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Near & Far Aid, the philanthropic organization that fights the effects of poverty on numerous fronts, announced it distributed a total of nearly $1 million to Fairfield County agencies in the past year.
The organization said it awarded grants to more than 100 agencies in Fairfield County during its fiscal year that ended Aug. 31.
Those grants totaled $967,000, Near & Far Aid said in a news release, and brings to $12 million the sum distributed since the year 2000.
The all-volunteer organization, founded in 1946, raises money primarily through four signature fundraising events -- a fall golf outing, spring gala, a tour of designer homes and a concert.
"Our donors' dollars are going directly back into our Fairfield County communities, serving our neediest neighbors and creating lasting change,' Jeanne Burris of Westport, the group's president, said in the news release. "It's a perfect closed-loop eco-system: We seek to break the vicious cycle of poverty by creating a virtuous circle of giving."
Near & Far Aid grants support programs helping the homeless, educating children affected by poverty, at-risk families, adults in crisis, and supportive housing initiatives, among others.
"With our rich history in the community and a veritable army of volunteers and donors, we're able to continue to target poverty and positively impact the lives of thousands of men, women and children in Fairfield County," Burris said.
Near & Far Aid takes care to put money in the hands of agencies it is confident will use wisely. Its 27-member board of directors visits and conducts interviews with each applicant to evaluate the respective agency's effectiveness and need as well as their financial health and operating efficiency, the group said.
That view and ongoing monitoring, Near & Far Aid said, ensures that contributions from donors have the greatest possible impact.
For more information on Near & Far Aid, visit nearandfaraid.org. | <urn:uuid:9e558906-00ee-418e-a8bd-b9b574c021dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dariennewsonline.com/news/article/Near-Far-Aid-distributed-nearly-1-million-in-3881726.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934859 | 398 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Friday June 8, 2001
animated film of 1981 than 2001. Story line and characterization are decidedly old-fashioned, and a curious decision about production design gives this wide-screen cartoon some of the look and feel of a Saturday morning TV cartoon series.
Co-directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who share a passion for comic-book artist Mike Mignola, not only asked him to help design the production but also decided to have the "Atlantis"' characters drawn like the film was some kind of giant animated comic book.
The unfortunate retrograde nature of this look (the press material says studio types call it "Dis-nola") is accentuated by the conventional nature of screenwriter Tab Murphy's characters and dialogue that has people saying things like, "You fool, you've destroyed Atlantis." The combination makes this mildly diverting Disney epic, on which six people have story credit, come across as the opposite of cutting-edge, as something whose appeal is likely to be stronger for children than their parents.
One place where the "Disnola" look is successful is in its visualization of the mythical civilization of Atlantis, which Plato famously described as having disappeared into the depths of the sea. Lost worlds are always entertaining, as are picturesque ruins, especially in the film's CinemaScope format, one that is rarely used in animation.
Disney also went to the trouble, though it is far from clear why given how sparingly it is used, of hiring linguist Marc Okrand, the man who gave the world both Vulcan and Klingon, to construct a plausible Atlantean language. It has no capital letters, no punctuation, and, in case you're curious, it's said to zigzag across the page.
The only person in 1914 America who can read this stuff is young Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox). He's a language expert languishing in the boiler room of a great museum because his fuddy-duddy superiors don't accept, as he does, that Atlantis was a real and remarkably advanced civilization.
More of a believer is the endlessly wealthy Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney), a friend of Milo's late explorer grandfather. Whitmore has uncovered the Shepherd's Journal, a guide to finding Atlantis that only Milo can read, and hired Commander Rourke (James Garner) and the beautiful Helga (Claudia Christian) to take a thousand-foot submarine and find the legendary submerged civilization.
Rourke, a self-described "adventure capitalist," has employed a large handful of nominally comic experts in a variety of fields. Some of these, like explosives guru Vinny Santorini (Don Novello), are funnier than others, like the dirt-loving, soap-hating French digging specialist called the Mole (Corey Burton). As a group, they represent an unsatisfying attempt at comic eccentricity that doesn't wear any better than protagonist Milo's relentless dweebishness.
What does wear surprisingly well is the New Age earnestness with which the Atlantean civilization the team discovers is depicted. Ruled by an ancient king (Leonard Nimoy, that rare actor called upon to master both Atlantean and Vulcan) and his Baywatch daughter Princess Kida (Cree Summer), Atlantis turns out to be run by a mysterious power source that is connected to the crystals (yes, crystals) its inhabitants wear. Shirley MacLaine, take note.
Unfortunately, this endless energy supply attracts the notice of evildoers who attempt to make off with it and sell it to the highest bidder (the state of California?). Both that plot strand and the dangers inherent in just getting to that undersea land mean that "Atlantis" does not lack for brisk action. Flaws the film certainly has, but with a pace this frantic there's hardly any leisure to dwell on exactly what they are.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire, 2001. PG, for action violence. Released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Producer Don Hahn. Screenplay Tab Murphy. Story Kirk Wise & Gary Trousdale, Joss Whedon, Bryce Zabel & Jackie Zabel, Tab Murphy. Editor Ellen Kenesha. Music James Newton Howard. Art director David Goetz. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. Michael J. Fox as Milo. James Garner as Rourke. Cree Summer as Princess Kida. Leonard Nimoy as King of Atlantis. Don Novello as Vinny. Claudia Christian as Helga. Jacqueline Obradors as Audrey. John Mahoney as Preston B. Whitmore. Corey Burton as Mole. David Ogden Stiers as Fenton Q. Harcourt. Jim Varney as Cookie. Florence Stanley as Mrs. Packard. Phil Morris as Dr. Sweet. | <urn:uuid:064332a9-c713-4e1e-bd3c-da45855e8101> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courant.com/topic/cl-movie010607-7,0,5005663.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951607 | 989 | 1.648438 | 2 |
I thought this is a no brainer but alas, I should have known better. The web is full of stories about horrible code especially about enterprise software, that should be best coded of them all. You can blame it on the developers as they are the ones writing the code, but ask them and they will point the finger (not that finger) at the managers who "are clueless about software developing" and who don't care about anything as long as the software works and it's finished on time.
The truth is that both parties are to blame, although managers are the main culprits as they can enforce the quality of code. And their problem is that they don't understand that maintainable code has business value.
But let's define maintainable code: "Maintainable code is code that can be easily understood and modified without generating new bugs". Yes, it's my definition.
Managers care about 2 things: to finish the project on time and within the budget. Well, if the software is a product which generates revenue or it's an important business asset (used by the business itself to reduce costs or improve productivity) then the project is never finished. Bugs uncovered by users need to be fixed and new features will be added or modified as the client/business needs are changing. And that's where the quality of code will dictate your expenses.
Simply put, ugly code may work but it's very prone to bugs and any change takes longer than needed because the code is so coupled together that you can't change A without affecting B even if A and B are unrelated features. Fixing bugs usually means breaking some functionality and introducing other bugs. And in time, with every change everything becomes harder and harder, bugs appear more often, the users are unhappy (It doesn't work!!! Stupid software!) and more developers are needed to handle the monster.
Of course, the new developers need time to learn the code base and to understand it before they can actually do something and in the mean time your users are screaming. In the end, you get to increase costs (from hiring new developers and the good ones probably won't stay too long, unless you're paying them very well and you let them) while the pace of delivering fixes and new features gets slower and slower. And if it's a product you're selling this means higher development cycle and more time required until you get income.
But what if the code was maintainable? Then, by default there would be less bugs as there would be automatic testing in place. Changes can be made much faster because of loosely coupled code and with unit tests, any break in functionality or new bugs would be caught instantly. There wouldn't be a need for more developers, in fact it may be the opposite as you wouldn't need a whole team to maintain the application. If you replace a developer, the new one can understand the code base in short time so you get to fix bugs and deliver new features faster.
Having less bugs and getting fixes and new features will make the users happy. If they are your clients, this means you get to sell them the next version faster. If the software is used internally by the business, then you help your co workers to become more productive and the business more efficient.
It's important to realise that good code is not just a developers concern because the code is the application. So you need to ask yourself what you want: shoddy software which just works (most of the time anyway) but it is a pain to maintain and develop further or a high quality asset which can be easily adapted to the stakeholders needs. One will increase costs and stress, the other will improve productivity and help increase profits. You decide! | <urn:uuid:7df106df-cc13-478a-86a9-c525df946409> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sapiensworks.com/blog/category/Business.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965748 | 749 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Photograph of the painting "Darby and Joan" by Saddler, depicting an elderly man and a woman dining, [s.d.]. A highly detailed dining room is shown, a man and a woman sitting across from one another at a long table. The man sits in front of what appears to be a cooked pheasant or other game hen, holding his glass in toast. To the right, the woman appears uninterested. Two portraits are visible on the walls behind them, depicting a young man and a young woman respectively. Are these the diners in their youth? Below, a detailed rug can be seen. Also, a cabinet with fine plates and a dressing screen can be seen behind the man and woman to the left and right, respectively. | <urn:uuid:a8b8c1a3-90b1-446b-adc5-2fafacfcc711> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/18345/rec/21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94627 | 154 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Are there spots on the gloss of Estonia?07.10.2010, 18:17
The following article was published in Eastern Approaches section of The Economist on October 2.
Few outsiders know the Baltic states better than James Oates, a Scottish investment banker and blogger. So Estonians and their friends should take note of his sharply worded remarks about the Estonian government's treatment of Tallinna Vesi, the foreign-owned company that runs water and sewerage in the Estonian capital. Estonia has long prided itself on an exemplary reputation in everything from anti-corruption indices to rankings of business-friendliness. That has stoked smugness (never far from the surface in Estonia) and perhaps even a degree of complacency.
But as Oates points out, Estonia's record on treating big foreign investors is a bit spotty
“... few of the major international investments in Estonia over the course of the past few years have gone smoothly. The American investment in Estonian Railways ended in acrimony and a more or less forced renationalisation. The American investors were caught between powerful Russian interests which limited their participation in the lucrative Russian freight market. However they also faced challenges from the Estonian political establishment that repeatedly kept trying to alter the terms of the contracts which the Americans had signed in good faith. In part this was perhaps because many Estonian politicians had developed grave doubts about the wisdom of Rail privatisation in the first place, but possibly it was also because they had fundamental misunderstandings about the nature and strategy of the business. The investment ended in a welter of arbitration and litigation, with the American investors more or less accusing the Estonian government of using force majeur against them. At that time, several allegations of corruption were also made against political and state figures in Estonia.
”Now Tallinn Water, which used to be seen as a model example of privatisation, is embroiled in a similar row
“The terms of the privatisation were clear and, although the pro forma return on investment was relatively low, United Utilities [the British owner] have made substantial investments in order to bring Tallinn Water up to international standards. Now, however, the company is facing political pressure to restructure and to reduce its prices well below the levels agreed under the formula set at privatisation. Furthermore, the company believes that specific legislation targeting Tallinn Water is being drafted- which it considers to be purely arbitrary. The company has repeatedly requested meetings with state officials and these have been repeatedly denied. The government appears to be dealing with Tallinn Water, as with other investors, on the basis of ultimatum and not negotiation. Putting pressure on investors by creating a kind of Kangaroo court of public opinion is dangerous populism.”
Oates blames the "small and clannish nature of much of the Estonian political system" which can be "opaque to international investors". He also takes a brisk swipe at the Faustian pacts that some free-market politicians have entered into. For legal reasons I won't repeat his central allegation here. He concludes
“The fundamental basis of a healthy free market economy and democratic politics is trust- and investors have found that they can not always trust the Estonian state not to break or unilaterally alter the contracts that they have entered into, or to properly investigate serious allegations of malpractice. Whether this is the result of corruption, bloody mindedness or just incompetence, it still amounts to the same thing: considerable damage to the country.”
To be fair to the government, voters are quite cross about Tallinna Vesi and what they see as its inordinate price rises. Politicians have to listen to their electorate. But they also have to explain reality. The original terms of the privatisation may have been too soft, and the regulatory oversight too lax. But breaking a bad deal is often even costlier than honouring it. Estonia may find that the price of an acrimonious public lawsuit with a high-profile investor is more than just lawyers fees and compensation payments
Link to the original article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/eastern-approaches | <urn:uuid:91ab9330-2c56-44bf-a160-c810eeb5a9ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbn.ee/article/2010/10/07/Are_there_spots_on_the_gloss_of_Estonia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973166 | 848 | 1.539063 | 2 |
DANIELSVILLE — Two hundred years ago, the first Madison County commissioners gathered to approve a liquor license, buy and name the county seat Danielsville and reimburse residents a total of $82.50 for a mare and a mule injured on county bridges.
In a meeting that capped a full year of storytelling, history and civic pride, Madison County commissioners re-enacted the first commission meeting held two centuries ago, complete with suspenders, wide-brimmed hats and jugs filled with pretend moonshine. More than 60 people showed up to watch.
No one knows for sure if the first commission meeting — called the Madison County Inferior Court at the time — had moonshine, but it’s likely, said Madison County Historian Linda Fortson.
“Making moonshine did not become illegal until 1918. And corn was our No. 1 crop,” Fortson said.
Fortson organized the re-enactment, and came up with the agenda that included events from the county’s first two years of meetings, because the agendas back then were so short, she said. She collected the agenda items from the county’s records and known history.
“I can just picture the way they did it (Monday night) was probably the way it really did happen — really laid back,” she said.
Commissioners enjoyed themselves, approving suggestions with an “OK,” and ad-libbing dialogue about agenda items like approving a liquor license for a tavern owned by the county’s first clerk of court.
Even during the re-enactment, some commissioners bucked at budget expenditures like the suggestion the county pay the owner of a grey mare $75, since his horse was injured on a county bridge.
“I don’t want to give him anything for it,” said Commissioner DeWitt Bond.
“Well, apparently, we agreed to it at some point in time,” Chairman Anthony Dove chuckled.
The commissioners really helped bring life to the re-enactment, Fortson said.
“I was just very pleased and I’m very proud of them. They were very good sports and did an awesome job,” she said.
The re-enactment is the last bicentennial event for Madison County, officially formed in 1811. Committee members also organized a festival in September and a year-long monthly storytelling session where county leaders shared tales from the county’s past.
“(The Madison County Bicentennial Committee members) knew that we would do something big for the bicentennial on the (county’s) birthday. We knew that they would have a board of commissioners meeting on that night, so at first, it was just going to be a big reception,” Fortson said. “Then we thought, ‘Man, it would be neat if we could do a re-enactment.’ ”
Though the bicentennial committee is now disbanded, Fortson hopes people like her 9-year-old granddaughter, Madi, enjoyed the reenactment and will remember for the county’s 250th anniversary, she said. | <urn:uuid:151ca40e-5f81-4c87-944c-7dbf71876d20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2011-12-06/madison-county-commission-re-enacts-first-meeting-200-years-ago | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970912 | 676 | 1.820313 | 2 |
No straight party ballots for election Secretary of State Joyce Hazeltine reminds voters that the general election ballot will not have a straight-party voting option.
Voters will need to vote on each race individually.
"I want voters to remember that it may take a few minutes more to mark their ballots November 3," Hazeltine said. "You can still vote for all the candidates in one party, if you wish," she said. "but you will have to vote for each individual candidate on your ballot."
Hazeltine said straight party voting was eliminated by the legislature in 1997 at her request because of concerns that it was confusing.
"I talked with people who were marking their ballots Republican or Democrat simply because they were registered in that party and thought they were voting a straight ballot, unless they crossed over and voted for individual candidates."
Hazeltine said she realizes some South Dakota voters will be surprised that the option of straight party balloting is not available, but she hopes it will encourage voters to study the candidate issues they represent.
Hazeltine also reminds voters that any extra mark on a ballot that is not part of the voting process means the ballot cannot be counted. This eliminates the possibility of write-in candidates, Hazeltine said.
"If a voter inadvertently marks their ballot incorrectly," Hazeltine said, "they should ask for a replacement ballot."
Anyone with voting questions may call the Office of the Secretary of State on their toll free line at 1-888-70ELECT. | <urn:uuid:f95c2b28-8858-4a09-a40c-72273717d5ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plaintalk.net/1998/10/no-straight-party-ballots-for-election/ | 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 | 0.973 | 312 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Byron Caldwell Smith was Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Kansas during Harris' time there. He seems to have been an exceptional individual, for despite the fact that he died at the age of 27 there were at least two posthumous books published about him, apart from the one discussed here and the several mentions in Volume I of My Life and Loves to which it responds.
This part of the site is dedicated to the notorious author and editor Frank Harris, whose My Life and Loves scandalised Britain, Europe and America in the 1920s. Notwithstanding his reputation as a rogue and womaniser, he was an entertaining writer and individual who was always his own man.
Throughout his life Frank Harris attracted admirers by his talent, his original and forthright way of speaking and the rare strength of his personality. Unhappily, it was usually not long before the darker side of his character would make itself known, and his onetime devotees would draw away, repulsed by his brutality or perceived venality. Those that did not leave of their own accord were generally pushed away anyway by him, once he had decided that their enthusiasm did not come up to the high standard set by his vanity.
This little pamphlet, published as a commemorative item for American disciples of Harris, collects some articles from Pearson's. Most of them were written by Guido Bruno and consist largely of gushing praise for the late great master.
There are nevertheless one or two interesting items including a reproduction of a sketch of Harris by Joseph Simpson used as the frontispiece. I also much enjoy a piece from December 1920 in which Harris' after-lunch routine is described, including this passage:-
This book, published in the US with slightly different content as The Veils of Isis, was Harris' fourth collection of short stories. By this time Harris' writing was much more complex than in his first collection, Elder Conklin, and he employed much a greater variety of settings and styles. However, complexity is not always a virtue and some of the stories here seem to have been artificially inflated. | <urn:uuid:122423ad-2f82-4920-aee1-c5309026deef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oddbooks.co.uk/harris?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991441 | 428 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Most Americans are confident that he is the right man for the job of rebuilding the nation's confidence.
Fully two-thirds said they approved of his overall job performance, especially with regard to his handling of the economy, foreign policy, Iraq and Afghanistan.By contrast, just 31 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest in the 25 years the question has been asked in New York Times/CBS News polls.
It is not unusual for new presidents to enjoy a period of public support. Still, the durability of Obama's support contrasts with that of some of his predecessors at the same point in their terms.
The poll found that 70 percent of respondents were very or somewhat concerned that someone in their household would be out of work and looking for a job in the next 12 months.
Forty percent said they had cut spending on luxuries, and 10 percent said they had cut back on necessities; 31 percent said they had cut both.
By more than three to one, voters said they trusted Obama more than they trusted Congressional Republicans to make the right decisions about the economy.
More than two to one said they trusted Obama to keep the nation safe. Nearly one-quarter of Republicans said they trusted Obama more than Congressional Republicans to make the right decisions about the economy.
The survey was conducted Wednesday through Sunday, while Mr. Obama was in Europe for the Group of 20 summit of the world's largest economies.
The national telephone poll was conducted with 998 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:186005be-5155-4900-ad8d-5393b91bf343> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.oneindia.in/2009/04/07/obamaspopularity-rising-says-nyt-cbspoll.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98304 | 324 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Goose Lady of Green Mountain Fallsis asking for everyone’s help.
Especially folks who visit the little mountainside village up Ute Pass. And, in particular, those who fish in its scenic lake.
“If anybody sees our Mama Goose, her two legs are bound by fishing line and she can barely walk,” said 75-year-old Ann Pinell.
“If they call me, I’ll go right down. She’ll come to me. We need to get the line off and get her back with her babies.”
Ann is known around town as the Goose Lady because she takes such good care of the geese and ducks that make their home on the little lake, with its picturesque island gazebo.
She carries a bag of corn to feed the geese and ducks. And she puts up signs when the geese have goslings.
She wants to protect them from traffic and passersby.
This spring has been a roller-coaster for Ann.
First, a nest of eggs was smashed just before the goslings could hatch.
“It was so sad,” Ann said, shaking her head.
A short time later, Ann was tickled when a second nest of eggs produced five baby geese.
“Mama Goose sat on those eggs for two months,” she said. “She laid them in a flowerpot on the roof of a pub across from the lake.”
After they hatched, the mother goose became a popular sight, leading her five goslings waddling around town.
“They’d go back and forth across the road,” Ann said. “She was so proud of those babies.”
Then, a couple of weeks ago, Ann noticed the mother goose was hobbling. She had fishing line wrapped around both legs.
“Geese dive and come up in a tangle of line,” she said. “The danger is that fishing line pulls tighter and tighter and cuts into the bone.”
Last summer a goose lost a leg to a fishing line tangle.
Ann said 20 or so geese have become tangled in line left in the lake in recent years by anglers who simply cut off snagged lines rather than pulling them out.
So when the mother goose showed up tangled in fishing line, Ann and some others tried to catch her and cut it off.
But the goose became scared and flew off, perhaps to Crystal Reservoir along the Pikes Peak Highway, just a few miles up the mountainside.
“She can only hobble and barely swim,” Ann said. “But she can still fly.”
That was about 10 days ago and now time is running out. Geese shed feathers each summer, leaving them unable to fly for weeks. If she molts, she could be stranded and never reunited with her goslings.
“Those five babies don’t have their mother’s wings to sleep under,” Ann said. “We just have to find her.” | <urn:uuid:b537d16c-6845-4c67-9e0b-46dc895b4660> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sidestreets.freedomblogging.com/tag/goose-lady-of-green-mountain-falls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9794 | 658 | 1.625 | 2 |
Each semester some of the best student researchers from the Introduction to International Relations Research course (SIS-206) are selected to showcase their research projects in a Poster Conference that is held in the SIS Atrium at the end of the semester. For many SIS students, the Poster Conference is the first step in taking their research beyond the classroom and engaging in the broader scholarly dialogue on their topics. Many of the presenters use their SIS-206 projects as the basis for a Boren or Fulbright application or a further independent research project, and many also go on to present at the SIS Undergraduate Research Symposium (held each spring).
The Poster Conference is an excellent opportunity to meet students and faculty who share your research interests and to see what your colleagues are researching. The programs from past Poster Conferences are available above right. | <urn:uuid:bdbad8d9-19d5-4f71-9420-71b294c9320b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.american.edu/sis/undergradresearch/poster.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956215 | 170 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Americans may have trimmed their holiday spending this year, but the decrease in consumer confidence did not affect generosity when it came to end-of-the-year charitable giving.
Experts offer a handful of explanations for this paradox of money, including the potential role that the tragedies of 2012 — the Colorado wildfires, Hurricane Sandy, the Aurora theater shooting and the Newtown, Conn., massacre — may have played.
"There's so much to feel grateful and sad about that people don't feel that it is totally appropriate to go blow a bunch of money," said Melanie Ulle, senior vice president at Philanthropy Experts, a nonprofit consulting firm.
For retailers expecting sales to be high after consumer confidence hit a four-year high in October, the paradox remains an unwelcome reality. But local nonprofit officials aren't surprised and say heart-wrenching stories often inspire people to find ways to help out in their community.
"It's a matter of people opening up their hearts, period," said Terry Tedeschi, development director for Community Food Share in Longmont. "Certainly the tragedies like Sandy and the shooting in Newtown break people's hearts and make them want to reach out to people in some way, but they want to help locally."
Emergency donations haven't diverted annual donations for such nonprofits as Community Food Share or the Boys and Girls Clubs — both of which raised more in 2012 than in 2011.
Community Food Share was able to raise a rec-ord $1 million for a larger facility in less than six months, while remaining on track to meet its annual operating-budget goal of $2.4 million by the time the fiscal year ends in July.
"While I'm thrilled that we made it, I wasn't surprised," Tedeschi said. "I have seen miracles happen all over the place."
On Dec. 4, Colorado Gives Day raised a record $15 million for 1,258 nonprofit organizations — a 20 percent increase over 2011.
And the Denver Post Charities' Season to Share campaign has already raised $433,231 more than it had at this time last year.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver president John Arigoni attributes his organization's ability to raise $14 million in fiscal 2012 — much more than expected — to work keeping donors informed about how the organization's youth programs make a difference.
"The fact is that all of us, when a tragedy happens, will do something a little special, but it's really for that disaster," Arigoni said. "But we are working with 12,000 kids, so it's more of a need for ongoing support."
He said that asking for continuing support required building community confidence in the program and giving donors concrete data about how the Boys and Girls Clubs help kids grow into "caring and responsible" adults.
Though he couldn't provide more recent numbers, Arigoni said that message rang especially true for many people in the days after the Connecticut school shooting.
"There is also this movement — national and international — toward transformational giving that can really change the face of the organization," Ulle said.
She offered the examples of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have become synonymous with massive philanthropic donations.
"Those might skew the overall numbers because they have these megagifts. But I think the average gift in the U.S. is only 35 bucks," Ulle said.
Still, fundraising remains a struggle for some organizations. The Denver Rescue Mission is looking at a 3 percent decrease in 2012 donations through Dec. 19, and while the Weld County Food Bank's donations are up by 4 percent, it may not be enough to compensate for the need brought on by the drought in this agriculture-dependent county.
Kevin Mullin, development director for the Weld County Food Bank, said the organization is already exploring new ways to keep more engaged with donors.
Ulle said the recent uptick in donations may partially be attributed to this year's tragedies but said that doesn't explain the ongoing upward trend since 2008.
"The recession has forced nonprofits to fundraise in a smarter, more strategic way," Ulle said. "It has made us all collaborate more and made us better fundraisers."
For nonprofits that respond to big emergencies, such as the Red Cross, tragedies are always followed by financial support, but the organization also struggles to make people aware of the day-to-day work.
"We're so unique in that we are disaster-oriented, but it can be our struggle and our benefit," said spokeswoman Patricia Billinger. "We have been fortunate this year. Donors have been motivated by tragedies, but as they get to know us and our work, their following donations were not restricted for relief of certain disasters."
In the first five months of fiscal 2012, which began in July, the local Red Cross raised $9.315 million, nearly three times the $3.638 million raised in the first five months of fiscal 2011.
And while the true reasons for the 2012 spending remain something of a mystery, Arigoni of the Boys and Girls Clubs said it may just be a sign that the meaning of the holidays is changing.
"Maybe people are saying, 'Let's do less around the presents,' " Arigoni said, " 'and more with giving back to the community.' "
Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, email@example.com or twitter.com/kristenpainter | <urn:uuid:7163ddd3-f8b6-4e88-8c4b-8a5d7222a668> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brushnewstribune.com/brush-local-news/ci_22272849/holiday-charitable-donations-up-even-retail-spending-spirals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964826 | 1,119 | 1.75 | 2 |
There is a lot to be thankful for in 2012. The Sustainable Prosperity Project, which Worldwatch began in 2011 as an effort to help shape the Rio+20 summit this past June, has had a number of successes in mapping out key elements of sustainable prosperity, from what the green economy would look like to how to degrow overdeveloped economies, from how corporations should look in the future to how to reform local and international governance. While this project will now come to a close, hopefully you’ll find the ideas generated during this year–discussed in detail in State of the World 2012, in news articles stemming from the report, and the Sustainable Prosperity blog–useful in coming years.
But before this project closes, we do want to list some of the successes of the year. First of course, were the many opportunities to discuss our research, at the Rio+20 conference, at the Stockholm+40 briefings in Sweden, through the help of partners in Milan, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Washington, Berlin, São Paulo, and in fora like the International Degrowth Conference. Through these we talked directly with policymakers like the German Science and Technology minister, the Finnish Environmental Minister, and the former environmental minister of Brazil, Marina Silva.
Second were the opportunities to share our report findings in other languages. Thanks go to our partners in producing translations of the report in over a dozen languages including Portuguese, Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese, Finnish, French, Italian, and Taiwanese. Third, were the many opportunities to spread our message in the media: an excellent series in CSRWire, several strong op-eds including one on economic and environmental prosperity and one on biodiversity in IPS and one on economic degrowth in (of all places) the Wall Street Journal. Needless to say, the comments on that op-ed weren’t all that positive!
And let's not forget the most important offering of our gratitude–to the Earth for sustaining our burgeoning human population for another year.
We also want to lay out our many thanks. Our gratitude, first and foremost, goes to the Ford Foundation who made this project possible. Not only did it provide the generous support that made the activities around the book possible, but a number of chapters drew directly from a series of “White Papers” commissioned by Senior Program Officer Don Chen for the Rio+20 conference. We also thank others who have collaborated with us—our publishing partners, the authors of the many report and blog articles, Sustainable Prosperity Project Fellow Antonia Sohns, and research interns Alison Singer and Tucker Hirsch. Thanks to everyone for all your help!
While this blog will now wrap up, we will of course keep this website live, with videos, discussion guide, blog archives, and as a special year end gift, two additional chapters available free for download. You can now read Worldwatch President Robert Engelman’s chapter “Nine Population Strategies to Stop Short of 9 Billion,” and Worldwatch Institute-Europe Director Bo Normander’s chapter “Biodiversity: Combating the Sixth Mass Extinction.” We hope you enjoy both of these chapters if you haven’t read them already!
Thanks for reading the Sustainable Prosperity blog this year and get ready for Worldwatch’s new blog, “Is Sustainability Still Possible?,” which will replace this and the Transforming Cultures blog. The new blog will continue to offer positive visions of how to transform cultures, economies and societies to get to truly sustainable prosperity. But it will also provide a new element, namely how to prepare for a disruptive ecological transition, which every year gets a bit more probable as we dilly-dally with implementing the solutions we know we need to pursue. The new blog will be available here—starting in 2013. Thanks for reading!
–Erik Assadourian and Michael Renner, Sustainable Prosperity Project Directors | <urn:uuid:b119c08c-8b3e-42bf-905a-105b93d1b61b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.worldwatch.org/offering-thanks-at-the-end-of-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931676 | 804 | 1.8125 | 2 |
This advert from Audi is a signal from the auto industry that they are under pressure AND that they are willing to fight back.
In the lecture I'm travelling about with at the moment [I'll be publishing it on the blog eventually] I highlight how the auto industry learned all the tricks of postive marketing from the bicycle industry a century ago. This is how we USED to sell bicycles and bicycle culture. They have fine-tuned the art form and they rarely make mistakes. They know exactly how to highlight the positives of their products. On the other hand, we have forgotten how to highlight the positives of urban cycling and we bizarrely ignore the overwhelming Good News in our efforts to sell the percieved negative sides of riding a bicycle. It's hardly surprising that the auto industry are among the more fervent advocates for helmet laws. They know competition when they see it and they go for the throat in branding cycling as dangerous. It sells, quite simply, cars.
From a marketing perspective the advert above is pure brilliance. It capitalizes on the general perception in western societies that 'environmentalists' are kooky, nerdy hippie types who eat raw organic beet root for breakfast.
The environmental lobby has had 40 years to brand themselves well and have failed horribly. While people are perhaps aware of the issues, very few people are actually doing anything about it. That's why this type of advert is so easy to invent. 30 seconds of pushing all the right buttons on their opponents and all the right buttons on the general population.
Amazingly, the Audi overtakes the hippie-mobile Volvo on a curve. Not exactly traffic safety conscious, are they?
Here's an ad for BMW that gently caresses all the emotional heartstrings. Just listen to the speaker's manuscript:
"Joy is efficent, dynamic and... unstoppable." [meaning... we're not going anywhere, so don't get any funny ideas...]
"We realised a long time ago that what you make people feel is just as important as what you make."
"At BMW we don't just make cars... we make joy."
And on their website:
“On the back of this three-letter word, we built a company. We don’t just build cars. We are the creators of emotion. We are the guardians of ecstasy, the thrills and chills, and all the words that can’t be found in a dictionary. We are the Joy of Driving. No car company can rival our history, replicate our passion, our vision. Innovation is our backbone but joy is our heart. We will not stray from our three-letter purpose. This is the story of BMW. This is the story of joy.”
Not a single motoring helmet in sight in that advert. How odd.
If only cities and towns working towards increasing modal share for bicycles could learn from these basic marketing techniques that the auto industry have perfected. Hire a decent company to develop campaigns. Far too many municipal brochures/campaigns are too geeky to attract the attention and interest of the broader population.
If we're going to sell this urban cycling thing, we need to change our direction.
Thanks to a reader for the first advert and Walkit.com for the latter. | <urn:uuid:ced89de0-e84d-4a84-9319-69ab4d9e04c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/10/car-empire-strikes-back.html?showComment=1256575038075 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957993 | 674 | 1.554688 | 2 |
DEERFIELD — May 20, 2011, in Peshawar, Pakistan, started out the same as every other day for Christopher Bilodeau, who was serving there as a special agent with the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service.
The 39-year-old father of a young daughter and son, who were back in the States with their mother at the time, got in a car on that hot summer day with three other agents, left the secure residential area where they were living, and headed to work.
‘‘It was less than two minutes after we left at about 8:30 that I heard a really loud explosion,’’ said Bilodeau during a phone interview from the Washington, D.C., area earlier this month. ‘‘Then, there was a giant cloud of dust. We couldn’t see anything at first.’’
Bilodeau said the dust cleared quickly, and that’s when he realized a car bomb had gone off just as the car in front of his had passed it.
‘‘There were two other agents in that car, who were also going to work,’’ said Bilodeau.
‘‘You train and train for years for something like this, but nothing prepares you completely,’’ he said. ‘‘What you know, is that your Number One enemy is the car bomb. That’s the reality of the place.’’
Bilodeau said his car drove through the bomb site, but he soon realized that the car in front of them had gone into a ditch and hit a tree after the bomb exploded.
‘‘We stopped our car and went back,’’ said Bilodeau. ‘‘We got out of our armored car to help the other two agents.’’
Bilodeau said opening the door to his car and stepping out into the unknown was a huge moment for him and the agents with him.
‘‘You’re leaving the safety of your armored car and you don’t know what’s out there,’’ he said.
Bilodeau said he soon learned the blast was extensive and there was heavy damage to the other car.
‘‘We wrestled with the doors to get the guys out,’’ he said. ‘‘They were shaken up, but we got them back to our car and we all piled in. We quickly closed the doors and got out of there.’’
Bilodeau said his training back in the states as a paramedic kicked in and he immediately assessed his colleagues’ injuries.
‘‘You don’t think about what’s happening at the time,’’ he said. ‘‘You just fall back on your training and do what you have to do.’’
Bilodeau, who was in Pakistan for a year, said he had always had plenty of contact with his wife, Sam, during his stay in Pakistan. He said they would talk on their cell phones, Skype, and he would email her, his children, and his father often.
‘‘Later on that day, my first call was to Sam,’’ he said. ‘‘It was early in the morning for her, so she didn’t answer and I had to leave her a message. I told her there was an incident, but I was fine.’’
Bilodeau said his next call was to his father Douglas Bilodeau, who owns Douglas Auctioneers in South Deerfield.
‘‘I wanted to get to him before he saw the morning news,’’ he said. ‘‘He always watches international news.’’
‘‘I do remember that once I had a chance later that day to think about what had happened, all I could think was that I was a long, long way from home,’’ he said.
Bilodeau grew up in Deerfield and graduated from Frontier Regional School in 1991. He attended Greenfield Community College and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Western New England College.
A former Deerfield police officer, he left the force in 2008 to become a U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service special agent.
‘‘When I was serving as a police officer, I was looking for a broader career path,’’ said Bilodeau. ‘‘I was at a training class in New Hampshire when I met a police officer from New York City who talked with me about DSS.’’
Bilodeau said he had no idea what DSS agents did, so he went home and looked it up on the Internet.
‘‘It seemed like it was something I’d like to do, so I started taking classes,’’ he said. ‘‘It took me a couple of years to finish them. Then, I applied.’’
Bilodeau said he started basic training shortly after.
‘‘We would train with scenarios like the one in Pakistan,’’ he said. ‘‘We’d do them over and over. We trained for high-threat areas.’’
Bilodeau said he was able to react the way he did, because he was given specialty training.
‘‘They gave us the training we’d need to function and perform in this type of situation,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a pretty extensive program. This isn’t a glamorous job. It’s pretty down and dirty.’’
Bilodeau, along with the three other agents traveling in his car that day, received the Award for Heroism from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his courageous actions during the terrorist attack on his motorcade.
Bill Miller, deputy assistant secretary for high-threat posts in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, said Bilodeau and the others performed masterfully in one of the most significant terrorist attacks against Foreign Service personnel in recent years.
‘‘I am humbled to be recognized for what happened that day,’’ said Bilodeau. ‘‘We had to take care of each other; that was our job and that’s what we did.’’
Bilodeau said earlier this months that he will be back in Franklin County to visit his family and friends in a couple of weeks. He currently works and lives with his wife and children in the Washington, D.C., area. | <urn:uuid:40e6806b-82bc-4f5e-aa17-d5fd13b0956d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegram.com/article/20130124/NEWS/301249738/1052/newsrewind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990836 | 1,442 | 1.59375 | 2 |
ATN Thermal Vision are a fantastic choice for higher end uses, from home and perimeter security to hunting and military operations where visibility is low. ATN is known around the world for the quality of their night vision devices, and they have proven themselves again and again as an innovative leader in low light imaging. But there are certain situations where even their outstanding night vision can't see. In these situations an ATN Thermal Imager is the perfect choice. Unlike ATN Night Vision, which amplifies light to produce a usable image, ATN Thermal Imaging Scopes view infrared light, which is given off in varying amounts by almost everything. What is really great about ATN Thermal Optics is that they help you see through heavy smoke and fog. These conditions would render most traditional night vision devices useless. Thermal Imagers will still detect the heat signatures of people, animals or cars, so you'll still be able to get a great view. This is especially helpful in perimeter security, where simply detecting a possible invader is of the utmost importance. If there's a little rain or fog, a smart intruder would know they are mostly invisible. Keep your home or base totally protected by using an ATN Thermal Imager to get a perfect view.
More About ATN Therma Vision
ATN Thermal Vision devices have a wide variety of uses. Hog hunters love them because they provide a good view of game through foliage. If your rifle is equipped with an ATN Thermal Vision Rifle Scope you'll be able to accurately take a shot when others cannot. ATN Heat Vision is also extremely useful for rescue operations where even the faintest reading from the optic can alert rescue teams to a person's presence. The numerous applications for ATN Thermal Imagers makes them some of the most versatile optics available from OpticsPlanet! | <urn:uuid:e7a5f50d-18ff-4a7f-aa39-49a60d2139e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opticsplanet.com/atn-thermal-imagers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948577 | 364 | 1.734375 | 2 |
When workmen completed tearing down the Old City Dray Line building on Market Street they came across a grave marker in the foundation of the building with the name of W. W. Allen, 1895. Also on the marker was the Masonic emblem. The mystery of how it got there was cleared up by Clinton Foster. He had put it there. About 20 years ago, then a partner in the Dray Line business discovered that the front foundation of the building was bulging. The heavy loads of freight going in and out of the door had rocked the foundation of the building. To serve as a brace, Mr. Foster remembered an old grave marker that had been around the building since he had become a partner some ten years ago so he dug a hole next to the foundation and dropped the marker in as a brace and it has kept the building up every since. Now that workmen have dug it up again, the mystery confronts a new generation … as to where it came from and why it never served its job. Do you know?
Clay County has reached its Red Cross quota. The war fund drive netted $5,208.25. Forty three percent is retained by the local chapter. Fifty seven percent will be sent to the American Red Cross headquarters for use in the country and overseas.
Clay County's greatest War Bond Drive will start April 16. The county quota is $300,000 which must be bought and paid for during the month of April.
The Thomas Cruickshank home at 207 South Yale will be auctioned off on April 21, 1943. A full line of furniture will be sold immediately after the house sale.
The fire department sounded a false alarm with the trucks going to the fair grounds. When they arrived there a group of fire followers who followed the trucks were given tickets by members of the fire department with the following warning: "You have just violated the rules of good citizenship by interfering with the fire trucks and fire apparatus. We have sounded this false alarm to let you see for yourself the risk involved for both the fire department and the public. Your name and license number have been recorded and will be filed with the police department, and in event of repetition a regular traffic ticket will be issued."
There were 68 Vermillion High School students who graduated on May 23 at Slagle Auditorium.
Captain Jack Lloyd, 75 year old character out of the old west, was a Vermillion visitor on Monday. He was on his way to Sioux Falls to attend a celebration for Joe Foss. The colorful character tells of selling newspapers in the No. 10 Salon at Deadwood and run errands for the miners and dance hall girls. He remembers how he came into the No. 10 Salon on August 2, 1876, when the wizen-faced McCall shot "Wild Bill" Hickok through the back of the head. He also recalls how the crowd cut Hickok's boots from his feet, how Calamity Jane rushed into the place and wanted to get McCall. He says McCall was acquitted by a miner's jury, but the government arrested him, legally tried and hung him at Yankton. He claims that Calamity Jane, hearing that he was an orphan, adopted him and looked after him until he was 12 years of age. At that time of ripe maturity, he started out on his own, riding trail with the cattle men, hunting gold with the prospectors, dealing at gambling tables, and doing almost everything that was being done at that time.
Jacobsen's Bakery is sponsoring a series of wartime recipes. They are designed to help housewives save both money and ration points.
Word has just been received by the parents of Pvt. Lester Russell that he is a German prisoner of war. It was first announced that he was missing in action in North Africa. He was one of the first men from Clay County to go overseas to Ireland and it is believed to have been with American troops when they invaded Africa last November.
On May 13, residents of Vermillion rubbed their eyes in amazement when they awoke to find the ground covered with snow. This is the first time in 30 years to see snow at this late date.
The subscription price of the Plain Talk for readers living outside Clay, Turner, Yankton and Lincoln Counties will be raised to $2.50 a year. Production costs and a war time shortage of newsprint has made it necessary to raise the prices of subscribers living outside the above named counties.
In the meantime, another black out test can be expected at any time and all air raid wardens are expected to be at their stations after the first two-minute blast.
The need for tin is acute. All Clay County housewives are urged to prepare their tin cans for collection. Fourteen tin can depots are ready to received cans. The grocery stores in Vermilion are all depots in Vermillion. There are other depots at country stores in Hub City, Dalesburg, Westreville, Wakonda, Meckling and Burbank. The cans must be washed and the labels removed. No rusty cans please. Remove the top and bottom and step on the cans—do not use a hammer. Insert the lid and bottom inside the can. The cans will be picked up by Mr. Hawks of Yankton and from there go on their journey to aid the war effort.
Heavy rain and wind struck Vermillion. Three inches of rain flooded streets and basements in one of the worst storms in many years. Picnickers and others who were out on the hot sultry Sunday afternoon quickly ran to seek shelter. The quiet humid day exploded into the heavy cloudburst. The city was left strewn with fallen trees and branches. The northwest wind ripped the entire roof off the large grandstand at the county fairgrounds hurling huge sheets of tin several blocks into the yards of nearby homes. Many gardens in town were damaged and small grain and corn was nearly flattened to the ground. | <urn:uuid:03303f68-9aa2-4295-a4d8-ddc22751d70d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://plaintalk.net/2010/08/sesquicentennial-highlights-62/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978659 | 1,218 | 1.703125 | 2 |
As a Mercy, faith-inspired institution and part of the body of the Conference for Mercy Higher Education, Mount Mercy cherishes and celebrates its religious liberty, and stands in agreement with the Catholic Church’s devotion to the free exercise of religious freedom. As such, the institution was deeply opposed to the original ruling and the stringent erosion of religious expression that such a ruling implied.
The Catholic Church’s traditional, founding position against artificial contraception was clearly pronounced again in 1968 in Humanae vitae, the encyclical of Pope Paul VI.
The considerable backlash to the HHS’ ruling by many Catholics as well as leaders of numerous faith-based health and human service organizations, regardless of their stance on contraception, reveals a far deeper issue at stake --- the issue of religious liberty. The huge outpouring of support in favor of religious freedom (manifested in this specific issue of contraception usage) goes back to a more fundamental conviction that umbrellas individual issues, and that is the fundamental right to religious liberty, regardless of which subject matter is at stake.
On February 10, after the Obama administration ceded ground on the original mandate, the Sisters of Mercy issued the following statement:
“The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas are pleased that adjustments are being made in the new health insurance requirements that will ensure conscience protections for religious-affiliated institutions. We commend President Obama for his openness to dialogue on this issue and his willingness to address these concerns. “
Encouraged by President Obama’s recognition of the “inalienable right” of religious liberty and his administration’s willingness to work with religiously affiliated employers to find an acceptable balance between health coverage and religious freedom, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) issued a statement on February 17:
“ACCU eagerly awaits the opportunity to meet with key leaders of all faiths and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the enduring value of religious liberty and work out the critical details related to self-insured health plans and other dimensions of the mandate.”
Clearly, thoughtful and proactive measures are needed to continue the conversation and ensure that the deeply-held and cherished value of religious liberty remains protected and upheld at the Federal level. Mount Mercy University will join this cause and supports the statements issued by the ACCU and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.
For more information on Mount Mercy’s Catholic identity, please visit our website.
Sister Shari Sutherland
Executive Director for Mercy Mission and Identity
Director of Campus Ministry | <urn:uuid:2f01054e-fd64-4d91-adea-68f8ab27fd5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mtmercy.edu/news-events/article/2012/02/25/special-reflection-office-mercy-mission-and-identity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950601 | 518 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Lasting ImpressionsJune 1, 2008 By: Marianne Dougherty American Salon
As many of you know, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, so when I tuned in to Primetime on ABC and caught Diane Sawyer's moving tribute to a Carnegie-Mellon University professor named Randy Pausch, I took the time to watch. Despite the fact that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Pausch refuses to succumb to self-pity. Instead, he has chosen to live life to the fullest and inspire those around him to do likewise. Six months after his diagnosis, Pausch, a beloved professor of computer science at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh and father of three small children, delivered "The Last Lecture" to a group of students and well-wishers. Lots of professors give last lectures, in which they are asked to reflect upon their demise and consider what matters most to them. Considering Pausch had been given six months to live, his last lecture could have been a maudlin affair. Instead, it became a celebration of life, of seizing every moment, because, as Pausch told his students, "Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think."
Someone videotaped the lecture and posted it on the Internet for a few people who were unable to attend. Since then, more than 10 million people have watched Pausch's last lecture, which has just been published by Hyperion. His message resonated with me, and I imagine it will with you, too.
FROM LEFT: The Last Lecture is available from Hyperion; Randy Pausch with his wife and children at their home in Pittsburgh.
Pausch speaks with a combination of good old-fashioned charm, humor and wit of finding a way to make your dreams come true. Apparently an optimistic attitude can't hurt. Pausch asks if we identify with Tigger, the irrepressibly upbeat tiger, or the gloomy donkey Eeyore in A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner. Not surprisingly, Pausch identifies with Tigger. When it comes to facing adversity, Pausch says, "The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." Pausch is facing one heck of a brick wall, but as we went to press, he had still not backed down. Read his book or Google him and be inspired by what you hear. —Marianne Dougherty, editor in chief, firstname.lastname@example.org
BEST OF YOUTH
Matthew Thorpe, 41, just joined the team at Patrick McIvor Studio Two in Allentown, PA. With a background in both art and music, Thorpe has a reputation for being a trendsetter, but he doesn't just duplicate trends he's read about, he actually creates them. "Celebrities all have the same hair—long with sweepy bangs. Using a celebrity photo as a reference is fine, but I like to add subtle variations to create an individual style with more of an edge and fashion-forward attitude," Thorpe says. Unlike many stylists, his favorite tool is not his shears or razor, it's his ears—he really listens to his clients. That kind of empathy, coupled with a solid background in cut and color, is rare in this business. —M.D. | <urn:uuid:3117c9a3-2af9-4b37-b14a-728b882d13d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americansalonmag.com/salon-content/lasting-impressions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981637 | 730 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Essay: Customer Relations Activities
Their customer relations activities like handling, language, answering queries, handling disputes, pricing and discounts determine the relationship the customer has with the motel.
Since the maids are few and leave without notice, it is possible the customer relations for this motel are low. The careless approach to the job has reduced the grade of the motel. It has been reported that several customers have had to be given a full refund. This presents a negative cultural practice because the motels will experience further losses. It is expected that those in the forefront of change are the mangers. This however, will be difficult seeing that only half showed up for the strategic meeting. If the organizational culture of this establishment entails laziness and off hand approach, then drastic measures are to be taken even on the management.
Kindly order custom made Essays, Term Papers, Research Papers, Thesis, Dissertation, Assignment, Book Reports, Reviews, Presentations, Projects, Case Studies, Coursework, Homework, Creative Writing, Critical Thinking, on the topic by clicking on the order page. | <urn:uuid:75d95454-6e5c-4a79-9504-e5718b4db08f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.papersunlimited.biz/essay-customer-relations-activities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950005 | 221 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Every now and then, there’s a visual that just blows audio out of the water. And with Emergence on the airwaves this week, this one in particular is on my mind.
It’s a video of starlings, hundreds of them, flying as one. An event which happens to be called a murmuration.
Maybe you’ve seen this video before. It’s been making the rounds. I’m trying to put my finger on what makes it so wonderful. Is it the birds’ changeability? How they appear first like a gnat cloud, then a blanket, then a sea anemone opening and closing in the sky? Is it the music? How close they fly to the camera?
I think it’s what happens at moment 01:45. When the girl (Sophie Windsor Clive) basically drops her paddle and stares at the camera wordlessly.
That giddy look of disbelief is an event that’s perhaps even harder to capture than the murmuration itself: human awe. The real stuff. Quick and simple. It’s that feeling that nature writing so often butchers by over-inflating the wonder, gilding it with too many adjectives. In desperately trying to recreate that rush, that swell through the body, it's easy for a writer to destroy it. And here. Well. In this video, we get Sophie's goofy stare. A snort of laughter.
And there it is.
Heh, heh. BUT.
The longer I sit with it, the more I find myself wondering… why the laugh? Is there some reason that birds unfolding through the sky undams a rush in so many of us? Is it pure hypnotic joy? The thrill of being overwhelmed numerically? The strangeness of watching a well-choreographed event that you know isn’t choreographed?
In some ways, I know this question is unanswerable. That it's different for everyone and blah blah blah.* But... I came across a document recently that offers a pretty compelling explanation. It's a poem called “Starlings in Winter” by Mary Oliver.
I didn't use to like poetry. But moments like the hard edge of grief in this particular poem make me start to. Oliver is somehow able to put words to that swell -- from the Ah on high to the boots down low -- and I don’t know quite how she does it, but I leave her poem having experienced a rush in miniature, that same kind that happens in nature, that can remind even the most empty shell it has within it a capacity for joy.
*The filmmakers-- Sophie and Liberty -- think that look of awe at the end has a lot to do with the video's success (as well as the birds' kindly invitation to let the women be a part of their rolling flighted fun that day). They watched the video skyrocket from 400 views to over a million in 2 days, and then experienced a flood of emails from complete strangers. To their surprise, a large portion of those emails, in addition to sharing stories of their own experiences being moved in nature, extended invitations to the women to come stay with them. Sophie and Liberty are now thinking they'll do it: visit these people on a "mega road trip of discovery" to see what it is that really binds people together, in a feature film documentary called, "Come Stay with Me."
Lulu makes radio, pie, and stories in the hills of Charlottesville, VA. She first heard Radiolab when she was working as a woodworker's assistant in Brooklyn. And that changed everything. She thinks it is Miracle Gro for the mind and hopes to be making the stuff till she is blue in the hair. You can read and listen to her stories at LuTimesTwo.com. | <urn:uuid:a7b1388e-e882-4c21-9b0e-39f0e352a28d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2012/sep/17/murmuration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961288 | 796 | 1.59375 | 2 |
As reported in the Grio, rapper Too Short created a storm of controversy when he offered the following advice to boys:
"When you get to late middle school, early high school and you start feeling a certain way about the girls... I'm gonna tell you a couple tricks," Too Short said in the video. "A lot of the boys are going to be running around trying to get kisses from the girls... We're going way past that. I'm taking you to the hole."In response to the controversy, XXL and Too Short issued some lame apologies. Unfortunately, apologies are not good enough.
Then, the 45-year-old rapper, whose real name is Todd Anthony Shaw, asks women off camera to "cover their ears" to avoid being offended. Short then describes a scenario in graphic detail. "You push her up against the wall," he continued. "You take your finger and put a little spit on it and you stick your finger in her underwear and you rub it on there and watch what happens."
This situation is emblematic of a larger problem. During Too Short's hay day, his brand of hip hop was at the fringes of the culture. It was one of many voices in the hip hop community. Around that time there were plenty of positive alternative mainstream artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, etc.
Today, that is not true. Now, Too Short's brand of rap music is more acceptable. Misogyny, crack dealing and murder are constantly glamorized in today's so-called hip hop. The art can be summed up in four words: money, drugs, sex and violence. Mainstream popular hip hop degrades and objectifies black women. Instead of respecting women as equals, women are reduced to scantily stage props to be used and abused. Instead being respected black women as sisters, mothers and wives, many black male rap artists routinely call them bitches, hoes, chicken heads, etc. Common hip hop expressions and slogans include misogynistic phrases such as "Gs up hoes down, bros before hoes, we don't love them hoes, money over bitches and treat her like a dog." By disrespecting our women, we are disrespecting ourselves and destroying our family structure. The destruction of the family structure perpetuates the destruction of the black community.
Although we do not control the corporations that project these negative images, no one is forcing these black male artists to degrade black women. No one is forcing us to buy this crap. In the words of Carter G. Woodson, the oppressor no longer has to be concerned about our behavior because our thinking has been controlled. Many of us have internalized and accepted an inferior status. Today, the white man is not disrespecting our women. We gladly do that ourselves. The white man is not the one calling us niggers. We gladly call ourselves that. We are the only group of people who proudly use our enemy's racial slur to describe ourselves. In the words of MF Doom, "what type of chitlins is that?"
Mr. Woodson is right. By purchasing and supporting such misogynistic and self destructive music and magazines, we are creating that proverbial back door for ourselves. At some point, we must take responsibility for the images that we allow to be projected. Just as we protest against bigots like Don Imus and Pat Buchanan, we should organize sustained protests against corporations and artists who humiliate our community.
I commend the efforts of ColorofChange. People who degrade black women should be fired. However, I don't believe that firing people is the solution to the problem. We need a social revolution, a revolution in values. The music industry, like most businesses, is driven by greed and money. As long as we demand and accept garbage, they will keep feeding it to us. If we stopped buying negative music and started supporting more positive artists like Mos Def, Common, The Roots and Talib Kweli, radio stations would be compelled by market forces to play such artists on the radio. Record labels would be compelled to sign and promote more positive artists.
Ultimately, we must own and control our music and our culture. We must use hip hop as a means of liberation. We must stop allowing corporations and their negro overseers to use our culture to destroy us.
This article is cross-posted on Jack and Jill Politics. | <urn:uuid:a16340b7-ef76-4612-a5f3-b155106e3e71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://new-possibilities.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-must-use-hip-hop-as-means-of.html | 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 | 0.96444 | 906 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Potential for Sandy scams prompts warnings
No sooner than the floodwaters had receded and high winds from Superstorm Sandy faded, another threat is arising with the inevitable appearance of the scammer and the con man.
Authorities warn of the likelihood of Sandy-related fraud reaching far beyond the storm zone — from bogus charities seeking donations, to home repair scams and sales of flood-damaged vehicles.
State attorneys general, business and consumer groups and the Justice Department are among those cautioning consumers to be wary as requests for donations start arriving via email, text message, telephone and Twitter.
"Fraud is an unfortunate reality in post-disaster environments," said Joe Wehrle, president of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit group which deals with vehicle sales and repairs fraud. "As the initial recovery from Hurricane Sandy begins, there are people right now who are planning to converge on the affected areas in order to scam disaster victims out of their money."
There is already a focus in the hardest-hit areas on the potential for shady contractors.
"We know from past experience that fly-by-night contractors who are incompetent, dishonest, or both, will descend upon the storm-affected areas in the coming days and weeks, seeking to capitalize on those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday. "Consumers must be extremely wary and do their due diligence before they hire anyone, sign any contract, or pay any money for home repair."
Evidence of the potential for fraud began surfacing online even before Sandy roared through the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast.
Nearly 1,100 Internet addresses related to Sandy have been registered since last Friday, according to Internet domain research site DomainTools. The names reference Sandy and words such as "hurricane," ''frankenstorm," ''aid" and "relief."
Such sites are not all malicious and often are set up to get random hits and exposure for their linked advertisements, said Ullrich, chief research officer for the Sans Institute's Internet Storm Center in Bethesda, Md. But in past disasters, some also have duped unwitting consumers out of money.
Some sites typically have featured a "donate" button. But either the money will never go to the relief fund or they will simply retain your credit card number for use later. | <urn:uuid:f3ac58bb-2e63-444c-acbd-5ea87ce9e18a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northjersey.com/news/Potential_for_Sandy_scams_prompts_warnings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945738 | 475 | 1.796875 | 2 |
After Feb. 24 dust storm
Water truck back at Gold Hill Mesa
A water truck was back on the Gold Hill Mesa development site Feb. 27 after about a two-month absence.
The 5,000-gallon-per-hour spray, combined with the installation of temporary plastic fencing, will reduce the likelihood of dust plumes like those that blew off the 210-acre site Feb. 24, according to developer Bob Willard.
“I take responsibility for that,” he said of the dust. “That wind storm was terrible.”
On that, he'll get no argument from Westsiders, who recall how the Golden Cycle mill processed gold ore at the site off 21st Street and Fountain Creek, leaving its fine mill tailings open to the winds for almost half a century before (and even a few years after) closing in 1949. One long-time resident, Bob Edgar, said the Sunday dust flurries “were worse than what it was when the mill was operating.”
John “Skip” Sherbak, a former worker for the Midland Terminal railroad (which brought the ore from Cripple Creek to Golden Cycle), said that back then such dust storms “were why the Westside never developed for years.”
Mark Walker of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said this week that a single incident like that on Feb. 24 does not pose a health threat, but it would become one if such problems continue. “The danger would come from a 30-year exposure, breathing the dust every day,” he said.
Water trucks, often three at a time, had been wetting down Gold Hill Mesa since grading for the residential-commercial development started in spring 2005. However, in early January, a contract for that service ended, and Willard and his staff delayed its resumption while they researched other options (such as a sprinkler system) that might be less expensive than the roughly $8,000 a month the three trucks had been costing.
Economizing has been a consideration for the project, in view of the housing slump that started last summer, shortly after the first Gold Hill homes went on the market. But Willard agreed that shutting off the water may not have been prudent, considering that the first quarter of the year is usually the windiest here.
A new financial problem arose about two weeks ago when Willard learned that the project's major lender was having financial difficulties. This put a temporary crimp in his cash flow - a situation he said he is working out this week with the lender's lender. He emphasized that the development itself is not in trouble. Similar reorganizations have happened five times in the 10 years since he started planning Gold Hill Mesa, he pointed out. “We haven't done anything wrong. If they [the lender's officials] don't fund us to some degree, it undermines their own collateral.”
He faces no government penalties for the recent dust problem. This stems from the nature of the project, based on interviews with Willard and Mark Walker of State Health.
Despite the tailings (which include arsenic and lead), the Environmental Protection Agency decided in 1994 that the site was not hazardous enough to become a Super Fund cleanup site. As a result, the state could not require a full site cleanup as part of the Gold Hill development; however, the site's contamination does qualify it for certain scrutiny as a “brownfield” site, and Willard went to the state several years ago to find out what he needed to do to meet the guidelines of State Health's Voluntary Clean-up Program (VCUP). In addition to watering, the VCUP at Gold Hill includes such measures as capping lots with several feet of topsoil, preventing tailings from getting into Fountain Creek and constant measuring of air quality on the site. He has also gotten some state loan assistance for the creek improvements.
The temporary plastic fencing is a few feet high and goes across areas where winds have been known to blow. The plastic will “help keep the dust from turning into such a billowing cloud,” Willard said.
Walker (who heads up the state's VCUP program) and Willard also pointed out that most of the dust did not blow off the developed part of Gold Hill Mesa filings (including the 152 current building lots), but from the as-yet-unbuilt eastern part of the property.
Because that area comprises about a third of the project area, Willard said that a single water truck should be sufficient now, instead of three. He plans to keep the truck on site, no matter how long it takes to work the current financial details out, he said.
The eastern area is included in the development's master plan, but Willard cannot predict how long it will be before houses go in there. “It's all market-driven,” he said.
In all, Gold Hill Mesa plans about 1,000 homes, plus a 67-acre commercial area southeast of 21st Street and Highway 24.
Walker said that on the whole the state is pleased with what Gold Hill Mesa is doing, because the end result will be stabilizing the property. “We're very anxious for this to proceed,” he said. “Let's hope those houses keep selling.”
Westside Pioneer article | <urn:uuid:daa75c45-3226-41b8-ba0d-21d9a276964a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westsidepioneer.com/Articles/022808/GoldHill.html | 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 | 0.969815 | 1,105 | 1.773438 | 2 |
other accurate methods of examination and pathological research."
Although the treatments sounded very clinical, the goal was to
return to natural methods of treating people. "The real purpose of
the institution is to return to nature -- to get as far as possible
from the artificial and deleterious customs of the day. Simplicity,
naturalness and wholesomeness of diet is the rule,"' the brochure
This method of treatment proved to be very popular; most patients
stayed for more than a month at a time and, as word of mouth grew, so
did the waiting list to get a room.
The sanitarium used the climate to bring in patients. An
advertisement in the Pacific Monthly of February 1912 said "there is
no real winter in Glendale. All the delights of the summer season are
enjoyed the year around at the Southern California health resort. An
equable but invigorating climate, which is strongly conducive to
Another advertising method was printing a variety of brochures and
postcards bearing the image of the elaborate, Victorian-style
Colored postcards of the Sanitarium building and brochures
describing the rest cure went wherever Adventist congregations built
churches, hospitals and missions. Because of their extensive
activities, the sanitarium was known throughout the United States and
many foreign countries.
Within a few years, the sanitarium outgrew its site in the old
hotel on Broadway. Administrators purchased another acre and expanded
the facility to 100 beds, but even that was not adequate. Not only
was the building too small, the city had grown up around it and
destroyed the quiet atmosphere needed for the popular cure.
In 1924, the hospital moved to a five-story building on nearly 30
acres on East Wilson Avenue, then far from town.
The facility was dedicated in March. Within days, a wrecking crew
began demolition of the old hotel on Broadway. The wrecking company
paid less than $2,000 for the building materials, substantially less
than the $60,000 cost of building the hotel in 1887.
* KATHERINE YAMADA is a volunteer with the Special Collections
Room at Central Library. To reach her, leave a message at 637-3241.
The Special Collections Room is open from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays
or by appointment. For more information on Glendale's history,
contact the reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027. | <urn:uuid:a396542d-083c-4e96-bbbf-4b79cbc00191> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.glendalenewspress.com/2002-08-31/news/export25047_1_brochure-glendale-hotel-methods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94746 | 532 | 1.625 | 2 |
Officials with the City of Abilene say they're not sure what led to the sickness of 21 children at the Rose Park pool, but they say chlorine is not one of the chemicals used to treat the water.
Also, the City says all of the pool's chemical levels tested normal. We will continue to bring you updates as we receive them.
5:30 p.m. Update:
Hendrick Medical Center reports all of the children that were taken to the hospital from the Rose Park pool have been treated and released.
3:15 p.m. Update:
The City of Abilene reports that 21 children were sickened at the Rose Park swimming pool, possibly due to inhalation of chlorine or other pool chemicals. None of the injuries are life-threatening.
The children complained of burning eyes and vomiting. We will have more on this story on KTAB and KRBC news at 5, 6, and 10, as well as here on BCHP.
Abilene Fire Department and Metro Care are on the scene of a chlorine gas incident at Rose Park pool near South 9th and Barrow. Initial reports are that more than twenty children have been sickened by a strong smell of chlorine.
Six children were taken to Hendrick Medical Center by ambulance, another 13 kids taken to the hospital by City Link Bus. Their injuries are not believed to be serious.
Abilene Police are also on the scene assisting with traffic control. | <urn:uuid:10c8fefc-bb22-4b67-b260-5aba53b4955b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=504762 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980811 | 301 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Holy moly that's an incredible piece. The honesty of his voice and the creativity throughout was like walking into a garden after being in a dusty parking lot.
Inspired me. Delighted me. Made me laugh out loud.
During this week, a few of my clients were smiling with this kind of glee as they discovered their own creative geniuses.
It's incredible what comes out of someone when you give them space and encouragement. Not every idea is brilliant but boy, there are some hidden gems in there.
Part of my job as a coach is not simply to give people strategic, tactical, pragmatic tools to communicate their ideas effectively, but also to help my clients bring their innermost hidden ideas to life and see where they lead.
Not all lead to material that ends up in their presentation but often, the sparkle of an idea that gets tossed out leads to a unbelievably great gem. I call this,
Once this parameter is set -- that all ideas are OK to share because the one you toss out could be "the idea that leads to the idea" -- we are free to brainstorm without fear.
Often, my clients will say, "OK. I know this is kind of strange. But it could be 'the idea that leads to the idea.'" And we are off and running.
The delight that emerges as a result of this approach is stunning, the energy pure and gleeful.
When you're developing material -- be it a book proposal, a presentation, a pitch, plan or performance -- be mindful of those you share it with early on. Not everyone is trained in the philosophy of "the idea that might lead to the idea" and not everyone knows how to help you nurture a creative impulse along. Often, a new idea is met with furrowed brows, objections, doubt and worry. As Hugh says so beautifully in his book, "Good ideas have lonely childhoods." That is true for a reason.
Trust that "small still voice" within you.
to trust your own uncertain convictions.
What are yours? | <urn:uuid:82474333-ddb8-480b-a180-d6bf30e88560> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.victorialabalme.com/blog/2011/08/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969961 | 424 | 1.5 | 2 |
CNN reported: Falun Gong practitioners sued the former Chinese communist leader, Jiang Zemin, for genocide. Six of the plaintiffs come from different countries, including Belgium, the United States, and Australia. The report said that China imprisoned thousands of practitioners, hundreds of whom died of torture in detention. The lawsuit cited that Jiang planned to destroy Falun Gong.
The CNN report quoted the statement of the lawyer for the plaintiffs, The reason why we decided to file the lawsuit and bear the responsibility of the security of so many people is that my clients and I all agree that the lawsuit is very likely to be accepted.
The Guardian reported on August 21: Six Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin yesterday in Brussels. One of the plaintiffs, Matthias Slatts, said that Falun Gong practitioners in Belgium, the United States and Australia were filing similar lawsuits against Jiang Zemin for torture, crimes against humanity and genocide. The report said the lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier was full of confidence that the court would place this case on file for investigation and prosecution. The lawyer said that in September there would be further progress.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported: Six Falun Gong practitioners are going to file a lawsuit under the Belgian New Law against the former Chinese communist leader for genocide. The Belgian Parliament has just passed the New Law. The New Law, which covers serious violations of international humanitarian law, allows suits to be brought only if there is a link between the alleged crimes and Belgium.
Reuters reported that the renowned Belgian lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier is representing Falun Gong to prosecute the former Chinese communist leader. The lawyer said that Jiangs persecution of Falun Gong spiritual movement is against Belgian human rights laws.
AFP reported: a lawsuit against the former Chinese communist leader, Jiang Zemin, for genocide, was officially filed under the Belgian New Law by six Falun Gong practitioners. The lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier, who is representing Falun Gong, said in one statement that the plaintiffs accuse Jiang Zemin who remains the head of Chinas military, of torture, crimes against humanity and genocide. The lawsuit was filed under the Belgian New Law passed on August 5 2003.
The report quoted the statement of Georges-Henri Beauthier: Jiangs horrific form of genocide not just destroys lives, but destroys faith. It is a terror that should not be allowed to exist in the modern world. It is a terror that must be brought to justice.
The report said, The new law, which covers serious violations of international humanitarian law, allows suits to be brought only if there is a link between the alleged crimes and Belgium. One of the plaintiffs in the new case, 31-year-old Belgian computer programmer Matthias Slatts . . . said the lawsuit fulfilled the required criteria.
RTBF (French Broadcasting Cooperation in Belgium) reported: The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit under the Belgian New Law, charging Jiang with genocide and crimes against humanity. They stated that Jiang systematically planned to destroy Falun Gong in China. One of the plaintiffs of the lawsuit in Belgium is a Belgian citizen.
Translated from Chinese at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200308/23525.html
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source. | <urn:uuid:b4d7af4b-32d4-4a39-a554-d11b026d2956> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clearharmony.net/articles/Belgium_Major_International_Media_pay_attention_to_the_Lawsuit_against_Jiang-a14677.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961408 | 686 | 1.734375 | 2 |
This night I direct my comments to the young men who are here with your fathers, quorum advisers, bishops, and friends.
Flying holds a special fascination for many of us. Pilots have a procedure they follow for leaving the ground confidently, traveling about the earth or exploring it from outer space securely, and then landing safely. Whether flying a single-engine airplane or commanding a spacecraft circling the world every ninety-two minutes, each seasoned pilot carefully goes over a checklist to ensure that every system of the aircraft is working properly. Whether we speak of a jet fighter (F-14 or F-18 Hornet) screaming into the sky from an aircraft carrier deck, a crop duster skimming over farms in Washington or Kansas, or the space shuttle Discovery rocketing into space, launching satellites and doing scientific and medical experiments, it is the same. Each pilot and crew member goes through a detailed checklist before taking off to make sure that everything is in proper order.
Because each of you is more important than any aircraft, you would be wise to contemplate and go through your own personal checklist before you take off into the balance of your lives. I suggest five areas that you would check often as you fly towards a happy forever. Many of you young men have eighty and more years to live! Think of it! What a promising future you have if you prepare properly and keep focused.
First checklist item: The priesthood. Really understand and use the priesthood you bear. Honor it; realize its power. Remember the Aaronic Priesthood that you bear is the preparatory priesthood leading to the Melchizedek Priesthood. By the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Only Begotten Son created worlds without number (see Heb. 1:2; D&C 76:24; Moses 1:33) as the premortal Jehovah and then performed many miracles on earth as our Savior, Jesus Christ. A wise priesthood leader taught that now is the time in your life for doing, so later you become the man you are to be. Heavenly Father trusts you. You have the very priesthood that Aaron bore honorably and that John the Baptist used when he baptized Jesus “to fulfil all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). Eighteen hundred years later, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, he ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to that same Aaronic Priesthood (see JS—H 1:68–73).
Joseph Smith was the age of you deacons when he was thinking deeply about God (see JS—H 1:5–13).
Joseph Smith was the age of you priests when Moroni first visited him and told him about the record on gold plates (see JS—H 1:27–54).
The priesthood you bear enables you to prepare, bless, and pass the bread and water, the holy emblems of the sacrament. You place the members of the Church under solemn covenant to “take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them” (D&C 20:77). You gather fast offerings to help the poor and the needy. Many of you serve as ushers, arrange chairs and tables for meetings, and perform other important duties. You priests have the authority to baptize (see D&C 20:46) just as the young men serving as missionaries and as your fathers and other older men do. And you also ordain others in appropriate circumstances (see D&C 20:46–49).
Heavenly Father loves you! Your priesthood leaders will call many, many of you and set you apart as members of quorum presidencies or as quorum secretaries. What great leadership lessons you learn as you lead others while you are young. And bishops, what a vital task you have because of the training and practical experiences you provide our young men in positions of quorum leadership.
Second checklist item: Family and friends. Always remember the importance of your home, your parents, other family members, and your friends. Do not expect your parents to do things for you that you now can do for yourselves. It is your turn to begin taking more responsibility. “Hey, but my dad should do this,” or “I want my mother to continue to do this for me,” you might still wish. A successful home is based on the love and helpfulness of children just as it is based on loving parents handling their responsibilities.
One day when I was seventeen years old, I was washing the family car in anticipation of going on a date that evening. My father came out of the house to observe what I was doing. He criticized me to the extent that I felt as if I was doing nothing right. Finally I said something like, “Dad, get off my case. Don’t you understand this is the first time I have ever been a teenager?” He looked at me and said, “Pal, don’t you know this is the first time I have ever been a father?” I grew wiser that day because I realized we all are learning together within a family. We cannot expect our parents to be perfect any more than we can expect ourselves to be all that we hoped to be.
Be eager to forgive when problems arise at home. Help with your younger brothers and sisters when needed. You are their hero. As you assume more responsibility at home, you will find additional opportunities popping up in other areas in your life.
Choose your friends carefully. Associate with young men and young women who are straight and who will assist you to be responsible. Help your friends decide to go on missions, to attend Church meetings, and to enjoy righteous activities. You who are sixteen and older and are dating, make sure the girls you date are just as good when you return them to their homes as when you picked them up.
Third checklist item: Live the commandments. Never feed the foxes! What does that mean? Breaking commandments is like feeding foxes. In England where we live, my wife and I had heard that foxes were right in town. We wanted to see a fox. A neighbor told us that if we left food for the foxes we probably would see one. Our butcher gave us some bones. Each night we would place some bones out in the backyard. Soon a fox came to eat. Then a few more. Now we have at least five foxes racing through our flower garden, digging up the lawn, and leaving a shamble every night, sort of like a furry Jurassic Park.
What started out as a curiosity is now a problem, and sin is much the same. An indiscretion can begin a process that can make a mess of a whole life. Remember, if you don’t start feeding the foxes, they will never tear up your yard. If you avoid making the seemingly small and harmless mistakes, your life will be free of many larger problems later on. Be a courageous young man by living straight. Create happy memories for yourselves and those around you.
Fourth checklist item: Education. Make good use of your schooling. The scriptures tell us that there is a time for every purpose under heaven (see Eccl. 3:1–8). Now is the time of your preparation. The direction you are flying as a young man will determine where you will land as an adult. Are you headed in the direction that you want to be flying?
Those of us who are older remember that not all that goes on in school and work is pleasant, nor does it all seem useful and necessary. Yet most of what you learn is helpful. Be excited about your schooling and develop the habit of going the extra mile (see Matt. 5:41; 3 Ne. 12:41). This habit will assist you in crossing continents successfully when you are older. Through study and hard work, you prepare for a life of spiritual, emotional, and economic self-reliance. Build a foundation now that will support your future (see Matt. 7:24–25). Feel the excitement of accomplishing difficult tasks.
Hardworking young men of a few years ago are the productive and respected leaders of today. Many of them worked several jobs when they were young and saved part of their income for a mission and for their education. They have been blessing others ever since. Your parents are not obligated to provide everything you want. The Lord instructed us not to be idle! (See D&C 42:42; D&C 60:13; D&C 75:3; D&C 88:124).
Fifth checklist item: A mission. While serving as an aide-de-camp to a major general in an army reserve unit, I found myself in many conversations with that remarkable military leader. He was not of our faith. “Pinnock,” he once said, “do you know how fortunate you Mormons are?” I replied by saying something like, “Yes, sir, but what are you thinking about?” He said, “A mission, Pinnock, that’s what it’s all about. Your young men are encouraged to go to serve others. They become stronger, more wise, and more dependable because of a mission.”
The prophet has asked you young men to serve, the world desperately needs you to serve, and you need to feel the power and growth from serving and teaching others. And if for some unusual reason you are not called to serve a mission, there will be other opportunities to serve the Lord.
So there you have it: a checklist that can keep you flying in the right direction. A pilot must have the support of a skilled ground crew to succeed, and your parents, bishops, quorum leaders, and solid friends all will help support your flight through these key years of your life. A wonderful future is yours if you stick to your personal checklist. We pray for you, care about you, and stand by to help you. To these truths I testify in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. | <urn:uuid:90e78cca-762f-40cf-87be-03a0a9884766> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/10/your-personal-checklist-for-a-successful-eternal-flight?lang=eng&country=ca&media=audio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967102 | 2,072 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Barbara Shecter May 17, 2011
Two of Canada’s major pensions scored a victory after taking the rare step of using a company’s annual meeting to try to force the firm to allow directors on the board only if they receive a majority endorsement from shareholders.
According to a regulatory filing Tuesday, a shareholder resolution for “majority voting” submitted by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the B.C. Investment Management Corp. was passed at the annual meeting of European Goldfields Ltd., a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed mining company with mining operations in Greece and Romania.
The policy written by the pensions, and endorsed by shareholders, said that if the number of votes withheld for any director exceeds the number of votes cast for that director, the director “shall tender a resignation.”
In the absence of a majority voting policy, only “for” votes are counted and withheld votes have no effect, making it difficult for shareholders to dislodge directors. Institutional shareholders are pushing for changes to improve corporate governance, and even regulators are looking into whether they should impose or endorse policies such as majority voting under the banner of shareholder democracy.
It is now up to European Goldfields, which is based in Whitehorse, Yukon, to determine whether to adopt the policy on majority voting that has been endorsed by its shareholders.
Stephen Griggs, executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance — which speaks on behalf of large institutional investors including CCPIB and B.C. Investment Management — said Tuesday that European Goldfields has indicated by e-mail it will adopt majority voting.
Mr. Griggs called it “an important moment in the governance of Canadian public companies.”
Negotiations with a company are usually sufficient to establish practices sought by large shareholders, but that was not the case this time, Doug Pearce, chief executive of B.C. Investment Management Corp., told FP Street before the annual meeting. B.C. Investment Management invests money on behalf of public-sector employees in British Columbia, and has about $86-billion in assets under administration.
The European Goldfields annual meeting of shareholders took place May 13 in a suburb of Athens, Greece. | <urn:uuid:6bf098cf-35d9-4746-b2dd-e751eacd21f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sherylsmolkin.com/pensions-score-victory-with-%E2%80%98majority-voting%E2%80%99-push/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955449 | 452 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Johnson Space Center, Houston
NASA Astronaut Clayton C. Anderson Leaves Agency
HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson has retired from the space agency. Anderson flew in space twice, first in 2007 as a flight engineer for Expeditions 15 and 16 aboard the International Space Station, and finally as a mission specialist on STS-131 in 2010.
Anderson began his 30-year NASA career in 1983 as an engineer in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division at Johnson Space Center. He was selected as an astronaut in 1998. He trained as a backup crew member for Expeditions 12, 13 and 14. He most recently served in management and as space station Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM). Anderson conducted six spacewalks and has more than 167 days of spaceflight experience.
"Clay will certainly be missed in the Astronaut Office, especially for his technical expertise. His combination of shuttle, station long duration, and spacewalk experience was extremely valuable to us," said Bob Behnken, chief of the Astronaut Office. "We wish him continued success in future endeavors, and know he will continue to captivate whenever and wherever he shares his spaceflight experiences."
Anderson holds a Master of Science in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in physics from Hastings College.
For Anderson's complete biography, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/mPXyBj
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
- end -
text-only version of this release | <urn:uuid:f5e1762a-62ae-49bc-b6aa-436c36b38f7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/2013/J13-004.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944773 | 322 | 1.765625 | 2 |
“Imagination is a new formation which is not present in the consciousness of the very young child, is totally absent in animals, and represents a specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all functions of consciousness, it originally arises from action. The old adage that child’s play is imagination in action can be reversed: we can say that imagination in adolescents and schoolchildren is play without action.” (p. 93)
Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Psychological Processes
“The increasing focus and reliance on standardized tests to evaluate schools and teachers is resulting in cheating. That’s probably inevitable. But it’s also probably minimal. The bigger problem is a more serious type of cheating – one that’s perfectly legal and apparently acceptable. Students are being cheated of a broader education that emphasizes a balance of creativity, extracurricular activities, foreign languages, higher math and science skills and other opportunities due to the over-emphasis on testing for basic math and reading.”
How did Jeanette Winterson recover from the fantastically bad luck of landing in the embrace of a woman who understood motherhood as a daily struggle with the Devil over the ownership of her child’s soul?
“What we notice in stories,” Winterson answers toward the end of her memoir, “is the nearness of the wound to the gift.”
The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians
Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Or talking money or politics while one fitted
This armpiece with its overseam to the band
Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter,
The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union,
The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze
At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven.
One hundred and forty-six died in the flames
On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes—
The witness in a building across the street
Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step
Up to the windowsill, then held her out
Away from the masonry wall and let her drop.
And then another. As if he were helping them up
To enter a streetcar, and not eternity.
A third before he dropped her put her arms
Around his neck and kissed him. Then he held
Her into space, and dropped her. Almost at once
He stepped up to the sill himself, his jacket flared
And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down,
Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers—
Like Hart Crane’s Bedlamite, “shrill shirt ballooning.”
Wonderful how the patern matches perfectly
Across the placket and over the twin bar-tacked
Corners of both pockets, like a strict rhyme
Or a major chord. Prints, plaids, checks,
Houndstooth, Tattersall, Madras. The clan tartans
Invented by mill-owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian,
To control their savage Scottish workers, tamed
By a fabricated heraldry: MacGregor,
Bailey, MacMartin. The kilt, devised for workers
to wear among the dusty clattering looms.
Weavers, carders, spinners. The loader,
The docker, the navvy. The planter, the picker, the sorter
Sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton
As slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields:
George Herbert, your descendant is a Black
Lady in South Carolina, her name is Irma
And she inspected my shirt. Its color and fit
And feel and its clean smell have satisfied
both her and me. We have culled its cost and quality
Down to the buttons of simulated bone,
The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters
Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape,
The label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt.
On March 25, 1911, fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, killing 146 employees, most of them women.
she told me an experience she’d had where a little girl had come up to her and said she was really interested in something that came up and she asked could the teacher give her some ideas for how to look into it further
and the teacher was compelled to tell her , I’m sorry but you can’t do that, you have to study to pass this national exam that’s coming , that’s going to determine your future , the teacher didnt say it but it’s going to determine my future whether i’m rehired and so on
the system is geared to getting the children to pass hurdles but not to learn to understand and explore/” —Noam Chomsky - Noam Chomsky on education (via noam-chomsky)
Why do so few ask this question? (via creative-education) | <urn:uuid:77d1887d-3dbb-443e-bc39-c28acd166ad4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelearninglife.tumblr.com/archive/2012/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946526 | 1,104 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Icon Bar is the longest running RISC OS portal. The sensibilities that Acorn instilled in us still influence our interests and writing.
Let us know!
An arbitrary number of possibly influential RISC OS things
Posted by Sion on 20:00, 25/3/2012
| Education, Graphics, Hardware, IYONIX, Open source, Programming, RISC OS, RISC OS Open Ltd, Software, Video
3 comments in the forums
RISC OS 5.18 released
RISC OS Open have announced the release of their latest stable release of RISC OS, version 5.18 to be precise. This update features no less than 340 improvements since the last official release and has been officially vetted by Castle Technology for the Iyonix PC and R-Comp Interactive for their ARMini.
The new ROM image should be able to upgrade all versions of RISC OS from version 5.07 or later and is provided with a flash programming tool (for Iyonix users), which also takes a backup of the previous version just incase you wish to go back.
The OMAP3 (i.e. ARMini) version of the operating system now supports hardware CMOS memory fitted on a carrier board plugged into one of the headers on the motherboard. This permits saving of common configuration settings which will be retained when the power is off. CMOS memory carrier boards are available now from the ROOL store and are suitable for use on the original Beagleboard, Beagleboard-xM, and Pandaboard.
As the ROMs now several new modules, some of the module location numbers have changed. Because the *UNPLUG settings only remember the module location numbers you may need to review any unplugged modules after the upgrade to ensure the desired ones are unplugged, and that crucial modules are not left unplugged by mistake.
For the full release notes and download/installation instructions, please see the ROOL press release.
Raspberry Pi released
The Raspberry Pi Foundation have launched their much anticipated, and dirt cheap computer, the Raspberry Pi. The machine is currently being sold through a number of electronic retailers, namely Farnell, RS Components, and Allied Electronics. However overwhelming demand for the device means that it may take a month or two for production to ramp-up and all backorders to be filled.
The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The foundation plans to release two versions, priced at £16 and £22. The Raspberry Pi is intended to stimulate the teaching of basic computer science in schools and has been designed for use with the Linux operating system, although a port of RISC OS to the machine is already underway.
The design is based around a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC, which includes a 700MHz ARM1176JZF-S processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and 256 Megabytes of RAM. The design does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, instead relying on an SD card for booting and long-term storage.
MPlayer ported to RISC OS
Chris Gransden has ported the popular cross-platform media player and encoder MPlayer to RISC OS, this significant advancement means that RISC OS can now fully play MP4 and other mainstream video formats.
Chris’ port is a direct build of the Linux sources and does not feature much RISC OS integration as of yet. It makes a good attempt at playing most MPEG, VOB, AVI and WMV formats, plus many others. You can expect reasonable frame rates up to 480p resolution on recent RISC OS hardware which currently includes Beagleboard and Pandaboard based machines.
Bundled along with the MPlayer download is MEncoder, which is a simple movie encoder, designed to encode MPlayer-playable movies.
You can download this latest version of MPlayer from the riscos.info website here.
Version 3.38 of OpenVector, OpenGridPro and DrawPlus has been released. These applications are all open-source enhancements to Draw, providing enhanced layering and object library capabilities as well as the ability to draw advanced grids and other object layouts. This release features improved compatibility with Cortex-A8 hardware such as the ARMini and BeagleBoard. Compressed drawfiles and libraries can now be loaded when alignment exceptions are enabled. Consistency of layered merging has also improved.
Version 1.71 of PlayIt, a disc-based engine for playing sound samples, has been released. It is used as a resource by several audio players including DigitalCD. This new update contains no new functionality but several significant bugfixes, increased 26/32bit neutrality, and changes for ARMv7 compatability.
BarFree from Bernard Veasey has been updated to work on RISC OS 5.18, BarFree copies revised ‘Messages’ and ‘Templates’ files to your ’PreDesk’ directory within its own directory called ‘Free’ to enable different style Free Space windows.
Charm has been updated to version 2.5.3 to add support for 'new' and 'delete' keywords for allocating and releasing storage for records. Charm is a high level programming language with a compiler than generates efficient code with a small memory footprint.
Posted by Chris on 15:25, 19/4/2010
| Hardware, Open source, Programming, RISC OS, RISC OS Open Ltd, Video
17 comments in the forums
Watching video on RISC OS isn't very easy. We've run an article here
on how you can download and convert YouTube videos into a format RISC OS can understand. Though it's very clever, and the tools
involved are actively developed, it's not as simple as clicking 'Play' in a browser window.
Improving this situation has been hampered up until now for two main reasons:
- RISC OS hardware has been too slow to play back video at an acceptable rate;
- RISC OS software hasn't supported popular codecs (formats), some of which are proprietary and expensive to license.
The first of these is already well on the way to being fixed. The Beagleboard is modestly powered in comparison to the average desktop PC, but it's perfectly capable of playing video at a decent rate. The diminutive boards have been shown running 720p video (a high-definition format) while running a Linux distribution - have a look here
to see this in action.
The RISC OS port can't quite match that yet. All that might be about to change, though, due to the development of something called Theorarm
. This is a library of routines to enable the playing of videos in the Ogg Theora
format on ARM-based machines. Ogg Theora is a relatively new format, but it has some interesting features. Perhaps most importantly, it's entirely open source, so videos encoded using the technology can be played back by any suitably-written software. Moreover, Theora is one of the contenders for the [video] tag in the new HTML5 specification. That means that it may become a significant rival to the more common MPEG and Flash videos on the web.
Theorarm is interesting, as it's been optimised for newer ARM chips using hand-written assembly code. This makes it very fast. The developer, Robin Watts (of Warm Silence Software
fame) has done some development work on the Beagleboard, with promising results: "With post processing disabled, I can play a PAL DVD sized film (720x576x25fps, 48kHz stereo audio track) in realtime with software YUV2RGB. The limited profiling I've done, along with some back-of-an-envelope maths suggests that we should just about be able to do 720p films if the YUV2RGB process is done by hardware." That means, in English, that DVD-quality film can be played back on a Beagleboard with decent audio too. If some of the complex conversions from YUV colour format to RGB could be carried out in hardware, then higher definition films could be played.
This is pretty exciting stuff for Beagleboard owners. If Theorarm is ported to RISC OS (and there's no reason, other than developer time and effort, why it couldn't be), then we'd have the basis of a fast, native video playback system. Some issues would require addressing, of course, since RISC OS can't handle the Beagleboard's YUV facility - see here
for Jeffrey Lee's proposals to fix this - but these are all surmountable.
If anyone is interested in getting involved, then the ROOL project is the place to start. In particular, the proposals for working on the GraphicsV
vector need attention from developers with the right level of experience, and the draft API on the ROOL site could do with some more exposure.
A few years ago, RISC OS lacked fast hardware, a half-capable browser and a media player capable of showing popular streaming video formats. The first two are being actively addressed
- what are the chances that the last one will be as well?
Posted by Chris on 16:08, 8/4/2010
| Hardware, Programming, RISC OS, RISC OS Open Ltd
9 comments in the forums
There's been a fair bit of effort to get RISC OS software working on ROOL's port of RISC OS to the Beagleboard and other OMAP-driven boards. The shift from software that works on the Iyonix to software that works on the OMAP family isn't as big as the shift to 32-bit of a few years ago, but there are still some issues. Most importantly, the OMAP family of processors use the 'ARMv7' specification, which means that certain instructions that work on the Iyonix's IOP processor (or earlier) fall over.
The ease of fixing a recalcitrant application depends on how it's been written. If the app's written in BASIC, then all should be well. If it's written in C, then a recompile with the latest version of the GCC or Norcroft tools should fix it. If you've got some hand-crafted assembler to cope with, then the process is a bit more involved. There's a full list of these technical issues here
As time goes on, more and more software is having fixes applied to enable compatibility. Over the last few days, David Pilling's Ovation Pro
have been updated to work with the new hardware. The text editor Zap has also been fixed
, though there's not an official release of this yet. Apps like NetSurf
already work, and there's some indication
that EasiWriter and TechWriter will soon join the list.
More details on the applications that work on the new hardware platform can be found here
. Hopefully this list will keep on growing. Meanwhile, at least one RISC OS user
is happy with the experience of using the BeagleBoard...
Posted by Chris on 22:06, 3/11/2009
| RISC OS Open Ltd, Software, Programming
Comment in the forums
team recently announced that they're no longer registered for VAT, which means the Norcroft C compiler
and associated tools are a bit cheaper at GBP50 (plus P&P). ROOL took over the distribution of the suite from Castle
last year, who took them over in turn from Acorn.
The Norcroft compiler has long been the default option for C programmers on RISC OS. It's only relatively recently that the GNU Compiler Collection
(GCC) has provided a genuine alternative. The latter has many advantages, including development drawn from a wider pool of developers and the ability to compile RISC OS programs on fast PC-based hardware. However, at the time of writing, the RISC OS sources are only compilable using Norcroft. It's possible this may change in the future
, but for the time being, if you fancy getting involved in the porting efforts, obtaining a copy of the necessary tools just got a bit easier.
The ROOL announcement is here
. The announcement was publicised on RISC OS Info
a couple of days ago.
Posted by Chris on 11:53, 28/10/2009
| Hardware, RISC OS, RISC OS Open Ltd, Programming, Open source
Continue reading "RISC OS on new hardware"
| 30 comments in the forums
For several years now, the need to get RISC OS running on faster hardware has been pressing. It may not be the platform's worst headache (lack of developers is surely the biggest problem), but the Iyonix and A9 hardware are now well past their prime. Even on release they weren't blisteringly quick, and cheap PCs have now left them far, far behind. Things that are taken for granted on a Windows or Mac OS machine, such as watching video, are simply impossible on current generation RISC OS hardware.
Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 12:00, 19/5/2009
| Activism, Advocacy, Hardware, IYONIX, Linux, Programming, RISC OS, RISC OS Open Ltd, Technology
Continue reading "RISC OS on OMAP - the future?"
| 26 comments in the forums
As most of you probably know by now, a few months ago I started work on porting RISC OS Open's RISC OS kernel to TI's OMAP3 platform - a group of SoC's (Systems on a Chip) which use ARM Cortex-A8 cores. To date, OMAP3 SoC's have been confirmed as being used in various products, including the Pandora
handheld gaming console, the Touch Book
convertible netbook/tablet, and the BeagleBoard
development board. For years RISC OS users have been asking for a new portable RISC OS machine, and soon they may find that they have several available.
Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 20:00, 20/12/2008
| IYONIX, Programming, RISC OS, Support, Tutorials, Video
Continue reading "Video conversion on RISC OS"
| 1 comment in the forums
A while ago you may remember that I wrote an article about video conversion for RISC OS
, and near the end raised the topic of video conversion on
RISC OS using a port of ffmpeg
. Although the version of ffmpeg I originally tried on RISC OS was old and broken, Christopher Martin obviously thinks there's some merit to this approach, as he has recently produced !FFmpeg
, a working port of ffmpeg for RISC OS.
Once more in the interests of SCIENCE, I threw a few test videos at !FFmpeg and measured its performance against that of a similar version of ffmpeg running on my Windows PC.
Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 12:00, 28/11/2008
| Columns, Programming, Tutorials, RISC OS, Games
Continue reading "Building the Dream 4 - Random city basics"
| Comment in the forums
As stated in the last article
, this time I'll be looking at what went into the MK I map generator for my eternally work-in-progress game, DeathDawn
Specifically, I'll be looking at the implementation and evolution of the following components of the generator:
- City block placement. This is arguably the most important stage as it defines the overall layout of the city.
- Edge and node linking. A housekeeping stage that prepares the data structures for the road weighting stage.
- Road weighting. A city with roads which all have the same number of lanes isn't very realistic, so this stage uses an algorithm to determine the number of lanes each road should have.
- Road and building painting. With the city structure generated, all that's left is to translate it into the format used by the engine during actual gameplay.
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| 3 comments in the forums|| | <urn:uuid:9c8c673d-4e2f-42e8-b145-962e09b74902> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acornarcade.com/articles/programming/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940202 | 3,377 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Day three of the National Volunteerism and Community Services Conference kicked off with a gathering of leaders from the philanthropic, community service, non-profit and government sectors for a comprehensive introduction to President Barack Obama’s Social Innovation Fund strategy.
In a nutshell, the Social Innovation Fund was authorized in the recent Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The Fund will focus on priority policy areas, including education, health care, and economic opportunity. It will partner with foundations, philanthropists, and corporations which will commit matching resources, funding, and technical assistance.
The White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, in coordination with the Corporation for National and Community Service www.cns.gov will coordinate efforts to enlist all Americans – individuals, non-profits, social entrepreneurs, corporations and foundations – as partners in solving our great challenges. Located within the Domestic Policy Council, it will:
- Catalyze partnerships between the government and nonprofits, businesses and philanthropists in order to make progress on the President’s policy agenda
- Identify and support the rigorous evaluation and scaling of innovative, promising ideas that are transforming communities
- Support greater civic participation through new media tools
- Promote national service.
One of the presenters at this Social Innovation Fund breakfast event was Dorothy Stoneman, Founder and CEO of Youth Build http://www.youthbuild.org/site. Dorothy, now 67, is widely recognized as a social entrepreneur who, since the launch of her design for youth/young adult service the late 1970′s in East Harlem, has developed one of the most successful innovations in education, employment and civic engagement in our history.
Dorothy Stoneman & Jack Levine
Since the “full launch” of Youth Build in 1994, more than 84,000 16-24 year-olds in some 225 Youth Build sites have learned and earned the opportunity to build and renovate homes for low income and homeless neighbors, thereby become fully engaged citizens contributing to the quality of life in their communities.
The youth/young adults who participate in Youth Build represent a demographic that most would “write off” – Ninety-one percent have left high school without a diploma, 40-percent have had some court involvement in the delinquency systems, and all come from backgrounds which are economically disadvantaged.
Despite these odds, Youth Build and their not-for-profit community affiliated organization partners have a documented track record in lifting up the educational achievements and employment skills of these young adults with remarkable success.
But, according to Dorothy Stoneman, in an exclusive interview with GRAND, the best is yet to come. She envisions Youth Build to more than triple their program sites to some 800, and to continue on a path of both U.S. and international program expansions and locations.
When asked about her passion for lifting up the newest generation of young people to high levels of personal and community success, she said “My experience is that given a chance to achieve, all young people understand that hard work and commitment are part of the deal. We are not only teaching them by doing, we are helping these youth pave a positive path to lifelong community connections.”
Dorothy is God-Mother to 13 children of friends and “Grand God-Mother” to seven! She and her husband welcome the “Extended God-Family” for Summer retreats in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts every summer.
Dorothy Stoneman’s career of inspiring service has touched to lives of hundreds of thousands of people…both through the skills building of youth as well as the families whose homes were constructed and renovated by those youth. She personifies the level of leadership which we Baby Boomers have every opportunity to aspire to, and her emotional energy gives each of us a beacon to be followed.
The 2009 National Spirit of Service Awards were presented to seven individuals of varying ages whose activities have resulted in positive impact for their neighbors. Here’s a link to the biographies of those leaders recognized for their creative commitment to others….
GRAND Media Correspondent | <urn:uuid:23a02d67-4c90-4dd9-914b-85912772fe86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.grandmagazine.com/news/2010/06/jack-levine-blog-june-24-2009/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950845 | 839 | 1.765625 | 2 |
In the previous post, I said that the arguments in favor of having a more progressive tax system are so obvious that it was an interesting exercise to see why even those who would directly benefit from it still oppose it. I suggested some reasons for this behavior and in this post want to explore some more.
Another group consists of those who are still living in the shadow of the Cold War and have been effectively brainwashed to think that any effort to raise the living standards of the less well-off is ‘socialism’. The label socialism has been demonized so much that for such people anything to which that label is attached is automatically a bad thing, even if they do not understand the term and are really poor and would benefit from the proposed plan. Witness how universal, single-payer health insurance is fought by the health insurance-pharmaceutical-physician complex by labeling it as socialism, though the only people who really benefit from not having it are the very wealthy and the health insurance-pharmaceutical-physician complex.
This group of people have completely bought the myth sold to them by the rich that we would all be better off if we let a very few people make and keep as much money as they can by whatever means. It is this group that the McCain-Palin rhetoric is aiming at.
The instinctive siding of such people with the ‘plight’ of someone who makes $250,000 or more even while they make a small fraction of that and have little or no chance of ever joining those ranks reveals the depth and extent of this brainwashing. They may be finding it hard to pay the rent or the mortgage, they may be fearful of losing their jobs, they may have little or no health care, they may be living in decaying neighborhoods that cannot provide basic services, but somehow they think the very rich and the giant corporations and Wall Street are on the same side as them and deserve to have even more money. Such people are simply not thinking things through.
Another possible reason is that many people share the illusion that some day they too will be rich, and when that happens they want to be able to enjoy the unfettered high life, even though they may be quite vague about how this could come to pass. For some the fantasy may be little more than thinking they will win the lottery. For others, it may be that they have some talent they are proud of and think that they may be ‘discovered’ by a talent scout and suddenly become a world famous singer or model or comedian or actor or writer or athlete. They do not want to spoil the imagined enjoyment of that future success by supporting policies now that might even slightly reduce the free-spending habits they hope to have when they strike it rich.
The media helps maintain this illusion by feeding this obsession about what rich and famous people are really like. Notice how the interviews with these famous people usually emphasize that they are just like you and me, except for being very wealthy. George Clooney eats corn flakes for breakfast, just like me! Scarlett Johannson likes to lounge around in sweat suits at home, just like me!
At the same time these same media features also indulge in what might be called wealthy-lifstyle-porn, talking about the massive houses, many cars, elaborate parties, and jet-setting lifestyles of the celebrities. The popularity of celebrity-lifestyle TV shows and magazines and the existence of a paparazzi industry to bring us snippets of personal information about these people (“Look! We have photos of Branjelina’s babies!”) testify to the dream world these audiences are creating for themselves.
All these reinforce the belief that the only thing that separates the very wealthy from you and me is a single stroke of luck. This might well be true. But to base your political decisions on the chance that lightning will strike, that you will hit the jackpot, is foolish. To think that your interests coincide with those few very wealthy people is to live in a dream world.
Tom Tomorrow wrote about this fantasy world that people inhabit and which is encouraged by the celebrity-obsessed media.
A few years back, I was on a road trip with my wife, and somehow, probably from some junk shop along the way, we ended up with the audiobook version of Valley of the Dolls, the classic trashy novel about the lives of the rich and unhappy. After the third or fourth lengthy description of wealthy people enjoying caviar and champagne, I commented that the book was not intended to be about the lives of the wealthy, but rather, about the lives of the wealthy as imagined by the trailer park set: they spend all their time drinking champagne! And eating caviar! (Which brings to mind something I was once told by a prominent contributor to Vanity Fair — that it’s not a magazine aimed at the upper class, it’s a magazine for the middle class to buy believing they are reading a magazine aimed at the upper class. But I digress.)
All these things are designed to give the middle class and the poor the sense of identification with the wealthy. It is quite an amazing thing to see. The reality is that any person with no inherited wealth and who depends on a regular paycheck to meet life’s needs has far more in common with the financial situation of a janitor than they have with Paris Hilton.
But as long as they fail to realize who their real allies are, they will continue to be exploited.
POST SCRIPT: Undecided voter=idiot?
The Daily Show tries to understand how people could still be undecided at this stage of the election. | <urn:uuid:26f06fa8-3d3b-4ec4-8cdf-345e0252778d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2008/10/28/spreading-the-wealth-7-more-on-the-opposition/?ak_action=force_mobile | 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 | 0.977509 | 1,159 | 1.71875 | 2 |
An interesting thng to research is whether economists turn philosophers post a deep crisis like this one. The reasons to write more about society, people etc could be different. For some it could be that economics does not make sense anyways, some realise we need to bring a different perspective to the current events etc.
So, may be some historians can see whether economists started writing things about morals, society etc more frequently during Great Depression. And compare it with 2007 crisis. My hypothesis would be yes they turn onto such topics.
Luigi Zingales of Chicago University writes this superb piece on the topic. He is one of the finest financial economists and has written some amazing papers with Raghuram Rajan.
He sayd American system is unique as it is based on merit and Americans believe meritocracy should always be rewarded. There is no role of luck etc in American society. Those who work hard and are smart should make the gains. This is declining due to the economic crisis which is shaking the basic foundations of the American system. | <urn:uuid:58e76abb-56c4-41b3-953a-37fb357ba06a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956924 | 209 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Elgar’s epic Violin Concerto was composed for celebrated Viennese virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, who shortly before giving the 1910 world première in London vowed ‘I will shake the Queen’s Hall!’ He obviously had the desired effect as according to one reviewer, ‘for a quarter of an hour they called and recalled the man [Elgar] who had achieved a triumph not only for himself, but also for England, and hailed him as master and hero.’ Elgar’s own opinion was that ‘It’s good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional...but I love it.’ The score’s enigmatic Spanish inscription is now thought to refer to Alice Stuart-Wortley, whom Elgar referred to affectionately as his ‘windflower’.
More concerts at Royal Festival Hall
May 22 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Wagner's birth, Sir Andrew Davis conducts excerpts from Wagner's Tannhäuser and Die Walküre
May 30 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Esa-Pekka conducts The Rite of Spring in its centenary performance alongside Debussy's Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Varèse's Amériques | <urn:uuid:3a62b24e-4a73-4afe-bcfd-f3a9a9d6c486> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/13jun13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938766 | 283 | 1.617188 | 2 |
(Microsoft Research Lab…)
BANGALORE: Humanities student Katherine Sydenham, an American researcher of French origin, was recently introduced to coding, courtesy her stint with Microsoft Research Lab India.
The 27-year-old PhD student from University of Michigan, School of Information, is a summer intern at the company's research facility in Bangalore, where over 60 graduate, postgraduate and research students from eight countries are currently doing their internships.
"I am doing an ethnographic study of technology evangelists (for proprietary software and free/open source software) and religious evangelists to look at similarities and differences in the way groups approach. The study will help me find out advocacy efforts put in by groups for their products and/or belief system," said Sydenham. She is working on her thesis, 'Technology in developing countries', gathering valuable inputs from the internship course.
"I have a background in religious studies and am interested in how individuals, who do not consider themselves 'tech-savvy' or capable of learning about computers, are included or excluded from conversations about technology, especially software," she added.
Another 27-year-old PhD student from The University of Austin, department of computer science, Vacha Dave, is working on detecting and defeating click fraud. "The experience has been great," she said.
Microsoft Research Lab has 35 researchers and 10 developers who mentor interns on areas like algorithms and modeling; cryptography and complexity; machine learning and optimization; mobility, network and systems; multilingual systems, programming languages and tools; security and privacy; technology for emerging markets; and vision and media. The lab takes interns for a period of two to six months.
"Getting fresh blood into the system is an integral part of research. We are exposed to new ideas that the interns bring with them," said Sriram Rajmani, assistant managing director, Microsoft Research-Bangalore.
Often, interns return to the lab again after a short stint to pursue other research interests. Arun Chaganty, who recently completed an undergraduate course in computer engineering from IIT-Madras, is set to complete his third internship stint at the lab in a couple of months. The 22-year-old, who has already got admission to a foreign university, said the three stints have been a great learning experience for him. "I learnt how to conduct research, and the experience definitely honed my skills," he said. | <urn:uuid:c2540479-da50-4974-8c34-eaf18495a77c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-06/education/33064765_1_interns-research-facility-phd-student | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962872 | 498 | 1.679688 | 2 |
For an oversexed culture that isn’t afraid to push boundaries on TV, in movies, on the radio, and in books and magazines, we’re awfully shy about sex when it comes to our health. In fact, even though people with diabetes are at a higher risk for sexual problems, a 2010 study in the journal Diabetes Care found that only about half of all men with diabetes and 19 percent of women with diabetes have broached the topic with a doctor.
And, truth is, many doctors don’t feel comfortable prodding patients for details on sexual function. It’s why the newly diagnosed quickly learn about eye, nerve, kidney, and heart damage from uncontrolled diabetes, but hardly ever hear how diabetes affects sexual health. It is important for people to be open and honest with their doctors regarding all health concerns—even problems with sexual function. Problems with sexual performance and satisfaction can signal other health issues.
Many men with erectile dysfunction, for instance, later learn that they have diabetes. For people who already have diabetes, sexual problems can indicate nerve damage, blocked arteries, and even out-of-whack hormones. Though there’s a lot yet to learn about sexual dysfunction in people with diabetes, researchers are certain of one thing: Chronic high blood glucose is behind many sexual problems people face, and the first line of action is to improve glucose control.
Honey, Not Tonight
Low libido, or sexual desire, is a real problem, one that affects people with diabetes more than those without. Men and women experience low libido as a result of poorly controlled diabetes. If your sex drive is stalled, first look to your diabetes control and take steps to lower your blood glucose levels. Then consider your medications. Certain drugs, such as antidepressants, can lower sexual desire, so talk to your doctor.
Researchers theorize that inflammation may also dampen desire. “Sexual desire is a brain-driven event,” says Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MAPP, director of the Program in Integrative Sexual Medicine at the University of Chicago. “If inflammatory molecules cross the blood-brain barrier and circulate in the area where there is sexual desire, then it’s plausible the desire for sex may be affected.” Another possible culprit: low testosterone, which often affects men and women with diabetes.
Him: Studies have shown that men with diabetes, especially those who have type 2 or are overweight, or both, have about twice the risk of low testosterone as their peers without the disease, which can affect a man’s passion for sex. “The treatment is to give testosterone, and it’s amazing how that can work in diabetes,” says Irwin Goldstein, MD, director of
San Diego Sexual Medicine at Alvarado Hospital and editor in chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. When low testosterone is treated through losing weight and/or testosterone therapy, many men have a renewed desire for sex.
Her: Treating women isn’t quite as simple. (Get used to hearing that.) Some studies suggest that taking testosterone can increase sexual desire in women—a 2008 article in the New England Journal of Medicine found that post-menopausal women had a greater sexual appetite after taking testosterone for almost six months—but the treatment is still understudied, particularly its long-term effects on women’s health. Not only that, but it’s hard for researchers to determine whether a particular woman’s low libido is a result of diabetes, emotional issues, or something else because low libido is common in women regardless of the presence of diabetes.
Let’s Get It On—Or Not
Here’s the difference between desire and arousal: First, sexual desire must occur; the body then responds, signaling arousal. That is, if everything’s working properly. Both men and women with diabetes may feel desire but struggle with arousal problems, though the mechanisms behind this sexual dysfunction are better studied and understood in men. For both men and women, a good place to start looking for possible causes is your medicine cabinet. Some blood pressure–lowering medications, for instance, can contribute to erectile dysfunction. When meds aren’t behind a person’s hampered arousal, diabetes may be to blame. Poor diabetes control over time can damage the blood vessels and nerves—as it does in heart disease and neuropathy (nerve damage), other complications of the disease—that make arousal possible.
Him: One of the main sexual problems men with diabetes face is the inability to have an erection. Damage to the vascular system can impair blood flow. If the blood vessels aren’t functioning properly or if an artery is blocked, not enough blood will travel to the penis, making it difficult to get an erection.
Nerve function plays a role, too. If the brain isn’t properly communicating with the nerves in the sexual organs, the body might not be able to shuttle blood there, impairing a man’s ability to get an erection. The ability to keep an erection can also be affected, because the brain must communicate with the nerves to hold blood in the penis. (Keep in mind: A man’s ability to get and hold an erection typically wanes with age.)
Fortunately, there are plenty of treatment options. Neither men nor their partners should accept male sexual dysfunction, says Janis Roszler, RD, CDE, LDN, a certified diabetes educator and author of the book Sex and Diabetes: For Him and for Her. “For men, there absolutely is a treatment that will work.” Options include PDE5 inhibitors, such as Viagra and Cialis, which improve blood flow; testosterone injections or gels (if testosterone levels are low); injectable medications or suppositories; constriction rings that sit at the base of the penis; vacuum pumps that draw blood into the penis; support sleeves that hold the penis in place during sex; and penile implants.
Her: Nerve damage may also cause vaginal dryness, which is twice as common in women with diabetes as it is in women without diabetes. It’s also a result of aging. “Vaginal dryness is very common among women who are menopausal or post-menopausal,” says Lindau. In those cases, a lack of estrogen is behind the dryness, and problems may be treated with prescription estrogen, available in pills, a patch, or a cream used in the vagina.
Because researchers don’t understand exactly why women’s bodies lose the ability to self-lubricate when menopause isn’t the cause, treatment options are slim. Most experts recommend using store-bought lubricant.
Women with diabetes are also prone to the same blood-flow issues men face because of nerve or blood vessel damage. Diabetes complications may make it difficult for blood to move to the vagina and clitoris. “The question we have, as far as women go, is that there are women with excellent A1Cs who don’t have any blood vessel issues,” says Roszler. “They don’t have any neuropathy. But they still have sexual problems.”
Because studying female arousal problems is difficult for many reasons—women may have a hard time determining just how turned on they are, and there’s less of a physical sign of arousal in women than there is in men—treatments are few. But Goldstein says research is promising.
A small study in the August issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that women with type 1 diabetes who took 5 mg of tadalafil (Cialis) for 12 weeks reported an improved quality of life, greater arousal and orgasm, more enjoyment and satisfaction from sex, and more frequent sex. This doesn’t mean you should start sneaking your partner’s pills—please don’t: The treatment is unapproved in women, dangerous in some people with heart problems, and generally unsafe until proved otherwise. But it does show promise for female treatments of the future. As for the present, Lindau says some women use clitoral pumps to aid blood flow but notes that the device isn’t for everyone.
The Big O
An orgasm is a sought-after sexual reward, but for people with diabetes it can feel like an unattainable goal. And, yes, we’re talking about women and men here. Both can struggle with the elusive O, and the first thing they and their doctors should check are the medications they take, such as antidepressants.
Her: Though women in general report more difficulty having an orgasm than men, those with diabetes have even greater difficulty. Sure, a woman’s inability to climax often has to do with her mental or emotional state (more on that later), but diabetes may be in play, too. According to a study published this August in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, middle-aged women whose diabetes requires insulin are 80 percent more likely to report trouble reaching an orgasm than women without diabetes.
“To the best of what we know now, the neurovascular system is necessary for arousal and orgasm,” says Lindau. “If the small nerves are not working properly, then you can have sensation problems. In order for the clitoris to have the engorgement it needs to orgasm, it needs to have the blood flow and sensation.”
A hormone imbalance may be to blame, Roszler says. Some scientists studying women’s ovulation cycles hypothesize that off-balance hormones, and not just testosterone, may be behind women’s decreased arousal and orgasm, but the research is in its infancy.
Him: Having an orgasm is usually pretty easy for men, which is why it can be so frustrating if a man’s unable to finish. Like women, men suffering from neurovascular damage—and the lack of blood flow and/or sensation it creates—can have a hard time reaching an orgasm. Men can get around erectile dysfunction with a variety of treatments, ranging from medications to vacuum pumps, but these treatments will not fix neuropathy.
Putting On The Brakes
Sex is supposed to bring you and your partner pleasure, so pain is an indication that something isn’t right. Even if you’re shy, it’s important to discuss issues of painful sex with a doctor. “See a doctor who is familiar with taking care of sexual problems because we can rectify problems in [most] patients, especially people with diabetes,” Goldstein says.
Him: Men with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing Peyronie’s disease, a condition in which scar tissue inside the penis causes a curved and painful erection. Before you worry, take heart: Penises all vary in shape, and a little curve isn’t a big deal. With Peyronie’s disease, the curve or bend is significant and can make having sex and getting or keeping an erection difficult and painful. A doctor can advise whether you should wait it out, take medication, or have surgery.
Her: Having sex with too little lubrication can make a woman scream—and not in a good way. Vaginal dryness is one of the main reasons women with diabetes have pain during sex, and better lubrication is the answer. Whether that comes in the form of estrogen therapy for women whose dryness
is a side effect of menopause or over-the-counter lubricants, the goal is to be well lubricated before sex.
Women with diabetes are also at a greater risk for urinary tract infections (UTIs) and vaginal yeast infections, which in turn may lead to painful sex. (Rest assured, though, that people with diabetes are at no greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases than those without the disease.) Lower your chances of getting a UTI or yeast infection by keeping your blood glucose under good control, and head to the doctor at the first sign of discomfort.
So maybe your sex life isn’t where it should be. If you can admit that to your health care provider, you’ve already fought half of the battle. Depending on the extent of your sexual dysfunction, you may be able to see improvement by getting your blood glucose in control. Even if the complications are too severe to reverse with better diabetes control alone, keeping your blood glucose levels in line can help to prevent further damage. Another tip: Quit smoking. It’s linked to sexual problems, and it’s all-around bad news for the rest of your body.
There are several approaches that both men and women benefit from, including seeing a doctor who specializes in sexual medicine and talking with a mental health professional. The latter is an important step because relationship problems, body issues, stress, and a host of other emotional baggage can affect all aspects of your sex life. You may be too self-conscious to get in the mood or get aroused, or maybe you’re too stressed to have an orgasm.
A counselor can also help you and your partner work out any strain your sexual dysfunction may have caused. “It creates such emotional tension in a relationship that it permeates the entire relationship, not just in the bedroom,” Roszler says. So talk it out and find a way to work around your sexual problems.
Finally, consider making lifestyle changes. Managing your diabetes well, including eating healthfully, exercising regularly, and reducing stress, will benefit your entire body, not just your nether regions. “I think it’s very likely that a good sex life leads to better health,” says Lindau. “And better health leads to good sex.” | <urn:uuid:1861adbe-fa91-4399-8b67-00bca81a4c19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forecast.diabetes.org/sex-nov2012?loc=hpfeature1_forecast-sex-diabetes_nov2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93877 | 2,849 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Jason Calacanis, a technology entrepreneur never shy of hyperbole, exclaims that:
Anyone who has an iPad — a device that did NOT exist 18 months ago — says it’s their primary consumption device or tied for their primary consumption device. (via Launch)
When I stopped to consider where I consume media – like others Calacanis interviewed – the answer is: primarily on my iPad. But consumption doesn’t matter for those of us looking for a tax write-off on our Christmas present to ourselves work related expense. The all important question is whether you can do anything productive on an iPad. So a quick review of what is available for architects and where it might head:
All of the major CAD companies have put out CAD viewers for the iPad.
These apps all work in much the same way, allowing you to open, view and present 3d files on the iPad. It turns out rendering geometry is a task the iPad is surprisingly good at. The controls inside Graphisoft’s BimX are probably my favorite, allowing you to walk around a building like in a computer game with an overlay of the floor-plan based on your location. One of the major hindrances to all these apps is Apple’s clunky solutions for getting content onto the iPad. Take for instance Bentley’s helpful guide for exporting models to the iPad:
Bentley doing what they do best
This particularly painful diagram from Bentley is partly because your drawings need to be exported into a special mobile format. The same is true of Graphisoft’s BimX. However, Dassault, McNeel and Autodesk use the native file format of their desktop counterparts. This makes importing files much easier but the true significance is that these companies have worked out how to port code from desktop apps to the iPad – an important first step in creating something more than a 3d viewer.
Of all the vendors, Autodesk have been the most enthusiastic about the iPad. In total they have produced 16 apps; a grab-bag of 3d viewers, drawing apps, a photo manipulation app, a clock, a game and a book. It seems Autodesk senses something is happening, but their scatter-shot approach gives the impression they are not (yet) sure of the larger vision. Nevertheless, it is exciting to see Autodesk throw their might behind speculative innovation – we are seeing it with apps and also their recent cloud efforts: Autodesk 360 & Autodesk Cloud.
Apps to create architecture
Autodesk’s experiments have produced two notable apps for creating geometric designs:
AutoCAD WS is largely a viewer for AutoCAD files but also has tools to draw circles, lines, rectangles and text. AutoCAD jockeys are not going to be rushing to produce drawings on the iPad but it is probably enough to markup changes if you are away from the computer.
123D Sculpt is a push-pull mesh tool that lets you shape an object like it is clay. The interface is suited to the iPad but the organic forms are probably only appropriate to architects of a certain ilk (Gehry).
Not my most flattering self-portrait - in 123D Sculpt
There is a smattering of other apps available, none of them particularly amazing. My favorite is Home Design 3D. It is a very basic CAD tool where in 2d you can draw walls (orthogonal only) and add windows, doors, and furniture. Once complete you can fly around a 3d rendering of your rooms. It is no Revit, but for non-architects wanting to mockup things like renovations, I would recommend it over Sketchup.
The CAD offerings on the iPad are currently pretty dismal, mostly because the touch interface has not found a place beside the precise, memory intensive desktop counterparts. It has taken 18 months for the iPad to be a primary consumption device but the CAD industry is moving much slower than this. On the other-hand the games industry is moving very quickly and we see games for the iPad that have architectural aspects like Touch Physics, Zen Bound, Cut the Rope, World of Goo, MineCraft and even Angry Birds (although admittedly about the destruction of architecture). These might hint at where the industry (Autodesk?) is going, as Ben Regnier asks, “why the hell don’t I get to use this at work?” (Work, mostly play)
I would love to find more apps, please post your favorites in the comments.
This review of Mark Burry’s Scripting Cultures (On Amazon) – like my review ofThe New Mathematics of Architecture (also by Mark) – carries the disclaimer that Mark is the supervisor of my PhD. I should also confess to illustrating the project in the final chapter, for which I will shoulder the blame if it doesn’t look as good as the other chapters.
Scripting Cultures investigates why designers choose to script. Burry suggests two motivations: productivity and control. The evidence for these claims consists of a biographical account of Burry’s own work, intermixed with a set of ‘thought experiments,’ and a set of interviews with thirty of the industries leaders (including: Casey Reas [Processing], Robert Aish [Generative Components + Designscript], John Frazer [An Evolutionary architecture], Axel Kilian, Neil Leach, Denis Shelden [Gehry] and Hugh Whitehead [Fosters]).
On the surface, productivity and control seem like utilitarian motivations to script, especially when compared to the writing normally associated with scripting: chest thumping proclamations of new paradigms footnoted with references towards incomprehensible continental philosophy. In place of these typical grandiose proclamations is a very honest assessment of how scripting can be applied to the design process. Burry admits that despite being introduced to scripting in a class taught by William Mitchell in the 1970′s, he had no interest in scripting until he needed it for part of the design of the Sagrada Família in 1989. And even after picking up scripting Burry says he still finds it difficult and time consuming – as do all of the other 30 scripting wizards he interviewed. Burry’s openness about the scripting process is not a dry utilitarian argument (despite appearances) but rather a refreshingly frank account of how scripting can augment the design process.
Burry sees the designer as central to the design process. His definition of design – the “mapping of an idea through to an intended outcome” – focuses on the designers aspiration rather than fetishising algorithmic effects. As such Burry views scripting as a conduit to enhance the design process, whether it is using productivity to iterate faster, or whether it is using the control of scripting to break free from the confines of black-boxed drafting software. The second half of the book focuses on a number of case studies where this happens. The case studies are characteristically honest about the challenges they faced and design method employed. I personally preferred the first half of the book to the case studies, but that might be because I am familiar with the case studies – I imagine someone who has not scripted before could find it insightful to see the nuts-and-bolts application of scripting in practice.
The book concludes by arguing for scripting as “an essential component of 21st-century design education.” In doing so Burry cautions against classifying scripting as a single culture that could be seen as an “exclusivist force.” Instead Burry affirms the importance of the designer in the scripting process, suggesting scripting is at home with the many cultures of design practice.
From my non-objective point of view, Scripting Cultures seems to articulate a maturing in our understanding of digital practice, away from self-congratulatory ego-shots demonstrating how clever we could be with scripts, and towards a time when scripting becomes a part of the everyday culture of design. For beginners I imagine this un-embellished description of scripting could offer some useful pathways into understanding the history, culture and role of scripting in design. For experiencedscripters it is reassuring to hear 30 experts tell you they find it difficult as well. My major gripe with the book is that it only comes in physical form. For a book that so fully celebrates the capacity of technology to contribute to culture, waiting for it to be printed and mailed to you seems a little perverse. This is made even more stranger by the fact that Wiley – the publisher – is relatively progressive in making AD the journalavailable online. Yet for Scripting Cultures not even the contents is online (I put it below) and equally strangely there is a website where you can download some of the scripts from the case studies http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-611118.html but it was not mentioned in the book. However medium aside, Scripting Cultures makes an important contribution to the culture of scripting.
Somehow I have managed to end up with two copies of Scripting Cultures. If you would like my extra copy (its hardback) enter your name and email below. On the 17th of November I will randomly select someone to send it to. If you don’t win you can always pick it up on Amazon and leave a comment on this post. Good luck!
18-11-2011: The winner of the competition was Harri Lewis, a post-graduate student at the University of Bath and blogger at HarriLewis.com
Contextural summary of computing, scripting and speculative design
Scripted productivity: Gaudi’s rose windows
Composition and form
Simplifying complexity for fabrication
Scripting narrative space: Our world and The Third Policeman
Cultural account: Scripting and shifts in authorship
I have begun writing my PhD, which is simultaneously daunting and invigorating. One aspect I am contemplating is how to make an 80,000 word document applicable to a wider audience than the two examiners and as accessible as this blog. No doubt there will be posts on this over the coming year. However central in my contemplation at the moment is the question of why we want flexible representations, why architects need parametric models.
MacLeamy curve (2004)
In 2004, Patrick MacLeamy drew a set of curves based on a pretty self-evident observation: an architectural project becomes more difficult to change the more developed it becomes. For this earth-shattering revelation MacLeamy named the curve after himself (although the title should probably go to Boyd Paulson who drew the curve much earlier [see Noel's comment to this post]). You have probably seen the graph before, it gets trotted out in every slide deck promoting BIM / IPD / or early stage environmental analysis. The key point is that architects expel their effort at a time when design changes are relatively costly. MacLeamy and his disciples advocate shifting design effort forward in the project, frontloading it, in order to reduce the cost of design changes.
MacLeamy would argue that shifting design effort forwards is for the benefit of design [via youtube]. However the portfolio of buildings the architecture firm HOK has designed with MacLeamy as CEO is decidedly uninspiring. MacLeamy’s real design position is indicated by his choice to measure design changes in terms of cost, since I think most designers would perceive their decisions as adding value to a project. Further, the shift in effort assumes the design process can be anticipated and the design problem can be known before the design commences. But we have seen this curve before…
Boehm's curve (1976)
28 years prior to MacLeamy, Barry Boehm drew a curve based on a pretty self-evident observation: a software project becomes more difficult to change the more developed it becomes. For this earth-shattering revelation Boehm named the curve after himself. It is pretty striking how similar the curves are, both in shape and even in what the axes signify. Boehm’s curve is often used by software architects to justify upfront design – much like MacLeamy’s curve is in architecture. However Boehm’s curve has been challenged…
Beck's Curve (1999)
In his book ‘Extreme Programming Explained’ (1999) Beck drew a radically different version of Boehm’s curve where cost approaches a horizontal rather than vertical asymptote. It is an audacious idea, but Beck thought it could be achieved by changing the culture of programming, moving away from up-front design and towards continuous design supported by a new generation of programming tools. 12 years later we see evidence of Beck’s curve manifesting. One example is Facebook, which somehow manages to run co-current versions, while they integrate new features, while changing the underlying infrastructure, while half a billion people visit the site, and all the changes happen on the fly, at a rapid pace, with no down time. It would be like the designers of Boeing designing and changing the plane while it was flying. If Boehm’s curve held true, the existing Facebook code base would be growing exponentially more costly to change, slowing the rate of change. Instead we see something resembling Beck’s curve where the rate of change remains steady.
Beck’s curve would never work in an architectural context because architecture, unlike software, is very difficult to change once it is constructed (although some cradle-to-cradle people might disagree with this). Significantly for architects, the Beck’s curve demonstrates the location of our design efforts do not need to be controlled by the cost curve, instead using new design tools and a new design culture we can control the cost curve to suit our design efforts. So I propose another graph…
Davis curve? (2011)
This graph is based on the pretty self-evident observation: an architectural project is difficult to change once it is built but using flexible modelling tools designers can delay finalising decisions until the model is baked. For this earth-shattering revelation I have named the curve after myself. The curve is aspirational rather than reality, since parametric modelling in contemporary practice still requires significant frontloading and still frequently encounters moments of inflexibility. The curve appears to be amplified by particular architectural topologies and for a few categories of problems, notably patterns and panels, the curve already exists. As parametric models become more supple to discrete changes, I think there is a possibility this curve could manifest on a wider range of design problems. You heard it here first.
I also note that while I have drawn this curve in terms of cost (to aid comparison with MacLeamy’s curve) I think it is better stated in terms of flexibility. Cost is a measure of the designers capacity to make change, the designers ability to design. Designers have more capacity to make change on a flexible representation, while at the other end of the spectrum the designer has very little influence over a brittle representation. Being able to change the design empowers the designer to explore the solution space, to reconsider the design problem and to respond when forces outside their control influence the project. While there is a cost associated with changing a design, flexibility aims to lower this cost by making designs more susceptible to change. That is why architects need flexible representations, why architects need parametric models.
EDIT, 25th of October, 2011:
Another version of the graph based on suggestions in the comments. Perhaps we can call this one the Regnier curve
Recently I edited out a section from a top-be-published journal article because it meandered off topic and past the word count. Despite the journal editor’s draconian word count, I thought it potentially useful to other people. So here it is, rewritten and free of word counts.
There are 2035 parametric models shared publicly on the Grasshopper forum. I downloaded these models and looked for trends in the way they were structured.
1. Most popular nodes
Unsurprisingly the slider was the most popular node with 11,842 occurrences in the 2035 models. Panel, Group and Scribble come in 2nd, 3rd and 9th place, which is the result of people documenting their models (in the forum people know their model will be read so they put some effort into explaining it). 4th place is occupied by ‘List Item,’ which leads a group of list management nodes – Series, Cull, Graft, List Length, Flatten Tree – dominating the top 30 most popular nodes. It is significant that the most popular modelling operation in Grasshopper should be list management. When teaching Grasshopper I find list management to be the hardest topic to explain, and yet Grasshopper’s list management tools are some of the most powerful short of pure scripting. It should be pointed out these results are a little biased in that there are many different types of geometric modelling nodes and while no single node is popular, in aggregate they are popular. Nevertheless the list of most popular nodes should serve as a useful guide for teaching Grasshopper and the customisation of the Grasshopper menus.
The neglected nodes speak volumes for how people use Grasshopper. Falling down the bottom of the popularity list is poor old ‘Cluster,’ who sits in 159th place. There are a few reasons for this:
Cluster has only been available in Grasshopper 0.8 while the models in the Grasshopper forum stretch back to version 0.6.
People are probably more inclined to share small snippets of models on the forum and therefore don’t require clusters.
Clusters was buggy when it was re-released.
Yet, if we only look at the models created in Grasshopper 0.8 and only look at the models that contain more than 26 nodes, only 3.6% have one or more clusters in them This means most of the models people are creating in Grasshopper, even the really really really large ones, are totally unstructured, like the example in the next section:
3. Model size
The medium size of a model shared on the forum is 26 nodes, probably lower than what you would expect in practice due to people often sharing just small snippets of models. Yet a couple of models contained over 1000 nodes. The largest model I could find on the Grasshopper forum is a monster by the name of ‘hybridB02 (2).ghx’ (in this thread) weighing 20mb and containing 2584 nodes. It looks a little bit like this:
hybridB02 (2).ghx is a pretty classic case of copy-paste, and if it gets the job done who cares. But this type of unstructured model could be a huge liability if it ever needs to be edited. Say the original pink box is wrong, you edit it but to propagate the edit through the model you need to delete every instance you copy-pasted and copy-paste in the new version. Or, as we often do, start again.
I was curious about what the model would look like refactored and quickly attempted to refactor it myself (see above). One of my first moves was to reduce the dimensionality of the model. There are approximately 500 sliders in the original model, so the model is effectively no longer parametric since moving the 500 sliders would be just as difficult as moving 500 points on an explicit model by hand. Often a formula is used to reduce dimensionality of a parametric model, however in this case I used rotational symmetry to simplify things. This might have made the geometry too neat for some tastes but you could always use a formula to tweak each rotated instance. The resulting model has 126 nodes and 20 sliders, making exploration of the design space far more viable – although the model is by no means perfect.
Refactoring the model introduced quite a few of the list management nodes. This is both the reason they are popular (they are really useful) and the reason managing lists is problematic (people starting out in Grasshopper are unlikely to use them). In completing this research I had planned to make one more list of my own, a list of popular combinations of nodes but this will likely have to wait for another paper and a more friendly editor. It looks like my friend the cluster will have to wait a while longer too, as I have quite subconsciously left him out of the refactored model.
And if you are in, or near, Melbourne in November, we are going to be hosting a week long computational design workshop with Hugh Whitehead – Director of the Specialist Modelling Group at Fosters. Find out more at http://designingthedynamic.com/
When Google bought Motorola last week many speculated it was for their 17,000 patents. Patents are valuable arsenal in the wreckage of a broken patent system. In daily posts, the tech blogs have been documenting the buildup of portfolios that guarantee mutually assured destruction (MAD), while the tech giants call one another trolls and play a high stakes game of chicken. For the most part it is entertainment. A tragedy rather than a comedy, for it is sad to see the economy’s great technological innovators competing with the unintended consequences of laws rather than competing with better products.
Today something caught my eye in the latest update of Kangaroo (the geometric tool that allows you to do some pretty nifty stuff with real time physics). It was a minor update to improve compatibility with Grasshopper but one line of the release notes, tucked away in a very small font, caught my eye:
On first glance this seems innocent enough: parts of Kangaroo do similar things to the Evolute tools (see videos above) and Evolute probably just want to make sure Kangaroo isn’t flat-out copying them. However this is not what the patents assert. The patents actually protect a specific type of geometry, which is:
Panelised with planar quadrilaterals or hexagons, or made out of developable strips.
Yes you read that correctly: Evolute didn’t patent their way of generating geometry, they patented the geometry itself.The videos above demonstrate that Kangaroo and Evolute generate geometry using totally different methods – Kangaroo in a bottom-up manner through physical principles and Evolute by applying mathematical rules in a top-down manner to pre-existing surfaces. Even though these methods are totally different Evolute asserts ownership of all freeform surfaces panelised with quads used in architecture, independent of the production method. If you manage to create one of these surfaces with Kangaroo, or even accidentally in Autocad, you legally have to apply to Evolute for a licence to build the structure.
Are you fucking kidding me.
Now there is a case for patenting geometry. Architects have long argued, particularly in practice lead research, that designed objects contain tacit knowledge which is as valuable as the explicit knowledge generated by hard science. For instance, the design of a car body is the manifestation of a long string of design investigations and as such constitutes unique and specialised knowledge, which should have patentable protection. However, patenting everything with four wheels and an engine would be absurd. Yet Evolute has done this. They have not patented their method of creating surfaces, they have not patented the geometric output of their software, they have patented a whole shape topology.
I suspect, I hope, Evolute can not defend these patents because of prior art, but I am not a lawyer and clearly a real lawyer has advised Evolute they are defensible. Their defence could set a disastrous precedent. Other companies will try to cash in like Evolute and patent other topologies of shapes, architects will have to ensure their designs (while conforming to the other legislative constraints) do not infringe on these patents, large architecture firms will buy patents as ‘protection’ and very quickly architecture could go down the same unproductive path as Apple, Google and Motorola.
Whether the patents are defensible, whether Evolute has the right to do what they did, does not absolve it of being a douchbag move.
Up until about 8 hours ago I considered Evolute to be a good actor in the community; they shared their research with others and they released a free (if severely crippled) version of their tools. But this is like calling a farmer generous for feeding his animals. Evolute fattened the market for their patents through these ‘good’ actions, while only a few weeks ago they began telling Kangaroo et al. about the patents, despite holding the patents since 2007. In some ways it is shrewd to defer the cost of Evolute until the construction phase of projects since $1000 for a patent durring the construction of a million dollar roof lacks the pain of paying $1000 for software upfront (to use on one project).
This could be Evolutes legacy. All of the mathematical innovation out-shined by a single legislative innovation. I personally would much rather see Evolute making money and innovating in the tools they produce, innovating in the way they consult, innovating in how they teach in academia and industry workshops. It is sad to see Evolute (like the economy’s other great technological innovators) competing with the unintended consequences of laws rather than competing with better products. While there is a case for patenting geometry (particularly geometry with embodied knowledge) being able to patent a geometric primitive is wrong. It is even worse to take advantage of this ability and set a dangerous precedent in the process. Until this is fixed I would be cautious of working with Evolute, there is the real possibility you would hire them to refine your geometry, and then when you went to build the geometry they would try to sell you a licence to build the refined geometry. Hopefully by speaking up we draw attention to Evolute’s practice and form some sort of consensus around how to prevent someone patenting the cube. Seriously.
I am very interested in:
Whether you think Evolute has crossed the line here
How you think patents of geometry should be handled
If you have been approached by Evolute regarding these patents
Leave comment with your thoughts or get angry in your own forums and leave a link.
I removed the claim that Evolute “quietly added a licensing section to their website,” this was inaccurate, they have had a licensing section since 2010. Interestingly the Wayback Machine has caught their initial licence fee: no more the 1% of construction cost, or a 10k payday on a million dollar project…. http://web.archive.org/web/20110531212224/http://www.evolute.at/technology/patents.html | <urn:uuid:8f0abe30-4767-4476-b329-7bd7b20c6885> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzarchitecture.com/blog/index.php/category/theory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953126 | 5,527 | 1.695313 | 2 |
This report (h/t Carl in Jerusalem of Israel Matzav) brings some intriguing news:
A well-known American Jewish attorney who worked to deport former Nazis from the US is urging American officials to bar former judge Richard Goldstone from entering the country over his rulings during South Africa’s apartheid regime.
In a letter sent to US officials, Neal Sher, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said that recently disclosed information about Goldstone’s apartheid-era rulings raised questions about whether he was eligible to enter the United States. The letter was sent to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Attorney-General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Individuals who admit to acts that constitute a crime of moral turpitude¨are ineligible to enter the US, Sher charged. The recent public revelations, to which Goldstone has reportedly admitted, would appear to fit within this provision. At a minimum, there is ample basis for federal authorities to initiate an investigation into this matter, Sher said.
Well, bravo, Mr. Sher! It is especially gratifying to see that Goldstone is in infamous company: ”Sher, formerly director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, was instrumental in deporting dozens of Nazi war criminals. He played a major role in placing Austrian president Kurt Waldheim on a watch list of people ineligible to enter the US.” And will the left — which at the time fully supported the ostracism of South Africa and threw about the Nazi analogy with abandon — object to this move? I assume it would, for intellectual consistency and moral outrage are reserved for one purpose — the crusade to hobble and delegitimize the Jewish state. | <urn:uuid:53716856-1fe8-4723-adb5-218a514b5742> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commentarymagazine.com/topic/kurt-waldheim/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94701 | 355 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Today I finally finished my thesis. It’s topic was to count the number of upper sets in partially ordered sets Which is quite a hard problem since it’s in the complexity class #P-Complete (that’s the class of counting the solutions to the decision problems in NP-complete). All and all I’m quite pleased with the result. Although the upper bound is still , (can’t quite get under there without solving P=NP and winning a million dollars) I’ve manged to find a solution that has a best case of both in time and memory complexity. With a particularly large data set the brute-force algorithm took over 2 hours to complete while my algorithm took 0.025 seconds. Now that’s what I’d call a speed gain (and yes it was a real life data set, no tricks here). You can see this for yourself in the graph at the bottom of this post the ‘naïeve algoritme’ is the brute force approach, the ‘Familiealgoritme zonder uptrie’ is the first version of my algorithm, the ‘Familiealgoritme met uptrie’ is the final version of my algorithm. It uses a trie like data structure to speed up searching and uses a lot less memory. Note that the graph has a logarithmic scale.
Unfortunately for most readers my thesis is in Dutch, but I’ve translated the abstract to English:
Counting the number of upper sets in partially ordered sets gives us a unique number that can be used to compare sets. This number is like the fingerprint of a set. Until now there isn’t, as to my knowledge, an efficient algorithm to calculate this number. This meant that the number had to be calculated either by hand or by using a brute force approach. Using a brute force approach leads quickly to problems, even for trivially small data sets since this means that you have to generate 2^n subsets and check each of these subsets on upwards closure. When calculating by hand you can use symmetry but this menial process can take a lot of time and is error prone. In this thesis I present an algorithm that can calculate exact, and usually fast, the number of upper sets in a partially ordered set.
You can download my thesis here: Upper sets in partially ordered sets (Bsc thesis Roy Triesscheijn) as I’ve said before the text is in Dutch, but the proofs and attached code should be readable enough. If you’ve got any questions feel free to ask below! | <urn:uuid:5e9e4e40-d471-4f72-89e3-4994203c0422> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://roy-t.nl/index.php/tag/upper-sets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939162 | 546 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Cue the scary music and ghost sounds, because it's time for the Halloween Lunch Box! It's a ghastly Mummy Calzone on a bed of mummy wrappings (torn paper towel), with a bucket of blood (pizza sauce) for dipping.
Two gruesome shrunken heads (a baked apple with clove eyes) rise up from a swamp of blackberry applesauce, and a little paper pumpkin holds dessert.
I saw this clever calzone in a Halloween recipe booklet at the grocery store. I veganized it by using my recipe for Broccoli Calzones in Vegan Lunch Box. I divided the wholegrain pizza dough into five pieces instead of eight, in order to roll out each piece and trim them into triangle shapes. I used a pizza wheel to cut the sides into strips, then filled the center with broccoli and tofu "ricotta". I rounded the top strip of dough into a head and overlapped the dough strips all the way down to form the mummy body. Bits of black olives are the eyes.
For dessert, a little pumpkin filled with candy and confetti is a nice way to make a small amount of candy feel like a very special treat. Just wrap one or two pieces of candy and some Halloween confetti or toys in a circle of orange tissue paper. Twist the top and seal with a bit of green floral tape.
Verdict: "It's very important to decide whether to eat the head or feet first," shmoo informs. "I ate the head!" He was delighted by the shrunken heads. "Weird!" he says. I warned him ahead of time not to try to eat the cloves! 5 howls at the moon. | <urn:uuid:0d30bbf7-8996-4321-be18-f3839b09baf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/2006/10/lunch-box-of-damned.html?showComment=1162240200000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940699 | 348 | 1.640625 | 2 |
We are just getting prepared to start our first real "year" of homeschooling. My daughter will be 5 in November. She loves "doing school". We are still undecided on a math program for her. She loves to play card games now and loves hands on, but she also asks almost daily for "sheets" to do. She can easily do 10 worksheets a day when she is in the mood. I have narrowed it down to 2 math programs for her - RightStart being one of them.
So my question is if I decide to go with RS, what should I buy? If I buy the Level A kit (the $100 one) am I going to wish I had spent the extra and got the deluxe one or does the regular one have everything I need? Also does anyone know if you can buy these kits used? DO they ever have a sale?
Thank you for your message and your interest in RightStart. If you purchase the Level A Starter Kit you will have everything that is required to teach that level. The deluxe kit includes items that are recommended but not required. Most of the items that are included in the deluxe are ones you need later on in the program but not specifically in Level A.
If you are considering items to purchase in addition to the Level A Starter Kit, I would suggest the Appendices for A & B ($10) and the Math Card Games book ($25). You would not need to purchase the additional items, however with your daughters strong interest in card games, you would enjoy the book.
We do offer a special if you go to a Homeschool convention that we are attending, (look for one in your area... http://www.alabacus.com/pageView.cfm?pageID=280) for free shipping and any order over $100 receives a 10% discount. If you order directly from our office, we do offer free shipping for any order of $225.
I hope this helps, if you have further questions, please let me know.
Make it a great day,
Activities for Learning-RightStart™ Mathematics
Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics. | <urn:uuid:d499847f-c421-4230-ae9a-2536ea7de9b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pub46.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3947096399&frmid=70&msgid=1244134&cmd=show | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965717 | 451 | 1.726563 | 2 |
AGENCIES- UN/Arab League envoy for Syria Kofi Annan is expected to arrive for a two-day visit in Moscow on Monday to hold talks with Russia on the settlement of the domestic conflict in Syria.
Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon head for Russia and China on Monday to press the two UN Security Council doubters to back tougher action against President Bashar al-Assad to halt the slaughter in Syria.
The visits by the UN-Arab League envoy and the UN leader come at a crucial new stage in the 16-month old conflict. The Security Council has until Friday to renew the UN mission in Syria but is divided over Western calls to add sanctions.
"So divided that maybe Annan and Ban now have the most influence over Russia and China to get anything done," said one senior UN council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Annan will meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday evening and President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Russia has led the resistance and Annan is to meet President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during two days of talks in Moscow, said his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.
Last Sunday the Kremlin press service reported that during the July 17 Putin-Annan meeting in Moscow "Russia plans to once again confirm its support for Annan's peace plan of the political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis in Syria."
"The Russian side proceeds from the belief that the plan is the only viable platform for resolving Syrian domestic problems," the report says.
It will be Annan's second visit since his appointment to the post of special envoy. He visited Moscow for the first time last March.
Russia, which has proposed a resolution which just renews the UN mission, has said the threat is "unacceptable" and would not be allowed. Russia and China have twice used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto resolutions which just spoke of possible measures.
Moscow has also said that the Security Council cannot force President al-Assad to stand down as part of any solution and that more pressure must be put on the opposition.
Diplomats have warned that the council battle over Syria could see the UN mission closed down if there is no agreed resolution.
The Western nations have said there is little point in keeping the nearly 300 unarmed observers in Syria if there is no ceasefire or a political process to monitor.
Meanwhile, UN observers who returned from the village of al-Treimseh on Sunday said that, based on what they saw and on witness accounts, the attack there was targeted at army defectors and activists. | <urn:uuid:d0cf03d3-b2c5-4fc3-bf28-04cdd5a9db60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dp-news.com/en/detail.aspx?articleid=126381 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970307 | 523 | 1.5 | 2 |
From the damage assessments, a prioritized list of critical repairs was developed based on threat to human life and safety, as well as economic impacts. The recently approved Disaster Relief Appropriations Act has designated $802 million for repairs to the MR&T.
“In eager anticipation of these much needed flood recovery funds our teams, partners and contractors are rapidly mobilizing to aggressively implement a broad array of repairs in the coming months” said Scott Whitney, regional flood risk manager for MVD.
With the coming flood season fast approaching and winter site conditions unsuitable for active construction, there will be many areas not fully repaired, resulting in increased risk within the system.
This increased risk will require extra vigilance and advance preparedness in the coming months given the post-flood condition of MR&T levees, floodwalls, water control structures and navigation channels.
Taking into account the vulnerable condition of the MR&T project and projected National Weather Service Spring forecast, the Corps mobilized a Regional 2012 Flood Preparedness Team in mid-December to develop plans to manage, mitigate and communicate flood risks throughout the MR&T system.
This regional effort will identify key risks within the MR&T, ways to minimize risk, and effectively communicate this information to partners, stakeholders and the public. An interagency workshop is scheduled for Feb. 22-23 in Memphis to carefully coordinate, refine and communicate this team’s findings, tools and recommendations across the broad array of those public officials with shared responsibility for the protection of the lives and livelihoods from flooding events.
The 2012 Flood Season Preparedness Team has a lot to do in a very short time. When the project is complete, there will be valuable information to share as well as means to share it.
“Our primary goal with this collaborative effort is to be fully prepared to help protect the lives and livelihoods of people living within the Mississippi River Valley,” said Henry DeHaan, flood preparedness team leader. | <urn:uuid:b07e3b9e-7a0e-4093-870b-52b63475e226> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stmarynow.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Corps+of+Engineers+preparing+for+flood+season%20&id=17184888&instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938064 | 402 | 1.578125 | 2 |
BTB: The All Powerful DatabaseConsumer databases have come a long way in a short period of time. Business-to-business marketers can take advantage of having had the way paved for them, and build on the foundation that has been established in the database realm.
Just as BTB merges and consumer merge/purges share a basic framework, there remain significant differences in the logic and outcome of the application of that logic. The same can be said of the database environment used to house and maintain data received from the sales and prospecting efforts of both consumer and business marketers.
What they do have in common is crucial to the success of each; to capture and store data, to identify and develop a contact strategy with their best customers for incremental sales and to facilitate the conversion of their prospects into customers. The differences are in the initial setup of the databases and the amount and type of information captured and retained by the BTB marketer.
In "Journal of Direct Marketing," Vol. 11, No. 4, Mary Lou Roberts provides the following definition of databased marketing: "Databased marketing is the application of statistical analysis and modeling techniques to computerized, individual-level data sets. It is used to support the development of cost-effective marketing programs that communicate directly with the identified customers and prospects, and to track and evaluate the results of specific promotional efforts. Databased marketing implies planned communication with individually targeted customers and prospects over an extended period of time to promote repeat purchases of related goods and services."
Whether consumer or business orientated, the ability of any marketer to capture and then use current, relevant and contact based information is the key to the success of that marketer in his given industry. Only in an environment that supports and takes into consideration all the elements of customer and prospect activity can true relational marketing efforts be successful.
If you look at all the various uses of a customer/prospect database and the amount and depth of the information available to support and enhance each of the following categories, you can begin to understand the importance of setting up the BTB database so each category can maximize its inherent contribution to the overall marketing and decision-making process. These functions are always apparent in total, or in part, in any marketing and sales organization: distribution channels, customer/prospect acquisition, customer service, product management, promotion/circulation, sales, customer promotions, relationship/events marketing and market research and analysis.
Each particular function carries with it powerful information resources to be used in both tactical and strategic decision-making situations. Whether you choose a simple spread sheet analysis of any of the above marketing functions, or multiple selections for more complex quantitative or multi-variate regression analysis, the data you collect, maintain, refresh and report on is of the utmost importance to your success. Furthermore, the ability to share and cross-reference the information will allow your entire sales, marketing and customer service divisions to operate with maximum information availability. The more informed your service and sales forces are, the better they can adapt to the customers needs of today and expectations of tomorrow.
A BTB database must contain the most effective way to contact your customer. Consider that to reach a typical consumer you only have to capture his current address. Sophisticated and widely available address integrity programs such as NCOA, LACS, DSF and ACR all assist in keeping that address up to date for that customer. In a business environment, there are additional address elements to be considered and fewer available techniques for list hygiene. The least is the number of address lines dedicated to an address.
Name, title, company name, building or suite number, mailstop, department, etc., all can be found in one form or another on a business record. What if the company has multiple locations and you have customers at each one? Keeping track of information at the individual level will be paramount if you want to continue to market your products to the people that have the power and authority to purchase. You may need to link corporate (central) purchasing to individual customers (ship to's) for certain campaigns, but not others. Do you want to remind your best customers -- high frequency, high dollar -- of what they purchased last year? How about teachers returning to school? The relationship you create with your customers is tied directly into how you maintain that customer and his/her transaction information. A database configuration that supports multiple avenues of purchasing -- and those address ramifications -- is the key to successful BTB database marketing.
Many companies are facing budgetary concerns that directly affect the area in the company that is least understood -- IT, MIS or whatever you choose to call it. Convincing management to appropriate the large dollar amounts necessary to build, maintain, staff, analyze, segment and update a marketing database is a tough task if not everyone is on board with the how and why of using the wealth of information stored in this type of environment.
Outsourcing may be the answer to this budget line item and you can negotiate with your outside vendor for all the bells and whistles you may need or think you want at this point in your database creation or expansion. To isolate and categorize size and growth patterns of certain customer segments while supporting the different marketing channels -- retailers, dealers, distributors, direct, Web -- is a large undertaking for most business as they become familiar with relational databases.
You may have the expertise inhouse to define the type of information you need but not have the personnel to mine it from the database. By outsourcing, you have access to the people who know how to mine the data and advise you in the use of the data. Additionally, incremental relationships between your service provider and other service providers may prove to be beneficial to the overall effectiveness of not only the database itself, but to independent programs such as telemarketing, lead generation and management, fulfillment, etc. Your database is the fulcrum on which all aspects of a closed loop sales system is balanced.
Building a relationship with your customers not only is good business but it's a crucial business practice. It requires a commitment on your part to deliver to your customer quality service, product, pricing and support. It means that your entire organization participates in the complete satisfaction of the customer. By building a comprehensive and integrated database to warehouse this information, you can have the information available to all the various departments within your organization.
A good database provides the right information to the right people at the right time. There is no framework for information capture and dissemination that can't be made better and more usable to an organization. Building your database the right way is the only way to stay on top of the game. You can bet your competitors are doing just that.
Maysel R. McGown is director of new business development at LCS Direct Marketing Services, Clifton, NJ. | <urn:uuid:37aa3543-c95a-44a7-80c8-1b71173cee85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmnews.com/btb-the-all-powerful-database/printarticle/60335/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939053 | 1,383 | 1.65625 | 2 |
No decision is more important in a startup's life than the decision of who to start the company with. The right founding team can quickly find product-market fit, while an imbalanced team can find themselves working two years on a product nobody wants.
"What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them," Y Combinator partner Paul Graham said in 2005. "Good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can't save bad people."
I've seen hundreds of startups blow up because of teams that didn't know or respect each other. I've heard of everything from money laundering to sabotage. Starting a company is one of the most stressful things you can do -- you had better make sure that your team can withstand the pressure.
So how do you find the right co-founder? What makes for a great founding team? How do you avoid disaster?
Here are my co-founder commandments for startup success:
- Know your co-founder before your startup. This is the best way to avoid a startup disaster. Startups founded by friends or colleagues that know each other simply have a better chance of succeeding. If you've built up that trust and respect for each other, you will encounter far less disturbing surprises.
- Complementary teams float and unbalanced teams capsize. It seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many startups I encounter that have no technical co-founders. Complementary skill sets makes it easier to divide the workload, while unbalanced teams are typically missing crucial skill sets. Fill any major gaps you have on your team before your ship sinks.
- Make sure you share the same core values. It's fine if co-founders have drastically different personalities and skill sets, but their values have to be the same as yours. You must agree on vision, direction, recruiting, hiring and other core aspects of the company. Disagreement on core values only helps foster resentment.
- Trust, but document. Get your agreements on paper, no matter how much you trust your co-founder. I've seen at least a dozen startup founders screw each other over because they weren't on the same page and didn't have paperwork that would have prevented a lawsuit. You may not like lawyers or paperwork, but you need both.
- Build something together first. There's only one way to know if you work well with somebody, and that's to actually work with them. Build something simple together -- a game or an app -- and you will quickly find out how well you work as a team. Hackathons are a great way to test team cohesion.
There's a reason why my co-founder for The Peep Project is Hilary Karls. We've known each other far longer than our startup, and that has given us the time to build up the respect and trust that is essential to running a successful company.
Having no co-founder makes you susceptible to bad ideas because you have nobody to talk you out of them. Having the wrong co-founders will create stress fractures that eventually tear your startup apart. But having the right co-founders will transform your startup's destiny and propel you forward.
If you want to do a startup someday, go looking for your co-founders now, before you actually need them. Meet interesting people and see who you click with. You'll thank me later. | <urn:uuid:57fc4002-f650-4d97-a54b-ae534f84cea7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-33617_3-57418289-276/5-commandments-for-choosing-a-co-founder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967008 | 689 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Posted at: 12/05/2012 6:59 AM
Updated at: 12/06/2012 8:19 AM
By: Scott Theisen
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton and lawmakers will have to eliminate a projected $1.1 billion state budget deficit when their session convenes in January, a smaller shortfall than in recent years but one that gives Dayton a new starting point for his long push to raise income taxes on the state's wealthiest people.
Dayton declined to get into specifics on a budget proposal he must give to the newly DFL-controlled Legislature by Jan. 22, and which he'll build from the economic forecast released Wednesday. But between the new deficit and a loose list of Democratic goals that include property tax relief and more money for schools, Dayton indicated that no one should be surprised if he renews a push that was central to his 2010 campaign for governor and his first year in office.
"I think you can expect that's very likely," Dayton said at a Capitol news conference.
The governor and state budget officials warned that their new budget forecast came with a large asterisk: the state's economic fortunes could quickly plummet again unless Congress and President Barack Obama can resolve federal debt negotiations and avoid going over the so-called "fiscal cliff."
"We are making slow progress gaining jobs and economic momentum," said Jim Schowalter, director of Minnesota Management and Budget. "But the trouble is it's wrapped in a cloud of uncertainty due to the federal fiscal cliff."
The fiscal cliff refers to a set of major federal spending cuts and income tax hikes set to take effect on Jan. 1 to reduce federal debt. Both Obama and congressional leaders have said they want to avoid that scenario, but differ on how to do so. Like Dayton, Obama wants income tax rates to go up on the wealthy.
"I think they can afford both of those increases," Dayton said, referring to state and federal income tax rates.
State Economist Tom Stinson sketched a dire picture of consequences for Minnesota's economy without a federal debt deal: 115,000 jobs lost in 2013-14, a drop in personal income of 4 percent by 2015 and a drop in state tax revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The fiscal cliff is ultimate gloom," Stinson said.
Uncertainty over the federal situation cast a shadow over the forecast, which Dayton will use as a baseline for assembling his next budget proposal. Minnesota's governor and lawmakers write and enact a new budget for the state every two years, and deficits arise when the amount of tax and other expected revenue isn't enough to keep up with projected spending obligations on health and welfare programs, schools, courts and law enforcement, and other state services.
Deficits have been common in Minnesota for much of the last decade. After the U.S. economy plummeted in 2008, deficits here ballooned: Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and lawmakers faced a $5.27 billion deficit in December 2008, and two years later incoming Gov. Dayton and a new Republican majority came into office looking at a $6.2 billion deficit.
Part of the way Pawlenty, then Dayton and lawmakers eliminated those deficits was to delay state aid payments to public school districts. State budget officials said a remaining 2013 budget surplus would allow them to repay $1.3 billion of that shift, leaving an additional $1.1 billion to be paid before the debt is completely eliminated.
Incoming House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said a chief goal of Democrats taking over both legislative chambers in January would be to restore stability to the state budget and end the chronic deficits of recent years.
"Our state budget has been on a roller-coaster of deficits for the last decade," he said.
Dayton's revenue commissioner, Myron Frans, has been assembling a tax reform package meant to make revenue sources more stable. It will likely be included in Dayton's January budget proposal.
Thissen and new Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk were reluctant to discuss details of where new tax revenue might come from. Republicans at the state Capitol said Wednesday tax increases were a bad idea.
"When a Democrat says tax reform, they mean tax increases," said the new House Republican leader, Rep. Kurt Daudt of Crown.
Republicans, vanquished from legislative leadership in the November elections, said it was their two years of stewardship at the Capitol that helped clear the way for a lower deficit than recent years. Daudt and the new Senate Republican leader, Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, suggested that Democrats should consider tax cuts in an attempt to further stimulate the state's economy.
Still, a number of major Democratic allies including the state chapter of the AFL-CIO and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 immediately called for new revenue to help pay for schools, transportation infrastructure, jobs and assistance programs.
"Middle class Minnesotans have been paying more than their fair share for the last decade," state AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said in a news release.
The director of AFSCME, Eliot Seide, suggested the state should raise $6 billion in new revenue.
Dayton said his office would prepare its budget proposal under the assumption that Obama and Congress end up avoiding the fiscal cliff.
"I think the odds are in favor of it getting resolved," he said.
Final Fcst Nov 2012.Pptx
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:61061590-8855-4d6f-8b58-4bb00d895e18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hbispace.com/printStory/kaal/index.cfm?id=2856148 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962459 | 1,140 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod this week
A look at news from around Ireland
Mass on the Internet
ANOTHER indication of the extent of the emigration epidemic that is hitting Galway at the moment is demonstrated by the provision of a camera in a cathedral which will allow emigrants to view their local Mass as well as watching funeral ceremonies that they are unable to attend.
The live webcam has been installed in Tuam Cathedral and will broadcast all of the Masses – even those during the weekdays – as well as providing coverage of funerals that take place in the town.
It is the first town in the west of Ireland in which Masses can be viewed online, and will also facilitate those living in the parish who are unable to attend because of sickness.
But local priest Father Sean Cunningham said that it would be mainly a service that would be availed of by those who have had to emigrate, particularly those who have had to go to countries like Australia or Canada seeking employment.
Similar webcams have been installed in some of the bigger churches in Dublin city.
“The camera has several functions. Those who cannot attend Mass through illness can watch it online, but those from the Tuam and North Galway area who are living abroad can view it and almost feel part of the congregation,” Cunningham said.
“There are those who are now living and working so far away from home that they might not be able to get back to attend a relation’s funeral and this is a service that they might wish to avail of.”
The camera is positioned on one of the cathedral pillars and is focused on the altar, the pulpit and the tabernacle so that viewers can follow Mass, readings and Communion.
Kenny’s Mother Dies
THE death has been announced of Mrs. Eithne Kenny, mother of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny.
Mrs. Kenny (nee McGinley), who was 93, was born in Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal.
She died in Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar on Saturday surrounded by her family.
Mrs. Kenny had been actively involved in the political life of the county for the past 60 years and was described by friends as a woman of great spirit, encouragement and generosity.
She took an active role in her son Enda's political career and was said to be delighted when he became taoiseach.
Mrs. Kenny is predeceased by her husband Henry, who died in 1975 and is survived by her four sons, John, Henry, Enda and Ciaran and daughter Marie (Hastings).
Government and political leaders have extended their condolences to the Kenny family.
FARMERS should have the right to be buried on their own lands, according to Clare councilor James Breen.
He believes people’s land can be very sacred to them and if they want to be buried there, they should be facilitated.
At the November meeting of Clare County Council, Breen put forward a motion requesting that the local authority call on the minister for the environment to “change the law in relation to burials whereby a farmer or his family, if they so desire, may be buried on his or her own land.”
He said that for some, the place they were born and spent their life in is very special. “There is nothing more sacred in this world to a farmer than this patch of ground,” he commented.
Councilor Gerry Flynn felt the motion should be broadened to include property owners with sufficient land, while Green Party councilor Brian Meaney said such burials would need to be very tightly regulated.
Concerns about the proposal were voiced by councilor Joe Arkins. “I realize the attachment that people have, but could we be picking a rod to beat ourselves with?” he asked.
Arkins had concerns about how it might work in practice, saying there could be issues around the sale of lands, extensions and pollution.
Tubber-based councilor Michael Kelly noted that farmers aren’t allowed to bury their animals on their land. However, he said it was something that would require a lot of consideration.
Responding to some of the points made, Breen questioned what research other members had undertaken.
“How many have put research into it? I’ve done research and the vast majority aren’t interested and the vast majority wouldn’t go for it, but some would.”
Eventually the members agreed to send the matter to the minister for consideration.
- Government minister calls for investigation...
- Irishman John Downey arrested for 1982 IRA...
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities
- Amnesty International says Ireland’s abortion...
- New book ‘John F. Kennedy - Among the Germans’.
- Irish finance minister says US Senate are...
- Nigerian migrants send $653 million a year...
- One in seven people on social welfare in...
- Top bishops clash over excommunication of...
- Calls for Irish Justice Minister to resign... | <urn:uuid:7c85ec41-339e-4b7e-9640-3e517d9c1480> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irelands-Eye-Whats-going-on-in-the-old-sod-this-week-134743358.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980531 | 1,072 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Pizza is a Vegetable: Pay It Forward (Video)
|Pizza is a vegetable that we can't get out of our heads!|
Yes, that movie with the do-gooder boy who sees dead people was heart-wrenching and all that stuff, but paying it forward can also mean passing on some horrible song that's stuck in your head.
Case in point: The Pizza is a Vegetable song by Jonathan Mann. In the YouTube video that we unearthed, Mann sings "pizza is a vegetable" to a banging synth track. Over and over...and over...(though he switches it up to take a knock at Congress).
Once we watched the inane ode to Congress acting like dickweeds and pronouncing pizza as good as a vegetable for public school lunches, we knew we would never get that ditty out of our heads.....unless we paid it forward.
Just because we like you (and not because we want to purge ourselves from the curse of the tune) -- here's the Pizza is a Vegetable song. Our advice? Pay it forward!
Follow Clean Plate Charlie on Facebook and on Twitter: @CleanPlateBPB. | <urn:uuid:0af4690d-929e-4232-bf50-fe8b348b8d6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/cleanplatecharlie/2011/12/pizza_is_a_vegetable_video.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958439 | 245 | 1.585938 | 2 |
It stayed unmoving, transfixed, not skittering away as roaches usually do as it seemed to trust the young woman. Slowly she took one finger, reached out, and with studied deliberation crushed the life out of a small cockroach on the apartment wall.
After the young woman had killed the tiny roach, she burst into tears. She asked for forgiveness; she had never meant to ever harm any living creature. “Surely, even a roach has a soul,” she thought. Since childhood, she had prayed constantly for everyone she knew and for all living creatures. She prayed for her Mother’s recovery from the injury inflicted by brain surgery. Perhaps, this was why she prayed so much for this little roach. There were consequences to this kind of compulsive praying.
She named the dead insect “the Apostle Barnabas,” revealing a slight trace of the influence of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, of which she was once been a fan. She was falling apart emotionally to be so distraught at the death of a mere cockroach, even if she were the agent of its death. A psychologist wrote in his notes that at that time she was involved in Satanism. Of that, she was innocent, and she did not know then what he had written. He did not pick up on her being religious; he knew she was an ardent fan of the Gothic soap opera that featured a vampire character, Barnabas. She gave it up because of therapy. Her relationship to roaches, though, would continue.
Miriam Wexler had always been one to have strange capricious thoughts. She had never had much feeling for roaches, although their darting movements scared her like mice did some women. For her, she would be happy enough if all roaches and the little cockroaches would lead their separate lives away from her home. Certainly, she did not want them to multiply within her home!
As a young child, she did not hurt them, though. She once saw a caterpillar change into a chrysalis, break forth out of its cocoon, and emerge as a new creature. As for roaches, she wondered sometimes if they could transform, too.
Roaches had always been part of Miriam’s life. When her parents’ marriage failed, some roach eggs had accompanied them in their furniture when the mother and child moved back with her mother’s parents. Although her grandfather once burned all of her toys because he thought the cat might have infested them with fleas, he did not throw out that furniture even though he knew it introduced roaches to his home. These belongings were all that they had. After repeated sprayings and by not leaving out food, years later the house was finally “bug-free.” He died soon afterwards.
Miriam had led an isolated childhood. While her grandfather was alive, she never felt lonely; he, and later her mother, were her constant companions. He would take her fishing or hiking over the land where later the lake stood after the dam was built.
Her grandmother, Ramah Spindor, always had trouble keeping a clean house. Though her sister-in-law, a minister’s wife, warned her that it was setting a bad example for young Miriam, Ramah kept a messy home because a doctor had told her to “slow down and not bother with the housework, or your diabetes would kill you.” Her in-laws never seemed to understand that. Also, since losing Miriam’s granddad, keeping a clean home just was not important to her.
Miriam tried to clean the house, but she really did not know how. She could make no headway with it; her room was used as the storage room. Everything that needed to be out of sight when relatives visited was shoved into her room. Due to the mess and because her mother was a mental case who might say anything, Miriam never invited anyone home. She could have visited her school and church friends, but she was ashamed of how she lived.
She did visit her other grandparents, her dad, and his second family on alternate Sundays. There, she was the eldest grandchild. She led the rest of the grandchildren, including her younger half-brother and half-sister, in play. She loved to dream up games and activities for them. She often had them pretend to be Indians, building teepees with chinaberry tree limbs and a sheet or old blanket. There, life was happier than with Grandmother Spindor who seemed sterner than her other grandma, but her father’s custody suit scared her. She truly did not wish to leave her “beautiful Mother” who cared so deeply for her and needed her so much.
Miriam’s mother had her brain surgery when Miriam was only eight months-old, but since then only took medication to inhibit the formation of scar tissue. Her mother had once been an independent young woman, but began to show signs of being disturbed through fidgeting and pacing. About the time Miriam was four-years-old, her mother went in alone with a letter of introduction from the family doctor to admit herself into the state hospital. Miriam could remember the trip the family took to the hospital and that her mother wore the blue suit that had been her wedding dress. She stayed there as either a patient or outpatient for the next sixteen years.
Her grandmother had always preached to her that this operation had been unnecessary and had made her mother’s mental condition permanent. A psychiatrist at the state hospital, whom Miriam was later to meet and to grow to despise —though once she revered him, told her grandmother this. Grandmother Spindor told her again and again that the operation was a vindictive action by her father, Joel Wexler.
Miriam prayed fervently that someday her mother could be well again.
Once, Miriam had experienced an accidental overexposure to roach spray in the kitchen. Afterward, she went to the old living room which was a disused room in her grandparents’ home. She lay on a bare mattress while she tried to read an old paperback that she had bought in a garage sale. The book was stained and smelled as if it had once fallen into a toilet. Then, she tried to sleep. As she lay in a semi-stupor, apparently unable to move herself, several cockroaches skittered over her body. She jerked, and her skin twitched convulsively away from these pests. Somehow, she just could not get up.
Her grandmother did not come. She knew that Miriam liked to get away into cubby holes to read, and she thought nothing of it this time.
Crazy, delusional thoughts began to race through Miriam’s mind. She felt an imagined sense of telepathy develop between her and the roaches. She had the mental image of a roach leader speaking to his followers …
“We are the guardians of humankind. We have been here since primordial times. To them, we are pests, the carriers of plague. The Master has ordained us to serve them, to clean up after their messes, and to protect them from themselves!”
Her thoughts raced wildly, jumping to strange conclusions. “What if roaches are our watchers, our guardians? Could it be possible that God would shrink the mighty angels and make these lowly creatures be our guardian angels? They have always been present with humankind to clean up our worst messes, and the scientists do know that they have been here 300 million years.”
Miriam suppressed the memory of her roach spray delirium. Possibly, the fantasy book tainted with the queer smell could have contributed towards her aberrant moment of epiphany. Other disturbing events impinged on her subconscious then: all to rise again, along with the fear of roaches, while she suffered at the mental hospital to which she was sent. Her uncle told her that no boy would ever like her and then climbed to the roof to fix the television antenna. Because of the whirling of the antenna and the erratic broadcast of a documentary on television about Hitler, she mistakenly identified her beloved grandfather with Hitler and herself as the cause for the war due to her fidgety movements as a toddler making him nervous.
With uncanny déjà vu, this experience with roach spray enhanced delirium foreshadows what will come about in Miriam Wexler’s life. The young woman’s snuffing out the life of a small roach on the wall of her recently sprayed apartment initiates a train of events that cause her to lose her job shortly afterwards and to “break” again with reality.
Ten years later in her next job, Miriam’s entire career as a librarian will come to a halt when she gets worried that her co-workers will fear her if they know her diagnosis. She admits to a therapist that she feels that in a way she is “alien” to her co-workers. She feels that she might actually be a “roach among humans.” Such worries seal her bipolar condition as a certifiable disability. The Social Security consulting psychologist and her therapist agree that, under stress, Miriam Wexler could be harmful to herself or to her co-workers. Miriam does not feel this is true. Her isolation is due to her boss’ policy of non-fraternization with students and working under extreme exhaustion not being able to sleep and not being aware that work breaks are permissible. To her, she believes that even Jesus would not be accepted if he did not fit the mold expected.
“Could roaches be our guardian angels? Surely, not!”
Still, there above her is the shadow of a cockroach in the light fixture overhead, watching . . . . | <urn:uuid:d6eb6834-404a-41f3-8fce-684d1edb6ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tarleton.edu/PROGRAMS/anthology/2007/J-Elaine-Tevebaugh/roach-delirium.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989769 | 2,058 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Why has the Millennial generation aroused such anger? Why do people seem to think it is OK to bash Millennials when they wouldn’t do the same thing to any racial, ethnic, or religious group? This is a question I keep asking myself when I see articles that make snide remarks about Millennials or when I hear older managers talk about the problems with having a younger generation in their workforce. What is behind the anger?
I have a few hypotheses. One is that the bashers are really envious of the lifestyle and approach of Millennials. Millennials have their whole lives ahead of them and they seem willing to take risks and make choices with their needs and goals in mind, even if those choices involve leaving jobs that are not working for them. When I type the previous sentence out, the words seem to mock me, ‘Why would anyone stay in a job that was not working for them?” Well, many boomers have done just that and we really wish that we could just pick up and leave. Yet we have made, as David Whyte says in The Heart Aroused, “Faustian bargains with our mortgages and car payments.” We are too indebted and our investment eggs have lost such value that we don’t believe we can voluntarily drop everything.
Secondly, Millennials currently demand the kind of company they want but that all of us need. The requests they make for challenging work, for feedback on their efforts, and for an opportunity to have a say in their future are things that everyone would like in the “workplace of our dreams.” Many boomers believe that although that would be desirable it is not, as some people would say, practical or realistic.
My third hypothesis is that Millennials ask questions that force us to look at our assumptions. They wonder why we accept the world as it is. Recently I received an American Girl catalogue and one of their featured dolls is Julie Albright, a girl from 1974. She actually represents the time of my initiation into the outside world. I was idealistic, engaged, energetic about wanting to make a difference, and involved in doing so. I wore bell-bottom jeans and tie-died shirts; I wanted peace; and while I didn’t actually protest, my heart was with those who did. Where has that person gone? For a long time it has not been fashionable to tout those values—we were supposed to have grown beyond that. But when Millennials make us remember the person we were, it makes us uneasy and we tend to lash out at them in response.
As my son Ian says, my version of heaven might look more closely like a Millennial’s than I really want to acknowledge.
This is not about the confirmation or dismissal of faith. The heaven I speak of is not just a state-of-mind but rather a state-of-being. To establish the differentiation I’m presenting between the traditional ivory kingdom – with its angels plucking harps and martyrs popping grapes – and the heaven for Millennials, I will define my meaning of the word “heaven,” at least in this case.
Excluding the practitioners of certain beliefs, what a Millennial knows of heaven is simply the comprehension of the highest quality of reality. It involves the acknowledgment that we have stumbled upon our own little slice of happiness. The Millennial heaven is not necessarily a religious paradise.
What Millennials, such as myself, might’ve once longed for (as most people would deep in adolescence) evolved as we developed into adults.
During the hours of puberty, all we wanted was one day – just one day – with a smile devoid of braces, a forehead no longer sprinkled by pimples, and to be without the feeling of general embarrassment for our existence. There was always the dramatic, “Does this boy or that girl have a crush on me? Will I get a date for Saturday? Do my parents wish I was never born?” and other such inquisitions. We were constantly bursting with questions; I know I was. And how exhausting were these concerns then, while the hormones ripped away all previous sense of childhood, causing anxiety in the middle of algebra class?
The problem with this time of life, as I’m paraphrasing from a very wise man, is that “you have a lot of responsibilities and not a lot of power.”
These days, Millennials are discovering that power, realizing that they can dictate the rules and determine what happens tomorrow and the morning after. This is the heaven to which I refer. We are leaving the old dreams of werewolves hunting beneath full moons, the tooth fairy dispersing coins from her purse, a benevolent Santa Claus overlooking elves, and other such imagined absurdities, finally arriving at the doorstep of veracity.
Yes, we leave those fantasy moons behind as we enter heaven; it is a requirement of modern maturity. But they are not, I think, completely abandoned. We will always retain a fleeting sense of the fantastical. Our imagination will never be entirely extinguished, just as no one’s should.
Not to disregard the important role of spirituality for many, many people, but it does not seem uncommon for Millennials to be protective of their unconventional beliefs. Conviction in principles can indeed be that we break free of predictability and traditions, though not forgoing the comfort of ritual. And so the heaven that we strive for is tangible in a new and fresh way. There is an electricity in our goals, where we assemble ourselves to a place of authority – not over other generations, but over our previous selves.
It is fair to say that true liveliness in today’s expanding culture is like marching through a storm, and heaven is donning a raincoat. It’s obtaining a defense that not only gets you through the rain, but shields you from the disadvantage of not being prepared, of not having that authority. My realized paradise is a positive, exciting idea, where I have power over my life and can pursue true passions while still preserving a sense of reliability. The truth is anyone can gain this attitude, this proud position on a personal throne. It’s never too late to grow into the best version of yourself.
Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz once said, “The two great things about youth are looking cute and being able to travel.” Whether that’s true or not, there’s wisdom in that statement that goes beyond the literal. Looking cute can include much more than appearance; it’s about having an innocence, ambition, looking to the horizon. It’s about having a future. And to travel: To have the freedom to explore, whether it’s a locale or an interest, a love life or independence, a skill, a hobby, a passion – it doesn’t matter. Traveling, in its most basic form, is growth. Does this mean that you need to be young to have these benefits? Of course not.
To the confusion of many older adults, perhaps even to their dismay, I avoided a traditional college education. Since the ripe age of fifteen I felt that there was something incompatible, something uneasy between myself and standard scholastics. I simply didn’t want to learn things that A: I did not enjoy, and B: had no relevance to what I wanted to do with my life.
There are times when I wonder if avoiding the post high school status quo is, in a way, a sign of cowardice. Then I remind myself of the extensive amount of work I’ve done in my areas of interest, how devoted I’ve been, and realize that it probably takes even more courage to break free from the predictable and tread an unknown path leading to an uncharted mountain.
My reluctance to pursue a college existence did not result in me dismissing the process of learning; I went to a digital film making certificate program and had a great time, gaining more than I was ever prepared for. The Center for Digital Imaging Arts is a glimpse into the future of educating those in a specific field: complete immersion in your craft with emphasis on developing and executing projects on your own. Everyone is supportive and yet no one holds your hand.
A couple years after film school, interests changed, passions evolved, and I found myself swimming in new waters, uncertain as to whether there were sharks beneath me. I wanted to be a writer, not a filmmaker; a stunning choice to my friends and family. To “abandon” my famous obsession seemed like a practical joke, a silly stint that would only momentarily distract me from my next cinematic adventure. After all, I went to school for film and film alone – why give that up?
There was a validation to such concern; I had no formal training (high school doesn’t count) in writing anything besides screenplays, and I couldn’t exactly change my major to suit my new infatuation. At first I devoted myself to reading books about writing and practicing the art every day, but, for someone as feverish as I am, that could never satisfy the hunger to learn.
Online classes – that was where the gold was buried. They were a perfect fit to my situation and style of learning. It’s all about independence. Sure, there’s the usual reading, assignments, discussions, projects, but you complete these in your own home at a pace you can set yourself. You need to be motivated, that’s the key, and that motivation has to come from inside.
Now, I couldn’t be more thrilled about where I’m going and what I’ve gained through my own initiating. Writing is my world, and this desire and this pursuit has spawned from within.
I am a genuine self-starter, in that virtually everything I’ve done regarding writing this past year, the classes I’ve taken, the pieces I’ve written, the submissions to publications/contests, has come completely from my own enthusiasm. If something’s going to get done, I’m the one who’s going to do it. This demeanor is rather common among Millennials – we see opportunity in areas that older generations might dismiss. The last thing I want to do is give the impression that Millennials are superior to others in all ways when it comes to education, that’s clearly false. However, we are brilliant at achieving our goals on our own terms; it seems almost imbedded in our DNA. There’s one unarguable truth: We’re a generation that doesn’t need permission to learn.
While attending my 35th college reunion (really who could be this old?), I sat with three other alumnae of Bryn Mawr College and as each one gave us a snapshot of our lives in the last 5 years, I became aware that I was completely out-of-date with today’s world. I was someone who prided myself on being cutting edge and my edge was suddenly very dull.
First was Victoria, who had sold her actuarial business and was designing websites. Her everyday world was filled with twenty-five year old men. She showed us her online site selling specialty exercise videos made by people who were completely different from her and her background. She used her iPhone to show us her website, pinching and flicking to move around the internet.
Then Cathy says, I can see an iPhone in my future but only when they add a GPS system (who knew that cell phones could have GPS systems in them?) Cathy had just taken a new job where she used her journalism skills to create the online presence for the non-profit she had just joined. She also said that her daughter had set up a Facebook page for her and friended her. I knew enough to know that would never happen to me.
OK, maybe two other people were more up-to-date than I was but surely Janet who had been a stay-at-home mom for the last five years wouldn’t show me up. Instead she talks about how she loves to do research on the web and that she reads the New York Sunday Times online on Saturday.
I, who used to work in the IT division of a major corporation and sat in on every technology update for two years, could not be so completely out of it. But I was. At the same time each of us talked about our Millennial children and what they were doing. The contrast with my life was stunning. They were all following their passions and their dreams. I was continuing to do what I had been doing for the last twenty years—sure it was in different companies—but I was feeling very stuck. So it came to me—if I could live more like a Millennial, I could deal better with this ever-changing world.
Are you feeling stuck?
They never called me Ian and they never treated me like a stranger. I, too, addressed them not by their names, but by their Xbox Live Gamer tags. “Hello, Quiet. Hello, Lethal,” I said to the couple when they picked me up outside the Birmingham Train Station on a cloudy April day. “Hey, you alright, Smoochy?” asked Lethal, grinning. We had known each other, electronically, for five months. We talked and video chatted almost every day. We were gamers, united by the 21st century’s most addictive hobby.
The woman at customs at the Manchester Airport had a serious problem with the way I’d met my hosts, as I’m sure many people might.
“You say you started talking to them… while play computer games? So you’ve never actually met them before?”
“That’s right,” I said, smiling.
“You’re visiting them from America and you’ve never seen them before?”
I nodded enthusiastically, still excited about my arrival, while she looked me over skeptically. I had the feeling she wanted to accuse me of some offense, but instead she shrugged and told me to enjoy my holiday.
The very first thing we did upon arriving at Lethal and Quiet’s suburban residence was drink tea and eat toasted crumpets, to instantly give me the true English experience. I hauled my suitcase upstairs and looked out the window at the little garden. Here I was. Who would’ve thought that shooting digital terrorists with digital assault rifles would lead to a 3,000 mile journey with blood pudding for breakfast and fish and chips for supper?
I slept in a ragdoll’s Eden, their daughter’s bedroom, a metropolis of stuffed animals and flowered wallpaper. Ten days in a rather uncomfortable bed, but I had no intention of complaining. How could I when people I’d never met were allowing me into their home, into their lives? Quiet was considerably pregnant, they already had two hyper children, and yet they were thrilled to have me. Lethal even took the week off work as a truck driver to spend time with me. “Cup of tea, Smooch?” I was asked multiple times a day. This was hospitality at its most basic.
Being twenty-years-old means no legal alcohol in the U.S. However, it does mean I’m college age: ripe for keggers and beer pong and promiscuity. I can drive, vote, get married, and die for my country, but I can’t have a sip of champagne on New Year’s or even set foot inside a sports bar to watch a baseball game. In Great Britain, the alcohol flows freely and with little hesitation. And so Lethal took me to a local pub, rugby and football on the telly, where I got to feel very adult and take turns buying rounds. No need to worry though, we walked home.
I showed them my award-winning short films, which were well received. We went to the cinema, to Warrick Castle, to an arcade (billiards and bowling), explored Stratford (Shakespeare’s birthplace), bought chocolates and a Union Jack t-shirt; we played video games; we drank; we laughed. It was a brilliant ten days, a trip that Lethal later said confirmed me as a “true friend.” There aren’t many individual words that come to mind to describe my visit, but there’s no doubt, I had a helluva lot of fun.
More and more people, not just from my generation, are meeting up through video games and the internet. This may still seem strange to others, especially to Baby Boomers and beyond, but it is very real and very common. The idea of meeting virtually can be hard to grasp when you might have trouble adapting to technological and communicative advances on your own. It can, believe it or not, actually be comforting to get to know someone before coming in physical contact with them. There’s a lack of pressure, of uneasiness that being in someone’s presence for the first time can bring. You don’t stand around with your hands in your pockets mumbling about the weather; you talk to them in a safe environment where you can explore common interests, past events, future ambitions, and whatever else comes to mind.
I’m living proof that not only is meeting someone digitally a promising and beneficial act, but it can lead to greater things; such as traveling to another continent to gain a lifelong experience, one that you might never forget. Who knows, maybe you’ll make yourself a “true friend,” and maybe, just maybe, you’ll have some fun while doing it.
As I researched information about Millennials, I found quite a lot of Millennial-bashing. Some people were very resentful of these younger folks who had not paid their dues and who wanted to work differently and be rewarded differently and who weren’t willing to sit around and wait for their turn.
Then I found others who valued what Millennials could do that was so hard for older folks. At least one researcher described similar values between the generations that played out in different ways.
When I told people anecdotes about how the Millennials that I knew were living their lives differently, I had interested faces and lots of questions. For example, I told how my son, Ian, had met people from Birmingham, England while playing online massive multi-player video games. (See previous post XBox and England.) He became such good friends with them that he went to visit them for 10 days having never seen them in person before that. The scandalous looks that said, “How could you let your son do this?” were replaced with sheepish looks when I pointed out how difficult it would be for us to do something like that. Occasionally I would get told a story back of how someone had reached out across global boundaries to build a friendship.
This pattern of stories that showed how Millennials embraced today’s world and how the rest of us could take baby steps to join them sparked lots of interest in my listeners. I realized that a blog that captured these stories and had other useful links could be very successful. However I worried that the very people who most needed the information wouldn’t find it because they read books to learn rather than used the web. So is there anyone you could share this site with who might find it of interest? Or are you an agent who would like to get us a book deal?
After I check my email for messages from family and friends, newsletters on various forms of writing, proper grammar and character study, I check my email again. The send/receive button is clicked like a drum beat and I text away on a cell phone’s miniature keyboard. Should the time come when I have to slide into my compact car, the GPS is turned on before I leave the garage – even if I’m driving to the grocery store up the street.
Technology on a day-to-day basis as a Millennial means a routine of activity. We are constantly living in the rapid-paced present without knowing so, for we are always focused on the future, on the next big thing. When does the new iPhone come out? When will Facebook upgrade to a different format? When will my wireless router be faster? Despite a conventional belief that this viewpoint is detrimental to savoring life, the truth is quite the opposite.
Though my sustenance may occasionally be focused on the sensitivity of a touch screen, I’m concentrating on intangible success, in the form of efficiency, in romance and in happiness. And that is what being up to date can help with, the contribution to happiness. It’s not about cutting corners, but rather shape shifting to an evolving society. To be held back in the modern world means missing out on opportunities to improve your life. Nothing wows Millennials anymore. Nothing knocks us on our knees in humility to a technological advancement. It’s possible to be impressed with implanted microchips and virtual reality, but we’re just not going to be in shock from innovation.
To older generations, the sight of an original room-filling computer must’ve been like a crowd beholding the first circus. They were observing alien creatures, never seen outside picture books or imagined beyond stories. A mystical white tiger leaping through fire, or a chimpanzee collecting nickels in the stands was something out of a dream, inspiring awe.
No computer could do this to a Millennial. Even the most revolutionary improvement is like witnessing something as simple as a mutt dragging its owner down a city sidewalk, lifting its leg against an imprisoned tree. It’s all customary.
Now, I video chat with other gamers from England; I network with long lost friends; I use satellite-based maps to navigate perplexing roads. And I digitize my existence with an awareness that translates, ultimately, to progress. | <urn:uuid:aa84545e-1679-4a6e-a030-0677c5c6c04d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://livelikeamillennial.com/?cat=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976508 | 4,576 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Many people worry about using fake coupons. I’m sure at least one point in our shopping adventures we may have used one and never realized it. Even I worry about it, So how do you spot a Fake coupon? It is not fool proof but here are a few ideas,
Look at the image – All numbers under the bar code are the same - Flag
The coupon is multiplied over and over 6 one one page??? Most coupons do not publish coupons in multiples - Flag
Look close at the image, they are cut and pasted, how can you tell? look at the edges, one image is higher then the other, one image is offset to the left more then the top row. Do you really think a company that makes millions of dollars would allow a coupon to look so home made? - Flag
No size limits listed on coupon Flag
No watermark printed on the coupon Flag
Only one set of Bar codes Flag
Look over the Counterfeit Coupon Alert at Cents Off This coupon is listed under Doritos.
It was flagged nationally read here - Flag
It was emailed by a friend. – Flag Many coupons turn out to be for just one person. For instance, if a person signed up for discounts from a company. And one day they get a coupon in their email, it is most likely just for that person. They may not have bar codes on the email, but their is usually some form of identification on them. So if your best friend sends you an email with a coupon, see how many flags pop up.
If it is too good to be true - Flag. One coupon like this per magazine, or per newspaper is most likely real. If you get multiple papers sure its real… you got them in a paper and purchased multiple papers… But if you are handed something from a friend, or emailed an image or PDF then its most likely is fake.
So what do you do? Politely tell your friend why you think they are fake, and let them decide for them self. Sure they probably didn’t make them, they were given them too. But if we all used them and did not tell our friends not to use them then we will all suffer!
Stores make a profit off of coupons. For instance, you use a $1 off coupon. The store takes that coupon, gives you the $1 off out of their own pocket. Knowing that the store will get reimbursed. If it is a real coupon not only will they get reimbursed by the manufacture, but they are also paid on average 8 cents extra to process the coupon and mail it back to the manufacturer. It usually cost the store about 4 cents per coupon to process, pay the book keeper to enter, and submit for reimbursement. So on average the store will be paid $1.08 for that $1 off coupon you used. Minus processing of about 4 cents, the store is reimbursed the $1 and now has a 4 cent profit. It may not seem like much, but multiplied by the millions of coupons used, that is a huge profit for them.
Now if we all allowed our friends to use them, or if we use these fakes our self, then that 4 cent profit is lost, along with paying a book keeper 4 cent per coupon to process it! Not only that but the $1 off coupon is not reimbursable and the store will loose $1 for every fake $1 off coupon submitted by shoppers. And in the image we looked at in this post, the cost of each entire bag of Doritos (because they are labeled FREE)
When stores lose money they will STOP taking coupons all together to save their bottom line. We have all come across a store that has done this, at least for a while! So guard your store, help them make a profit or we will used the privileged of couponing.
Book mark this link HERE to scan over fake coupon alerts
Remember the Doritos coupon from yesterday? There is a $2500 reward for companies or individuals promoting this coupon as legitimate Read Here
Disclaimer: This post may or may not contain affiliate links.
SUBSCRIBE and never miss a thing! | <urn:uuid:7c506ba4-3d5a-4400-bf23-782119aaf96e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://athriftymom.com/tag/saving-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947696 | 860 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I am so tired of hearing people argue that creation and intelligent design should be taught in science classes alongside evolution. This would be a devastating move. First off, America is already fallen so far behind the rest of the world in terms of science education. Now that we are starting to make some improvements in this sector the religious idiots want to teach creation and intelligent design as science. There is no evidence for the existence of god or creation. The same must be applied to intelligent design. Teaching these things as science and thereby a rational alternative to evolution is dangerous and just flat out stupid. It is a despicable underhanded attempt of the so call “moral majority” to insert and inflict their beliefs onto all Americans. The religious idiots like to argue that giving the child a choice is not a bad thing and that creation and intelligent design is just as liable as evolution being that scientists are still arguing over whether or not evolution ever took place. This is a bullshit argument. Scientists are not arguing about whether or not evolution ever took place but how evolution took place. This is the beauty of science. It proposes a theory and then set out to prove it true through investigations, experiments, and the process of elimination. Creationists make no attempt to prove their beliefs to be true but instead uses phrases like “mankind will never be able to understand what god is thinking”. I have no problem having creation and intelligent design taught in a separate classroom outside of science altogether but to teach it as science curriculum is just insane. Along with teaching creation and intelligent design outside of science we should include all major religions and teach the true origin of religion in general. | <urn:uuid:ad796039-2777-4278-8405-ee8c52783ec7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atheistnexus.org/profiles/blogs/teaching-creation-and | 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 | 0.953102 | 330 | 1.71875 | 2 |
She applied the Page 69 Test to Dark Moon of Avalon and reported the following:
In Dark Moon of Avalon, a retelling of the Trystan and Isolde legend, the young former High Queen Isolde and her friend and protector Trystan are reunited in a new and dangerous quest to keep the usurper Lorde Marche and his Saxon allies from the throne of Britain. To save Britain's throne, Isolde must navigate a political landscape torn by infighting and civil war and turn bitter enemies into allies. Yet her own greatest challenge lies in saving the life of the man she loves and mending her own wounded heart.Read the prologue to Dark Moon of Avalon, and watch the video trailer.
Page 69 of Dark Moon of Avalon finds Isolde in the midst of a meeting of Britain's High Council of Kings. Born a royal princess, Isolde is barely twenty years old but already has been forced into marriage twice by the political maneuverings of the petty kings on the council. Now, as former High Queen, she is the only woman grudgingly permitted a voice in the council's meetings. And as she listens to the quarreling and political jockeying amongst Britain's petty kings--kings who must be forced to unite if they are to survive the coming war with invading Saxon forces--Isolde feels "an almost physical revulsion for ... men who, Briton or Irish or Saxon, knew only one thing, so it seemed. How to fight, to kill, to hurt--how to carve one another up into bloody, aching pieces--and then send the fragments home to be either buried or stitched together as best their women could."
This scene encapsulates both Isolde's position in the political landscape of Dark Age Britain and one of the central challenges she must overcome in Dark Moon of Avalon. As a high-born woman, she has throughout her life had little control over her own destiny. Her Britain is a dark and often brutal place, where might truly does make right, laws are made by the men who conquer in battle, and women are little more than chattel to be given in marriage wherever their male guardians deem most advantageous. In Dark Moon of Avalon, Isolde must prove to Britain's High Council that a woman can be as valued and courageous a fighter as any warrior, and serve her country through more than just political marriage. And through her journey, she must fight for the right to control her own destiny and follow her own heart.
Learn more about the book and author at Anna Elliott's website and blog.
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Rescuers search deep for missing W.Va. miners
Published January 21, 2006
MELVILLE, W.Va. - Rescuers spread out to search a smoky labyrinth for two coal miners Friday after a conveyor belt caught fire deep underground in the second major mining accident in West Virginia in less than three weeks.
Close to a day after the fire broke out, safety crews had yet to make contact with the men, said Doug Conaway, director of the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training. Their odds of survival "are a little bit long," West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said.
It was unclear where in the mine the men were. They were each equipped with a breathing apparatus that typically produces about an hour's worth of air.
The fire broke out Thursday night at the Aracoma No. 1 mine. Rescuers were hampered by heavy smoke that cut visibility to 2 to 3 feet. After the blaze was brought somewhat under control Friday, rescuers spread out to search four tunnels, each about 4 miles long. The mine extends as much as 900 feet below ground.
"I don't think we fully know the obstacles we're facing. How much smoke is there? What are the difficulties of traversing through there?" Conaway said.
David Roberts, co-manager of Refab Co., a mining machinery repair company, said a friend on the mine rescue team told him it was very hot and smoky inside the shafts.
"He said it was extremely hot - 350 to 400 degrees," he said.
Twenty-one miners were in the southwestern West Virginia mine Thursday when a carbon monoxide monitor about 10,000 feet from the entrance set off an alarm. Nineteen of the miners escaped.
Jesse Cole of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said listening equipment would be set up to try to locate the missing men. However, the terrain was so rough that the equipment had not yet been used by late Friday afternoon.
The governor was with the miners' families, who along with friends and co-workers gathered at Brightstar Freewill Baptist Church to wait for news.
Earlier this month, Manchin joined another group of miners and relatives of those trapped after an explosion at the International Coal Group's Sago Mine, on the northern side of the state. Twelve miners died in the disaster. The sole survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., 26, remained hospitalized in a light coma Friday.
"Sago is very fresh in everybody's mind, but this is a different scenario," Manchin said.
Katharine W. Kenny, spokeswoman for Massey Energy, owner of mine operator Aracoma Coal, said the company was "very optimistic."
Air samples from a hole near the fire showed elevated levels of carbon monoxide, although not as severe as the levels at the Sago Mine. At one point, rescue teams were in the mine without breathing gear, Conaway said.
[Last modified January 21, 2006, 01:34:14]
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January 28, 2013 | 5
On the screen in front of us stands row upon row of little grey figures, four hundred in all if you count the ones cut off by the skewed aspect ratio. Five of the figures are stained red. They are dead. They developed pancreatic cancer. The rest are still enjoying their bacon sandwiches.
And so, the professor stood in front of the screen concludes, the relative risk associated with eating processed meat is 20%, or to put it another way, one extra death for every four hundred people. A relative risk increase of 20%, but an absolute risk increase of just 1 percentage point. The same statistic, but two entirely different news stories, depending on how you frame it.
A hand goes up. “Whose responsibility is it,” the woman asks, “to convert those numbers?”
It’s a good question. In public health studies, risk factors are often presented in relative terms, because that format makes sense when discussing interventions on a population scale. How many lives could be saved by encouraging British citizens to skip that second sausage? But when discussing personal health choices, it’s absolute risks, not relative ones, that are most useful. Tell me my diet ramps up my risk of cancer by 20% and I may choke on my pork scratchings, but tell me that I’m shaving my life expectancy by a year and I’ll probably decide the intervening half-century is better spent in the company of fry ups.
When science makes the crossover from academic into public discourse, whose responsibility is it to adjust the language accordingly? A common attitude within the science community seems to be that journalists reporting on science stories ought to be able to substitute risk factors and odds ratios as easily as epidemiologists do. That’s a facile argument to make, but journalists are also the least equipped to do this, both in terms of time and ability. It is important, however, that journalists understand how influential this kind of reframing can be, and how it can take control of the reporting line if left unbridled.
The goal of delivering that understanding is what led me to this secluded corner of the UK’s Channel 4 newsroom, listening to the professor talk about relative risk and other statistical concepts to over a dozen journalists. The workshop, and many more like it, have come about through the Royal Statistical Society’s publicly-funded BenchPress project, which aims to develop science and statistical training for journalists. The project was set up in response to a white paper published by the UK Government’s department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2010 which highlighted a dearth in the availability of such training, both within the industry and within the classrooms that supply it with new graduates. As part of the project, I’ve developed a network of a dozen volunteer speakers who regularly visit schools and newsrooms across the country to help future potential communicators and journalists get to grips with numbers. The passion of the volunteers—all working scientists—helps ensure that both junior and more senior journalists produce science news stories that are as robust and accurate as possible.
Later this week, Hilda Bastian and Evelyn Lamb will host a discussion of rogue statistics at this year’s ScienceOnline conference, and the problems these can cause in politics and the media. “One of the most important roles of math blogging for non-mathematicians,” they write, “is clarifying the ways in which things are abused, and how we can make the true meaning of statistics clear without losing the attention of the audience.” I’d argue that’s a sentiment shared by journalists of all stripes, not just math bloggers. No one I’ve approached—neither college nor newsroom—has yet turned down the offer of a free workshop on science and statistics. Everyone in the industry is aware that the era of data journalism is fast approaching. Already political pundits in the US have seen their audiences depart in droves for the analytical pronouncements of quant Nate Silver. My advice to Bastian and Lamb is this: don’t be content to stop at math bloggers. The world’s hacks are just as eager to get their numbers right, if you’ll only help them along the way. | <urn:uuid:cd56f302-188c-404b-8955-6e4134bec824> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/incubator/2013/01/28/journalism-by-numbers-why-journalists-are-skipping-lunch-to-learn-stats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952726 | 885 | 1.789063 | 2 |
THINK Together and McConaughey's j.k. livin Foundation will begin programs this fall at Century and Valley high schools in Santa Ana aimed at promoting fitness and healthy lifestyles among students.
Actor Matthew McConaughey, left, and partner Camila Alves
will appear Saturday in Anaheim to announce a partnership
between their youth group and Santa Ana-based non-profit
AP FILE PHOTO
THINK Together already provides services that include after-school tutoring, summer enrichment and other programs to dozens of local schools in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, and surrounding areas.
Through the program, participating students will receive healthy snacks and learn about nutrition. They will also learn about fitness through workouts including running and lifting weights.
McConaughey and THINK Together representatives will officially announce their new partnership Saturday at the nonprofit's annual fundraising gala at the Anaheim Hilton. (Read Complete Story) | <urn:uuid:98fe5cd3-dbaf-4d64-b709-49dffd531f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://think-together.blogspot.com/2011/06/matthew-mcconaugheys-jk-livin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935149 | 184 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Student Community
Students at Berry
College enjoy the privileges and responsibilities of
Student Government Association handles matters concerning the general welfare of
the student body, subject to the supervision of the Student Life Council. The
association, through its officers elected by the students, provides an
educational experience that enables students to have the opportunity to grow in
their knowledge and use of the basic democratic process. Every student is a
member of the Student Government Association.
The Counseling Center offers a variety of services for
personal and academic concerns. Individual counseling is the center’s primary
service, and counselors adhere to a policy that assures confidentiality. Other
services include group counseling, outreach programs, peer education and
testing. The resource library includes books, pamphlets, software, audiotapes
and videotapes on topics related to personal development and academic skills.
When appropriate, referrals are made to other agencies on or off
The Counseling Center provides and fosters leadership in the
prevention of drug and alcohol abuse and other health and wellness issues at
Berry and in the surrounding community. Through the student-work-opportunity
program, counselors hire, train and supervise a team of Berry students called
Peer Educators who provide educational programs to promote responsible choices,
attitudes and behavior. To support this cause further, the Counseling Center
actively supports the Health and Wellness Concerns Committee and serves at-risk
students through counseling and referral.
The Counseling Center is
committed to promoting student development intellectually, spiritually, socially
and emotionally. This commitment both complements and supports students'
academic learning experiences.
The director of the Counseling Center
administers all services and programs of the office under the direct supervision
of the associate vice president for student affairs.
Multicultural and International Student Support
The Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs exists to
foster a supportive environment for international students and students of color
to live, learn and grow as active members of the academic community. Its
responsibility is to implement programs and activities, thereby creating a more
informed understanding of cultural awareness on campus.
serves as the chair of the Multicultural Student Committee and International
Student Committee. The Director also serves as advisor to the Black Student
Alliance organization and the International Club.
The Office of
Multicultural and International Student Programs sponsors and coordinates
programs such as the Cultural House, PLUS (Preparing Leaders for Ultimate
Success), Multicultural Student Reception, Welcome Back Pack Program, MLK
Celebration and Black History Month activities, International Fair and the host
The Director administers all services and programs of the
office under the direct supervision of the vice president for student
Religion in Life
Berry College believes that an educational experience should include growth
in the understanding of the meaning of life. Through voluntary participation in
Berry’s religion-in-life programs and the Christian foundation of the campus
community, it is intended that each student will experience the openness,
concern and responsible freedom to facilitate personal spiritual growth.
The college is a specifically Christian institution in purpose, although
nonsectarian in character. The college chaplain serves as minister to all
persons on the campus and is available as a trained counselor. Services of
Protestant, Christian worship is held in the Berry College Chapel each Sunday of
the academic year for the entire Berry community. Roman Catholic mass is
celebrated each Sunday evening. Information on the programs of the local
synagogue and various churches is coordinated through the chaplain’s office.
Local places of worship participate in Berry’s Worship Opportunities Fair, where
students learn of the community’s many ministries.
Mount Berry Church (MBC) is an interdenominational, Christian congregation
serving the campus community. Prompted by its motto to “follow humbly, love
boldly,” MBC provides ministries of Christian worship, discipleship, fellowship
and outreach. Weekly worship services are offered Sunday evenings in College
Chapel. Berry’s chaplain serves as the pastor of the congregation, and several
student leaders oversee the church’s many ministries.
The Interfaith Council provides religious programs and opportunities to
ensure that Berry is welcoming to all people regardless of their religious
background. Educational programs are offered to inform the campus about diverse
religious traditions, and assistance is given to students looking for a specific
religious community in the area.
The religion-in-life program is guided by a Religion-in-Life Advisory Council
(RiLAC) composed of students, faculty and staff. Lectures, service projects and
special-emphasis programs by guest leaders are a part of the total
Various student organizations, such as the Baptist Collegiate Ministry,
Catholic Students Association, Canterbury Club, Campus Outreach, Presbyterian
Student Fellowship, Heirway, Exaltation, In His Name Gospel Choir, Wesley
Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and others, provide an opportunity for further
denominational or interdenominational activities.
The Career Center provides a variety of resources and services to assist
students in making academic and career decisions. Students are encouraged to
visit the Career Center early during their college lives and become involved in
activities that promote career exploration, jobs skills development, and
life-long learning. The center provides assistance with career-related
decisions, identifying career shadowing and internship opportunities, applying
to graduate/professional school, and developing job-search campaigns.
The Career Center offers individual career advising sessions, a variety of
on-line resources to supplement career library holdings, assistance with
preparing resumes and cover letters, graduate school applications, networking,
interview preparation, interviews with on-campus recruiters, on and off campus
career fairs, and special workshops and career events. By registering with the
career center on-line, students have access to career management software,
including internship and job listings, and document management resources.
Services provided by the Career Center are available to graduates as well as
currently enrolled students. Additional information regarding the Career Center
is available at www.berry.edu/stulife/career.
The director of career development administers all services and programs of
the office under the direct supervision of the associate vice president for
Health and Wellness Center
Prior to enrollment at Berry College, each student must complete a
health-history/immunization record, confirm health insurance by providing a copy
(front and back) of the card, and either sign a waiver declining Meningitis
vaccine, or provide proof of immunization. All information contained in the
student’s record is strictly confidential.
The college provides limited
medical care on campus. Registered nurses are on duty from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday. The college physician visits the campus two times a week
to see students with appointments. Students who need treatment for minor
injuries and illness receive out-patient care in the Health and Wellness
Students are referred to off-campus facilities for treatment for
more serious injuries or illness. Medical care at facilities other than the
Health and Wellness Center and ambulance services are the students’ financial
Students are required to participate in a group
accident-sickness hospitalization plan unless proof of coverage is received.
Complete details of the plan may be obtained from the office of the dean of
students or from the Health and Wellness Center.
The director of the
Health and Wellness Center administers all services and programs of the center
under the direct supervision of the associate vice president for student affairs
and the medical director.
The concept of residence halls embodies much more than mere residential
accommodations. The residence-hall community is an integral part of the college.
Residence within this community implies certain obligations and standards of
citizenship. When these obligations and standards are met, a meaningful
experience will result. A large measure of responsibility is delegated to
residents through their elected officers and representatives in the areas of
social life, extracurricular activities, discipline and the protection of
The college maintains residence halls for approximately
1,700 students. All residence halls are air-conditioned.
recognizes that every experience of college life is an integral part of the
education of the students. In keeping with this ideal, residence halls are
designed and staffed to provide facilities that are stimulating to personal,
social and academic growth.
All residence halls are staffed with student
resident assistants (RAs) whose general responsibilities are to make the
residential experience as worthwhile, as productive and as pleasant as possible.
The RAs assist students with academic and personal problems and/or refer them to
the appropriate resource persons on campus. The RA is an official staff member
who is also charged with maintaining order in the living areas.
is equipped with single beds, desks, chairs, dressers or chests, and mirrors.
Rooms are equipped for telephone and cable-television accessibility. All
residence halls have the capability to connect to the Internet and e-mail. The
student must supply a pillow, sheets, pillowcases, bedspread, blankets and
towels as well as the necessary personal articles.
The residence halls are furnished with card as well ascoin-operated
washers and dryers. Residence halls have kitchenettes equipped with stoves and
microwave ovens that allow students to cook light meals. Ice machines and
vending machines are also provided for the students’ convenience. Living rooms
in the residence halls are available for relaxation and various social events.
Study rooms are also available for private or group study.
is a residential college, and students are expected to live on campus unless
given permission to do otherwise.
The housing contract is binding for the
entire academic year and may not be terminated by the student. Students must
live on campus unless they meet one of the following criteria:
- 25 years or older.
- Residing with their parents within a 40-mile radius of Berry College.
If a student believes he or she meets one of these criteria, the student must
complete an Off-Campus Application to request permission to move off campus
before he or she may do so. Please note that this is an application process, and
approval is not automatic. The Off-Campus Application may be accessed from the
Residence Life website.
The Office of Residence Life communicates with
new students about room assignments, policies and roommates prior to enrollment.
Information regarding room selection is distributed to returning students in
the spring semester. Returning students who fail to select a room during room
selection and are not approved to live off-campus will be assigned to a
traditional room by the Office of Residence Life.
The Director of
Residence Life manages all services and programs of the office under the direct
supervision of the Vice President for Student Affairs.
Intramurals, Fitness, Outdoor Recreation and Athletics
An extensive program of physical education, intramural, recreational sports,
outdoor recreation and athletics helps students fulfill their needs in physical
fitness, personal social development and competition. A wide range of activities
is offered for students of varying abilities.
All students are required
to participate in the health and physical-education program as part of their
general-education requirements. This program includes individual and team
sports, dance forms and outdoor-recreation activities.
Two gymnasiums; an
expansive, well-equipped weight-training room; three sand volleyball courts;
many running and hiking trails; 10 tennis courts (four lighted); numerous
intramural fields; and many acres of land are available for student, faculty,
staff and alumni enjoyment.
The intramural area of the department offers
a wide range of activities in individual, dual and team sports for men and women
as well as coed activities. Some of the activities include basketball, flag
football, softball, volleyball, golf, bowling, tennis, ultimate Frisbee and
soccer. The outdoor recreation area of the department offers miles of hiking,
biking and horseback riding trails, 18 hole disc golf course and an on campus
Intercollegiate varsity athletic competition offers
student-athletes opportunities in both men’s and women’s sports. Programs for
women include basketball, soccer, tennis, cross country, volleyball, softball,
swimming & diving, golf and equestrian. Programs for men include basketball,
soccer, tennis, cross country, baseball, swimming & diving and golf.
Academic requirements must be met to be eligible for a varsity athletic team.
Berry’s athletic teams have achieved honors at the conference, regional and
The Steven J. Cage Athletic and Recreation Center is a
multipurpose facility that houses the Kinesiology, Athletics and Intramural and
Recreation departments. A 25 yard pool, fitness and weight-training rooms,
racquetball courts, basketball courts, aerobics and fitness rooms, classrooms
and a walking track are located in the center.
The director of athletics
administers all services and programs under the direct supervision of the vice
president for student affairs.
Student Activities and Organizations
To enhance its outside-the-classroom advantages, the college provides a
number of student organizations and special activities in which students may
become more adept in social and cultural areas, may learn more about subjects of
particular interest to them, and may take added steps toward realizing their
These student organizations and activities have a
wide range of interest areas, including music, drama, debate, business and the
sciences; clubs and honor societies in various academic areas; student
publications, with a newspaper, yearbook, and literary magazine; and numerous
service clubs as well as other groups centering around religious interests. Full
information on these varied activities of more than 80 organizations is provided
in the student handbook, Viking Code as well as on the Berry website. The
Krannert Center Activities Board consisting of students, along with faculty and
staff advisors, coordinates student activities open to the college
The director of student activities administers all services
and programs of the office under the direct supervision of the vice president
for student affairs.
New Student Orientation
The Berry College orientation program for incoming freshmen and transfer
students is a two-step process. The first step is called
Advising and Registration. SOAR is held during
the month of June and is designed to assist incoming freshmen, transfers, and
their families with the transition into the Berry community. Five overnight
sessions are scheduled for 2009 starting on June 15th. Students register for
SOAR sessions online, and each SOAR session can accommodate up to 100 students.
All incoming freshmen, including commuter students, must attend a SOAR session.
All new transfer students are highly encouraged to attend a June SOAR session as
The purpose of SOAR is the following:
- Become better acquainted with the Berry Community including programs,
facilities, faculty, and staff
- Connect students with their academic advisor and complete registration for
- Introduce students to their work supervisor and review work description and
- Meet the SOAR Leaders—16 upperclass students who will share their Berry
experiences and facilitate small group discussions
- Establish new relationships with other new students
- Address question and provide resources to parents and/or other family
International students are invited to attend a special orientation program
that will start Monday, August 17, 2009.
The second component of the Berry College orientation program is called
Viking Venture. This is a continuation of the orientation activities provided at
SOAR and takes place the week prior to the beginning of fall semester and
continues on into the first week of classes. All new students—freshmen and
transfers—participate in activities designed to welcome them to campus, provide
resources which will assist them in the transition to Berry College, and help
them connect with their new peers, faculty, and staff. Many of the activities
during Viking Venture take place within their first-year or transfer seminar
(BCC 100) course and are coordinated by the Office of First-Year Experience. The
total cost for the freshman and transfer orientation program is $135, and this
charge will be posted on your student account.
The Associate Vice President for Student Affairs is responsible for planning,
evaluating, and administering new student orientation programs at Berry
Basic Policy on Student Life
Berry College accepts responsibility for
directing the academic, work- opportunity and religious programs for students.
The college also accepts responsibility for the conduct and development of
students. "Berry College" includes the Board of Trustees, the president, all
faculty and staff, all students and all worthy traditions of this
Every student is expected at all times to recognize
constituted authority, to abide by the ordinary rules of good conduct, to be
truthful, to respect the rights of others, to protect private and public
property and to make the best use of time at Berry toward acquiring an
Every student has rights which are to be respected. These
rights include respect for personal feelings, freedom from indignity of any
type, freedom from control by any person or persons except those in proper
authority and freedom from rules and regulations not authorized by authorities
of Berry College. Every student is entitled to pursue opportunities available in
this institution. No faculty or staff member or student, regardless of position
or rank, shall violate these rights. Those persons who may become parties to
violations, either by lack of positive preventive action or by participating in
administering, or in submitting to indignity of any type, will be held
personally responsible. Every effort will be made to eliminate any unjust
customs, traditions and practices in conflict with these rights. It shall be the
personal responsibility of every faculty or staff member and student to
cooperate with other administrative officers, work supervisors and officers of
the student government in carrying out the provisions of this basic
In addition to the various policies of the college
referenced elsewhere in this catalog, the following are
Students maintaining motor vehicles while at Berry must have
them properly registered in the office of campus safety and must park in a
student parking lot. Regulations for operation of vehicles on the campus may be
found in the student handbook and in the traffic code.
The college does
not permit the use or possession of alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs on the
campus. Visitation in college residence halls is provided on a limited
The college may at any time require the withdrawal of a student
whose conduct or general influence is considered harmful to the
Berry College's annual security report includes statistics
for the previous three years concerning reported crimes that occurred on campus,
in certain off-campus buildings owned or controlled by Berry College, and on
public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from, the
campus. The report also includes institutional policies concerning campus
security, such as policies concerning alcohol and drug use, crime prevention,
the reporting of crimes, sexual assault and other matters. A copy of this report
may be obtained by going to Campus
Safety, then click on the link to the Campus Safety
Additional policies concerning student conduct, including
Computer Use and Ethics Code, may be found in Viking Code, the student handbook.
A copy is available upon request in the office of the vice president for student | <urn:uuid:780e81b6-fc41-4f3d-9432-f042593bbcab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.berry.edu/catalogs/page.aspx?id=5395 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936096 | 4,099 | 1.742188 | 2 |
There are people who might cringe at the idea of 40 years spent in the same line of work. Jim Steele isn’t one of them.
For the last four decades, Steele has forecast the weather, among other duties, as a meteorologist with Environment Canada. He retires Friday at 3 p.m., one month shy of his 41st year in the business.
Steele considers himself fortunate to have never lost interest in what attracted him to the profession in the first place — the weather.
“Even when I was going to high school, I was fascinated with the weather,” Steele said Wednesday. “The changes and storms and when it would snow or rain and when it wouldn’t. I found it really neat.”
Neat enough that when he saw a job notice for Environment Canada in the newspaper, he applied.
A post-secondary degree wasn’t required in those days. Steele wrote a series of tests and passed an interview. Next thing he knew, he was on a train from his home in Calgary to Ottawa for training.
Even then, Steele had no idea he’d spend the next 40 years with Environment Canada. Before he knew it, he was on what he describes as a tour of western and northern Canadian.
He’s worked in at least 10 communities during his career, most for a year or two at a time. A lot of movement occurred during the first eight years, and saw him stationed everywhere from Edmonton to the Arctic.
Steele forecast weather for the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations set up to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War.
“It’s about as isolated as you can get,” Steele said of Arctic. “I worked every day for a year. There was no use having a day off. There was nothing to do.”
Work brought Steele and his family to Kamloops in 1994. When he closes shop on Friday, the Kamloops outlet for Environment Canada will close its doors for good. Steele’s duties will be split between offices in Kelowna and Vancouver.
A lot has changed during his career. For one, Steele has done everything from observe the weather to communicating with the media.
The technology has also transformed. When he started out, the computers used to predict the weather were as big as a building.
“Now they’re the size of a closet,” he said.
The unpredictability of the weather remained the same. Steele said he’s made some inaccurate forecasts in his time, all because of a sudden shift in the wind.
“The storm motion changes by even a 100 kilometres and you’re in the cold air and it snows instead of rains,” he said. “The atmosphere has a mind of its own some days. It will do what it wants to do.”
Constant changes on the job as well as the weather meant Steele never got bored. And, if it wasn’t for his career, he wouldn’t have witnessed the sights he has, he said.
“I’ve toured around the Yukon, saw old gold mines, Dawson City and been to Alaska. I’ve seen blizzards like you’ve never seen blizzards. I’ve seen polar bears, big herds of caribou. All these things that people now pay serious dollars to go to,” he said.
Steele intends to keep busy and pursue a number of hobbies. He already has a round of golf planned for Saturday. | <urn:uuid:1dd3c1e0-0e5d-4268-9ffd-d6e692fcf875> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20130314/KAMLOOPS0101/130319910/-1/KAMLOOPS/weatherman-jim-steele-gives-last-forecast | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983821 | 755 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Yassky: Taxi Plan Will Reduce Car Ownership, Improve Safety
Since Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his plan to create a new class of taxis allowed to make street hails outside the Manhattan core, most of the coverage has focused on the potential effect on yellow cab medallion owners’ profits or livery drivers’ earnings. Less has been written about the broader effect such a plan would have on the city’s transportation system as a whole (Cap’n Transit being a notable exception).
Taxis, after all, make up a significant component of that system. A 2006 report by Bruce Schaller, a former policy director at the Taxi and Limousine Commission and now a top DOT official, estimated that in 2004, yellow cabs drove 815 million miles each year, while livery cabs drove more than double that, 1.733 billion miles.
Now that the legislature has passed the plan — it still needs Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature — we checked in with TLC Commissioner David Yassky to see how he views its wider impact. He argued that the outer-borough taxi plan would help reduce car ownership and improve traffic safety.
Though he couldn’t quantify the likely impact of the Bloomberg taxi plan on car ownership or trip mode-share, Yassky said that “I think we can say that we know what direction the numbers go in.”
“A healthy taxi market gives people an alternative to private car ownership,” he said. People currently use illegal street hails “to go home from the supermarket with heavy bags, to go to and from the subway stop if you live a mile from the subway, to go to church or visit friends on a Saturday or Sunday. Those are all things that you need a car to do outside Manhattan if there’s no decent taxi service… That’s the systemic impact.”
Yassky also made the case that the taxi plan would make livery drivers more likely to follow traffic laws and drive safely: “We see with the yellow taxis that when you have a valuable license, that gives the driver a stake in following the rules.” Certainly some yellow taxi drivers break rules, he said, but “they do have to worry that if they rack up too many driving infractions, they’re going to lose their livelihood.” That isn’t true in the underground market for livery cab street hails. “Since the drivers activity is illicit to begin with, we have no way to give them an incentive to follow the more mundane but important traffic rules,” he said.
Interestingly, Schaller’s 2006 report found that livery cabs generally had fewer crashes per mile than yellow cabs (both were far safer than private vehicles). The two classes of vehicle take different trips in different locations, so it’s possible either that Yassky’s intuitions are correct and liveries will become even safer, or that making liveries more like yellow cabs will push up their crash rate.
Yassky wouldn’t say whether legalization would make hailing a cab outside the Manhattan core more or less affordable. “Rates will be set through TLC rulemaking,” he said. “We’ll have to look at the economics of the industry.” | <urn:uuid:789eab34-7f78-4504-b902-0b5d84825aae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/06/29/yassky-taxi-plan-will-reduce-car-ownership-improve-safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959508 | 696 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Lamont Weekly Report, April 13, 2012
Columbia's Morningside Heights campus is one of the great urban spaces, and the first few weeks of spring illustrate the genius of McKim, Mead and White to full effect (if you forget about the 120th street canyon). The Lamont campus, as well, is glorious in the spring; the trees are about to pop, Buildings and Grounds is getting some new plants in the ground, our resident wildlife is doing what wildlife will do at this time of year, and our buildings... well, let's talk about space.
As you know, we are in the middle of a major renovation of the New Core Lab. The 2nd floor renovation (for a "Center for Biogeochemistry") is funded by an NSF ARRA award. The renovation is on schedule and on budget, and will be completed by the end of this calendar year. We expect to begin moving labs and people into the building starting in
January 2013, and extending for several months. At the same time (with institutional funds), we will be renovating several modules in the Geoscience building to provide consolidated office space for BPE scientists and staff.
SG&T is growing as well. B&G will be working on the north end of the 2nd floor of the Seismology wing. (By the way, that building, built as a temporary structure, is approaching its 50th anniversary.) There will also be module renovations in Oceanography to accommodate new hires in atmospheric sciences, continuing renovations in the Core Repository, and
we have begun programming discussions for the first floor of the New Core Lab and the Marine Bio wing, also for BPE. This last set of renovations should give us new laboratory and office space for occupancy starting in January 2014.
B&G has nearly completed the renovations of the seminar wing of the old Geochemistry building. This gives us 17 new offices, which will provide some swing space while renovations elsewhere are underway. Ultimately, that space will have a new programmatic function, which we will describe in the next few weeks (just a few more details to work out).
What else? There will be some minor renovation of the directorate in Monell to fix a few nagging problems before Sean's arrival. Apart from the Biogeochemistry renovation, Lamont and Columbia institutional funds will support most of these renovations, and all will be overseen by Pat O'Reilly, Dick Greco, Lenny Sullivan and the B&G crew. I haven't even mentioned the basic maintenance and repair jobs that are slated for the spring and summer months.
This is a lot to do, and the management and scheduling issues are manifold. But equally important will be how Pat and I communicate these issues to you and keep you informed of the schedule. To that end, I will be speaking with our web and admin teams about the most efficient way to do this.
Three calendar announcements: Donna Shillington is giving the next public lecture, Sunday, 3PM in Monell. There is the "Climate and Human Evolution" symposium on Thursday and Friday, organized by Peter deMenocal and others. On Friday, at 3:30PM, we will hold our annual Storke Lecture. This year's lecturer is Michael Graetz, of Columbia's
Law School, who will speak on "Energy Policy: Past or Prologue?" based on his recent book, "The End of Energy."
Don't eat this weekend: there will probably be plenty of free food next week. | <urn:uuid:1b8eaa54-0d6c-4878-b4aa-7635543d68b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/about-ldeo/office-director/speeches-reports/lamont-weekly-report-april-13-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950911 | 723 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Membership Benefits Include:
As the Hispanic population in this country continues to grow, school districts throughout the nation are being impacted. Schools are now dealing with addressing the needs of a changing population that has a different culture, language and learning style.
ALAS was established to partner with Hispanic serving schools to assist educators in advocating for resources and policy that benefits all students in general and Hispanic students in particular.
In order to help us achieve this goal, we invite you to become a member of one of the fastest growing and prestigious Latino associations in the nation, ALAS! The ALAS membership cycle begins on July 1st of each year. See the information below for the membership category that best suits your needs.
If you are serving in a district that has a 20% or more Hispanic student population, we welcome you to join our Organization at an HSSD (Hispanic Servicing School District) Institutional Membership category. Your district will receive five Associate/Executive memberships with this institutional membership category.
Join ALAS and help us build the strongest Latino educational advocacy organization in the country Click here for complimentary membership! | <urn:uuid:28dc6735-e629-4a63-8550-71c0e119275f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alasedu.net/MemberServices.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959922 | 225 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Largo Library Goes to the Dogs
Photos/text by Sandi Fahy
The Tricky Dog Show at the Largo Public Library on August 2 attracted an estimated 400 persons. Above, Rick Martin commands one of his six dogs to leap through three "flaming" hoops. Another dog delighted the audience by climbing up an 8-ft. ladder while others demonstrated their jump roping and barrel-rolling skills. One of the canines performed an "Evel Knieval" stunt by jumping off a platform over three youngsters selected from the audience.
Rick Martin jumps rope with one of the performing dogs in his Tricky Dog Show at the Largo Public Library on August 2.
Return to Current Edition | <urn:uuid:417019a7-d71a-4476-9c47-5fe0aa03c72d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clearwatergazette.com/20080807/largof.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93949 | 144 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Michael Wu, Ph.D. is Lithium's Principal Scientist of Analytics, digging into the complex dynamics of social interaction and group behavior in online communities and social networks.
Michael was voted a 2010 Influential Leader by CRM Magazine for his work on predictive social analytics and its application to Social CRM.He's a regular blogger on the Lithosphere's Building Community blog and previously wrote in the Analytic Science blog. You can follow him on Twitter or Google+.
Hi there! This is the third article in this mini-series on Facebook Engagement, where I develop the deeper levels of engagement metrics that quantifies the full spectrum of engagement. I apologize that these posts tend to be a bit more data intensive, but these eight levels of metrics are necessary for the development of the Facebook Engagement Index, which I will reveal soon. If you missed the earlier posts in this series, I recommend reviewing them before proceeding.
Last time I covered the intermediate level (i.e. Level 3 to Level 5) engagement metrics, which are all metrics that quantifies how fans interact on the fan page.
Level 3: Thread Depth – amount of interaction
Level 4: Unique fans per conversation – with how many other fans?
Level 5: Average/median response time – dynamics of interaction
This time we will investigate the next two levels of the engagement spectrum (i.e. Level 6 and Level 7). We will also re-examine the meaning of fans and what it means to be a Facebook fan vs. a real fan in the traditional sense.
Are Your Fans Truly Loyal Fans?
If you are a true fan of say, a certain celebrity or sports star, would you continue to participate in conversations and/or activities about that person? My guess is “yes,” because that is what it takes to be a fan. You need to continue to participate in all the activities that other fans do in order to be a part of that fandom. And true fans often take pride in their participation. If you slow down or stop participating, then technically you are no longer a fan anymore.
So far, we’ve been looking at the statistics of the active fans who are participating in conversations. As a scientist, I am rather curious to see how many of them are truly loyal fans and actually return to the fan page and remain active over time. To answer this question, I computed the active fans’ re-engagement probability with the fan page. That is, the probability that a fan becomes active (i.e. posts something) more than once on the same fan page (see Figure 6).
According to the data, most Facebook fans are not very loyal to the fan pages. Only about 30% of the active fans re-engage with the fan page more than once (i.e. through posting). 70% of the active fans will post only once and never re-engage the fan page again!
So, most Facebook fans are not real fans in the traditional sense, because they are not particularly loyal. Facebook skewed the meaning of fans by calling any user, regardless of how passionate he is, a fan. If that is the case, we will need another term for those users who are true fans of a brand. They do exist, albeit in much smaller quantity. And we will call them the superfans.
Do Fans Develop Relationships on Fan Pages?
In the first article of this mini-series, I demonstrated the structural similarity between a fan page and a community. In my mini-series on cyber anthropology, we also established that community is where relationships are established and developed. Since a fan page is structurally a community, I wondered if it also functions like a community (i.e. enables the development of relationships).
In order to build relationships, people must engage each other actively and participate reciprocally in conversations. To see if the fans are doing this, I computed the active fans’ return probability to the same conversation. That is, the probability that a fan posts something more than once within the same thread of conversation (see Figure 7). Note that this is a very lenient criterion for having a conversation. In reality, it would probably take many more posts within a thread to have a meaningful conversation. And it would take many such threads of conversation to contribute significantly to the development of real relationship. But I am giving the “so-called” fans here the benefit of the doubt and see what the numbers tell us.
To my surprise, most fans do not participate in reciprocal conversations. The probability of a fan returning to the same conversation is very low, only about 9.6%. That means 90.4% of the active fans post only once in a thread and never return to that conversation again. This fan behavior would definitely hinder the development of any meaningful relationship on fan pages.
Therefore, even though a Facebook fan page is structurally like a community, it doesn’t function like one, because the fan page environment is not conducive for the development of relationships. I will speculate here about why this is the case, since I don’t have any hard data to prove it. I suspect one of the major reasons is due to the stream interaction style of the wall post. Streams are great for news feeds, status updates, or any content that is broadcasted for mass consumption. Users typically interact with the stream by watching its content, and they can interact with any piece of content at the moment when it flows by.
However, this type of stream interaction is terrible for carrying on a long conversation. Because as you are having a conversation, that conversation is also being pushed down the stream by new content. Eventually, the conversation will be pushed off the wall as the natural flow of the stream. Ironically, the more people participate, the faster the stream flows. So the busier the fan page is, the faster any conversation flows off the wall, and the harder it is for you to hold a meaningful conversation. This is precisely why it is so hard to develop any relationships on fan pages, because the streaming wall posts made it very difficult to have any meaningful conversation on the fan page.
Today I presented data on the Level 6, and Level 7 engagement metrics. The data suggests that Facebook fans are not really fans in the traditional sense because they do not actively re-engage the fan page. Despite that, Facebook still calls them a fan. Moreover, the Level 7 data also confirmed our suspicion in the previous post that fans typically only post once within any conversation. This makes it very hard to carry on a meaningful conversation with other fans and therefore hinders the development of any real relationships on fan pages.
With levels 6 and 7, we are almost done characterizing the full spectrum of engagement.
Level 0: Total fan counts
Level 1: Active fans
Level 2: Interactivity through comments
Level 3: Thread Depth – amount of interaction
Level 4: Unique fans per conversation – who you interact with
Level 5: Average response time – dynamics of interaction
Level 6: Re-engagement probability with the fan page
Level 7: Return probability to the same conversation
Level 8: Dare to speculate what this level might be?
Next time, we will cover the last and the deepest level of engagement metric. If you like to speculate, I’ll give you a hint. The eighth level of engagement deserves is own post because it is a network-based metric. The data there is interesting, but given what we’ve already learn about how fan pages work, it is not a big surprise. So stay tuned for the deepest level of engagement!
In the mean time, I welcome kudos, comments, critiques, suggestions, tweets, retweets, debates, or discussion of any kind. :-) So, let’s get some discussion going before I see you again next time. | <urn:uuid:a4abb388-514a-48ff-a55c-714f592eb524> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/science-of-social-blog/Are-Your-Facebook-Fans-Real-Fans/ba-p/28330 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93029 | 1,613 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Gunman critically wounds student in California school
(Reuters) - A 16-year-old boy armed with a shotgun opened fire in a California high school classroom on Thursday, critically wounding a fellow student before two staff members talked him into surrendering the weapon, authorities said.
The accused gunman was arrested at Taft Union High School in inland Kern County following the shooting and investigators later said he felt he was being bullied by one or two students in the class, including the boy who was shot and seriously wounded.
The incident came less than a month after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school in a December rampage that stunned the nation and has fueled a heated national debate over gun control.
The California shooting unfolded on Thursday morning at the only senior high school in Taft, a city of about 10,000 people on the southwest edge of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, about 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield.
One student critically wounded by gunfire from the 12-gauge shotgun was airlifted to a nearby hospital, police said, and remained in critical but stable condition.
The identity of the shooter, who according to authorities walked into a class in progress and opened fire, was not immediately released.
"We did develop some information that leads us to believe the suspect felt he was being bullied or had been bullied by students at the school," Kern County Sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said.
"We know that at least one of the students, the student who was shot, was intentionally targeted," Pruitt said.
Police said the gunman called out the name of another boy and shot at a group of students but missed. There were 28 students in the classroom at the time he opened fire, Pruitt said.
In the chaos, two girls in the classroom were hurt, one who fell over a table trying the flee the room, and another who suffered possible hearing damage from the sound of the gun blast.
GUN BELONGED TO SUSPECT'S BROTHER
The suspected shooter was arrested after a teacher and a school administrator who confronted him persuaded the boy to put his gun down, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told reporters at a press conference. Students fled the class while the two adults pacified the shooter, he said.
The teacher, who has not been named, was hit in the forehead by a shotgun pellet but not seriously injured.
"The heroics of these two people, it goes without saying," Youngblood said. "To stand there and face someone that has a shotgun, who's already discharged it and shot a student, it speaks volumes for these two young men."
Pruitt said investigators believe the gunman planned his attack Wednesday evening and that the gun belonged to his 19-year-old brother. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working to determine ownership of the firearm and trace its history, he said.
The suspected gunman lives near the school, and he arrived late to campus, Youngblood said. A resident near the school saw him walking toward the campus armed with a shotgun and called authorities, Youngblood said. He faces attempted murder charges.
An armed police officer is normally assigned to Taft Union High School but was not able to make it to work on Thursday because of snow on the roads, Youngblood said.
Taft school officials had held a lockdown exercise on Thursday ahead of the shooting, in part in response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, said Taft Union High School District superintendent Bill McDermott. They soon were forced to hold a real lockdown in response to the gunfire, he said.
The violence at the California high school occurred on the same day Vice President Joe Biden met with representatives of the powerful National Rifle Association as part of his work to develop a plan to reduce gun violence.
Biden, who is heading a task force created in response to the Newtown shooting, will present his proposals to President Barack Obama, who has already signaled his support for reinstating a national ban on assault-style rifles.
The town of Taft, about 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, is economically reliant on oil and natural gas production in the area, and oil derricks dot its horizon.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, Tim Gaynor and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Paul Thomasch, Carol Bishopric and Stacey Joyce)
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The Democratic presidential front-runner favors repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, which was instituted during the Clinton administration. He said his priority for the Joint Chiefs will be that they make decisions to strengthen the military and keep the country safe, not their position on the policy.
"I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Obama said in an interview with The Advocate, a gay newsmagazine.
"But I think there's increasing recognition within the Armed Forces that this is a counterproductive strategy," he said. "We're spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need. That doesn't make us more safe."
The Advocate provided The Associated Press with excerpts of the interview, posted on its Web site Thursday.
The interview comes after Obama was criticized by gay advocates for not speaking to the gay media. The Philadelphia Gay News last week ran a large blank space on its front page next to an interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton to highlight that he did not talk to the publication.
"The gay press may feel like I'm not giving them enough love, but basically all press feels that way at all times," Obama told The Advocate. He said he's frequently spoken out against homophobia and in support of gay rights.
Asked what he could reasonably accomplish for the gay community as president, Obama said he can "reasonably see" repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy as well as signing legislation to ban workplace discrimination against gays. He said he'd like transgendered people to be covered by the law, but thinks it would be tough to get such legislation through Congress.
Obama also said he's interested in ensuring that same-sex couples in civil unions get federal benefits.
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the mistake of backing the weaker party in any contest.
"Dat's right," he said briskly. "Giuseppe,"--to the waiter,--"lay de place for de lady. An' you come along."
The last words were for the man; he gave in and rose, growling.
"This is a hell of a game." he said.
"Yes," said the manager. "Dis way:"
The strange lady took the chair he had vacated, and smiled at Miss Fraser.
"I've not made a mistake, have I?" she inquired. "I was watching, and thought you might be glad of an interruption."
Miss Fraser found a difficulty in answering. She laid her knife and fork down, and sat back, fighting with herself to keep from crying. All through the week that was past, she had shed no tear. From the gate of the courtyard there reached them the final stages of a debate between the manager and the parting guest.
"You go out on your 'ead or your feet, vich you like," the former was saying.
Miss Fraser managed at length to find words.
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The Carnival Of Education: Week 19
Welcome to the nineteenth edition of The Carnival Of Education. Here we have assembled a variety of interesting and informative posts from around the EduSphere that have been submitted by various authors and readers. As with other editions, those entries that were selected by us appear at the bottom of the page. We believe that this collection represents a wide spectrum of topics, political/educational viewpoints, and writing styles.
We offer a comprehensive listing of Carnival archives at the bottom of this post.
A successful carnival is a team effort. Please consider helping to spread the word. The more folks that know about this collection of exhibits, the more that will "drop-in" and visit the midway. Trackbacks, links, and mentions all help.
To those that have helped to publicize the Carnival, we offer our deepest gratitude.
And, of course, your comments, questions, constructive criticism, and suggestions for improvement are always most welcome. We are looking for ways to improve the midway. Perhaps by grouping the entries into categories? Or is the Carnival good "as is?"
Next week, the Carnival will be guest hosted by Jenny D. (Thanks Jenny!) Please follow the submission guidelines given below.
An Invitation: All writers and readers of education-related posts are invited to contribute to the twentieth edition of The Carnival of Education. Please send your submissions to: jdemonte[at]comcast[dot]net. Contributions should be received no later than 10:00 PM (Eastern) 7:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, June 21, 2005. The Carnival midway will open at Jenny D's place next Wednesday morning.
And now.... let's see what the midway has to offer this week.
Every teacher who has ever taught for any length of time has had at least one or two students whose behavior tries the soul. But it's the student who makes a credible threat of causing bodily harm that every teacher dreads most. See how Mr. Babylon, who teaches in New York's Bronx, dealt with that threatening student.
Many public school teachers are forced to pay monies to one or more unions. (in my case, NEA and CTA) This is true, even though few, if any, of these unions allow rank-and-file members to directly elect their own officers in contested elections or determine the amount of dues. At Polski3's View From Here, Polski is expressing his concerns over the anti-democratic practices of the California Teachers Association. (Consider checking out the lively discussion in among the commenters, including Yours Truly.)
There are commencement speakers and then there are commencement speakers. Melinama's Pratie Place is telling us of an outstanding speech that was delivered by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Doug Marlette to her son's high school graduation ceremony. This is definitely one to read. Here is a taste:
Be competitive, but remember, envy is not competition. The word "competition" derives from the Latin con, which means "with" and petere, which means "to strive." Competition- to strive together. Competitors are in secret alliance, not to do each other in, but to bring out the best in each other.Did you know that some folks are sounding the alarm over proposals to legislate mandatory pre-school? Certain publications would have us believe that Big Brother is threatening to force the enrollment of three-year-olds at your local version of Romper Room. Over at Eduwonk.com they have the low-down on what is real and what is nothing more than someone's straw bogeyman. In a bonus post, Eduwonk has the latest on Milwaukee's experiences with its voucher program and public charter schools as well as the differences between the two. (If you want to know the latest trends in educational policy, as well as a faithful interpretation of all the related rhetoric and jargon, Eduwonk should be on your daily list of "must reads." It's one of ours!)
Above all, remember: You are not your resume. External measures won't repair you. Money won't fix you. Applause, celebrity, no number of victories will do it. The only honor that counts is that which you earn and that which you bestow. Honor yourself.
And despite all I've said about the authorities, honor your parents. You will eventually realize that there are no grownups. We are all children in various stages of growing up. ... a pretty good definition of maturity is knowing how immature you are. A pretty good definition of sanity is knowing how crazy you are. A pretty good definition of wisdom is knowing how foolish you are.
This could be the start of a meme. At A Series of Inconsequential Events they have a "top ten countdown" of guidelines for teachers during summer vacation. (All ten are great, but we really like numbers 9, 2, and 1.) What top ten guidelines would you recommend for having a great summer? Make your own list and then tag three of your friends...
Substitute teachers have a unique perspective. For them, almost every day is like the first day of school. Greg, over at Delenda Est Carthago, has been doing some long-term substitute teaching at a Phoenix charter school. Would you believe that on a typical day at this school only two or three students bother showing up to class on time? Foul language abounds, and when students get bored with a class, they simply stand up and wander into someone else's classroom for a visit. (What part of NCLB addresses these types of behaviors?)
There is a list out there of "the most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries." One of the books that made that dubious list is John Dewey's Democracy and Education. In a well-reasoned post, Chris Correa examines why some might view Dewey's theories as a threat and gives us some straight talk about how the book ended-up on that list.
Does it take a village to prepare a child for kindergarten, or does it take a family? At Scholar's Notebook, they are telling us about the latest attempts to transform Minnesota from the North Star State into The Nanny State.
Anyone who quotes Ayn Rand and Oscar Wilde has my interest as well as my attention. Atlas Shrugs is reporting a sampling of incidents involving controversies that surround teaching students about gay/lesbian relationships. Pamela (aka Atlas) is asking two good questions: "When is this poisoning of childhood waters going to stop? Can't kids be kids?"
One of the hottest topics in education has been, is, and will be, school vouchers. At No Left Turns, they are giving us the latest news from the front lines of the struggle over vouchers in Florida.
As a classroom teacher who teaches in California, I haven't received any sort of pay raise in over three years. In fact, due to increased insurance costs, my paycheck is now smaller than it was three years ago. I realize that times are tough all over. And then I read something like this post by Stop The Blackmail that reminds me not everyone in public education is tightening their belts. (Who says you can't get rich in public education? Arrrgh!)
Wouldn't it be great if kids all over the world had access to laptop computers and the know-how to use them productively as a learning tool? Tim, at Assorted Stuff, has the latest on this idea, as well as some of the pitfalls to its implementation.
Have you ever been curious about how all those essay questions on these mass-produced tests get scored? Over at What It's Like On The Inside, they're as good as their name as they give us the skinny on the grading of some 120,000 (!) A.P. Biology tests. And there are pictures to prove it!
Do you think that it's vital for parents to be informed about the type of surveys questionnaires that your children are completing at school? At Cross Blogging, they have the story about the school that was asking 6th graders about their sexual habits. The problem is, the school didn't let the parents in on their little survey...
An urban legend comes true. Interested Participant is reporting the tale of the kid that was expelled from middle school due to drug possession, and was then placed on educational plan that included in-home tutoring. The kid receives a report card with passing marks and is then promoted to the next grade. So.... what's the problem? In four months, the tutor rarely showed up at the kid's house.
Is giving a student a grade for effort a good idea? Many of us k-12 teachers (and I suspect a number of college professors as well) have given students credit "for trying." Over at Going to the Mat, they take a look at the issues surrounding this practice.
Are you a tenure-track college professor who blogs under your own name? (sorry, no Phantoms) If you are, then Blogs for Industry is compiling a list and would like you to drop by.
The "student from hell" is every teacher's nightmare. And it seems like just about every teacher has experienced this nightmare at least once. Mamacita, over at Scheiss Weekly, tells us about a student who wasn't only an awful
On the first day of school, I used to give my eighth-grade students a little math problem. I would ask them, how much is 1/2 + 1/4. Amazingly, less than 25% of my students could get the correct answer. Over at Math and Texts, they have some ideas about the teaching of fractions.
Many American school districts (even elementary ones) are having to implement separate programs for their pregnant students. But the problem isn't just an American one, Rhymes With Right is reporting an instance in England where a single mom has three daughters, all of which became pregnant before their 16th birthday. And then Rhymes tells us all about how this problem has manifested itself at the school where he teaches! Here is a sample:
Frankly, such things are all too familiar to me. We had three sisters at our school this year who were all pregnant at the same time, and who all gave birth within six months. I recall a couple telling me that the reason for their pregnancy was that they had nothing to do for two weeks during Christmas break but have sex, since there was nothing good on television. I even had one girl whose mother, upon being informed that she was pregnant and didn't know whether it was the child of her 20-year old boyfriend, the 26-year-old married guy in the next apartment, or the 31-year-old married guy upstairs, expressed joy -- "It will be so nice to have another baby around the house now that your little brother is starting school!"Perhaps the most sublime challenge that we as educators face is teaching students how to think, not merely giving the correct answer. And why on earth would a parent hold a college professor accountable for their child's academic performance when their son or daughter suffers from an undiagnosed learning disability? At brightMystery, college professor Robert "T" wrestles with these issues.
Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if teachers simply passed all students regardless of the quantity or quality of their work? Well, it's been studied before, and the London-based New Economist presents the details of the experiment.
Curriculum that doesn't work as intended. Colleagues that aren't receptive to change. Handling difficult students both in the classroom and out. Does all of this sound familiar? Muse, who writes over at Me-ander, lets us know that these are problems that educators must cope with.... in Israel. It seems as though some challenges confronting classroom teachers are universal.
Have you ever wondered what an education is worth? Over at Political Calculations, not only do they have the info, but they've developed a nifty little device for converting data from graphs into current dollars.
A recent escapee from Blogspot, Ashish's Niti (Niti is Sanskrit, the blog will tell you what it means.) is written by a software engineer in California's Silicon Valley. There's nothing like a little meme to get the creative juices flowing, and it seems that Ashish has been tagged with the book meme.
And now, for some entries selected by the Editors:
Isn't Google a really great tool? Joanne Jacobs has a cautionary tale for all those folks out there that deliver speeches that aren't their own.
Once upon a time there was a Belgian high school teacher named Yves De Racker who regularly swore at his students in class. Next, a pupil recorded one of his rants. And then his rant was set to music. Finally, the tune was played over Belgian radio, becoming a "hit." University Diaries tells us the story.
In yet another well-written post, Ms. Frizzle discusses one of education's Eternal Questions: "How much of a teacher's lesson planning should be written down, and in what degree of detail?" As always, there is something for newer teachers, experienced teachers, and even those that don't teach but are interested in education.
Calling all blogging teachers! Calling all blogging teachers! (Or would that be calling all teachers who blog?) No matter which way you prefer, if you are a teacher who writes a blog, Jenny D would like you to drop in and leave a comment or two.
Have you ever wanted to serve on a school board? Over at A Constrained Vision, Katie is recounting the unfortunate set of circumstances that befell one well-intentioned candidate as she tried to make a positive difference.
Finally, here at The Education Wonks, we humbly submit for your consideration our take on the Department of Education's latest report, The Condition of Education: 2005.
The first edition can be seen here, the second here, the third, here, the fourth, here, and the fifth, here, the sixth, here, the seventh, here the eighth, here the ninth, here the tenth, here the eleventh here the twelfth here, the thirteenth, here the fourteenth, here the fifteenth, here, the sixteenth, here the seventeenth, here and the eighteenth, over there. To get to EdWonk's main page, (with a variety of education-related posts) please click here. | <urn:uuid:1e84456f-3957-4835-aa3e-4695a49cabcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educationwonk.blogspot.com/2005/06/carnival-of-education-week-19.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972936 | 2,979 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Since Twitter released their Bootstrap CSS framework, there has been some backlash among web designers. It tends to be used fresh out of the proverbial box, without any modification, an awful lot. The snide remarks about Bootstrap are largely unfounded, though. While some people may simply keep all of the defaults and use it to throw something together quickly, it is still a framework like any other. It offers an excellent array of features you might want in a CSS framework, and you can customize the look as much as you want.
I was recently looking at the new design of A Small Orange, a hosting company. Would you guess, just looking at it, that it uses Bootstrap?
I didn’t realize at first, until I moused over an image and noticed the popover that appeared. I recognized it as a re-colored Bootstrap feature, and checked the page source to confirm it. Handy, easy to implement, and yet you could even restyle it beyond recognition if you wanted to.
There are already plenty of sites using Bootstrap to create unique designs, rather just as a no-design solution to throw together a quick page. The trick is finding them, since by definition they wouldn’t look like Bootstrap sites… | <urn:uuid:594fef99-1342-4cdd-b9a4-849e57de08fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webmaster-source.com/2012/04/18/bootstrap-doesnt-have-to-look-like-bootstrap/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965236 | 257 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Paschall Brothers: Page 1
Hampton Roads, the growing metropolitan region at the convergence of the James River, Atlantic Ocean, and the Chesapeake Bay, has long been one of our country’s most musically fertile regions, producing world-class performers in a broad range of musical styles from jazz to rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and perhaps most notably, gospel. In its heyday in the early-to-mid twentieth century, the region became known internationally for its classic Tidewater Gospel Sound, sung in four-part harmony, without musical accompaniment. The Paschall Brothers are the current torch bearers of this traditional singing style.
Like so many other forms of Virginia’s rich folkways, this musical tradition emerges from a particular geographical and cultural context, as it is deeply rooted in the social and spiritual life of the Tidewater’s African -American community. Yet you will find that this music also transcends its particular cultural setting, arising from a deeper impulse to create works of beauty from the simplest of means, and to express the joys of life and faith.
The Paschall Brothers are not only keeping the sounds of the past alive today. They are also passing this unique style on to future generations by participating as Master Artists in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program. The Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program pairs masters of a wide range of traditional art forms with apprentices for a nine-month learning experience.
It takes only a few opening notes for the artistry of the Paschalls to claim the listener’s ear. The group’s four-part a cappella vocal style is disarmingly fresh in a musical world typically drenched in instrumentation. Their lyrical message, too, speaks to straight-up religious praise. Every audience that hears them recognizes the Paschalls as distinctive. Yet one can hardly say the group stands alone, for the Paschalls have over a century of Tidewater Virginia musical traditions behind them. Decades of skilled, disciplined, and well-dressed singers helped shape an American art form and earned national recognition for the Tidewater quartet style. Nearly all of those older vocalists have passed, but they would be most proud of the Paschalls, dynamic ambassadors of Virginia’s unaccompanied gospel quartet harmony. | <urn:uuid:3f78ebf0-7e82-47bd-93fb-1777ae69ee67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://virginiafolklife.org/folklife-recordings/other-recordings/paschall-brothers-songs-for-our-father/paschall-brothers-page-1/?pg=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931638 | 474 | 1.632813 | 2 |
|Wendy Behary Trauma Diets Couples Therapy Brain Science Linda Bacon Mindfulness Challenging Cases Symposium 2012 Clinical Mastery Couples Attachment Theory Clinical Excellence Mary Jo Barrett Great Attachment Debate Anxiety Etienne Wenger Attachment William Doherty Gender Issues Narcissistic Clients Men in Therapy Community of Excellence David Schnarch Mind/Body Future of Psychotherapy Ethics CE Comments The Future of Psychotherapy Alan Sroufe|
|Unhappy Endings - Page 4|
In the summer of 2006, he fell in the driveway and suffered a brain hemorrhage. Not long afterward, he spent a full weekend compulsively brushing and rebrushing his teeth. “The Jeff I married . . . is no longer the same person,” my mother wrote in the journal a social worker had suggested she keep. “My life is in ruins. This is horrible, and I have lasted for five years.” His pacemaker kept on ticking.
When bioethicists debate life-extending technologies, the effects on people like my mother rarely enter the calculus. But a 2007 Ohio State University study of the DNA of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease showed that the ends of their chromosomes, called telomeres, had degraded enough to reflect a four-to-eight-year shortening of lifespan. By that reckoning, every year that the pacemaker gave my irreparably damaged father took from my then-vigorous mother an equal year.
When my mother was upset, she meditated or cleaned house. When I was upset, I Googled. In 2006, I discovered that pacemakers could be deactivated without surgery. Nurses, doctors and even device salesmen had done so, usually at deathbeds. A white ceramic device, like a TV remote and shaped like the wands that children use to blow bubbles, could be placed around the hump on my father’s chest. Press a few buttons and the electrical pulses that ran down the leads to his heart would slow until they were no longer effective. My father’s heart, I learned, would probably not stop. It would just return to its old, slow rhythm. If he was lucky, he might suffer cardiac arrest and die within weeks, perhaps in his sleep. If he was unlucky, he might linger painfully for months while his lagging heart failed to suffuse his vital organs with sufficient oxygenated blood.
If we did nothing, his pacemaker would not stop for years. Like the tireless charmed brooms in Disney’s “Fantasia,” it would prompt my father’s heart to beat after he became too demented to speak, sit up or eat. It would keep his heart pulsing after he drew his last breath. If he was buried, it would send signals to his dead heart in the coffin. If he was cremated, it would have to be cut from his chest first, to prevent it from exploding and damaging the walls or hurting an attendant.
The Role of Research
On the Internet, I discovered that the pacemaker—somewhat like the ventilator, defibrillator and feeding tube—was first an exotic, stopgap device, used to carry a handful of patients through a brief medical crisis. Then it morphed into a battery-powered, implantable and routine treatment. When Medicare approved the pacemaker for reimbursement in 1966, the market exploded. Today pacemakers are implanted annually in more than 400,000 Americans, about 80 percent of whom are over 65. According to calculations by the Dartmouth Atlas research group using Medicare data, nearly a fifth of new recipients who receive pacemakers annually—76,000—are over 80. The typical patient with a cardiac device today is an elderly person suffering from at least one other severe chronic illness.
Over the years, as technology has improved, the battery life of these devices lengthened. The list of heart conditions for which they are recommended has grown. In 1984, the treatment guidelines from the American College of Cardiology declared that pacemakers were strongly recommended as “indicated” or mildly approved as “reasonable” for 56 heart conditions and “not indicated” for 31 more. By 2008, the list for which they were strongly or mildly recommended expanded to 88, with most of the increase in the lukewarm “reasonable” category.
The research backing the expansion of diagnoses was weak. Over all, only 5 percent of the positive recommendations were supported by research from multiple double-blind randomized studies, the gold standard of evidence-based medicine. And 58 percent were based on no studies at all, only a “consensus of expert opinion.” Of the 17 cardiologists who wrote the 2008 guidelines, 11 received financing from cardiac-device makers or worked at institutions receiving it. Seven, due to the extent of their financial connections, were recused from voting on the guidelines they helped write.
This pattern—a paucity of scientific support and a plethora of industry connections—holds across almost all cardiac treatments, according to the cardiologist Pierluigi Tricoci of Duke University’s Clinical Research Institute. Last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Tricoci and his co-authors wrote that only 11 percent of 2,700 widely used cardiac-treatment guidelines were based on that gold standard. Most were based only on expert opinion.
Experts are as vulnerable to conflicts of interest as researchers are, the authors warned, because “expert clinicians are also those who are likely to receive honoraria, speakers bureau [fees], consulting fees or research support from industry.” They called the current cardiac-research agenda “strongly influenced by industry’s natural desire to introduce new products.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that I also discovered others puzzling over cardiologists who recommended pacemakers for relatives with advanced dementia. “78-year-old mother-in-law has dementia; severe short-term memory issues,” read an Internet post by “soninlaw” on Elderhope.com, a caregivers’ site, in 2007. “On a routine trip to her cardiologist, doctor decides she needs a pacemaker. . . . Anyone have a similar encounter?”
By the summer of 2007, my dad had forgotten the purpose of a dinner napkin and had to be coached to remove his slippers before he tried to put on his shoes. After a lifetime of promoting my father’s health, my mother reversed course. On a routine visit, she asked Rogan to deactivate the pacemaker. “It was hard,” she later told me. “I was doing for Jeff what I would have wanted Jeff to do for me.” Rogan soon made it clear he was morally opposed. “It would have been like putting a pillow over your father’s head,” he later told me.
Not long afterward, my mother declined additional medical tests and refused to put my father on a new anti-dementia drug and a blood thinner with troublesome side effects. “I take responsibility for whatever,” she wrote in her journal that summer. “Enough of all this overkill! It’s killing me! Talk about quality of life—what about mine?” | <urn:uuid:90fef7ef-32fd-4fd2-9aee-df95036fe459> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/recentissues/1335-unhappy-endings?start=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973428 | 1,525 | 1.546875 | 2 |
…and continuing to mooch off the system.
Why doesn’t it surprise me that people are allowed to take advantage of the welfare system in the U.S.? After all, the government gives money to those who need it (note: NEED, meaning they specifically show their fiscal status, etc.). However, need has gone a step further, as we have seen from a Michigan woman, who won the lottery, and did not take the responsibility to report her winnings to the state. With her lottery prize, she bought a new car, new house, and still remained on welfare benefits, receiving $200 a month for food. Below is the video that has caused an uproar around the country:
This makes me sick. Again, your tax dollars (especially if you live in Michigan) are being wasted by oversight. As soon as the woman won the lottery, the state agency responsible for her welfare benefits should have ended them. Clearly, if she had enough money to buy the car and a house, she could clearly provide food for herself and her family.
Thankfully, the woman has lost her benefits (not to mention that there could be legal action taken against her), and the Michigan legislature is considering a bill that would require the state lottery agency to report to the Department of Human Services if a recipient of welfare funds wins the jackpot. | <urn:uuid:a9614027-79dd-40c6-87c8-5664d80a2a3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crystalclearconservative.com/tag/fraud/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985349 | 274 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A long time ago, when I studied history at university, we spent a couple of weeks on riots and civil disturbances in eighteenth-century England.
We discussed the seminal works of Marxist historian E. P. Thompson, especially his stimulating notion of a moral economy of the crowd.
There was a sense of balance - of justice - in any given community, and disorder was the natural result where factors led to an unbalance.
So, I asked, what about the Gordon Riots or (nearer to home for me as a Brummie) the Preistley Riots?
Oh, came the response, that was just bigotry.
It was then the realization came that people with political opinions tend to find exactly what they want in any civil disturbance.
Radicals and leftists find underlying socio-economic causes for certain riots, and mass vulgar prejudice for others. In turn, conservatives from Burke onwards tend to see any civil disturbance as being a failure of "law and order".
The actual riots are rarely predicted; but when they happen, people with political opinions tend to immediately know why they happened - what really caused them.
There was a riot last night in Tottenham. By the early hours it had spread down the road to Wood Green. It started outside a police station; it ended with the reported looting of consumer goods. A police car was set on fire; and so was a bus and (it seems) some buildings.
The great historian Conrad Russell once pointed out that before one posits causes, one must set out the effects one is actually seeking to explain.
And with many civil disturbances there are a range of effects which one seeks to explain: from conscious protests and articulated grievances to arson and mere vandalism. No one ideological model seems to provide a full explanation: demanding justice does not add up to looting; insufficient policing does not explain the concentration of people outside any police station.
In fact, civil disturbances are invariably used to validate political opinions which people already hold; no conservative or radical will ever say, "Gosh, that riot changes the way I think about society. Perhaps my principles or my policies are wrong?".
In this respect, civil disturbances are profoundly reactionary: they tend to reinforce rather than challenge views which already exist.
There were many causes of what happened last night in Tottenham and Wood Green; but that is just because a lot of rather different things happened. Accordingly, there may be a limited extent to which there is a single "solution" to what is seen as the problem.
But there is a general rule - few people accurately predict civil disturbances; and afterwards, few people have any doubt as to why they happened.
No purely anonymous comments will be published; always use a name for ease of reference by other commenters. | <urn:uuid:5ef607dc-f877-4aec-9803-659e17faa320> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2011/08/predicting-riot.html?showComment=1312799937000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970876 | 562 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Transformers certainly have a tendency to increase the cost of any project, especially if you need a large transformer to get the job done. Microwave ovens are great sources of free transformers, though they are not always in the shape required for your next build.
[Matt] put together three great tutorial videos covering the basics of salvaging Microwave Oven Transformers (MOTs), that anyone new to the process should watch before giving it a go. The first video covers MOT removal and disassembly, which is a time consuming yet easy process providing you follow [Matt’s] pointers.
The second video delves into transformer theory, and discusses how to achieve optimal performance when rebuilding an MOT or hand wrapping coils to fit your project specs. The third video in the series follows [Matt] as he rebuilds one of the salvaged transformers, documenting his pitfalls and successes along the way.
If you haven’t given much thought to salvaging MOTs, we definitely recommend taking a bit of time to watch the video series in full – it’s definitely worth it.
You can see the first video in the series after the jump – the rest can be found via the YouTube link above. | <urn:uuid:f40aabe1-5ea2-4c4a-bac8-863434db1c8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2012/03/03/tutorial-series-shows-you-everything-you-need-to-salvage-transformers-from-microwaves/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=39eb77acf0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939788 | 251 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Guardian Unlimited, May 22, 2012
See article on original website
It is way too early to tell whether Facebook shares will end up being a good buy, but the reaction to the initial public offering (IPO) on the first day of trading should serve as a serious warning. While the website may have hundreds of millions of users worldwide, it is not clear that this will translate into profits for the company. Facebook could follow in the footsteps of Pets.com, Webvan and other end-of-the-century start-ups that quickly collapsed following multi-billion dollar IPOs.
Of course Facebook is unlikely to go out of business, but it is certainly possible that its business model is not sufficiently robust to justify a position among corporate America’s elite in market capitalization. A year or two down the road it may well turn out that its share price ends up at half or less of its IPO price.
In this case there will have been an enormous transfer of wealth from the purchasers of Facebook stock to those able to cash out following the IPO. This will make many of those on the inside of the company fantastically wealthy. However, much of their wealth would not result from making a good product that society valued; rather it came from being part of a successfully hyped company.
These insiders benefitted from the ability of Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues to convince investors that Facebook had much more profit potential than in fact was true. This ability to hype a product, in this case company stock, can be an incredibly valuable skill, but it provides nothing of value to society. In that way it is similar to the skills of Fabrice Tourre (a.k.a. "Fabulous Fab"), who was apparently very skilled in putting together complex mortgage derivatives for Goldman Sachs that were designed to fail.
In the last two decades the economy seems to have created many openings for people whose primary skill is lifting money out of other people’s pockets, not in doing anything productive. Wall Street is the center of such practices.
Many of the country’s biggest earners run hedge funds that specialize in computer algorithms that allow them to front-run large trades. This means that if a major investor is about to buy a large amount of a company’s stock, these high-speed traders can buy shares ahead of them and then resell the shares second later for a profit.
In effect, this is a form of insider trading. It is very profitable for those who can do it successfully, but it provides no benefit to society. It actually harms society and the economy since it reduces the return to honest investors, making them less willing to put their money in the stock market. Wall Street has many other tricks, most notably being able to rely on the no-cost government insurance provided by the implicit too-big-to-fail guarantee.
But today’s story is not Wall Street, or at least not directly Wall Street, today’s story is over-hyped technology companies. Even if Facebook ends up losing much of its value in the years ahead, it is virtually certain that Mark Zuckerberg and other inside players will remain incredibly wealthy individuals. After all, Steve Case is still one of the country’s richest people even though his former company, AOL, could be purchased for pocket change today.
The wealth that these people command was not created out of thin air. It came from suckers who bought the hype. With Steve Case, the big suckers were the top management at Time-Warner. They effectively sold the largest media company in the world for almost nothing, giving away most of the company’s shares in exchange for AOL stock. Shareholders who took the deal and did not immediately dump their AOL shares lost more than half of the value of their holdings.
If Facebook shares plunge we don’t know yet who the big losers will be. Insofar as it is individual investors who knowingly took risks in the hope that Facebook will look more like Google than Webvan, the loss is part of the game. This is like buying a lottery ticket.
But if the list of losers ends up including pension funds, university endowments and other institutional investors, then the public should ask some serious questions of the people who manage these funds. Typically they get paychecks that are many hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a year. They should know better than to be suckered by an over-hyped startup.
It will be a while yet before we can tally up the winners and losers. But if Facebook turns out to be mostly a media darling and not a hugely profitable company then the genius of Zuckerberg and crew will be in running a successful scam, not creating anything of great value to society.
Of course it may turn out that Facebook is actually worth its market value in which case none of this discussion is relevant. We will have to wait to know for sure, but until then, don’t believe the hype. | <urn:uuid:8bf274c8-f11c-4188-9865-bcb663a905a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/if-facebook-falls-on-its-face | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970425 | 1,017 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Marvelman was originally a British version of Fawcett's Captain “Shazam!” Marvel. First printed in 1954, Marvelman lasted until the early 60s before interest in the character faded. Then, Alan Moore took the idea and decided to reinvent and deconstruct the character. In the 1980s, a new, darker Marvelman was born in the pages of Warrior magazine to much critical acclaim. I'm not going to go any further into the history of this character - others have covered that much better than I could. It’s all quite complicated.
The story in this book goes something like this. Mike Moran is a reporter in his 40s who suffers from strange and terrible nightmares. One day, he's covering a story about the opening of a nuclear power station when the place is attacked by terrorists. By pure chance, Mike Moran happens to see the word "Atomic" reversed through the glass in a door and upon uttering the 'magic' word Kimota, is transferred in a boom of thunder into Miracleman. For twenty years he's been unaware of his powers - ever since that fateful, deadly, snowy day in 1963 which still haunts Mike's dreams.
Since the 60s, the Miracleman family were all thought to be have been destroyed - but Mike Moran isn't the only powerful superman who survived!
This was Alan Moore's first deconstruction of the modern day superhero. It came before Watchmen but covers similar territory to that fantastic story. Like Watchmen, it takes a person with all-too-human thoughts and emotions in the real, modern world, gives him unearthly superpowers and then examines the effect on the world and on the superhuman himself. It's an interesting story that rather cleverly manages to merge the bizarre, old-fashioned stories from the 50s by Mick Anglo into this modern day interpretation. And this *is* modern, in the sense that it's dark and brutal. Characters are beaten to a pulp or killed with little effort, whilst we're shown again that absolute power can corrupt absolutely.
The art by Gary Leach and, later, the wonderful Alan Davis matches the gruesome story and is dark and realistic. The complex emotions of characters are well depicted during the quiet periods whilst furious action scenes are stunningly shown in murky colours. And that's my only criticism of the art on this book - it's perhaps a little too dark to make out the details at times. Alan Davis' work is perhaps a little easier to follow than Gary Leach's although this is some early art from Davis so is not as polished as his later stuff.
Overall, this is a bloomin' marvellous (or should that be miraculous?) story. Of course, by now, this sort of dark examination of superhumans has been done many times, but in the early 80s this was all very new and exciting. Plus, Alan Moore is one of the best at this sort of thing. I’d also recommend reading other reviews of this TPB that are out there.
And, if you’ve never seen this before and want to read this story yourself, I'm currently selling the book on Ebay. I’d certainly recommend it. So, you too can own a rare copy of Miracleman "A Dream of Flying".
What can I say? This review is a shameless cash-in. Still, at least it's starting at a decent price!
Grade: Very Fine. | <urn:uuid:1e7fed2b-c9eb-4bd0-bd93-909d7e74086e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pseudorandomnoise.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971398 | 711 | 1.515625 | 2 |
As soon as Gregory Phillips utters a word, you know he's not from here. In this occasional series, the British native will break down the culture clashes and linguistic confusion that have occurred since he made North Carolina his home.
I was leaving the grocery store with my two children when my 3-year-old son saw something parked nearby and got very excited.
"Yes," I said, "It's a motorbike."
My daughter quickly corrected me, telling her brother it was a motorcycle. Then she turned to me.
"You're in North Carolina now," she told me gently and with the slightly condescending tone a father might use to a 5-year-old, rather than the other way around.
"You need to stop talking English."
I was too busy laughing to ask why she thought motorbike was British and motorcycle was American. But it did get me thinking about slang, just in time for a bunch of people to send me a link to a New York Times piece about the popularization of British slang in the U.S.
What's tricky about trans-Atlantic slang is that something is often lost while crossing the ocean.
Take wonky, for example. Apparently, Americans are using it to describe something that is malfunctioning, or simply wrong.
Wonky, though, to me at least, simply means slanted, or not level, like a picture on a wall.
I'm fascinated by the endless evolution and cross-pollination of languages, but I wonder if slang is best left alone.
Consider: As y'all know, fanny is a harmless slang expression for buttocks.
Not where I'm from.
No, where I grew up, men don't have fannies, if you catch my drift.
The first time I heard an American man tell me his fanny hurt, I took a long step backward.
No, I think slang is best kept separate by an ocean.
The alternative is just too risky.
Staff writer Gregory Phillips can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 486-3596. | <urn:uuid:9f29b3f5-0607-45c1-83c9-ea479a4619c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fayobserver.com/articles/2012/10/29/1208137 | 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 | 0.976308 | 438 | 1.75 | 2 |
Excerpt from Mr. Adnan Oktar's Live Conversation on A9 TV dated December 27th, 2011
ADNAN OKTAR: So [this note says that] the link is ready and we can patch through when we like. All right, give me some information about the person we are linking up to first. Show me a picture. Who is he?
MS. DAMLA: Insha'Allah Master. We will be linking up to Ambassador Alan Baker. Mr. Baker who is one of Israel's best-known jurists, served as a legal adviser at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1996 and 2004. He served as the Israeli ambassador to Canada in 2004-2008. During his 35 years of service in the Israeli government, he was involved in Middle East peace negotiations and various agreements with Israel's neighbors. Ambassador Baker who is the Legal adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also served as an adviser on international law to Israeli prime ministers, foreign ministers, Knesset committees and various government offices. He has represented Israel at international meetings and meetings discussing international criminal law, international law and human rights law. He was also personally involved in drafting agreements regarding the fight against terror. He has also written numerous papers on the international criminal court, international humanitarian law and the Middle East peace process. He also works as director of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, one of Israel's best known think tanks, masha'Allah.
ADNAN OKTAR: Okay, that is nice. Please put me through to the gentleman. Firstly.. Greetings, how are you?
ALAN BAKER: Hello. Fine, thank you. How are you?
ADNAN OKTAR: Thank you. I am also very well. Alhamdulillah, thanks be to Allah. Go ahead, I am listening.
ALAN BAKER: Well, my first question is a question that every Israeli is asking; Every Israeli, I think, is very, very upset and worried about the deterioration in the relationship between our two countries where basically there is so much in common. And my question is whether there is any chance of this relationship being brought back to what is was before the deterioration?
ADNAN OKTAR: Of course, the most important thing to be done is not to use expressions such as, "There are tensions. A chill has grown between us" because there is no such thing. If they try to give the impression that there is, then people will actually believe it. This is something that is being attained through indoctrination. We love the Israeli people. You are the children of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). You are entrusted to us. We feel a deep love for you. And all Israeli people, devout Israelis, also love the Turkish nation very dearly. They are admirers of Turkey. They come and go. So indoctrinating such a thing would be very wrong.
ALAN BAKER: So if everything is okay, then why is the Prime Minister Erdogan, why is he so hostile to Israel? Why does he whip up such hostility amongst the Turkish public?
ADNAN OKTAR: To maintain there is a hostile attitude going on gives rise to the belief that such is indeed the case. [Mr. Tayyip] Erdogan is a politician. He is Prime Minister of Turkey. He can express his own opinions. But obviously Erdogan's opinion is not that of all of Turkey. Let us imagine that your minister makes a mistake, that he says something wrong; does that reflect the opinion of the Israeli people? No. The Prime Minister's statement does not reflect the general view held by Turkey. He may speak like that for political reasons. But the general public opinion is highly important. If you say, "The public's opinion does not matter, it is the leaders' opinions that count," that will not be right.
ALAN BAKER: Well, look; thank you, but as an international lawyer and a representative of Israel for many, many years what the Prime Minister of a country says is representative of the viewpoint of the country. And we saw that crowds of people in Istanbul or Ankara have come out in demonstrations against Israel; now I understand the flotilla incident was a very emotional incident for Turkey but in actual fact, Mr. Erdogan's negative relationship began long before the flotilla incident when he actually insulted the President of Israel in front of world television. So there seems to be something far deeper here than politics, and this is what makes me, and many other Israelis very very concerned.
ADNAN OKTAR: Look, let me give you some important evidence and you can understand it from that. Such actions may take place for political reasons. But it is the practicalities that matter. And what do we see in practicalities? Turkey has set a missile shield up in Malatya in order to protect Israel. It is setting up a missile, radar system. And the main, I can almost say only, aim is the protection of Israel. And Turkey is taking a great risk here. It has signed up for this, even though it has become a target itself. In the event of a nuclear attack, the nuclear missiles will be stopped within Turkish air space. And Turkey will be at risk. Yet it still takes such an extraordinarily altruistic measure for the sake of protecting Israel. This by itself is clear proof of how much Turkey, the Turkish government love Israel and are determined to protect it. Words are unimportant. It is that actions that speak louder. I also stand as guarantor for the Prime Minister. Do not concentrate on his words against Israel; in his heart, character and soul he is an exceedingly affectionate, compassionate and pure individual. He is sincere and well-intentioned. You can trust him. You like and trust me, so believe in what I say. No problems would arise on that.
ALAN BAKER: Well, thank you; I'm very happy to hear this. I mean it's a great relief, but the question is; would I be safe if I were invited to come to Turkey to speak in a panel of international lawyers? Would I be safe? Would I have reason to fear?
ADNAN OKTAR: Here is like your own home. My Rabbi friends come here. The former Chief Rabbi came here from Israel, deputies have come and state officials. They have all been welcomed in the finest manner here. The Turkish people also showed them their best love and affection. They visited mosques and many places. They were welcomed with love, affection, friendship and brotherhood. They felt themselves more secure in Turkey than in their own homes. They were quite safe. So when you come, it is absolutely certain that you will also be shown love and respect in the best manner. Turkish people are hospitable and warm and virtuous. But there has been a mutual conflict of pride. Such things happen from time to time. One side regards itself as absolutely in the right, as does the other; then both sides make it a matter of pride. And this question of pride persists if there is no arbiter around. We often encounter such things; and this is simply one example of that. That is why there is no true enmity toward Israel in Turkey, no negative policy. Indeed, the progress in trade goes to show this. The approach of Turkish people towards Israel is very positive and compassionate.
ALAN BAKER: Well, well thank you very much. Let me perhaps make a practical suggestion that I think every Israeli would appreciate. If Prime Minister Erdogan were to come out with some statement not hostile to Israel, because every statement that he's made about Israel over the last many months has been very, very negative, I think if the Israeli public were to see some message of sympathy, some message, I don't know, in the light of the festivals, Christmas, Hannukah, the Muslim festivals. If we were able to have some positive message coming from Prime Minister Erdogan, I think this would be very, very important for the public in Israel to see that what you're saying is true.
But I may just add here, excuse me, I think this would be very compatible with the messages you've already given in your discussions with the Chief Rabbi that we have a commonality in our religions, and to base a positive message on religious festivals will probably speak very clearly to the Israeli people and would be accepted very graciously.
ADNAN OKTAR: The Prime Minister made a statement about this before; "I love the Israeli people," he said. "I am only opposed to this policy of the Israeli government." In other words, he said; "My problem is with the Israeli government. I have no problem with the Israeli people, whom I love very much." That is a most significant statement. But words similar to those would of course be beautifying, pleasant and good. But you must know that the King Messiah you have been waiting for 3,000 years has now come. Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) has come. Nobody can do Israel any harm now that the King Messiah is here. The Prime Minister would never even think of such a thing, and those days are now in any case over because the foundation of the state of Israel in that land is already a sign of the coming of the King Messiah, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). Great wars are a sign of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). From now on an age of peace, brotherhood and beauty has begun. We can see these details in all clarity and with full evidence when we look at the Torah. We see that it is all true. Everything described in the Torah has happened. Everything described by our Prophet (pbuh) in the hadiths has happened. All the portents of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh), the King Messiah, have come about. The time has also come according to the Zohar, to reference sources that have come down from the time of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). The Prophet Abraham (pbuh) points to 2012 in the Zohar; we are nearly in 2012 now. We are now in the age of the King Messiah. We will now embrace the people of Israel. We will all remember Allah together as brothers in Jordan and Egypt and the whole region; we will all enjoy the delights of the age of happiness, the Golden Age, insha'Allah.
ALAN BAKER: Insha'Allah
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes.. Insha'Allah. Prime Minister Erdogan's message to Jewish citizens on the occasion of the Hannukah holiday on December 27th, 2011 read: "Anatolia, the cradle of different cultures and civilizations for hundreds of years, has always been a center of tolerance, dialogue and mutual respect and understanding." He then went on to say, "I once again wish our Jewish citizens who share these ideas a very happy Hannukah, and wish them peace and every happiness."
ALAN BAKER: Well, I'm very happy that he said that, but the fact is that was never really widely reported on the Israeli media, and I think again, I think everything is body language..
ADNAN OKTAR: Trust me, I know the Prime Minister. He is a loving, compassionate and affectionate person we can all trust very much. He published that message officially. But it may not have been heard in Israel. We must strive harder to ensure that is it is heard in Israel. But I am certain and can guarantee that he loves you all and feel compassion for you.
ALAN BAKER: Thank you. Thank you very much, and I'm very reassured by what you say, and let me just add one thing; when I was Israel's ambassador to Canada between 2004 and 2008, my best friend in Canada was the ambassador of Turkey, and we used to meet together twice or three times a week and we had a lot in common, and I'd like this to come back; and I hope very, very sincerely that the relationship will get back to what it should be, because there's a very, very strong connection between the two countries, and we can't allow regional politics, whether it's Iran, or Hamas, or anybody else to try and harm this relationship. That's my message to Prime Minister Erdogan.
ADNAN OKTAR: The protection and well-being of Israel are under the control of Allah, insha'Allah. Allah uses His servants as His instruments. We are in the age of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh), the King Messiah; your hearts can be at ease. We love you all. Allah has entrusted you to us. You are the children of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). We will all rebuild the Masjid of Solomon altogether, insha'Allah, and open up the borders. We will talk together with our Palestinian and Israeli brothers, and have fun and happy times with them. Let your hearts be at ease.
ALAN BAKER: Thank you very much.
ADNAN OKTAR: Thank you. We will speak again, insha'Allah. I hope to see you in Turkey.
ALAN BAKER: Thank you so much.
ADNAN OKTAR: We hope to see you here. Thank you. Salam. | <urn:uuid:63770a6f-ca66-4633-bb3d-aa6db70394f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harunyahya.com/en/Harun-Yahyas-Interviews-and-Conversations/desifre/101944/Mr-Adnan-Oktars-live-conversation-with-former-Israeli-ambassador-to-Canada-Alan-Baker-on-A9-TV-(27-December-2011;-1100) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975416 | 2,750 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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October 3, 2012 |
In: Awesome, Kids, Music, Video
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Or whatever else she wants to be probably. This girl’s clearly got skills.
The whole point of these MPC devices is that anyone who can tap a rhythm with their wrist can make a song. It takes very little skill. I would be much more impressed if she used turntables.
DJ? I see do disks!
Diana, I'd buy this track so quickly you have no idea kid. it's awesome! good for you.
That was amazing but… do they not own a brush in her family? Looks like she's developing unintentional dreads, which are cool normally.. but not really for a 10 year old little girl.
Ummm, she does ok on her $3000 Akai MPC2500…. Me thinks this is a bit overstated. At her age I was playing Chopin nocturnes and hating it…Wish I had one of those systems.
very cool. she could grow up to become the next reggie watts. if u've never heard of him, youtube his vids. will blow ur mind.
bc chivers/chivettes. –> http://twitter.com/KCCOVancity
i thought that was pretty f$@&ing good for a ten year old i could see that beat in a track for sure
will she please do beats for little wayne shes the only way to save his career
this is not DJ'ing, this is producing.
Boring, No skills there. Let's see here in the 80's playing Simon says!
Allow me to present Madeon, 16 yrs old…
Sounds like Fort Minor- Believe Me
what isn't mentioned here is that the MPC quantizes everything for you, so if you mess up on the timing of something (which is almost everything when all you're doing is pushing a button), it grabs it and shifts it back to where it should be relative to the metronome. Notice how the kick and snare sound when she's playing it vs, the measure afterwards…also where did those samples come from?
[...] figured out how to do this in just 5 days. Prepare to feel bad about yourself, beatmakers. [via the Chive] blog comments powered by Disqus /* [...]
Just think that's a bit ignorant, that's all. She doesn't push one button and then the song is finished. It does take a sense of tone and rhythm, which she has. Trumpet only has 3 buttons, that's still an instrument. And if age is an issue, didn't Mozart start begin his mastery at age 3? It doesn't have to be difficult in order to be an instrument.
dude "trumpet only has 3 buttons" is so far off base… they are not "buttons" you don't push a button on a trumpet and get a nice tone, you don't push the buttons in order on a trumpet and get a nice melody… also.. Mozart? really? you are comparing this to Mozart?
she's talented, yes — but don't make it sound like this is as awesome as Mozart's genius or that playing the trumpet is only pushing 3 buttons.. too far dude, too far
playing a device like that is more like playing the drums than the guitar. there's still thought and talent behind it — it's all just rhythm and timing instead of chord and scale theory
This is kind of weak. A 10 year old can do this.
Its cool that she is only ten years old and she is a she but you could youtube "making a beat" and watch a million videos that are way more impressive.
Maybe her parent/s just taught her to make that one beat, she should ask AraabMuzik to adopt her
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Dec. 4, 2003 — With the rise of online auto buying making it far more difficult for consumers to “kick the tires” of vehicles prior to purchase, sales sites and third-party providers have rolled out an array of safeguards to assure would-be customers that they can bid or buy with confidence. But critics charge that the protections aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and give buyers a false sense of security that is being exploited by crooks and cons.
While the Internet has armed consumers with a wealth of information that they can put to good use in selecting the vehicle of their dreams, it also has provided scam artists and unscrupulous auto dealers with a new venue in which to practice the tricks of their trade.
As part of an effort to combat such chicanery, a number of services aimed at bolstering consumer confidence in the online auto sales arena have sprung up, including click-to-purchase vehicle history reports, warranties and fraud protection policies.
But some observers say that the products offer limited protection at best, and at worst leave consumers with the mistaken impression that they have taken the risk out of their transaction.
Attorneys handling the growing number of cases arising from online vehicle sales single out vehicle history reports such as those offered by industry leaders CARFAX and Experian Automotive, provider of the Autocheck product, for especially harsh criticism.
“A vehicle history report doesn’t protect buyers at all. In fact, it ends up hurting them because they think they’re being protected,” said Bernard Brown, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney who specializes in automobile fraud cases and works with numerous consumer groups on vehicle safety issues.
Representatives of the companies concede that their databases aren’t perfect but say the reports are a valuable tool for consumers in researching a vehicle’s past.
“Knowledge is power, whether that’s a car history report, a mechanical inspection or whatever,” said Andy Shehan, vice president of marketing at Experian Automotive. “… When purchasing a car, would you be better off with it than without it? My answer would be ‘with it.’”
Even their detractors concede that the reports are generally helpful in tracing the chain of ownership of a vehicle and determining whether a “salvage” brand — a marking that indicates a vehicle was declared a “total loss” by an insurer — has ever been placed on its title.
But they say the companies’ representation that the reports also show whether vehicles have sustained “major accident damage” is spurious.
Lawsuit over history reports
“My guess is that seven out of eight cars that have been in major wrecks will not show up,” said Brown.
That is the central issue in a lawsuit filed recently in Tennessee on behalf of a Memphis auto dealer alleging that CARFAX markets its vehicle histories “in a manner which is unfair, false, deceptive and materially misleading.”
Among other things, the lawsuit filed by Memphis attorneys David McLaughlin and Frank Watson III on Oct. 28 alleges that the Fairfax, Va.-based company does not have access to police accident reports in 23 states and that its vehicle histories “therefore are incomplete, inaccurate and/or unreliable.”
McLaughlin and Watson, who are seeking class action status for the lawsuit, charge that auto dealer Mid-South Motors purchased a 1995 BMW 525i from another wholesaler in 2002 after buying a CARFAX report that showed no “salvage” brands and no police accident or damage disclosure records.
A subsequent check of a database maintained by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), an industry anti-fraud group, by a person with access to the records revealed that the BMW had been declared a “total loss” three separate times after accidents in New York, Florida and Georgia that were reflected in police accident records, according to court documents.
Liz DeCastro, a spokeswoman for CARFAX, said she could not comment on specific allegations in the lawsuit, but added, “We’re not really sure where their claims are coming from.
“We provide more information to buyers than anyone can get anywhere else, including major accident data from all 50 states … and 4,500 other sources, in both the public and private sector,” she said.
Representatives of CARFAX and Experian Automotive both declined to state specifically where they get their data, citing competitive concerns.
No way to cross-reference
But after MSNBC.com contacted motor vehicle departments and public safety officials in Texas and California — two of the states identified as not providing records to CARFAX in the Tennessee lawsuit — and verified that no accident data linked to unique vehicle identification numbers (VINs) is currently provided to vendors, DeCastro acknowledged that the company would have no way to cross-reference accident reports without them.
“We do get a lot of information from Texas and California ... and both those states are working on systems issues to get us other information,” she said.
Critics of the vehicle history reports also charge that some auto dealers use them to sell previously damaged autos and trucks to unsuspecting buyers.
Dale Irvin, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney, said he worked with Brown on a case in which a local dealership used a clean CARFAX report to sell his clients a pickup truck that had suffered more than $8,000 in damage in a previous wreck.
“Although the dealer, according to our expert witness, would have spotted the evidence of the prior wreck and repairs, by having a clean CARFAX (report) the dealer felt free to misrepresent the vehicle,” he said.
One industry insider, who spoke with MSNBC.com on condition of anonymity, said that while dealers typically claim to have been fooled by a clean vehicle history report when buyers come back with evidence that it was involved in a serious accident, such explanations don’t wash.
“When they buy those cars at auction, they can see an overspray (indicating major body work) from a mile away,” the source said. “I don’t think any legitimate car dealer could stay in business if that was the extent of their knowledge.”
Carfax, Experian defend products
Both CARFAX and Experian Automotive defend their products as being the most comprehensive sources of accident and title information available to the public — since the NICB records are a closely held industry secret — while simultaneously stating that consumers should use everything at their command to ensure they’re getting what they think they’re getting.
“We promise to be a tool for consumers, but we say get an inspection, take a test drive,” said DeCastro.
While providers of vehicle history reports have their share of detractors, so too do policies offered by some online auto-selling sites that appear to offer some level of protection but often don’t hold up once it comes time to file a claim.
Several buyers interviewed by MSNBC.com complained that after being sold vehicles that were misrepresented by sellers using eBay Motors, they were excluded under the leading auto auction site’s “purchase assurance” policy because the misrepresentation didn’t amount to at least half of the vehicle’s value.
Others said that claims filed with eBay Motors lapsed after the scofflaw sellers dragged out the mediation process beyond the 30-day expiration period.
“It’s really set up so that there’s nothing you can do,” said Ron Wayden of Huntsville, Ala., whose travails were recounted in Part 1 of this series.
One auction industry insider, who spoke with MSNBC.com on condition of anonymity, said eBay Motors’ mediation process also is fundamentally flawed.
“EBay uses a company in Birmingham, Ala., Auction Services, to play the mediator role between buyer and seller,” the source said. ”(Unhappy buyers) get shoved into the arms of this little mediation company that tries to get the seller to cough it up but has no real power. There are hundreds of cases like this every day. … I’ve been there, and I’ve seen the stacks of complaints piled up on the desks.”
A phone call to Auction Services was not returned.
The source also charged that the “sight-unseen warranty” offered by eBay Motors is “toothless.”
“Go into the PDF file and look at the disclaimers,” the source said. “… The warranty excludes all pre-existing conditions. So if you buy a car and the transmission falls out of it, they’re not going to cover it.”
Simon Rothman, eBay Motors vice president and general manager, defended the limited warranty, which promises “sight-unseen coverage on vehicle failure for one month or 1,000 miles” on vehicles that are less than 10 years old and with fewer than 125,000 miles, as “a basic power train warranty, very standard.”
But he acknowledged that it excludes conditions that predated the sale.
“If there’s a pre-existing condition, buyer and seller need to do due diligence so they know. … It’s not a bumper-to-bumper warranty.”
Rothman declined to say how many claims — if any — eBay Motors had honored under the purchase assurance program or limited warranty.
Like the general eBay site, eBay Motors works with law enforcement when it receives credible reports of fraudulent activity, company representatives said.
But because so many online auto transactions cross state lines, consumers who are burned buying a car face a whole new set of frustrations if they try to go outside the closed reparations loop available to them on the auto-selling sites.
“The nature of consumer fraud on the Internet is that it crosses state lines, so state attorneys general need to get involved,” said Brown, the consumer fraud attorney. “Sadly, in the great majority of states there is a dearth of enforcement. … If you think you’re going to get law enforcement help, forget about it! It ain’t gonna happen.”
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This guide provides information to help groups and organizations get off to a good start with their project. The first section, "Working with People," looks at the importance of developing good relationships with partners, staff and funders. Section two covers communication plans. The third section offers information on how to develop an evaluation plan and includes an evaluation worksheet and tools. The last section focuses on report writing and includes words and guidelines for report writing.
Two other guides, Project Planning and Proposal Writing accompany this guide. | <urn:uuid:406b2a7b-ce00-49e2-a7b8-be9c1054b262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.nald.ca/learning/item/7075 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936071 | 102 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Cheers to Green Menu, an initiative whose sole purpose is to encourage restaurants to offer more vegan foods on their menus. Green Menu offers incentives to participating restaurants by promoting them, and by selling cards that allow members to receive discounts at participating restaurants. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Green Menu is also on Facebook!
Cheers to Ginny Messina , a registered dietician, health expert and Friends of Animals’ contributor, on the publication of her new book Vegan for Life, which was co-authored by Jack Norris.
Vegan for Life is the first comprehensive book written on vegan nutrition based entirely on science that relies solely on human studies. The book covers every imaginable topic, ranging from vegan pregnancy, to raising vegan children, and how to stay healthy on a vegan diet through all stages of life. The book is accessible and chock full of important information.
Vegan for Life can be purchased through Amazon.com or from your local bookseller.
Cheers to U.S. cyclist David Zabriskie , a competitor at the 2011 Tour de France. Zabriskie announced a decision to train and ride the race with a diet nearly free of animal products, but he did eat some salmon. Friends of Animals Canadian Correspondent (and avid bike racer) Dave Shishkoff says, “It’s great that he’s pursuing these changes, and Zabriskie should be encouraged to embrace veganism, full-on.” As Food for Life author Ginny Messina tells us, there is no need to eat fish or any other animals to get iron and the other minerals and nutrients we need.
Zabriskie was not able to complete the race due to a crash in Stage 9; he’s currently in Los Angeles recuperating.
Well wishes (and encouragement to make the full vegan journey can be sent to his website by visiting:
You can follow him on Twitter at:
Cheers to the government of Botswana, for proposing to ban hunting in its national parks and reserves in favor of photographic safaris. The proposal comes at a time when the populations of some free-living animals in the country have been reduced by 90%, according to research by wildlife conservationist Dr. Mike Chase. Hunting of wildlife in the Kgatleng District has remained suspended since 1981.
The proposal is obviously controversial, but it represents the very best chance for other animals who are under constant assault by humans. Please contact the Embassy of the Republic of Botswana and offer words of support for the proposal.
Embassy of Botswana
1531 New Hampshire Avenue Northwest
Washington D.C., 20036-1203
Phone: (202) 244-4990
Jeers to State Farm Insurance Company , whose recent commercial features both a falcon and a cockatoo. In the commercial, one person jokes about buying a falcon with the money that was saved by using State Farm, while another person — who parades around with a cockatoo — exclaims that he “should have bought a falcon.”
Birds should not be pets, or kept in captivity — let alone be the punch line of pathetic insurance commercials. Tell State Farm Insurance Company to stick to selling insurance, and stop exploiting animals! (Because this is a large company, with agents scattered throughout the United States, we recommend contacting them by hand-writing a letter and sending to the address below).
State Farm Insurance
One State Farm Plaza
Bloomington, IL 61710
To e-mail comments, visit:https://online2.statefarm.com/b2c/sf/forms/CommentsSuggestions
Phone: (877) 734-2265
Jeers to actor Drew Barrymore, who modeled for a fashion editorial for Neiman Marcus — draped in furs made by animal-hating designers Donna Karan and Oscar De La Renta. Barrymore, in the far-away past, once claimed to care about animals, but somehow ended up eating, wearing and exploiting animals with abandon.
We’d like to see Drew Barrymore come back to her senses. Please remind Drew that the only human trait that never goes out of fashion is compassion. Let’s help get Drew back on track. Drew can be reached through her own production company and through her agent.
Her production office:
Flower Films, Inc.
4000 Warner Boulevard
Burbank , CA 91522
Phone: (818) 954-5840
Creative Artists Agency
2000 Avenue Of The Stars
Los Angeles , CA 90067
Phone: (424) 288-2000 | <urn:uuid:8f0c4a62-e51f-43b4-8275-68220c9f50ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://friendsofanimals.org/actionline/autumn-2011/cheers-jeers.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930376 | 961 | 1.703125 | 2 |
October 2007: Volume 33, Number 10
FDA Takes a Step Toward Widespread Personalized Medicine
Warfarin Label Now Recommends Genetic Testing
By Deborah Levenson
For the first time, FDA has recommended pharmacogenomic testing for patients who are newly prescribed a common medication. An August update to the label for warfarin (Coumadin) makes clinicians aware that patients with certain genetic variants probably need lower initial doses, but it stops well short of directing clinicians to order pharmacogenomic tests to identify those patients who have problematic variations of the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genes, which metabolize warfarin and determine the effectiveness of circulating doses.
“Personalized medicine has moved into the mainstream,” proclaimed Larry Lesko, MD, PhD, Director of FDA’s Office of Clinical Pharmacology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) during an August press conference. However, some officials and pharmacogenomics experts call the recommendation weak because the label never specifically discusses clinicians ordering the tests—which FDA officials said are available from most major labs as home-brew tests at costs ranging from $125 to $500. Instead, the label implies they are beneficial. “The lower initiation doses should be considered for patients with certain genetic variations in CYP2C9 and VKORC1 enzymes as well as for elderly and/or debilitated patients and patients with potential to exhibit greater than expected PT/INR responses to Coumadin,” the dosage and administration section states. A longer section on pharmacogenomics presents results of three studies on the genetic variations, but does not specifically discuss use of the test in clinical settings. “The relabeling isn’t directive to physicians that they should use these tests. For that type of label, we need more data. This label is more informational to physicians and is intended to stimulate study of the role of genetics in warfarin therapy,” explained Janet Woodcock, MD, FDA’s Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer, during the press conference. Added Dwaine Reeves, MD, acting director, Division of Medical Imaging and Hematology products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, “We’re not quite at the point where we can say physicians must use these tests, but we want physicians to know they are available.”
“This could be a huge volume test,” predicted Thomas Monroe, PhD, Director of Molecular Diagnostics at Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Mich. “So many adverse drug events are related to warfarin.” Some laboratorians have called dosing algorithms the key to making the tests viable tools for physicians. Monroe identified about six that have been developed for Caucasians and Asians. The label makes no mention of these algorithms, but cites other research in overwhelmingly Caucasian cohorts. Lesko noted that FDA has asked researchers to expand their algorithms to other populations.
Several companies have submitted 510(k) applications for warfarin tests to the FDA. One of the companies, Nanosphere (Northbrook, Ill.), told CLN it expects FDA approval of its Verigene Warfarin Metabolism Nucleic Acid Test “at any time.”
Efforts to educate physicians about pharmacogenomics and warfarin are underway. FDA’s Critical Path Initiative and the American Medical Association (AMA) are working on a brochure about pharmacogenomics, and a new AMA online continuing medical education course covers the genetic control of drug metabolism and response, clinical examples, and pharmacogenomic information on drug labels. AMA and FDA are also developing a video on pharmacogenomics and warfarin for the Web. | <urn:uuid:8ba983c3-97db-471d-9340-511f9e0486e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aacc.org/publications/cln/2007/Oct/Pages/inside1_1007.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930711 | 762 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Founder Barry Levenson began collecting mustard in the 1980s but the museum itself has only been open since 1992. The museum's collection includes over 4,800 types of mustard in bottles, tubes and jars that originate from across the 50 states and 60 countries. The exhibit also includes a historical tour of the mustard industry with antique pots and advertisements amongst other memorabilia. Fans of mustard should also make sure that they pay a visit to the museum's unique gift shop which itself sells many different types of mustard.
La Crosse, Kansas
Since opening in 1971, the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum has been educating the public about the history of the barbed wire, often referred to as the "Devil's Rope." The collection now includes over 2,000 types of barbed wire, some dating back to the 19th century. The tour includes a Barbed Wire Hall of Fame and a research library but visitors should be sure to also visit the theater to watch the educational films about the history of this multi-million dollar industry.
Just opened in Brussels, the Musee du Slip, known as the Celebrity Underwear Museum, exhibits underwear worn by the rich and famous. The collection includes a G-string once worn by French porn star Brigitte Lahaie and boxer shorts belonging to the Belgian Finance Minister, Didier Reynders. The brain child of artist Jan Bucquoy, famous for his use of underwear in his art, the museum's most prized piece is a portrait of the French President Nicholas Sarkozy made-up to look like Napoleon but wearing a striped pair of underwear on his head. | <urn:uuid:f6b84a8d-b9c4-4eba-9b80-9f3faf1b91f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/worlds-strangest-museum/story?id=9975274&page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961325 | 326 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Environmentalists Want To Save The Forests From Logging by Burning Them
Daniel B. Wheeler
dwheeler at ipns.com
Thu Aug 29 01:30:39 EST 2002
jamesjosephbriggs at yahoo.com (flamestar) wrote in message news:<506ee3c0.0208280839.39aeee7a at posting.google.com>...
> Likeing fire and accepting are different. However if you wish to
> claim that that is your position then it is up to you to state it. The
> Sierra Club site likens fire to sunshine and rain. Sunshine and rain
> are generally thought to be good things if there is another
> interpation then the Sierra Club is doing a poor job of communiating.
> Again I have give people chance after chance to make the point you did
> and they didn't do it until now.
I have been _in_ too many fires to like them, James. The Sierra Club
may do what they like.
I grew up on a ryegrass farm. We burnt the fields each year. It
sterilized the fields and decreased the incidence of a rust. It also
provided a sort of instant fertilizer for the new shoots.
And I also remember watching 80 foot tall Douglas fir and Grand fir
burn completely within 5 seconds. Even from 150 feet away the heat was
intense. And the burning cinders thrown off by those trees (which were
on my parents' property, by the way) quickly spread the fire.
Fortunately, there was not the 40 mph winds which have plagued the
Biscuit fire, as well as the fire near Hood River (OR) this year.
I have an aunt who has permanent scars suffered while on top of a fire
truck in one of those field fires. I'm unlikely to remember how
devastating fire can be, especially since it is a near miracle that
she survived at all.
A cousin saved himself when the fire rig he was driving stopped, with
40-foot flames rushing toward him from all sides (this happens when
you are in the middle of a field fire), and _no_ way of getting away.
Fortunately, the fire hose pump continued to work, and he kept the
hose pumping constantly. That saved him (and the truck btw).
*Like* fires? I think that may be too polite for what I think of
But I also accept fires are necessary for many forest trees. Knobcone
pine will not release seeds until the heat of a forest fire releases
them. Lodgepole pine regenerates better after fire than under other
conditions I am aware of. These are biological facts.
And possibly, I have been in a few more fires than you have. I can't
remember one I *liked.* But I _can_ accept them.
Daniel B. Wheeler
More information about the Ag-forst | <urn:uuid:b8ec7b17-c1cc-4062-9ef4-60a9aa99c381> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/ag-forst/2002-August/017256.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949152 | 627 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Tue February 12, 2013
China, North Korea's Closest Ally, Joins In Condemnation Of Nuclear Test
Originally published on Mon February 25, 2013 11:19 am
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. The U.N. Security Council is strongly condemning North Korea's third nuclear test and starting discussions on further measures. China joined in that condemnation, but China is North Korea's indispensible ally and it's an open question whether it will support tougher action. NPR's Frank Langfitt sent this story from Shanghai on China's North Korea problem.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: An anchorman in an olive suit announced news of the nuclear test on North Korean state TV this morning. He seemed nearly bursting with pride. Here in China, by contrast, some foreign policy analysts seemed exasperated by North Korea's latest provocation.
SHEN DINGLI: They cause a lot of trouble.
LANGFITT: That's Shen Dingli. He's a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. Shen says North Korea, formerly known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, often frustrates China.
SHEN: I don't think the DPRK is a true friend. A friend would respect China and protect China's interests by not exploding.
LANGFITT: But Shen says he understands why North Korea's seeking weapons for protection and, he adds, the Stalinist state plays a valuable strategic role, serving as a buffer between China and U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
SHEN: We certainly would not view America have its armed force to be deployed surrounding China's periphery. And DPRK what keeps America at a distance.
CHENG LI: This is a serious policy dilemma for China.
LANGFITT: Cheng Li's a Chinese political specialist at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. He says China's incoming leadership sounds tougher on Pyongyang than their predecessors, but Li also says if China takes a harder line against North Korea, it could eventually backfire.
LI: Of course, China could do more, for example, stop, you know, economic aid but North Korea really with a serious, you know, crisis because without China's economic support, North Korea probably will be in big trouble.
LANGFITT: One of China's nightmare scenarios is that North Korea simply implodes.
LI: If North Korea regime collapse, China will immediately suffer because the refugee issues would cause serious problem.
LANGFITT: Many ordinary Chinese, especially younger ones, see North Korea as a basket case, but there's still residual support among some older Chinese. Wang, 59, is a retired laborer. Today, as he strolled through a Beijing park with his wife, he praised North Korea's new leader Kim Jung-un for defying America.
WANG: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: I think Kim Jong-un has a lot of backbone, Wang says. He's not afraid of pressure, not afraid of pressure from America. China ought to be like that. Jin Canrong is deputy dean of the School of International Studies at People's University in Beijing. He says when it comes to North Korea policy, there are two competing camps here - those who still staunchly support their communist brothers and others, called revisionists, who now see North Korea as a liability.
JIN CANRONG: They consider North Koreans not that valuable strategically. More people annoyed by their behavior. So from Chinese national interest, China should say no to North Korea.
LANGFITT: The Communist Party is run by a collective leadership. So, Jin says, top officials have to balance between these two camps.
JIN: Unless the revisionist school overwhelmingly dominate the process, the leaders will still take a very ambiguous attitude.
LANGFITT: In other words, for now, Jin expects China to continue to support international sanctions against North Korea, but not do a whole lot else. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | <urn:uuid:c4b10f94-8477-409b-8d89-f5b77a70ef41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ktep.org/post/china-north-koreas-closest-ally-joins-condemnation-nuclear-test | 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 | 0.941192 | 884 | 1.640625 | 2 |
.- Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo of Jerusalem told L’Osservatore Romano this week that there has been a marked increase in the number of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, thus allowing for the Church in Israel and peace in the Middle East to be promoted.
Father Gianfranco Pinto Ostuni, director of the Office of Pilgrimages of the Delegations from Rome to the Holy Land, told the Vatican daily that from June 2008 to January 2009, there are 27 pilgrimages scheduled. “We have doubled the trips since 2007. It’s enough just point out that last Easter 45,000 Italian pilgrims visited Jerusalem.”
In 2006, 58,000 Italian pilgrims visited the Holy Land and in 2007, 82,000. According to tourism promoter Maurizio Baiocchi, “at least 100,000” are expected to visit in 2009.
The custodian of the Holy Land, Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said he expected some one million Russian pilgrims to visit the region in 2009, thanks to eased restrictions on visas for visiting Russians. He said large numbers of Muslim pilgrims are also expected next year as many come to visit the Omar and Al Aqsa Mosques, as well as the Holy Sepulcher, “in homage to Jesus, who they consider a prophet of Islam.”
Another Franciscan custodian of the Holy Land and professor at the “Biblicum” of Jerusalem, Father Frederic Mannes, said, “Many Christians here are in the religious tourism business. Seeing so many pilgrims from all over the world helps diminish the sense of abandonment that they often experience. Christians here, who are in contact with Jews and with globalization, tend to forget their religious identity,” he continued. “The presence of pilgrims can inspire in them as well a rediscovery of their faith.” | <urn:uuid:d2c52c6a-fdc8-4cef-98c4-547670744879> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/marked_increase_in_number_of_pilgrims_visiting_holy_land/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952779 | 403 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Anonymous' 'Global Blackout': The odds against an Internet shutdown
UPDATE: The Domain Name System’s root servers experienced no interruptions on March 31, and according to the @YourAnonNews Twitter account, the group didn’t try an attack. But the question remains: How likely is such an attack to be successful?
Observers expressed doubt that Anonymous could make good on its threat to take down the Internet on March 31, but even skeptics advised caution.
“They are making a sweeping, grandiose claim,” David Smith, a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said March 30. He said the threat was not credible, but “can they have an impact? Yes.”
Agencies way behind in using DNSSEC to secure .gov domains
SOPA undercuts Internet security, experts say; lawmakers float alternative
Carl Herberger, vice president for security at Radware, has more respect for the ingenuity of the hacktivist collective, which he says has proven resourceful in directing new and nuanced techniques against familiar vulnerabilities. That, plus a lack of attention to vulnerabilities in the Domain Name System that Anonymous says it will target, makes the group dangerous, he said.
“If they do it, I’ll be surprised,” Herberger said. “But not majorly surprised. I would be shocked if there were no outages.”
Anonymous announced plans for Operation Global Blackout in a February post featuring its usual fractured spelling and syntax. “To protest SOPA, Wallstreet [sic], our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun, On March 31, anonymous will shut the Internet down,” it said.
Their goal is not really to take down the Internet but to disable its 13 root DNS servers through a distributed denial-of-service attack. With the ability to resolve URLs to IP addresses disrupted, users would not be able to access online resources.
This is not exactly shutting down the Internet, but it is “close enough,” Anonymous says. “Remember, this is a protest, we are not trying to 'kill' the Internet, we are only temporarily shutting it down where it hurts the most.”
As it has done it the past, Anonymous is recruiting help from the public in carrying out the attack, and its weapon of choice is Ramp, a Reflective DNS Amplification tool that will use spoofed IP addresses to redirect DNS query responses to the root servers, hopefully overwhelming them with the volume of traffic being generated.
This is unlikely to “take down” the Internet for several reasons, experts say. First, the Domain Name System is hierarchical, and although the root servers are the ultimate authoritative source of address information, most queries are not referred that high in the system. The root servers would have to be offline for quite an extended period before major disruptions occurred, and it would be difficult to maintain an effective denial-of-service attack on this infrastructure for the necessary length of time.
Secondly, the root servers are geographically dispersed and built for resiliency.
“Attacking the 13 root serves is easier said than done,” Smith said. “They are a system of servers, independently owned and operated.”
Only two of the servers, the A and the J, are owned by the same company, VeriSign Inc. VeriSign declined to comment for this article.
This does not mean that taking the root servers offline is impossible, Herberger said. Significant attacks were made against them in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he said, and Anonymous in January demonstrated an ability to take robust content delivery networks offline in Israel.
“I don’t think a lot of people take it seriously,” he said of threats to the DNS infrastructure. “That bothers me.” There are solutions available to avoid IP address spoofing to DNS servers, “but nobody has them in place. There’s a reason for that — they cause technical problems.”
Although the root servers are the announced target of Global Blackout, other targets of opportunity also are likely to come under fire, including major Internet service providers and authoritative cloud services. The Ramp tool has proven itself effective against targets on that scale, Herberger said, and if Anonymous is successful in recruiting enough help — either witting or unwitting — disruptions at this level it could cause blackouts that are less than global but still troublesome.
“There is going to be a low threshold of success” for Anonymous, he said, and they are likely to come away from the operation with some bragging rights.
Even Smith admits to the possibility of a blackout. “Maybe we’ll all be surprised Sunday morning,” he said. “But I’ve got to tell you, I’m very skeptical.” | <urn:uuid:e89d5753-1529-42a5-9237-293d54225bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/articles/2012/03/30/global-blackout-033012.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958344 | 1,030 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Clothes-ing The Sale in Style
Posted by The Leadership Mints Guy on August 20, 2012
By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy
Here’s an idea to help you reinforce your personal reputation and influence. Reading time: 1:58
Turtleneck. CEO. Computers.
No doubt you already started thinking Steve Jobs long before you read the word “Computers.” And no wonder. The former CEO at Apple used his trademark Issey Miyake designed $175 St. Croix Black Mock Turtleneck to reinforce his image and reputation as our generation’s Thomas Edison.
After all, clothing can be a critical leadership tool in establishing authority in general and reinforcing a reputation –an expected behavior — in particular. Consider the white-coated scientist, the stove-top white hatted chef, the orange-vested traffic cop. Clothing differentiates.
That’s why comedian like Steve Martin, humorist Mark Twain, and celebrated author Tom Wolfe wore a signature white suits. Entertainer and pianist Liberace wore a $60,000 robe on stage — a replica of the coronation robe worn by Great Britain’s King George V–as his sartorial signature.
Indeed clothing can help gain instant credibility and viability with your audience.
Larry King, then the talk show host of CNN, was known for his shirt-sleeve look (no suit coat) that showcased his ubiquitous suspenders. Before King addressed 14,000 fans at 8 am to kick off a day long event of motivational and celebrity speaker-a-thon, he said “First let me prove to you that it is really me.” He took off his blue suit coat to reveal his iconic suspenders. The crowd applauded in recognition of Larry King’s sartorial signature.
Leaders know they can “clothes” the sale with a point of sartorial differentiation. No wonder costumes have always found a place in persuading others. Even outlandish costumes.
Consider Salvador Dali, the surrealistic artist known for his penetrating and provocative palette, once wore a diving helmet and a wet suit to a news conference. Dali donned the deep-sea outfit for the opening of his new art exhibit saying that he could better “descend into the depths of consciousness.”
Maybe you can dive down deep inside of you and “clothes” the sale. Or at least find a turtle(neck).
Appreciate how your wardrobe can keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.
SUBSCRIBE: Have a Leadership Mint delivered to your E-mail every business day. It’s free. Just click the SIGN ME UP box in the upper left column. | <urn:uuid:64696bb5-7ff6-4416-9cb6-fff6cac72e8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://leadershipmints.com/2012/08/20/clothes-ing-the-sale-in-style/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937768 | 570 | 1.664063 | 2 |
It's a busy time in our national conversations -- around kitchen tables, in Town Meetings, and in the halls of Congress -- about a lengthening list of big questions. Many of these issues are on the minds of Vermonters these days, if my visits around Brattleboro last weekend are any guide. One that comes up often is the need to fix our broken immigration system.
Our immigration laws are outdated. After years of debate, consensus -- at last -- is slowly but clearly emerging that these laws need to be reformed.
Of course we are a nation of immigrants. Past immigration has helped shape the nation, and immigrants have contributed much to our state, strengthening Vermont's economy and improving the quality of life that we have always wanted for ourselves and for future Vermonters. After the Revolutionary War and into the early 1880s, for example, Vermont had been the slowest-growing state in the Union. Old growth forests had been stripped and farms had been worn out. Immigrants helped reclaim forsaken farms and to build and operate budding new factories in new centers of industry like Brattleboro.
The United States has been made stronger by the diverse cultural background that has been woven into our national fabric. This Vermonter is the grandson of immigrants to Vermont from Ireland and Italy, and our heritage is one of which my family and I are fiercely proud. It is a history not without its challenges: My ancestors faced anti-Irish
In this new 113th Congress, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been working toward bipartisan agreement to make comprehensive immigration reform a reality. In the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the first hearings I chaired focused on the need for comprehensive reform. I am looking forward to our considering legislation in the Senate to finally address the nation's mounting immigration problem: Bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, reducing the weighted bureaucracy that stalls our immigration policies, invigorating our economy, and promoting family unity and vibrancy. And just as I have with many pivotal legislative challenges, including most recently the consideration of gun violence legislation, I want to ensure that the Judiciary Committee has an open, public and transparent process.
For too long, Washington's attitude toward immigration policy has started and ended with bumper sticker slogans. In Vermont we know that our immigration policies mean much more: Cultural richness through refugee resettlement and student exchanges; economic development through programs like the immigrant investor EB-5 Regional Center program; trade and tourism with our neighbors to the north in Canada; ensuring that Vermont's dairy farmers and agriculture industry have the workers they need to sustain their day-to-day operations, year ‘round; and ensuring that families are able to stay together, regardless of race, creed or spousal orientation.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing our overall immigration needs and challenges and opportunities. Of course our policies must address enforcement and border control, but they must also honor and act on our foundational ideals and national interests: The idea that we are all immigrants, and that it is this diversity that has helped make ours the land of opportunity.
Congress faces an important moment. Support for addressing comprehensive immigration reform has led to renewed vigor and energy. In an historic election voters have sent lawmakers to Capitol Hill with a message: The time for comprehensive immigration reform is now. Today more women and more minorities, including a record number of Hispanics, are serving in Congress. They represent states and districts across the country, and they will have important voices in the conversation of how best to fix our ramshackle system. Few topics are more fundamental to who and what we are as a nation than immigration.
I am frequently reminded of my Irish immigrant roots, and never more so than around St. Patrick's Day. I want America to remain a nation of opportunity for all. Now is the time for meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform. I remain committed to making sure Vermont's needs and ideals and voices are reflected in this important debate.
Patrick Leahy of Middlesex chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will be the first stop for action on comprehensive immigration reform legislation. He has led efforts in Congress to boost worker visas for dairy farmers, strengthen refugee protections and promote economic development through immigrant investment. | <urn:uuid:ad85ef0c-d872-49f7-90de-611f889bd4e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reformer.com/localeditorials/ci_22854363/window-opportunity-comprehensive-immigration-reform?source=rss | 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 | 0.964234 | 852 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Dolls have been around since there have been people. Though humans have been collecting dolls for millennia (fun/creepy fact! The Egyptians buried dolls with their owners in their tombs), some modern doll collections are less fun-for-all-ages and more, dare we say, uncomfortable.
Whether they sprang from societal pressure, a yearning for childhood, or just some bizarre obsession, these five doll collections walk a fine line between sweet and frightening (Ed note: yea, I’d lean towards frightening. Ugh).
1. Awashima Jinja Shrine, Wakayama, Japan
The Japanese some things more seriously than the rest of the world — KitKat, Hello Kitty, karaoke - even regular ol’ dolls. Japanese tradition informs us that dolls have souls… and a vengeful ones at that. This rather specific treatment dictates that, instead of just tossing out dolls when they’ve been outgrown or chewed on by the dog, a doll must be given its due and the family must honor the passing in a respectful way. That’s where Awashima Jinja shrine comes in.
Welcome to Awashima Jinja – where dolls go to live out the rest of their “lives”. Built in the 3rd century by the empress Jinmu after a near-death shipwreck experience, the shrine began as a place for women to come pray for woman-y things, and has grown to become an all-encompassing female-items-that-have-a-soul depository. Along with dolls that are ready to be thrown out, the shrine also gives toys, figurines, carvings, and sculptures of all sorts a new home, as well as sewing needles.
On March 3rd, the most sacred day at Awashima Jinja shrine, a doll festival called Nagashi Bina is held. Boats are filled with dolls, having been volunteered up for nautical duty by their owners, in the hopes that the dolls will take their human’s bad luck with them. They float in the open sea, and the dolls slowly fall overboard as the boats rock, taking misfortune with them.
While visiting the shrine, don’t miss the rather strange side-collection of plaques with women’s underwear attached to them, a fertility custom from the Edo period.
2. Isla de las Munecas, Teshuilo Lake, Mexico
There’s speculation some of this story is more urban legend than fact, it’s so perfectly creepy we just want to believe it’s true.
According to the story, Don Julian Santana unexpectedly left his family in the 1950s for a tiny island on Teshuilo Lake in the Xochimilco canals in Mexico. The island was deserted, but Don Julian reported that not long after he moved there, a young girl drowned in the canal next to his island and her spirit began haunting his new home. Quietly, Don Julian began collecting dolls from the garbage dump to give as offerings to the child’s ghost, and he would attach broken, mangled dolls to the trees and buildings around his house for her to “play” with.
Soon after, nearby neighbors offered their own dolls as barter for the fresh produce he grew on his island, allowing the solitary man to amass an incredible collection of unwanted dolls which he attached to any surface he could find.
Once the island was discovered by the outside world, visitors began pouring in to see the sight for themselves. Don Julian began charging a small fee for touring is island, and seemed to live a pretty happy life – that is, until 2001 when he mysteriously drowned, reportedly in the same place where the child had fifty years before. CREEPY, am I right?
Today, the island is maintained by the Santana family, who use the entrance fee from visitors to keep the island up and running. The best way to get there is a two hour trip by trajinera from Cuemanco Pier outside Mexico City. If a jaunt in a ridiculously awesome trajinera doesn’t provide enough visual interest for you, we’ve heard the ride through Xochimico is stunning.
3. Musee Mechanique, San Francisco
Image: Rev Dan Catt/Flickr
Image: Rev Dan Catt/Flickr
Although Edward Galland Zelinsky, proprietor of the Musee Mechanique in San Francisco, might not classify his incredible collection of antique mechanical arcade machines as “dolls”, they are so wonderfully creepy and cool we couldn’t leave them off the list. Zelinsky started collecting mechanized toys in the ’40s when he was just a wee lad and his collection has grown to include almost 300 items, ranging from vintage peep-shows to pianos that play themselves. Our favorite arcade machines are the ones that include surreal, life-like mechanized figures.
Many of the devices have roots in San Francisco history, saved from the city’s Playland at the Beach amusement park (closed in 1972) and the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition. The collection even features some bizarre machines constructed out of toothpicks made by Alcatraz inmates.
4. The Barbie Store, Shanghai
It’s pretty hard to miss this massive, mega-Barbie store, even nestled amongst the ridiculously flashy buildings of Shanghai. Standing six stories tall, it glows neon pink and cost around 20 million pounds to build. Opened in 2009, the Barbie compound was designed by Slade Architecture to appeal to a decidedly not-just-kids demographic. Along with a mini runway on which ladies can model big-kid Barbie clothes, the store has a day spa, hair salon, a $15,000 Vera Wang wedding dress sale, and a bar/club called the “Pink Room”, which we can only hope are meant to draw an older, female crowd.
Image: Mr Michael Phams/Flickr
Many American women adored their Barbie dolls when they were growing up – heck, some even still secretly get weak in the knees for a mini plastic brush and removable high heeled shoes. Despite the impressive design and overwhelming number of items for sale (1,600 products in total), however, this store still seems strangely off-putting. If those massive Barbie heads covered in candy-colored face masks don’t convince you, maybe the the store’s signature pink tunnel escalator will. Here’s the kicker: it reportedly plays the recorded sound of little girls giggling at a low volume.
5. The Doll Museum, The National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods, Indian River, Michigan
There are a lot of “unique” collections out there. Belly button lint, toilet seat art, and toasters are all on the wacky side, but we would definitely nominate Sally Rogalski’s shrine to dolls dressed in habits FTW. Sally began collecting in 1945, and hasn’t stopped since. Her collection consists of over 520 dolls and a 20 mannequins of 217 religious orders.
We’re not the only ones who think this collection is pretty impressive. In 1988 Pope John Paul II blessed Sally, praising her for “helping to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life through their doll collection”.
We don’t question the Rogalski’s sincerity and passion, though we must admit that seeing a doll better known for shapely dimensions in a nurse habit and suave Ken-ish priests just doesn’t sit quite right (Ed. note: AGREED).
All Images: Sue Peacock/Flickr
I’m sure we’ve missed plenty of cute/creepy doll sites out there – leave ‘em in the comments! | <urn:uuid:037e32a2-e8e1-4918-975a-41dd72b2ba3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nileguide.com/blog/2010/11/06/kind-of-cute-kind-of-creepy-5-disturbing-doll-collections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945017 | 1,633 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Flu Season Picking Up in Cuyahoga County
The number of influenza-related cases has been on the rise in recent weeks.
Make sure you have your tissues and ginger ale ready—flu season is picking up in Cuyahoga County.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Health tracks influenza activity by the week. According to the most recent report, which ended on Dec. 22, there was “widespread” flu activity in the county. About 5 percent of all emergency department visits were for flu-related symptoms during that time, and throughout December, there were about 24 to 34 flu-related hospitalizations each week.
Google.org’s flu trends for Cleveland show numbers increasing rapidly in recent weeks and reaching “intense” levels.
The county’s figures show that complaints for symptoms of the flu—like congestion, coughing and vomiting—are all slightly higher than they were at this time last year. | <urn:uuid:01ddf086-2d9a-4d60-925a-95a05b8d88c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beachwood.patch.com/articles/flu-season-picking-up-in-cuyahoga-county-357e9761 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976582 | 198 | 1.648438 | 2 |
From Tar Valon Library
Author: Val a'Shain
Urien is a Reyn Aiel of the Two Spires sept. He is a member of the Red Shield warrior society. Urien is a tall man with sun-darkened skin. His red hair is short except for a tail at the nape of his neck (TGH, Ch. 28).
- Urien meets Rand, Mat, Perrin and Ingtar's company during their pursuit of Padan Fain in 998 NE. Their conversation is a series of misunderstandings about each other. Neither seem to know much about the other's culture. The party is no help to Urien and he continues his search (TGH, Ch. 28).
- We don't know anything about the period of time between this meeting and the next time Urien appears. It is logical to assume Urien helped take the Stone, traveled with Rand to the Waste and then to Cairhien and skimmed to Andor when Rand went to finish off Rahvin.
- Urien leads the a Red Shield guard for Rand in Caemlyn when Rand receives a group of Andoran nobles (LoC, Ch. 6).
- Uno, who fought the Aiel in the Aiel War, thinks Urien wanted to be seen or they would not have spotted him (TGH, Ch. 28).
- Perrin thinks Rand looks like Urien (TGH, Ch. 28).
"'Why do you call me that? Do you take me for an Aiel?' 'No, Wise One. But you have the look of those who have made the journey to Rhuidean and survived. The years do not touch the Wise Ones in the same way as other women, or as they touch men.'" (Verin and Urien about Wise Ones; The Great Hunt, Chapter 28)
"'It is said we will know them when we hear of them, as we will know him when we see him, for he will be marked. He will come from the west, beyond the Spine of the World, but be of our blood. He will go to Rhuidean, and lead us out of the Three-fold Land.' He took a spear in his right hand. Leather and metal creaked as soldiers reached for their swords, and Perrin realized he had taken hold of his axe again, but Verin waved them all to stillness with an irritated look. In the dirt Urien scraped a circle with his spearpoint, then drew across it a sinuous line. 'It is said that under this sign, he will conquer.'" (Urien on He Who Comes With the Dawn; The Great Hunt, Chapter 28)
"'I wonder what has been done to him?' Sulin said, studying the fellow. A number of Maidens and Red Shields had come out from the columns, some even veiled. 'If he is not Shadowspawn, he is touched by the Shadow.' 'One like that might do things we cannot know,' Urien said. He was one of those with a scarlet strip of cloth around his temples. 'Kill with a touch, perhaps. A pretty message that would be to send an enemy.'" (Urien and Sulin about the messenger Sammael sent to Rand in Caemlyn)
"'I mean to return to Caemlyn an hour or so after sunrise tomorrow. Until then, visit the tents, see your friends, and try not to start any blood feuds. If you insist, two of you can hang about to protect me from mice; I don't think anything larger will jump out at me here.' Urien grinned slightly and nodded, though he did gesture about head-high to a Cairhienin and murmur, 'The mice can be big here.'" (Rand and Urien when Rand travels to Cairhien to see Rhuarc and Berelain; Lord of Chaos, Chapter 17) | <urn:uuid:3a4811d4-a340-4681-8cfe-b2b04a44d938> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Urien | 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 | 0.960624 | 815 | 1.507813 | 2 |
As you may know, it's Hanukkah time, when Jews all over the world celebrate what may be organized religion's lamest miracle, and one of the few holidays where we Jews managed to not end up exiled or slaughtered or anything. It's a holiday with candles, presents, fried potatoes and a kickass story about a tough Jew named Judah the Hammer, so all in all, a pretty good time. To celebrate, I've compiled this list of eight (and one extra, the shamash) great Jews of motoring. Most people thought we'd only get one, and here we have over eight. Truly a great miracle happened here.
8. Mark Fields
Mark here is a good one to start with, as he is currently President of Ford Motor Company's American operations. This is an especially sweet position for a Jew, considering Henry Ford's notorious and virulent anti-Semitism. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Ford's American Operation Headquarters are powered by a large dynamo driven by Henry Ford spinning in his grave.
7. Emil Jellinek
This son of a well-known rabbi went on to become a successful businessman, eventually sitting on the board of Diamler Motoren Gesellschaft, Gottleib Diamler and Wilhelm Maybach's automobile company. He started as a customer, then later became one of their main distributors. He often gave suggestions to Diamler and Maybach (along with colorful commentary like "Your manure wagon has just broken down on schedule"), one of which was to place a particular engine in a new "modern" type of chassis that was being developed. He also suggested that the resulting car be named after his daughter, Mercedes. What were those cars Hitler liked to be driven around in, again? You know the ones; big, stately, named after a young Austrian Jewess?
6. Zora Arkus-Duntov
How is it that the Corvette, that most balls-out American of cars— hell, the car of choice for Astronauts— have a father with such a, you know, foreign-sounding name? Well, it does, and that father is a Jew as well. Born to a Russian-Jewish mining engineer and a Russian-Jewish medical student, little Zora eventually ended up in Berlin, where he went from motorcycles to oval-track racing cars and then to getting the hell out of Germany when the Nazis came. Ending up in New York, he was taken by the styling of the Corvette on display in 1953, but disappointed with its engineering. One apparently amazing letter later, he was working for GM. He was instrumental in getting the small-block V8 into the ‘Vette, and generally turning it from pretty little roadster into genuine monster. Oh, and he raced them himself, setting a record at Pike's Peak in 1956.
5. Sheila van Damm
One of the more successful female rally drivers of the 50s, Briton Sheila van Damm was the daughter of a theater owner who started rallying as a publicity stunt for the theater. Her father persuaded the Rootes Group to provide a factory-prepped Sunbeam Talbot, where she claimed third place among the women racers, which impressed the Rootes folks so much, they invited her to be on an all-woman Hillman Minx team in the 1951 Monte Carlo rally. She went on to continue rallying with great successes, even once outpacing Sterling Moss in a prototype Sunbeam Alpine.
4. Kenny Bernstein
Known as the "King of Speed", this man was very likely the fastest ground-based Jew on the planet in 1992, when he became the first dragster driver to exceed 300 mph in regular competition. Bernstein, current president of the Professional Racers' Association, has been active in developing safety standards and devices, participating on a team that developed a special sensor to prevent engine fires in case of a backfire. What a mensch! Oh, and he developed a dragster design based on a freaking Ford Tempo.
3. Jody Scheckter
All car geeks know about the bonkers Tyrell P34 six-wheeled Formula One car, right? Well, the guy who gave it its only win was our Jew, Jody Scheckter. South African Scheckter went on to become the Formula One World Drivers' Champion in 1979, driving for Ferrari, and remains the only Jew to have achieved such a feat.
Amazingly, he's currently an organic farming expert, who plans to develop the first biodynamic (I'm not sure what that means, either) sparkling wine by 2012.
2. Josef Ganz
The Volkswagen Beetle, while loved by many Jews (such as Woody Allen and, um, me) has probably the most problematic history for Jews, being the direct product of an ambitious Nazi project. Remarkably, it has recently become more clear that the Volkswagen as we know it today was originally conceived, and the basic design established, by a Jew named Josef Ganz. Ganz was the editor of Motor-Kritik, a very outspoken magazine highly critical of the German car establishment, and through it Ganz outlined his ideas for a "people's car" with a backbone chassis, rear engine, and streamlined body. He even managed to get production versions of his idea built, from the Mercedes-Benz rear-engine models he consulted on to the Standard Superior of 1933, which was even advertised as a "volkswagen."
Unfortunately, Hitler wanted a car pretty much just like Ganz', but seeing as how Ganz was a Jew, he was harassed by the Gestapo until he fled Germany in June of 1934; in July of that same year, Hitler assigned Ferdinand Porsche the Volkswagen project.
1. André Citroën
The only major automobile company still extant founded by a Jew, André Citroën (that name means "lemons" in Dutch— not the ideal choice for a car guy) started his career by developing a type of double-helical gears– the pattern of which became the Citroën logo we know today. He later brought mass-production to Europe and oversaw development one of the first really successful front-wheel drive/unibody cars, the Traction Avant. Unfortunately, a combination of Traction Avant development costs, a very paternalistic employment philosophy, and maybe a bit too much time at the baccarat tables caused the company to pass into the hands of Michelin. Still Citroën eventually grew into the world's 4th largest car company, and remains a major player to this day.
…and the Shemash, Sigfried Marcus!
This one's really good: our king-of-the-menorah Jew, Austrian Sigfried Marcus, developed the world's absolute first gasoline-powered car, way back in 1870. Granted, the car was little more than a crude wooden cart with an engine grafted on, but it sure as hell was a gas-powered, wheeled vehicle: a car. Marcus was an inventor, having to his credit a magneto-powered explosives igniter with a T-shaped plunger type design, which we're all familiar with thanks to the Acme corporation's excellent product placement in so many coyote-based cartoons. His car was mostly built as a proof of concept, puttering around the Vienna streets a bit, and not really pursued for production. He did sell his gasoline engines, though.
Prior to WWII, Marcus was generally accepted as the father of the automobile. Once World War II came to Austria and Germany, it was decided that it wouldn't do to have credit given for such an achievement to a member of a group of people that the folks in charge wanted to exterminate. So, he was rewritten out of the history books, his monuments and markers destroyed, and credit handed to Diamler and Benz.
Luckily, brave people at the Vienna Technical museum hid Marcus' original 1870 car in a storeroom and bricked it over, saving it, and probably doing a lot of shrugging when various Nazis asked them why that wall was so thick. It's on display in Austria today. | <urn:uuid:5f9cc4f9-a01f-4c72-a9f1-29534de368b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jalopnik.com/5870333/happy-hanukkah-a-menorahs-worth-of-motoring-jews/?tag=mercedes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977159 | 1,685 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Immunosuppressant Drugs: Required Labeling Changes
Audience: Transplant and nephrology healthcare professionals
Sirolimus (marketed as Rapamune), Cyclosporine (marketed as Sandimmune and generics), Cyclosporine modified (marketed as Neoral and generics), Mycophenolate mofetil (marketed as Cellcept and generics), Mycophenolic acid (marketed as Myfortic)
The FDA is requiring the makers of certain immunosuppressant drugs to update their labeling to reflect that immunosuppressed patients are at increased risk for opportunistic infections, such as activation of latent viral infections, including BK virus-associated nephropathy. These immunosuppressant drugs are used to protect against the rejection of certain organ transplants. The association of BK virus-associated nephropathy has previously been reported for another immunosuppressant drug, tacrolimus (marketed as Prograf). Monitoring for this serious risk and early intervention by the health care provider is critical. Adjustments in immunosuppression therapy should be considered for patients who develop BK virus-associated nephropathy.
FDA is continuing to review the safety of immunosuppressant drug products used in renal transplantation. The FDA urges both healthcare professionals and patients to report side effects from the use of immunosuppressant drug products to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program.
[07/14/2009 - Information for Healthcare Professionals - FDA] | <urn:uuid:05a805bb-4565-4e3b-81e2-c7873de84491> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugs.com/fda/immunosuppressant-required-labeling-changes-12561.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930507 | 324 | 1.796875 | 2 |
During my visit to Madrid I managed to finish another book by Arnaldur Indriðason, Graforþögn (La Femme en Vert), which has been translated into English under the rather dull title of Silence of the Grave. While it is an impressive book, by its description of domestic violence and of its impact on the children and grand-children of abusive fathers, it is not exactly a detective story because there is not much in terms of police work… The book is terrifying in the spiral of physical and psychological violence suffered by the family and it is no wonder the book got several awards (Glass Key award 2003, CWA Gold Dagger 2005, Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle 2007). However, having the two stories exposed in parallel, the one of the suffering family in the 1940′s and the uncovering of the grave in the early 2000′s, reduces the plot in the current era to a spectator’s game, the reader being aware of much more than the policemen conducting the inquiry, and suspecting in particular that the body slowly unearthed by the archaeologists can only be one of two members of this doomed family… I must say I preferred Arctic Chill, especially because of the vision it gave of the contemporary Icelandic society, but this novel Graforþögn also contains insights about an older, more rural and just as cruel, Iceland that WWII was going to change so radically.
Archive for Arctic Chill
In the plane to Vancouver (flying over Iceland and Greenland), I read Arnaldur Indriðason book called Arctic Chill (Vertraborgin in Icelandic). Indriðason has written several highly popular crime stories (if one judges by the number of prizes his books got) but this was my first book of his’.
I found the style very appealing if rather bleak, maybe reflecting the depressing conditions of the part of the Icelandic society described in Arctic Chill. The main detective Erlendur mixes his police search for the murderer of a young Thai boy with a soul search about his failure to save his brother a long while ago during a snowstorm—the passage about the horse slowly taken by the quicksands made a very strong impression on me—. He also keeps pondering about whether relationships started on deceit can survive for long. As said above, the atmosphere is highly depressing, peopled with single mothers striving to get enough for their family (this was written before the financial crisis!), absent or reluctant fathers, rundown housing, and societal split about immigration. The solution to the murder is quite unexpected and could feel like a cheat, except that it does not! The sheer absurdity of the conditions for this murder, the autistic role played by the parents, all this conveys a strong message about a lack of moral sense at the family as well as at the society level. The reflections about the difficult integration of Asian immigrants into a very small and isolated society made me think of the related Rankin‘s equally impressive Fleshmarket Close, even though Arctic Chill is more intimate and psychological. The title Arctic Chill also translates the constant feeling of cold, wind and terrible weather conveyed by the book. Fighting the cold and the elements seems to be taking a heavy toll on the characters’ resilience… In conclusion, a very good novel going beyond the usual rules of the genre, preferably read on a sunny afternoon (as opposed to a chilly and bleak December evening!) | <urn:uuid:d1d057a3-5324-4cdc-a868-2b377ae23b01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://xianblog.wordpress.com/tag/arctic-chill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965637 | 692 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The announcement by the Boy Scouts of America on a new gay policy slipped by relatively unnoticed April 19. I suspect this was not entirely a coincidence.
It’s common PR practice to release sensitive news on a Friday afternoon in the hopes it gets swallowed up in the weekend news cycle. Not sure who is calling the shots for the BSA, but their PR to date has been pretty textbook.
This photo taken Monday shows a close up detail of a Boy Scout uniform worn by Brad Hankins, a campaign director for Scouts for Equality, as he responds questions during a news conference in front of the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas.(Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP)
To recap, the BSA floated the idea some months ago that it would remove its ban on gay Scouts. The controversial change went through the usual spin cycle, with opponents and supporters issuing emotional missives.
With a few months on the back burner, BSA announced the details April 19: it would no longer deny membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation but would maintain its ban on openly gay adult leaders.
The organization’s executive committee made the proposal, which is expected to be presented to the Boy Scouts’ voting members at its May meeting in Dallas. If the policy is approved, it will take effect January 1.
“If approved, the resolution would mean that ‘no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.’ The BSA will maintain the current membership policy for all adults,” Boy Scouts public relations director Deron Smith told CNN.
Is this a good move? I don’t see it that way. It’s a typical “let’s see if we can please everyone” compromise. What usually happens is you end up pleasing no one.
If the BSA truly believes Scouts should not discriminate against gay folks, then let all gay people participate. That’s taking a stand.
If they don’t, then keep your policy as it is. You’re a private organization. People will choose to participate or not. The bottom line is, the BSA isn’t trying to be trailblazers here and they aren’t so much interested in ending discrimination as they are trying to reverse declining membership.
According to the blog bsa-discrimination.org, BSA has lost over 643,566 registered Cub Scouts since 1998. Total youth membership in BSA’s traditional programs has declined by approximately 27 percent (965,244 members), since 1997.
As far as the Mormon church goes, the compromise seems to work. The church sponsors the most Boy Scouts of any group in the country.
I guess even the BSA has to play politics, but to me, it resembles the South’s response to integration in the late-1950s. Southern leaders knew blacks deserved full rights, and that they had no choice in the matter, but insisted those rights would come in due time. I recall many an official noting that Southerners needed time to get used to the idea.
That doesn’t strike me as a fair granting of equal rights. It’s more like discrimination light.
What do you think of the BSA compromise? | <urn:uuid:197ddb81-9f04-46f2-b1c8-a77c5626923e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkblog.com/faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960692 | 685 | 1.742188 | 2 |
|Holyoke students attend inauguration|
|Written by Kyle Arnoldy|
While millions watched on their television sets, HHS students Nicholas Ortner and Alyssa Killin were able to witness the presidential inauguration in person, as they made the trip to Washington, D.C. as a part of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council.
On Monday, Jan. 21, as roughly 900,000 people were in attendance at the West Front of the Capitol to catch a glimpse of American history, the pair was lucky enough to be near the front of the civilian crowd, which they estimated was still about two football fields away from the stage. Luckily there were speakers and screens set up so those farther away could still hear and see the event.
They stood in the chilly January air in the middle of a sea of people for nearly four hours as an emotional crowd shouted and cheered. Although both stated that they had plans to attend regardless of political affiliation and the outcome of the election, they enjoyed the crowd’s reaction whenever the president said something particularly important.
Both said being able to witness and be a part of the energy in the crowd was a great experience, one they would do again if the opportunity presented itself.
Alyssa Killin, pictured at left, and Nicholas Ortner recently traveled to Washington, D.C. with the Congressional Youth Leadership Council.
The brevity of the president’s speech surprised them, but by the end of the ceremony they were ready to make their way through the densely populated area to get out of the cold and rest.
Their five-day stay was highlighted with the inauguration, but the two were also able to learn a great deal about all of the responsibilities the president has through a number of conferences offered to them from Jan. 19-23. Neither have a desire to enter politics but enjoyed learning the inner-workings of the government while on the trip.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state and national security advisor to the president, and General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander, four-star general and presidential candidate, were both keynote speakers during the week.
Members of the CYLC were also granted early admittance to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum before the oath of office and inaugural address.
Many screens were present at the inauguration as hundreds of thousands showed up to see the event.
The CYLC provides opportunities for members to grow academically and as a person through leadership programs. Members are nominated by educators based on academic achievement and leadership qualities.
Ortner, a sophomore, has been in the program since he was in sixth grade and Killin, now a junior, joined while she was in seventh.
Aside from the trip to the inauguration, Ortner and Killin have also attended conferences held at the state level. Ortner has also attended conferences in Boston, Mass. and Washington, D.C. once before. During the first trip to D.C., the visit was more focused on touring and gaining information on the numerous monuments in the city.
More than 2,000 CYLC members attended the presidential inauguration.
Holyoke Enterprise February 14, 2013 | <urn:uuid:9b6b07c9-f0d3-4f40-9b1e-fd2d2d2ede6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.holyokeenterprise.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6732%3Aholyoke-students-attend-inauguration&Itemid=63 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982776 | 648 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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