of office, and perhaps even have been injured or killed in a gun battle with troops when he was ordered to leave his position.
A Reuters article published today seems to support accounts of a serious rift in the country. A source tells the news agency that a new bureau set up to remove control of the decaying economy from the military, who had become key to North Korean economic life under the rule of Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il. Ri, a key ally of the elder Kim, was reportedly very much in favor of a "military first" strategy, and opposed any move away from it.
Ri's downfall may have been spearheaded by Jang Song Thaek, who is the younger Kim's uncle by marriage. Some North Korean experts even believe that Jang is the real power in North Korea, having become de facto leader as Kim Jong Il's health declined. North Korea's new vice-marshall, Choe Ryong-hae, is believed to be his right hand man, and may have been personally involved in the fire fight with Ri.
Given that this is North Korea, all the information here is unconfirmed, and has to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt (the AP points out that a lot of "unconfirmed" North Korean stories in the past have turned out to be completely wrong). However, it isn't the only sign that a North Korea under Kim Jong Un could be very different than the one under his father — observers have already noted a growing trend towards Western fashion styles and culture. If Reuters' source is to be believed, the country is planning on experimenting with agricultural and economic reforms.
More from our partners at Business Insider:
Business Insider: The Coolest Things Ever Found with a Metal Detector
Business Insider: Ex-North Korean Military Chief Possibly Dead After Reported Gun Battle | <urn:uuid:a02124c3-223a-40ae-8377-3077e769d608> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120720/business-insider-vicious-North-Korea-power-struggle-rumor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969434 | 493 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Mai Pen Rai means "Never Mind"
TEFL/X, Thailand Group 95 (1989-1991)
Questions borne of tragedy define generations of Americans. “Where were you when…Kennedy was shot?” was followed by “…the Challenger blew up?” and then “9/11 happened?” Buffalonians of a certain age also define ourselves by a much smaller traumatic question: “Where were you when the Bills lost their first Super Bowl?”
I got to my Peace Corps site in rural northeastern Thailand in 1989. Part of my job description was to advise on agricultural issues, but my backyard garden in Buffalo hardly qualified me as an expert, so I just taught English to seventh graders. My students thought it funny that their teacher, a supposedly learned person, should come from a town named after one of the dullest animals.
A year and three months after getting to site, the Buffalo Bills, my hometown team, made their first Super Bowl. I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t home for the excitement, but my Peace Corps experience was a roller coaster ride that was not to be missed!
It was not uncommon for Thai male high school teachers to switch their classes to the afternoon with their considerate female counterparts if a prizefight from America was on in the morning. So, I followed their lead and switched my first morning classes so that I could watch Super Bowl XXV, which began around 6.30 a.m. local time.
The game was played against the NFC champions, the New York Giants, over the backdrop of the first Gulf War. The Bills were heavily favored, and what’s more, the Giants had a backup as their quarterback for the game. Looked to be a cinch!
I watched the game at my principal’s house. Even though the Super Bowl is broadcast around the world each year, Thais aren’t particularly interested in American football, so I was left to watch it alone on the Ajaan Saeng’s color TV. The reception was good until the fourth quarter, when bouts of snowiness crossed the screen (and the game wasn’t played in Buffalo!).
The teams seesawed through four quarters, and it was the most exciting Super Bowl I had ever watched. The climax of the game was a 47-yard field goal attempt with just seconds remaining. If it went through the uprights, the Bills would win and it would give the city its first championship in any major professional sport. What’s more, our incredible shrinking city would be able to slough off our bad national reputation for a presidential assassination and as a perennial dumping ground for snowstorms. I was literally agog with excitement for this giant step for a city.
The kick sailed wide right; there was no joy in Bills Nation.
I went on with my day and resumed teaching my classes in mid-morning. In the afternoon, a janitor, Mr. Jansing, who had worked for an American company in Saudi Arabia and spoke conversational English, asked me “what’s wrong?” I must’ve looked to him like I had just lost my best friend. I explained to him about the game, and how my hometown team was this close to a championship, but lost. “Mai pen rai,” he said.
“Mai pen rai” can be translated as “never mind” or “don’t worry about it” but it carries a stronger cultural significance of not being attached to something, which really isn’t an American concept. Thais are definitely sports fans, but seem to have a Buddhism infused sensibility about not investing a sense of self in the outcome of a game played between professional athletes. When I looked at it from Mr. Jansing’s perspective, I had an ‘Aha!’ moment and was better able to cope with the loss.
Where was I when the Bills lost that first Super Bowl? In the Peace Corps in Thailand, learning to see the world from a new perspective.
Author’s note: I’ve borrowed the title for this story. I read “Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind: An American Housewife's Honest Love Affair with the Irrepressible People of Thailand” by Carol Hollinger during Peace Corps training. It’s a hoot! Really funny take on Americans living in Thailand. Hollinger noted how integral the concept of ‘mai pen rai’ is to understanding Thai culture.
© Tim Hartigan, 2011 (firstname.lastname@example.org) | <urn:uuid:ff41f278-6e7c-4467-acb4-d2d7e4a2f327> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thirdgoal.org/story/view/mai-pen-rai-means-never-mind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978493 | 978 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Blue Green Technology
Blue Green Technology, based in Bordeaux (France) was created in October 2007. Blue Green technology is specialized in the development of VIGIPLANE™ security system for aircraft on the ground. Blue Green Technology is certified ISO 9001: 2008.
Manufacturing process follows strict rules in terms of quality control, mounting, testing and tracking. Blue Green Technology is a member EBAA (European Business Aircraft Association) and NBAA (National Business Aircraft Association) associations.
A business jet can be subject to a variety of risks, usually when it is parked often at minor airfields where security can be rudimentary.
These risks quiet apart from the obvious dangers that terrorism brings in today’s world include: being the unknowing transporter of illegal material and substances, damaged caused by unidentified traffic movements on airfield, theft of parts and aviation fuel, any vandalism is also a growing cause of concerns.
It is imperative that your plane is under constant surveillance with the people responsible for its security always made aware of any threats to its integrity.
The VIGIPLANE™ has been developed to provide a 24/7 guard – one with 360 degree night and day vision whenever you and your plane are in the world.
VIGIPLANE™ is completely autonomous (up to 6 days battery autonomy). It installs and starts in less than 2 minutes on the front landing gear of the aircraft. The system once locked on cannot be released or removed.
Once armed VIGIPLANE™, provides the function of intrusion detection, shooting real time pictures and videos, backing up all received information in its embedded server and optionally in its "remote monitoring version" transmit alarms via cellular or satellite networks.
The staff, in charge of the safety of the aircraft, is informed of risks and threats almost in real time via SMS. Functional reports (including battery autonomy, etc.) are also sent periodically.
Our clients access to the Vigiplane configuration menu, system status as well as photos and videos of alarms saved in Vigiplane embedded server via Wi-Fi with Vigiplane tablet PC. | <urn:uuid:481106fc-01d5-4558-8944-ba1662f32bfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bgt.fr/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940836 | 429 | 1.53125 | 2 |
American frustration with college costs reaches all-time high
Some 69 percent of Americans polled say that many people who are qualified don't get the chance, according to a new poll -- the highest number ever.
Millions of Americans hope to boost their education level, especially in today’s troubled economy – but their frustration with the seemingly out-of-control costs of college is reaching new heights.Skip to next paragraph
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Sixty-nine percent say that many who are qualified to attend college don’t have the opportunity to do so, the highest number since the question was first tracked in 1993 in a series of reports by Public Agenda, a policy research group in New York.
Fifty-four percent say colleges could spend less and still maintain a high quality of education, according to “Squeeze Play 2010,” a national survey the group released Wednesday in partnership with The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif.
“People aren’t convinced that colleges are spending their money wisely and well,” says John Immerwahr, a Public Agenda research fellow. “Higher education has presented an argument ... [that] ‘We’re kind of trapped: We’d like to have higher quality, we’d like to make higher education more accessible, and we’re trying to keep the costs down, but we can’t do all three.’... The public isn’t really buying that argument.”
“It’s very easy for people who are not part of an industry to think the industry can do more with less money. It’s much harder when you have to manage the institutions,” says Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education, a Washington group representing college leaders. His group has found similar trends in public attitudes, but he also notes that it’s common for people to say that the things they most need are overpriced.
For more than 20 years, the costs of college have risen even more than those of healthcare. This academic year, the average price for public, four-year university tuition and fees is $7,020, up 6.5 percent from last year, according to the College Board in New York. Private schools average $26,273, up 4.4 percent. Financial aid offsets these expenses for many students significantly, but the sticker shock still reverberates.
College leaders, especially in the public sector, are most worried about what’s going to happen to their ability to enroll enough students to meet demand and maintain quality next year, when they face the prospect of continued state budget cuts, Mr. Hartle says.
But legislators and governors who control the purse strings often share the view of the public that “there hasn’t been much emphasis on innovation” by colleges to keep costs down, says Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Optimism is up in one area: 62 percent say people are able to get loans and scholarships. But 83 percent believe students have to borrow too much to attend college.
“We may be reaching the point on the tuition side that it’s simply not sustainable, if we’re going to keep anything like a semblance of an accessible system of higher education in this country,” Mr. Callan says.
Follow us on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:545ce02d-3d4e-4c48-9d5e-88e7337cbc22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0217/American-frustration-with-college-costs-reaches-all-time-high | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963559 | 718 | 1.71875 | 2 |
With a struggling economy still gripping the nation, college students graduating this spring are faced with long, competitive job searches, according to Lisa Severy, director of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Career Services office.
However, new graduates often have a leg up when the job market recovers so patience is a must, she said.
"It is generally taking longer for students to find a job in this economy, so our advice is to start looking earlier, get as much help as possible and expand your search," Severy said.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported that employers they surveyed expected to hire about 7 percent fewer graduates in 2009-10 than they did in 2008-09. CU-Boulder has not been immune from this trend, with slightly fewer recruiters visiting campus this spring compared to last year, according to Severy.
This year's strongest sectors include the technical and education fields, although state and city school district budget cuts have weakened the education sector somewhat, she said.
One way for students to help offset the tough job market is to not limit their job search to only those positions that coincide with their major, according to Severy.
"A lot of graduates have the impression that there is a one-to-one relationship between major and career," she said. "And there are some like that, but many college graduates have degrees with many marketable skills."
"We encourage students to explore all types of opportunities, including a variety of industries and levels of positions to get a good start that may lead to bigger and better things," she said.
The best advice she can give students who are interviewing for their first major job is to practice.
"By the time we interview for our first professional job, most of us have had part-time jobs, but a professional job interview feels a little different," Severy said. "Coming to the Career Services office and doing a practice interview that is videotaped is really helpful, especially if you're nervous. You can practice on us and then go out into the real world."
Cleaning up online profiles on sites such as Facebook also is highly recommended. But don't stop there. Severy also suggests building up online profiles by adding professional goals and other accomplishments.
"We tell students to replace the negative information someone could find through a Google search with more professional posts on sites like LinkedIn," she said. "All it takes is one bad spring break photo to bounce you from an interview opportunity."
Being patient is another bit of advice Severy is giving job searchers this spring.
"Because the job market is tricky right now it can take longer to find a job, so students need to get a thick skin in terms of rejection," she said.
For those students who will graduate in the winter or next spring, it's never too early to start thinking about the job search process, Severy said. Sitting down with a counselor to help hone interviewing skills, prepare a resume and become knowledgeable about the job-seeking process can really pay off when it is time to find a job, she said.
Upcoming events offered by the CU-Boulder Career Services office include:
-- Monday, April 5, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., "The Job and Internship Search Workshop" event will be held in the Ketchum Arts and Sciences Building, room 3. The information session is open to all CU-Boulder students and alumni and is designed to help job seekers develop and brand themselves for success in their job searches.
-- Tuesday, April 6, at 6 p.m., the "Resume Writing Workshop" will be held in Duane Physics and Astrophysics, room G116. The workshop is in a computer lab where attendees can work on their resumes while receiving resume tips. The workshop is open to all CU-Boulder students and alumni.
-- Wednesday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., "The Just in Time Hiring and Internship Fair" will be held in the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom. The event is open to all CU-Boulder students and alumni. Companies attending are listed at careerservices.colorado.edu/students/JIT.aspx.
Additional facts about the CU-Boulder Career Services office:
-- Conducts more than 6,000 appointments, walk-in sessions, practice interviews and group sessions with students per year.
-- Posts more than 5,000 jobs and internships to the Career Services Web site that are exclusive to CU-Boulder students and alumni.
-- Hosts more than 300 on-campus visits from companies seeking to interview students for internships and professional positions each year.
-- Welcomes more than 500 organizations and 5,000 students to career fairs each year.
-- Provides vocational testing for individuals, classes and groups.
-- Regularly presents panels of alumni and recruiters discussing industry-specific information.
-- Manages a professional networking group on the Web site LinkedIn with more than 1,000 students, alumni, recruiters and community members interested in connecting with each other for professional development.
-- Provides a testing center that administers academic tests and some professional certification exams including the GRE, TOEFL, SAT, CLEP and foreign language proficiency tests.
For more information about the CU-Boulder Career Services office visit careerservices.colorado.edu/.
For audio clips of Severy discussing the job outlook for spring graduates visit www.colorado.edu/news/broadcast/. To view a video of Severy offering interviewing tips and discussing the job outlook visit www.colorado.edu/news/ and click on the job outlook story. | <urn:uuid:63de1bed-44f6-4eb0-895e-1d6b7be1bee1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2010/03/16/job-searches-new-graduates-starting-earlier-and-going-longer-says-cu-career?qt-main=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963016 | 1,169 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Praticing scales using a metronome is pretty straightforward, but most solos that I tried so far use an uneven tempo. I mean, the solo is a mixture of quarter notes, 8th notes and 16th notes, as such, ...
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To play music rhythm in time it was always something difficult to me, with a metronome also. Basically I can not count time. On the other hand I have some intuition to compose simple music, and when I ...
Background I have been dabbling in guitar for over 20 years. I have decent dexterity, technique, and musical theory. However, I don't count time and never use a metronome. I always sound like a weak ...
I've been trying to build up speed with my tremolo exercises, and the demon I keep fighting is a sort of negative feedback loop fed by worrying about deviations from the tempo, increasing attention on ...
I have a Yamaha CP-50 stage piano and I was unable to find a metronome function. Surely metronome is not one of the preset drum settings. Does anyboy know an easy way how to start a metronome on this ...
I'm a big fun of using a metronome while practicing, but after a while it just gets boring to hear all this solid ticking. When you play scales and stuff like that, it's ok, but when you are playing a ...
I am currently a beginner at the piano. I know using the metronome is important, but I I'm feeling reluctant to use it often, as it is difficult for me to get the music coordinated with the clicks. ...
Often times when I'm doing simple strokes (as from Stick Control) to the tick of a metronome, I get into streaks of not hearing the metronome, just my strokes. I suppose that's a good thing, right? ...
I've been learning to play the piano for over a year and a half now, and have never used a metronome to date. My rythm and tempo are usually decent, at least after playing the piece properly a few ...
I am getting a metronome, and I need to know what traits separate good metronomes from bad metronomes. I'm not looking for a subjective "I like this metronome" discussion, but rather an answer that ... | <urn:uuid:47cfbf4b-31b8-4922-999c-ebc843322dc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/metronomes?sort=active&pagesize=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956115 | 533 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Rosa Alexander and Shelah Publisher:Tate Publishing (November 1, 2011) ISBN-10:1617776130 ISBN-13: 978-1617776137 SOURCE:Received for an honest review from the publisher.
Book Description (from publisher)
Publication Date: 2011
WHERE THE WILLOW GROWS IN TRANSYLVANIA:
A historical novel coauthored with shELAH, Rosa shares how she clung to her “crazy” dream for years. In 1985, she and her husband, Alan, finally escaped the cruel eye of the Romanian Communist regime but were forced to leave their children: Julia, 8; and Peter, 4 – behind with Rosa‟s parents. As Rosa struggled through enormous sorrow throughout an almost four-year battle to reunite her family, the love she and Alan shared and their quest for freedom sustained them. Rosa’s childhood dream eventually became a grown-up search for peace and a desperate yearning for her family to be reunited. Ultimately, Rosa’s search led her to not only listen for and hear God’s voice but to also find her own. Rosa’s story reminds readers that dreams are not “crazy” and that with faith, dreams can come true.
Rosa Alexander tells a wonderful and yet harrowing tale of life in Transylvania, Romania. She begins with the horrors of living first with an alcoholic father and later the communist government of Ceausescu. Rosa’s life is not all harsh though. She is surrounded by many good people and has positive experiences as well. I had a little trouble getting started on this book because the language is very formal. The authors don’t use contractions making the dialog sound a bit odd, even foreign. Very quickly, though, the story enthralled me. I ended up reading into the early hours of morning because I couldn’t put the book down. It’s easy to forget how hard life is in other countries, even in currents times. In the 1980s, Alexander and her husband were forced to leave their home in Transylvania without their two children which is a frightened reminder of what a despotic government can do to their own citizens. Their “Sophie’s choice” of avoiding near certain death by fleeing the only home they’d ever known is any parent’s nightmare. Leaving is the not the end of their struggles and years of heartbreak ensue before the family is finally reunited. The imagery throughout the book is fabulous and made me want to visit Transylvania. Every American should read this book to better appreciate their situation.
Reviewed By: ReadWarrior | <urn:uuid:32e40560-273f-41b5-bfcb-30d96065b381> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mybookaddictionreviews.com/2012/02/05/where-the-willow-grows-in-transylvania-by-rosa-alexander-and-shelah/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965599 | 560 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Research has shown that the sexual effects of alcohol are different for men and women. This is likely the result of both physical and social differences in the way womens bodies and mens bodies react to alcohol and respond sexually.
Not surprisingly, the amount of alcohol consumed has a large impact on whether there will be negative sexual effects of alcohol for women. Most of the research in this area has been with women who are, or were alcoholics. The main effects for these women of alcohol on sexuality are:
- Reduced sexual arousal
- Difficulty achieving orgasm, achieving orgasm less frequently
- Overall lower sexual satisfaction as compared to non-alcoholics
The actual number of alcoholic women who have these difficulties is hard to tell, as researchers numbers vary wildly. Some estimates are as high as 30-40% of alcoholic women having arousal problems, and 15% having difficulty achieving orgasm.
In another study of 74 alcoholic women in rehab, 41% reported some negative sexual effects from drinking (interestingly, 49% of the women reported positive sexual effects).
Contradictions in the reported sexual effects of alcohol on womenThere is a contradiction in the research on alcohols effect on womens sexuality. Research indicates that even after one drink alcohol reduces a womans physical sexual response. Vasocongestion and vaginal lubrication both progressively decrease with alcohol consumption. But several studies have shown that women both expect and report higher levels of sexual arousal when alcohol is involved.
In one laboratory study of 18 women who masturbated while their sexual arousal was being measured, the researchers found that women who had consumed some alcohol (but were still under the legal limit (0.08% to 0.10%) had decreased vaginal blood measures, took longer to reach orgasm, and had decreased intensity of orgasm. But these same women subjectively reported that their sexual arousal and orgasmic pleasure increased at higher levels of alcohol consumption.
Explaining the contradiction
Its worth noting that this is no the only area of sex research where physiological measurements and subjective reporting are different. Its possible that the way we measure sexual response doesnt correspond to the way people actually experience it (in other words: its not all about genital blood flow and heart rate). Its also possible that women are expecting positive sexual effect from alcohol and are uncritically interpreting whats going on in a way that meets their expectations.
But there are other important considerations. In another large study, which included a nationally representative sample, more than half the women reported that sexual activity was more pleasurable when they drank. The real question we should be asking is not what is it about alcohol that makes women report this, but why might women find sex more pleasurable when they have been drinking?
Is it possible that being raised in a sex phobic culture makes it difficult for women (and likely men too) to enjoy sex when they are fully conscious? Is it possible that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol are required for people to let their guard down enough to have satisfying sex? These would be difficult things to prove, but they are worthwhile questions, and if there is any truth to them its a sad comment on our societies approach to sexuality.
Is alcohol really courage in a bottle?
The adage that alcohol is liquid courage is probably the basis for many drinks imbibed. But one study suggests that this is a misguided effort. In this study, where women kept a log of both drinking and sexual activity, the only significant difference between the three groups (women who drank no alcohol, moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers) was that female initiated sexual activity happened more when women werent drinking. This study is one of the few that didnt rely on retrospective accounts of sexual behavior, and here the greatest amount of sexual initiation took place in the absence of alcohol.
- Crenshaw, T.L. & Goldberg, J.P. Sexual Pharmacology: Drugs that Affect Sexual Function. New York: Norton, 1996.
- Malatesta, V.J., Pollack, R.H., Crotty, T.D., et al. Acute Alcohol Intoxication and the Female Orgasmic Response. Journal of Sex Research Volume 18. (1982): 1-17.
- Norris, J., Masters, N.T., Zawacki, T. Cognitive Mediation of Women's Sexual Decision Making: The Influence of Alcohol, Contextual Factors, and Background Variables. Annual Review of Sex Research Volume 15. (2004): 258-297.
- Seagraves, R.T. & Balon, R. Sexual Pharmacology: Fast Facts. New York : Norton, 2003. | <urn:uuid:c8c5e768-4299-4411-ba20-0727c24e479d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sexuality.about.com/od/femalesexualhealth/a/alcoholsexwomen.htm | 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 | 0.957482 | 940 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Variety of historical sites and seaside resorts along Aegean and Mediterranean Sea costs made Turkey a popular destination for spa, culture and health care tourism but it is not its only attraction as rich and beautiful landscape of Turkey is a worth mentioning sight for poster and canvas prints.
Istanbul, the capital of Turkey, is one of most attracted tourists’ spot not only for its grandeur and luxury along with availability of cheap shopping through sea of shops spread everywhere but it is also because of its historic blend of old civilizations, cultures and architecture with modern skyscrapers and modern western landscape. This unique blend of new and old is actually a stunning display in framed art pieces suitable for workplaces especially. From the sight of the Hagia Sophia to Topkapi Palace and Galata Tower very impressive art prints suitable to be exhibited anywhere are produced by photographers.
Beach vacations are a main tourists attraction. The stunning, clear and rich marine landscape is a nerve soothing scene not only for tourists but as poster and art print pieces. That’s why posters of Turkish beaches can be displaced in any place as a stunning décor. Sites of Ephesus, Troy, House of Virgin Mary, Pergamon, Konya, Trabzon, Church of Antioch, religious places in Mardin and ruined cities and landscapes of Cappadocia displayed unique blend of ancient history with stunning landscape and you can feel your physical transfer to those historic sites. Posters of these historic sites displayed awe striking beauty and historic touch of originality. | <urn:uuid:5e274067-249a-4c6f-b80c-b6b9deb75f9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artflakes.com/en/turkey-poster/c/black-and-white | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935267 | 311 | 1.601563 | 2 |
This you knows I be Lurks at Water Holes, and times past counting I done The Tells. This be the tell for finding the Ways, and there be many of them. This tell be about the Ways of the Navajo and the Native American peoples of the American southwest, the deserts and mountains beyond the prairies.
[Did you see Dances with Wolves? From the lands of the People (Lakota), travel in the direction of sun-goes-down until you can see the mountains. Keep them (the Rockies) on your right as you travel in the direction of the sun-at-mid-day. After a great distance, you will come to the desert. Seek the people who carve their lodges into the walls of cliffs and the people who make their lodges of dried mud instead of skins.]
This tell be about how to summon the Holy People, for once propitiated, they are obligated to act with a spirit of reciprocity by restoring balance to the ailments of the supplicant. This tell be about Heap Big Medicine.
There are ways by which you can recognize a wizard, a shaman, a medicine man someone well learned in the Forces That Control The Universe and can command them to their will in a way that Common Folk regard as supernatural. One of them is the medicine bundle, which contains Objects of Power used in the practice of their craft. My Bag of Holding is a black leather bag with many pockets of different sizes. ("What has it got in its pockets's, my precious?")
One of the things I often carry in my medicine bundle is a laptop computer. The current model is a 386/25 running Windows 3.1 with 6Mb of RAM and an 80Mb hard drive. For my Windows wallpaper, I have Navajo sand paintings. (OK there is a point to this, and we're finally getting to it.)
On a recent episode of The X-Files, Agent Fox Muldar was healed by a Navjo medicine man who performed a Blessing Way chant using a sandpainting of Father Sky to allow Muldar to communicate with the other Holy People, a group that includes Mother Earth, Big Thunder, Changing Woman, Pollen Boy, and Corn Girl, to name just a few.
The medicine man told Muldar that his name, Fox, was a powerful spirit and guardian, along with Coyote, Bat, and Eagle. Coyote stole fire from the gods and carried it in his mouth through the four corners of the sky to bring it to the hogan of First Man and First Woman.
Anywho, I recognized Father Sky as the central element of the sandpainting, and what the medicine man was saying was consistant with my knowledge of the Male Shooting Chant, but if it was Blessing Way and Big Thunder was going to be involved, then Muldar's guardians should have been Bat and Medicine Bundle. This sandpainting also looked unusual because it did not have a rainbow protecting the three sides that do not face East, where the guardians should be.
I had to get my research materials to find that it was the N'tho-he or Hail Way, and that Bat is indeed one of the guardians as well as two pairs of yellow (male) and blue (female) Eagles, and Antilope. There is no rainbow for protection because there are seven guardians! The TV ceremony was very accurate except for one small detail the Night Sky Chant is no longer performed, because no medicine man is alive who knows it. The last medicine man to perform it was Hasteen Klah, who knew an incredible total of six Ways.
Central to any philosphy of Life, the Universe and Everything is that there must be balance between the forces that define and control The Universe As We Know It. In Eastern philosophies, this is called Yin and Yang. In numerous Native American cultures, this duality appears as the flying snake or feathered serpent (dragon?) There is a song by Joni Mitchell that tells about the struggle between the eagle and the snake within us all
Now here's a fragment of The Night Chant
He-rain and she-rain earth and sky night and day lots of duality here. Two pairs combined makes four possible pairs. The four directions, the four seasons, the four phases of the solar day, are each represented by the four sacred colors: black, white, yellow, and blue. Colors are very special in Navajo sandpaintings. Yellow and blue distinguish male and female spirits. Rainbows are bands of red and blue. The sun and moon are both represented by the same symbol, but one is blue and the other is white.
The theory underlying Navajo sandpaintings is that they serve as a lure, calling upon the Holy People to view their own images. The patient is placed upon the sandpainting while the medicine man sings the chant. Pleased by the Singer's work, and heeding prayers, Holy People do their part by restoring balance (or hozho) to the patient.
I've had a fascination with Navajo sandpainting ever since I was a teenager and spent some time in New Mexico with the Boy Scouts in 1964. As any Serious Collector will tell you, the most fun comes from specializing. My specialty is The Shooting Chant, with particular emphasis on Father Sky and Mother Earth, which is part of the Blessing Way. Of secondary interest is Big Thunder, mostly because of my interest in Thunder Bird of the Native Americans of the Northwest Pacific Coast, the ones who erect totem poles. But that's a Tell for Some Other Time.
Because there is Powerful Magick contained in Navajo Sandpaintings, artists will introduce mistakes to keep them from being misused by Bad People. Sometimes elements are omitted, substituted, or altered by color or position. One of my hobbies is to stand in the gift shop at an airport and explain all of the things that are incorrect about the sandpaintings made for the tourists. Here are links to illustrations of the the sandpaintings I study I'll add more as I find the time and inclination, so make a bookmark for this URL and check again in a few months.
Father Sky and Mother Earth:
That is all I have to say. -=DAH=- (25-Oct-95)
From: "Daniel Smith" <email@example.com>
Subject: sandpainting on the x-files
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 23:32:27 -0600
note for you Hosteen Etsitty made that sandpainting for the x-files for the Blessing way episode up in vancouver BC please list credits.
thanks Hosteen Etsitty
Soo ... in the absence of anyone complaining, I have restored the icon and background GIF files.
From: hosteen etsitty <firstname.lastname@example.org>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 08:39:06 -0800 (PST)
Here is an e-mail that works
I have been trying to get a hold of the permanent painting I did for that X-files show so I could pass it on to our tribal museum. I did three dry temp ones also but were used in the shoot.
thanks for the reply and sorry for the delayed response. | <urn:uuid:54757b44-ed2d-4143-bc2c-2e27e05b5e98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waterholes.com/~dennette/1995/navajo/navajo.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955597 | 1,505 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Sunday, September 18, 2011
By Ray Osterhout
Regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman, Social Security will not — and was never designed to — provide all of the income you’ll need to live comfortably during retirement. At best, your income from Social Security will supplement that from other sources. So if you’re planning to factor Social Security into your retirement plan, you should learn all you can about how to enhance your benefits, and how much income you may need from other sources, to be financially comfortable during retirement.
For females, however, there are some unique factors to consider. Because Social Security generally has annual cost-of-living adjustments, you have an inflation-protected benefit for as long as you live — and for women, those increases are vital since women generally live longer than men. In addition, Social Security provides dependent benefits to spouses, divorced spouses, elderly widows and widows with young children.
While Social Security is neutral with respect to gender, the following 2008 numbers released by the Social Security Administration Office of Research and Statistics highlight how certain demographic characteristics of women compare with the entire population.
— Women reaching age 65 need to prepare for approximately 20 more years of living expenses. Females represented 57 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries age 62 and older and approximately 69 percent of beneficiaries age 85 and older.
— The average annual Social Security income received by women 65 years and older was $11,337, compared to $14,822 for men.
— For unmarried women age 65 and older (including widows), Social Security comprised 50 percent of their total income.
— Of all elderly unmarried women receiving Social Security benefits, 46 percent relied on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income.
— Of the women who were employed full time, only 51.0 percent participated in an employer-sponsored private sector plan.
Additionally, women generally received lower pension benefits than men due to their relatively lower earnings. Probably none of this comes as a surprise, considering that the statistics are directly related to the realities surrounding women earning less and spending more time out of the work force than men.
In 2008, the median earnings of working-age women who were employed full time were $35,000 compared to $45,000 for men. And, on average, women spend 12 years out of the work force caring for others.* Women also are more likely to work at small companies that lack employer-sponsored benefit programs and hold part-time rather than full-time positions. One can see how these factors might tend to significantly affect women’s Social Security benefits and any retirement plan or pension plan benefits they may have accrued.
So how do women offset this gap? By getting retirement plans in place so Social Security benefits are an income supplement and not a mainstay. With longer life expectancies than men, women tend to live more years in retirement and have a greater chance of exhausting other income sources.
To help you determine a retirement strategy most beneficial for your personal financial situation, talk with your Financial Advisor.
* Source: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, 2009
This article was provided by Raymond A. Osterhout, Vice President – Investments Officer Wells Fargo Advisors.
427 New Karner Road, Albany New York 12205. Phone 518-464-2710 Toll Free: 800-688-1680.
Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, Member SIPC, is a registered broker-dealer and a separate non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC does not give tax or legal advice . CAR Approval Number 0710-3087 CAR Approval Number: 0611-3030 | <urn:uuid:e23dfc1b-650f-46b1-9a5e-3eebbd75874d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2011/09/18/news/doc4e75763c46ca3238534102.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951947 | 762 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Dartmouth Resident Honored by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Relations Office
January 24, 2001
Local resident Gratia R. "Topsy" Montgomery of South Dartmouth was honored recently by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with its prestigious Cecil H. Green Award. The award, named for Texas Instruments' founder and philanthropist, Cecil H. Green, is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to oceanographic research at the Institution.
A long-time friend, supporter and Honorary Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Topsy Montgomery has been affiliated with the Institution for more than three decades. She has supported a number of the Institution's education programs, helping dozens of summer student fellows, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows launch their oceanographic careers. Her commitment to coastal research, both shore-based and sea-going, has made it possible for the Institution to begin construction of a new coastal research vessel and to expand its coastal research activities.
"Topsy has been passionate about the oceans all her life. As a child she explored the beachfront and tidal pools of her native South Dartmouth and read, voraciously, about the sea," noted Institution Director Robert B. Gagosian in presenting the award. "Her curiousity about all things related to the oceans appears to be inexhaustible, and she has involved herself in fascinating projects and expeditions throughout her life, among them Operation Tektite, the Great Barrier Reef's Floating Symposium, the Explorer's Club, and one of the first voyages to Antarctica. She is an explorer, sailor, diver, angler and above all, a life-long student of the sea."
Montgomery is an Honorary Trustee and Honorary Member of the Corporation of the Institution. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Media Research Center and is Founder and Chair of the Tai-Ping Foundation.
Gagosian noted that Topsy Montgomery's support for the Institution's coastal research activities offers new opportunities for Institution scientists and engineers in various departments to collaborate in new and creative ways. "The fruits of those interdisciplinary collaborations have inspired the Institution to think more broadly and daringly about its future, resulting in the establishment of four new institutes. Topsy's foresight and leadership have made a tremendous impact on these decisions. In short, she has been a catalyst for innovation and change. She represents the essence of the Institution: an energetic spirit, fierce dedication, and deep to make this planet a better place."
The Green Award was established in 1991 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Associates to honor "an individual who has made outstanding contributions to oceanographic research at WHOI." It is named for Texas Instruments' founder and philanthropist, Cecil H. Green, who was its first recipient. Four other individuals have received the award since then: Scientist Emeritus Stanley Watson, former Chairmen of the Board Charles Adams and Guy Nichols, and Honorary Trustee Walter Smith.
Originally published: January 24, 2001 | <urn:uuid:0ecfdf79-efd1-460d-be16-e95f50a676b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whoi.edu/main/news-releases/1995-2004?tid=3622&cid=964 | 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 | 0.956824 | 622 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Milling around on taxes
Woody Jenkins, the head of the East Baton Rouge Republican Party, has a logic problem when it comes to the rolling forward of property tax millage rates by local taxing authorities. Sometimes he believes this action is a backdoor tax hike without the approval of voters. Other times he believes this action is perfectly acceptable.
When BREC officials met in late June to discuss whether or not to roll forward the park department's property tax millage rate, Jenkins decried the proposal that would generate an additional $1.5 million next year for the parks department. It's his view—and mine—that rolling tax rates forward to generate higher tax revenue is nothing more than a tax increase that sidesteps a vote of the people.
Moreover, some of these government agencies, such as BREC and the library system, are given the right to increase the millage rate despite the fact that not a single administrator or board member is elected to their respective position. This ostensibly passes constitutional muster since these people are appointed by elected officials. Maybe. But, to me, this is taxation without representation. That, however, is not a position that Jenkins, to my knowledge, has put forth.
Philosophical arguments aside, BREC's proposal to hike tax rates, needing two-thirds approval, failed largely because three commissioners were conveniently absent from the meeting. The cash-flush library system, with little fanfare and even less controversy, has also decided not to roll forward its millage rate.
Less than two weeks after celebrating his victory over BREC, Jenkins did a 180, supporting the unilateral decision by Sheriff Sid Gautreaux to roll that department's millage rate higher. Gautreaux says his department needs the additional $1.5 million to pay salaries and benefits. Jenkins told the daily newspaper the millage hike was OK by him and the 17-member executive committee of the parish's Republican Party because the sheriff has done a “great job” fighting crime and the crime-fighting department could use the money.
“I think if this were to go to the voters,” Jenkins was quoted as saying, “it would pass.”
Then, at a July 18 Metro Council committee meeting, as the topic of EMS and four fire districts requesting permission to roll forward property tax rates was being discussed, Jenkins objected, saying such tax increases should be put to a vote. “If they really need it,” Jenkins said, “then the people ought to be able to approve it.” The issue will be decided when the full council meets this week.
So, in Woody's world, BREC, the library system, EMS and fire departments are wrong to roll forward their millage rates without first going to the voters, but the sheriff doing the same thing is right and just?
A quick primer on property taxes: The tax assessor is required to reassess property values every four years. If the total property value increases, then the millage rate is reduced so that the taxing agency earns the same amount of money as the previous year. Typically, property tax collections increase every year because of commercial and residential property selling at a higher than assessed price as well as new houses and businesses coming into the market. It is possible, however, since tax elections are based on dollars and not the millage rate, that the assessor could increase the millage rate if it's determined property values decreased over a four-year period. So while property taxes are based on dollars desired by government, there's a quirk in the state constitution that allows taxing agencies to vote and roll forward the millage rate to its original level, effectively generating new tax dollars off an existing tax.
Jenkins is right when he says it's wrong for a government agency to collect new money off an existing tax without first getting voter approval. Jenkins is wrong when he abandons that position for what can only be political reasons.
Convictions have a tendency to be difficult for people, especially in the realms of politics and religion. If you believe something is wrong—like concocted special-interest taxing districts or the rolling forward of millage rates without a vote of the people—then it's always wrong. Changing one's view based on friendship or political gain only lessens credibility.
Allowing taxing entities to roll forward their millage rates without first asking voters may be legal, but it's wrong—consistently wrong.
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Real estate recap: DPW reorganization recommendations coming … Capital Region home sales post 5% gain in February … WWII bombing range near Hammond at center of new lawsuit
Office Parks Get a Makeover
What Families Are Spending on Prom Night | <urn:uuid:9b826e6d-41db-49d6-8c38-353fd4a2d684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://businessreport.com/article/20120723/BUSINESSREPORT0202/307239968/1001/BUSINESSREPORT02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968948 | 965 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Diaries 19641980, by Susan Sontag, Hamish Hamilton, RRP£18.99, 544 pages
How odd it is that, long before she died of cancer in 2004, Susan Sontag should have become the intellectual icon of postwar America. Her saturnine looks were of course photographed more keenly and frequently than those of her peers – right up to her last moments. There was also something stentorian about her many public pronouncements: the impatient 1960s cultural radical who called for a new “erotics of art” and denounced the white race, after a visit to the war in Vietnam, as a “cancer”; who described communism in 1982 as “fascism with a human face”, staged Waiting for Godot in besieged Sarajevo in 1993 and then responded to 9/11 with a broadside against US politicians and opinion-makers and their apparently joint “campaign to infantilise the public”.
Her reputation may still seem unearned. Alfred Kazin, whose recently published journals are a remarkable document of American intellectual life, was a much finer reader of individual texts. William F Buckley, Christopher Lasch and C Wright Mills had more influence on their contemporaries. Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, James Baldwin and Norman Mailer sold more books.
Besides, Sontag rarely wrote about America or American writers. Recoiling from what the critic Van Wyck Brooks once described as “the immense and vague cloud-canopy of idealism” hanging over America’s national culture, she preferred the astringent clarity of European self-reckonings. But it is also true – and the posthumous publication of her journals confirms this – that few other writers dramatised their political and intellectual journey, or proclaimed their alienation from the postwar US scene, as revealingly as Sontag.
Itemising her “intellectual formation” in this, the second volume of her journals, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Diaries 1964-1980, Sontag invokes personalities and institutions that would have denoted glamour to any wannabe intellectual in the American provinces in the 1940s: Knopf, Modern Library and, most importantly, Partisan Review. Established in 1934, Partisan Review grew out of the discontent among educated sons and daughters of first-generation immigrants at the extreme inequalities and philistinism of US society. Partisan Review also published Sartre, Camus and Orwell, upholding a cosmopolitan radicalism that was anti-Stalinist but firmly socialist in political orientation and hospitable to literary modernism.
Sontag once admitted that her “highest ambition” was to write for Partisan Review. But by the early 1940s the magazine was moving away from its roots in America’s literary and political counterculture of the 1920s and 1930s. The exposure of Stalinism’s brutalities followed so quickly by the horrors of Nazism mocked the utopian hopes of writers and intellectuals who hoped to build an equitable society in the US. Indeed, political programmes such as socialism seemed to have been rendered moot by the postwar emergence of the US as the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth.
As Philip Rahv, one of Sontag’s earliest heroes, argued in a Partisan Review symposium – “Our Country and our Culture”– in 1952, intellectuals previously disaffected with America were now keen to effect a “reconciliation” with it. Once blithely penurious, they were looking for status and money in the new political and economic dispensation, and increasingly more inclined to be its propagandists than critics. And since the rapidly expanding cold-war economy and its institutions required many intellectual toilers, the former bohemians didn’t have much trouble finding powerful employers and patrons.
These timely career moves were necessarily accompanied by an ideological makeover, if not as extreme as one insisted upon by McCarthyism. As Rahv warned presciently, America’s extraordinarily successful and profitable war effort had revived old illusions that “‘good Americanism’ contains within itself the secret of overcoming the hazards of history” and that America was magically immune to socioeconomic traumas suffered by the rest of the world.
In Rahv’s view, the widely shared belief in America as a global power and beacon had shifted the locus of political action to the “sphere of foreign policy”. Early in the cold war, the ex-radicals and ex-Marxists had started to endorse American leadership of the “free world” against monolithic communism. These professional anticommunists were the precursors of the militant humanitarians and neoconservative democracy-exporters of our own time.
The assumption that history had reached its apotheosis with Pax Americana did not quite match the experience of most people, particularly those in Asia and Africa struggling for liberation from white overlords. They – the vast majority of the world’s population – had entered what Irving Howe, another distinguished Partisan Review writer, called a “revolutionary age”. “Everywhere except in the United States,” Howe wrote in 1954, “millions of human beings, certainly the majority of those with any degree of political articulateness, live for some kind of social change.”
However, in America, these hundreds of millions entering modern history for the first time were largely seen through the distorted lens of the cold war: if you are not with us, you are against us, and that kind of thing. This aggressive provincialism had its effect on literary as well as intellectual life. Rahv noted how the complacent “mood of acceptance” among intellectuals had not only “depoliticised literature” but was turning into a philistine reverence for the American way of life and hostility to the literary and artistic avant-garde.
Susan Sontag’s early career manifests how she both absorbed and reacted to these tendencies. Pursuing a romance with French culture (and an American woman) in Paris in the summer of 1958 at the age of 25, and buoyed like all Americans in the city by the strong dollar, Sontag was oblivious to the intense fighting between Algerian rebels and the French police amid fears of a rightwing coup – events that did not leave untouched any of the French intellectuals she revered. “Politics interested me,” the narrator of her first novel, The Benefactor (1963), confesses, “no further than the daily newspaper”; the revolutions he cares for are those of “feelings and seeing”.
Accordingly, in the early 1960s, Sontag became an advocate of the supposedly revolutionary spirituality of French art and philosophy, the Nouveau Roman, the Nouvelle Vague and structuralism. She hailed the “defiantly pluralistic” new sensibility, which was “dedicated both to an excruciating seriousness and to fun and wit and nostalgia”.
The essays collected in her book Against Interpretation (1966) anointed her as the primary American interpreter of cutting-edge European culture. But the Vietnam war, which intensified after 1964, was already breaking into her preoccupations with the “pleasure principle” in art. Writing in her journals in 1966, she muses that for a country founded on genocide, the war in Vietnam was “merely an application to the ‘world’ of the American idea of nation-building, clearing the wilderness of natives, dark People”. The Vietnamese themselves, encountered on a trip to Hanoi in 1968, seemed to baffle her. Their culture seemed to possess none of the “complexity” and “seriousness” (her favourite words) of European art and thought. But the US ravaging of Indochina had made the word “imperialism” resonant to her again for the first time since she first absorbed a leftwing vocabulary from Partisan Review.
Sontag’s mood about her country continually darkened; and she came to doubt her earlier beliefs in the autonomy of art. In a journal entry of 1975 she is already worrying about her “problematic” essays of the 1960s and justifying them as a reaction to the “going ideas” then: bourgeois “conformity” and “middle brow culture”. But Sontag never did much with the “historical memory” of political action and social change that Vietnam had helped revive in her. Like many of the figures she wrote about – Simone Weil, Walter Benjamin, Victor Serge – she seemed to pride herself on being a homeless radical, European-style. She stayed aloof from the New Left in the 1960s. A tony infatuation with communism was cast off during the 1970s; the reasons seem more aesthetic than political. “One has the feeling of having lived through an old script,” she confessed to her journals in 1975. She was tired of being a fellow-traveller of “other people’s revolutions”.
A mostly apolitical moralism would henceforth dictate her world view. But she remained nostalgic for what in one of her very last essays she called “an era that seems very remote today in its introspective energies and passionate intellectual quests and code of self-sacrifice and immense hope”. Sontag seemed to have known all along that the passion for art and thought she valued in herself and others, and her own quest for “ethical and spiritual distinction”, was inseparable from the larger quest for a just society.
As it turned out, most of her peers had found the society in which they enjoyed status and wealth to be adequately just. Alfred Kazin’s journals, which examine both self and the world much more penetratingly than Sontag’s, record an appalled fascination with the hectic social climbing and political apostasies of his generation of Partisan Review radicals. They relate how, depleted of the progressive imagination, mainstream intellectual life in America was steadily taken over by a resourceful and belligerent neoconservative movement from the 1960s onwards. The stagnation and depoliticisation of the middle class, the retreat of many 1960s radicals into academia, and the disappearance of the old left accelerated the process whereby, as described by Arthur Koestler, “the intelligentsia, once the vanguard of the ascending bourgeoisie, becomes the lumpenbourgeoisie in the age of its decay”. Like the many ex-Trotskyite intellectuals Alfred Kazin took to attacking in The New York Review of Books, the successor to Partisan Review, Sontag could never adjust to whispering advice to power. She had also absorbed too many bitterly paradoxical lessons of Europe’s successes and defeats to be impressed by post-cold-war triumphalism – the resurrected vulgar notion that civilisation had arrived at the terminus of US-style capitalism and democracy.
Post-1989, her feeling for a vanished world of iconoclasts and idealists seems to have deepened. Speaking of the 1960s, she wrote: “How one wishes that some of its boldness, its optimism, its disdain for commerce had survived.” The nostalgia went together with her distaste for a heedlessly globalised world that was “committed to unifying greeds” and where everyone fed “at the same trough of standardized entertainment and fantasies of eros and violence”.
Responding to 9/11, she moved quickly from shock and grief to fury against the “self-righteous drivel and outright deception being peddled by public figures and TV commentators”. “Let’s by all means grieve together,” Sontag pleaded in The New Yorker, “but let’s not be stupid together.”
But it was already too late. The lumpenbourgeois intellectuals – formerly left-wing “contrarians” as well as retro imperialists and Washington’s neoconservatives – were quick to seize the opening for themselves in a fervid ideological climate, and Sontag mostly watched aghast until her death in 2004 as they identified the new enemies of freedom and cheer-led calamitous wars.
It is not hard to imagine what she would have said about the now obvious infirmities of US democracy and capitalism. But what might she have made of the Arab Spring? The overthrow of seemingly eternal pro-American dictators is one proof among many in the past half-century that though, as Irving Howe wrote, “the revolutionary impulse has been contaminated, corrupted, debased, demoralized”, the “energy” behind it remains, now bursting “out in one part of the world, now in another”. The strange irony of Sontag’s career is that she wanted to live and work in just such a revolutionary age – and did. That she failed to identify it as such says something about her own political and aesthetic choices. But it speaks more of the self-cherishing and myopia of the postwar intellectual culture to which she, despite many vigorous dissents, inescapably belonged.
Pankaj Mishra’s new book, ‘From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia’, is published by Allen Lane in August
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International Week: Pause & Play in the World around You
Posted: April 13, 2012 at 5:00 am, Last Updated: April 23, 2012 at 3:34 pm
By Beth Pullias
Have you ever stopped and looked at the people around you? Have you realized how vast and diverse Mason’s population is? If you haven’t, International Week will give you the perfect opportunity to pause and play in the world around you.
“Pause… and view the world around you. Play… and explore the world around you” is this year’s theme for the 32nd annual International Week. Events will begin on Saturday, April 14 and run through the following Saturday.
“We really want students to not stop, but pause, like a when you are watching a movie. We want you to question and not miss the important clues,” explains Bigit Debeerst, assistant director for programs and outreach for the Office of International Programs and Services. “That way you can view, enjoy it, and better understand what is going on around you.”
On Tuesday, take time to pause and view the Dance Competition—one of the highlights of International Week–on Tuesday, April 17 from noon to 2:30 p.m. in the JC Dewberry Hall.
“There are so many supporters in the audience. The crowd goes crazy even if they don’t identify with a certain dance group,” says Debeerst. “The music, students, and level of enthusiasm have increased over the years.”
This year, 12 different dance groups will perform, but of those 12, three groups will perform one dance together. Though it is up to the group to decide on how they want to represent their culture, points are added to their overall score for showcasing.
Each performance should last no longer than ten minutes to perform, but teams are encouraged to give an explanation of certain moves, facial expressions, or the history of the dance for the judges to have context to what they are performing. Judging will be based off of choreography, group execution and dance technique, appearance/costume, cultural representation, and audience response.
The top three winners from the competition will perform on Friday, April 20, at the Dinner Dance in JC Dewberry Hall. Guests are encouraged to dress in traditional clothing from their culture. Food stations will provide international food. Students will sing, perform, and play instruments throughout the night. This signature program will close out events taking place during the week.
The dance competition is a free ticketed event and tickets can be picked up in the Office of Student Involvement (The HUB) Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If tickets are unavailable, the competition will be available to watch in the JC atrium or online through a live stream.
Information on all International Week events and activities can be found on the website.
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21 05 12 - 18:38A society with a manic need to invent "meaning" comes up with trite and sometimes fatal solutions:
Climbers are advised not to attempt to reach the summit after 11 a.m. The area above the last camp at South Col is nicknamed the "death zone" because of the steep icy slope, treacherous conditions and low oxygen level.
"With the traffic jam, climbers had a longer wait for their chance to go up the trail and spent too much time at higher altitude. Many of them are believed to be carrying limited amount of oxygen not anticipating the extra time spent," Shrestha said.
Lamba said Shah-Klorfine mortgaged her house to pay for the Everest expedition, at a cost of nearly $100,000.
She trained by walking hills around her home near Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue, while wearing a 20-kilogram backpack. - CBC
She didn't train on other mountains? Er...
But this is typically. She has a dream; she mortgages her house, in denial of reality and plausibility.
And then, lacking the requisite experience to make her dream a reality, she dies and possibly takes out others with her. | <urn:uuid:99c80e64-051c-4669-b080-3f81e4293abe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anus.com/zine/blog/?e=619 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968789 | 251 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Heroin use in county on the rise
Published: Saturday, December 8, 2012 at 3:13 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 10, 2012 at 8:00 a.m.
Heroin is making a comeback in Sonoma County, where a growing number of middle-class teens and young adults are using the highly addictive drug.
Once cloaked in an aura of stigma, the dangerous drug is viewed by a new generation of young users as an inexpensive alternative to pricey or unavailable opiate-type prescription drugs such as OxyContin.
The unexpected increase in young, middle-class heroin junkies has emerged in Sonoma County over the last year, according to police, defense lawyers, drug counselors and addicts. It is challenging the traditional stereotype of heroin addiction, which many still associate as a problem concentrated in poor, urban neighborhoods.
“In a relatively short period of time there's been a dramatic shift in drug usage among our young kids,” said Mike Perry, a chief deputy public defender who works in the county's drug court.
“It's shocking how many 20-year-olds we have who started off in Oxy and now are doing heroin,” Perry said. “We're seeing more middle-class kids get hooked.”
Many of the local heroin junkies were once-promising high school students. They started by popping prescription painkillers recreationally, at school and at parties.
Some were athletes, given opiate-type pain pills for injuries.
“The progression has them moving on to shooting up heroin,” said Santa Rosa police Lt. Mike Tosti. “We're seeing a rise in this. They're getting younger and younger and younger.”
“These aren't street people. These are lots of kids who should be in college,” said Kathleen Pozzi, Sonoma County's interim public defender. “They are often remarkable kids from middle- to upper-class homes.”
Instead of making college plans, many are living for the daily fixes, stealing to pay for their prescription pills and heroin.
“Their parents are crying, ‘this was my perfect Little League kid,' ‘This was my perfect soccer kid,' ‘my perfect straight-A kid on the way to college. Look at him now ... he's committed (several) residential burglaries,'” said Pozzi.
Some are finding themselves in Sonoma County's drug court, a final stop in the county's attempt to treat nonviolent drug offenders and keep them out of prison. The 12- to 14-month program has strict guidelines, including multiple weekly drug tests and mandatory meetings, counseling sessions and court appearances.
Currently, there are a dozen young defendants in drug court who have followed the Oxy-to-heroin path, Perry estimated.
While heroin cases are increasing, methamphetamine and marijuana remain the county's top drug problems.
“It goes up and down, stimulants, depressants,” said Mike Maritzen, supervising drug counselor for Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities, a county program aiding those in the criminal justice system with addiction problem.
“In the ‘80s it was crack cocaine. The ‘90s, opiates. The past 10 years, meth. Now it seems like heroin is emerging again,” said Maritzen.
The veteran counselor estimated 10 to 15 percent of his 75 to 80 clients are opiate abusers. “They're really the youngest, 22 and younger.”
Statistics on heroin arrests and prosecutions in Sonoma County are not available, according to law enforcement and courthouse officials. But anecdotally, examples are plentiful:
• Two days after Thanksgiving, a young Santa Rosa man overdosed on heroin while in a parking lot in east Santa Rosa. He went into cardiac arrest and paramedics revived him. A friend told police the young man had switched to heroin following an addiction to OxyContin, said Santa Rosa Sgt. Phil Brazis.
• In late October, narcotics officers working in northwest Santa Rosa arrested a 20-year-old woman attempting to buy heroin. She told officers she'd become addicted to OxyContin and other prescription pills while in high school and now shoots heroin because it's cheaper and available, Tosti said.
• In August, a 20-year-old Sebastopol resident was stopped near downtown Sebastopol for a traffic violation. He was carrying OxyContin and heroin paraphernalia and said his Oxy addiction had led him to the cheaper and easier-to-find heroin, said Sebastopol Officer David Ginn.
At the Allano Club in Petaluma, where people go for Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, stories about prescription drug addiction leading to heroin use are common, said Ross Bracken, who manages the nonprofit facility.
“I've heard that for a couple of years now, especially with the young people,” said Bracken. “All these kids are shooting heroin, smoking it. Everywhere I go I talk to people in recovery, that's what they're seeing.”
A growing number of addicts are high school athletes who suffered sports injuries and got hooked on opiates while taking pills to dull the pain, said Tosti, who worked undercover narcotics cases for several years and has supervised drug investigations the last two years.
“It's a trend especially with these student athletes. They're getting banged up so bad ... (and) put on painkillers and they're not able to get off the painkillers,” said Tosti.
Three of the cases in recent years involved standout athletes at Maria Carrillo and Montgomery high schools who “got hooked on Oxy, then went to heroin and a life of crime to follow,” he said, declining to give names.
The problem with opiate addiction among local athletes is no surprise to legendary Montgomery High School baseball coach Russ Peterich, who retired in 2006 but remains active in the coaching and high school athletic community.
“I still work with kids who have drug problems,” said Peterich, who didn't want to give details fearing athletes and their families wouldn't feel comfortable seeking his help.
“It's out there. Prescription drug (abuse) ... is running pretty rampant in high school athletes,” said the 37-year baseball coach.
“It's very difficult with the pressure on athletes now with the year-around sports. I can see kids using pain medication to get beyond what they have to do, not realizing” they're headed for serious trouble, he said.
“It just kills me to see a kid hooked on that stuff. It's almost impossible to get off,” said Peterich.
Peterich, who consults as a mentor to coaches and athletic directors, said drug addiction concerns and warnings are discussed among local coaches.
“You people have to be aware of what is going on with your kids ... what is going on in the drug scene, in drinking,” he said. “You'd better know how to get them help.”
When parents worry about their teens and drugs, the concern often involves alcohol and marijuana.
“They're not thinking about the drug sitting in the medicine cabinet,” said Tosti.
The refrain is familiar to Santa Rosa police narcotics officers, who have frequently heard about high school students who got pain pills from home, such as Vicodin or OxyContin, and brought them to school or shared them at parties.
“Teens and young adults think there's nothing bad about taking Oxy pills. They have no fear of pills,” said Tosti.
When the prescriptions ran out, they began buying them from friends or seeking them from dealers at costs that continued to rise.
Initially, the pills cost about $30 each. In August 2010, the maker of OxyContin changed the pills to make them tougher to abuse. The original pills began disappearing, and the ones still available were going for more than $100 apiece. The new formula, which is less potent, was available on the black market at lower prices, but abusers needed several of them to get the high they sought.
A day's supply of heroin was more like $20 to $40, said police.
At the county drug counseling offices, clients told counselors they could no longer afford the pills.
“Some clients were doing 10 (OxyContin pills) a day,” said Maritzen. “They can get the same high from heroin for like $50.”
Heroin is available on Santa Rosa street corners and parking lots, if you know where to look or who to ask, and for less money than pills, said Tosti.
Most of it is shipped from Mexico, via Mexican drug cartels. The most common form is black tar heroin. It is typically sold in 1 ounce amounts that look like pencil eraser-sized dark globs, which police and users often refer to as “boogers” or “points.”
A more concentrated form of heroin is now surfacing in Sonoma County, Tosti said. Called “China white,” the white powder is more potent than the black tar version.
Until recently, most criminal cases involving heroin centered on older addicts accused of committing misdemeanor crimes. But the new, younger generation of heroin addicts are committing more serious crimes to support their habits, according to local defense attorneys.
“Now we're associating these heroin cases with robberies and burglaries, especially residential burglaries,” said Pozzi, who supervises the county's public defense attorneys that represent most local drug-crime defendants.
The middle-class kids are finding money to support their drug habits where they can, said Deputy Public Defender Ande Thomas, who also has seen the disappearance in OxyContin-related drug cases and the emergence of heroin cases.
“The middle-class kids have grown up in homes with jewelry and valuables. They've gone to friends' homes, people they come in contact with, (and) they've turned more to residential burglaries,” said Thomas.
But it puts them on a dangerous path. Burglary not only carries a possible six-year prison sentence, but is also a strike under California's tough “Three Strikes” law, Thomas said. Three convictions result in a mandatory 25-year to life prison sentence.
The young defendants often are shocked to learn they could end up in prison.
“They want a slap on the wrist and a program. That's not (what happens) when you graduate to this level of crime,” said Thomas.
(You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or firstname.lastname@example.org.)
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Sadistic Introduction to a Masochistic Book
It is my intent to destroy any enjoyment you could possibly derive from this book.
You may think you're seated comfortably, or perhaps lying curled up in bed, but that's just your body. In your mind there is only one posture for reading — a posture of submission. When you read you are always on your knees, humbly accepting your lessons from the writer god. Every reader is a zombie, a slave, a robot who wants to be programmed and controlled. You set aside your own thoughts for mine. Do it. Now.
If you think a writer has any regard for his readers, think again. Only the basest form of writer cares one whit about his readers. For a great writer, the reader is just an obstacle between him and fame. That's why the great books are always so difficult to comprehend. Look at Finnegan's Wake. That book doesn't make any gestures of compromise. That book doesn't care about you. The only epiphany to be had with Finnegan's Wake is to understand that, in the writer's universe, you are the equivalent of a worm or a cigarette butt. Joyce grinds you into the ground with his heel.
I know what you expect from an introduction. You want all the background. You want to know that Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was born in 1836, published Venus in Furs in 1870, died in 1895. You want to know that he came from a part of the Austrian Empire that is now known as the Ukraine. You want to know that he wrote in German, published a slew of other books and stories, achieved literary fame in his lifetime. You want to know that his fetish appears in many of his works and that Venus in Furs was modeled on the author's experience serving as the slave of a woman named Fanny von Pistor. You want to know that Kraft-Ebbing was inspired by the work and personality of Sacher-Masoch to coin the term masochism.
But I don't want to tell you all this. Maybe it's useful for you to know. Maybe it's not. Frankly it bores me and I don't care about you anyway. The important thing here is my pleasure. The writer is the master in the literary relationship. The reader is the slave. If I want to tell you about Venus in Furs, you'll listen. If I don't, you'll listen anyway. You have no choice. I'm the voice around here. You're the ear. Get used to it.
If you expect me to say anything enlightening about this book, you're stupid. I don't want to shed any light on this piece of garbage. I want to say things that obscure this book, cast it in the dark, bury it like an animal buries his shit. That's what other writers have done. Freud doesn't mention Sacher-Masoch once in his extensive discussions of masochism. Nietzsche, who had probably read Sacher-Masoch and was deeply interested in master-slave relations, doesn't mention the author of Venus in Furs either. Spengler doesn't include him in Decline of the West. Kafka, who drew on Venus in Furs for "The Metamorphosis," never mentions Sacher-Masoch by name. Joyce, who harbored masochistic tendencies, refers to Sacher-Masoch twice in Ulysses. But that's the exception and not the rule. Overall the attitude of other writers toward Sacher-Masoch is that of Henry James: "I never read a word of Sacher-Masoch. I read very little fiction & had been warned off from him."
Warned off — why? Because as a scribe Sacher-Masoch doesn't have much to teach. His biographers admit that the quality of his work declined precipitously after Venus in Furs. This "masterpiece" itself is written in little vignettes, like gasps between whippings. But even here look at the way Sacher-Masoch botches the description of his own fetish for fur. Wanda mocks the comparisons he invokes: "'A woman wearing furs, then,' cried Wanda, 'is nothing else than a large cat, an augmented electric battery?'" An electric cat, a feline battery — that's really erotic. That's really perceptive... No, that's really a mixed metaphor. Ugh.
Then again, if Wanda mocks him, doubtless it is because he wants to be mocked. Sacher-Masoch disavows the clinical mastery of his symptoms because he wants to be not their master but their servant. Every word is calculated to elicit loathing and contempt. Sacher-Masoch oversimplifies (you have to be master or slave). He mixes metaphors (a feline battery?). He contradicts himself. Look at how he bungles his own symptomatology. He considers it not masochism, which didn't exist as a clinical entity, but suprasensuality (Übersinnlichkeit). "I grew more confused each day, more fantastical, more suprasensual." He takes a concept with roots in Platonism — the suprasensual as a realm literally above the senses — and declares it the root of his desire to undergo the most excruciating sensual experiences. It makes so little sense that it can only be a stratagem to involve you in his fantasies of punishment. If his ideas are all wrong, it is because Sacher-Masoch wants to be not correct but corrected.
Sacher-Masoch spurns everything that would make you respect him as a man — has there ever been a greater example of Sartre's ressentiment than this worm who choreographs his own humiliation and then complains about it? — and as a writer. Sacher-Masoch is a manipulator who plays the slave and a writer who pretends to be a reader. His stand-in, Severin, constantly talks about his reading: "I read Homer, Virgil, Ossian..." He reads aloud to Wanda. He's prone to quoting. When he threatens to kill her, Wanda retorts: "What play is this from?" It is as though Sacher-Masoch wants to debase himself to the level of the reader. No wonder other writers shun him. What writer doesn't want to be the author of masterpieces? Sacher-Masoch. He would have preferred to write slavepieces. He wants you to despise him. The decrepitude of his art is the sign of his effort to humiliate himself in front of the reader.
In one episode Severin writes a poem called "Venus in Furs." When Wanda takes the manuscript away from him, he can't keep working on it because he can only remember the first stanza. Can't you see that that's what the author really wants from you? He wants to be punished, and the way to punish a writer is to gag him. "Silence, slave!" The worm would probably be thrilled if you would take over all the verbiage — if you would become the writer, take a copy of Venus in Furs, scratch out your own narrative on top of it, like a literary version of Robert Rauschenberg's Erased De Kooning Drawing. Sacher-Masoch would have loved that. Erase his book.
(It has been suggested by a psychologist in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis that Sacher-Masoch might have ghostwritten his wife Wanda's stories and even her famous memoir. Certainly you can imagine Wanda compelling her slave to write texts which she could use to humiliate him by publishing them under her own name. This would not have had the effect of erasing his work, but it would at least have erased Sacher-Masoch's name.)
As a reader this puts you in a difficult position. On one hand, you feel that you would be only too happy to oblige Sacher-Masoch. You could take pleasure in humiliating this maddening book. You can imagine opening it up, working up a ball of spit in your mouth, hacking it between two random pages and slamming them shut. That's what this worthless logorrhea deserves. With any luck the ink and spit will smear and you will end up with something more interesting that this miserable tome: a Rorschach test.
On the other hand, isn't Sacher-Masoch manipulating you into this? Do you really want to let him control you like that? The masochist positioning the sadist — it's the perfect example of what Nietzsche means when he talks about slaves ruling over their masters. In his essay "Sade's Reason," Maurice Blanchot notes that "with Sade's heroes the pleasures of debasement in no way reduce their mastery, and those of abjection raise them to the heights." The opposite is true of Sacher-Masoch's heroes. The pleasures of torture in no way elevate their abasement. To the contrary, it is the torturers who feel degraded by the victim, who are manipulated by him into doing and saying things they don't really want to do. That is Wanda's constant dilemma: the whip is being put in her hand.
This is not to say that Sacher-Masoch is a simple inversion of Sade. In his essay "Coldness and Cruelty," Gilles Deleuze argued this very persuasively: "The theme of the unity of sadism and masochism and the concept of a sadomasochistic entity have done great harm to Sacher-Masoch. He has suffered not only from unjust neglect but from an unfair assumption of complementarity and dialectical unity with Sade." But to whom is this comparison really unfair? Does being compared to the divine marquis hurt the mostly mediocre work of Sacher-Masoch? (If it did, Sacher-Masoch would like it anyway.) Or does being compared to the pathetic chevalier diminish the greatness of Sade?
If I weren't confined to the front matter of this book, I would pop up at different moments of the narrative and show you just how inferior it is to a monument such as 120 Days of Sodom. For example, I would stop the action at one of Sacher-Masoch's idiotic little raptures about nature. Here you are reading the book for its lurid subject matter and this craphead of a writer has to interrupt it with an idyll to flowers or moonlight. If somebody ever wants to pay me — you couldn't pay me enough — to translate this moronic tale, I'd take passages like this
What solemnity! What music round about! A nightingale sobs. The stars quiver very faintly in the pale-blue glamour. The meadow seems smooth, like a mirror, like a covering of ice on a pond.
and translate it like this
xxxx xxxxxxxxx! xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx! x xxxxxxxxxxx xxxx. xxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxx xx xxx xxxx-xxxx xxxxxxx. xxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx, xxxx x xxxxxx, xxxx x xxxxxxxx xx xxx xx x xxxx.
or like this
Fuck xxxxxxxxx! shit sperm pussy dildo! x xxxxxxxxxxx suck. Ass semen sodomy cunt cumshot xx tit fuck-fuck blowjob. Ass nipple whore sodomy, shit x rimjob, cunt x clitoris xx ass xx x fuck.
or perhaps I'd just delete it. Why waste my time and yours? Or rather, why waste my time? Yours is a matter of indifference to me. You're just a servile reader. Ugh. You disgust me. To paraphrase Wanda, you don't mean any more than a dog — and dogs get kicked.
This book is like the rim of a dirty toilet seat. If you want to lick it, I won't be the one to stand in the way of your degradation. In fact, that may even be the best reason to publish the thing — so you can debase yourself with it. Prepare yourself, slave. Accept the punishment you deserve. Read this book. Do it. Now. | <urn:uuid:d40462c9-e440-45b2-9955-415336b5f9a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supervert.com/essays/venus_in_furs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972873 | 2,565 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Malaysian academy to train Hindu priestsApril 5th, 2010 - 12:05 pm ICT by IANS
Ipoh (Malaysia), April 5 (IANS) Malaysia’s first academy to train Hindu priests will conduct a five-year course developed in consultation with similar institutions in India, a minister said.
Human Resource Minister S. Subramaniam, who opened the academy Sunday, said the country’s Tamil Hindu community will continue to get priests from India since the training, grading and certifying of priests will take time.
The Hindu community’s wish to have a training facility for local priests has been fulfilled with the setting up of the academy in Jelapang Tambahan near here, the New Straits Times said Monday.
With the opening of the academy, the availability of qualified priests will be assured for over 3,000 Hindu temples in the country.
Subramaniam, who is also Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) secretary general, said the training centre would reduce the community’s reliance on priests from India.
“With the academy, the community is also assured of qualified and accredited priests to perform various Hindu ceremonies.
“This is a new beginning that will be filled with many challenges. But I am sure the association, with the support of the government, will overcome the problems and ensure that this role can be played effectively in Malaysia itself.”
Subramaniam said although there were locals who were trained as priests, the training was not done formally by recognised institutions and was not accredited at the national level.
He said a major problem facing the community was the qualifications of local priests conducting important and complicated ceremonies in the temples.
“Prior to the setting up of this academy, a few individuals were providing training and bestowing titles (on the trainee priests). There was no standardisation. Every person, according to his desire, adjoined various titles to their names.
“The Hindus were confused. Now, we are regularising every aspect of the priest training and priesthood.”
The minister later presented certificates to 100 priests, some of whom had completed their two-year training stint in India.
Hindus form a bulk of Malaysia’s nearly two million ethnic Indian community that is about seven percent of the multi-racial 28 million population.
- Malaysia mulls local training academy to reduce number of Hindu priests from India - Apr 05, 2010
- Malay Indian temples should also promote community activities - Jul 27, 2010
- Michigan Tri-Cities to have Hindu temple - Dec 14, 2010
- Malay-Indians begin silver chariot procession - Jan 19, 2011
- Hindu or Christian, for Kerala kids it's Vidyarambham - Oct 06, 2011
- Indian is Malaysia's first woman mridhangam player - Aug 03, 2010
- Indian priests pass induction programme to work in Malaysia - Feb 19, 2009
- Christian Church transformed into Ganapathy Hindu temple in Scotland - Jan 04, 2011
- Malaysian PM says he is touched by spirit of Sikhs - May 03, 2011
- Rajasthan Sanskrit University trains Hindu priests - Jun 03, 2009
- Book chronicles life of Malaysia's ethnic Indians - Dec 19, 2010
- Malaysia offers to train Hindu priests - Dec 08, 2008
- Hindu priests from India ''graduate'' in Malasiya - Feb 19, 2009
- 'Make pre-marriage course compulsory for Malaysian Hindus' - Sep 05, 2010
- Ayodhya verdict casts a shadow over Gaya pindadaan - Sep 23, 2010
Tags: challenges, consultation, desire, first academy, hindu community, hindu priests, hindu temples, hindus, human resource, India, institutions, locals, malaysian indian congress, mic, new straits times, reliance, secretary general, standardisation, subramaniam, tamil | <urn:uuid:7aa73b19-06a3-47fb-bf01-71136a0f650d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/malaysian-academy-to-train-hindu-priests_100343421.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950025 | 811 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Trilateral Afghan-US-India summit is not against Pakistan: Musazai
Mon Jun 18, 3:18 pm
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the US decision on trilateral summit between Afghanistan, India and the United States, saying the summit will be effective for Afghanistan and regional stability.
The US has ensured Pakistan that the tripartite summit wouldn’t be against the interests of Pakistan, but fears exist that Pakistan may extend its support of the insurgency if this tripartite meeting is held.
Recently, the Iranian foreign minister during the conference of Heart of Asia countries had voiced his opposition to the long-term presence of US forces in Afghanistan, saying the continued presence of American soldiers was causing instability in the region.
Responding to these concerns, the spokesman of foreign ministry Janan Musazai told the reporters on Sunday that the presence of ISAF and NATO troops in Afghanistan was vital in the fight against terrorism and important for the country’s economic development.
All the peace plans of Afghanistan’s allies outside the country are in favor of Afghanistan, Musazai said referring to recent discussions of US special envoy, Marc Grossman, on the opening of peace talks with the Taliban outside of Afghanistan.
Musazai said Australia has pledged a $36 million dollar increase in its annual assistance to Afghanistan. Based on this increase, Musazai said, Australia’s annual assistance to Afghanistan will reach to $200 million dollars, with the assistance continuing to the end of 2013. | <urn:uuid:161d12c6-9dc9-4715-9b0d-7c635bd8b115> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ariananews.af/regional/trilateral-afghan-us-india-summit-is-not-against-pakistan-musazai/ | 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 | 0.941352 | 307 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Djeco, one of the most popular toy manufacturers in Paris, is a family-owned company that is dedicated to designing imaginative art kits of the highest quality. Their fifty years of experience in producing dazzling art kits has been leaving smiles on children and their parents all over the world. Packed with personality to appeal especially to toddlers and younger children, parents will be pleased with the low prices and high quality of all Djeco art kits. Every Djeco kit is made with the highest standards and has met and even exceeded European safety standards, so you are assured that you’re giving your child the safest of art kits. This is particularly important when you consider how young children tend to immerse themselves in their art!
Djeco Collages for Little Ones, $22.99
Djeco Collages is more than just an extraordinary craft kit for little ones, though it is certainly that. To us, the huge appeal of the Djeco Collages kit is how it engages both sides of the brain to create art worth framing. The spiral-bound wordless instruction booklet leads your child step-by-step through the process: first the whiskers, then the nose, and soon the entire animal is complete. Your little ones will be challenged to match the appropriate number of pieces and place them correctly to finish the picture.
Djeco Collages is a terrific kit to reinforce fine-motor skills, visual discernment, counting, and logical sequencing. The result? Eclectic art that is both hip and retro and is suitable for hanging in the playroom or at the office. Djeco Collages comes with four large, beautifully illustrated, printed images – a bear, a rabbit, a cat, and a mouse – on very thick cardstock and chunky, colorful, pre-cut cardboard pieces with lots of fun accessories, like the always child-pleasing wiggly-eyes. The felt, paper, eyes, and thick cardboard pieces are organized into small envelopes to avoid confusion. Djeco Collages also includes a glue stick and a detailed, illustrated, step-by-step instruction book, all packaged into a sturdy gift box. For ages four and older.
Djeco Discover Colors: Hide and Seek, $29.99
I love this kit! Djeco Discover Colors: Hide and Seek is both practical and inspiring. Djeco knows that children prefer to create only after they have some basic skills. Discover Colors: Hide and Seek contains everything your young artist needs to understand how to mix paint colors, providing him with brilliantly simple instructions and lovely materials worth working with.
Unlike the typical children’s paintbrush that sheds worse than our horses do in spring, Discover Colors: Hide and Seek’s paintbrushes are elegant in appearance and sized right for the task. Includes gouache paint, which is highly pigmented and delightful to work with. Far superior to the traditional children’s paint by numbers sets, Discover Colors: Hide and Seek has eight large, partly illustrated prints to complete. Following the spiral-bound, full-color picture instruction book, artists are clearly shown what colors, and what quantities, to mix together to make the shade needed to complete the whimsical pictures.
Discover Colors: Hide and Seek makes a spectacular gift for any budding artist who is ready to learn how to mix paint colors. Discover Colors: Hide and Seek includes two distinctive paint brushes, four bottles of paint, and a fully illustrated instruction booklet, all packaged in a charming box.
Ready to Win?
To enter, simply tell us which of these Djeco Art kits you want to win. If you want extra entries, you can also use PunchTab. Out of all the comments and entries we receive, we will draw one name (courtesy of random.org) and award them the book they picked. Winners must have a USA shipping address, see all the rules here. Drawing ends Monday, August 6th, at 10AM PST. | <urn:uuid:c1f04b19-1d0c-48bf-a603-1bbc5c4f2ce9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timberdoodlecompany.com/doodleblog/2012/08/01/djeco-art-kits-giveaway/ | 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 | 0.947944 | 810 | 1.523438 | 2 |
(ARA) – Your backyard is a space where you enjoy quality time with your family – from running around with your kids in the fall leaves to playing catch with your furry friend in the snow. It’s a place to escape, but remember accidents can happen anywhere at any time, and just like you childproof your house, you need to ensure your backyard is safe as well.
Keeping your backyard safe begins with your fence. A yard without a fence is a little like a house without walls. Fences help protect children from danger, keeping toddlers out of swimming pools, hot tubs and ponds or keeping them in the yard, away from busy traffic or strangers. Fences can also help keep your own pets in your yard, and other animals out. They can reduce your liability by preventing injuries to uninvited guests on your property, or damage or injury caused by escaped pets.
“A good weekend winterizing project is making sure your fences and gates are functioning properly and are protected from rust, a destructive force that can render gate hardware useless or dangerous,” says Jim Paterson, senior vice president of D&D Technologies, which manufactures gate latches and hinges made of ultra-strong engineering polymers. “In our research, we found that when homeowners consider their fencing needs, rusty metal gate hardware that no longer functions properly or becomes a threat to children was their top concern. Rust-free and adjustable gate hardware is available.”
Seasonal weather, ground settling and other factors can cause a gate to become misaligned over time and not function properly. It’s important to have gate hardware that can be easily adjusted to overcome this. TruClose self-closing, tension adjustable hinges are an ideal solution. Some models are vertically and horizontally adjustable as well. Combined with D&D adjustable, locking gate latches will ensure your gate will always function properly.
Additional precautions to take when childproofing your backyard:
* Tighten and cover any protruding bolts on swing sets and do not attach ropes or cords, which could become strangulation hazards.
* Remove old tree stumps and rocks, level concrete footings to avoid tripping.
*Seal wooded items such as decks, swing sets and picnic tables before inclement weather sets in.
* Completely fence pool and spa areas with adjustable self-closing hinges like TruClose and self-latching gates, ensuring latches are out of the reach of children such as the Magnalatch Safety Gate Latch. Both products carry a lifetime warranty and are adjustable both vertically and horizontally for quick and easy adjustments.
* Eliminate access to lawn equipment and chemicals. Put these items completely out of the reach of children.
* Keep a first aid kit and a rescue kit for those backyards with water features easily accessible.
Your backyard can be one of the most exciting places for your children through the entire year. A little prevention along the way will keep it safe and provide wonderful memories for your family.
Look for D&D Technologies rust free gate hardware and child safety latches at www.ddtechglobal.com or under the Stanley Hardware brand through Lowe’s. | <urn:uuid:3d15d91a-75e6-4bff-9460-361c18a85e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thomastontimes.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Year-round+backyard+safety+tips+for+families%20&id=20360190&instance=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950312 | 649 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The Green Key Self-Assessment consists of approximately 150 questions related to various areas of sustainable hotel operations. Each question has been assigned a specific point value based on the environmental and social impacts a particular action has and its associated impact on guests, employees, management, and the local community.
Green Key Scoring
The Green Key system is designed to automatically tally a hotel’s final score and award an instant Green Key Rating based on a percentage (points scored versus total number of potential points). Hotels are then awarded a Green Key Rating on a scale of 1 through 5 with 5 being the highest.
1 – 19.9% 1 Green Key
20 – 39.9% 2 Green Keys
40 – 59.9% 3 Green Keys
60 – 79.9% 4 Green Keys
80 – 100% 5 Green Keys
Green Key Rating Descriptions
A hotel that has taken first steps to reduce environmental impacts by analyzing its operations and identifying opportunities for improvement. An action plan focusing on resource conservation and waste minimization has been established, and is supported by a firm commitment to continual improvement.
A hotel that has taken considerable strides to identify environmental impacts and implement policies and programs to minimize its ecological footprint. A firm commitment to continual improvement has resulted in programs and actions that have shown effective results.
A hotel that has taken significant steps to protect the environment. Strong environmental programs, best management practices, training programs, and engineering solutions have been implemented which have benefited the environment and the local community.
A hotel that has shown national industry leadership and commitment to protecting the environment through its wide-ranging policies and practices. The hotel has mature programs in place that involve management, employees, guests, and the public, and which have shown substantial and measurable results.
A hotel that exemplifies the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility throughout all areas of operations. The hotel employs cutting edge technologies, policies, and programs that set the international standard for sustainable hotel operations.
Click here for a complete list of Green Key Rated properties. | <urn:uuid:bf391e85-2b76-4d70-ba40-4c0ba4e8b5ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenkeyglobal.com/site/about/gk_ratings.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942806 | 411 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Farmers, ranchers and water managers started 2012 hoping against all predictions that this would be the year the La Nina weather pattern responsible for pushing moisture from the state would finally subside. No luck. Just more hand-wringing as the first 11 months of the year marked the second driest on record, according to the National Weather Service
With little late winter snow and no spring rain, New Mexico's reservoirs were reduced to just a fraction of their normal levels heading into what proved to be another hot summer.
Farmers in southern New Mexico were forced for a second consecutive year to pump groundwater to irrigate their crops, and stretches of the mighty Rio Grande and Pecos River dried up, prompting fish rescue missions. The toll on grazing land and hay prices pushed some ranchers to cut neighbors' fences or leave gates open so their cattle could graze on greener pastures.
Across New Mexico's mountain ranges, another year of drought fueled a record-setting wildfire season. The Whitewater-Baldy fire on the Gila National Forest burned more than 450 square miles to become the largest fire in the state's recorded history. The Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso was the most destructive, burning more than 240 homes.
While drought and fire were constants throughout the year, they shared the headlines with everything
Among the other state's top stories of 2012:
The state's political scandal of the year goes to officials in Sunland Park, a border town where multiple criminal cases were filed after a mayoral candidate - who also was acting mayor at the time - tried to shame his opponent out of the race with a secretly recorded video of the challenger getting a topless lap dance. In addition to being charged with extortion and voter fraud, Daniel Salinas, who won the race, was accused of giving the job of police chief to a man who convinced his sister not to run against a Salinas ally for city council. Salinas and others also are accused of billing prostitutes, drinks and campaign videos to a $12 million fund set up for the city by the owner of Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino to aid in the town's efforts to get a border crossing built. The state has since taken over the city's finances, and Salinas has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Nearly two years after families and civil rights activists began calling for a probe into a spike in Albuquerque police shootings and injuries, the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation in November. The Albuquerque Police Department has been the target of protests, lawsuits and demands for wide-scale overhaul after 27 officer-involved shootings - 17 of them fatal - since 2010. The agency also has had numerous high-profile cases where officers have been accused of excessive force, including some caught on video. One video showed officers giving each other celebratory "belly bumps" after beating a suspected car thief. The Justice Department probe could take up to a year or more. The city and police department have pledged their cooperation after seeking to stave off the probe with a number of reforms.
Roswell, the southeastern New Mexico town made famous for its rumored 1947 alien landing, added another cosmic milestone to its name in October when daredevil Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver to break the sound barrier and make the highest jump ever from more than 24 miles up. It was a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert. Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph, according to preliminary data. Landing on his feet, the man known as "Fearless Felix" lifted his arms in victory as a worldwide audience watched live on the Internet via cameras mounted on him and his capsule.
Gov. Susana Martinez isn't up for re-election until 2014, but she made plenty of headlines during the 2012 elections, both as an up-and-comer in the national GOP and for aggressive efforts to unseat lawmakers who have blocked her agenda since she took office two years ago. The year started with whisperings that Martinez, a young, popular, female Hispanic, would make any Republican presidential nominee's shortlist for vice president. She insists she was never approached about the job. She had a key speaking role at the GOP national convention in August. Back at home, her political action committee spent $2.4 million trying to unseat unfriendly lawmakers in what turned out to be one the costliest legislative elections in state history. While Martinez was successful in unseating Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, she failed at helping Republicans gain control of the House, which has been led by Democrats for nearly 60 years.
House Speaker Ben Lujan, one of the most powerful and longest serving state legislators in New Mexico history and the father of U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, died of lung cancer shortly before Christmas. He was 77. The Democrat from Nambe announced his battle with the illness and his planned retirement at the opening of the 2012 legislative session. He spent half his life as a state lawmaker, winning his first election to the House in 1974. Only one other House member, Democrat Nick Salazar, served longer than Lujan, according to the Legislative Council Service. He was remembered as a leader who worked tirelessly for veterans, the poor and the elderly.
Martinez's promises to become the state's transparent governor were called into question after it was disclosed in June that she and high ranking administration officials had discussed state issues using email accounts connected to her political action committee. Critics called the practice unacceptable. The disclosure prompted Martinez to direct state workers to only use the government's email system when conducting public business. Earlier in the year, her commitment to transparency was questioned when her office refused to release her travel schedules, both for state or political business.
Southern New Mexico's Gila Wilderness became the focus of the international running community after ultra-marathoner Micah True failed to return from a run through the region in late March. True's body was eventually discovered near a stream. The death of the man known as "Caballo Blanco" - or white horse - during a routine 12-mile run surprised his friends and fans given he appeared to be in superb shape. An autopsy showed the 58-year-old had cardiomyopathy, a disease that enlarges the heart. True had been featured in articles in running magazines and was a central character in the best seller "Born to Run." He also was the director of The Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon, a 50-plus mile extreme race in Urique, Mexico.
TAINTED PEANUT BUTTER
New Mexico's famed Valencia peanut butter growing region near Portales suffered a major blow this fall when Sunland Inc., its largest private employer and the nation's largest organic peanut butter plant, was shuttered and forced to recall hundreds of products after being linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened 42 people in 20 states. The outbreak came just as the region was harvesting a bumper crop. Conditions at the plant prompted federal regulators to revoke Sunland's operating registration. The community's concerns over the future of what is estimated to be a $60 million industry were eased just before Christmas as the plant reached an agreement to resume some operations under the watch of regulators and an independent sanitation expert.
JOHNNY TAPIA DEATH
Former boxing champion Johnny Tapia died in May from what an autopsy later showed was heart disease and high blood pressure. Tapia, whose turbulent career was marked by cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and legal problems, was found dead at his Albuquerque home. Investigators said there were no indications drugs or alcohol caused his death, but they noted the 45-year-old former fighter likely developed medical complications from previous illegal drug use. Tapia won several championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt. His life also was marked by tragedy. He was orphaned at 8 after his mother was stabbed 26 times with a screwdriver. After his death, Tapia's widow announced that a documentary and feature film about his life were in the works.
Associated Press reporter Russell Contreras in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:c978f0b0-6fc2-4803-b645-78d1ce462f4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lcsun-news.com/aggie_sports/ci_22275926/las_cruces-financial | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979987 | 1,692 | 1.679688 | 2 |
25 September 2012, by Assoc Prof Leesa Wheelahan
Australia needs to increase productivity and workforce participation to maintain competitiveness and increase social inclusion.
13 June 2012, by Assoc Prof Leesa Wheelahan
In 2010, there were at least 1416 training package qualifications offered by VET providers. The median number of equivalent full-time students in these qualifications was 34. That is, half of these qualifications had fewer than 34 equivalent full-time students, and half had more than 34. This is not the median number of equivalent full-time students in each qualification in each VET provider; it is the median number in each qualification in Australia. In universities, each qualification needs to have at least 25 equivalent full-time students, or management will come hunting.
28 February 2011, by Assoc Prof Leesa Wheelahan
There is unprecedented attention being paid to vocational education and training teachers at present. The LH Martin Institute has recently completed a project on the quality of teaching in VET, funded by the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations and managed by the Australian College of Educators; the Productivity Commission is conducting an inquiry on the future of the VET workforce; and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research has just completed some major projects on VET teachers. These are only a few of a range of recent projects on VET teaching. | <urn:uuid:1ff814c7-1f19-47f3-9b6e-e98d6645e479> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/20-assoc-prof-leesa-wheelahan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9683 | 276 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Incoming freshmen at Coastal Carolina University can now choose Smart Choice Housing, a campus initiative that encourages students to make responsible decisions as part of their life plan. Sophomores living at University Place, an apartment complex owned and managed by CCU, may also join the program.
Special Interest Housing has been developed by the Office of Residence Life and students to enhance the living-learning atmosphere in residence halls. These options, called Living and Learning Communities, give students the opportunity to share in experiences with others who enjoy similar interests and lifestyles. Students feel a sense of ownership and camaraderie with their fellow residents.
Areas of special interest housing include science and math; honors; sea house (about the sea and beaches); professional golf management (PGM) community; and undeclared majors. Smart Choice Housing will be located in The Woods Residence Hall on campus.
"It's not about staying quiet," says Paula Drummond, director of Residence Life. "It is about respecting others and being positive about behavior and its impact. Students who sign up for Smart Choice Housing will have to understand the concept and commit to it."
"I want to live around people who are serious about their school work," says Tara Antoinette Smith, a marine science major from Baltimore, Md. "By living in Smart Choice Housing, I'll be better able to concentrate on my studies."
Initiated in 2009 in response to trends in alcohol consumption by college students-a major concern at universities across the nation-Smart Choice is one element of a comprehensive approach designed to create a culture of accountability and responsibility to prepare students for success during their college years and after graduation.
For more information on Smart Choice Housing, call the Office of Residence Life at 349-6400. | <urn:uuid:54445b70-74dd-4a44-9a8c-a704e7957a7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coastal.edu/newsarticles/story.php?id=2619 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958985 | 361 | 1.5 | 2 |
TOPEKA, Kansas - The National Guard is patrolling highways in Kansas, one of five states in the nation's midsection under winter storm warnings tonight.
The state's emergency management director says three teams are out in Humvees ready to rescue stranded motorists, and more are ready to mobilize if needed.
Snow totals are already topping a foot in many places, including Wichita, Kan., and northern Oklahoma. In addition to snow, the widespread storm system is bringing sleet and freezing rain.
Several accidents and two deaths are being blamed on icy and slushy roadways. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighboring states, were closed today and legislatures shut down in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
While the snowfall rates are expected to taper off through the evening, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett says it was "pouring snow" at a rate of 2 inches per hour or more earlier today. Topeka got 3 inches in a half hour.
At times, the blinding snow has been accompanied by thunder and lightning.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:42ba8a87-affa-4fc8-8e42-03cfdc983ed1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/(S(5gc40445twtwgj453gk2liai))/weather/article/284965/226/Midwest-swaddled-in-blanket-of-snow-travel-tough- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960629 | 223 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Ray County cattleman kills mountain lion
COLUMBIA–Conservation officials say a mountain lion killed by a cattleman in Ray County was a young male that showed no sign of having been held in captivity.
Conservation Agent Tammy Pierson said Bob Littleton went to one of his pastures Sunday night after coon hounds treed a mountain lion where his cattle were grazing. He killed the mountain lion with a shot to the head from a .22-cal. rifle.
Littleton reported the incident as required by law. Pierson collected the mountain lion this morning and sent it to the Missouri Department of Conservation Resource Science Center in Columbia, where resource scientists examined it this afternoon.
Conservation Department furbearer biologist Jeff Beringer said the mountain lion weighed 115.2 pounds and measured a little over 6.5 feet from nose to tip of tail. The sharp edges of the cat’s teeth and faint barring on the insides of its legs indicate it was a young male, probably three years or younger. Beringer said laboratory tests will provide more detailed information about the cat’s age and genetic makeup.
“We removed a small premolar tooth that will be sectioned so we can count the annual growth rings,” said Beringer. “That will tell us exactly how old it was. DNA testing will tell us whether it was related to native mountain lions in states to the west of Missouri, or if it is more closely related to mountain lions from somewhere else – possibly captive animals.”
Northwest Nebraska is the area nearest Missouri with an established mountain lion population.
Genetic testing also will determine whether the mountain lion killed in Ray County is the same one photographed by a landowner in Platte County in November.
Beringer said nothing in his examination of the Ray County mountain lion led him to believe it had been held in captivity. It had no tattoos or electronic identification tags – customary ways of marking captive cats. Its skin and paws showed no sign of having lived in a concrete-floored enclosure, and it still had its dewclaws, which often are surgically removed in captive animals to prevent injury.
The Ray County cat is Missouri’s 12th confirmed mountain lion sighting since 1994. Most of the mountain lions whose bodies have been recovered have been young males. Young males are the most mobile mountain lions, because they typically leave their birth areas to establish territories not already occupied by adult males. This is consistent with biologists’ theory that the cats are coming into Missouri from other states. Beringer said there is no evidence of reproduction for mountain lions in Missouri to date. This indicates that Missouri does not have a self-sustaining mountain lion population.
Because of evidence that Missouri no longer had an established population of mountain lions (Puma concolor), the Missouri Conservation Commission reclassified the species from “endangered” to “extirpated” in 2006. This means the species no longer exists as a self-sustaining population.
Also in 2006, the Conservation Commission adopted a policy that re-establishment of a sustainable mountain lion population in Missouri is not desirable, due to the potential for conflict with human activities.
Missouri’s Wildlife Code does protect mountain lions, but the Wildlife Code also allows the killing of any mountain lion that attacks or kills livestock or domestic animals or threatens human safety. People who kill mountain lions must report the incident to MDC immediately and turn over the intact carcass, including the pelt, within 24 hours.”
More information about reporting mountain lion sightings and how to deal with mountain lions is available at http://bit.ly/ciJDvb.
Photos available at: | <urn:uuid:d7e2e911-7f7f-41d3-b125-f83c6fd6c9c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/ray-county-cattleman-kills-mountain-lion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951887 | 766 | 1.726563 | 2 |
President Obama / Carolyn Kaster, AP
Lobbying Congress to pass meaningful gun control, President Obama sought Monday to build public support through local law enforcement officials -- including police chiefs from cities that saw mass killings in 2012.
"If law enforcement officials who are dealing with this stuff every single day can come to some basic consensus in terms of steps that we need to take, Congress is going to be paying attention to them," Obama said.
The president spoke as he and Vice President Biden met at the White House with the police chiefs of Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., and Oak Creek, Wis.
The Dec. 14 shooting in Newtown killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school, and prompted the new gun push by Obama and Biden.
The administration's proposal calls for a renewed assault weapons ban, universal background checks and restrictions of the sizes of ammunition magazines, as well as new school safety and mental health programs.
Aurora, Colo., is the city where 12 people died in a mass shooting at a movie theater in July; Oak Creek, Wis., is the site of the Sikh temple where six people died during a shooting in August.
Obama's plan also received an endorsement Monday from another group of local officials: The U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, the current conference president, called for "a national commitment to reduce the culture of violence, stop the easy access to guns by those who should not legally possess them, and increase access to badly needed mental health services."
Some of the police chiefs who met with Obama were Michael Kehoe of Newtown, Daniel Oates of Aurora and John Edwards of Oak Creek.
The meeting also featured police chiefs and sheriffs from Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Utah.
Gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association have vowed to block Obama's gun-control proposals, calling them ineffective violations of Second Amendment rights.
Obama said he realizes the gun issue "elicits a lot of passion," but the goal is to keep guns out of the wrong hands.
While Obama has issued executive orders designed to bolster the existing background check system and promote research into the causes of violence, he said that "the only way that we're going to be able to do everything that needs to be done is with the cooperation of Congress."
The White House meeting also featured representatives from the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Major County Sheriffs' Association. Obama said it's important to listen to law enforcement officials at the local level because "they are where the rubber hits the road."
Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano also attended the meeting at the White House.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
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Yoweri Museveni denounces press as "enemies" for reporting on anti-government protests.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Uganda has for years been a place where foreign journalists love to work.
There are stories to cover, living is affordable, it’s a good base for covering the region and the people are stunningly friendly, with a deep-rooted culture of beer and grilled pork.
There’s the daily thrill of slicing through Kampala's traffic on the back of a motorbike taxi, the professional challenge of covering Uganda’s domestic social and political upheavals while being a short hop from the emerging state of southern Sudan, the collapsing state of Congo or the repressively booming state of Rwanda.
Uganda's work permits are not prohibitively expensive, media accreditation is a formality and, until now, foreign journalists have been free to report as they see fit.
In that regard, foreign journalists simply follow a trail blazed by Uganda’s vibrant local media that bring people clustering at street corners every morning to read the early edition of the state-run New Vision, the independent Daily Monitor, the scandalous Red Pepper or any number of local-language tabloids.
“The press are now being harassed, intimidated, detained and even attacked.”~Tom Rhodes, Committee to Protect Journalists consultant
Now it appears that all of this is under threat. President Yoweri Museveni, in a letter published in the New Vision Wednesday, called journalists “enemies” for their coverage of recent weeks of anti-government protests in which at least 10 people have died.
“The media houses both local and international such as Al Jazeera, BBC, [regional television station] NTV, The Daily Monitor, etc, that cheer on these irresponsible people are enemies of Uganda’s recovery and they will have to be treated as such,” wrote Museveni.
The climate toward journalists is chilling and may even become dangerous. Tom Rhodes, a consultant with the Committee to Protect Journalists, warns of the "Thomas Beckett syndrome," in which government operatives seek to ingratiate themselves by doing their leader’s unspoken bidding.
“What tends to happen is that whatever Museveni says, security services react to it even if an actual order isn’t issued,” said Rhodes. “The press are now being
harassed, intimidated, detained and even attacked.”
Last week, when opposition leader Kizza Besigye returned from Nairobi, where he had sought medical treatment after being injured in a violent arrest during one of April’s “walk-to-work” protests, 10 local journalists were beaten and had their equipment stolen by security men.
Foreign journalists have reported an increasing number of threats and intimidation while covering the recent unrest, both from uniformed and plain-clothed officers as well as from government officials.
Soon after Besigye’s last arrest internal security minister Kirunda Kivejinja held a press conference in which he accused foreign journalists of being opposition “bedfellows.”
The following week the Red Pepper tabloid, which often discredits government critics or those who have fallen out of favor, splashed on its front page a
story repeating and expanding on the minister’s accusations.
“Many experts, who are on the payroll of the countries that have been bankrolling Besigye, have been posing around as international journalists,” the Red Pepper alleged.
“On the morning of Thursday, after a long night of planning, Besigye had breakfast with his 'journalists' at his home in Kasangati. He left his house with these foreign and local 'journalists' on a planned mission,” wrote the newspaper.
This is nonsense. I was there that morning, alongside a number of other foreign and local journalists, many of whom I know from working elsewhere on the
continent and all of whom were trying to do their jobs as eyewitnesses to events as they happen.
Rhodes says the attempt to link an independent press with the opposition is disturbing, and will establish journalists as the enemy in the eyes of Museveni’s
“Most worrying is the tendency to accuse the press of siding with the opposition, of planning economic sabotage and opposing development,” he said.
Press freedoms are being squeezed in Uganda as Museveni, in power for 25 years, faces the biggest political threat to his rule so far in the form of the
protests that Besigye organized last month.
But this is nothing new, according to Maria Burnett, a researcher at Human Rights Watch who says, “The space for journalists to report on controversial or
politically sensitive issues in Uganda has decreased over the past decade.”
Referring to more recent events she said, “During protests, journalists have been targeted by security forces for beatings, and had cameras and photographs
“The government of Uganda has deployed a wide range of tactics to stifle critical reporting at both newspapers and radios, from occasional physical violence to
threats, harassment, bureaucratic interference and criminal charges,” Burnett said.
In response to the crackdown on press freedoms, Ugandan journalists have imposed a boycott on reporting government events.
But that seems to have had little impact with police chief Kale Kayihura proposing to introduce special accreditation for journalists wishing to report on
In an editorial, the Daily Monitor wrote that journalists have, “for long endured a battering from government elements.”
The paper continued: “Surely, there have been many forms of affront to media freedom but none would come close to what the police chief and the government
“The media is not party to whatever happens during demos. Journalists are always there to watch, take note and report, and in essence, satisfy the public’s
right to know.”
For now Uganda’s media remains free to voice such opinions, but for how long? | <urn:uuid:55f461e7-ec7d-4d95-be8e-e6beb0bdb87c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/110518/uganda-press-freedom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962185 | 1,270 | 1.53125 | 2 |
President Barack Obama on Monday went after his presumptive Republican opponent Mitt Romney for espousing an economic vision that disregards the challenges facing middle class Americans.
Speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Obama portrayed the upcoming election as a battle to reclaim the basic ideals of an America made prosperous because of a strong middle class and an economy based on the proposition that anyone in the country can "make it here" if they try.
"This is a make-or-break moment for our middle class, and folks who are aspiring to get into the middle class," Obama said. "The next president and the next congress will face a set of decisions -- on the economy, on deficits, on taxes -- that will have a profound impact not only on the country we live in today, but the country that we pass on to our kids."
He added, "This election is your chance to move this country forward instead of seeing it go backwards. That's why I'm here. That's why I need your help."
Romney, Obama said, believes that the country should go back to the "top-down" policies of the previous decade, with a philosophy that espouses letting corporations maximize profits at any cost in the belief that it will automatically translate into jobs.
Making some of his most direct attacks yet on Romney's performance as leader of Bain Capital, a leveraged buyout firm, Obama cited a recent report that said Bain had been a pioneer in shipping American jobs overseas.
"So yesterday, his advisors were asked about this and they tried to clear this up by telling us there's actually a difference between 'outsourcing' and 'off-shoring,'" Obama said. "Now, what Governor Romney and his advisors don't seem to understand is this: If you're a worker whose job went overseas, you don't need somebody trying to explain to you the difference between outsourcing and off-shoring."
He added: "You need somebody who's going to wake up every single day and fight for American jobs and investment here in the United States. That's what you need. That's why I'm running."
Obama said that he, unlike Romney, wants to close loopholes in the tax code that profit companies moving jobs overseas and give tax breaks to domestic employers who create jobs.
But that specific example, Obama said, is not simply an isolated incident in Romney's past.
"What's important to understand is Governor Romney's commitment to outsourcing is not just part of his record," Obama said. "It's part of an overall economic vision that he and Republicans in Congress want to implement if they win this election."
The GOP economic plan backed by Romney, Obama said, consists of rolling back regulations and enacting tax cuts for the wealthy that would be paid for by large cuts to social programs, education and Medicare while raising taxes for the middle class.
"Think about this: To pay for another $250,000 tax cut for the average millionaire, they're going to ask you to foot the bill," Obama said. "I figure you can't afford it. Is there anybody here who can afford to pay thousands of dollars to give folks like Mr. Romney or me another tax cut?"
Obama added, "Unfortunately, that is their entire economic plan. That's it. When Mr. Romney tells us he's some sort of financial wizard who can fix our economy, that's exactly how he intends to do it."
Instead, Obama offered his own vision of a government that, while not trying to solve all the nation's problems, would create the conditions, through investment in infrastructure, worker training and education, for a future with broad prosperity.
"If you believe we need a plan for education and energy, for infrastructure and innovation; if you believe that our economy grows best when everybody has a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share, and everybody is playing by the same set of rules, then I'm going to need you to stand with me as I run for a second term as President," Obama said.
He added, "Let's get to work. Let's finish what we started. Let's remind the world how a strong economy is built, and remind them why America is the greatest nation on Earth."
by RTT Staff Writer
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44. Where the Shadows Lie
High over the plains of Mordor, the watch-tower of Cirith Ungol was alive with activity. Alive, acrawl with orcs, who trembled beneath the eyes of the Nazgûl that stalked its ways, impatient for the war that even now battered the walls of Minas Tirith, yet retained against such needs as this day brought. There was ghastly fume rising over the high passes, as Shelob's body slowly withered in the corpse-fire, now two days hot. Minas Morgul was awake once more, as regiments were moved to occupy it and search about the Stair and roads there. There was much coming and going over the high bridge that joined the Ephel Dúath to the Morgai ridges: searchers, reinforcements, messengers to bear tokens and report to Lúgburz, to Barad-dûr, where the Lieutenant of the Tower would groveling bring them before the Dark Lord.
Something was afoot—that was certain, and a great, brooding wrath had settled over all the land, as the Lord of Mordor pondered the news and other tidings that came to him as Lord of the Rings. There was a Power at work, mayhap more than one. He had felt it, somewhere to the West, and sent forth his armies earlier than intended, hoping to thwart it, wherever it lay. He had thought to catch it in Minas Tirith, but nothing yet had challenged his will there. Not truly. But then from the very fences of Mordor had come this alarm: a breach of his own land. Doubt had set in. Was it Minas Tirith that concerned him? Or was it something else? The Ring moved with this Power. Yet who held it? And where was he? The Song was shifting, and he listened, straining after its elusive refrain.
The servants of the Red Eye, who moved now toward the plains of Mordor and the armed camps massing there, were hushed and fearful, feeling in the land the echo of their Lord's will, and they went about their business in quiet efficiency, seeking to pass beneath notice.
Nor they alone: for north of Cirith Ungol—not so far north, but north enough—in the dark, shadowed vale between the Ephel Dúath and the Morgai, there toiled a small, grey figure, barely visible against the dullness of the rocks...
A small orc crept among the boulders that lay strewn along the old Morgai river channel. One might have thought it was hunting, going slow among the rocks as it was, rather than risking the higher ground which, though steeper, was more open. But one who looked more closely would have cause to doubt: it did not so much creep as reel from stone to stone, arms outstretched to catch itself as it half-fell against them, then pushed off to struggle toward the next, stepping clumsy on the dry, pebbled ground. It seemed dazed, dizzy, almost, moving as if through a dreamworld—or else underwater. But it fell ever so swiftly when it caught its foot upon a rock, and there was no soft sleep at the end to receive it, nor a waking beyond the nightmare.
Frodo Baggins lay sprawled where he had fallen, chest heaving, the stink of leather and metal and old, orcish sweat filling his nostrils, and his face pressed against the hard, dusty earth. His tongue felt swollen, so dry was it, and every bone in his body ached. He felt as a leaf on the storm-winds, tossed hither and thither, battered against bark and railing and walls. Even now, he could feel that storm at his back, seeking to lift him once more, and limbs twitched feebly in response.
I can't, I can't! a part of his mind wailed, resisting the call. But that voice, the voice of a reasonable hobbit, was not the only voice in him. The other spoke in tongues of flame, pulsed dark and dully red, like coal in the ashes and as menacing – the stone of ordeal, weighing heavy there at the core of his being, kindling agony in the small, pale scratch of a scar upon one arm, upon the cold white mark in a shoulder, making palms itch with heat. He had to bear it, had to bear it onward however many miles it took, however far it might be to safety – malign, precious burden.
Lately, there was a third, a constant soft whispering too 'high' almost to hear. He did not know who spoke, but it did not matter, for it, too, was an urging onward – of that he was certain. Like a stream that rushed in its bed, flowing round the silent rocks that cut through its surface, that voice whispered on its way, and Frodo's weary complaints sank into it like pebbles and were carried away.
And so there was nothing to do but go on. Had not Sam said so, and had he not promised when he rose from his side, and did not lie down there beside him? Thus while he had will in him, he struggled forward, Sam's face fixed in his mind's eye, and For you, for you, he thought, and made himself put one foot before the other.
And when will abandoned him, then all sight failed, save a sort of afterimage that walked with him and felt of Sam. Eventually, he would blink, and find himself elsewhere than he remembered, with little memory of how he had come there. Only the wounded report of his body suggested his course, and a sense of burn or chill that made him wonder whose will moved him when his own failed. Had he gone in circles, caught between fire and water? Had he doubled back? Where was he, and how long had he wandered? He could not have said, left to his own devices: the vale was a monotonous sameness of rocks and peaks once he had left the bridge behind. But he could feel the pull of an infernal fire, feel it pulsing through the land, radiating outward from the wounded heart of Mordor, and so knew that day by day, inch by inch, he drew closer to the Fire he sought.
Still, he did wonder where he was, and how he had come here – what transpired in the blank spaces of memory. Try though he might to recollect, nothing came to him, yet still he tried, and thought it not entirely a futile effort. For in point of fact, they were not wholly blank: wavering images, isolated scraps of memory or else delusion, floated in the darkness of the recent past, ambushing him in those brief periods between sleep-walking and the hell of wakefulness. Then, sometimes, they came fast and thick – too much so for him to make much of them, and he never knew what would remain with him when he opened his eyes to Morgai vale.
But he knew there had been orcs – he was wearing orc-gear, and he remembered the babble of their voices: angry, incomprehending, confused, demanding. He remembered their faces all about him. He remembered their stench – had no need of memory, in fact, for it was on him and he could not escape it. He had been among them, and somehow, he had departed, leaving them behind. There had been the bridge that he dimly recalled seeing from on high: a bridge that ran above the vale, connecting the hideous, watchful fortress with whatever lay beyond and down a dark road. He remembered the feel of walking over an airy void.
And then there was nothing, unless one counted waking again and again to rocks and bruises and thirst. Somehow, he had passed the tower of Cirith Ungol, had 'got away clean,' as Sam might have said, yet he had no notion how, though he knew the pursuit must be up, however confused it might be. He could not wait for memory to return before fleeing, however – that, too, was certain. Perhaps that was why he kept on as he did. Perhaps that was all the voices were: the hallucinatory terror of capture. Perhaps he was simply talking to himself...
But the weight of the Ring, and its heat belied such hopeful thoughts. No, the Ring was real, and he knew it spoke – verily, it sang in the strange way of metal, and there was not one dweller in Mordor who was deaf to its fell melody, mistake it how they might. For in it was the voice of Him who twisted every heart and put his mark on them all, calling them to him. The Ring, too, bore that mark – was that mark – and it knew its Master's call, recognized the land of its birth.
Other things, too, it knew – and he knew that it knew. It knew how he had come here; it knew the tale of his recent days, of how he had come past the tower, and the suspicion crept over him that perhaps those blanks in his mind were not the Ring's doing, but his own. Because perhaps... perhaps a part of him did not want to know. Sometimes, in the dim realm of shadows that he wandered in when will abandoned him, he had the impression of a solid, limp weight, of the heat of another body crushingly close, and of a mortal terror... a terror not his own. There was never a face, and never a sound, just feeling, and his hands burned hot...
Had it really happened? Orcs, he knew, were filthy creatures, but they were not likely to leave armor lying about for just anyone to pinch. Who did his clothes proclaim him to be, that orcs should have let him past? And where was their owner now?
Such questions made his heart pound and his vision swim. For though he had seen now murder aplenty since leaving the Shire, something about this made him want to vomit. Though he'd nothing in his stomach to heave and no strength to waste on it, such shreds of memory and the questions they raised made him sick. At the same time, they confused him. Could it be that he was worried... about an orc? About one of the innumerable orcs that opposed him, and whom he would have to fight and slay should they present themselves this instant? One of the many whom he had, in fact, helped to slay on the journey through Moria? Was this... guilt?
As he plodded forward, he worried at the puzzle. It made too much sense to suppose he had slain an orc, taken what he needed, and continued onward, just one orc among many, an orc that had got 'lost' at some point. It made too much sense, and yet why should he feel so? He had been horrified after Moria, but that had not prevented him from acting, nor had he given overmuch thought to anything beyond his own terror and revulsion, and his grief over Gandalf's fall. Yes, battle was disgusting, but he had done it before. He had not felt this way afterward.
Suspicion raised its head once more. It could not be the nameless orc that concerned him so much, that put such blanks in his mind, that set the will to forget against the desire to know. What really lay in those gaps? What... or who?
It was at that point that he would feel the sweat begin to bead on brow and neck – a cold, clammy sweat, and he shivered within his borrowed armor. He thought of Aragorn, of Boromir and of Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf. He thought of them facing the wargs in Hollin, and standing against the orcs in Moria – there was a fey, cruel light in them in such moments. They could be ruthless – that was both the why and how of their being warriors: they could kill, because that was how killing was done. He saw Boromir, writhing in Aragorn's grip, murder in his eyes, his fair face twisted by a madness.
A madness that had shown the split in him into which the Ring had wedged itself, corrupting all that lay about it. And the Ring, wreathed in flame, hung before his mind's eye, burned in the back of his mind.
Frodo felt his arm throb with the memory of It lodged there in his very flesh, and now he did swallow against nausea. Who was he, he wondered, in those blanks in memory? Who was he, when he staggered through the seeming unending night of Mordor, eyes unseeing, lost to the world 'til, for whatever reason, he was jolted back to wakefulness?
You're the one who's got to do this, Mr. Frodo, that's who.
Sam's voice sounded in his mind suddenly, and Frodo swallowed, hard and dry. My dear Sam! He shut his eyes a moment, and that dim, afterimage of a hobbit floated there in his mind's eye, eclipsing momentarily that circlet of fire. Frodo breathed in deeply, a breath sharp enough to hurt the stitch in his side, and then he opened his eyes. Mordor remained as grey and unyielding as ever it was, but he dug the heel of one gauntleted hand into his afflicted side, gritted his teeth, and picked up the pace.
The mountain rumbled, and the heat within him flickered in kindred restlessness.
And from the depths of his being, there came an answer: Yes, I am coming, and an eye opened onto –
– a small grey figure in the narrows of a great grey land. That is what the eye sees, and Frodo looks upon it and knows it for himself.
Where am I? he wonders, and wonders, too, at the dearth of feeling in that thought. Everything feels grey as that land, shrouded – mute. Mute, yes, deadened. Silent. The dry ravages, he thinks, and knows not why.
But they are, and this place is, and he is himself – dry as dusts and wispy with it. Come a breeze, and he should scatter like the husks of seeds on an autumn's day. And then the Thing in him would fall to the earth, burrow its way into the cracks of this land and lie there, winking gold, singing to the shredded sky 'til the Eye in the Tower saw, 'til the Will felt the echo of its own resonance.
It will happen soon, he knows, and feels perhaps a little sting at the thought. How could it not? The thin, worn shadow crawling down the empty gully, over the sand wastes a lost river had left has not much light left in him to give. The Thing in him devours, slowly, leeches it out like sunlight takes color from cloth. Who knows where it goes? Or where he shall go? Will he end here in this grey between, forever?
Frodo feels a thrill run through him, like the beat of a drum. No, he shall not end here. Here is no where, and there was no between of the Light and the Dark. No, for he stands in the shadows...
Aye, you're in a bad way, Mr. Frodo, no denyin' it.
Much as I can be, comes the reply, voiceless yet O! So exquisitely clear! And if he looks hard enough, Frodo thinks he can see a shadow in a sunless land that follows the grey wisp on his way. I told you, Mr. Frodo, didn't I, that between leaving others and leaving you, leaving you would be the death of me?
Once upon a time, Frodo answers after a long stretch of the mind after dim and hazy memory. Once, you did say that, I think. I don't know. Not anymore.
Well, I do, and I did say it, so of course I'm here. I'm always here, just when you need me, Sam says fondly, and Frodo feels him close now. Didn't ought to've gone this far, though, Mr. Frodo. It ain't safe, you know.
There is no safety any more, Sam, he says, with infinite resign.
Never was, really. But you know what I mean, sir. You shouldn't go walking in Mordor as not but your skin – things move in, if you take my meaning, Sam says wisely, and Frodo can almost – almost – see him standing there, blowing a stream of smoke around his pipe, as he would do at home, standing on the porch and looking over the gardens.
There is a rumble, hot and menacing, and Sam, or the shadow of him looks up. Storm's coming, he says.
There is no rain in Mordor, Frodo answers, longingly.
Didn't say rain. Storm. But, Sam says, as the grey figure staggers onward down an ancient road, I dare say there'll be some of that, too. You ought to get yourself back there, Mr. Frodo, seein' as how it's all on account of you.
I cannot go back. I do not know the way, Frodo protests, clinging to the dullness of this place. For 'tis better than the torment that awaits – anything is better than the torment that awaits in that place!
Don't matter – you'll go back. They're callin', don't you know?
Maybe they are, whoever 'they' are. At the least, Frodo can feel a tingling that starts in his fingers and toes and crawls up his limbs. He's getting heavy – gravity has found him, and he's going down, sinking down, and No no no, not that! Mercy, not that! Can you not leave me be? he cries to the unfeeling sky.
A sky that is warping about him, wrapping him up like a suffocating blanket, falling in after him, and he's going down, down, down – and he gasps as the heat hits him, right in the chest, like a weight of molten metal, that band about his heart. No, I can't! Please, I can't! he thinks, but 'tis no use. The world has got him now, presses in upon him, presses him back into himself, back with It... Ai Elbereth, save me, I'm going back!
And faintly, through the rush and thickness of the air: Of course you are, Mr. Frodo. Of course you are. But don't worry – I'm coming with you!
Frodo cries out, wordless, voiceless, as the world comes crushingly upon him, and –
– with a gasp, he blinked, just as the stone jarred him achingly sense-ful. He groaned and lay there upon the old road, unable to move. There was a thin, weak whistling in his ears, and after a time, he realized it was his own breath, and he could feel the grit of the road clinging to cracked lips. One arm was numb beneath his chest, but he could not muster the strength or will to shift it.
This is the end, then, he thought dully. He could see nothing but paving stones that marched onward past the limits of vision, and for all he knew they went on forever or ten steps. It did not matter. He could not imagine taking even one. Not even to save his life, and he could not even find it in him to fear. There was nothing in him – not even a sense of relief. Just... nothing. Nothing but heat and hurt.
Dry ravages. He shut his eyes and willed himself away...
But it was not to be. Lying there upon the road, ear pressed painfully to the stones, hearing grown sharp since Weathertop heard the first ring and beat of metal on rock. At first, he knew not what it was, but after a time, realization took hold: orcs!
And of a sudden, and utterly despite himself, he jerked. His whole body spasmed, twitched and cramped and clawed its way to hands and knees, as the white-hot familiar terror took hold: They will find It! With a grunt and heave, he rose, and pain flared incandescent, nearly knocking him over. But he put his hands on his knees, and hung his head a moment before first one foot and then the other lifted, trembled in the air a moment before one after the other found the earth once more. Blood pounded in his ears as an echo of a deeper throbbing beat, and slowly, shakily, he moved to it, grinding forward, stop and start, unsteady as a newborn calf.
Hurry, Mr. Frodo, they're coming up fast! Sam's voice in his head sounded, and with a supreme effort, Frodo attempted to lengthen his stride, to quicken his step. And for a few precarious moments, he managed it, before of a sudden, his foot slipped – it came down and there was nothing, and the next thing he knew, he was falling.
He gasped again as he hit the earth, but in surprise as well as hurt – for something chill and wet splashed over him. Water! As he lay stunned and aching in the sandy damp, he could feel it trickling over his hands, and past his toes, and the orc armor and leather grew heavy with it. He shut his eyes. This was beyond cruel! That after the torture of going all this way, from Shelob's cave to this forsaken place, desperate for one drop to drink, he should now find water and have no time to get it, for the orcs were coming and he couldn't, he could not let them have It!
But there was no way to stop it. There was no place to hide, no sheltering stone – just the road, and the open channel, and himself.
Curse it all, I care not any more! he thought, suddenly furious. He rolled onto his belly, dropped his head into the little streamlet, opened his mouth and let the water flow in, swallowing in great, convulsive greedy gulps. Let the orcs come, I'll drink my fill or they can drown me here!
So drink he did, and deeply, and reveled in the feeling of wet upon his face, and he neither cared nor noticed the bitter taste of the water. After so long without, he'd no taste for such, and he would've wept over it had he any tears to shed.
But at last, the tramp of iron-shod shoes grew audible in the distance. And though he had thought to stay and give no further thought to flight, useless as it was, slowly, the dread came over him, and he found himself clutching at the pocket in which the Ring lay. They'll take me to Him, he thought, as horror hollowed out his chest. Any moment now, they'll see, and they'll come, and then...!
He couldn't finish the thought. And though he groped at the hilt of the orc-sword that he bore, his fingers were nerveless, clumsy – he couldn't grip, couldn't draw. Was he dying already? Or was it the Ring's doing? Or had he simply nothing left of strength? With a shudder, Frodo shut his eyes, waiting for the hue and cry with bated, pained breath.
I'm so sorry, Sam!
An odd, whispering laughter, like a fall of sweet bells, sounded in his mind, as if from the depths of the earth, reverberating down his spine. Then: That's all right, Mr. Frodo. I understand. A sigh of air brushed over him, feather light, head to toe, making his skin tingle. But still, he could not move, and he set his teeth and waited, and waited, as the sound of marching feet drew closer, and closer.
Shadow fell upon him – a long train of it, it seemed, wavering a little as the orcs passed.
They never missed a stride. Their march did not falter. Two by two, they passed above him on the road, and never looked back and never slowed down, and their steps grew dim, faded into the distance, 'til he could hear his own harsh breathing once more.
Impossible! his mind told him, and incomprehension cracked his eyes open to an empty road... and a miracle of light! The feared wind had blown, and left him whole, and with the Ring in his pocket, and taken instead the ash clouds. There was daylight in the sky – the pale light of dawn. No doubt the orcs were hastening to reach their hold and shelter from the shine of day.
A strange feeling stole through him, then, and after a long, puzzled moment, he realized, to his wonder, that he was laughing! Painfully, wheezingly, sounding like a ghost or a gaffer, but he was laughing! The orcs had gone! Unbelievably, they had passed him by! As if... as if they had not even seen him.
"But how...?" he croaked hoarsely, as he painfully levered himself up into a sitting position. "How could they possibly – ?"
And then he trailed off, eyes wide, as speech died and wonder turned to sheer shock. Frodo stared, numbed and dumbfounded, for if the orcs passing had been impossible, what he saw before should be even more so. It's a trick, was the first coherent thought he had, and yet trick or no, his heart leapt in his chest, as if begging for release.
"But... not possible," he whispered.
But the figure standing staring down the road after the orcs seemed heedless of possibility. Or of history. Instead, he simply turned and eyed Frodo up and down, and gave him a small, sheepish smile, blushing as he said: "May I be forgiven! Didn't ought've gone ahead like that, but I've come back to you now, Mr. Frodo."
Samwise Gamgee stepped forward and held out a hand.
"Come on, now, Mr. Frodo – we've a ways to walk yet."
Frodo stared blankly at the hand hovering before him – brown and callused and steady – then slowly reached for it. The moment their fingers met, he felt a warm wave of dizziness seemed to sweep through him.
He had one glimpse of the lightening sky and the rest was darkness.
A/N: Welcome to the final book of Dwim's AU! Apologies for the many plodding scenes of Mordor that try to say what Tolkien said without repeating it verbatim – "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" and "The Land of Shadow" must be credited wholesale here, and may I never have to look at them this closely ever again.
That's all right, Mr. Frodo. I understand. - "The Tower of Cirith Ungol," RoTK, 208.
May I be forgiven! - "The Choices of Master Samwise," TTT, 445.
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author. | <urn:uuid:0d4cea16-dfd0-4e40-8ea7-88f8e263d38e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter_view.cfm?stid=8&spordinal=44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988875 | 5,888 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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