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Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Frustration — and in some cases fear — mounted in New York City on Thursday, three days after Superstorm Sandy. Traffic backed up for miles at bridges, large crowds waited impatiently for buses into Manhattan, and tempers flared in gas lines.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city would send bottled water and ready-to-eat meals into the hardest-hit neighborhoods through the weekend, but some New Yorkers grew dispirited after days without power, water and heat and decided to get out.
"It's dirty, and it's getting a little crazy down there," said Michael Tomeo, who boarded a bus to Philadelphia with his 4-year-old son. "It just feels like you wouldn't want to be out at night. Everything's pitch dark. I'm tired of it, big-time."
Rima Finzi-Strauss decided to take bus to Washington. When the power went out Monday night in her apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, it also disabled the electric locks on the front door, she said.
"We had three guys sitting out in the lobby last night with candlelight, and very threatening folks were passing by in the pitch black," she said. "And everyone's leaving. That makes it worse."
The mounting despair came even as the subways began rolling again after a three-day shutdown. Service was restored to most of the city, but not the most stricken parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, where the tunnels were flooded.
Bridges into the city were open, but police enforced a carpooling rule and peered into windows to make sure each car had at least three people. The rule was meant to ease congestion but appeared to worsen it. Traffic jams stretched for miles, and drivers who made it into the city reported that some people got out of their cars to argue with police.
Rosemarie Zurlo said she planned to leave Manhattan for her sister's place in Brooklyn because her own apartment was freezing, "but I'll never be able to come back here because I don't have three people to put in my car."
With only partial subway service, lines at bus stops swelled. More than 1,000 people packed the sidewalk outside an arena in Brooklyn, waiting for buses to Manhattan. Nearby, hundreds of people massed on a sidewalk.
When a bus pulled up, passengers rushed the door. A transit worker banged on a bus window, yelled at people inside, and then yelled at people in the line.
With the electricity out and gasoline supplies scarce, many gas stations across the New York area remained closed, and stations that were open drew long lines of cars that spilled out onto roads.
At a station near Coney Island, almost 100 cars lined up, and people shouted and honked, and a station employee said he had been spit on and had coffee thrown at him.
In a Brooklyn neighborhood, a station had pumps wrapped in police tape and a "NO GAS" sign, but cars waited because of a rumor that gas was coming.
"I've been stranded here for five days," said Stuart Zager, who is from Brooklyn and was trying to get to his place in Delray Beach, Fla. "I'm afraid to get on the Jersey Turnpike. On half a tank, I'll never make it."
The worst was over at least for public transportation. The Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North were running commuter trains again, though service was limited. New Jersey Transit had no rail service but most of its buses were back.
The storm killed more than 80 people in the U.S. New York City raised its death toll on Thursday to 38, including two Staten Island boys, 2 and 4, swept from their mother's arms by the floodwaters.
In New Jersey, many people were allowed back into their neighborhoods Thursday for the first time since Sandy ravaged the coastline. Some found minor damage, others total destruction.
The storm cut off barrier islands, smashed homes, wrecked boardwalks and hurled amusement park rides into the sea. Atlantic City, on a barrier island, remained under mandatory evacuation.
More than 4.6 million homes and businesses, including about 650,000 in New York and its northern suburbs, were still without power. Consolidated Edison, the power company serving New York, said electricity should be restored by Saturday to customers in Manhattan and to homes and offices served by underground power lines in Brooklyn.
In darkened neighborhoods, people walked around with miner's lamps on their foreheads and bicycle lights clipped to shoulder bags and, in at least one case, to a dog's collar. A Manhattan handyman opened a fire hydrant so people could collect water to flush toilets.
Some public officials expressed exasperation at the relief effort.
James Molinaro, president of the borough of Staten Island, suggested that people not donate money to the American Red Cross because the Red Cross "is nowhere to be found."
"We have hundreds of people in shelters throughout Staten Island," he said. "Many of them, when the shelters close, have nowhere to go because their homes are destroyed. These are not homeless people. They're homeless now."
Josh Lockwood, the Red Cross' regional chief executive, said 10 trucks began arriving to Staten Island on Thursday morning and a kitchen was set up to distribute meals. Lockwood defended the agency, saying relief workers were stretched thin.
"We're talking about a disaster where we've had shelters set up from Virginia to Indiana to the state Maine, so there's just this tremendous response," he said. "So I would say no one organization is going to be able to address the needs of all these folks by themselves."
In Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, Mary Wilson, 75, was buying water from a convenience store that was open but had no power. She said she had been without running water or electricity for three days, and lived on the 19th floor.
She walked downstairs Thursday for the first time because she ran out of bottled water and felt she was going to faint. She said she met people on the stairs who helped her down.
"I did a lot of praying: 'Help me to get to the main floor.' Now I've got to pray to get to the top," she said. "I said, 'I'll go down today or they'll find me dead.'"
(Contributing to this story were Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik, Michael Hill, Karen Matthews, Jennifer Peltz and Christina Rexrode.)
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Sign up now for the New Pittsburgh Courier Digital Daily newsletter! | <urn:uuid:60cea582-2563-4d13-96f1-746ddba87b22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8536:exasperation-builds-on-day-3-in-storm-stricken-nyc&catid=39:national&Itemid=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983664 | 1,361 | 1.59375 | 2 |
No, this isn’t another post about Google + although the rapid rise and excitement of Google’s latest and greatest social network is the impetus for this post (that was originally to be titled, “Shut the F*ck Already with the MySpace Comparisons). However, with all of the recent tweets, status updates and blog posts predicting the demise of either Facebook, Twitter or both a la MySpace, I couldn’t not share my thoughts in a space that allowed for more than 140 characters. What I can tell you is that while I have seen too many big companies fail over my lifetime to not know that it can always happen again, if Facebook and Twitter fail, it won’t be for the reasons that MySpace did.
For starters, let’s clarify that MySpace did NOT fail because a newer, shinier object came along in the form of Facebook OR Twitter. MySpace failed because of several fundamental flaws in the way it operated, particularly once it was purchased by Rupert Murdoch (btw, Businessweek wrote a great article that goes into all the details of the rise and fall of MySpace).
- Once Murdoch purchased MySpace, there was significant pressure to deliver revenue (not necessarily a bad thing). Unfortunately, this forced MySpace to ramp up the advertising opportunities on the site which led to a lot of spammy ads for unsavory products. As a corollary to this, Twitter and Facebook are both venture backed and private. While both are feeling pressure to deliver more revenue, innovation has taken precedence over money.
- MySpace made the fatal mistake (I’ll call this the AngelFire Boner) by allowing users to customize the background, fonts, layouts of their pages. While creativity is good, allowing for 8 billion different user interfaces (UI) across 350 million pages is not. UI 101 calls for putting things in the places where users expect to find them. Some people are good at this. Most people are not.
- Demographics – while most companies love to attract the 18-35 set (male-skewed), there is a downside to this strategy. This demographic tends to be technology-savvy and fickle. The combination of the two allows them to pick up their “ball” and take it to a different ballpark whenever they like. You’ll notice that Twitter’s demographic came out of the gate closer to 32 than 22 and Facebook’s fastest growing (and most dedicated) segment right now are women over 40.
- Lack of developer commitment. While Twitter and Facebook have both fostered rich ecosystems of developers, MySpace never went down this path.
- After a few months of MySpace being the apple of Murdoch’s eye, a new “jewel” in the crown emerged when Murdoch opted to court and ultimately purchase the prestigious Wall Street Journal. | <urn:uuid:0e3deb9b-834e-4a75-928c-995f21027520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.stroutmeister.com/tag/twitter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937738 | 592 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Judges Chapter 5 to 6 : English Standard Version
5:1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:
2“That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!
3“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.
4“Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water. 5The mountains quaked before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord, the God of Israel.
6“In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways. 7The villagers ceased in Israel; they ceased to be until I arose; I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel. 8When new gods were chosen, then war was in the gates. Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? 9My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord.
10“Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way. 11To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the Lord, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.
“Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord.
12“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, break out in a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abinoam. 13Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the Lord marched down for me against the mighty. 14From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley, following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen; from Machir marched down the commanders, and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s staff; 15the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 16Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 17Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he stay with the ships? Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings. 18Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.
19“The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver. 20From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. 21The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might!
22“Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.
23“Curse Meroz, says the angel of the Lord, curse its inhabitants thoroughly, because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
24“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 25He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl. 26She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. 27Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.
28“Out of the window she peered, the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’ 29Her wisest princesses answer, indeed, she answers herself, 30‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?— A womb or two for every man; spoil of dyed materials for Sisera, spoil of dyed materials embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’
31“So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.” And the land had rest for forty years.
6 Midian Oppresses Israel
6:1 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
7When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. 9And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”
The Call of Gideon
11Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me. 18Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
19So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
25That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.
Gideon Destroys the Altar of Baal
28When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. 29And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” 31But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” 32Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.
33Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. 35And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
The Sign of the Fleece
36Then Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, 37behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.” 38And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. 39Then Gideon said to God, “Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew.” 40And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. | <urn:uuid:7debbfc9-f57b-4877-bec4-769cdb73ab9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bibleabc.net/bible/esv/judg5to6.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975568 | 2,746 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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[ISN] Taiwan Military to Show off Computer Virus Capability
From: InfoSec News (isnC4I.ORG)
Date: Tue Aug 08 2000 - 03:20:01 CDT
2000.08.08 2:24am Taiwan time updated
TAIPEI, Aug 7 (AFP) - Taiwan's military for the first time is to
demonstrate its computer virus capability at major war-games later
this month, it was reported Monday.
"The blue and red units involved in the coming Han Kuang (Han Glory
war games) will for the first time use computer viruses to attack each
other's information network," the Liberty Times newspaper quoted a top
defence ministry official as saying.
The blue units represent Taiwanese force, while red units stand for
mainland Chinese forces.
The official said both units had been exposed to the same types of
computer viruses in the manoeuvers last year.
"How to shield any attack from computer viruses was the major concern
last year. Efforts would focus on virus offensive this year," he said.
The paper said the military authorities have worked out some 2,000
types of computer viruses and the anti-virus capability of the
military units has been upgraded.
"The military is now able to shield itself from many computer viruses
including 'I Love You' virus and scores of its derivatives which swept
the world earlier this year," the official said.
Chief of the General Staff Tang Yao-ming warned last year China may
launch an "information war," including the use of computer viruses to
paralyse military command, energy, transportation and banking systems,
before an invasion of Taiwan.
China, which has regarded Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting
reunification since their separation in 1949 at the end of a civil
war, has repeatedly vowed to take the island by force should it
declare formal independence.
Local media had previously said China'a People's Liberation Army had
simulated computer virus offensives in exercises in Shenyang, Beijing,
and Nanjing over the past two years.
ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com
To unsubscribe email LISTSERVSecurityFocus.com with a message body of | <urn:uuid:4a1548f7-016a-4b8a-a896-934f87d1175f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/isn/2000-q3/0162.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940222 | 509 | 1.71875 | 2 |
I frequently deal with people stuck in ruts, slumps and negative cycles of behavior, and I’m always interested in learning more about new ways to help them get back on the right track.
Sometimes a fresh idea comes from an unexpected source. For example, not too long ago I gave a lecture at a singles workshop in New York, after which a woman in her early 30s approached me.
“I need help,” she confessed after a few seconds of small talk. “I’m suffering from OCD.”
I stopped her to tell her that I probably couldn’t help her. I’m a sexuality counselor, not a psychiatrist, and obsessive compulsive disorder is not within my professional expertise.
“No, no. Not that OCD,” she interjected. “I mean that I suffer from obsessive compulsive dating. I’m not in control of my dating life anymore. I just keep dating and dating and it’s all a big blur, and then I feel depressed and rejected if I don’t hear back from a guy I didn’t even like in the first place. I lie awake all night feeling like I’ll always be alone, that I’ll never find ‘the one.’”
While the term “obsessive compulsive dating” brought a smile to my face, the way she defined her problem got me thinking. OCD (the real disorder) is a serious condition marked by a constant barrage of intrusive thoughts and powerful urges that lead to unhealthy patterns of behavior (such as the need to wash one’s hands 50 times a day).
Those afflicted with OCD often recognize that these intrusive thoughts don’t really make sense at a rational level, but they still feel compelled to respond to them. On a biological level, OCD has its roots in brain processes that can be traced to the development of unhealthy neural pathways and consequent chemical imbalances.
“Obsessive compulsive dating,” on the other hand, is not a real disorder. Yet wasn’t this young woman experiencing irrational obsessive thoughts - that she would never meet somebody, that she was destined to be alone - and then responding to them by compulsively filling her calendar with an endless stream of counterproductive behaviors (in the form of unwanted dates)?
And while it’s a stretch to say that this particular form of OCD was rooted in any sort of chemical imbalance, wasn’t it possible that hard-wired neural pathways reinforced those negative habits and behaviors?
A little research into neuropsychology introduced me to the concept of “neuroplasticity,” the brain’s natural ability to effectively “rewire” itself. While neuroplasticity has long been viewed as a process that characterizes the developing mind during formative childhood years, there has been a good deal of recent debate as to how much of the brain’s plasticity survives into adulthood. Can we replace old, well-worn neural pathways with new ones?
According to Dr. John Ratey in his book "A User’s Guide to the Brain," “The brain is not a computer that simply executes genetically predetermined programs. Nor is it a passive gray cabbage, victim to the environmental influences that bear upon it. Genes and environment interact to continually change the brain, from the time we are conceived until the moment we die. And we, the owners - to the extent that our genes allow it - can actively shape the way our brains develop throughout the course of our lives.”
But how can we accomplish this re-shaping process? In his provocative book, "The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force," Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz discusses his radical approach to the treatment of real OCD, based on the concept of mindfulness and the exertion of willpower.
Schwartz reasoned (and then demonstrated via fMRI scans of the brain) that if patients could learn to reassess their obsessive compulsions and then consistently react differently to them, they would eventually alter the neural pathways that underlie them.
According to his four-step approach, patients “Relabel their obsessions and compulsions as false signals, symptoms of a disease. They reattribute those thoughts and urges to pathological brain circuitry. They refocus, turning their attention away from the pathological thoughts and urges onto a constructive behavior. And finally, they revalue the OCD obsessions and compulsions, realizing that they have no intrinsic value, and no inherent power.”
Why shouldn’t we be able to apply a similar process to our love lives? Couldn’t we all use a little refocusing and revaluing?
To that young woman with her case of “obsessive compulsive dating,” and to others stuck in slumps and ruts, it’s inspiring to know that neuroplasticity shows us that what’s been done can potentially be undone, and that if we take the steps to mindfully change our actions, our brains will follow. | <urn:uuid:3557ff98-648a-448d-8def-0e812d3b6dba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifestyle.myjoyonline.com/pages/relationships/201211/97938.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955728 | 1,065 | 1.796875 | 2 |
So the Real Salt Lake Supporter groups are asking all fans to take part in our version of "Show Racism the Red Card" on Saturday during the RSL vs Colorado Rapids match. Here is the statement from one of the group's facebook page:
Tomorrow the RCB along with RSL fans will be joining fellow Independent Supporters Council (ISC) members and other supporters from across the country in taking a stance against racism, in recognition of the International Day For the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (which was 21 Mar). During today's match we will raise these red cards to show unity against racism and homophobia in soccer around the world. Just after the national anthems we ask all fans to raise them in the air and hold them until first kick to "Show Racism the Red Card." if you can please print this at home and bring it to tomorrows match.
Here is a link to a PDF version for you to print off.
The Show Racism the Red Card campaign actually started in 1996 in England, here is their mission statement:
Show Racism The Red Card is an anti-racist educational charity. We aim to combat racism through enabling role models, who are predominately but not exclusively footballers, to present an anti-racist message to young people and others.
Show Racism The Red Card acknowledges that racism changes, as do the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the UK. Our message and activities therefore need to be able to respond to such changes as and when appropriate.
You can also follow the group on facebook
It is a great cause, and I encourage all of you to print this off and bring it with you to the match.
OFF MY SOAPBOX | <urn:uuid:767f15cd-2c2c-4041-99b3-a7f67992add1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rslsoapbox.com/2012/4/6/2930932/real-salt-lake-fans-to-show-racism-the-red-card-on-saturday | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947887 | 348 | 1.625 | 2 |
Here is his analysis:
- In 1929, the market fell 49% from its high. In 2008, the drop was 52%
- Following the 1929 crash, the market recovered 46%. After the 2008 crash the market rose 69%
- Following the 1930 recovery, the next leg down following the rebound exceeded targets by 28%
- If this is the next leg down in the current market, he is looking for Dow 8,400. However, if it exceeds his target, he then projects Dow 7,500 in 2010.
This current downturn started around Dow 10,600. If Dow 10,600 is breached on the upside, then Guppy's analysis is wrong. A strong move above Dow 10,600 would indicate the resumption of an uptrend.
There is one major flaw for those who trade strictly using technical analysis. The charts show only past price action. No one knows what the future will be. Projecting the future from the past market action is not that reliable. For example, none of the technical analysts predicted a 69% rise in the Dow off the bottom of 6,400.
Nevertheless, it's a good idea to listen to and read about the technicians. You should balance that information against the fundamentals. For example, this is earnings season. These numbers indicate what really happened in business in the past three months. Just as with technicals, they too give you a sense of where the market is headed.
Do you believe that the Dow will drop to 8,400 or even 7,500? | <urn:uuid:b4179cd0-6a2e-4eb5-a374-d9a0f96d8035> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2010/07/19/dow-7-500/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950242 | 312 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Real War Games
Write “war games.” Hit Google search. In a millisecond untold possibilities appear. I endure a Charmin toilet paper commercial where a cartoon bear wipes his butt with the tissues. Then I enter the real game: “You’re a young cadet, taking part in war games, war zones include jeeps, tanks and jets to take cover behind,” the screen assures me.
Animated characters emerge. I try in vain to manipulate them to shoot the others before they shoot me. Harmless fun, part of the American Dream – at least when you’re escaping from reality!
Now type www.collateralmurder.com Click on the video on top of the screen and you’ll see a reality show of the American experience in Baghdad in 2007.
In early April Wikileaks (a whistle-blowing and investigative journalism organization) released 17-minute edited black-and-white video taken from the camera attached to the Apache helicopter’s gun sight . This “classified” military video shows the gunners blowing away 12 civilians, including two Reuters news employees working in a Baghdad neighborhood. The internet public can now “enjoy” this video with its reality soundtrack. Imagine, from your computer screen or blackberry, you see real bullets hit dirt in front of their human targets.
The static-infested sound track features some of the shooters guffawing as their victims drop. Will this tape inspire brand new video games that allow kids lounging in their living rooms to blow away image that look like people?
In the video a group of seemingly unarmed men walk down a street. Then we see a man carrying something black in his hand. Hard to know what it is from a small image taken at a distance of several hundred feet. There had been combat somewhere in that neighborhood.
They do not know that in the air at a distance. Apache helicopter guns with attached cameras record the men walking, soldiers chatter into the radio about their suspicions until one “discovers” a gun in a man’s hand (it later turned out to be a camera). The soldier identifies it as an AK-47 and gets permission to fire.
We watch bullets churning up dirt, men falling and a soldier’s voice says:: “ha ha I hit ‘em .”
At one point, as the camera shows the corpses in the street, a soldier in sums up the quarter hour: “Look at those dead bastards.” Still another soldier chimes in : “Light em all up. Come on, fire!”
This chatter occurs while a man, Saeed Chmagh, crawls, wounded on the ground. A solider in the gunship pleads: over the radio as if the wounded man could hear him to pick up a gun so he can finish him. Saeed subsequently died. The uniformed US gunmen, flying in a highly armored war copter, also shot and killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen. He held a camera, not a rifle, in his hand.
Then a van drives up, men emerge from it and from nearby houses and pick a wounded Iraqi. The Apache pilots plead to re-engage and quickly receive permission to open fire a second time. The Apache guns pulverize the van, seriously wounding two children (as ground troops later discovered). Later in the video a Bradley vehicle enters the screen. Its driver laughingly reports. “I just ran over a body.” Neighbors reported the “body” of a man had been alive until the Bradley cut him in half.
WikiLeaks said it obtained the video from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking the encryption code.
Major John Redfield, a Central Command spokesman, said on Wednesday that neither Central Command based in Tampa, Florida, nor U.S. forces in Iraq "have a copy of that video" but added: "We’re not disputing the authenticity of it."
Amnesty International called for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the incident shown in the video. The Pentagon had classified the film before WikiLeaks told the military censors to stuff it.
A senior US military official confirmed the video’s authenticity. The media at first ignored it. After all, Tiger Woods was about to hold a press conference.
Remember a common war against terrorism cliché: “They hate us for our freedom.”
Maybe “their” hate comes from concrete actions, not our freedom. The contents of this video shows the daily reality of war – when US troops invade and occupy another country – now 8 years in Afghanistan.
In the fall of 2002 while filming “Iraq: Voices from the Street,” I asked Iraqis if they wanted the US to liberate them from Saddam Hussein. In each neighborhood Iraqis pleaded, and demanded I tell President Bush not to come to Iraq. None defended Saddam Hussein. All scoffed at the idea that the regime had hidden wmd.
“Who invites you here?” one man asked. “Do not come. Not welcome. To come to another man’s land when you are not welcome is rude, bad manners.”
Millions of Vietnamese might have said “ditto” as millions of Afghans and Iraqis still do. No one invited us. The US government invades other countries, kills lots of its people, destroys its land, property and integrity and calls it defense of freedom and spread of democracy. But who invited us? | <urn:uuid:de1ed6d0-7794-4b06-9f60-dc254d8410b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/04/29/real-war-games/ | 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 | 0.95241 | 1,160 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Washington — Freedom House indicated, in its 2012 report on the freedom of press and expression, that Moroccan authorities expel the foreign journalists and arrest Saharawi and Moroccan journalists, highlighting that this freedom being violated in Morocco.
The report mentioned several forms of violations the Moroccan journalists face, mainly associated with the exercise by the journalists to their tasks. It also focused on a number of cases in which journalists were victims for violent interventions by Moroccan security forces.
The report said that Morocco violates the freedom of press and expression, despite the fact that the Moroccan constitution clearly stipulates the respect for these freedoms.
Freedom House devoted a paragraph of this year report to the practice of journalism in Western Sahara, saying "Moroccan authorities are very sensitive to any media coverage that opposes the official position of the government on the issue of Western Sahara."
It added that Moroccan authorities expels and arrest Saharawi, Moroccan and foreign correspondents, who write critically about the topic.
Several reports of international organizations and institutions such as; Human Righst Watch, RFK Centre for Justice and Human Rights, OHCHR and European Parliament confirmed that the Saharawis are subject to harassment and violence at hand of Moroccan authorities.
Recently, Moroccan authorities expelled European journalists and observers from the occupied city of El Aaiun, directly following the visit of the UN Secretary General's Personal Envoy Christopher Ross to the Territory. | <urn:uuid:8d552378-cd68-4f4c-972c-ec0665f35489> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201211250378.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946001 | 282 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Bertrand Russell Murder Mysteries, Episode IV
“A Close Shave”
In the last episode, Bertrand Russell discovered that the town had only one barber, that the barber shaved all the men, and that the barber shaved only those who did not shave themselves.” “Good Grief,” said Alfred North Whitehead. “It's a terrible paradox about that barber.”
“Not really,” answered Russell. “The solution is clear. The barber is a woman. Her name is Inga, and it was she who killed Lord Penington.”
“Elementary, Russell?” asked Whitehead.
“No, set-theoretic,” replied Russell.
NEXT TIME: Waiting for Gödel
© Copyright 2003 Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This is a HotAIR feature. For a complete list of features,
see What's New. | <urn:uuid:0a279004-8e4b-4d8f-9544-8028ae53dc27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/articles/br_mystery_4.html | 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 | 0.935572 | 207 | 1.789063 | 2 |
I'm really interested in the concept of unschooling/ child-led learning, and I want to hear more about the early years from anyone who cares to share. My kids are 4.5 and 1.5. We've recently introduced video games,and my son is hooked! Part of me wants to put some control over how much he does/should play, but part of me wants to just let it ride. He still has plenty of other interests and loves learning, so I'm not too concerned. However, I don't want screen time to dominate or otherwise interfere. He usually just gets on the games when I am not available to interact with him directly, but I do often redirect his attention by offering story time while I'm nursing the younger one, or bringing out a game or toy to use, just as a suggestion with no pressure.
I'm definitely curious to know how proactive (i guess) you are with learning opportunities and introducing topics/ideas. Or do you just go about your day cleaning/cooking/housework, and let the young kids do whatever they please? Do you enroll them in summer camps or other alternative structured learning environments? Do you engage them with purpose, or just literally let them choose what to do and learn?
I'm really open to any ideas and anecdotes, and just basically picking brains. I'm coming from definitely wanting to homeschool with a curriculum to touring schools, and now am more interested in the unschool ideas. | <urn:uuid:1c2d0aae-80d2-475b-a864-35cde418dd0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1375366/the-early-years-share-your-btdt-anecdotes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972312 | 301 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Vagrants, looking for gold, were coming down from the mountains around Susanville and were stealing and sleeping in the streets. Many were arrested and sentenced by Justice Branham. The customary fine was $30 or time in jail. Most opted for jail time.
Summer sizzled to above 100 degrees for more than a week. Many Susanville residents suffered from heat exhaustion and had to seek medical help.
Even farmers had to shade their cattle to keep them from dying of dehydration.
The newspaper told its readers to beware of the salesmen touting Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup. The alleged con artists claimed the magical potion has been soothing excruciating toothaches and sore throats for more than 50 years.
The paper stated that it had proof that the medicine was a fake and the salesmen were just trying to make easy money.
A businessman from Quincy visited Susanville officials to inquire about the possibility of construction of an electric light plant outside of town.
The facility would bring power to all residents and the proposed rates were: $10 a month for light everyday until 10 p.m., and $12 a month for light everyday until 12 a.m.
Page 12 of 44 | <urn:uuid:f2342c4c-032c-49ae-9d61-58828b2b5221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lassennews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=10&Itemid=53&limitstart=44&fontstyle=f-smaller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982323 | 246 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R.) rallied Republicans in the state legislature to limit collective bargaining by public employees. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie (R.) coaxed a Democrat-led state legislature to increase public employees’ share of their health-care and pension costs. In Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R.) secured merit pay for public-school teachers.
But in Ohio, a bill containing all these reforms is headed for defeat in a referendum on November 8. According to an October 25 poll by Quinnipiac University, 57 percent of Ohioans oppose the bill, while 32 percent support it. Meanwhile, its most prominent advocate, Gov. John Kasich (R.), is unpopular: Fifty-two percent disapprove of his performance; 36 percent approve.
Keep reading this post . . .
Copyright © 2013 BernardGoldberg.com | <urn:uuid:c8c41d90-8a74-4e13-bd2d-a396289cb152> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/what%E2%80%99s-the-matter-with-ohio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935234 | 174 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Is It Normal To Have Bad Period Cramps?
Dear BeingGirl Experts, I'm 13 years old, and I started my period over a year and a half ago. I was wondering if it was normal to have really bad period cramps? I feel like I'm going to die. I don't want to go anywhere. I have them all throughout my 5 to 7 days —is that normal? I don't feel comfortable talking to my mom or my doc, but these cramps really hurt!! I've used pain killers and a heating pad almost everything. I need answers!! Please help!!! Sincerely, Christine --- Dear Christine, You should not be having such intense pain every month. There are prescription medications available for females who find other remedies do not work. Please discuss this with your mom. Let her know (I'm sure she is already aware) of how much pain you are in. Ask her to make you an appointment with a gynecologist or other health care provider. S/he may not even do a pelvic examination, but s/he may still prescribe medication to help relieve your pain or recommend an over-the-counter medication containing ibuprofen (Motrin or Advil). Also, you may want to try applying warm compresses to your abdominal area or even exercise when you are having cramps. Some girls finds this can help too.. Take care of yourself by getting the help you need, Your BeingGirl Experts
Questions about bad period cramps? Get answers, tips, and advice at BeingGirl.com. | <urn:uuid:1c9d304e-2109-443f-8497-82ef662d3f72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beinggirl.com/article/bad-period-cramps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956913 | 314 | 1.679688 | 2 |
City councilman John Crescimbeni says he's not in favor of another councilman's proposal to have an emergency measure at Tuesday night's council meeting to reduce the size of the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission.
He said a move like that needs to be part of a bigger conversation involving all boards and committees, including the council itself.
"I'm all about having the conversation about the Human Rights Commission and how many people should be sitting on that panel, but I think we need to include other boards and commissions and how big the City Council should be," Crescimbeni said. "I'm not in favor of trying to do that tomorrow night as an emergency on the floor."
Crescimbeni said of the 67 county commissions in Florida, 57 have just five members, a handful have seven members, Palm Beach County has nine members and Miami-Dade County has 14 members.
"Duval County, Jacksonville sticks out like a sore thumb. We have 19 members," Crescimbeni said. "If you talk to a lot of citizens, they would think that we're probably more ineffective or inefficient than the Human Rights Commission. It costs the taxpayers money to have City Council members. The Human Rights Commission members won't get paid, they're volunteers."
Councilman Matt Schellenberg made the proposal last week to shrink the Human Rights Commission. In doing so, it would eliminate a controversial member who is up for reappointment.
Parvez Ahmed (pictured, below) joined the board three years ago. He is Muslim, and those religious beliefs sparked protests during council meetings, before his appointment.
He's due to be reappointed, but if the commission shrinks, Ahmed would be left out.
Schellenberg said the commission is just too big and would be better served with 11 members, not 20. He said the council needs to act now and not do any reappointments until it gets the number to 11.
Schellenberg said he is aware of the controversy surrounding Ahmed and the uproar his appointment caused nearly three years ago.
Schellenberg said the debate is not why he's making this proposal. He said there are just too many people on the commission.
"I think when you get more than 11, I don't think they function as well. And that is why we limit it," he said. "I saw that there were quite a few people coming up in the next couple of months on the Human Rights Commission, and I think it is time to pair it down and get a good core group of people in there to do the right thing." | <urn:uuid:34c3c8cc-75c1-4e4a-b836-20e05725dc64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/Councilman-not-in-favor-of-shrinking-commission-with-emergency-measure/-/475880/18499688/-/6e1rmb/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98181 | 537 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Bypass ruling was most important story of year
In January, progress on the $800 million Monroe Connector-Bypass was a reality, proclaimed officials with the N.C. Turnpike Authority.
After years of delay caused by a lawsuit, a ruling let the NCTA proceed with selling bonds and buying right-of-way. Though plaintiffs in the lawsuit, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, planned to appeal the decision, NCTA officials were confident the first ruling would stand. Some dirt had been turned by early spring, the NCTA announced bypass work would begin in earnest in August.
But work ended abruptly in May. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision on the project. A panel of three federal judges ruled that the NCTA officials knew they based their environmental studies on data that already assumed the road had been built. When asked to comment on the lack of contrast between a build and no build scenario by environmental groups and federal agencies, the NCTA dismissed concerns.
“In responding to these comments, the Agencies either failed to address the underlying issue or incorrectly stated that the Monroe Connector was not factored into the ‘no build’ baseline,” wrote Circuit Judge Diana Gribbon Motz in the court’s ruling summary.
NCTA attorneys admitted the staff knew the baseline data assumed a large road existed, but carried on with development projections despite questions and criticism. But since so much work had been done on the project, attorneys asked the court to allow them to proceed. They were denied.
A rehearing request by the NCTA was denied by the appeals court. The Federal Highway Administration withdrew its support for the bypass. Permits for the project issued by state and federal agencies were suspended while the NCTA regrouped.
Meanwhile, most of the $800 million borrowed by the NCTA for the bypass sits unused. Landowners who were earlier told the state would buy thousands of acres in the project’s footprint were told the transactions were delayed indefinitely.
The court’s decision did not specify what steps the NCTA needed to take to correct the studies, but officials made public statements that little work would be needed to correct the flaws. SELC attorneys disagreed, stating in a letter that the agency should redo parts of the environmental impact study with different data that does not assume the bypass already exists.
Late in the year, two citizen groups concerned with the bypass emerged. One goup, Keep Union County Moving is a Facebook-based group in favor of ending Highway 74 gridlock and building the Monroe Bypass. Monroe Bypass Facts wants more transparency in the planning and development phase of the project.
The NCTA has stated that work should resume on the bypass in 2013. | <urn:uuid:6b0f6d65-2435-4fe0-87e8-a48d6ac6f6e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enquirerjournal.com/news/x1445513123/Bypass-ruling-was-most-important-story-of-year | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979529 | 573 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Children's Home Society of Washington will celebrate Universal Children's Day Nov. 20, said Kelly Bray, CHSW marketing communications manager in Seattle. Since its establishment in 1954, the event has promoted the understanding, care and welfare of the world's children and was chosen as the day to celebrate childhood.
Through a free art project, children will be led to design their visions of peace. The artwork will be visible to the public all year at CHSW's offices. A candlelight vigil will follow. It will be from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at First Congregational Church, 73 S. Palouse St.
There will also be a coloring contest and free hot chocolate. To pick-up the coloring contest, visit the Walla Walla CHSW office, 1612 Penny Lane, beginning Monday/today Nov. 8 between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. All entries are due by Nov. 19. Prizes include gift certificates to Inland Octopus and passes to the Children's Museum of Walla Walla. The event is sponsored by CHSW and Exchange Club of Walla Walla.
Other ways to celebrate the day if you're unable to attend include purchasing a commemorative Candle of Hope by calling 509-529-2130. Proceeds benefit the HomeTeam Parent Aide Program, a local child abuse prevention program. A release said CHSW aims to develop healthy children, create strong families, build engaged communities and speak and advocate for children. Last year in Walla Walla, more than 800 children and families were helped through early learning, counseling, family support, and mentoring programs. For more information, visit www.childrenshomesociety.org.
When members of the College Place Lions Club meet Wednesday, they will hear from Colleen Brady, operations manager for Capps Broadcast Group. Colleen is the club's featured speaker in November and her talk is open to the community, said David Walk, CP Lions Club's first vice president.
"Radio is a fun industry ... no two days are the same ... in small market radio you have the ability to know how to do everything from on air to sales." Colleen said in a release.
She's involved in sales, web and operations for eight radio stations that serve Southeastern Washington and Eastern Oregon. "Being locally owned helps us really get solutions and programs our clients and listeners want. As technology changes, radio seems to keep up and integrate with things like social media, streaming, Internet and much more."
The meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Lions Park's white building at Eighth and Larch streets in College Place.
David said Colleen "is dynamic and very interesting."
Annie Charnley Eveland can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or afternoons at 526-8313. | <urn:uuid:1d58e9c8-41d0-4d6e-afc1-4e121494c47d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://union-bulletin.com/news/2010/nov/08/etcetera-110810/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940775 | 591 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. hosted a memorial ceremony recognizing the lifetime achievements of the late LeRoy F. Smith, Jr. on Tuesday, Dec. 18.
Smith served as Associate Director of Emergency Medical Services at UMDNJ-The University Hospital for 38 years until he retired in 2007 and Essex County named a building in its government complex in his honor in 2008. He passed away on October 29th at the age of 70.
“LeRoy Smith was an extraordinary man who always put the well-being of others before himself. He was dedicated to his job as an EMT at UMDNJ-The University Hospital but, more importantly, he was dedicated to the people of Newark. Whenever there was an emergency call, LeRoy was there. Whenever I needed his help with Project Pride or some other youth program, LeRoy was there. He ran into burning buildings, rescued drowning children from pools and helped end a prison riot at our old Newark Jail. He was there because he cared about people,” DiVincenzo said. “The greatest tribute we could give LeRoy was to name our old jail that was converted into an office building as the Essex County LeRoy F. Smith, Jr. Public Safety Building, and I am glad that we were able to pay tribute to him while he was still alive to experience it. It was the least we could do for someone who gave so much. The City will miss LeRoy, but I will miss him even more,” he added.
“The contributions that LeRoy Smith made to our hospital, patients and community were endless,” said Nancy Hamstra, Executive Director of Hospital Operations, UMDNJ-The University Hospital. “We will always remember LeRoy’s unselfish spirit, can do attitude and willingness to give without ever expecting anything in return,” she added.
Smith was a familiar site patrolling the city streets and spent his waking hours monitoring scanners, listening to radios and answering telephone calls for medical emergencies. But Smith did more than just treat the injured – he went above and beyond the call of duty and never thought twice about risking his own life to save someone.
One of his most heroic acts occurred on March 25, 1980, when inmates of the former Jail gained control of the 10th floor, took a corrections officer hostage and held the officer out of the 10th floor window. Smith entered the building alone and negotiated with the inmates to release the officer. His brave action defused a life-threatening situation and played a key role in bringing a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The day before Smith was scheduled to undergo open heart surgery, he responded to a house fire on Second Avenue in Newark and spent the evening removing people from the burning building. After the emergency was addressed, he returned to his office, removed his soot-stained clothes, walked across the street to University Hospital and checked himself in for his procedure. Some other extraordinary deeds performed by Smith included preventing a woman from jumping off a roof and rescuing a child from the murky water of an abandoned pool.
Smith was recognized throughout New Jersey as an expert in emergency management and an advocate for enhanced emergency services throughout the State, and received numerous awards thanking him for his heroism. He was involved in recreation programs with Project Pride, the North Ward Center and the City of Newark.
Smith was raised in Newark. Surviving are his wife, Maria Rose; a son, a daughter and two grandchildren. | <urn:uuid:8b601141-4224-4ca3-9e5b-03dab93a0317> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/independentpress/index.ssf/2012/12/memorial_held_for_essex_county.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987057 | 716 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Farm Craft 2:
Global Vegetable Crisis
OMG it's a vegetable crisis! Ginger, the young and successful head of the Tomato Corporation, used to be a farmer. Her grandparents invite her back to the country for a visit, and when she arrives, she meets a down-and-out businessman who couldn't run a farm if it were automated. Ginger offers to show him the ropes, but she quickly learns of a sinister plot involving giant cucumbers, genetic manipulation, and stereotypically evil flat characters! So begins Farm Craft 2: Global Vegetable Crisis, a time management game that is, believe it or not, story-centric and is perhaps one of the most inventive and engaging time management games on the market today.
Although Farm Craft 2 shares some very basic traits with its sim farm cousins, the similarities end just moments after you notice they're there. Instead of showing you the ropes and then gradually increasing the complexity as levels go by, Farm Craft 2 dares to introduce story-based locations with unique buildings and goals, hired help that can actually do your work for you, and — get this — a nighttime stealth level!
The first level will familiarize you with the basic controls. Use the [arrow] keys to scroll the screen around, but the mouse will accomplish everything else. You control Ginger and must manage the intricate workings of each farm you run. Double click an empty plot of land to till it, then buy some seeds from the menu at the bottom of the screen and sprinkle them on fresh soil. After a while, those seeds grow into plants, at which point you must grab a crate, harvest them, and take them to the barn to get paid. You can queue tons of tasks in a row, so don't hesitate to keep Ginger busy at all times.
Soon, you learn plants will call for fertilizer and water with respective heart and droplet icons. This is easy to take care of, as fertilizer is available from the shop menu, and a watering pump is right there on the screen. Before long you'll also raise animals, a task that requires you to gather food to feed them and build a refrigerated storage unit to hold their products. You can even harvest fruit that grows naturally on trees in the area, a nice touch that makes the game feel a bit more like a sim than a time management game.
After diversifying the types of seeds, equipment, and buildings you can buy, Farm Craft 2 introduces workers. These handy folk can be hired and paid a salary to perform basic tasks on the farm when things get too hectic for one gal to take care of. And yes, things will get pretty busy. You're not working against the clock, though (unless you want a trophy), so workers are there to fulfill level goals and to make your life easier. Hire workers from the shop menu, then click on them to send them about their duties. Watering hands, animal keepers, harvesters and fertilizers are some of the first workers you'll have access to, and they're a huge help by the time they come around.
Analysis: Whew. Farm Craft 2 is intense. The good kind of intense, too. When I first played the game, I burned over an hour before I even thought about taking a break. I was completely absorbed into this sim/time management world, and the promise of something new waiting in the next level had me eager to see more. Some of the levels are long, and the challenge is cranked up to a respectable level, but it's practically impossible to fail, so you won't have to worry about losing anything you worked for. It's that kind of gameplay that makes a casual game so rewarding.
There's a lot to Farm Craft 2, and that's exactly what makes the game so special. Beyond the full battery of seeds, crops, buildings and upgrades you'll have access to, the game also gives you the ability to set items anywhere on the screen, something that doesn't seem like a big deal until you actually get to do it. You can even move buildings and bulldoze bothersome landscape features, allowing you to shape and customize the world to your liking.
Also worth mentioning is the visual style of this game. You'll immediately notice the characters' animations are very fluid, each drawn with soft curves and a sensitive color palette. You know the artists did a great job when you're entranced by watching the watering animation. Seriously, sit and watch Ginger (or anyone) spread water on the ground. You'll be amazed.
Farm Craft 2 builds a crucial bridge between time management and sim genres and crosses it only when it's advantageous to do so. The game looks great, it plays well, and you'll have a difficult time putting it down at any point. This is one of those rare casual games that stand out of the pack for its phenomenal design. If you like it, you should also check out one of developer NevoSoft's other games, My Kingdom for the Princess. | <urn:uuid:99d360f5-f082-4cd1-a0d8-9f4fa5767d41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/06/farm_craft_2_global_vegetable_crisis.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965543 | 1,021 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Wine is drunk out of glasses rather than teacups or silver goblets because glass is inert, relatively thin and allows full appreciation of a wine's appearance. The perfect wine glass has a stem and a bowl that goes in towards the rim, so that the aroma is caught within the glass for easy sniffing. It is also made of clear glass so that the wine's colour, an important element in assessing and enjoying wine to the full, can be appreciated.
Wine nuts also like to commune with their wine as physically closely as possible, which means that thin crystal is highly valued whereas thicker, patterned and cut glass are not.
So that wine can be swirled without losing any liquid and so that there is space for the precious aroma or bouquet to collect in the bowl, the glass should ideally fill no more than half the available volume of the glass. Not filling up a glass is sensible, not mean.
A stem means that you can hold and swirl the glass without affecting the temperature of the wine with your own body temperature.
There is no real need for a range of glasses of different sizes except that we tend to need smaller servings of sweet wines and fortified wines. It has always seemed unfair to me that white wines are conventionally served in smaller glasses than red wines.
Tumblers may be used in earthy and aspiringly earthy Italian restaurants, but the thickness of the glass and the difficulty of swirling the wine around in them makes them pleasure-killers for wine enthusiasts.
The almost spherical 'Paris goblet' is one of the cheapest wine glasses available (four can be bought for the price of a bottle of very basic wine). It fulfils the criteria of having a stem and going in towards the rim, and is better than narrower 'tulip' shapes, but the glass is too thick to provide intimate or luxurious contact with the wine.
The ISO tasting glass, like a large tulip on a short stem, was designed in the 1970s by the International Standards Organization advised by a panel of professional wine tasters including Michael Broadbent MW. For a long time it was regarded as the standard professional wine glass. Machine-made versions are available and cost no more than the cheapest bottle of wine. Hunt around on the internet, as they’re rarely available in wine shops, except around Christmas. It does the job but certainly wins no prizes for glamour and more and more professionals find it just too small and clunky.
Riedel, a family company based in the Austrian Tyrol, is by far the most successful and admired producer of glassware specifically designed for wine drinkers. Working on the principle that how the liquid hits the tongue affects how it will taste, the Riedel family of Austria have developed slightly different glass designs for wine types. These include, for example, young and mature red bordeaux, non vintage and vintage champagne, vintage port and tawny port, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino etc. All of this is a bit much for most homes (including mine) but there are much more affordable, machine-made versions available which provide much more pleasure than the standard ISO glasses – and infinitely more than a Paris goblet. They recently launched and successfully created a fashion for a range of stemless glasses.
Riedel have now bought Spiegelau, once their main rival, although Zwiesel (owners of Schott Zwiesel and Zwiesel 1872 brands and formerly part of Schott) is independent of them. Now that wine is such a growth area, all manner of outfits such as Waterford are becoming interested in expensive crystal specially designed for wine. Cristal d’Arques dominates the French glass business with Baccarat at the top end.
The only non-standard glass shape you might think of investing in is a tall, thin glass for sparkling wines (often called a flûte), which allows minimal escape of the carbon dioxide dissolved in the wine which makes it sparkle, lets you see a long journey for each bubble, and is a suitably glamorous shape in itself. The old-fashioned coupe, supposedly modelled on Marie-Antoinette's breast, is easy to spill and encourages the precious carbon dioxide to escape as fast as possible. Riedel make a very versatile and inexpensive tulip-shaped champagne glass.
Specialist retailers of wine glasses in the UK include Around Wine in London W1 and www.wineware.co.uk.
Glasses should be stored upright somewhere free from dust and strong smells. Aesthetically, glassware needs to be clean, and has the annoying habit of being extremely breakable and showing every speck and dribble. The important thing as far as the wine is concerned is that the glass smells of nothing – not washing up liquid (which can stop the formation of bubbles in fizzy wine), and certainly not dirty glass cloths. Many smart wine glasses, including the Riedel range, are happy in a domestic dishwasher and benefit from the high temperatures there. Water has to be soft, however, and there is no need for detergent. Hand washing glasses achieves best results if glasses are washed in very hot water, rinsed in cold, and polished with linen tea towels reserved for the purpose – I’m told. In an ideal world we would all have unlimited supplies of new, fine crystal glasses. | <urn:uuid:e6f4a6ec-2f3f-4159-8d7d-2b3cb98d4235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/20070131_1/layout/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96042 | 1,109 | 1.804688 | 2 |
It is an incontrovertible fact that you can be impeccably
punctilious about all the trappings of manners - opening doors,
pulling out chairs, walking on the roadside edge of pavements etc.
- but still be appallingly rude. The call centre employee has been
well-coached in the etiquette of the cold call or the politest way
of handling complaints - yet, with every meaninglessly courteous
and obfuscating syllable that falls from their lips, we are driven
to incontinent rage. Politeness is not a failsafe measure of
Manners are valuable in this world for the simple reason that well-mannered people know how to set others around at their ease, know how to make the world feel a more civilised, friendly and calm place, and like to put others' comfort ahead of their own.
If politeness demands that dinner parties are seated boy-girl, boy-girl, good manners demands that when your guests take it into their heads to sit randomly, you just smilingly go with the flow. If being polite and opening a door for someone means that you have to wrestle your way past them in the first place, almost knocking them flying, then why not stand back, relax and with good manners acknowledge their own kindness in holding the door open for you.
Yet don't cast politeness out entirely - it is a good plank in the raft of manners and should be respected as part of the social contract we should all tacitly enter into to make our world more harmonious. In a society where behaviour is becoming increasingly loud and brash, we need to preserve politeness as the vital ingredient in the cocktail of manners that makes our world a better place; somewhere where basic survival is finessed into a more subtle pleasure. So bring back the doffing of hats, bring back the polite boardroom, let's have unisex chivalry. | <urn:uuid:f16cec69-84eb-4b68-a167-0adbc6652b22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.debretts.com/etiquette/british-behaviour/p-to-q/politeness.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947519 | 397 | 1.625 | 2 |
ELIZABETHTOWN - A greater number of homeowners in Essex County will get help buttoning up their homes this winter thanks to funds from the federal stimulus package.
More than $5 billion has been set aside as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for use in supplementing weatherization assistance programs across the country.
Adirondack Community Action Programs administers the program in Essex County, which has helped to make nearly 60 homes each year more suited for cold weather.
According to Barb Allen, Weatherization Assistance Program coordinator at ACAP, New York State is among those receiving the largest slice of federal funds with a grant of roughly $395 million.
Meanwhile, state funding for the program has remained steady at $99 million statewide. The funds are divided to each county based on population and number of seasonal heating days.
"So for Essex County, what that means is we're going to be doubling our production schedule," said Allen.
ACAP's Weatherization Assistance Program will now be able to assist roughly 140 homes annually, and to a greater degree.
Those who qualify for the program can receive a diagnostic weatherization assessment to find potential air leaks and other shortfalls in energy efficiency.
Once the problem areas are identified, ACAP arranges for installation of insulation, maintenance for heating systems, weather stripping, repair of windows, and other minor fixes. The program may also provide carbon monoxide detectors and, in some cases, the replacement of old refrigerators with newer, more energy-efficient ones.
A post-weatherization inspection is performed after the work is finished to assure that improvements are effective.
Previously, no more than $4,500 could be allotted to improve each home. With the added stimulus funds, the limit has jumped to $6,500.
"It's all about serving those in need," said ACAP executive director Alan Jones, who noted the program's financial and environmental benefits. "It eases the burden on working families so they can use that money for medicine, food, or whatever else is needed."
Eligibility requirements for the program mirror those of the Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, in regards to income guidelines. Applicants are generally addressed on a first-come-first-serve basis, and at this point, Allen said, there is still a waiting list.
"The sooner they apply, the sooner they can get on that list," said Allen.
Applications for ACAP's Weather Assistance Program are available for download on their website at www.acapinc.org. For more information, contact Barb Allen by calling 873-3207 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:b7342ef3-fc7b-45fc-8aec-0f51fe6fbbc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denpubs.com/news/2009/nov/06/federal-funds-boost-weatherization-program/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946176 | 551 | 1.546875 | 2 |
posted 25 Aug 2010 in Volume 13 Issue 10
Out of the sidings
Tim Hawley and Danal Blessis present part one of two articles on how Arup and MTR Corporation collaborated to design and implement a worldclass knowledge and information management programme, to aid
With 12 months from concept to reality and now 12 months in use, Arup and MTR Corporation’s collaborative knowledge and information management programme, is embedded in the organisation’s workflow and is proving itself to be a valuable tool in enabling the team to meet its objective of ‘excellence in project management’.
The approach taken demonstrates that it is possible, given a virtually
Readers considering embarking on a similar programme might find the basic steps outlined in the approach useful, particularly utilising the influence of opinion leaders and change agents.
The business imperative for KM
The MTR Corporation operates
A rail merger in late 2007 brought the railway operations and employee populations of the MTR Corporation and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation under a single management structure with MTR Corporation (the Corporation). At the same time, the Government of Hong Kong gave the green light for the Corporation to undertake a significant multi-project expansion programme to extend the network by more than 25 per cent, with an additional 56 kilometres of railway. This was an unprecedented expansion in terms of scale, complexity and cost.
The new projects are managed by the MTR Corporation’s Projects Division (the Division), which is ramping up its staff resources from 700 to 2,000 in preperation for the peak construction period in 2012. Interfaces with consultants and contractors are also increasing proportionately. The management team identified that a new set of issues, ranging from how to manage millions of documents, to new joiner induction, knowledge attrition, learning, communication, knowledge sharing/retention and collaboration, would all become critical to survival, never mind success. In addition, existing systems and organisational culture were not equipped to deal with these challenges. Nevertheless, the Division was, and is, committed to meeting these challenges and delivering the projects in a manner consistent with the highest project management standards. The implementation of an effective knowledge and information management programme was deemed critical to meeting these demands.
In June 2008, a strategic change management initiative was launched to formulate the systems required and to address the necessary culture change within the organisation – breaking down silos and converting from a norm of hoarding to one of sharing. Key components of the equation were the Division’s strong focus on innovation and continuous improvement and a highly collaborative style of working in partnerships with contractors and consultants.
Management was keen to adopt a proven, best-practice approach to knowledge and information management but it also needed a system that would support its goal of achieving excellence in project management.
The Division recognised that Arup possessed world-renowned expertise in the KM arena, which could help it achieve its goals in terms of the process and system requirements, as well as the cultural and organisational behaviour change capability necessary to sustain them. The Corporation and Arup have a longstanding relationship based on mutual respect and one where Arup has provided much of its core consulting engineering support to the Corporation’s various railway expansion projects over the years.
Arup’s own KM system had won numerous awards over several years and had been operating successfully for more than a decade. In addition to being a consulting firm with a strong track record of implementing successful KM projects to clients across multiple sectors, Arup’s long heritage in engineering and real-world experience of actually designing and delivering rail infrastructure meant it was ideally positioned to understand the Division’s unique requirements.
A consultancy project was undertaken to develop a vision and concept for knowledge and information management (K&IM) and, ultimately, to provide a common platform for knowledge sharing.
Establishing the vision
As the Projects Division looked forward it had a very good grasp of the challenges it would face and intuitively understood the value that KM could bring in meeting these. The specific business drivers and objectives of the K&IM project become clear very early on:
Establish a K&IM System to improve effectiveness and efficiency of project delivery;
Consolidate and integrate existing information repositories and hence provide a one-stop-shop for the retrieval of projects-related information;
Provide a more robust search engine and content management platform to support future KM and other collaborative applications;
Enable collaborative working through communities of practice and networking, to handle unstructured problems and to share knowledge outside of the traditional organisational boundaries, working across silos; and
Deliver a system that is simple to use and largely intuitive. All users must have the opportunity to take advantage of its functionality, including those who might otherwise be averse to using such systems.
A critical early step was setting out the vision for K&IM in a way that represented a shared view across the senior management team, provided clarity of purpose for the organisation and informed the development process.
Senior management were engaged in a series of educational discussions that culminated in a workshop session exploring a number of KM strategy dimensions. These included considering such factors as the balance between ‘codification and personalisation’ or ‘exploitation and exploration’. The senior team watched a role-play exercise that described life in the future and set out a possible vision, following which they were split into two groups; one to attack the vision and one to defend, before reconvening and reaching a collective view.
This captured vision was then synthesised into a coherent view and articulated in various forms including a ‘future state’ picture, which described how each employee would be central to the K&IM system, its culture and connecting networks.
With the Division’s head of project engineering as the champion for the initiative, and fully supported by the senior management team, a project team leader was identified and tasked to work with the Arup consultants for the initial investigative work on the project.
Within the first month, it became clear that the success of the knowledge sharing initiative would depend on: (1) a highly collaborative process to identify specific user requirements; (2) a robust information system; and (3) a change management programme that would instil a desire and culture within the organisation to share knowledge.
Building early organisational buy-in
Before the wider organisation could be effectively engaged in K&IM, a lot of initial work was required to take the vision and concept and define how they might work on a day-to-day basis, and to establish the requirements for the supporting system. This period was utilised as a golden opportunity to engage change agents.
To quote Dr Everett Rogers, who spent a lifetime studying the diffusion of innovation, “84 per cent of the population is unlikely to change its behaviour based solely on arguments of merit, scientific proof, great training or jazzy media campaigns. The majority of those who try new behaviours do so because of the influence of a respected peer.”
When faced with change, people are often risk adverse, so prefer to stick with the status quo. But fortunately not everyone is the same; there is diversity in the population, with some people more willing than others to adopt change. The most striking feature of Everett Rogers’ diffusion theory is that, for most members of a social system, the adoption decision depends heavily on the adoption decisions of the other members of the system.
Within the early adopters are opinion leaders, or change agents – a group who are respected among their peers and who have social influence. Much of the organisational social system merely wants to stay in step with the rest, so a large sub-section of the social system follows suit with the trusted opinion leaders. This often leads to the fabled tipping point, where the rate of adoption rapidly increases.
With this thinking in mind, the identified opinion leaders were invited to join a series of cross-functional working teams to identify user requirements from a number of perspectives: (1) System Foundation; (2) Process Management; (3) Connecting People; (4) Change Management; and (5) Tacit Knowledge. Fifty colleagues representing a cross-section of the Division served on these work-stream teams. The result was a highly collaborative process that culminated in the preparation of a requirements specification for the K&IM programme within five months (November 2008) that would meet the practical needs and expectations of users.
The following knowledge-sharing tools were identified for development in time for Day one implementation (June 2009):
A common intranet portal (branded iShare) as the one-stop-shop for all knowledge sharing functions;
A unified division-wide document management and filing practice for simple and efficient storage and retrieval of information utilising the Corporation’s standard for Microsoft SharePoint 2007;
‘People profiles’ – searchable quick-reference guide for each staff member, providing ready access to those with particular expertise, work history or interests, and giving direct links to related information within the iShare portal;
An interactive organisational photo chart, to be integrated with ‘People profiles’ for ease in locating and connecting with the right people and expertise;
Communities of practice – facilitating groups of people connected by a common area of work, expertise or interest, who collaborate and support each other. This would improve organisational efficiency and incorporate Web 2.0 tools, such as discussion forums, wikis, news updates, and blogs to build a body of knowledge and a repository of important standard information;
‘Project profiles’ – a quick-reference guide of key information, facts and figures about new and ongoing projects, with useful insight into current activities and a repository of re-useable examples, approaches, solutions and lessons learned from past projects; and
User-friendly workflow processes for registering, tracking, sharing and retaining key information such as design standard waivers and lessons learnt across all projects.
When we look back at what was done to deliver the project in 12 months, and at the successes achieved in the first 12 months after the launch, MTR Corporation and Arup are in total agreement that there were clearly three elements that developed during the course of the project and became instrumental to the success of this project to date.
First, the Arup consultants arrived in the client’s offices with all the knowledge and expertise in hand to do the job but, perhaps most importantly, with the spirit of transferring their knowledge and educating the client to become self-sufficient in creating a positive and sustainable knowledge-sharing culture. They brought recognised expertise in KM, technology and in organisational behaviour and change management. It was clear from the beginning that the solutions would be driven by people and assisted by processes and technology.
Second, the team employed a hyper-level of consultation and engagement with a large number of staff throughout a broad cross section of the Division. The staff were willing and interested to explore the concepts of KM and how they could be incorporated into the business. They committed their time to serve on work stream teams, focus groups and task forces. They worked hand in hand with the project team to develop the functional requirements for the programme, ensuring that the project outcome would be fit for purpose and positioned to make immediate impact to the organisation. Choosing to engage with opinion leaders very early in the programme paid dividends later on, with the broader organisational engagement and acceptance.
Third, senior management in the projects division outwardly displayed their unwavering commitment to this initiative from the beginning to the end. Management supported the project with their time, communications and actions. They remained open-minded throughout the development of the project, and when resources were needed to take the project to the next level, they ensured that the appropriate resources were provided.
The next stage was the development and launch of the ‘iShare’ knowledge platform and the wider organisational engagement, establishing communities of practice and fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. This will be discussed in the second instalment of this two-part case study, in the September issue of Inside Knowledge.
Tim Hawley is associate director at Arup. He can be contacted email@example.com
Danal Blessis is manager, knowledge management (projects) at MTR Corporation. He can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:69154c3d-72ac-458a-8f49-53178efc7aed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.5EF68EF5-1A6D-427E-BADC-009C2CD764B0/articleid.AD246EAE-1128-415D-8D8D-4A17C63B3C70/eTitle.Case_study_Arup_and_MTR_Corporation/qx/display.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951082 | 2,523 | 1.5625 | 2 |
In our communities, people just like you are helping our children build brighter futures by serving as partner families and adoptive parents. No matter how little time you may have to offer, there is something you can do to make a child’s life story a better one.
IF YOU HAVE JUST A FEW MINUTES
Make a financial contribution to support personal enrichment or education of a young person in out-of-home care (summer camp, field trips and sports leagues). Donate goods such as baby items (diapers, wipes, strollers, cribs, etc.), gently used clothing, hygiene products or school supplies. Help spread the word of the need for quality partner families especially for teens and sibling groups.
IF YOU HAVE JUST A FEW HOURS
Volunteer with local partner family and adoption programs or activities. Host a partner family or adoption event (Christmas Party or Celebrate Adoption). Participate in Partnership for Strong Families' (PSF) "Wish Upon A Star" Holiday Toy Drive.
IF YOU HAVE A LITTLE MORE TIME
Become a partner family or adoptive parent. Partner families are changing out-of-home care by preserving a sense of connection and permanency in the life of every child, even during the most challenging times. This is done by promoting reunification with the natural family; but if this cannot be achieved, then by parenting the child through the adoption process. Caring families are especially needed for older youth, siblings and children with special needs.
No matter what amount of time or level of commitment you have to offer, you can make a significant difference in the life of a child. Help kids in our community through financial/goods donations, hosting an event, or becoming a partner family or adoptive parent. | <urn:uuid:7a8eb6db-ae22-4d02-bc54-cb2b89ae9839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfsf.org/index.php/partner-families | 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 | 0.930749 | 363 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Drama Summer School
The Drama Summer School is ideal for students at all levels of acting ability, who want a fun introduction to Drama or Theatre Studies.
In 2013, the course will cost £980 per week, including tuition, all meals, accommodation and a full social programme on evenings and weekends.
About the course...
- Intensive classes with professional artists (35-40 hours per week)
- Evening social activities included
- 1 full day excursion included in the second week of your course
- No English lessons included
English Language level: 3.0+
Course length: ideally students should complete the full two weeks of the course, however the course may be booked for a period of one to six weeks, although students cannot join week 2 of an option
Hours per week: 28-35, plus optional excursions and evening activities
Entry dates: July, August
Fees: £980 per week (Summer 2013)
Our two-week Summer Schools introduce a range of different drama techniques in a fun, safe and active environment. They will also improves your confidence, self-esteem and communication skills.
You can choose the area of theatre that appeals to you most, or, if you are considering a career in drama, you can extend your range by trying a number of different disciplines.
The first week of each specialism focuses on building towards a performance, which takes place during the second week. Students can attend the first or both weeks, but cannot join the performance for the second week only.
For 2013 there will be two options available:
This popular, fun and challenging course is led by theatre professionals, all of whom have musical theatre credits in London and / or New York. Students can expect 35-40 hours of rigorous and intensive classes per week in singing, dance and acting, geared towards a cabaret-style performance at the end of the second week.
Course dates: 07-20 July or 04 -17 August
This two-week course is ideal for students who want an intensive and fun introduction to drama and acting techniques. In the first week, professional actors lead students through drama exercises designed to help develop creativity, spontaneity, freedom and authenticity in performance. In the second week, the ensemble work together to rehearse a short production, performed for an invited audience.
International students should have at least an Upper Intermediate level of English and can choose to combine their specialist weeks with separate weeks of Intensive English.
Course dates: 21-03 August | <urn:uuid:0f7b09f8-11a6-49b6-b4d9-1307269ec54a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csvpa.com/en/courses/summer/summer-drama/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944961 | 510 | 1.523438 | 2 |
EDITOR'S NOTE: This edited opinion appeared Tuesday in The Star-Ledger of Newark.
A recent poll of 1.3 million Americans, New Jersey ranked 48th in happiness. To which we respond: Yeah, so what? Want to make something of it?
A couple of economists took data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over a four-year period and applied it to a happiness ranking based on criteria ranging from the availability of public land and open space to commuting times and local taxes.
Heck, with a poll that rigged, it's a wonder New Jersey didn't finish last. (New York did.) What, no questions about excessive tolls, potholes the size of municipal pools, oblivious drivers who clog the left lane or governors in sweater vests?
True, there was one small parcel of open land left in New Jersey (west of Clinton, we hear), and someone just built a condo on it. But all that density and body heat will help us keep our utility bills low in the winter. And yeah, we spend more than 237 hours a year getting to and from work -- but that gives us more time to talk or text on our cell phones. Plus, it makes us more valuable to businesses who advertise on radio.
And our property taxes are the highest in the nation. But, hey, corruption isn't cheap.
Nowhere in the survey were true quality-of-life questions, like: Where can you get the best pizza? Make $200,000 as a cop? Retire with three state pensions?
Louisiana, the poll told us, is the happiest state in the union -- right, the state still mopping the muddy waters of Hurricane Katrina from its living rooms. But maybe it makes sense after all: Louisiana always ranks near the top of any lists with the worst schools, and it's one of the most obese states in the nation.
So does that mean they really are fat, dumb and happy?
Look, it's not that we're unhappy, we're realists. We're among the wealthiest and smartest people in the nation -- which means we understand just how bad things are right now.
And being ranked near the bottom isn't a bad thing. The other states near the top -- Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona -- are there because those states get lots of sunshine, the researchers say. Can you imagine if that were the case in New Jersey? Long Beach Island would ask: "You want sun with that beach badge? It's going to be extra." We're better off without it.
So, to the pollsters we say: You want %$&$# happiness? We got your &%$*# happiness right here. Happy Freakin' New Year. | <urn:uuid:b69ebae3-fd48-4db4-af01-915923eaa976> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2009/12/happiness_poll_ranks_nj_low_oh.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95733 | 568 | 1.578125 | 2 |
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... and with that ... I'm Wendy downs like that burning question of the week that he wants your hands and the restrooms teach and write a paper towel ... or should you use that blog site this triple ... with one kills the germs Heidi Mitchell is right here beside me ... he's been talking about Mayo clinic ... uses when right to the reader that I am shocked by their answer when they say I was the Astley thought today would be to air blowers but it's the Pieper tablets to little piece of paper is likely to end up with some real reasons one behind this in the backseat this in the study of about this I it's beyond just the sort of ... on the fact that it didn't get the germs can be blowing with the lower right they actually think we do a better job trying their hands with a paper towel they were there are actually twelve studies that were times in the last conditions have one on this mini twelve there were many many done any actually ... realize that there are few things that happened there can be found on a spree that happens from the blower and I encountered was the stuff like that ... or some stuff that can come out of it we'll extend that to get around and and below the might of thought that if you want him to do a little bit of ... rubbing against the friction against the paper towel actually remains a lot of that ... any lasting wet ... dirt and then also I know that the lower most people have to prosecute ninth you touching that you're touching nationality pecan it invests in the deep end and that's the thing because ... I mean listed Istana for five minutes which you can use to dismiss like the biggest seen in the movie were the biggest plane you know if the home run of the baseline standard Cannally numerous finisher like a mini like the underpants I in in your church and adore him Dylan everything else like that that he actually Dr Thompson at the Mayo clinic he actually recommend he's the manager of the Viking he also ... recommended that we keep the paper telling him to use it to open the door and her top to Peter so what what what's your hands if even just grab the absolutely ... now I hear the green movement's for knocking at the door here saying look at environmental issues in the breezy you know between ... the electricity used with the upload the blow dryer or the paper towels ... which one can tell that ... the studies were lower led inconclusive but will probably did seem that having electricity constantly blowing on ... connect and the repairs that need to be done in replacing of the cant that that is more impact on the environment than just making a piece of paper which could be recycled Wilkinson's therefore economists are right up ... so ... you know the method of these on the floor is media unseemly if I had won only one percent using gloves to clean that up ... here boys that need repair and are plugged in and taking in jail time ... there seems to be some ... proof that that is more energy and making it to make a paper towel ... I was wonder tweeps have a few things as we sink you should go to a restive and which ... way like you to use with ... the cleaner immediately it noted that this is part of the story that that I got injured and had no because ... when you walk into the bathroom he kind of make that direct line to use reasonable stall right and that might never have toilet paper it's another to announce the news so so that this doctor was suggesting that he used the stall that is the least use the city that when has it that is the cleanest and has the lowest ... available to pay for any news that I think that is the most used especially with an automatic safety can be on I think that the French town of ... Legionnaires disease and perhaps other disease can fit and that's that he wants to see what won it that's always coming for a ... thirty one E is ... the least is to let the most the sexy guy that called for the last stall and income rate back to the first thing and the Mayor Mike is said and so in my entry I know and I admit to more in Personal section my thing students create a nice to watch them and that the ones that went trick after all | <urn:uuid:97ccb9fa-36bb-47b8-b779-041fcfd5ec73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://live.wsj.com/video/what-healthier-paper-towels-or-air-dryers/09D396DF-417E-43E5-B76A-14BAC5CBA074.html?mod=WSJ_Article_Videocarousel_6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985447 | 866 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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Maurizio Pollini (born January 5, 1942) is an Italian classical pianist. He was born in Milan, the son of the Italian rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 13, then with Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18. He received a diploma from the Milan Conservatory and won the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960, after which he studied under Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
2 played on Radionomy
Chopin:Piano Concerto No.1/Nocturnes etc
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1/Nocturnes etc | <urn:uuid:cf61b332-e0e0-40f9-adc9-856832ff037c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radionomy.com/en/artist/17514/Maurizio-Pollini/albums | 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 | 0.963904 | 166 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A nine person jury in August found Samsung guilty of infringing Apple’s (AAPL) design and software patents this past summer, and awarded the Cupertino-based company $1.051 billion in damages. In the months following the trial, Judge Lucy Koh has ordered a number of documents asserted in the lawsuit be unsealed and unredacted. And after sorting through what had to be hours, if not days, of legal jargon, tech law blog Groklaw identified a number of misleading arguments Apple used against Samsung (005930).
Apple’s attorneys used a Samsung internal memo as proof the company blatantly copied the iPhone. Within the memo, Samsung mobile boss JK Shin expressed outrage at how far his company’s user experience had fallen behind Apple’s, noting the difference “is truly that of Heaven and Earth” and Samsung was suffering from a “crisis of design.” Apple revealed that Shin told his designers to “make something like the iPhone,” although the company left out key parts of the quote.
In the internal document, the executive said, “let’s make something like the iPhone. When everybody (both consumers and the industry) talk about UX, they weigh it against the iPhone. The iPhone has become the standard. That’s how things are already.”
Not once does the executive suggest that Samsung should copy the iPhone, but instead be creative and focus on comfort and ease of use.
“Designers rightly must make their own designs with conviction and confidence; do not strive to do designs to please me (the president); instead make designs with faces that are creative and diverse,” he said.
The president did tell his designers that they should do their best “not to create a plastic feeling and instead create a metallic feel,” a design philosophy that is very similar to Apple’s. At the same time, however, he also said that Samsung should focus on larger displays, a feature the iPhone didn’t include until this year.
“Our biggest asset is our screen,” he said. “It is very important that we make screen size bigger, and in the future mobile phones will absorb even the function of e-books.”
None of these statements were revealed during the trial, and instead Apple’s lawyers used bits and pieces of select quotes that ultimately may have mislead the jury and resulted in Samsung’s defeat. | <urn:uuid:1b375dda-4c18-479c-be6d-fd73cd37e2c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.yahoo.com/newly-released-documents-suggest-samsung-might-not-apple-141247119.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963535 | 514 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Tony Abbott outlines the economic growth strategy for a Coalition government
This is an edited version of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s “state of the nation” address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, delivered in Sydney, Friday 15 February:
Economic growth. That is what we need in this country, stronger economic growth. If we do have strong economic growth, profits are up, income is up, employment is up and government revenue is up. In fact, with strong economic growth the government can simultaneously increase spending, cut taxes and boost the surplus and if you say that’s a magic pudding, it is actually what happened for the last five or six years of the Howard Government.
If you just look at the raw headline numbers for economic growth, the last few years don’t look too bad. Despite the global financial crisis there was only one quarter of actual negative growth. But if you look behind the numbers the situation is not nearly so good.
GDP growth per head of population since 2007 has been only one third of the GDP growth per head in the Howard era, and this is why the Howard era now looks like a lost golden age of prosperity.
Over the last five years multifactor productivity in this country has actually declined. It’s actually declined by three per cent. We know that the private savings ratio is massively increased. It’s at the highest level in two decades because people don’t trust the Government to save, that’s why they are saving so much themselves. People don’t feel rich, that’s why they are saving so much themselves.
We know that real wealth per head has actually declined over the last five years because of stagnant property prices and because of falling share prices and that’s led to so much more restraint in spending which is why so many of our main street retailers and businesses feel under such pressure today.
The challenge for government, the challenge for the Coalition should we become the government after the election, is to do more and to do better to get economic growth up and the best way to get economic growth up is, of course, to get the fundamentals right.
It’s always the right time to get the economic fundamentals right and what you’ve got to do in terms of the economic fundamentals is understand the iron laws of economics and one of those iron laws is that government doesn’t create wealth, business creates wealth.
Sensible governments never go around attacking wealth creators, they never go around accusing people who have invested millions, created thousands of jobs, of being a danger to democracy as this government, I regret to say, has. Sensible governments understand some of the corollaries of the iron laws of economics such as that you don’t speed up the slow lane of our economy by slowing down the fast lane, such as that you do not boost our economic strength by targeting the strongest sectors of our economy and you can never, never, tax your way to prosperity.
Now, I believe that the Coalition I lead understands all of this in the marrow of its bones and that’s why I am confident that should there be a change of government later in the year, there will be an instantaneous adrenaline charge in our economy. There will be an instantaneous surge of confidence because an incoming government will understand that simple truth that business is the source of prosperity, business is the source of economic growth and it will want to work with business rather than against business in boosting the prosperity of every Australian.
The Coalition’s strategy to boost economic growth is really quite straight forward and it starts with getting taxes down. There’s been a lot of talk about the carbon tax. There’s a lot of talk from the Government that the carbon tax hasn’t really been noticed. Well, everyone notices a new tax and people are particularly conscious of a new tax which doesn’t serve any reasonable economic purpose. The problem with the carbon tax is that it’s damaged our economy without helping our environment and that’s why it will go as the first priority of an incoming Coalition government.
Then there’s the mining tax. Now, the mining tax was always a bad idea. This idea that miners don’t pay enough tax is just misleading at best and dead wrong at worst. Miners pay the company tax that everyone else pays. Mining staff pay the tax that every employee pays. But miners have always paid royalties, always have and no doubt always will. So the mining tax was effectively a third tax on a sector which can easily go somewhere else. This idea that the only place you can mine is Australia, again, just dead wrong. Mining capital can go to many other places and it has started to go to many other places since the mining tax was introduced.
Then, of course, there’s the way it was introduced and the outcome of its introduction. It has turned out to be a lose/lose tax, a tax which impacts on investment, impacts on employment but in the end raises hardly any revenue at all and we’ve had the really rather sad spectacle in Parliament this week of minister after minister in denial about this particular tax.
The trouble with government which is spending unsustainably is that it is always looking for more taxes. There’s the carbon tax, there’s the mining tax, and, in all candor, there are the coming additional taxes on superannuation. They thought they could get away with a carbon tax because that was only going to be paid by the so-called big polluters. They thought they could get away with a mining tax because that was only going to be paid by the wicked multinationals. But those taxes aren’t raising enough money. That’s why they’re now coming for the ordinary people of Australia with new taxes on superannuation. Well, under the Coalition the carbon tax is gone, the mining tax is gone, and there will be no further fiddles with superannuation because people’s savings don’t belong to the Government. People’s savings belong to the people and the Government has to respect that.
We’ll get taxes down and we’ll get government spending down.
We will do it in ways which we believe are responsible. Some of the ways we will do it will be controversial. For instance, we’ve announced that the so-called school kids bonus will go because this is a cash splash with borrowed money that has nothing necessarily to do with education. We won’t go ahead with the 6,000 person a year increase in the refugee intake because that would send the wrong signal to the people smugglers and in any event, at the moment the people smugglers are determining that intake. We will trim back the Commonwealth public sector, not because we fail to respect the work of public servants – as a minister for nine years I very much respect the work of public servants – but there’s 20,000 more in the Commonwealth public sector than there were five years ago and there hasn’t been a commensurate increase in service delivery or efficiency. So, just those changes will save about $10 billion over the forward estimates period.
If we don’t go ahead with the National Broadband Network in its current form, that’s about $50 billion less that the Commonwealth will need to borrow. So, we will get government spending sustainably down and most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, we will get productivity up.
It is important for all sorts of reasons, productivity not the least of them, that we restore the rule of law in all sectors of our society but particularly, in our workplace. There ought to be a level playing field for wrongdoing. Wrongdoing is wrongdoing, whether it happens in a company or in a union. So we will make sure that wrongdoers face the same penalty for the same sorts of crime, and we will establish a registered organisations commission to act as a watchdog and policeman for the union movement and for employer organisations in the same way as ASIC polices corporate organisations.
There will be a one-stop shop for environmental approvals and this will be part of our campaign, our pledge to reduce your red tape costs, business red tape costs by $1 billion a year, at least $1 billion a year over the life of a Coalition Government and we will get the public sector’s efficiency up by measures such as working with the States to ensure that public schools and public hospitals are run more by their communities and less by distant bureaucracies.
If we get government spending sustainably down, if we can lower the tax burden, if we increase productivity we can make our economy so much stronger. We can unleash the creativity of Australia’s business people. I know that we are capable of more than we are currently achieving. I know because I have seen with my own eyes very successful Australian businesses competing and succeeding in very difficult fields.
There is a factory in Burnie in northern Tasmania which produces 25 per cent of the world’s underground mining equipment. There is a workshop in West Gosford which, believe it or not, produces 10 per cent of the world’s aerosol springs – not a particularly glamorous product, ladies and gentlemen, but absolutely necessary to a modern economy and 10 per cent of the world’s billions of aerosol springs are produced at this little workshop in West Gosford. There’s the R.M. Williams factory in Adelaide which successfully produces high quality footwear and clothing, something which we are supposed not to be able to do anymore in this country. So, given that we can do a lot, even now, under unpropitious circumstances, how much more could we do and do well under better circumstances?
That’s the challenge that the Coalition faces. That’s the challenge that I believe we are more than capable of rising to, to put the economic policies in place that will once more give us a dynamic, five pillar economy with a strong service sector and a strong education sector, a resilient and sustainable manufacturing sector as well as the mining and agricultural sectors which have been so important to us over the last few years. | <urn:uuid:69d8ce35-80d1-42ae-88f5-1ad1a022be44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://australianconservative.com/2013/02/tony-abbott-outlines-the-economic-growth-strategy-for-a-coalition-government/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961499 | 2,101 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Google wikipedia on Imagine song (Lennon's) and see that in '05 the song was played before the ball dropped in Times Square for the New Year, and then again in '10, and once again for this past year, '11, only this time :
Wiki says "he" changed the lyrics from:
"Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too" to "Nothing to kill or die for, and all religions true."
I suppose one way of thinking about this is that Lennon LIVES..................
yet, for so many people, God died...or doesn't exist.
What a dreamer Lennon was! Some might say he was a crazy bastard! or, perhaps delusional, or living in a fantasy and making good money singing about it!
I liked most of the Beatles music but I found of all the Beatles I liked Lennon the least, personality wise. But he did add to the mix that was the Beatles and I guess he was more or less their leader and originator of the band. Paul | <urn:uuid:a089f28f-8740-4fd6-a37c-b69c572db596> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newmobility.com/bb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=201065&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965897 | 214 | 1.671875 | 2 |
16, was arrested in April on charges of attempted murder after he allegedly opened fire at Washington's National Zoo. Seven children were wounded.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
About Infoplease, Part of Family Education Network
© 2000–2013 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease | <urn:uuid:06007256-cd70-42b8-818a-52571832b00b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0862214.html | 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 | 0.954558 | 68 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Ethics Consultation Service and Hartford Hospital’s Ethics Committee
Hartford Hospital established its Ethics Committee in 1982, one of the first hospitals in the state to do so. Its mission is threefold:
- To serve as a resource for families, patients, hospital staff and physicians in addressing the often difficult medical-ethical issues in health care;
- To provide education of committee members and hospital staff in such areas as end-of-life decision making, advance directives, and related medical-ethical issues; and
- To assist the hospital and medical staff in formulating policy statements and guidelines involving ethical issues in health care. Physicians, staff, patients and families may request ethics committee consultation.
The committee consists of 24 members drawn from varied disciplines on the medical staff as well as individuals representing nursing, social services, pastoral care and the community. It meets monthly and as necessary to assist with specific requests.
The Ethics Consultation Service attempts to clarify and resolve ethical dilemmas arising in the course of patient care. Every attempt is made to balance the patient's interests in autonomy and well-being with the strictures of good medicine and the professional roles of health care workers.
Any employee or patient (or their family member or representative) of Hartford Hospital may contact the Ethics Consultation Service or the Ethics Committee for a formal or informal consultation. Both may be reached in a variety of ways:
- Contact the Director of the Ethics Consultation Service, Barbara Jacobs, PhD, MPH, RN, at 860-545-0370 or by pager 860-825-9685
- If you cannot reach the Director of Ethics Consultation, call the Medical Staff Office at 860-545-3200
- You may also contact the Chairperson of the Ethics Committee, Harold Schwartz, MD, at 860-545-7280 | <urn:uuid:476cf66e-aa36-48c6-9ffd-119446454b32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harthosp.org/PatientVisitors/PatientGuide/PatientRightsResponsibilities/EthicsConsulation/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930682 | 376 | 1.546875 | 2 |
When promoting the first Domain Controller for a new domain, the domain SID is the same as the computer SID of the new DC.
The following AD groups are considered “local” to the Domain Controllers:
- Backup Operators
- Print Operators
- Server Operators
What’s interesting is that these groups are the local groups from the first DC promoted for the new domain, so the SID matches.
Mark Russinovich states this scenario well in his blog:
As I said earlier, there’s one exception to rule, and that’s DCs themselves. Every Domain has a unique Domain SID that’s the machine SID of the system that became the Domain’s first DC, and all machine SIDs for the Domain’s DCs match the Domain SID. So in some sense, that’s a case where machine SIDs do get referenced by other computers. That means that Domain member computers cannot have the same machine SID as that of the DCs and therefore Domain. However, like member computers, each DC also has a computer account in the Domain, and that’s the identity they have when they authenticate to remote systems.
The really interesting scenario is one where Company A owns Company B & Company C and while the IT shop keeps the domains for each domain separated, they build all the DCs from the same image (but don’t sysprep or change the SID meaning the first DC for each domain has the same machine SID and thus the same domain SID). Company A sells off Company B & Company C. Later on Company B & Company C merge and want to set up AD trusts between them. They can’t because the domains in both Company B & Company C have the same SID and a trust can’t reference its own SID! | <urn:uuid:2fe151bd-8989-4ef3-b1ca-a4bd58d68d25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.metcorpconsulting.com/tech/?cat=67 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936415 | 390 | 1.507813 | 2 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
My father is 66 and was diagnosed with MG a couple months ago. He is being treated with an anticholinesterase. He has been experiencing double vision for about two years now and recently his neck muscles have been getting fatigued to the point he has to rest his head. What concerns me is that two nights ago he experienced what he fist called "shortness of breath," but later described as though his body stopped spontaneously breathing and he had to consciously breathe in and out for about 20 minutes. His pulse was elevated to 90, BP lower than normal around 119/60 (he was being treated for high BP, but is now off the BP meds because of the contraindication with MG treatment). This incident occurred about 5-6 hours post CAT scan to r/o thymoma. The on-call neurologist on call thought is was cardiovascular, the on-call cardio doc said it wasn`t (Dad wasn`t seen).
I am concerned that it could have been caused by the weakening of breathing muscles associated with MG. Is or could difficulty breathing as described above be an MG symptom? Should we be concerned about myasthenic crisis? And do you have any recommendations to avert a crisis?
Yes, yes, yes. Shortness of breath is one of the most worrisome symptoms of myasthenia gravis. While there might have been something cardiac contributing, the primary underlying problem is still the myasthenia gravis until otherwise proven. When there is a shortness of breath question, we wonder is there a problem exchanging carbon dioxide waste (ventilation) for fresh oxygen (oxygenation). Myasthenia most commonly causes problems with problems with getting rid of carbon dioxide, not oxygenating. Shortness of breath is a problem that I take quite seriously and I try to act very quickly. If you are unable to see your normal myasthenia doctor, the emergency room can check a Forced Vital Capacity and Negative inspiratory force, both of which can be diminished in people suffering from myasthenia. These can be followed serially to make sure he is not heading into crisis. I take these seriously enough that I sometimes admit patients who are in trouble in this situation and watch them closely because complications of stopping breathing are preventable. If it becomes serious enough, he may require extra breathing support, like CPAP or a ventilator, for a short time. If they decide to treat with steroids, breathing sometimes suffers in the first 30-48 hours. Take no chances with dyspnea (shortness of breath). Call your father's treating physician immediately.
Robert W Neel, IV, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati | <urn:uuid:bc12898f-0099-427e-99a0-58a70c0b49d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/64606.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971096 | 597 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Bruce and Lois Cardarella Forbes ('64)
In their quest to accentuate the connection of James Madison University with the intellectual legacy of President James Madison, Lois Cardarella Forbes ('64) and her husband, developer Bruce Forbes, have transformed the face of campus. Moreover, they have probably done more singlehandedly than anyone else to call popular attention to this underappreciated founding father, except perhaps his birthplace, Montpelier. While there are no statues or memorials in the nation's capital to pay homage to the Father of the Constitution and Fourth President, James Madison is now a fixture on campus. The Forbes' contribution of not one, but two statues of James Madison, has changed the face of the campus by situating the founding father's image in two prominent spots. One, unveiled on Constitution Day in 2002, stands near the Quad. It has become a student tradition to pose for photos with the life-sized "Jemmy" and festoon him with the frills and trappings of student life. The newest statue, a heroic 10-foot-tall image of a youthful, striding James Madison (already affectionately christened "Big Jim"), was erected on the east side of campus during the university's Centennial Celebration. The Forbes' impact stretches beyond symbolism, however. Their influence is seen and felt all over campus through their gifts to the Plecker Athletic Performance Center, men's and women's golf, the College of Business and their own Forbes Family Scholarship. They also have given time as generously. Lois, currently a member of the Board of Visitors, has served on the JMU Foundation board, the Madison Day planning committee, and the Duke Club board. Both are committed Dukes fans. In one more grand magnanimous gesture, this spring the Forbes made the single largest gift in the university's history to transform the future Performing Arts Center from promise into reality. It also makes the Forbes' financial devotion to JMU second to none. | <urn:uuid:1651fc5e-abaa-4ba5-915a-943c3b34af81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jmu.edu/profiles/bethechange/forbes-bruce.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960379 | 398 | 1.765625 | 2 |
By Erin Kutz Special for USA TODAY
When Te-kai Shu got to the register at Best Buy on Black Friday, he didn't pull out a rewards card or coupon to rack up extra savings.
"I whipped out my smartphone ... to make sure (the cashier) credited my purchase to my Reward Zone account," say Shu, 29, of Bristol, Tenn.
Shu is part of a growing group of consumers who look to their smartphones — Internet-enabled mobile phones — to save money and stay informed when buying. Nearly six in 10 mobile users say they'll be using their phones for holiday shopping, and retailers are falling all over themselves to offer applications and mobile websites to meet the demand. With smartphones, shoppers can compare prices, store loyalty and gift cards, make wish lists and get discounts at their favorite stores.
But retailers also risk alienating customers if the apps and mobile websites fail to deliver. More than half of customers surveyed say they won't return to a mobile site if they've had a poor experience, according to a study by Gomez, Compuware's unit that studies website performance.
And performance expectations are high: Nearly 60% of people anticipate mobile sites will run as smoothly as or better than sites they visit on their computers, the Gomez study showed. Meeting the challenge has been difficult. Consumers ranked the performance of mobile sites of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend's 15 largest retailers as "tolerable," compared with the retail websites overall.
FREE SHOPPING APPS: Can help you get the best deal
SHOPPING TIPS: Read this before jumping at rebate offers
Much of the interest in mobile has occurred in the past year — 25% of consumers say they'll be turning to their phones more than they did in 2009, according to a study by the Mobile Marketing Association and Luth Research. And the mobile apps centered on shopping aren't just for fun and flash. They could mean real savings for consumers, especially those who search for better prices. Scouting locations where gifts are sold and comparing prices ranked as the top two reasons consumers plan to use their phones during holiday shopping.
Mobile phones offer shoppers the resources of the Web while they're in a store and enable retailers to deliver the most relevant deals. But shoppers can also use them to make purchases with their credit or debit cards, though they could be opening themselves up to identity theft, says John Hering, CEO and co-founder of Lookout Mobile Security. "The mobile device has become the most personal computer and, with that, identity thieves are now beginning to turn their sights to smartphones," he says.
Retailers have long matched rivals' prices, and shoppers search ads in fliers or on the Internet to find the best offers. Now, consumers can discover competitors' prices while in a store, thanks to mobile sites and apps such as PriceGrabber, which more than half a million consumers have downloaded.
The iPhone and Android application is the mobile incarnation of PriceGrabber's website, which attracts about 26 million shoppers each month. Using the mobile app, shoppers can scan an item at a store and see information on the best price on the product across multiple retailers. They can try to haggle for a better deal while they're in the store, or buy it for less through a competitor PriceGrabber has discovered. The service even calculates exactly how much the purchase will be when shipped directly to a consumer's home, showing which option is the least expensive down to the last cent, PriceGrabber President Laura Conrad says.
"The difference in prices is pretty significant for most of the sellers we have up there," says Conrad. "On any given day, most of these sellers could be running a special. Online retailers can change them on the fly."
On Black Friday, consumers used the iPhone app most often to search for price comparisons on electronics, computers, cameras, appliances and toys, the company reported.
LaKeitha Luster, 36, of Natchez, Miss., says she's always compared prices before big purchases, but now she's pulling out her smartphone to do the task. Getting comprehensive product information through the mobile sites can prove challenging, though, she says. "When you look at items online (particularly on a BlackBerry), I don't normally get a full description of what I'm interested in purchasing," Luster says.
Shopping-focused apps could help customers earn rewards and cut back on unnecessary travel expenses to get to a store. The iPhone and Android app CheckPoints earns shoppers points when they take pictures of the bar codes of items the app chooses to feature. The points are redeemable for gift certificates from retailers such as Sephora and Neiman Marcus, plus gadgets, airline miles and charity donations. Another app, Shopkick, enters people in sweepstakes just for doing what's known as "checking in" — alerting the app that they've walked into a particular store.
Social-networking giant Facebook has gotten involved in mobile check-ins with its Facebook Places service. Shoppers could get deals for checking in once, returning to a store or bringing friends to a store. Gap, Macy's and American Eagle Outfitters are among those offering discounts this way.
Some mobile apps deliver deals based on a customer's preferences and where they are, thanks to location-finding technology that tracks where a customer shops and what items they check out. Mobile app developer Yowza claims it has saved users more than $5.4 million.
The app hunts down coupons from nearby retailers and sends vouchers straight to shoppers' phones, which cashiers can scan at checkout. Lane Bryant, which has offered "buy one, get one free" deals through the app, is among the more than 300 brands Yowza has enlisted.
Mobile devices can also combine tasks that consumers have typically done only in stores or only from their computers. "Stores are really starting to understand that the lines between online and brick-and-mortar stores are blurring right now," Conrad says, pointing to retailers such as Walmart that have added Wi-Fi service so customers can go online while shopping in a store.
Mobile smartphones also deliver online information to shoppers at traditional malls. Many big malls and department stores are hopping on board:
•Mall operator Simon Property Group offers an iPhone app that can automatically notify a shopper's social network when she has checked into a particular store at the mall. The Simon app also delivers specialized deal alerts and can help shoppers remember where they parked.
•General Growth Properties gives consumers access to promotions and discounts at its 150-plus malls nationwide through its Club Shopping Mall Guide app. GPS-based store directories help shoppers navigate the malls. Shoppers also can play mobile games for prizes. For instance, the app might display a picture of a snow globe, prompting consumers to shake their phones for the chance to win a $100 mall gift card or to enter a sweepstakes for a $500 gift card, depending on what the virtual snow globe reveals.
•J.C. Penney has built a mobile-compatible website and an app for the iPhone and Android phones. Both provide a peek at weekly sales circulars and help in finding the nearest store. It also lets shoppers create mobile wish lists, take advantage of coupons and access their store rewards account.
•Target's mobile website and apps store prices to help customers compare deals. The chain also offers coupons that can be scanned and redeemed from the smartphone.
"It can detect when a consumer comes in a store and offer specialized incentives right on the spot," says Bob Egner, vice president of global marketing at EPiServer, a software company that powers e-commerce websites.
Consumers could also better prepare themselves for big holiday shopping trips by using apps that make store loyalty cards virtual, as Shu did.
Mobile app Swagg's aim is for users to "have everything, carry nothing" — in their wallets, that is, says Rocco Fabiano, president of Firethorn Holdings, Qualcomm's mobile commerce subsidiary. The mobile tool stores up to 300 loyalty and gift cards on a smartphone.
Swagg also delivers deals straight to the mobile screen, much like Yowza. There are more than $55,000 in discounts from more than 3,000 brands available through the app, Fabiano says. Users can choose which types of offers they'd like to see.
Shoppers could even cut shipping costs on gifts and send last-minute presents through mobile-gifting services. Swagg has at least half a dozen retailers on board for its gift card swap service, where people can send a gift card right to a loved one's smartphone. The app is working on getting more retailers to participate in this service. Options now might be a bit limited.
Mobile apps may also help shoppers better filter discounts and inventory on big e-commerce sites. The eBay Deals app for iPhone brings users daily deals and enables customized searches for bargains.
The Overstock.com mobile app has all the same shopping and search capabilities as the website and could also help shoppers ring in extra savings through its Lott-O function, which offers exclusive chances to win extra savings.
Some shoppers might be wary of closing transactions on their smartphone, though, and may opt to browse for deals on their phones but pay from their computers, says Sandeep Bhanote, CEO of mobile retail software provider Global Bay Mobile Technologies.
Egner says brands need to pay attention to the palm-size screen. "If you want to be a retailer, you've got to have a mobile site to be competitive," he says.
Shu is skeptical of the security of the information on his smartphone, but he's still loading it with reward cards, tracking down coupons and scanning bar codes.
His phone, he says, is "a very convenient tool" that helps him decide "how and where we shop."
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. | <urn:uuid:4805b020-5217-4413-9f0f-c6ff6fa46369> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2010-12-10-mobileshopping10_CV_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953579 | 2,067 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Supporting You and Your Body's Own Wisdom To Heal!
Therapeutic massage is an age-old remedy and health practice. It is found in all major civilizations past and present. From the ancient Greek gymnasia and Roman baths to modern day spas and health clubs, massage has been recognized for its health enhancing effects. The healing systems of many cultures, including our own, use hands-on therapy to soothe aches and pains and facilitate the body’s own healing powers.
- Provide a quiet, safe and relaxing environment for each client
- Focus on each person individually, to educate them about the benefits of massage, such as reducing pain, reducing physical and mental stress, and calming the nervous system
- Strive to help each client cultivate a desire to learn self help techniques to assist in their healing, which is optimal for the client’s health and well-being
- Be present for each person to access their own inner wisdom and to facilitate their own healing. This is done by listening to the clients’ wants and needs, and being compassionate and supportive in their healing process
- The heart of each session is dictated by the clients’ desire and willingness to heal themselves
- Therapeutic Massage
- Deep Tissue Massage
- Sacred LOMI Massage
- Prenatal Massage
- Trigger Point Therapy
- Muscle Relaxation
- Stress Reduction
- Pain Relief
- Emotional Lift | <urn:uuid:44ed8b52-7d53-4b80-ad0e-19e991332731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inharmonymassage.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937679 | 297 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Duluth, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) - According to Captain Don Willecke, President of the Western Great Lakes Pilot's Association, the ever–changing variables that exist in Great Lakes maritime shipping—particularly in rocky channels, like the Saint Mary's River—require a pilot to have two things, in particular: experience...
"The longer you do it, I can't say the easier it gets, but certainly the more you can deal with it," says Capt. Willecke.
...and an intimate knowledge of the area in which a pilot is navigating. This includes, among others, an ability to memorize one's specific navigational charts, and replicate them, on paper, freehand.
"You make it look like the regular chart—all the lights, all the cities, all the depths—everything. So, you have to do that from memory. So, everybody that's out there that's a pilot has to do that," says Capt. Willecke.
Its knowledge, according to Captain Willecke, that can only be obtained through one of 7 maritime academies in the U.S., including the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, in Traverse City, Michigan. Attendees there hope to attain the prestigious U.S. Merchant Marine Officer's License, which, along with a 4 year program, comes with its share of hands on experience.
"In our case of the Deck Officers, it's 4 days for the ocean license, plus another 5 days for the pilot [license]. It also takes 360 days of sea service to become an unlimited tonnage, or unlimited horsepower, Merchant Marine Officer," says Rear Admiral Jerry Achenbach, Maritime Academy Superintendent.
Still, accidents happen, which is why the U.S. Coast Guard is ready to respond in a moment's notice in high traffic areas, like the Saint Mary's River, with their vessel traffic service.
"They're watching you on the computers. It's an automatic identification system where you can see the ship. We have reporting points, where we actually call in at certain points. So, you're in constant contact with the Coast Guard," says Capt. Willecke.
...an around the clock effort, say officials, to keep this expanding economic opportunity from running aground.
U.S. Coast Guard officials say an investigation into what caused the Tregurtha to run aground is underway. | <urn:uuid:b3fc9600-f368-4d30-8bfb-5a59587ed06e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/nw-wisconsin/Tregurtha-Grounding-Prompts-Questions-about-Maritime-Navigation-166495006.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953898 | 501 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Boeing (NYSE:BA) is meeting with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday to propose a redesign of the lithium-ion battery on board its 787 Dreamliner. The battery issue, which has eluded diagnosis for over a month, forced the grounding of Dreamliners around the world. As it stands, estimates for when the planes will be operational again are landing somewhere between mid-March and the beginning of April.
Reports indicate that the solution Boeing is proposing to the FAA includes a layer of insulation between the individual cells of the battery, as well as a stronger, stainless-steel box with a venting tube, should the new design also catch fire. Sources close to the matter told Reuters that Boeing is not considering abandoning lithium-ion technology, nor is it working on an alternative or back-up solution.
Of course, the sooner the ordeal ends for Boeing, the better. Major carriers like Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have already signaled their intention to seek some sort of compensation from Boeing. Other airlines that have had delivery of new Dreamliners could also seek damages, and many have already called on the company to help them find interim solutions. It’s unclear if United Air Lines (NYSE:UAL), which is in possession of six of the aircraft, will seek damages.
Don't miss one of the biggest bull markets in history! Covers Gold, Silver, Gold & Silver stocks, and miners.
There's always a bull market in some sector! Find the best opportunities in commodities. | <urn:uuid:c0c4d460-0a9f-4bc4-80fb-06d7e4825c72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/does-boeing-have-a-battery-fix-up-its-sleeve.html/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941963 | 334 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Trail etiquette needed
I have ridden the Legacy Trail a dozen times this summer. I have felt relatively safe most times that I have ridden the trail. Most users stay to the right of the trail as they would if they were driving a vehicle on the road. When it comes time to pass, they warn you by ringing a bell or calling out “on your left,” they wait until someone has passed them before they pull out to pass the cyclists in front of them, they pull over to the right if someone wants to pass them, they quickly move into a single file when someone approaches from the opposite direction. Roller skiers will hold their poles in as they pass a cyclist, parents tell their children to move off the trail when they stop for a drink of water, tourists move off the trail to take photographs. All of these actions make for a very pleasant ride.
Unfortunately, a number of people seem to think that since the Legacy Trail is separated from the highway this gives them permission to disregard safety precautions.
I have cycled past cyclists texting or talking on their phones, joggers walking their dogs (albeit on a leash) in the middle of the trail listening to their iPods, oblivious to the world around them, roller bladers and roller skiers neglectful of the fact that their legs or poles swing out across the centre of the path, cyclists and walkers weaving across the centre of the trail, and cyclists chatting away with their friends as they ride beside each other ignoring the fact that other cyclists are riding towards them.
The most ludicrous situation, however, occurred today as I was cycling towards Banff. A cyclist passed two cyclists riding side by side as I approached in the opposite direction. Coming towards me at a distance of less than 50 feet were three cyclists abreast.
The cyclist passing just managed to squeak in front of the other two cyclists as I passed him. I was just lucky I didn’t end up crashing into him and having yet another concussion while riding on a bike path (20 years ago a cyclist crashed into me on the river path in Calgary. Fortunately, I was wearing my helmet. Yet I still ended up with a concussion).
It is not the cyclists going at high speeds, nor the Nordic skiers training on their roller skis that are the problem on the trails, but the lack of etiquette that is required of all users on a multi-use trail.
If all users of these trails would stop to think about the proper etiquette and the safety of all concerned, then the Legacy Trail would be much safer to travel on. It is just a matter of time before someone ends up in a serous accident because of neglectful cycling, jogging, walking, rollerblading or roller skiing.
Does Parks Canada need to paint a yellow line all the way along the trail for users to recognize that there is a limited space? Do we need signs to indicate that when someone is coming in the opposite, for safety reasons cyclists should fall into a single file?
Please think of the other users of the trail when you choose to walk, jog, cycle, roller blade or roller ski on the Legacy Trail. I would like to thank all of those users who are conscious of the safety of the other users.
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If you did not receive your activation email, please click here to have it resent. | <urn:uuid:a5973281-b2ce-4301-b004-39aeeb511aaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rmoutlook.com/article/20120816/RMO0904/308169987/-1/rmo0904/trail-etiquette-needed | 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 | 0.973439 | 733 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Gary North points to a great story on how the free market has found a way around the government-created gas shortages and tortuous lines in NY.
Sellers of gasoline have emerged on Craigslist, charging up to $30/gallon.
"Why wait 5 hours for gas?" asked one seller in Brooklyn, who claimed to have "a couple of extra gallons" available for $15 each...The State is furious!
"Everybody is so appreciative that they can even get gas," said Ryan, 28, a New Yorker who was offering gas for $18 a gallon on Craigslist Monday and declined to give his last name. He said he'd been delivering gas from his truck after a friend transported it into the city from upstate New York, and had been earning between $250 and $300 a day.
"I'm just charging for delivery," he said. "I think if you can wait in a gas line, you should do it, but some people don't want to wait. Some people don't have time to wait."
How dare people make voluntary transactions with other individuals! Get back in line!
"We will do everything we can to stop unscrupulous businesses or individuals from taking advantage of New Yorkers trying to rebuild their lives," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday. "There are always people who show up when there's a crisis to take advantage of victims of a disaster."The State is in a constant struggle to somehow get in control of this thing called human action.
It's a never-ending and un-winnable struggle. In 2011, the Federal Register topped 70,000 pages. The free market still finds a way. Someday it may reach 1,000,000 pages...yet the market won't be stopped then either.
You can't box-in a human mind that's determined to find a way.
When people desire to make a trade, they'll make it. Do you think the State predicted that Craigslist would be used as the artery for gas distribution? Even if it did, creative people would have used something else, like Twitter or Facebook.
Creativity cannot be contained. It can't be seen! Ask someone to show you creativity...to place it into your hands. They'll look at you funny.
The State is a brute that thrives on throwing its weight around. But its achilles heel is that it can't point a gun at creativity.
That's the one saving grace that human liberty has on its side...the ability for a group of human minds to take any situation and use the resources available to satisfy desires.
While this is great news for liberty, there is a dangerous flipside; and it causes unimaginable human suffering.
Once Power to use aggressive force is granted to an individual (or group of individuals) you're not going to contain that either.
There are no set of "rules" that will stop the human mind that's determined to expand that power. There is no "Constitution" that can "shackle" it. There's no "Bill of Rights" that a determined tyrant or Congress can't sweep away.
There's always a way...and governments throughout history (as well as the current gangs of thieves around the world today) are sufficient proof.
The answer to the suffering?
Never, ever, give the power to use aggressive force to anyone.
The human race is still in the process of learning this lesson. | <urn:uuid:5d55700d-88d9-4734-a87f-a9f0b969017a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/creativity-vs-state.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 | 0.970365 | 710 | 1.804688 | 2 |
$4b in aid to Pakistan called ineffective
Report asserts agencies fail on accountability
ISLAMABAD — The United States has failed to show progress from billions of dollars in aid given to Pakistan over the past few years to help the country with basic needs like electricity, health care, and education, said an inspector general’s report.
The finding comes as some in the United States have questioned the wisdom of lavishing Pakistan with military and civilian aid given the government’s reluctance to target Islamist militants based on its territory who regularly attack American troops in Afghanistan.
The United States has committed nearly $4 billion to projects in Pakistan since 2009 to help the country address critical infrastructure needs, provide basic services, and improve government performance, said the report released Monday.
But the largest contributor, the US Agency for International Development, has not committed to a way to measure the success of its programs, said the report, which was written by officials at USAID, the State Department, and the Defense Department.
“We believe that USAID has an imperative to accumulate, analyze, and report information on the results achieved under its programs,’’ said the report, which covered the period through Dec. 31, and came about a year after the State Department, which guides USAID, developed a strategy for providing civilian assistance to Pakistan.
“One year after the launch of the civilian assistance strategy in Pakistan, USAID has not been able to demonstrate measurable progress,’’ it said.
The US Embassy in Islamabad has also failed to come up with a core set of indicators to measure the success of all American development programs in Pakistan run by USAID, the State Department, and the Defense Department, said the report.
Failure to show progress could cause problems within Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment is high and many suspect US aid of lining the pockets of corrupt politicians rather than helping the poor.
Many of Pakistan’s 180 million residents lack access to clean water and effective health care and education.
The country also has chronic power shortages that can last up to 18 hours a day.
One of the reasons the United States has struggled is that the embassy in Islamabad has had difficulty staffing the positions it needs to monitor and run its programs, the report said.
The USAID office at the embassy remained understaffed by more than 20 percent, or 68 positions, as of the end of 2010, it said.
A driving force behind a recent expansion in aid to Pakistan has been Senator John F. Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who co-wrote a 2009 act that tripled nonmilitary aid to Pakistan.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Democrat said money from that aid package has only recently been flowing to the country and last summer’s floods hindered distribution.
The act “was drafted, in large measure, specifically to address the shortcoming identified in the report,’’ said spokesman Frederick Jones.
One of USAID’s main efforts in Pakistan has been to foster development in Pakistan’s tribal region along the Afghan border, where poverty and neglect by the central government have contributed to the rise of Islamist militants. But the initiative has been plagued with problems.
The office of the USAID inspector general conducted audits of two livelihood programs in Pakistan’s tribal area during the last quarter of 2010 aimed at fostering economic development to counter the rise of extremism. | <urn:uuid:91b82af6-e5a3-4ab6-bad2-0a4c952e10a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/02/09/4b_in_aid_to_pakistan_called_ineffective/?camp=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961975 | 699 | 1.6875 | 2 |
One artist sees treasure in trashed keyboards of yesteryear.
Inspired by the tale of ancient Greece's infamously sneaky Trojan Horse and humankind's Internet gluttony, German artist Babis Pangiotidis created an elaborate model of a rocking horse known as "Hedonism(y) Trojaner" with skin made of thousands of forgotten keyboard keys. Babis states on his portfolio site that the shades of color found on the recycled keys range from ivory white to nicotine-stained yellow.
Aside from referencing Greek mythology, the horse supposedly represents the hedonistic online behaviors of modern society. The German artist believes that the heavily commercialized Internet serves as a Trojan virus of sorts, fulfilling our desires without question and infecting nearly all aspects of modern life. Anyone else ready to take a break from being online? | <urn:uuid:8c9df882-04ee-48b0-ae10-0fdcd3bc4fe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57525592-1/trojan-horse-dons-thousands-of-keyboard-keys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9459 | 168 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Is the underwater world a silent world? No, the depths of the sea are as full of exciting sounds and voices as any other habitat rich with species. However, humans can't perceive these sounds under normal circumstances, and so this world has been hidden from us so far.
During the twelve days of filming around the Caribbean island of Bonaire for the documentary "The cannon crackers of the pistol shrimp", for the first time a microphone technology was used, that was previously only available to researchers and allows the recording of sounds of the underwater world not only true-to-life, but also in surround quality.
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Hmm…it looks like things are taking a while to load. Try again? | <urn:uuid:903f2b40-92de-4fc4-85c6-e2fc61ba62c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vimeo.com/38984779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962738 | 146 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Senator Bernie Sanders: Federal Reserve Board Members Gave Their Own Banks $4 Trillion in Bailouts_Featured_, Banksters Friday, June 15th, 2012
(Source: All Gov)
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve provided more than $4 trillion in near zero-interest loans and other help to banks and businesses whose executives also served as directors for the national bank.
At least 18 current and former Fed regional bank directors had a direct stake in the trillion-dollar bailout given to teetering institutions, according to a report produced by the Government Accountability Office, but released by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont).
“This report reveals the inherent conflicts of interest that exist at the Federal Reserve,” Sanders said in a prepared statement. “At a time when small businesses could not get affordable loans to create jobs, the Fed was providing trillions in secret loans to some of the largest banks and corporations in America that were well represented on the boards of the Federal Reserve Banks.”
Sanders wants to end the potential conflicts of interest that come with having bank executives serving on the Fed’s boards. The senator introduced legislation in May that would prohibit banking industry and business executives from serving as directors of the Fed’s 12 regional banks.
To bolster his case, Sanders cited the example of Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase. A director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2007, Dimon was part of the Fed’s leadership when it approved $391 billion in emergency funds to JPMorgan Chase to help it through the Wall Street chaos.
In another example, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, was a member of the New York Federal Reserve when it created the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, which then lent $16 billion to…General Electric.
To Learn More:
Fed Board Member Conflicts Detailed by GAO: Banks and Businesses Took $4 Trillion in Bailouts (Senator Bernie Sanders)
Jamie Dimon Is Not Alone (Senator Bernie Sanders) (pdf) | <urn:uuid:0ff396e9-dc47-4717-b905-db70662c4b78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://consciouslifenews.com/federal-reserve-board-members-gave-banks-4-trillion-bailouts/1129889/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952294 | 425 | 1.75 | 2 |
FITCHBURG (CBS) – Technically, it is a loaner from the U.S. Army.
But as the sparks fly from workmen running grinders and welders atop this 56 ton chunk of metal, Pauline Roberge knows it’s a keeper.
“Most of the time I bite my tongue to fight the tears,” she says. “Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t.”
On February 9th, it’ll be four years since her oldest son — 22-year-old PFC Jonathan Roberge — was killed in Iraq.
And for half of that time, family and friends have been scouring the nation for a tank to honor the Leominster native, and serve as the cornerstone of a small park on Mechanic Street dedicated to his memory.
“The emotions are overwhelming,” says his father John Roberge. “I have to walk away from it every once in a while and then go back at it.”
But they are not alone. Their friends, their town, and even strangers have pitched in along the way to make it happen.
Why the tank?
Jonathan was actually trained as a tank driver at Fort Hood, Texas before his deployment to Iraq. But when he got overseas, the streets of Mosul were too narrow for tanks. So he was reassigned to drive his Colonel’s Humvee, which hit a roadside bomb, killing Roberge, the Colonel, and three other soldiers.
As you might imagine, tanks are hard to come by off the battlefield — especially if you’re intention is to stick it in a city park.
But after pestering the Army for two years, a tank finally became available earlier this month — surrendered by a National Guard Armory that was closing its doors in North Carolina.
“They didn’t want it,” says Rick Vouture, Leominster’s Director of Veteran’s Services, whose staff spent countless hours getting the deal done. “And because we were so persistent, they gave it to us.”
The Roberge family gathered on the Johnny Appleseed Lane bridge over I-190 to watch it arrive.
“It was awesome on the one hand,” explains John Roberge. “But then when I thought about what it really meant, it was hard. Very hard.”
The paperwork alone is mind boggling in such a deal. A Carolina trucking firm agreed to cut-rate transport, thanks in part to an ex-Army truck driver who volunteered for the job.
Indeed, the hard work and generosity of volunteers has been key every step of the way — like the Fitchburg company that is making the tank ‘park-ready’. Workers at Steel-Fab Inc. are sealing the tank to weather, making it safe to climb on, stripping the rust and repainting it with desert camouflage — all for free.
“Some big companies like to calculate their stock price by the hour,” says Steel-Fab president Mark Freeman. “We kind of look at it the old-fashioned way, and figure that paying it forward and doing the right thing is the way to go.”
Eventually joining the tank at Roberge Park will be a bronze statue of Jonathan, tributes to the four others who died with him, and a memorial to all Massachusetts Vets who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There is still much emotional work to be done — and much fundraising.
“The pain it’s giving me is nothing compared to what all these soldiers went through,” says John Roberge. “It has to be done.”
Re-painting will begin by week’s end, and the tank will be in place by the 4th anniversary of Jonathan’s death. | <urn:uuid:36ef5a39-c736-4b89-9e85-9f0c17f90e84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/01/28/leominster-family-honors-soldiers-sacrifice-with-tank-memorial/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974191 | 816 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Fall Forum 2010, Demanding Education That Matters: All Sessions, Friday afternoon, November 12
Nov 10 - 13, 2010 San Francisco, California San Francisco Marriott Marquis,
Register for Fall Forum: http://www.regonline.com/fall_forum_2010
Full list of the Workshops, Interest Groups, and Looking at Student Work Sessions that will be offered on the afternoon of Friday, November 12. Room locations at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis will be available in the printed program guides distributed onsite to registered Fall Forum attendees.
Please click here for the full list of sessions offered at Fall Forum on the morning of Friday, November 12.
Please click here for the full list of sessions offered at Fall Forum on Saturday, November 13.
Friday, November 12, 1:30 pm - 3:15 pm
Featured Speaker: Deborah Meier | In Defense of Play
Deborah Meier joins us as a renowned educator and author, CES co-founder, and CES Executive Board member to discuss the essential role of play in children's lives and learning. Click here for more info about Deborah Meier and her talk.
Featured Session: Family Engagment Panel: Ways that Families and Educators Lead “Our” Students Toward Improved and Equitable Outcomes
As educators, we often cite that we can’t do the work alone, additionally we recognize the role of families in educating students. However, we often limit authentic family participation in school reform efforts or are quick to blame their actions when confronting student achievement issues. Come to this session to hear from parents and educators who are in alliance and who rethink the integral role of family partnerships, explicitly toward improved and equitable outcomes for each student. Click here for more on this panel and its moderator, San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools lead coach Tanya Friedman.
A Look at Student Work from Tenth Grade Gateway Exhibitions
Tenth grade students at Civitas School of Leadership in Los Angeles must pass Gateway, a spring exhibition of academic work and collaboration experiences from their first two years of high school. Work samples and experiences are offered as evidence of growth in specific behaviors called "indicators" for each of seven Habits of Mind. Gateway committees comprised of parents, faculty advisors and students serve as adjudicators for the exhibition, and essential rubrics are calibrated annually.
Civitas School of Leadership, Tina Kim | Looking at Student Work
Shoots from Roots! Sharing and Sustaining Leadership in Our Schools
Sustainable leadership in a school requires a shared responsibility of all stakeholders, not just the designated leader. In this session, we will explore and examine how to foster an “activist engagement” that counters external and internal forces that may affect or compromise the core values of a school over time. The primary aim is to promote a cross-fertilization of good ideas and effective strategies that nurture progressive shoots to grow from their honored roots.
Lehman Alternative Community School, Joe Greenberg, Dave Lehman | Interest Group
Are the CES Common Principles Culturally Appropriate for Schools Servicing an All African-American/Urban Student Population?
This session will focus on educational philosophies and distinctions among race, culture, class, and ethnicity. Specifically, we will take an in-depth look at the CES Common Principles and attempt to determine if they are, in some ways, culturally biased. What are some differences and similarities in the philosophies of traditional African American education, mainstream American education, and the education provided by CES schools? What does traditional African American education look like? Does it really exist?
Connexions Community Leadership Academy, Anthony Mckissic, Ernest Shaw | Interest Group
Silence is Not Always Golden: Creating a Culture of Student Talk in the Classroom
Children should be seen and not heard. Unfortunately, this aphorism has governed education for too long. Through a participatory approach, the facilitators, who lead professional learning at their school and who help their staff implement a culture of student talk, will model specific structures to create a culture of talk in your classroom. Participants will leave with an implementation plan for creating, through student talk, an educational experience that matters for learning.
New San Juan High School, Steve Hunt, Nicole Kukral | Workshop
Attacking Gorillas: Developing a Culture of Growth through Fierce Conversations
Our session will engage participants in a discussion about varying educational concerns such as school culture and student achievement. As participants share concerns relative to their schools, others will offer ideas, experiences, and suggestions for improvement. The session will provide opportunities for all participants to be heard and we will address as many concerns as possible—including our own—specifically with respect to CES Common Principles. Participants will leave having shared experiences, listened to suggestions and advice, and resolved concerns that are having an impact on instruction.
Eastern Elementary School, Timothy Aitken, Amanda Bayer | Interest Group
Not Just for Recess Anymore: Why Childhood Obesity Matters and What We Can Do About It
Learn how childhood obesity is becoming THE social justice issue of the century—and discover how you can help Michelle Obama in her campaign to end it. Simply by implementing classroom practices that get students out of their seats, we as educators can wage battle against the epidemic of childhood obesity. Come away with specific learning activities that will keep your students more engaged, more focused—and developing healthy habits early on.
Motion Infusion, Laura Putnam | Workshop
Project Based Learning 101: Basic Design and Management of Rigorous Projects in All Subjects and Grades for All Students
“Doing projects” is often not the same as rigorous, powerful project based learning, which increases student motivation to learn with a meaningful, authentic framework for teaching both content knowledge and skills for success in the 21st century. Learn how to design project-based learning curriculum units—including Driving Questions, Entry Events, assessment and scaffolding to ensure success for all students—and discuss practical classroom implementation tips. Sample projects and planning forms provided.
Buck Institute for Education, John Larmer | Workshop
Transformative Coaching: How Coaches Accelerate Systemic and Individual Change in Schools
What does it mean to coach for transformation? What does a coach need to KNOW, DO and BE in order to accelerate systemic and individual transformation in schools and classrooms? From developing equity-centered agendas to creating year-long strategic plans, transformative coaching interrupts educational inequities at the classroom, school and district levels. This interactive workshop will demonstrate the SF-CESS model of transformative coaching and share a range of our tools and practices. Using participant-generated coaching dilemmas, we will explore how specific strategies, and perspectives create opportunities for meaningful and sustained change. Participants will create personal action plans to inspire transformation in your own contexts.
San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools, Tanya Friedman, Greg Peters, Beth Silbergeld, Fredi Ware, Wesley Watkins | Workshop
Whose School is It Anyway?: Empowering Students through Non-Formal Learning
Milken Community High School implements a week of non-formal trips and courses that cultivated students’ love of learning through experiential learning models. This session addresses the key role students played in developing these non-formal learning experiences, and how, by empowering students by including them in the creation of their own learning experiences, they brought out their passions, increased their efforts, and ultimately experienced the value of learning on a much higher level.
Milken Community High School, Yechiel Hoffman, Pavel Lieb, Jacob Fishman | Workshop
Mission-Driven Power Sharing
This workshop pulls the curtain back on what structures contribute to actualizing power sharing in the school setting. How does this get done? How do we honor the time folks contribute to important school-wide leadership roles? How is the work sustained? Participants will have time to think through how existing and necessary leadership practices in their settings can thrive in deliberate conditions that promote shared power. Souhegan High School continues to learn, grow, and revise practices that enhance shared leadership. Sarah Hooper-Barbato, humanities teacher and Division One Coordinator, and Colleen L. Meaney, Dean of Faculty, lead this look behind Souhegan’s curtain.
Souhegan High School, Sarah Hooper-Barbato, Colleen L. Meaney | Workshop
Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know about Teaching English Language Learners
Over the last 12 years, English Language Learners have come to make up about 30 percent of our school’s population, and this change has affected what we need to know to be better. “Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know About Words and Vocabulary Instruction” by Karen Bromley has helped change my thinking and my teaching. Come participate in a conversation about how to be as effective as possible in your changing community.
The Mission Hill School, Katherine Clunis | Workshop
Where I’m From: Writing that Starts at Home and Ends with a Vision for the Future
We all come from different neighborhoods, home communities where we live both a shared and individual experience. While everyone comes from a different neighborhood, we all share common values about the places we want to live. Engage in a conversation with instructors and students from Eagle Rock School about a writing project that focuses on individual life experiences and allows students to envision positive changes in their communities.
Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Dave Manzella | Workshop
Ownership in a Small High School
This workshop will illustrate how the Scarsdale Alternative School creates ownership of its rules through the participation of all students and staff in school governance. The facilitators and workshop participants will role play the structures that support self-governance at our school: agenda committee, community meeting, and fairness committee. Together we will model how these structures encourage the consideration of multiple perspectives, and how the process builds ownership of the rules. We will allow time for participants to consider how their school could employ similar structures t engage their school in a more democratic approach to school governance.
Scarsdale Alternative School, Jennifer Maxwell, James Williams | Workshop
Collaborative Goal Setting: Constructing a Culture of High Achievement
The old Irish folk song states, “I know where I am going.” We certainly know our own objectives, but do the students know theirs? How do we ensure our students can formulate academic goals by analyzing their own academic and behavioral choices? A unified and structured approach will be presented by English teacher Adam Kinory and Inclusion Specialist Melissa Moskowitz, both from The School of the Future. Time will be allotted for collaboration, discussion, and planning.
The School of the Future, Adam Kinory | Workshop
Whose School Is It Anyway? Student Leaders at ARISE High School Tell It Like It Is
At ARISE, students are a part of all of the big decisions in the school. Students on the hiring committee interview potential teachers and even recommend whether current teachers should be asked to return or not. ARISE has weekly student-run Community Meetings where school issues and conflicts are discussed, where students who have improved or excelled are acknowledged, and where everyone talks about whatever is happening at the time. Problems as well as appreciations are shared and community is built. ARISE also has a school-wide leadership team made up of teachers, administrators, parents, and students that makes important decisions about the school in areas that include budget and staffing. ARISE student leaders even plan and run a week-long orientation for the whole school at the beginning of the year. At ARISE, adults take students' opinions into consideration and strive to constantly include the students' points of view. In this session, ARISE student leaders will share their experiences and advice for building meaningful student leadership.
ARISE High School, Lorena Borrayo, Anthony Dominguez, Laura Flaxman, Romeo Garcia, Thalia Jauregui, Yessenia Saucedo | Workshop
Are You Ready? Using the Hierarchy of School Needs to Make Successful School Change
Why does school change “stick” in some schools but not in others? What makes the difference between success and failure? Laura Thomas from the Antioch University Center for School Renewal will introduce the School Change Readiness Tool and the Hierarchy of School Needs, two new instruments to help you accurately recognize your school's developmental stage in order to apply the right intervention at the right time. Participants will practice using the tool and applying the hierarchy and will leave understanding how to utilize both through a 360-degree assessment process.
Antioch University New England, Laura Thomas | Workshop
What Can our Students Tell Us about Education That Matters? Student-Led Classroom Observations for Culturally Relevant Teaching
Built on the Best Practices Club model and supported by SF-CESS, John O’Connell High School has developed its “What Works Club” in which trained students observe teachers teaching and offer positive feedback related to what seems to work for the school’s diverse, urban student body. This workshop will tell the story of how this club came to be and what it takes to get students and teachers talking about what works and what matters.
John O'Connell High School, Gary Cruz | Workshop
Engaging the Entire Village: Community Members as Essential Collaborators
Many, if not all, of our most meaningful learning experiences occur when we initiate learning based on our interests, we work closely with someone who is highly knowledgeable in the area of study, we receive timely and focused feedback, and we have time to reflect on our experiences. Join us in a discussion about how to effectively create these opportunities for students through collaboration with community members.
QED Foundation, Elizabeth Cardine, Kim Carter, Scott Prescott | Interest Group
An Environmental Community Partnership: Building a Net-Zero, Carbon Neutral Public School Building
The session is designed to appeal to those educators who also are deeply committed to sustainable environmental practices. The discussion will of necessity talk about energy use, new technologies, jobs, educational opportunities, and alliances that follow this kind of project. The lessons learned are transferable to any visionary project a school wants to tackle.
East Bay Met School, Charlie Plant | Interest Group
Virtually Impossible? The Challenge of Personalizing Learning for All Students
Does personalizing each student’s learning in your classroom seem virtually impossible? At New Hampshire’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, on-line collaboration between students, teachers, and parents promotes student-centered learning that results in equitable outcomes for all students. Participants at our session will examine student and teacher work, hear directly from students about the impact of their on-line collaboration with teachers, and explore how to put our “virtual” best practices to use in “real” classrooms.
Virtual Learning Academy Charter School | Workshop
How Do We See the Middle East? Examining Stereotypes and Teaching History
What stereotypes do we carry with us about the Middle East and how do they affect what we learn from the news and media? How can we help students explore cultural bias in order to learn the complex history of the US and the Middle East? This workshop will help educators learn how to use media images and challenging text to explore cultural biases through reading, writing and discussion. The workshop will ask participants to engage in cooperative reading and writing strategies to help students explore the complex subjects of the Middle East, the United States, foreign policy and the ways we approach these critical current issues today.
Humanities Preparatory Academy, Kate Burch, Laurie Gaughran | Workshop
Friday, November 12, 3:45 pm - 5:30 pm
Featured Session: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, and Transgender/Transsexual Panel: What Is “An Education that Matters” for Our LGBQT Youth?
Even with all the attention given to and lessons “learned” from the historical harm of oppression (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) within our institutions, our schools continue to be places that seem designed to welcome some of our students and to shun, shame, and push out others. Come hear from a panel of LGBQT youth and educators who answer the Essential Question: What is the role of families and educators in leading “our” students toward improved and equitable outcomes for each student? Click here for more on this panel and its moderator, San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools director Gregory Peters.
Interdisciplinary Projects Require Faculty Collaboration
School-wide, collaborative, interdisciplinary studies at Civitas School of Leadership have produced symposiums on the American Dream, health fairs offering resources to the local community for healthier and more socially just living, and oral histories of some of Southern California’s most notable neighborhoods. Students will share their interdisciplinary projects, and Cynthia Thompson, Civitas Lead Teacher, will share the collaborative process necessary among the faculty for students to experience success in interdisciplinary studies.
Civitas School of Leadership, Cynthia Thompson | Looking at Student Work
Making Learning Personal
Teachers and schools aim to develop their students’ attitudes and skills as much as possible. You will work (by actual training and reflection) with Bert de Vos and Erik van Vliet, senior education consultants of APS, the Netherlands on improving the skill of presentation as a vehicle for the way to create and use personalized “development lines.” We will discuss the benefits and the possibilities for your own educational practice and purposes.
APS Netherlands, Bert de Vos | Workshop
Inside the Mission Hill School: Democratic Education in Practice
This session is a talk and discussions led by a recent recipient of the CES Ted Sizer Dissertation grant. Matthew Knoester is a former teacher at the Mission Hill School in Boston who has conducted a dissertation study that was an evaluation and ethnography of the Mission Hill School. In his research he drew on interviews with 63 people who have been intimately involved with the school—approximately one part staff, one part parents, and one part graduates of the school. He uses a theory of democratic education and critical educational studies to help make sense of the results. In this session, Matthew will discuss how he conducted the research, what he found, and why he thinks it is important. There will also be small group discussions about key dilemmas that were found in the study and about other critical topics, followed by a large group discussion led by Matthew.
Sizer Scholar | Matthew Knoester | Workshop
Advancing Your School's Mission while Your School is Advancing
Join us in Advancing Your Mission, and you will leave with a blueprint for the next several years, including how to: build a fundraising plan incorporating foundations and individuals; create and produce at least two engaging newsletters annually; create sustainable and equitable partnerships; use free tools to advance your message; and organize yourself to rally your teachers, students, alumni and board as partners in the execution of your plan.
Boston Day and Evening Academy, Andrea Kunst, Nastasia Lawton | Workshop
The Art of Collegial Coaching: Using Video to Support Reflective Adult Learning Communities
At their best, schools are learning communities where youth and adults are engaged in creative, dynamic work and conversations that push their work forward. In this interactive workshop, faculty from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education will explore the role of video in collegial coaching to support teacher reflection and collaboration. Educators will analyze video, engage in role plays, and leave with ideas and tools to support collegial coaching in their own schools.
High Tech High Graduate School of Education, Melissa Daniels, Shani Higgins, Stacey Lopaz, Kelly Wilson | Workshop
DIS/Ability and the Arts: Making Space in the Classroom for Kids who "Think Different"
This workshop invites participants to explore the connections between artistic learning and the qualities of mind that are most disabling in traditional classrooms. Hands-on activities in small groups will allow participants to experience learning through the arts. The workshop will include a presentation on students with disabilities as arts learners, time for questions and discussion, and several sample lesson plans demonstrating arts-based learning.
Boston University School of Education, Sarah Mayper | Workshop
From "In the Seat" to "On Your Feet": Social Activism in Math and Humanities
How can education empower students to make change in the world? At Capital City Charter School, students engage in social action projects in Math and Humanities, through which they develop toolkits for the future, including deep understandings of content and skills for effectively expressing themselves. By providing opportunities for students to act on their passions, teachers can create highly motivating learning environments. In this session, participants will develop their own social action projects across disciplines.
Capital City Public Charter School Upper School, Alice Cook, Barrie Moorman | Workshop
Community Partners: Collaborating to Give students Richer and More Opportunities
For years Fenway High School has been collaborating with community partners in greater Boston to bring our students richer experiences and more opportunities. Our partners bring the arts to sophomores, enroll juniors and seniors in college classes, hire seniors as interns, recruit all-age students into specialized out-of-school programs, and share their facilities, personnel, and expertise with us. This workshop will help you develop a plan to engage community partners for your school's unique wants and needs.
Fenway High School, George Papayannis | Workshop
Let Freedom (& Learning) Swing: Critical Friends Tuning The Jazz & Democracy Project
The Jazz & Democracy Project® (J&D) highlights process over product. Join facilitator Wesley J. Watkins, IV, Ph.D as we engage in the very activities that help elementary and secondary students experience and therefore understand how Jazz is created. Then, like the democratic process that jazz is, connect your own experience to those of other participants to provide insights on how J&D can improve its assessment and student-centered teaching and learning.
The Jazz & Democracy Project/SF-CESS, Wesley Watkins | Workshop
Students Taking Action: Educating for Positive and Respectful Participation
Human Rights Education and Peace Education bring greater dignity to people's lives. Service-learning incorporates these values into formal curriculum. A meaningful model of service-learning requires more than "community service hours" to inspire students to take action in their community, understand it, and question it. This workshop will examine the potential of service-learning in school, create new ideas, and connect peace education with personal development.
Youth Spirit Foundation, Amy Argenal, Theodore Timpson | Workshop
Creating a Social Justice Curriculum
The investigation of social justice issues is a compelling strategy for facilitating the development of citizenship and academic skills by students, particularly when so many of our students face social justice issues related to poverty, parenting, employment, housing, discrimination, health, crime, violence, and many other factors. Using a curriculum development model originally developed by Lee Howe and Howie Kirschenbaum, a theory advocated by Pedro Noguera, and the work of psychotherapist Carl Rogers, participants will learn a curriculum development process that they can use with teachers and students and a product that they can use immediately.
School Without Walls, Dan Drmacich | Workshop
No Subject Left Behind: The Fight to Preserve Social Studies and More in Our Schools
Civic engagement and civil discourse are at risk as NCLB emphasizes testing in English and math while narrowing access to other engaging and meaningful curricula. Learn how the California Council for Social Studies (CCSS) fought against micro-managed curricular mandates and advocated for policies allowing rigorous whole child education. Fred Jones, Legislative Analyst for CCSS, will explain CCSS’s legislative agenda and lead a workshop teaching participants how to build relationships with local, state, and national policy makers.
Alameda County Office of Education, Nathan Ivy, Fred Jones | Workshop
A Revolutionary Curriculum: Student and Staff Interests and Passions as the Core of a School's Curriculum
We will pose a challenge: what should the learning experiences of our children really be? What are the fundamental goals? Our answers guide a very different approach to the high school years for a public school. We aim to be provocative, challenging, unsettling. We will openly discuss both the joys and heartbreaks of trying to develop a truly personalized program for both students and staff, and try to open the group's hearts and minds an alternative structure.
East Bay Met School, Steve Perry | Workshop
Twenty Years of High Expectations! Heterogeneity, Differentiation, Inclusion, and Mastery in a Math Program
At its inception in 1992, teachers at Souhegan High School were asked to figure out what the CES Common Principles meant for math curriculum and instruction. Value decisions were made that a) we were a school of inclusion, b) that all students could study the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ core curriculum, and c) that all students would be required to complete at least three credits in mathematics. Almost twenty years later, we now share our experiences and challenges of implementing such a program. The presenters, Joann McDeed and Amy McGuigan, are both math educators each with 25 years of experience who have taught on and off team courses in remedial to AP classes. Participants will be involved in discussions around inclusion, mastery learning, heterogeneous grouping, and differentiated instruction all in order to personalize the learning for all students.
Souhegan High School, Joann McDeed, Amy McGuigan | Interest Group
Whose Side Are You On? Teaching Controversial Issues in the Social Studies Classroom
Our students are the problem-solvers of the future; we need to gain confidence in using contemporary social issues as a means to develop problem solving, empathy, and critical thinking skills in our students. They need exposure to complex social issues in order to practice finding solutions to the problems they will face in their lives and communities. In this workshop, participants will discuss the challenges, benefits, and methods of teaching about controversial issues.
Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School, Freja Joslin, Matthew King | Workshop
Choosing To Participate: Linking the Past to Moral Choices Today
Choosing to Participate focuses on the civic choices people make about themselves and others in their community, nation, and world. Many CES schools use Facing History and Ourselves to help students be well informed in ways that shape their civic attitudes, beliefs, and ethical awareness, as informed by their understanding of history. Participants will be exposed to concrete Facing History teaching strategies, receive resources, and learn about structures of successful CES schools that help students to understand that choices are important and shape us as responsible global citizens.
Facing History and Ourselves, Jeremy Nesoff | Workshop
From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: Brewing Biodiesel in the Classroom
At this workshop, learn how students at Young Women’s Leadership Charter School are using waste oil from local restaurants to produce biodiesel. This senior elective was created with the goal of motivating and empowering students to tackle a real-world scientific issue: the environmental impact of fossil fuels. The basics of biodiesel production will be covered, as well as more advanced topics and ideas for connecting this topic to each of the scientific disciplines.
Young Women's Leadership Charter School, Kathleen Grimes Menyhart | Workshop
What Do Educators Mean by “Ready for College and Career?”
Veteran National Professional Board for Teaching Standards certified classroom teachers will lead students and teachers in a shared discussion of David Conley’s “Four Dimensions of College and Career Readiness.” This will include ways high schools can better prepare more students to pursue learning beyond graduation, whether or not they go to college. The session will include a student driven video and collaborative group effort to consider strategies necessary to design a plan of action that focuses on college and career readiness.
Greenville Tech Charter High School, Jacqueline Brown-Williams, Cleo Crank, Carmen Rhodes | Workshop
I Told You So! My Real World Learning Project DOES Meet State Proficiency Standards!
In an ever-changing climate of what we want our students to learn and what state and national standards tell us our students should be learning, many find it difficult to focus on project work and real world leaning. In this workshop, students will share their interest-driven Real World Learning Projects that not only helped them learn hands-on and in a real-world setting, but also taught them proficiency-based graduation requirements set by the state. Educators will show how they coached their students to link their multidisciplinary project work to the state’s requirements and explain why it is important to continue to have students learn based on what they are passionate about, no matter their interest or skill level.
The Met - Peace Street Campus, Megan Cresci, Jeff Johnson | Looking at Student Work | <urn:uuid:fe1d98f2-ea45-4d9f-8c38-be1f13fc4f9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.essentialschools.org/events/4/event_details/52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940113 | 5,922 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Sirex & Rory have covered getting them out of the water pretty well, but given that getting them out of the water in the first place might be no small feat, you're right in understanding that you're far from out-of-the-woods, so to speak, even after they're out. Getting the victim warmed up is paramount, and their wet clothes are going to be a serious impediment. If there's any way to get them out of their wet clothes and into some dry clothes, that's pretty high on your list. Some possibilities:
- Get dry clothes from someone's backpack (maybe the best option).
- Borrow clothes from someone else (ie, strip off the wet clothes and take someone else's jacket, etc.). This, of course, now gives you two people who aren't properly dressed, so you really want to accelerate efforts to get the whole group to safety. Since this puts another person at risk, you'd want to be pretty cautious about employing it.
The whole idea of changing clothes is that your hiker will be lots more likely to be able to warm himself back up in dry clothes than in wet clothes, so you're looking for any reasonable option to help that happen.
Next, you need to assess your status and consider getting the whole group to safety as soon as possible. If you've been able to get your soggy hiker into some dry clothes (fully or partially), you may be able to just continue your hike. You'll generate some body heat by moving, which will help some. If you have a short distance to travel in order to reach shelter / warmth, this is probably your best bet.
If, however, it's cold enough that you're not going to warm up by hiking, or if you don't have dry clothes, or you had to borrow some clothes from someone (leaving two or more hikers under-dressed) I'd strongly consider getting a fire started in order to warm up and dry off. Some sort of reflective surface (tarp, rock wall, etc.) may help warm you a little more evenly. Dry out your clothes, but don't burn them!
Keep an eye on time vs. your itinerary. If stopping to build a fire will cause you to not be off the trail by nightfall, you'll need to decide if you're staying put overnight or sending someone out for help. All the usual wilderness first-aid guidelines apply here -- don't send anyone anywhere alone, and a group of four is a great deal better than a group of two or three. If you don't have a large enough group to send a capable party for help, I'd be inclined to stay put and keep the group together.
The whole idea here is to keep your head and use the resources of the group to avoid making the situation worse while you're trying to recover. | <urn:uuid:49c3ca6e-460f-441e-b008-59a9a48f831d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/1221/falling-into-an-ice-cold-body-of-water?answertab=votes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972642 | 587 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Cape Wind To Use Falmouth As Base Of Operations
By: Michael C. Bailey
Yesterday was a red letter day for the Cape Wind project, which took another step toward becoming a reality and making good on a long-held promise of creating local jobs.
“This is a very exciting day for us here at Cape Wind,” Mark Rodgers, director of communications for Cape Wind told a crowd of about 50 reporters and town, county, and state officials who gathered in the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce conference room, where James S. Gordon announced a deal that will establish Falmouth as the new operations and maintenance headquarters for Cape Wind.
Cape Wind had earlier this week signed a purchase and sale agreement with East Marine on Falmouth Harbor, which would be transformed into the wind farm’s base of operations. He did not disclose the value of the agreement, which is confidential under a no-disclosure agreement signed by both parties.
The property is just under an acre in size.
“I just want to say: I told you so,” said former state representative Matthew C. Patrick, one of the very first politicians to come out in favor of the project—“an unpopular position, even in my own party,” he remarked. Mr. Patrick said he stuck by his guns because “I knew the jobs would come, and that they were needed, and that these would be good jobs of the future…Falmouth is going to become the wind energy hub of New England.”
The center will create 50 direct, permanent jobs “comprising skilled technicians with background in power engineering, electronics, mechanical engineering,” Mr. Gordon said. “These will be highly paid workers that will be going out every morning to the Cape Wind Farm to keep the facility well-maintained.”
Falmouth Board of Selectmen, seeing this potential for local job creation, passed a resolution in 2009 to actively court Cape Wind to set up operations in town. “Bringing Cape Wind’s headquarters to Falmouth builds on the town’s strengths in marine sciences and engineering,” Kevin E. Murphy, chairman of the board said, “and it helps keep, more importantly, our main harbor, Falmouth Harbor, as a working harbor…we want to keep our waterways as working environments.”
I knew the jobs would come, and that they were needed, and that these would be good jobs of the future…Falmouth is going to become the wind energy hub of New England.
“This is a very positive economic boost for our town,” Town Manager Julian M. Suso said, “and we’re pleased that they’re pursuing something that is in character with our working marine environment.”
That working marine environment was a major selling point for Mr. Gordon. “Our reason for locating in Falmouth was simple: we found a marina in Falmouth in a protected harbor that had a large storage warehouse, slips that would accommodate the vessels that will go out to service our wind farm,” he said.
He added that an added benefit is the town’s proximity to educational institutions that promote through their respective curricula renewable energy development: Cape Cod Community College, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, which has experienced some of the benefits of wind emery directly through the turbine erected on the campus in 2009.
“One hundred percent of my students have studied and lived under that wind turbine, and have come to appreciate the opportunity here on the Cape for a free natural resource that, with technology and foresight, we can press into service,” Rear Admiral Richard G. Gurnon, president of the Maritime Academy, said.
Sharing The Wealth
The day’s speakers looked beyond Falmouth’s border and painted a picture in which Falmouth was a locus for a renewable energy industry that would have far-reaching benefits for the state and the country.
Mr. Gordon remarked on Falmouth’s role in the whaling trade generations ago, calling it “one of the energy capitals of the world, along with New Bedford”—which, coincidentally, has been identified as a construction port and staging area for the turbines—and said establishing a headquarters in Falmouth “is the beginning of an emerging industry that will once again make southern New England and the Massachusetts region not only a large producer of renewable energy, but also an exporter of energy.”
“This region, this southeastern Massachusetts region, is so ripe to become, not only nationally but I think internationally, the leader in marine education, marine research, marine technology and development, and the advancement of the marine economy,” Congressman William R. Keating (D) said.
Richard K. Sullivan Jr., the state’s executive secretary of energy and the environment, said with Cape Wind anchoring the state’s growing renewable energy industry, Massachusetts is primed to create “the vast majority” of the 43,000 new jobs the US Department of Energy predicts will be created by the offshore wind industry alone.
That figure came from a 2010 report by the department of energy that estimated 20 jobs would be created for every megawatt of energy generated by offshore wind.
Mr. Gordon noted that Cape Wind has already generated “hundreds” of direct and indirect jobs throughout Massachusetts over the course of the decade-long planning and review process, including jobs attached to the company’s current geotechnical and geophysical exploration operations in Nantucket Sound.
“We have many, many people working in Massachusetts on the Cape Wind project, and have had those people for many years,” he said.
Mr. Gordon laid out a tentative time line for the firm, in which financing on the project is completed next year, construction begins in 2014, and by the end of 2014 “we’ll start bringing in the operations and maintenance crew for specialized training to be ready for the wind farm’s operations in 2015.”
This marks the second major business deal between Cape Wind and a Cape Cod business. In March 2011 Cape Wind entered into a deal with Hy-Line Cruises for the “Cape Wind Eco Tour and Visitor Center at Hy-Line Cruises” initiative, which will include guided tours of the wind farm once it is constructed on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound.
East Marine was owned by the Wormelle family from 1981 until 2003, when it was sold to Falmouth Heights LLC, owned by Peter M. Nicholas of Boston.
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In order to comment you need to be logged in. | <urn:uuid:38f948e6-7696-4ab1-8914-19c3ee6cee1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capenews.net/communities/falmouth/news/2050 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964979 | 1,394 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Where Are The Jobs?
Where Are The Jobs?
There were two reasons for the election of President Obama. One, after one and a half terms of Bush the Younger, and a Republican shopaholic Congress and half a term with a Democratic shopaholic Congress people were desperate for change. And two, the economy hit a speed bump in September of 2008. Candidate Obama promised to control spending so our free economy could create new jobs. President Obama has so far delivered the greatest spending binge in world history.
His answer to an economy stalled because of government induced bubbles and out-of-control spending was the massive omnibus stimulus filled with “shovel ready jobs” that it took him nearly two years to discover never existed. Next he squandered his massive political capital seizing industries, ramming national health care down the throat of a protesting America, taking over the financial industry, the Internet, and establishing regulatory control over everything from cradles to graves.
Since his election, as the economy languished, the American people from across the political spectrum have sought leadership in the quest for a recovery. And what has been the response of our Progressive President and his Progressive-dominated Congress? Constant promises to focus on job creation to cover the enactment of a radical agenda designed to transform America.
In January 2009, seven days after taking office, President Obama gave his first state of the Union speech. In this speech, after detailing how deep the Recession had become he said, “That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight,” and “People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help. And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.”
By May of 2009 President Obama’s jobs deficit, which is the range between what has been promised and what has been delivered, reached 6.2 million and was growing by over 500,000 a month. Holding a series of Jobs Summits at the White House the President continued to promise he was going to focus on jobs. By October of 2010 the administration’s jobs deficit stood at 7.6 million.
In July of 2009 the promise by the President was for a focus on job creation. And while Progressive think tanks such as the Economic Policy Institute lauded him for his focus on jobs, in December of 2009 Mr. Obama had to once again promise to turn his focus on jobs since the unemployment rate was stuck at over 9%.
In January of 2010 President Obama in his second State of the Union Address promised to renew his focus on job creation. Also in January of 2010 the President announced he would spend billions to create green jobs even though no one is quite sure what constitutes a green job and they are projected to cost over 135,000 dollars apiece. In addition, these are temporary jobs and many of them would be overseas?
By March of 2010 the President’s advisers were predicting an extended period of high unemployment. Also in March of 2010 the President announced a multi-billion dollar bill to create jobs in small businesses. In April of 2010 the President promised to turn his focus on job creation. By September of 2010 some of the President’s key economic backers as well as over 300 economists were pleading with him to focus on jobs. In December of 2010 the President announced that our economy is past the crisis point and that now it’s time to focus on jobs.
What has President Obama accomplished in almost two years in office? One site proudly lists 100 accomplishments. Another site lists 90 accomplishments. An abbreviated list of nine is readily available. Another complains he is not getting credit for all he has done and lists the eight they feel are especially noteworthy. Another site lists seven.
Taking the opportunity of one of his rare press conferences to remind everyone, “I am President,” he went on to list his latest lame-duck accomplishments, including passing the tax compromise package, ratifying the START nuclear disarmament pact with Russia, and repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. He took the opportunity of reviewing his recent accomplishments to place these bi-partisan legislative victories in the context of November’s election saying, “in the wake of the November elections that we have the capacity not only to make progress, but to make progress together.” Is this the progress you voted for?
Though all these accomplishments have gone a long way in fundamentally transforming America, with the current unemployment rate frozen at over 9 % it’s hard to say they‘ve created any jobs. Perhaps it’s time to tell a President whose only private sector job made him feel as if he was behind enemy lines that except for more bureaucrats and make-work temporary positions government can’t create jobs. At best it can create an atmosphere of freedom and then get out of the way.
We cannot borrow our way to prosperity. We cannot tax ourselves to solvency. And we cannot take one hundred dollars from a productive taxpayer, siphon off fifty dollars in handling fees, pay fifty dollars to a make-work employee and call that a job at least not outside the beltway in the real world. Quit trying to remake America. Quit taxing and regulating business to a standstill. Let freedom ring, and then perhaps you’ll learn where real jobs come from: free enterprise.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com View the trailer for Dr. Owens’ latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2011 Robert R. Owens firstname.lastname@example.org Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:c20917e1-b714-4baa-96f3-c42db4414e01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redstate.com/drrobertowens/2011/01/08/where-are-the-jobs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974393 | 1,215 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Creating leaders to meet the Needs of Our World through Songahm martial arts training.
While Leadership is one of the attributes emphasized in all ATA programs, our Leadership program offers students an opportunity to aspire to an even greater level of achievement. The mission of Leadership NOW is to create leaders to meet the Needs of Our World, adept in the core life skills necessary for success. Leadership students learn the importance of leading by example and supporting their communities. Required to step up their physical and mental training, students are rewarded with unique opportunities and advanced curriculum designed to bring out their best.
Benefits of Leadership Training
Leadership Life Skills Curriculum
As a true leader, you will learn to inspire others while striving for ever-higher achievement. By learning life skills such as goal-setting, persistence, confidence, motivation, communication, etiquette, and public speaking, you will become a leader no matter what life path you choose.
Advanced Training Opportunities
Because Leadership students receive specialized training, they're equipped to reach their goals more quickly. Advanced Protech weapons training is also offered at both the school level and at regional events and tournaments throughout the year. In addition, national tournaments offer exclusive Leadership NOW Workouts, lead by the most elite martial arts Masters in the ATA.
Advanced Competition Opportunities
Although regional and national tournaments provide an excellent opportunity for leaders in all divisions to compete for best in Traditional and ATA X-treme Forms, Weapons, and Sparring, only Leadership students are eligible to gain points toward a State Championship title. Those who attain the prestigious distinction of State Champion are then eligible to wear the designation on their uniforms.
Expert Weapons Training
As a Leadership student, you are eligible to receive advanced weapons training to further your martial arts knowledge and expertise. Jahng Bong (bo staff), Ssahng Nat (kama), Samdan Bong (three section staff), and Gumdo (Korean sword art) are some of the weapons that can be studied.
Leadership NOW is a program designed to meet the Needs of Our World. Therefore, Leadership students are encouraged to get involved in their community and give back. While service projects vary in scope, there's always a way for students to find an activity in their school, neighborhood or city that matters to them and makes a difference in the lives of others.
Leadership students can proudly display their trainee status by wearing the official red, white and blue striped Leadership collar, as well as apparel, workout gear, and other merchandise available through World Martial Arts. They also enjoy access to exclusive training videos, special offers, and discounts from ATA's Leadership website.
A leader has vision, creativity, and persistence while empowering and earning the respect of others.
Leadership students learn to effectively share their vision, reach their personal goals, and motivate those around them to perform and achieve.
The Leadership program represents the next level of training both mentally and physically. It is an elite program to give students a competitive edge, not just in their martial arts training but in all areas of life.
Leadership training instills a different mindset in students that positions them for success. Whether in the classroom, an occupation, or continued service within the community, Leadership students stand out among their peers.
Leadership training is a short-term investment with lifelong benefits. It provides both the ability and the desire to accomplish extraordinary things. | <urn:uuid:becf07a7-2d48-443f-945b-6d212eef0a5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ataonline.com/leadershipnow/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960153 | 693 | 1.609375 | 2 |
It's All Politics
Mon December 17, 2012
Open-Government Watchdogs OK With Closed-Door Fiscal Cliff Talks
Originally published on Tue December 18, 2012 10:48 am
If President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner's closed-door meetings aimed at solving the fiscal cliff crisis trouble anyone, you'd expect it to be the open-government watchdogs who routinely bark their outrage at public officials who work overtime to avoid public scrutiny.
But Obama and Boehner's secret meetings (they held another at the White House on Monday) and one-on-one phone calls have been the case of the watchdogs that haven't barked. Open-government advocates aren't necessarily troubled by the closed meetings — unlike, say, conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has inveighed against Obama holding talks behind closed doors
Let's be realistic, government-transparency advocates say: It stands to reason that sometimes leaders need to meet privately to reach an agreement.
"Government transparency should never mean that there can be no private conversations," says Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Politics is the art of compromise, and sometimes compromise has to be reached behind closed doors. With all the vast constituencies interested in this, if both sides have to constantly play to their bases in every phrase uttered, they can't get to a compromise."
Including 'Time For The World To See It'
"Negotiations often have to be private, and there's a place for frankness and private conversations in politics and in governing," says John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation, another of Washington's better known government-transparency organizations.
But just because government-transparency hawks understand the need for policymakers to at times hold talks behind closed doors, it doesn't mean they don't still demand a level of accountability that political leaders might chafe at.
"What we should expect is once the deal is reached, and before people vote on it, there's adequate time for the world to see it and read it," Sloan says. "I think there should be transparency in whatever it is [lawmakers] are expected to vote on."
Wonderlich agrees there needs to be enough time for lawmakers and the public to absorb the details before any fiscal cliff legislation is voted on.
And he says a more fundamental concern is that our governing process has become so dysfunctional, our leaders have now gotten accustomed to the idea that it takes such closed-door meetings whose results are then ratified by Congress to manage the nation's affairs.
"The problem is that when that becomes the way the most important business is done," Wonderlich says. "It's not just deliberations. It's hashing out exactly what's going to happen, and then Congress is just treated as a rubber stamp. The only thing that happens publicly is rubber stamping a deal. And the ultimatum is catastrophe. So here's your choice, democracy: choose catastrophe, or something that two people in a room decided together."
Wonderlich has written a blog post on the Sunlight Foundation website in which he makes the same point. In it, he recommends, among other things, that the public and news media be skeptical of accounts of the negotiations, since participants have a way of describing such talks in ways that put them in the best light.
Undercutting The Lobbyists
Sunlight joined several other good-government groups that sent a letter to Obama and congressional leaders regarding the fiscal cliff negotiations. While the groups acknowledge the need for private talks, they call for whatever legislation results from the negotiations to be available at least 72 hours before a vote.
While most members of Congress and the public may be excluded from details of the private negotiations, so are lobbyists. That's a good thing, according to transparency watchdogs who say the involvement of lobbyists working on behalf of their narrow interests could make a deal impossible.
True, the closed-door negotiations do represent a departure from the kind of transparency Obama promised during his 2007-2008 presidential campaign. Back then, Obama promised to hold negotiations for health care legislation on C-SPAN.
That was Obama's way of contrasting himself with his Democratic opponent at the time, Hillary Clinton. When she led the Clinton administration's failed effort at health care reform in the early 1990s, she held closed-door meetings that were criticized as such.
Conservatives like Norquist and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama have criticized Obama for not living up to those early vows of televised negotiations in the current fight.
Sloan dismisses such criticisms as cynical politics.
"Some of the people who are screaming about transparency the loudest are the most ridiculous," she says. "They have never believed in transparency a previous day in their lives. They're only advocating something they believe will scuttle a deal." | <urn:uuid:39982d1c-1ba2-4c17-9664-3d55d99fafdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvnf.org/post/open-government-watchdogs-ok-closed-door-fiscal-cliff-talks | 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 | 0.968872 | 989 | 1.570313 | 2 |
BANGKOK: Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, will show his support to the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign by planting a tree at the UN's Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday.
The Billion Tree Campaign was launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in January 2007. Since then, close to two billion trees have been planted around the globe.
Along with a focus on tree planting, the campaign also highlights the importance of voluntary action by all sectors of society to address issues such as climate change, air quality and water, among others.
"All of us can play a role in helping our planet. This involves simple actions that each of us can take," said Bachchan ahead of the planting ceremony.
"UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign, which is set to meet its two billion mark soon, is testimony to the tenacity and will of people to do their part. I encourage you to join the millions who helped turn this small 'acorn' into a tree of hope," he added.
Amitabh Bachchan will be joined by Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); Hiroshi Nishimiya, Deputy Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; and Latha Reddy, India's Ambassador to Thailand and Permanent Representative to ESCAP. | <urn:uuid:b6a8a50c-62f1-4c96-ac91-e5b55781925e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-04-29/developmental-issues/27782375_1_escap-amitabh-bachchan-climate-change | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956638 | 295 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The emperor has no clothes...
Emanations from Morrill Hall lately have been unworldly. The recent piece in the Daily by President Bruininks is a good example: "Research or outreach cuts are not an option..."
[I've pointed out previously that such cuts have already been made, e.g. to extension services.]
A response to the Bruininks piece has appeared in the Daily:
Bruininks' guest column unsettling
The contradictory statements left many questions unanswered.
By Russell Ericson
University of Minnesota President Bob Bruininks' Oct. 19 guest column was unsettling. In it, Bruininks states, "We need both [quality and affordability] in order to be a leading public university; if we price ourselves out of the market in an effort to be world-class we will cease to be public in any meaningful sense, and if we fail to invest in quality we will slide quickly into mediocrity."
However, tuition at the University of Minnesota has more than doubled over the past 10 years. As a result, University graduates are faced with the highest debt loads in the Big 10. Increasing tuition won't reduce either of these figures, yet tuition increases are already planned and seem as though they will become de rigueur in the foreseeable future.
In his letter, Bruininks states that sharing knowledge in our classrooms is part of what we do here at the University. But it is common knowledge among undergrads that average test scores in most of the introductory math and science courses at the University are somewhere between 40 and 60 percent. Without a curve, about half of the people in the class would have failed. A midterm average in a class I recently took here was 32 percent. This seems to be business as usual at the University, even though these numbers clearly indicate an instructional problem. If no one is passing the tests, no one is learning anything.
According to Bruininks, "Minnesota has numerous colleges and universities that focus primarily on teaching and leave research and outreach to us ..." Should students at the University not expect to be taught in their classes? Have 50,000 undergrads made a "false choice" by choosing the University, where education is apparently not the primary focus? Are we not sliding "quickly into mediocrity" yet? | <urn:uuid:1073f296-5c5d-4442-b28d-c5164d5b7bb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/bgleason/pt/2009/10/the_emperor_has_no_clothes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967609 | 471 | 1.585938 | 2 |
ISLAMABAD: The nation celebrated Pakistan Day on Friday with traditional zeal and enthusiasm to commemorate the passage of the Lahore Resolution, later called, the Pakistan Resolution, which eventually led to the creation of Pakistan.
The day dawned with special prayers for the progress and prosperity of the country and with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital as well as 21-gun salutes in provincial capitals.
The national flag was hoisted at important public and private buildings across the country and all Pakistani missions abroad.
Governmental, political, cultural, social and other organizations have chalked out various programs to mark the day in a befitting manner.
In Lahore, several dignitaries are visiting the mausoleum of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, known as Poet of the East to pay homage to the great poet and philosopher.
People from all walks of life are also visiting the mausoleum, lay floral wreaths on the grave and offer fateha.
Change of guards took place at mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali and Governor Sindh Dr. Ishrat Ul- Ebad Khan and other dignitaries visited the mausoleum and lay floral wreaths, besides paying homage to the Father of the Nation.
Pakistan Day is being celebrated with traditional zeal in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, in their messages on the occasion, said Pakistan Day is an occasion for expressing the resolve that no dictator will be permitted to usurp the fundamental rights of people or trample on democratic aspirations. (APP) | <urn:uuid:2bf81f21-c894-4679-aed9-a7d92dcd7910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=41179 | 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 | 0.939711 | 373 | 1.804688 | 2 |
What is an alum?
It’s all Greek to me! (Actually, it’s Latin.)
Defining alumni (Definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com):
alumnus – A male graduate or former student of a school, college, or university.
alumna – A woman graduate or former student of a school, college, or university.
alumni – Plural form of alumnus and also includes alumnae.
alumnae – Plural form of alumna.
How does Simpson define who is an alum? Each college or university defines alumnus/a in a different way. At Simpson, an alumnus/a is anyone who has completed 32 credit hours at Simpson (or has a sophomore class status).
As a Simpson alum, you are automatically a member of the Alumni Association! There are no dues or fees and you have access to all of our alumni events and programming. | <urn:uuid:0dd99186-c0e6-4c00-a0e0-43abe28499f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simpson.edu/alumni/alumni-association/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948301 | 196 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Administration of Justice Student Completes Federal Internship
Julie Barone, a Fall 2009 graduate of Penn State Wilkes-Barre with a B.S. in Administration of Justice, shares her story of working as an intern with the United States Fire Administration in Emmitsburg, Md.:
“I didn’t want to do any ordinary internship; I wanted a Federal internship that would be memorable. I picked the right one, interning with the United States Fire Administration in Emmitsburg, Md. My internship was through the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the National Fire Academy, where I evaluated several courses for the Fire/Arson Training Division.
“One course, the Fire/Arson Origin and Cause course, was co-taught by instructors from the National Fire Academy and the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency. I learned the process of investigating a fire from the basics up and used those skills to investigate the origin and cause of a burned training cell in a group project.
“Another course I evaluated was Interview/Interrogation and Courtroom Testimony, which covered all three topics in a span of two weeks. We were taught by a retired FBI agent and learned interrogation techniques and what to look for during interviews. We were qualified by three U.S. Fire Administration Attorneys as expert witnesses, put on a stand, and testified our group’s fire investigation findings.
“In addition, I was granted access to visit the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md. I met with a researcher in charge of the Fire Dynamic research who gave me a tour of the facility. They test everything we come across a day to make life safer.
“I have been a volunteer EMT and fire fighter for nine years and have a passion for helping people. I graduated this past December and would like to be an arson investigator, so it was an honor to learn from all these experienced people.”
Photos (left to right):
1- Julie Barone waiting to "mock testify" as an expert witness in the Interview and Interrogation Techniques/Courtroom Testimony class. Her team of investigators was sequestered for three hours while their case was presented to a group of government attorneys.
2 - Based on real-life situations such as electrical fires, careless cigarette smoking, candle accident, or arson, fully furnished rooms in concrete models of homes are set on fire by highly trained administrators using one of those techniques. Students are not allowed in this area during the fire, but once the rooms are extinguished and cooled, the Fire/Arson Cause and Origin class is brought in and asked to determine the cause and origin of the fire.
3 - Dr. Denis Onieal (right), Superintendent of the National Fire Academy, presents Julie Barone with a certificate of completion of the July 2009 Interview and Interrogation Techniques/Courtroom Testimony course at the National Fire Academy. | <urn:uuid:4dbb20cd-4158-4bad-bb24-d498bffbba59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wb.psu.edu/Information/News/Archive/31452.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960088 | 617 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Israeli Supreme Court orders outpost demolished
Monday, May 7, 2012
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Supreme Court has set a new deadline for the demolition of an unauthorized Jewish outpost in the West Bank.
The court on Monday ruled that the Ulpana outpost must be dismantled by July 1.
A May 1 deadline for its removal was postponed so that the court could hear an appeal by the government, which asked for a 90-day delay.
About 30 Jewish families live in Ulpana. The court has ruled that the outpost was illegally built on private Palestinian land.
Israel has about 120 authorized settlements in the West Bank. Palestinians consider both the authorized settlements and the rogue outposts to be illegal encroachment on land they claim for a state. | <urn:uuid:0caffae8-43f6-4c56-830f-d7de67b766f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/may/07/israeli-supreme-court-orders-outpost-demolished/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971501 | 157 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Cliché but real: be true to yourself.
When people try to laugh at you, don’t scowl. It’s not a big deal. But shoot them when they totally run off your life with their hands.
Strata is a term we use in geology and stratigraphy, which is the rock layers/bands clearly defined like in the photo above. The word stratum is for one layer, whereas strata is for multiple layers. The photo above is by calwest on Flickr, which is a photograph of the Badlands in South Dakota.
i’m dying if its end. | <urn:uuid:72d4ad57-053b-45dc-9f4c-6d24c6eeb1a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miladydauntless.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943708 | 130 | 1.648438 | 2 |
In a newly minted two-part class, would-be Microsoft security practitioners can gain exposure to and understanding of a lot of security-related material that the company thinks is important enough to tout highly and to give away for free. I'm talking about the company's security clinics, entitled:
Security Guidance Training I
This class consists of four lessons that deal with the essentials of security, talks about what's involved in implementing patch management, cover basic server security topics for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, and also address basic client security topics for Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP versions. The coverage is well designed, nicely focused for self-paced use, and hits all the important topics necessary to cultivate an appreciation for best security practices and how to employ them.
Security Guidance Training II
This class is also made up of four lessons. Lesson 1 covers subjects related to implementing network and perimeter security, extending the basis to the network from the previous computer centric class. Lesson 2 explains how to implement application and data security, including Exchange Server, SQL Server, SBS, and general data security among its topics. Lesson 3 addresses advanced Server and Client security topics, such as securing IIS servers, advanced server and client security concepts and requirements, and issues specific to mobile clients. Lesson 4 deals with applied security strategies and addresses patch management and remote access strategies for the real world, as well as troubleshooting techniques for security configurations.
(Note: each of the items above includes two hyperlinks: the Clinic ID points to the corresponding general description, while the clinic name points to an outline of course topics).
To help cement the information covered in this training (and elsewhere in its security programs) Microsoft also offers free, one-day Hands-on Security Labs. But alas, they're completely booked up as far as they're scheduled out at present, so you should check back on the Web site and plan as far ahead as possible to try to get a seat in one of these events, if you're interested. FWIW, I do have to give the company high points for trying to provide the right information and hands-on experience to its cadre of interested professionals.
Tom Lancaster, CCIE# 8829 CNX# 1105, is a consultant with 15 years experience in the networking industry, and co-author of several books on networking, most recently, CCSPTM: Secure PIX and Secure VPN Study Guide published by Sybex.
This was first published in July 2004 | <urn:uuid:fc949afc-05c0-4aed-b2c3-2ce6c030ee1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/Microsoft-security-E-learning-clinics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942212 | 512 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Professor Yaacov Yadgar, Bar-Ilan University, Visiting Faculty UC Berkeley
Religion, State & Society Lecture Series, co-sponsored by UCLA Center for the Study of Religion
Although they comprise more than one third of the Jewish-Israeli population, Israeli Jews who self-identify as masorti (traditional) are probably the least understood segment within Jewish-Israeli society. They tend to be viewed as "mixing" the polar oppositions of secularism and religiosity, in what critics say amount to an inconsistent combination of certain practices and values of the two allegedly mutually-exclusive poles. In contrast, Professor Yadgar will offer a more attentive consideration of the meaning of masortiyut (traditionalism) in contemporary Israeli society: as a "third stance" that has the potential to overcome what often seems to be an unbridgeable gap between the Israel’s Jewish identity and its modern, democratic character. His talk will highlight the masorti ability to transcend the limited nature of the secular vs. religious dichotomy, discuss the ways in which masortim interpret the meaning of being Jewish in this late-modern world, and consider the meaning of tradition itself.
Yaacov Yadgar, UC Berkeley's 2012-2013 Lisa and Douglas Goldman Foundation Visiting Professor, teaches in the Department of Political Science at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Yadgar received his PhD from Bar Ilan, where he studied with Israel Prize winner Charles Liebman, leading analyst of the Israeli and American Jewish communities. Yadgar is a scholar of religious identity, politics, and culture in Israel. His latest book, "Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics (2011)," focuses on the failure of the "religious vs. secular" discourse to capture accurately the complexity of Jewish identity -- not least of which because that discourse ignores the "masortim" (traditionists) who comprise over a third of the Jewish-Israeli population.
Pay-per-space parking is available in UCLA Structure 3, near the corner of Hilgard and Wyton (turn right onto Wyton and follow the street until you see signs for Lot 3 Pay-per-space).
Cost: Free and open to the public
Tel: (310) 825-9646
© 2013. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:0b181eb5-5502-4919-a9da-328ea30d7e39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rbwong@international.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=9752 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936895 | 484 | 1.5 | 2 |
Google snuck its way out of a two-year Federal Trade Commission antitrust probe without any major scratches this week in large part because it spent $25 million on lobbying Washington to believe it wasn't, in fact, being evil, according to numbers from Politico's Tony Romm. As the case ramped up, with Google's Eric Schmidt testifying, Google upped that spending. In the first three quarters of 2012, Microsoft spent $13.1 million on lobbying, up from $5.9 million the previous year, according to numbers from The New York Times's Claire Cain Miller and Nick Wingfield. In addition to pouring money into its lobbying efforts, Google and its leaders also made strategic campaign contributions: Schmidt gave the maximum amount allowed, $2,400, to Senator Chuck Schumer, who sits on the committee that was investigating Google. As Thursday's FTC decision allowing Google to maintain its search stranglehold simmers throughout the tech world, the other factors leading to it are becoming more clear — and they all come down to dollars.
Google did what Microsoft didn't.
RELATED: Why the FTC Is Looking into Google
"Google had the Microsoft case as a template," Kevin Werbach, an associate professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Miller and Wingfield. "Google just had to convince the regulators it was sufficiently different from Microsoft." Part of that involved taking Washington more seriously, which Microsoft didn't do in its landmark 1999-2001 antitrust case, at least not at first. Microsoft had a lobbying outfit, run by Jack Krumholtz. But in the years leading up to the Microsoft case it spent a fraction of what Google did. When the FTC was laying judgment on Microsoft in 1999, the Windows maker doubled its lobby spending for the year to $3.7 million, which comes out to about $4.5 million after inflation. Meanwhile, with its tens of millions, Google set records of its own this year. Microsoft did have a cushy $1.4 million PAC leading up to the 2000 election, but that was too late — the FTC concluded its investigation in 1999, with a settlement arriving in 2001. Google, meanwhile, has a history of big campaign contributions, giving big in 2008 and 2012.
Google "played nice with regulators."
Another lesson Google learned from Microsoft was to work with Washington, explain Miller and Wingfield. And, again, that takes a lot of money. Google flew people to D.C. regularly. And this year the company started giving money to both Democratic and Republic causes. It also hired the right people to make it look good, forming "strategic alliances" with — or, you know, donated money to — the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, just to name a few of the D.C. institutions that Google's U.S. Public Policy and Government Affairs division supports. In addition, Google hired 18 lobby firms — not just individuals. Last year, the company had 93 lobbyists in D.C. That's one for every six members of Congress, according to The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim, Zach Carter, and Paul Blumenthal.
"The sense among insiders is that Google emerged victorious because its network in Washington also spanned more than the traditional lobbying community," writes Romm. Google spent "untold resources" getting buddy-buddy with the anti-trust academics it needed to prove its search practices cause no consumer harm. Take, for example, Joshua Wright, the George Mason University professor and recent Obama FTC appointee, who wrote papers like "Google and the Limits of Antitrust: The Case Against the Antitrust Case Against Google." (He had to sit out of the FTC hearing because of a conflict of interest.)
Some still argue that despite the flood of money, the FTC didn't have that strong of a case to begin with. "I think, in the end, the problem is that it’s a difficult case," Harry First, a top competition law professor at NYU, told Politico. But,it's undeniable that the pile of money it sent to D.C. helped Google prove that point. | <urn:uuid:eedf2a2a-f335-41aa-b7da-512c4c2820c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/did-google-buy-way-trouble-feds-151616943.html | 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 | 0.961698 | 846 | 1.570313 | 2 |
YESAB was established under the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESAA), which came into force May 13, 2003. The Act sets out a process to assess the environmental and socio-economic effects of projects and other activities in the Yukon or that might affect the Yukon. This is a requirement of Chapter 12 of the Umbrella Final Agreement and Yukon First Nations’ Final Agreements. These assessments will be conducted in a manner that is consistent with the purposes of the Act.
The federal government has now finalized the Regulations that accompany the Act and assessments under YESAA are now being conducted. YESAB has developed Rules that set out in detail how the assessment process will work.
YESAB is committed to building an assessment process that works well for all Yukoners and all stakeholders. YESAB’s goal is to ensure the new assessment process under YESAA is the best possible arrangement for all interests. Our commitment is to be an impartial, effective and efficient organization that provides assistance to all involved in the assessment process.
Please see the attached documents for board member roles and responsibilities.
Click here to view the Board's website: http://www.yesab.ca/ | <urn:uuid:8bd6dbbb-b961-4d44-a6d6-83c93046b9ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cyfn.ca/yesabittee2?noCache=712:1344448589 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958642 | 245 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Towards A Real Business Model For Open-Source Software
Phoronix: Towards A Real Business Model For Open-Source Software
Last week in a FreeBSD status report we talked about the Chromium web-browser support on FreeBSD improving through a new subscription program whereby most of the FreeBSD patches are being kept closed-source for some length of time before being committed back upstream as open-source and reaching the hands of the non-subscribers. This caused some to question the work, but the developer behind this FreeBSD-Chromium subscription program, Sprewell, has written an editorial that we are now publishing. This details his beliefs concerning the future of open-source software business models.
Putting aside the authors more inflammatory statements and taking his proposal on its own I am left with a one big question. Where will the customers come from? The commercial software houses spend much (most?) of their income on marketing and advertising. They get their goods put in pretty boxes and sold at retail outlets like Amazon, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. Where will the guy who comes up with a better compression scheme find a market?
I like that people are thinking about alternative schemes to make money off software. Not that this is completely new, Ghostscript tried something very much like this years ago with Aladdin and failed mostly due to lack of clients. I guess this is the classic business problem and up to each to solve for itself, but I'm skeptical.
Phoronix: Towards A Real Business Model For Open-Source Software
However, you can't sell open source software products because anyone is free to copy all your source and create a competitor: this is why desktop linux has failed to this day and why it will never succeed.
Well, look how much BSD are installed on Desktops. How much Linux is installed on desktop. The percentage is similar to windows vs linux.
This means BSD has failed to become a desktop system and will always fail, unlike Linux, untill it switches to GPL.
To me, this means following things, something that Steve J. has understood and taken fuits off long ago:
- FreeBSD accepts its always-behind, second choice status.
- It accepts its milk cow status.
- It is a system for those, who were unable to afford MacOSX and pay this with manual debugging.
- BSD license accepts its a milk-cow license.
- Developing under BSD license means to giving away your time and skills to proprietary blobs.
or this guy, is brainless.
"The only marginally successful open source business model is consulting/support, which has done well for some but brings in a small fraction of closed source revenues. "
Opensource is NOT about consulting! Its about programming! Its about having possiblity to influence code development the exact way the customer wishes to and upstream the changes to build on and dont waste others resources.
With opensource you control the result directly,exactly with your investment(money, time, skills) and it will never be wasted in time, will prevent reinventing the wheel, will become exactly what you wish it to be(yearly editions, which you are forced to switch anyone?)
I think this guy,not opensource, is about consulting! *speechless*
- users and programmers get testing version which they can play with. Those wanting stable, go CentOS.
- corporate customers purchase license and get support, applied solutions(results upstreamed), they are funding the solutions they want and this solutions get upstreamed.
- everyone can do what he wishes, forums and documentation are here and eveyone has the choice and total control - the results get upstreamed too.
- users get ready to use, bleeding age software out of the box, that they test, but also have a possiblity to get LTS - stabilized releases.
- corporate customers have similar options as with redhat model.
This is not forking, it is evolution.
This are not bunch of distros, it is models for different appliances, each one ideal for specific area and all them upstream and exchange.
This is why I will ALWAYS use Mozilla ANYDAY over Chrome garbage.
And youtube HTML5 + H264 issue with Firefox only adds to that!
Marrying devil with god, opensource with blobby blob, not with me!
Letís test how this business model will work against competitors like Microsoft.
So, you develop cool program, but because you are programmer find only few customers. MS keeps close eye on the market and recognizes the future profits. They take your source. (Phase: Embrace). Then modifies it and they are not forced to release the source or their patches. (Phase: Extend). Then using their dominant position they establish their version as dominant and your program is dead because it is not compatible with MS version. (End game: Extinguish). Good luck. And more luck if you want to work for free for MS or Apple. In fact I think this hybrid model has been tried long time ago. That is how the switch from early open source to current close source business model happened.
I have been thinking a lot how the Open Source programmers would make money also. I think that only real solution is to fix the software development model. Current model is company or individual starts developing software and assumes all the risk and expenses and then hope to recoup the money by selling copies. This is the old record industry model and we can see where the record industry is heading. We need to find way to switch to model were the programmers are paid for developing new features and patches and distribute those patches for free. I see this as work to adapt the FOSS to customers needs. Having well written custom software that matches your business process should greatly reduce the cost of day-to-day operations and maintenance. But this will require big paradigm shift and it will take long time to happen, but I strongly believe it will happen. The systems get much more complex that even if the software is freely available on the Internet you still going to need and an expert to make it work for your business.
I wrote the original article, I thought I'd respond to some of the misguided comments I'm seeing here.
eikenberry, Where will the customers come from? You ever heard of the internet? If you really think software companies spend much or most of their income on marketing/advertising, I see that you are completely ignorant of the real issues here. As for the guy who comes up with a better compression scheme, try reading the actual piece: I said he would license it to one of the hybrid-source vendors who sell the software to the end user. As for Ghostscript, not only are you wrong, but the exact opposite is true. The guy who came up with the ghostscript model and the AFPL, L. Peter Deutcsh, made enough money by 1998 that he was able to retire. I traded some emails with him some time back and he told me that between his license and the dual-licensing model that ghostscript later switched to, it "generated, by now, tens of millions of dollars in revenue that (among other things) supports a team of good engineers improving and extending the code." Lack of clients, my foot.
crazycheese, it is true that linux is installed on more desktops than pure BSD, but there's no way the ratio is the same as Windows to linux. If you count Mac OS X as BSD because of its BSD userland, BSD has way more desktops than linux. If you think BSD-licensing is just giving away your work, how is GPL any better? You think IBM cares whether they take your GPL work or BSD work? At least with the BSD license, anyone is free to close up sections and build a real business off the code: that is the true freedom that the BSD license allows. I am well aware that open source is about not reinventing the wheel (did you even read my piece?) but that won't get you anywhere if there's no money behind it, as we've seen with the continual failure of desktop linux and pretty much any open source business so far, outside the enterprise consulting niche. Thanks for the list of open source "models" but those aren't business models, which is what I'm talking about. If you think open source is god, it is clear this whole discussion is lost on you.
sal-e, it won't be that easy because parts of the codebase are closed, so anyone who wants to fork will have to clone or license those closed sections.
ModplanMan, I'm well aware of Red Hat and Fedora, what's your point? Let me show you some actual numbers. In the last 4 quarters, Red Hat brought in $750 million in revenues, Microsoft brought in $60 billion: that is almost two orders of magnitude more. Red Hat isn't some new startup either, it's been around 17 years. If there were so much money in open source, they'd be making it by now and grabbing huge market share.
The truth is that open source business as currently pursued is a failure, and it will continue to be a failure as long as its proponents take the purist approach demonstrated by the commenters here. | <urn:uuid:d837552c-ae7f-4cf8-bb66-173443e36fa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?23485-Towards-A-Real-Business-Model-For-Open-Source-Software&p=125047 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95865 | 1,919 | 1.75 | 2 |
News & Events
National Grid Creates $350k Sustainable Energy Endowment at Clarkson University
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/nationalgrid.j pg.]
Clarkson University and National Grid today announced the creation of a $350,000 endowment at Clarkson. The National Grid Endowed Fund for Student Research Opportunities in Sustainable Energy will annually fund up to five summer research opportunities for Clarkson Honors Program students studying sustainable energy.
"Clarkson has a rich history of educating engineers for the energy industry and we are proud to be able to support and broaden its resources dedicated to building our industry's sustainable future," said Tom King, president of National Grid, U.S. "National Grid's endowment at Clarkson University is designed to provide educational and career pathways for bright young students and is an investment in the future of sustainable energy and engineering. The endowment supports National Grid's community involvement goals, which are focused on energy and the environment; education and skills; and community development."
"We are most grateful to National Grid for this generous endowment, which will enable further research opportunities for our undergraduate students in one of the University's signature areas of research, the environment and energy," said Clarkson President Tony Collins. "Partnerships like this one provide our students with access to state-of-the-art research technology, while simultaneously benefitting our nation's energy consumers. National Grid is enabling Clarkson and its students to continue playing a key role in research that will ultimately strengthen the economy of both New York state and the nation."
"This support will enable some of our most promising students to perform cutting-edge research and acquire the skills necessary to contribute to a sustainable future for all of us," said David M. Craig, director of the Honors Program.
The students' research includes areas like power systems, energy education, energy efficiency, energy harvesting and storage, bioenergy, fuel cells and hydrogen fuel, solar energy systems, and wind energy.
"Our need for sustainable energy may be the biggest challenge the world has ever faced," said Prof. Kenneth D. Visser, director of Clarkson's Center for Sustainable Energy Systems. "We are very grateful for National Grid's generosity and belief in the importance of investing in this research."
The students will also benefit from a series of seminars and workshops on sustainability and participate in field trips and team-building activities.
Built upon current and emerging problems in science, technology and society, Clarkson's Honors Program offers unique academic challenges and opportunities for Clarkson's most promising students. The University admits no more than 30 new students to the program each year.
Clarkson recently announced a new minor in sustainable energy systems for all engineering and engineering and management majors. The minor requires courses in technology, policy and industrial ecology, encouraging students to examine the human side of energy issues.
National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.
Photo caption: Clarkson University and National Grid have announced the creation of a $350,000 endowment at Clarkson. The National Grid Endowed Fund for Student Research Opportunities in Sustainable Energy will annually fund up to five summer research opportunities for Honors Program students in sustainable energy. Left to right: Honors Program Associate Director Hayley H. Shen; National Grid Vice President, Energy Solutions Services, Susan Crossett; Clarkson University President Tony Collins; National Grid, U.S., President Tom King; and Prof. Kenneth D. Visser. | <urn:uuid:137dcdee-8e15-4e28-821d-066b191905b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clarkson.edu/news/2009/news-release_2009-10-26-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934288 | 952 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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The wallflowers of the libraries are those books that languish on the shelves unread and ignored. Well-reviewed, (or they wouldn't be in the library), they are not sought out by readers, but may be stumbled upon by happenstance, a possible delightful discovery for someone. What makes someone take a chance on an unknown mystery? Is it an attractive cover, intriguing jacket copy, or a rave review from a favorite mystery author? Do people stick to certain sub-genres, i.e. police procedurals, British cozies, dog mysteries? Or, do they read omnivorously, picking anything that appeals at that moment? What sort of reader are you? Do you read strictly off the best seller list, reserving all your choices in advance? Do you depend on serendipity, enjoying the thrill of finding a really great book all by yourself?
Below are some of these wallflower mystery authors, some suggested by members of the Investigating Mysteries book discussion group. Take one out and have yourself a good time.
Max Allan Collins is a prodigious writer by anyone's standards. He is the author of novels based on popular films and television shows. He has also written the well-regarded Quarry series featuring hit-man Jack Quarry. If you like your heroes hard-boiled, you'll like Quarry.
Walter Satterthwait writes not only historical mysteries (some based on actual people such as Lizzie Borden), but a contemporary P.I. series starring Santa Fe resident Joshua Croft. He is surely an under-appreciated author who deserves a wider audience.
Margaret Yorke no longer writes, but she has written numerous psychological thrillers which will appeal to Ruth Rendell fans. Her plots often involved innocent people who make a fateful wrong decision and end up ruining their lives.
Cara Black is certainly not an unknown author, but her Aimee Leduc series sits on the shelf more than it should. The Paris setting is irresistible and so is Amy.
Priscilla Royal's heroine Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal is a plucky nun solving crimes in medieval times. The prioress/sleuth investigates the plethora of deaths not caused by the diseases, food or sanitation of thirteen century England.
Carolyn Haines writes the Mississippi Delta series starring Southern belle/P.I. Sarah Booth Delaney and her sidekick, a ghost named Jitty. Even if you don't appreciate the paranormal element, the characters and setting are charming. | <urn:uuid:529bd172-3324-4bfe-a4ac-8633aa958b06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newcitylibrary.org/node/1093 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947782 | 581 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Help with CGL gene cloning problems - (May/31/2012 )
Hello, there. My name is Roger Raby, and I'm currently working with Dr. Michael Serra at Youngstown State University. He directed me here, with the hope that someone might have some thoughts on what could be going wrong with my current procedure.
My goal has been to produce Cystethionine Gamma-Lyase (CGL) protein from the Cys3 gene, but I haven't had much luck in that department. I have been working on this project in one capacity or another since November of 2010, and would like to produce some usable protein soon (to say nothing of graduating). Here is a short summary of my latest attempt, which has been pretty typical of my results this year:
I started with yeast DNA provided by via the department. Using appropriate primers (sequenced to generate the gene, without reaction sequences for restriction enzyme reaction areas; past attempts have included sequences to generate restriction enzyme sites on each end of the gene) and Promega Green Master Mix, I generated a DNA sequence at ~1200 base pairs in length (the size of the Cys3 gene) based on running it against standards on an agarose gel. The reaction was scaled up, the gene was isolated from the agarose using the Cyclo-Pure Agarose Gel-Extraction Kit, and a follow-up gel indicated a DNA sequence at ~1200 base pairs. So far, so good.
The gene was then cloned into a pCR4-TOPO plasmid, which was used, in turn, to transform Mach 1 E. coli cells. The cells showed growth on agar plates laced with ampicillin (to which the transformed cells would be resistant), and after several nights of transfer to isolate individual colonies and produce enough cells, I isolated the plasmids from the cells.
That's where I run into problems. I attempted to digest the plasmids with EcoRI restriction enzyme (there are two restriction sites for EcoRI in the pCR4-TOPO plasmid, near to where the Cys3 gene should have been cloned in), in order to extract the gene, but on the gel run of the digestion mixture, rather than getting the expected bands (~1200 bp for the gene and ~4000 bp for the plasmid), there are multiple bands in each sample, with the smallest band showing up at ~1500 bp, much larger than expected for our samples. I am at a loss to say what has gone wrong. Among the things we have tried to determine the problem:
-A second attempt at the digestion was done, using freshly prepared BSA in the reaction mixture, a different EcoRI buffer, and fresh distilled water, leaving only the samples themselves and the EcoRI enzyme the same.
-A PCR reaction using different primers on the isolated plasmid (to see if it was the EcoRI enzyme that was causing the problem) yielded multiple resulting gene segments, none of the appropriate size to be the CGL gene.
-Sending the samples for sequencing yielded no sign of the CGL gene. A BLAST search for the sequence provided primarily signs of proteins related to 'kallikrein', which I am unfamiliar with.
If there are any suggestions you can provide as to what could be going wrong, or any ideas of where I could search for answers, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could let me know. If you need any further information before you can give any advice, please let me know and I'll post it as soon as I am able. Thank you very much.
It really sounds like you didn't clone what you thought you had. The resistance of the colonies to Amp just indicates that they have a plasmid in them, not the nature of the insert.
As I see it you have two options: 1) check the primers are specific (BLAST them beforehand) and re-do the PCR and cloning. You could try PCR and/or cloning from mRNA as well.
or 2) write to the authors of this paper and see if they will send you some plasmid. | <urn:uuid:ffb3d7dc-49b7-43f8-967e-dcd6ac23516e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.protocol-online.org/biology-forums-2/posts/25695.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967615 | 861 | 1.703125 | 2 |
|need help mom's hepa b result
Aug 16, 2010
my mom was diagnosed with hepa b few months ago, and it was a shocked to our family, for we didn't know how she got it. she sent to me her result, i was told my mom is infectious , but others say that she is an inactive carrier. here is her result: HBeAg nonreactive(negative) index value 0.176 HBsAg reactive(positive) Anti-HBs negative
my nephew always hangs around with my mom is this something we should be concern about? he is not vaccinated yet i believe.
thank you very much.
| Response from Dr. McGovern
To know if she is inactive, she will need to have testing of HBV DNA and to have some serial liver function tests.
Your nephew should be fine. Hepatitis B is not spread with casual contact.
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Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material. | <urn:uuid:ace5964e-f089-43b8-9e74-6523c32a89db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Hepatitis/Q210381.html?ic=4003 | 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 | 0.948326 | 308 | 1.554688 | 2 |
January 21, 2013: The battle against Islamic terrorists grinds on, with the Boko Haram and Ansaru terrorists attacking troops and police even while they are being sought and attacked. The Islamic radicals are encouraged by the increased activity by Islamic terror groups in nearby Mali.
In the southeast (Anambra state) over 30 bodies were found floating in a river. The bodies could not be identified and the police have offered a reward of $32,000 for information on where the bodies came from. There have been no reports of mass killings in the area.
January 19, 2013: In central Nigeria (Kogi state) Islamic terrorists from Ansaru set off a bomb that killed two soldiers and wounded five others. The troops were preparing to leave for Mali and Ansaru said that was why the attack was carried out. Ansaru and Boko Haram both support the Islamic terrorists in northern Mali. Ansaru (for Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan or "Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa") is a Boko Haram splinter group that has become more active recently, after first declaring its existence last January (and then largely disappearing from view). Ansaru objects to the many Moslems who are being killed by Boko Haram attacks and wants to concentrate on attacks that only kill foreigners or non-Moslem Nigerians. It is unclear how large Ansaru is and how much violence within Boko Haram, if any, will result from the split. It is believed that there is considerable strife between Boko Haram leaders, with many strong-willed men, each with an armed following, trying to control the entire movement. At the moment most of these disagreements are put aside. Ansaru appears to be very small, perhaps only a hundred or so members, and more interested (than Boko Haram) in working closely with Islamic terror groups operating in the new terrorist sanctuary of northern Mali. This may encourage other extremist factions in Boko Haram to split off and create even more radical and violent groups like Ansaru.
In the northern Nigerian city of Kano, Boko Haram gunmen attacked a convoy carrying the Emir of Kano (the senior Islamic cleric in the area). The gunfire killed four people but the emir was unharmed. Boko Haram does not tolerate criticism from Islamic clerics. These men are warned to change their tune or just shut up. The Emir of Kano continued to criticize Boko Haram and is now the target of attacks by terrorist death squads.
January 17, 2013: Nigeria has increased its troop deployment to Mali to 1,200 soldiers. About a hundred have already arrived or are on their way, and nearly a thousand are expected to be there within a week. Nigeria has also agreed to command the African peacekeeper force in Mali.
In the northern Nigerian city of Kano, two Boko Haram men were killed and five others arrested at a checkpoint.
January 16, 2013: Off the coast police captured two small tankers carrying stolen oil. At least 23 people were arrested as well. In the last year over 2,000 people have been arrested in the Niger River Delta for oil theft. Police have also seized over 4,000 crude refineries (that convert the oil to kerosene or diesel fuel that can be sold locally) and hundreds of boats involved in oil theft.
January 15, 2013: Four policemen were killed by Boko Haram at a checkpoint in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
In northern Gombe State police arrested Salisu Mohammed, a Boko Haram leader that was responsible for several major terror attacks.
January 14, 2013: Two policemen were killed by Boko Haram at a checkpoint in the northern Nigerian city of Kano. | <urn:uuid:d7752ba0-a92a-4f47-b4d3-5fcf0c04127d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://strategypage.com/qnd/nigeria/articles/20130121.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976905 | 740 | 1.5625 | 2 |
What is a Health Coach?
Have you ever received good advice that you were unable to follow? Has your doctor ever recommended a lifestyle change that you found to be unsustainable? Have you ever wanted something in your life, but found you couldn’t achieve it alone?
A health coach is a professionally trained, knowledgeable advisor who provides ongoing support and guidance as you set goals and make sustainable changes that improve your health and happiness.
As your Board Certified Health & Nutrition Coach, I will listen carefully and help you to navigate the world of contradictory nutrition advice to determine what changes are necessary for you.
Your personalized program will radically improve your health and happiness. Together, we will explore concerns specific to you and your body and discover the tools you need for a lifetime of balance.
“Health Coaches can be a tier of health care providers that actually provide the infrastructure for people to make it easy to do the right thing.” – Dr. Mehmet Oz, 2009 CNN interview | <urn:uuid:ed7ba277-1b13-4582-8829-832d0ae0a268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mynutritiouslife.com/health-coaching-jaime-ward | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956128 | 200 | 1.578125 | 2 |
JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday that providing inaccurate information to regulators probing California's electricity market was a mistake that doesn't justify the threatened revocation of its right to sell power.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order Thursday directing J.P. Morgan Ventures Energy Corp. to show that it didn't violate FERC regulations by misleading investigators and explain why its authorization to sell electricity at market-based rates should not be suspended.
"JPMorgan made an inadvertent factual error" in submissions to regulators, said Jennifer Zuccarelli, a JPMorgan spokeswoman. "Such an inadvertent error does not justify revoking JPMorgan's market-based rate authority."
The order is part of FERC's effort to increase transparency and eliminate manipulation of the electricity market. The agency is investigating JPMorgan's power trading in California and the Midwest. That investigation came to light when FERC went to court seeking internal e-mails from New York-based JPMorgan, saying the bids from the company might have resulted in at least $73 million in improper payments to generators.
Revoking the company's right to sell electricity "could be more serious than disgorging profits," said Susan Court, principal at SJC Energy Consultants in Arlington, Va., and a former FERC enforcement director. "That could entail a lot more money than just paying a penalty."
Still, electricity sales are such a small part of the bank's overall business that investors aren't concerned about the impact of the FERC order, said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets Corp. in Arlington, Va. It does raise questions about management's ability to monitor its diverse operations, he said.
"It does leave an overall head wind," said Miller, a former examiner for the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. "Can JPMorgan manage that complex operation efficiently and correctly?"
FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff has pledged to expand oversight of the multibillion-dollar energy-trading business. In February, the agency created a division within its enforcement office to police the markets where electricity is bought and sold by power generators and utilities.
FERC's order Thursday stems from requests in 2011 by the California Independent System Operator, a grid operator, for information about JPMorgan's energy profits. JPMorgan told the operator that the matter should be referred to FERC, even though FERC had directed CAISO to get the information from the company.
JPMorgan eventually provided the information but said it was doing so voluntarily even as FERC told the company it was obliged to comply, according to the order posted on FERC's website. | <urn:uuid:c8e86c96-a1ca-43aa-9f85-aacb08710297> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/21/business/la-fi-jpmorgan-energy-20120921 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957253 | 525 | 1.6875 | 2 |
“I bet you’re wondering why you’re in church,” Father Timothy asks.
It was an excellent question. We thought we were on a Brooklyn beer tour before this detour into Most Holy Trinity – St. Mary Church that dates back to 1841.
Turns out the German immigrant breweries that flourished here in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn helped establish and support this massive Catholic Church throughout the 19th century. At the time, the area boasted nearly 50 independent breweries, all with German roots.
Father Timothy, splendid in his Franciscan robes and sandals and with a truly beatific smile, recounts how suds and foam formed the area’s economic foundation. And what an exotic New York City neighbourhood that New Germany was.
“People used to take the ferry over from Manhattan to visit the brewery beer gardens,” he tells us.
“They had never seen people drinking in such a comfortable outdoors setting before, especially with women and children as part of the scene. That just wasn’t done.”
Earlier, our tour began at one of America’s most popular craft breweries, Brooklyn Brewery. Some 30 people are lined up outside before its doors open at noon, eager to sample the more than a dozen specialty beers brewed at this former warehouse.
For our part, the seven of us receive a private 30-minute tour of the new facilities, recently expanded to double output to 120,000 barrels annually.
Afterward, we sample eight of the brewery’s offerings, many of which are available in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
There’s Brooklyner Weisse, a refreshing wheat beer; the award-winning Brooklyn Brown Ale; and East India Pale Ale, based on a 19th century formula with extra malt and hops to last the eight-month sea voyage from England to India.
Looking at the half-empty glasses in front of him, Riyad Abu-Sharr, who lives in Manhattan and is here with his daughter, proclaims: “To drink these beers like this is just fabulous.”
Our “Brewed in Brooklyn” guide is David Naczycz, co-founder of Urban Oyster, one of New York City’s most creative walking tour companies.
For Naczycz, a city is all about neighbourhoods, and his tours connect visitors to the “history, places and people that make New York special.”
For Williamsburg, with its trendy boutiques, vintage clothing stores and hipster-filled coffee shops, the neighbourhood’s past—and now present — is linked to immigrants and beer.
We are standing before a three-storey building that once housed one of Brooklyn’s flourishing breweries.
“At one point, there were 11 breweries in 12 blocks of this street,” Naczycz says, describing today’s Meserole St. “They called it Brewer’s Row.”
He adds: “Before the Germans came, the people drank mostly ales and porters. But the Germans brought lagers that quickly became very popular because they were much more refreshing in the summer heat.”
Some of the original buildings remain, but all have lost their connection to the beer industry, and are now home to music studios and a Chinese food factory.
Naczycz explains how the large number of 19th century breweries was a function of the times.
“Refrigeration, mass production and transportation were all relatively primitive,” he says.
“Beer had to be consumed locally, so you needed a lot of breweries to meet demand.”
From a peak of 3,500 breweries throughout the United States in 1870, the number of beer makers dwindled to just 80 by 1983. Then, the downward trend reversed itself with a vengeance. Fuelled by the legalization of home brew, which unleashed beer-making creativity, and a growing appreciation of specialty beers, microbreweries began to sprout up across the continent. This year, the brewery count is expected to top 3,000.
It’s time for lunch, and we stop at a local institution, Danny’s Pizzeria & Cafe Ristorante for pizza and, what else, beer. This time it’s Brooklyn Brewery lager, which we had not tasted before.
This lighter beer matches perfectly with the pizza. Indeed, Naczycz maintains that when early 20th century Italian immigration mixed with the Germany community in Williamsburg, the beer-pizza combination was born.
“It began right here, in this area when the two groups got together to socialize,” he says.
Refreshed, we walk by some more former breweries, historic homes and take our sojourn at Most Holy Trinity.
Our tour ends at another neighbourhood institution, Barcade, dedicated to craft beer and arcade games. It prints a daily beer menu, listing some two dozen offerings on tap that come from as far away as Alaska and as near as Brooklyn Brewery. Six dollars for a 10-ounce pour.
Naczycz gives each of us a quarter so we can play Barcade’s classic video arcade games such as Frogger, Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers. Then, before departing, he buys us each a beer at the bar. A perfect ending to our tour.
IF YOU GO:
Urban Oyster offers half a dozen specialty Brooklyn walking tours, including “Brewed in Brooklyn.” The cost is $60 per person, which includes the beer sampling at Brooklyn Brewery, a pizza and beer lunch as well as a craft beer at the end of the 3 1/2-hour tour that is restricted to people 21 or over. For more information, visit www.urbanoyster.com.
For the official guide to visiting New York, including what's on, visit www.nycgo.com. | <urn:uuid:41110d69-c16c-4812-9735-6006c2277ffe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canada.com/life/holiday-guide/gift-guide/Touring+York+City+neighbourhood+that+beer+built/7854353/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955591 | 1,247 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) has submitted comments to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the agency's information collection activities as related to upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation.
“AFIA supports a strong approach to FSMA training, compliance and enforcement, one that is clear to the regulated industry and allows innovation and different approaches to achieve the same goals in the new law,” stated AFIA’s vice president of feed control and nutrition Richard Sellers.
Sellers added, “AFIA believes much of the information FDA is requesting is necessary for the agency to collect…[but] there are some areas of concern both in terms of the burden on facilities to gather the information and the ability of FDA to protect this information as confidential.”
The comments explained that many AFIA members consider their quality assurance programs and food safety plans as proprietary and confidential. AFIA reiterated to FDA that for firms to provide this type of information to FDA means firms needs a clear protection from disclosure to the public.
Regarding the submission of hazards associated for each products and the preventive controls offers little to no value to determine the level of risk for a specific facility. Sellers explained, “AFIA believes that preventive control programs are facility specific and should be reviewed at individual facilities. With over 1,000 ingredients used in feed, the hazards can be numerous.” | <urn:uuid:50caaf6b-80c4-4d8d-aa7a-9825fa3ac340> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allaboutfeed.net/Process-Management/Management/2012/7/AFIA-stresses-importance-of-privacy-to-FDA-AAF013454W/ | 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 | 0.935548 | 290 | 1.71875 | 2 |
- Special Sections
- Public Notices
Caney Fork: Fishing has been slow due to increase degeneration. A few browns are being caught on jerkbaits while floating the river.
Center Hill: Fishing is good. Water temperature is 50 degrees; lake is rising. Lots of bass are being caught on jerkbaits and jigs in 5-10 feet of water in the creeks. Smallmouth fishing has been great while fishing tail spinners on drops in 25 feet of water. Crappie fishing is fair in the river on minnows around lay down brush in 10 feet of water. A few walleye are being caught near Webbs Camp, while fishing jigs in 20 feet of water.
Chickamauga: Crappie anglers are catching a lot of crappie. Some heavy crappie are being caught, but many anglers are catching more small crappie. Crappie are being caught along the river drops and creek openings by those anglers using minnows or jigs. Trollers are catching suspended crappie in the large sloughs and creeks while using jigs in 10 feet of water. Bass are being caught in shallow water located adjacent to deeper areas. Some bass are being caught in primary locations and other bass are starting to be caught often in secondary locations. Lipless lures, crankbaits, jigs and the “rig” are making up an arsenal capable of taming even the largest of the Chickamauga bass. Large bass continue to be caught. White bass and a few sauger are being caught in areas close to the tailwaters. Jigs are being used in the tailwaters below Watts Bar Dam.
Dale Hollow: Fishing is fair. Water temperature is 47 degrees; lake is rising. A few bass are being caught on jerk baits while fishing lay down timber on shallow points in 10 feet of water. A few crappie are being caught near East Port on minnows while fishing willows in five feet of water. Smallmouth fishing is fair while fishing tail spinners and jerkbaits in 10-15 feet of water.
Hiwassee River near Reliance: Fishing for trout is good. Many trout are being caught in areas from the Hwy 411 Bridge and points upstream from there. Some trout in the 19-inch range are being caught. Many anglers allow these fish to return to the water and harvest the smaller trout for table fare. Yellow perch and an occasional smallmouth bass are other species anglers have caught. Artificial flies, bait, and spinners are being used for enticers. Most anglers use corn or worms for bait.
Watts Bar: The beginning of April is the date when the filling of the lake is projected to begin. Some walleye and sauger are being caught in the area near the tailwaters below Ft. Loudon Dam. These anglers are using jigs and/or minnows for bait. Some fish are caught while bouncing the bait along the bottom. Bank anglers swim the jigs with proven results. Crappie and white bass are being caught in the same general area. Most crappie are being caught in the slack water areas below the dam. Some black crappie are being caught along the white bass in selected areas in the current. The crappie being caught in this area seem to be larger. Anglers are catching crappie and bass in the mid to lower end of the lake. Blowdowns along gradual sloping banks in the larger creeks is an area where minnow dippers are catching some large crappie. Most anglers that are catching the greater number of fish are catching suspended fish in the open water of secondary creeks with 12-feet of water being the most targeted depth. Trollers generally use jigs for bait. Bass anglers are catching quality smallmouth and largemouth bass. Anglers are using various patterns and techniques to catch bass. There are shallow bass being caught by anglers using lipless lures. Most of these bass are being caught in areas adjacent to deeper water. Some of the deeper water bass are being caught by those anglers using jerkbaits, jigs, crankbaits, and the “rig”. | <urn:uuid:f9bebef3-f0e0-4dd1-ab5c-afcc67bd4296> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roanecounty.com/content/fishing-report-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963962 | 883 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Is there anything that can be done to limit the power of America’s corporations?
Robert Reich: Organizing McDonalds and Walmart, and Why Austerity Economics Hurts Low-Wage Workers the MostDecember 2012
Low-income workers will face even harder times if deficit hawks have their way.
A timely reminder of the consequences of treating corporations as people.
With penalties laughably low, what should we expect but continued criminal activity on the part of corporations?
Received wisdom aside, good customer service is easier to come by at government agencies than many private businesses.
Southwest Detroit has defied the stereotype of urban decay.
Outsourcing isn’t our problem, it’s that the needs of American businesses are disconnected from the needs of Americans.
Why is it that many business leaders refuse to take an interest in the future of the planet?
Competition between the public and private sectors is rigged—and in not the way you might think. | <urn:uuid:7dd9ab53-c347-4d3c-9ea3-c17da502a145> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guernicamag.com/tag/business/ | 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 | 0.949534 | 201 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Last week, I encountered a situation where one of the VMs in a Veeam Backup & Replication job failed time after time. The Job summary showed this message:
The essential part of this Error message:
Some time ago, I was asked to investigate a vSphere cluster at a customer location. It is a small sized cluster, consisting of 3 ESX hosts, approximately 20 VM’s and VMware Data Recovery as backup- and restore solution. The backup target is a dedicated NAS with 2.5 TB capacity. During the implementation, Data Recovery version 1.1 was installed. The VMware Data Recovery was configured to run several backup jobs; a daily job and a few weekly jobs for static or less important VM’s. After several months backups failed, snapshots were not removed and locking problems were reported.
First action was; updating the ESX hosts and replacing the VMware Data Recovery with the 1.2 version. During the configuration of the backup target, I noticed a warning telling me that CIFS network shares larger than 500 GB are not a good idea…
Last week, I encountered this situation: | <urn:uuid:5bfa3c8c-8f9a-4fcb-8b95-4131acd1038b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paulgrevink.wordpress.com/category/backup-and-restore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96034 | 229 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Palestinian hairdresser Nael al-Rais at his salon for women in Gaza City
The announcement of recent restrictions to stop male hairdressers from cutting women's hair in the Gaza Strip appears to be the latest step by the ruling Islamist group, Hamas, to impose more conservative Islamic customs there. But how far are these measures enforced?
Five middle-class Palestinian women in Gaza City discuss how life has changed in Gaza since Hamas won elections in January 2006 - and later seized control in June 2007.
Najla Shawa, 29
There are five male hairdressers for women in Gaza - and I've been going to one of them for years.
I saw him the other day and he said: "Yes, I'm still here, it's my job!"
He was laughing about it, because he and the others are all still working. But it makes me feel sad.
Last summer there were several "policies" which were never quite realised.
I haven't felt any direct pressure on attitudes against women since Hamas took over
There was a ruling that female lawyers should cover their hair when acting in civil courts. But after people complained, it was dropped.
I think this thing against male hairdressers will be the same.
Since Hamas took over I haven't felt any direct pressure on attitudes against women. I still wear the same clothes, I don't wear the veil, I go to places with men and women.
Perhaps the general atmosphere is becoming more religious and conservative. My view is that the top level of Hamas wants a balance.
But there are people with more extreme views in the lower levels, people who don't like the idea of women even leaving the house.
There may not be many of them now, but the numbers will increase unless conditions in Gaza improve.
Economic pressures have been building on both men and women for a long time.
The closure of Gaza creates the perfect conditions for breeding an extremist mentality. I am not optimistic about the coming generation, unless Gaza opens up.
Hana Afana, 24, trainee maths teacher
Life for woman really hasn't changed much under Hamas.
In my opinion the main problem that women in Gaza face is because of the closure. The economic situation affected women in that they were trying to find work, or ways to help support their family, so a woman has to go out and find a job, and that means leaving her home and children.
I don't think it's absolutely true that Hamas is imposing a religious code. In some areas of Gaza, I see women go out without a scarf, and even in jeans. They do not get harassed by Hamas - even in some cases they actually ask for help from Hamas officers on the street - if they have problem with a man harassing them or something.
I don't think Hamas imposed long dresses in schools, though maybe some of the schools imposed them themselves. I have seen the wearing of the niqab [full face veil] increase a lot, but I don't think that is to do with Hamas - it's just the reality of the society, women are doing it on their own more and more.
I fully support the hijab [headscarf]. It's our religion. A woman is more safe, and more comfortable, when she is covered when she leaves her home. I wear it because I want to wear it because, I'm convinced about it.
I would support it very much if Hamas would encourage it - as a Muslim I feel it's my duty to advise women to cover, because it's tradition, it's religion. But in the end it's her choice, it should not be imposed on her by force.
The biggest problem I see is unemployment. However much you improve yourself, you need to belong to a certain political group to get work.
We heard that girls would have to wear a long wide dress instead of their school uniform, but nothing has changed
I graduated in 2007 but I am between jobs at the moment. Many graduates are unemployed. This has a lot to do with Israel's closure of Gaza.
In other ways, I'd say nothing has changed, although rumours do surface.
The most recent one was that the [Hamas] authorities would create a team of women who would patrol the streets to check what women were wearing.
We heard women dressed in trousers would be stopped and be asked to change their clothes. We started to be afraid of going out in the street. But actually, nothing like that has happened at all.
It was the same with school girls' uniforms. We heard that girls would be told they would have to wear a long wide dress instead of their skirts and shirts.
That was supposed to be happening this year, but the school opened with girls still in the same uniform.
Mona Ahmad al-Shawa, 36
Mona runs the women's unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
The siege of Gaza, which Israeli tightened when Hamas took control in June 2007, makes women's lives much more complicated.
Since the war, Hamas has ruled that a widow can keep her children if she doesn't remarry - this is an improvement
There are shortages of water, electricity and cooking gas. It is very difficult to leave Gaza for medical treatment.
And after the war in Gaza last year, things got worse because many women lost their husbands. Women lost lives too, of course.
You can't imagine how hard it is to be a disabled woman in this society. Or a widow.
Our Sharia law means that a widowed woman will lose custody of her children when a boy reaches nine years old and a girl 11.
Since the war, Hamas has ruled that a widow can keep her children if she doesn't remarry. This is an improvement.
Women's priorities in Gaza are focused on practical matters - a home, clean water and electricity. Finer points of human rights are not top of the list.
We have many problems with the Hamas authority, but we are not in a big fight with them about women.
People in Gaza feel they are in a big prison, they feel have no choices in life.
Conditions change according to the political situation.
When the first intifada started in 1987 most women covered up, because people could speak badly of you, or throw stones if you went uncovered in the streets. It is not as bad as that now.
Jihad Rostom, 21, translator
Life in Gaza for women is all a bit harder than it should be, not only because of the internal Fatah-Hamas conflict, but because of everything, the siege, the war.
When it comes to the rules, such as Hamas making girls wear long dresses in school, or forbidding wearing trousers, it didn't last very long.
People here didn't accept it because this is personal freedom. Even some men in Gaza refused.
I wear whatever I want to wear. I do wear a headscarf because I want to, and I wear trousers and skirts according to my mood, though in some places I get weird looks - they're not used to seeing a woman or a girl wearing trousers.
Hamas want to force themselves onto the people. They want the people to submit to them, this is their cover.
They destroyed the reputation of Islam, by saying we're doing this because it is religion. This is how they won the elections.
My friends and I were discussing the other day, how it goes back to old traditions, that women aren't allowed to speak out loud.
No matter how high they get in the community, they're not really allowed to make the calls, to be the ones in charge.
Also, it's harder for women, for example, who want to travel abroad to pursue their education, because of this thing that "she's a woman, she can't go alone". | <urn:uuid:d5779b98-0cfb-4b07-8b1e-6b6d3e5c7840> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8557251.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985541 | 1,627 | 1.625 | 2 |
Thank you for wanting to know more about the admission process at Virginia Union University.
The Admissions Committee has no equation or magic combination of grade point average and standardized test scores that ensure your admission to the university. The committee reviews each applicant's qualifications individually, examining a variety of characteristics that indicate academic background and potential for success. Our philosophy is not only to admit qualified students but to graduate successful seniors.
Admission to the university is competitive! We receive applications from students representing over 1,000 different high schools. Because high school programs and grading systems vary widely, the secondary program cannot be rigidly prescribed. However, in general, we expect candidates for admission to provide evidence of having been awarded a secondary high school diploma or a GED.
Applicants must provide evidence of having been awarded a secondary high school diploma or a GED. A minimum of 14 units accumulated in grades nine through twelve is required for high school graduates. A unit represents a year’s study of a subject in secondary school. The 14 units must include:
* English 4 units
* Math 3 units (Algebra I & II, Geometry)
* Natural Science 2 units (2 courses from Bio, Chem, Physics)
* Social Science 2 units ( 2 courses from Hist, Gov’t, Civics)
* Electives 3 units
Admission Dates & Deadlines
* Fall Application: June 30th
* Spring Term: November 30th
* FAFSA Priority: March 16th
There are six factors which will be used to evaluate applicants for admission to Virginia Union University.
1. Quality of High School Academics
The Admissions Committee is most interested in the quality of the applicant's high school program of study. Students with solid achievement in four or more academic courses each year of high school will have a distinct advantage in the admission process. Competitive candidates for admission will have taken upper level coursework (i.e. Honors, AP, IB, Dual Enrollment) in the core academic areas when available in their high school.
2. Academic Achievement
Competitive candidates will have mostly As and Bs in the core academic areas: English, math, lab science, social science and foreign language. While we focus on the individual grades in each core academic class the admissions committee notes the high school grade point average and class rank if reported by the high school. Virginia Union University is more interested in how a prospective student performs over the four year high school program than the results of a standardized test.
3. Standardized Tests
Performance on the SAT I or ACT helps the committee discern applicants' past academic achievement and their potential for future academic achievement.
VUU accepts and recognizes both the SAT and ACT, we ask that you send all of your scores. When reviewing test scores we use the highest individual verbal and highest individual math scores from the SAT. For the ACT we use your single highest composite score.
VUU requires an official score report to complete your application. Official results include a photocopy or fax of your official scores received at your home address, scores reported to VUU from your high school, or scores sent directly to VUU from the testing agency.
4. Secondary School Report and Recommendation
This form is located in the application and must be given to the high school guidance office. This is where the Admissions Committee will learn if the applicant chose the most demanding program of courses, an average program of courses, etc. They also tell us how competitive the high school class is by sharing with us how many students intend to go on to a four year college next year. They will rate the applicant in some areas such as academic potential, motivation, and leadership skills.
Please ask only one person to send a recommendation letter. You may ask for this letter from an academic teacher or your guidance counselor. We cannot read additional letters, so please be sure to ask for only one. The letter and the secondary school report are not the same thing--always give the secondary school report to your counselor, even if you ask a teacher to write you a letter.
5. Extracurricular Activities
We are looking for quality involvement rather than quantity of involvement. We like to see the type of involvement students have in particular clubs and/or organizations rather than just being a member. Please tell us about club, organization and athletic activity. We are also interested in students who have been involved in community service or held part time jobs.
6. Personal Statement (Optional)
We do not require a particular topic for the Personal Statement. We allow applicants to decide what the committee still needs to know in order to accurately evaluate their application. Please do not repeat information that can be found in the application. This space is provided to help the committee get to know the applicant better. We encourage students to be creative and have fun with it! Please know that the committee will consider content and grammar as well as spelling. The statement should be about a page but no longer than a page and a half. We don't have a preference in font type or line spacing. | <urn:uuid:fc6c2e5a-7f9c-4699-886f-96fcdad8e07c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vuu.edu/admissions/freshman_applicants.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950593 | 1,033 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Who Said Anything About Technology? The BLC Experience
Imagine this: Take a dozen or so people who spend much of the personal and professional life immersed in technology put them together for three days and guess what they’d spend most of the time talking about. If you said technology or computers you’d be wrong.
BLC featured 600 educators from around the globe focusing on learning. That’s what the discussions in large part focused on. I was privileged to be able to spend time with the likes of Barbara Bareda, Bob Spankle, Sharon Peters, Ewan Mcintosh, Darren Kuropatwa, David Jakes, Joyce Valenza, Will Richardson, Trevor Smith, Chris Lehmann and Christian Long. These folks all represent passionate thinkers and educators who at almost every turn will speak about making learning better for kids. While they worry and lament about bad teaching and schools, they truly are excited about the possibilities.
Here are a few highlights:
- Bob Sprankle…Podcasting with a Purpose…you don’t miss a chance to hear arguably one of the founding fathers of educational podcasting. Bob and Tony Vincent likely represent the finest example of how to use this powerful tool with kids.
- Darren Kuropatwa…Darren and I have done a fair bit together so hearing him present live wasn’t really a new experience. Spending time outside the sessions is where he really shines. Smart, articulate, Darren is determined to make school and learning authentic and engaging for his students.
- Joyce Valenza….if you’re a teacher librarian, you ought to pay attention to what she says. She spent some time with me explaining her concerns with the lack of use of the “invisible web”. Lots for me to ponder.
- Chris Lehmann and Christian Long…Chris Sessums called them the “wonder twins”. Talking with Christian for a couple of hours on Thursday forced me to take a nap. High energy and deep thoughts. He’s headed back to the classroom this fall. All I can say to his students is BUCKLE UP! Chris Lehmann is a principal who’s got it right. My favorite line of Chris’ after he told us about a teacher who was complaining about something, Chris said, “Yeah, but you get to teach!”
- Trevor Smith…I convinced Trevor he needed to come to BLC back in spring and I’m hoping he’s glad he did. Trevor and I work together and he’s got some great plans. Trevor’s been moving forward with things for a while now and I sense things are beginning to get clearer. Not any easier but clearer. Trevor and I were able to touch base a few times and we’re both excited about some of our upcoming initiatives. Watch for good things from his school.
- Will Richardson….I had met Will before and Will has been gracious to support my work in the past but I challenged Will to continue to push the envelope. I did attend his session where he broke form a traditional presentation and challenged the audience to look beyond the tools and coolness of Web 2.0 to what was really important: connecting learners, ideas to fully develop the concept of lifelong learning. I hope Will continues to make people a bit more uncomfortable. We also had our talk about the optimum number of feeds you need to read. I was right
- David Jakes…is grounded. He knows what he believes about learning and isn’t afraid to tell you. He’s calls it like he sees it when it comes to artificial, fluffy student work and offers ideas about how to make learning authentic and meaningful. You also get the sense that he’d do whatever it takes to help kids learn. You have to love Jakes.
- Ewan Mcintosh…Will Richardson called him rock star. He pretty much is. I just love the way in which he crystallizes complex ideas and makes them simple or least I’m able to ponder them a bit more. See Will’s example about his photography lesson. Ewan and I had a great conversation about the lack of myths in North American education. I hope he blogs about it if he hasn’t already. I certainly think that our curriculum and education systems are much more closely tied than that of US.
- Being able to present ideas about Google Earth was important especially after all the hype about Second Life. Google Earth is to me the more critical tool for kids and teachers to focus on. Being able to discuss the implications of learning and developing location-based learning will be a valuable skill for our kids: See Pool Guy Story.
I never went to camp as a kid and my wife suggested this was the closest I’ve ever come to that feeling when camp ends. I don’t know if that’s true, but lest you think this is a post about my sappy experience, think again. It’s about the power of face to face learning combined with great online tools; People and ideas connecting to form the basis of social learning. Each is an important ingredient. All of these people are committed to help kids and not just the ones they get paid to help. Almost all of them have worked with teachers I associate with and work for and have given hours of their time to make learning better for others. They do it because I ask them. That’s how they roll.
There was nothing at this conference that rocked my world in terms of new technologies or even new ideas. Most of these have been roaming around my brain for a while. Some were pretty solid, others needed tightening and still others need some loosening. Both of this was accomplished. The conversation that Darren and I had with Christian really focused on some key questions. Christian asked, “What if all the technology was suddenly taken away?” What have we learned from all this and how do we sustain and develop the connections and beliefs about learning? Hmmmm…..
At one point someone said, “We’ve got to stop talking about all this, and start doing something about it”. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I can’t wait for summer to end. | <urn:uuid:a57de51f-21ad-4ca8-aed1-86269d4fcb1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ideasandthoughts.org/2007/07/24/483/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966027 | 1,298 | 1.5 | 2 |
Shock and Awe: Young People’s and ‘Outreach’ Concerts That Could Actually Build a New Audience
In 1958, I heard a symphony orchestra in the flesh for the first time. I was one of about 5,000 elementary school kids who heard the Richmond (VA) Symphony give its first youth concert. The program was Honegger‘s Pacific 231, Ives‘s The Unanswered Question, and Stravinsky‘s Firebird Suite.
They don’t do kiddie concerts like that anymore. And you have to wonder why.
Of all the existing or potential audiences for art-music, none is more wide-open to modern and contemporary music than youngsters. They haven’t been conditioned to prefer C major chords to tone clusters. They’re quite fond of loud noises and grinding dissonances—the typical 8-year-old is a connoisseur of discordance, as any parent can attest. Once they’ve left the Teletubbies behind at age 3 or so, they’ve had it with the cute and sweet. Their metabolism is attuned to the energetic and aggressive.
This is an audience primed for John Adams‘s Short Ride in a Fast Machine or Joan Tower‘s Petroushskates, not Pachelbel’s Canon or Bach’s Air on a G String—not even Ravel‘s Bolero (loud enough, but too slow). It’s also an audience that doesn’t realize Babbitt and Boulez are more “difficult” than Beethoven and Brahms. So why do orchestras typically feed their youngest patrons classical highlight reels like “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” and similar bite-sized portions of the old standards? Not that there’s anything wrong with the “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” concept—it’s a surprisingly nourishing production, especially for the musically clueless 30- or 40-year-old.
Wait, that couldn’t be the answer, could it? Are orchestras mistaking entry-level, pre-teen listeners for their parents? Has it been so long since programmers for youths were young themselves that they’ve forgotten what engages kids?
That’s part of it. Another, and I think more significant part is that the classical snippets most orchestra musicians can play in their sleep are much cheaper to prepare than contemporary works orchestras rarely play because their subscription audiences don’t want to hear them. What’s the point of spending valuable rehearsal time on an unfamiliar score when it will only be presented to kids or casual concertgoers?
The answer to that should be obvious: It’s a good idea artistically to challenge your musicians with something they can’t play on autopilot from time to time, regardless of when or where the piece ultimately is performed. But that’s a hard sell to many cash-strapped orchestra administrations and most orchestra boards. (Maybe you’ve heard the story of the board member who suggested to the music director that the orchestra could save a lot of money by playing romantic symphonies with fewer violins. It’s not apocryphal.)
The assumption made by many orchestras is that youth programs and other non-subscription “outreach” events are the season’s bulk filler, and that the audiences aren’t sophisticated enough to know good music, and good music-making, from bad, and that it would be foolish to waste scarce resources such as rehearsal time and funds for score rentals on these “marginal” events. Thirty or forty years of such thinking has marginalized many orchestras in their communities. Their serious programming is directed to increasingly elderly, white audiences, plus listeners of East Asian descent who constitute the only minority audience most symphony orchestras can claim.
Meanwhile, the rest of the community, especially the multi-ethnic, young-adult crowd that sustains the most vibrant urban art scenes, has grown almost totally estranged from art-music, at least the kind that’s performed by orchestras and other classical establishment institutions. Young adults have come of age with a perception of classical music implanted by the pop-culture and advertising industries—an image nicely encapsulated in a television ad you may recall from the 1990s, in which a string-quartet recital abruptly ends when a biker on his chopper crashes through the wall. Not-so-subliminal message: Out with the old.
Highbrow musicians have not come up with an effective strategy to dispel the notion that they are agents of the old, ponderous foils for the agile new. They’ve tried, God knows, but their attempts tend to be inept, palpably phony impersonations of hipness. Gilbert & Sullivan on rollerblades (in honor of an unforgettably awful restaging of The Mikado) is our local shorthand for such endeavors, which “connect” only in provoking eye-rolling and cackling.
Even the most effective efforts to engage youths and other new audiences for substantive music—programs by the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Christopher O’Riley, and talks with musical examples, ˆ la Leonard Bernstein, by articulate conductors with a knack for the American vernacular, such as Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman—are a heroic struggle against the accumulated gravity of decades of listener ignorance, presenter snobbery and creaky programming reflexes, and the ruthless typecasting of art-music by the pop culture.
It’s easy to conclude that it’s a struggle almost inevitably doomed to fail.
Almost, but not quite.
Here are some suggested strategies for orchestras trying to connect with young audiences—and, for that matter, older listeners who aren’t attuned to art-music.
Let’s start with programming…
From the Top
First impressions count. And it shouldn’t be news, even to highbrows, that today’s attention spans have shortened to the point that first impressions are formed, even cemented, very quickly. That’s certainly true when it comes to music. Three generations of pop songs have conditioned people to decide almost instantly whether or not they like a piece of music. Savvy songwriters know they’ve got just a few seconds to get to the “hook” that grabs the listener.
Serious compositions that reach the hook quickly are pretty rare—Mozart‘s Haffner and Jupiter symphonies, Beethoven’s Fifth, Wagner‘s Flying Dutchman Overture. Among modern classics, the “Hoedown” from Copland‘s Rodeo and the first movements of Hindemith‘s Weber Metamorphoses and Janacek‘s Sinfonietta hit the money shot quickly.
If you really want to jolt a restless crowd of pre-teens into attention, though, I recommend “Infernal Dance of King Kastchei” from The Firebird. No announcement, no explanation, just dim the lights and let it fly. The louder and speedier, the better. Four and a half minutes of shock and awe.
Now that we have your attention…
Involve your listeners directly. Invite them, say, to place their hands on their chests and feel their heartbeats. Then play a piece that begins with a heartbeat. Ravel’s La Valse is a good choice, especially as it develops into another awesome orchestration. It’s also a useful display of the tone colors an orchestra can produce that are beyond the electronic instrumentation of pop song.
Range of color is one of the most pronounced differences between a symphony orchestra and everything else your audience will have heard. Wider dynamic range is another difference. Turning the listener’s ear with those differences is not unlike dazzling the eye with a new and different special effect in a film. Exploit what can be done with this instrument that cannot be done in “regular” music.
OK, you’ve shocked, awed, surprised, and dazzled. Now you’re free to go where you shouldn’t have risked going sooner—into slower or quieter music, or into more rarified tone coloration, or towards something more intellectually meaty, like an explanation of sonata form or maybe contrasting examples of musical style.
You’ve introduced entry-level listeners to an unfamiliar music. Now come full circle. Show them that—surprise!—it’s not as unfamiliar as they may have thought. Now’s the time to link the classics to the more familiar realms of movie music and pop song.
Segue from “Perdido” or some other chestnut of the swing era to John Adams’s The Chairman Dances. Or from Bernard Herrmann‘s Psycho Suite to the Capriccio from Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra. Once you’re into the X-recalls-Y mental-association mode, you’ll find the possibilities are legion.
For a big finish—and a progression into the near-present tense—try one of Michael Torke‘s “color” pieces. (Green is a personal favorite.) Torke is one of the contemporary composers (Paul Schoenfield, Michael Daugherty, and Osvaldo Golijov are others) who’ve mastered the precarious balance between classical style and the energy level and sensibility of the pop idiom.
Our sample program:
- Stravinsky: “King Kastchei” from The Firebird
- Ravel: La Valse
- Haydn: Menuetto from Symphony No. 97
- Poulenc: Rag-mazurka from Les Biches
- Herrmann: Psycho Suite
- Lutoslawski: Capriccio from Concerto for Orchestra
- Torke: Green
That may not look too radical to readers of this site, but compare it with the typical symphony kiddie concert or outreach program and you’ll see how far most orchestras need to progress in their presentations to youths and other new audiences.
Music, alas, is not all there is to it. Presentation matters at least as much—maybe, in this visual age, more.
Returning to my hometown, the Richmond Symphony used to stage in-school concerts with the musicians looking like they were attending a funeral or applying for an office job. When I observed to one of the players that their attire could not be more off-putting to a crowd of high-schoolers, the response was: “We think it’s boring, too. But the schools want us to dress like the teachers.”
Just say no. Symphony musicians are in the performing business, which is a making-a-singular-impression business. They should under no circumstances appear onstage looking like garden-variety grownups. Nor should they look like the wait staff of an overpriced restaurant or the denizens of a cocktail party in a 1930s movie. No business suits. No tuxedos and gowns. No jeans and polo shirts, either—looking like the students is as ill-advised as looking like the teachers.
In Richmond nowadays, the orchestra does school dates wearing black-on-black (sans denim)—a bit too ’80s SoHo, perhaps, but a quantum leap from business suits and sensible shoes. If I were outfitting the musicians, I would go for a more continental look to complement their still-largely European repertory.
Appearance must be complemented by attitude. As an orchestra’s musicians tend to come across as a mass of anonymous faces, it’s up to the conductor to project the collective personality. This may be the toughest hurdle orchestras have to surmount.
The old image of the white-haired maestro with the exotic accent and forbiddingly prodigious intellect may be a moldy artifact, but no new prototype has really taken its place, certainly none that emanates irresistible charisma. Orchestra boards and administrators hunting for a charismatic conductor typically want another Bernstein, a brainy virtuoso with a gift for vernacular gab, giving off a distinct whiff of the cool and hip. What they usually have to choose from are earnest products of the conservatory. How many conservatories or advanced conducting programs require their students to take classes in public speaking or acting? Or provide them with any practice in introducing classical music to a lay public? Or offer any guidance in translating the technical patois of music into language that most people can understand?
Because conductors are not prepared linguistically, and nowhere near as well-schooled in connecting with an audience as they are in connecting with musicians, their first talking gigs are often painful exercises in trial and error. For 25 years, I’ve watched young conductors learning on the job as they give verbal presentations to audiences in schools and at pops and casual concerts. They grope for analogies and grasp for superlatives. They impose narratives on abstract works. (Good thing dead composers don’t get to hurl lightning bolts.) They resort to silly props and sight gags. They try to compose program notes on the fly. The more gifted or insightful often veer into overheated stream-of-consciousness raps that leave the audience bewildered and embarrassed. Passionate, enthusiastic, and informed as they may be in their presentations, very few conductors are cool, self-deprecating, or ironic—the qualities that audiences are accustomed to seeing in an appealing, persuasive talker.
To connect successfully with a lay audience—especially a young one—conductors and other verbal presenters of music must distill their facts and impressions into straightforward phrases with punchy adjectives. (Maestro needs thesaurus.) They should develop an actor’s or comedian’s sense of timing. They should rehearse their rap at least as well as they rehearse their music. In deciding what to say and how to say it, they should ask themselves, “What would Conan O’Brien do?”
O’Brien probably wouldn’t accept the gig. Serious music never was an easy sell, and it’s harder today than ever before. But if you’re going to make the pitch, make it right. Make it relevant to the people you’re trying to reach. Make it surprise and stimulate, and spark curiosity for more.
Above all, make it very, very well. Young or uninitiated listeners may not know Liszt from Ligeti, but they know the difference between making music passionately and phoning it in. A routine performance before such a crowd is nothing less than slow-motion suicide.
In the not very long run, the symphony orchestra’s institutional life depends on making this sale.
Clarke Bustard covers classical music and visual arts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. His column "A Case for Early Music Education" won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 2003; his criticism and reporting also have won awards from national and state press associations. Bustard has taught arts journalism at the University of Richmond, newswriting at Randolph-Macon College, and has lectured on music criticism at Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He also has produced several radio series, most recently "Concertmasters," for Central Virginia Public Broadcasting. | <urn:uuid:c3fbbb17-37da-4dc2-9f23-f1c47614ef93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/Shock-and-Awe-Young-Peoples-and-Outreach-Concerts-That-Could-Actually-Build-a-New-Audience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941652 | 3,292 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Sending your resume
Since there are several ways to get your resume into the hands of an employer, We'll cover each in detail. They are:
Paper mailAlso known as snail mail to those of us who depend on e-mail for much of our daily correspondence, traditional paper mail is how you will probably send most of your resumes to employers.
To ensure maximum results, follow these steps:
- Don't agonize over the envelope. A standard number 10 business envelope will work fine. For added emphasis, you can always FedEx your resume or send it in an oversized or stationery envelope. More important than the type of envelope you use is the spelling on the outside. Make sure EVERY WORD is spelled correctly. A misspelled name or address can kill your chances before the employer ever gets to your resume.
- It's OK to fold your resume. Follow standard business protocol and fold your resume twice, so that the document is divided into three parts from top to bottom.
- Sign your cover letter. Don't just run off hundreds of copies at Kinko's or from your own computer. The personal touch is important. And studies show that the signature is the second or third thing that readers look to in every letter. So, if sending a cover letter, be sure your signature is easy to read (but not too outlandish).
FaxThe main advantage of sending your resume by fax is speed. It will arrive within minutes, as opposed to the days it will take your resume to get there by paper mail. However, a fax is printed on flimsy paper and won't give your resume a very memorable appearance.
So, how can you combine the speed of faxing your resume with the high-quality appearance of mailing a stationery copy?
Do both! If you can send your resume by fax, send another copy by paper mail. This has several advantages:
- The faxed version will arrive quickly and should suffice if the employer wants your resume right away.
- The stationery version you send by mail will reinforce the positive impression of your faxed resume. By sending the resume twice, it shows you are REALLY interested in this position.
- You'll increase the potential audience of readers. Chances are, more people will read your resume ? and want to call you ? because your resume will be seen by whoever reads faxes and opens mail, in addition to the person your resume is addressed to. This can only improve your chances!
As with mailing stationery copies, be sure to sign any cover letters that you fax out.
If employers can't read your resume, how are they going to hire you?
This can make you look all thumbs when it comes to technology. Worse, it can bring your job search to a screeching halt. So, how do you make sure your e-mailed resume is readable?
But, for maximum results and minimum headaches, I recommend that you do both.
First, send your resume as an attachment. Almost all e-mail programs (Eudora, AOL e-mail, etc.) let you send attachments, which are documents that ride along with the e-mail.
When the reader gets your e-mail, they can "open" (download and read) whatever document you have attached. Word for Windows is the most popular word processor (to my knowledge), so use this format for your attached resume, if possible. WordPerfect is another good choice.
But attachments aren't foolproof. They may get scrambled during transmission and become impossible to open. Or, the reader may not have the same word processor as you, preventing them from reading your attached resume. Then there's the old Mac/PC problem - if your resume was written in a Macintosh format, it won't be readable by a PC (and vice versa).
So, to make sure everyone can read your resume, you should also copy and paste the text into the body of your e-mail message. In your word processor, simply highlight the entire text of your resume, and copy it into the clipboard (short-term memory). Then, switch over to your e-mail program and paste the text into your message.
That's it! When you e-mail your resume as both an attachment and with the text in the message itself, you can be certain that one way or another, your resume will get read.
Timing can be everything!If at all possible, try to send your resume so that it does NOT arrive on Monday or Friday.
Reason? Most employers (anyone with a job, in fact!) have their minds elsewhere on these two days. They're usually swamped with projects and meetings on Monday, and thinking about the weekend all day Friday. As a result, they may not give your resume all the attention it deserves on these two days, despite your best efforts.
So, it may work to your advantage if your resume arrives on the employer's desk on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. | <urn:uuid:03b39907-c613-426b-987b-cff7283696e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.resumetemplates.org/writing/sending/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946723 | 1,019 | 1.671875 | 2 |
This page contains bills sponsored by presidential contenders.
Bill sponsorships indicate the topics that legislators are most interested in, and spend the most time on.
Legislation by 2008 Presidential Candidates: for tax credit for gas stations providing 85% ethanol fuel
Source: E-85 Fuel Act (S.918/H.R.3059)
OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: A bill to provide for Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) refueling capability at new and existing refueling station facilities to promote energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
SPONSOR'S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Sen. OBAMA: We have all heard from folks back home about the high price of gasoline. The bill I am introducing today is designed to do something about fuel prices and our reliance on foreign oil.
Last week, I visited a gasoline station in Springfield, IL, where along with regular gasoline, a new kind of fuel is offered for consumers--a fuel known as E-85. E-85 is a clean, alternative form of fuel consisting of a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Ethanol is made from renewable, Midwestern corn, and it is 40-60 cents cheaper per gallon than standard gasoline. Last week, at this Springfield station, regular gasoline was listed at $2.06 and E-85 was selling for $1.69.
Not every car can run on E-85 fuel--but there are millions of cars that can. They're known as "flexible-fuel vehicles," and the auto industry is turning them out every year. The only problem we have now is that we're in short supply of E-85 stations. While there are more than 180,000 gas stations all over America, there are only about 400 E-85 stations. And although E-85 has many environmental benefits and is a higher performing fuel, the fuel economy of E-85 is slightly lower than that of regular gasoline. An additional incentive is needed to help ensure that the cost of this clean fuel remains competitive with that of regular gasoline.
That is why I'm introducing a bill to provide a tax credit of 50% for building an E-85 fuel station and a tax credit of 35 cents per gallon of E-85 fuel. I think this bill gives us an opportunity to actually get something done about energy independence.
LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to Senate Finance Committee; never came to a vote.
Participating counts on VoteMatch question 18.
Question 18: Replace coal & oil with alternatives
Scores: -2=Strongly oppose; -1=Oppose; 0=neutral; 1=Support; 2=Strongly support.
- Topic: Energy & Oil
- Headline: Tax credit for gas stations providing 85% ethanol fuel
- Headline 2: Sponsored bill for tax credit for providing 85% ethanol gas
- Key for participation codes:
- Sponsorships: p=sponsored; o=co-sponsored; s=signed
- Memberships: c=chair; m=member; e=endorsed; f=profiled; s=scored
- Resolutions: i=introduced; w=wrote; a=adopted
- Cases: w=wrote; j=joined; d=dissented; c=concurred
- Surveys: '+' supports; '-' opposes.
participating in 05-S0918
Total recorded by OnTheIssues: | <urn:uuid:56df4b7e-a7b5-437f-8d89-27b77f7bdd11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ontheissues.org/Notebook/Note_05-S0918.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936407 | 729 | 1.523438 | 2 |
By Bob Willis
(Bloomberg) — Sales of existing U.S. homes rose more than forecast in November, to the highest level since February 2007, a sign housing is gaining strength along with the broader economy entering 2010.
Purchases increased 7.4 percent to a 6.54 million annual rate from a revised 6.09 million pace the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median sales price declined 4.3 percent from the same month a year earlier, the smallest decrease since November 2007.
Lower interest rates, cheaper homes and a homebuyer tax credit have resuscitated a housing market that contributed to the worst economic slump since the 1930s. A sustained recovery in housing and the economy depends on a resumption of payroll growth after employers cut 7.2 million jobs in the past two years.
"The tax credit had the intended impact of drawing buyers in and lowering inventory," Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the Realtors group, said in a press conference. "An estimated 2 million buyers have taken advantage of the credit."
Stocks extended gains and Treasury securities fell after the report. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.4 percent to 1,118.01 at 10:03 a.m. in New York. The 10-year Treasury note fell, pushing the yield up to 3.75 percent from 3.68 percent late yesterday.
The economy grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, compared with a prior estimate of 2.8 percent, the Commerce Department said earlier today in Washington in its final revision to gross domestic product.
Home prices fell 1.9 percent in October from a year earlier, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said today in a separate report. The group's U.S. housing index is down 10.8 percent from the April 2007 peak.
Existing home sales were forecast to rise to a 6.25 million annual rate, according to the median forecast of 69 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 5.2 million to 6.5 million, after an initially reported 6.1 million rate in October.
Previously owned home sales are compiled from contract closings and may reflect purchases agreed upon weeks or months earlier. Many economists consider new home sales, recorded when a contract is signed, a more timely barometer of the market.
The Commerce Department may report on Dec. 23 that new home sales rose 1.7 percent in November to a 438,000 annual pace, according to the Bloomberg survey.
Existing home sales reached a 4.49 million pace in January, their lowest level since comparable records began in 1999.
Purchases of existing homes rose 44 percent in November compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase on record. The median price fell to $172,600.
The number of previously owned unsold homes on the market fell 1.3 percent to 3.52 million. At the current sales pace, it would take 6.5 months to sell those houses compared with 7 months at the end of October. The ratio is the lowest since December 2006.
The share of homes sold as foreclosures or otherwise distressed properties was 33 percent, Yun said.
The report showed sales of existing single-family homes rose 8.5 percent to an annual rate of 5.77 million. Sales of condos and co-ops were unchanged at a 770,000 rate.
Purchases increased 10.6 percent in the West, 8.4 percent in the Midwest, 6.6 percent in the Northeast, and 4.8 percent in the South.
Federal Reserve debt purchases are helping keep mortgage rates close to record lows, while President Barack Obama's Nov. 7 extension and expansion of the tax credit through April may provide more impetus to sales and construction in coming months.
The Fed last week signaled it would keep lending rates low for "an extended period" to foster growth. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.94 percent last week and has averaged 4.85 percent since the end of October, according to Freddie Mac.
"Household spending appears to be expanding at a moderate rate, though it remains constrained by a weak labor market, modest income growth, lower housing wealth, and tight credit," Fed policy makers said in their statement last week after holding interest rates near zero.
Unemployment forecast to average 10 percent through 2010 remains a risk to the recovery in housing and the broader economy. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Dec. 7 that the labor market and tight credit were limiting the economy.
Record foreclosures are also restraining housing by driving down prices. Foreclosure filings in the U.S. will reach a record for the second consecutive year with 3.9 million notices sent to homeowners in default, RealtyTrac Inc. said on Dec. 10. This year's filings will surpass 3.2 million for all of 2008, the Irvine, California-based company said.
Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, projected that deliveries may fall by as much as 33 percent in the 12 months through October 2010, and the average selling price may drop as low as $540,000.
"We believe it may take some time for Americans to regain confidence in our economy, their job status and the benefits of home ownership," Robert Toll, chief executive officer at Toll Brothers (TOL), said in a Dec. 3 statement. "We anticipate a gradual recovery in housing, similar to the one that occurred in the early 1990s."
To contact the report on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:f58b0527-fa7c-4786-909d-37e1d5eb773d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2009/db20091222_418103.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959042 | 1,163 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Detroit is famous as the birthplace of two of America's most revolutionary economic and cultural exports: the automobile and Motown music. But it's also where Techno music was invented, it's the hometown of Eminem and the White Stripes, and remains a showcase for historic urban architecture.
The powerful pull of the auto industry drew generations of workers from all around the world to Detroit. Alongside the industrial rhythm of the great car factories, the city was also a cultural foundry, vibrant with the sounds of blues, jazz and rock. The city has suffered some tough economic setbacks over the years, but has never lost its diverse, working-class vibe and strong link to the arts.
As America's 11th largest metropolitan area, Detroit offers all of the perks of a big city. It has five professional sports teams, 13 museums, 15 theatres, hundreds of terrific restaurants and tons of convenient shopping venues.
Detroit is where University of Windsor students go for a stadium-sized rock concert, a Stanley Cup playoff game, or an afternoon of shopping at trendy boutiques.
Getting to downtown Detroit from Windsor has never been easier. Just hop on the Tunnel Bus, which connects downtown Windsor to Comerica Park and Ford Field, or drive across the Ambassador Bridge, directly next to the University of Windsor campus. | <urn:uuid:a8f68f85-a868-47d3-af59-60c9603e8b9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwindsor.ca/news/detroit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947913 | 265 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The European Commission meets today to discuss its response to Google's deal with US authors and publishers to scan, catalogue and electronically archive millions of books.
The meeting will be attended by publishers, authors, librarians and other stakeholders.
European publishers are concerned that they have not had enough say in the US settlement, according to the Financial Times.
Google reached an agreement in October to create a $125m fund to pay US authors to have their work scanned and made available online.
The internet firm has defended its position by highlighting the benefits to readers of putting millions of books online.
But Google has reportedly made some concessions such as agreeing to consult European publishers before including European works in its digital library, but European concerns remain.
These include concerns that different national rules will hamper co-operation, putting the US ahead of Europe in online knowledge and that Google's head-start will cut out European organisations.
Supporters of digitisation would like the EU to support the US agreement and formulate a similar European agreement to promote the digitisation of its cultural heritage.
But opponents have raised concerns about a single US company acting as a repository of European culture instead of Europe's publicly funded digitisation initiative, called Europeana.
Until agreement is reached across Europe, Google's automatic scanning will be limited books whose authors have been dead for more than 70 years and are not covered by copyright.
Google will have to obtain consent from each of the rights owners for any European books still in print or covered by copyright. | <urn:uuid:c2d28773-5241-48b7-97b0-f19b755807d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280090640/EC-to-discuss-US-Google-book-scanning-deal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962324 | 305 | 1.742188 | 2 |
|160||estimated jobs in research|
|$540||CDN million estimated in sales figures|
Data compiled for the Québec City metropolitan region
The natural health products sector including cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals in Québec City's metropolitan region
Throughout the western civilization, an aging population is increasingly concerned with its appearance, shape and health. While cosmetics have been primarily of concern to women, they are increasingly in demand by the male population. Researchers and entrepreneurs in the Québec City metropolitan region are meeting this worldwide demand by developing cosmeticeuticals, nutraceuticals and nutritional supplements, with resounding success.
Every day, products developed in the region are shipped to the warehouses of the world's cosmetics giants: Chanel, Dior, Estée Lauder, l'Oréal, Shisheido, Clarins as well as those in pharmaceuticals, specialized chemistry and nutrition.
Some of the innovative leaders and SMEs (small- and medium-sized businesses) in the Québec City metropolitan region's cosmeceuticals and natural products industry are:
The Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional foods (INAF) is a flagship in Canadian food research, with some of the country's most prominent researchers specialized in issues regarding the interaction of foods and their ingredients with health and nutrition. | <urn:uuid:6274433b-d49e-4079-b6ae-5d457164e206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quebecinternational.ca/key-industries/life-sciences/cosmeceuticals-and-natural-health-products/the-sector/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937745 | 273 | 1.625 | 2 |
Enclosed was a picture of a "delightful young girl" and a marijuana cigarette taped to a piece of cardboard. "You have turned me on so many times," she explained, "I thought I would return the favor!"
["Scientists have invented a marijuana suppository," Jay Leno reported in March 2000. "Now you can smoke pot and have a crack problem. They'll call it Maui Owee. You get an uncontrollable urge to sit on a Twinkie. Talk about a cigarette butt! Pass gas and the whole room gets high. At least friends won't nag you to pass it around. And if a woman is squirming in her seat you don't know whether she's adjusting her thong or her bong!"]
[Due to pressure from Star Trek fans, the name of the first space shuttle was changed from Constitution (in honor of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution) to Enterprise.] | <urn:uuid:89457cd5-ea79-4696-907c-1ae888e609a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anecdotage.com/articles/9239/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969422 | 196 | 1.5 | 2 |
NATO has two very effective mechanisms that address both the issue of SALW, as well as mine action.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on SALW and Mine Action
In 1999, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) established the Ad Hoc Working Group on SALW. Originally, the Working Group focused only on issues concerning the impact of the proliferation of SALW on Alliance joint peacekeeping operations. In April 2004, the Working Group’s mandate was broadened to include mine action issues. It is one of the few forums in the world that meets on a regular basis to address these specific issues. The objective of the Working Group is to contribute to international efforts to decrease the impact of anti-personal land mines and combat the threats caused by the illicit trade of SALW.
An annual work programme
The Working Group organises its work around a work programme that it adopts annually. In practice, it uses a four-pronged approach to accomplish its work by:
- providing a forum in which EAPC members and certain implementing organisations can share information on SALW and ammunition projects they are conducting. These organisations include the European Union, the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the South Eastern and East European Clearing House for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the United Nations Development Programme. This exchange of information helps to improve coordination with other donor countries and implementing organisations, with the aim of increasing cooperation and avoiding duplication. The information is then consolidated into the Project Information Matrix (PIM), which is updated on a bi-annual basis and provides a useful tool since it gives an overview of the types of projects being conducted and where. The first revision of the PIM was developed during the Structured Information Exchange (SIE) held in September 2011. Participants have since expressed an interest in holding future SIEs approximately every eighteen months.;
- inviting speakers from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regional and international organisations, and research institutes to share their views and recent research with delegations;
- facilitating the management and creation of the Trust Fund projects. This includes updating delegations on the status of Trust Fund projects and highlighting where more effort or volunteer donations are needed;
- organising regular international workshops, seminars and conferences on topics particularly pertinent to SALW and mine action.
The Working Group’s executive agent
NATO's International Staff (IS) functions as the Working Group’s executive agent. As such, the IS implements the annual work programmes and organises its meetings, usually held every eight weeks.
Training on SALW-related issues
NATO conducts two courses related to SALW and/or mine action that are usually held at the NATO School in Oberammergau (NSO), Germany The first is entitled the SALW and Mine Action Course. It is a new course which aims to provide students with an overview of the most significant political, practical and regulatory issues that will be encountered when dealing with the topics of SALW, conventional ammunition and mine action from a national, regional or global perspective. These are cross cutting issues involving many different national ministries (justice, education, defence, trade etc.) in different aspects of these subjects. The course is open to all Allied and partner countries, as well as officials working in relevant regional and international organisations, and NGOs. The first iteration is currently scheduled for January 2013.
The second course, entitled the SALW Implementation Course, focuses on aspects related to the implementation of site assessment visits (SAVs). It focuses on the more practical and technical elements that are relevant for conducting these types of visits, such as the development of appropriate standard operating procedures and the development of SAV reports etc. The SALW Implementation Course is currently open to military and civilian personnel from EAPC member countries.
The UN Programme of Action and other global efforts
The UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects (PoA) was adopted in July 2001 by nearly 150 countries, including all NATO member countries. It consists of measures at the national, regional and global levels, in the areas of legislation, destruction of weapons that were confiscated, seized, or collected, as well as international cooperation and assistance to strengthen the ability of states in identifying and tracing illicit arms and light weapons. Every two years, the UN holds the Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the Implementation of the PoA, otherwise known as the BMS. The activities of the Working Group have fully supported and will continue to support major global events of this nature.
On 1 August 2010, the Convention on Cluster Munitions became a legally binding instrument when it entered into force. The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) prohibits for its signatories all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of Cluster Munitions. Separate articles in the Convention concern assistance to victims, clearance of contaminated areas and the destruction of stockpiles. The Working Group is prepared to provide an additional forum for the discussion and facilitation of such assistance.
Other significant topics include the development of an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).. In July of 2012, UN member states gathered in New York to negotiate an arms trade treaty that would establish high common standards for international trade in conventional arms. Despite the efforts put forth by delegations during the four weeks of negotiations, the Conference could not reach agreement on a treaty text. Governments are now considering the next steps to conclude the negotiations in the not-so-distant future. This Treaty is intended to establish common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms. NATO stands ready to support the Arms Trade Treaty process as appropriate. The activities of the Working Group on SALW and Mine Action can help to support the preparations for this treaty and provide an additional forum for discussion and information-sharing on the issue.
NATO/Partnership for Peace Trust Fund mechanism
The end of the Cold War brought improved security overall, but it also left a dangerous legacy of ageing arms, ammunition, anti-personnel mines, missiles, rocket fuel, chemicals and unexploded ordnance. In 1999, NATO established the NATO/PfP Trust Fund mechanism to assist Partners with these legacy problems. Since then, NATO/PfP Trust Fund projects have produced tangible results and, as such, represent the operational dimension of the Working Group’s efforts.
Trust Fund projects focus on the destruction of SALW, ammunition and mines, improving their physical security and stockpile management (PSSM) and also address the consequences of defence reform.
Allies and partners fund and execute these projects through executive agents. Each project has a lead nation(s), which oversees the development of project proposals along with the NATO IS and the executive agent. This ensures a mechanism with a competitive bidding process, transparency in how funds are expended and verifiable project oversight, particularly for projects involving destruction of munitions.
Trust Funds may be initiated by a NATO member or partner country to tackle specific, practical issues linked to the demilitarisation process of a country or to the introduction of defence reform projects. They are funded by voluntary contributions from individual NATO Allies, partner countries, and most recently even NGOs. They are often implemented in cooperation with other international organizations and NGOs.
The first NATO/PfP Trust Fund project was launched in September 2000 in Albania. The project helped dispose of anti-personnel mines and excess stockpiles of arms and munitions. As of the end of 2010, Allies and partners through the Trust Fund projects had destroyed:
- 108 million rounds of small arms ammunition;
- 4.2 million landmines;
- 2 million hand grenades;
- 620,000 pieced of unexploded ordnance (UXO);
- 427,000 SALW;
- 31,000 tonnes of various munitions, including 5,000 tonnes of cluster munitions;
- 9,300 rockets and missiles;
- 2,620 tonnes of chemicals, including rocket fuel oxidiser (mélange), and;
- 1,100 man portable air defence systems (MANPADS)
In addition, some 5,000 former military personnel have received retraining assistance through Trust Fund defence reform projects.
The Trust Fund mechanism is open to countries participating in NATO’s PfP programme, the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, as well as countries where NATO is leading a crisis-management operation. For instance, in 2010, NATO successfully completed a Trust Fund project in Afghanistan, achieving its aim of providing the Afghan National Army further means to manage munitions in a safe and efficient way. | <urn:uuid:710db6d6-b173-446c-8d4f-88c48a570688> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-FC10070B-DF351C83/natolive/topics_52142.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941981 | 1,765 | 1.75 | 2 |
Here are the current top technology trends that can help you manage your hectic life and enjoy it a little bit more:
Trend 1: Home security in the palm of your hand
Keeping your home and loved ones safe is a top priority, and now new technologies make it easy to stay informed and protect your property and family even when you’re not there. How would you like alerts sent instantly to your phone or computer if a window breaks, a door opens or a pipe bursts? If you have a Honeywell home security system, you can get all this and more when you stay connected through Honeywell Total Connect Remote Services.
Remote services like this use advanced software technology to keep you informed about your property through alerts to your computer, smartphone or tablet. Kids come home early? You can see who is at your door via online video and unlock the door remotely. Keep children and elderly relatives safe by setting up alerts for restricted areas – you’ll know when the liquor cabinet has been opened or a family member leaves the property.
Trend 2: Energy efficiency goes on auto pilot
What was once only imagined in fictional TV shows like the Jetsons is now reality. Homes are quickly becoming more automatic, allowing homeowners to use energy and resources efficiently, which reduces their carbon footprint as well as their utility bill. Lighting, heating, cooling, water use – just about everything your home does can be regulated automatically.
Heating and cooling can easily be automated with a programmable thermostat. Tie it to your Honeywell alarm system so when you set the alarm, the system recognizes you’ve left the house and makes the necessary temperature adjustments. Controlling lighting is simple now too, thanks to remote technology. Forget to turn off the basement light and shut the garage door when you left this morning? Now you can verify through Honeywell Total Connect Remote Services on your smartphone and fix in a few clicks.
Trend 3: Entertainment and learning made easy
The way we watch TV is changing thanks to DVR technology that allows viewers to record shows and watch them when it’s convenient. Plus you can fast-forward through commercials. A DVR can be set to record multiple shows at once and you can even watch your recordings in different locations, whether that’s a TV in another room or on your smartphone while traveling to another state.
How families read and learn is changing too. Today, people of all ages are opting to read ebooks. Rather than trekking to the library, you can now “borrow” books by downloading them online from the comfort of your home. In addition to ebooks, there are literally millions of apps that entertain and educate – today your toddler may learn colors or ABCs on your smartphone or tablet.
Trend 4: Cooking is fun in a futuristic kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of a home, and now technology is making this space more efficient than ever. Smart refrigerators now include LED screens with Wi-Fi capabilities. Make grocery lists, access recipes, listen to music and more, all directly from your refrigerator.
Ovens are smarter too – this year you can get an oven with a preprogrammed guide that takes the guesswork out of cooking popular dishes – simply select the recipe from the menu, place the dish inside and the oven does the rest, intuitively cooking the food to perfection and then switching to warming mode until you’re ready to eat.
These technology trends are booming in popularity for good reason – they make modern life easier, enabling us to run our households and day in the most efficient manner possible. Plus, new technology can be a lot of fun to use, too. | <urn:uuid:445aa655-65d1-4d33-b4a5-0b8911d015f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://floydcountytimes.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Top+technology+trends+for+2013+that+make+your+life+easier%20&id=21887768&instance=Home%20Improvement | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938052 | 747 | 1.75 | 2 |
- About Bard
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RENOWNED JUDAIC SCHOLAR JACOB NEUSNER WILL SPEAK AT BARD COLLEGE
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Jacob Neusner, renowned scholar of Judaism and Theology who has recently been appointed Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College, will speak at Bard on Monday, September 11. This lecture, which inaugurates Neusner's full-time appointment, is presented by the Institute of Advanced Theology and the Religion program at Bard College and will be held at 6:00 p.m., in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building. Neusner will speak on the topic of "Theology Comes Home: The Role of Theology in the Academic Study of Religion and the Role of Theology of Judaism in the Academic Study of Judaism;" this will be published by the Institute on the occasion of its presentation. Neusner is also a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College.
Commenting on the separation of religion and theology in Western academic study, Neusner says, "We at Bard, with our free-standing Institute of Advanced Theology as well as our Department of Religion, innovate by giving theology what is at present a unique venue: equal but separate. The study of theology is correlated with the study of religion. That is a position which, in our view, if done right, theology claims for itself."
Jacob Neusner received his Ph.D. in religion from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary and his rabbinical degree at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In addition, he holds seven honorary doctorates and numerous academic medals and honors. He has published more than 800 books and countless articles. Neusner has taught at Bard College since 1994 prior to accepting this full-time appointment. In addition he has also taught at Dartmouth College, Brown University, and the University of South Florida, among others. He is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, and life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, in England. Neusner was president of the American Academy of Religion, a member of the founding committee of the Association for Jewish Studies, and founded the European Association of Jewish Studies. He served as a member of the National Council on the Humanities under President Carter and a member of the National Council on the Arts under President Reagan. The position Neusner holds as Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College is supported, in part, by a grant from the Tisch Family Foundation of New York City.
The Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College was established to foster critical understanding based on scholarship that will maketrue religious pluralism possible. Since its inception in 1996, the Institute's work has focused on how religions influence history, society, one another, and are in turn influenced by them. The Institute gratefully acknowledges support provided by the Crohn Family Trust, the Tisch Family Foundation, and grants from The Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Council of Learned Societies, and Bard College.
For further information about the lecture by Jacob Neusner or the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, call 845-758-7279.
# # #
This event was last updated on 03-02-2001 | <urn:uuid:74672aeb-c268-4434-8d47-23d242f216c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=161 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954516 | 711 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Donations pour in for dog found in trash bag
Shot in the face, tossed in a trash bag and tied to a fence post on the side of the road, a dog in Conroe, Texas was rescued, treated and — though he’s expected to have lasting damage — is mostly recovering.
Rescuers named him Buck — after the buckshot left in his face by a shotgun blast.
A driver spotted the bag on the side of the road Saturday on Bulldog Lane, and saw that it was moving.
Once it was was opened a bloody dog crawled out and collapsed on the ground.
When a call to animal control produced no immediate results, Tami Augustyn — known in the area for helping animals in need — was called.
Augustyn took the dog to Animal Emergency Clinic of Conroe, where it was determined he’d been shot in the face with buckshot, according to the Mongtomery County Police Reporter, which broke the story.
Dr. Ron Hendrick, a veterinarian at the clinic, said the mixed breed dog, about three years old, sustained damage to both eyes and also shows signs of hearing loss and brain damage.
The article about Buck — and a Facebook page set up to help him — led to nearly $10,000 in donations towards Buck’s medical care.
This week, the New York Daily News picked up the story.
Posted by jwoestendiek January 9th, 2013 under Muttsblog.
Tags: abuse, animal cruelty, bag, bloody, buck, buck foundation, buckshot, conroe, cruelty, cruelty to animals, ears, expenses, eyes, face, facebook, fence, fencepost, medical, rescue, road, shot, shotgun, tami augustyn, texas, tied, trash bag | <urn:uuid:e86310ce-5ae5-4b47-8164-8c146f55a2b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohmidog.com/2013/01/09/donations-pour-in-for-dog-found-in-trash-bag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959577 | 374 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Is Apple joining the "Don't be evil" brigade?
Flash may be closed and proprietary, but Apple is hardly the patron saint of openness. Nor has it ever seemed to care much about pretending to be anything other than religiously devoted to a beautiful consumer experience, regardless of open standards, open source, open anything.
What has changed? Developers. Lots of them.
Apple is seeing the "light of openness" now that it increasingly must cater to external developers. For years Apple was able to live within its shell, serving a narrow world of devoted consumers and a very limited circle of developers.
No more. With the iPhone, Apple hit the developer mainstream, and has had some growing pains getting comfortable with that audience, most recently with its increasingly restrictive developer agreement.
Apple has a tough sell for developers over the long term, particularly as it faces open alternatives in its various markets, including Google Android. Developers are attracted to the iPhone's sales volume, but the trajectory of the company may make it increasingly harder to work with the company, a proprietary trajectory ZDNet's Tom Foremski describes well:
Since the introduction of the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple is becoming less and less open, is using fewer standard components and chips, and far fewer Internet technologies common to Mac/PC desktop and laptop systems.
The iPhone and iPad, for example, don't support common Internet platforms such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight. That means you cannot watch streaming video from Hulu, or Netflix.
And while iPhone chips are available from other manufacturers, the iPad runs only on the A4 processor--an Apple designed chip that no one else can buy.
This was OK when Apple was the most open smartphone game in town (RIM's BlackBerry was hardly a paragon of openness), but it's a tough sell with Google on the scene. Google Android, for all its problems and criticisms, has successfully attracted a host of applications recently through a more open approach, jumping from 6,000 to 25,000 applications in 2010 alone.
Apple may be its own best friend...and worst enemy.
Or, as Redmonk analyst James Governor puts it, "[The] company doing [the] most to grow the Android app base is Apple. The new terms of service are AWESOME for the Android team...."
It's not that Apple needs to open everything up to compete. But it does need to present a more credible argument than random smears against competitors for being proprietary. After all, let's be clear: None of these companies is open. Or closed. Not Apple. Not Adobe. Not Google. Each employs a hybrid approach, as CNET's Stephen Shankland points out. Each includes plenty of openness, and plenty of "closed and proprietary" technology and business practices.
That's the world we live in.
That's why, as Shankland writes, we (and particularly developers) should be wary of any vendor bearing gifts of openness:
In general, be very cautious when you hear any computing company wrapping itself in the flag of openness as it promotes its products. There are different kinds--open interfaces, open source, and open standards, for example.
Apple's reality distortion field afflicts us all at some point: it just makes beautiful technology. But developers aren't so easily swayed, including Apple's pot-calling-the-kettle-black moment with Adobe. Some won't care. Others, like Mozilla's Chris Blizzard, will.
Apple needs to figure out its developer story, one complicated by Google's surge into the smartphone market. I doubt we'll see Steve Jobs sweating to the Steve Ballmer beat, but Apple does need to up the openness quotient in its developer outreach, and soon. | <urn:uuid:5418c5ab-5ee7-47bb-b6a8-55521aa67d41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-20003211-16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953364 | 766 | 1.539063 | 2 |
VIRGINIA BEACH-- The City of Virginia Beach has introduced new proposals to ease the parking pain along the Oceanfront.
During Thursday’s informational meeting, the city’s Office of Strategic Growth introduced new proposals aimed at increasing parking efficiency.
“The biggest issue is the impact of parking on residential neighborhoods and the concern that the new form-based code would add additional stress,” said Barry Frankenfield, Director of the Office of Strategic Growth.
Despite bold “No Parking” signs, people living in neighborhoods surrounding the Oceanfront say when the summer comes, the battle for parking spots begins.
“It’s a madhouse, I can barely get out of my driveway,” said Caroline Whisman, who lives at 16th Street.
Some say it's not the thousands of tourists causing the parking jam, but hundreds of seasonal workers.
“All of the cars and it’s mainly restaurant workers, lifeguards, people that work down on the Oceanfront, they all park up and down this street so it’s hard to even back out without almost hitting a car,” explained Whisman.
The city admits parking is not easy for seasonal workers and finding a solution has become a priority.
"We would look at raising the fees for employee parking permits, and look at providing other alternatives for employees to park in other city facilities, existing lots or existing properties to reduce the impact on those neighborhoods," said Frankenfield.
The Office of Strategic Growth will add public input to their recommendations and release another report in mid-April. | <urn:uuid:a6dd0588-6cb8-4cba-932c-45a05d4f741b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvec.com/news/New-options-prop-194375011.html?ref=prev | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940018 | 331 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Collaborative Computational Project No. 4
|Home||About CCP4||CCP4 Projects||Downloads||Documentation||Courses||Developers||CCP4 people|
CCP4bb is an electronic mailing list intended to host discussions about topics of general interest to macromolecular crystallographers. Any crystallographic-related item is acceptable, and doesn't have to be directly related to CCP4. The bulletin board is routinely used to request information, and to inform people about job vacancies, new services and the availability of new or updated software.
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To prevent abuse of the mailing list (and particularly to prevent spam being posted to the list), only members of the CCP4bb list are able to post to it. This is done by checking the email address of the sender against the subscribed email addresses. It is therefore very important to subscribe the correct email address.
People are encouraged to post summaries of advice and information received from discussions which they have initiated or participated in (this is especially useful since many of the responses don't go to the list, only to the person who originally asked the question).
Some useful tips on the etiquette of posting questions to groups such as ccp4bb can be found in this FAQ from Eric Raymond. The advice amounts to: be considerate and think before posting. Some specific rules:
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SUBSCRIBE ccp4bb <forename surname>
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The most common reason for postings not appearing on CCP4bb is that the sender's address doesn't match any of those on the list of subscribers - either because they are not subscribed, or because they are subscribed but with a different address.
Other problems include being unable to subscribe or unsubscribe addresses, receiving multiple copies of the same posting, and receiving "out-of-office replies" in response to posting a message.
In all cases, if you are unable to resolve the problem yourself then please contact the CCP4 help desk at firstname.lastname@example.org. We are able to resolve most problems with CCP4bb quite easily.
In addition to the general CCP4bb list, CCP4 provides a specialised mailing list aimed at software developers, called CCP4-dev. | <urn:uuid:06af79e1-f7ab-44da-8e67-253f80427db4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ccp4.ac.uk/ccp4bb.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935755 | 641 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Your voice is what makes you… you. Your voice is that one thing that that talks to you in moments of sadness, is that thing that inspires you to create and to live your life to the fullest, is that thing that makes you a part of this society and of this great planet. Everyone has a voice weather they realize it or not and losing one’s voice can mean the destruction of one’s being. However you cannot destroy or take away your own voice and no one or nothing can make that voice stop talking. When you think that you lost your voice it never went away it was always there. Your voice was always there is just that is was secluded within your innermost thoughts and feelings. Sometimes your voice might just stop talking and be silent for some time, but when it decided to speak up again it will have many things to say. Do not seclude your own voice for it is impossible. Lest your voice speak as loud as it wants and if it does get quiet let it be so when it speaks again it will roar like a lion. | <urn:uuid:c02ae317-bb86-481b-9ac5-c09bd31a7fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teenink.com/poetry/free_verse/article/400389/Your-voice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985367 | 219 | 1.773438 | 2 |
T&T considers overhaul of prison rules
Justice Minister Herbert Volney said the changes would help support inmates re-entry into society.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Friday January 13, 2012 – Sweeping changes have been proposed for the prison system including compulsory HIV/AIDS testing and the granting of conjugal visits for convicted prisoners.
The recommendations would replace “archaic” prison rules and help support inmates re-entry into society, Justice Minister Herbert Volney said.
The minister explained that focus would shift from retributive justice to restorative by promoting the rehabilitation of prisoners.
Legislators will soon debate the recommendations which, the government official said, aim to establish “a system of privileges for the different classes of prisoners, including a points-based system for prisoners to earn remission or part-remission of their sentence.”
He outlined the plan for a detailed system of communication and visits “which would allow prisoners to communicate with their family, friends and attorneys, including the use of telephone and video visits, as well as conjugal and private family visits for convicted prisoners who meet eligibility criteria.”
The justice minister said the new rules stipulates that clothing, food and sleeping accommodation should conform to United Nations standards, and adequate medical services should be provided to prisoners with special needs and conditions.
The rules also seek to regulate the use of force, the manner in which security and control of prisoners are to be undertaken, and provide for prenatal and post-natal care to all pregnant inmates.
The new legislation, the minister said, provided for “early” release of prisoners who co-operated.
“They won’t be locked up as is the case now and made to serve two-thirds of their sentence without any chance of earlier release,” he said. | <urn:uuid:97ea614b-1e79-49ad-bda1-2b82a853825d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caribbean360.com/mobile/http:/www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/trinidad_tobago_news/548086.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960155 | 374 | 1.554688 | 2 |
From The Rapidian staff
Each week, a Rapidian staffer will publish a piece related to goings-on at The Rapidian, developments in the world of citizen journalism and tips for making the most of the site. Click here for past editorials.
Other articles by the same author
The Rapidian's disclosure text field can be found below the "video" and "audio" text fields on the "create article" page.
From Rapidian staff: In a blog entry by Whitney Hoffman, she frames blogging in a media-saturated world as a Mom & Pop operation.
In October 2009, the Federal Trade Commission put a law in place that just went into effect last month: Full disclosure for advertorial content or face fines. Any testimonials or endorsements produced on a benefits-per-entry basis must be clearly marked in the article.
Why is this a big deal for The Rapidian and other new media outlets? Because for the first time, a law aimed at commercial media also included the Mom & Pop blogosphere.
Although The Rapidian is not fashioned as a blog, it is a new media outlet—media born out of Internet technology—and potentially falls under this law as well.
Under new regulations, content creators must disclose their connection to their topic if:
- They were paid for their testimonial (this sort of advertorial content is not permitted on The Rapidian anyhow).
- The contributor received any sort of benefit (i.e.: free copy of a book for review, free admission to an event, discounts, etc.), even if it were unsolicited.
- At the time of review, contributors who benefit for their content cannot review a product that they have not tested. To protect consumers, contributions must be honest opinions, not marketing copy.
In situations where contributors benefit for their content, they also have an obligation to the company. The soliciting company is legally responsible for false and inaccurate claims made by a contributor.
The list above is not comprehensive, but there are many gray areas under the FTC's disclosure regulations.
As part of beta II, The Rapidian has provided a disclosure text field for contributors. The point of the FTC regulations is for authors to be upfront with their audience so they can discern an author's bias. Grand Rapidians generally have their hands in several different projects and volunteer opportunities, and it is in the same spirit that The Rapidian has provided the disclosure text field.
The Rapidian's terms of agreement prohibit submissions in which reporters have been paid for their testimonials. If the UICA pays a reporter in exchange for a positive review, it will not be published on The Rapidian. However, if the UICA offers free admission to reporters who will cover the most recent art opening, that does not fall under prohibited advertorial content on The Rapidian.
Regardless of whether reporters receive any benefit, it is generally good practice to disclose relationships and connections to the subjects you create content about to establish credibility with your audience.
Some prominent bloggers interpret the regulations as recognition of new media's influence. Discussions have been swirling about how the regulations raise and standardize the level of professionalism on the web, but there has also been contention among bloggers about how nitpicky the regulations will be. If a blogger gets a free, albeit ugly, t-shirt for attending an event, does it need to be disclosed even if that blogger wouldn't be caught dead wearing it? The rules have yet to take form in the blogosphere, but in spirit, it's above deck.
For further reading, check out:
- Whitney Hoffman's comprehensive overview of the FTC disclosure regulations
- New media marketing expert Chris Brogan's Pro-FTC post
- Anti-FTC post by InfoWorld's Robert Cringley
- Mashable's tongue-in-cheek disclosure icons
Former citizen journalism coordinator for The Rapidian. Bicycle commuter, experimental cook, aspiring athlete, wannabe programmer, infrequent pianist, language lover, tupperware fanatic and tea junkie. A proud Midtownie but a West Coast girl at heart.
Reports on: Tech, Midtown neighborhood, anything that catches my fancy, &c. | <urn:uuid:ef8756fd-74e9-480a-bd61-b209d8a3111d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://therapidian.org/ftc-regulations-mirror-rapidians-emphasis-disclosure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934744 | 860 | 1.664063 | 2 |
How Orwell would have delighted in satirising today’s tech titans’ perpetual war. Remember when Apple v Microsoft was the defining Oceania v Eurasia battle for supremacy? If so you’re experiencing a doubleplusungood false memory: both are now unimpeachable allies, working to replace Google with Bing as the iPhone’s default search provider. Likewise, you would simply be mistaken to recall Google’s chequebook-wielding flirtation with Facebook three years ago.
Google and Facebook, as every goodthinker knows, are dangerously implacable enemies.
That war entered a venomous new stage last week, when the internet’s biggest search company announced that it had also become a Facebook-style social network. Google Buzz, launched on Tuesday, intends to turn Gmail’s 150 million users into a vast pool of shared personal information, building on similar initiatives such as Google Wave and Google Social Search.
Then it emerged last week that Google had bought the social- networking start-up Aardvark, which lets users “tap the knowledge of people in your network”. In other words, it was advancing its tanks even farther across Facebook’s lawn.
What we are witnessing is the ultimate battle for control of the internet. Google, employing the world’s smartest software engineers, has dominated the desktop-internet era for a decade through its unbeatable algorithm-based computing power. But now we’re into the mobile-internet era, Facebook intends to dominate by knowing what we are thinking, doing and intending to spend — wherever we happen to be. As Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg sees it, this “social graph”, built around our friends, family and colleagues, will determine how hundreds of millions of us decide on everything from holidays to cosmetic surgeons. And with Facebook the proprietary gatekeeper — its mobile-phone applications already attracting extraordinary engagement from members — that’s a potential advertiser proposition that Google can only dream of.
It’s not that Mr Zuckerberg is still only 25 and naively arrogant that annoys Google, nor that his company has enticed swaths of senior Google talent. It’s that Facebook’s fast-growing dominance of the “social” internet threatens its rival’s entire business model. If it can sell advertisers access not just to what you’re thinking, but to where you are, who you’re with and what you plan to do, Facebook’s revenues from individually targeted “behavioural” advertising could increase exponentially. And it knows it.
“Google is not representative of the future of technology in any way,” a Facebook veteran boasted to Wired recently. “Facebook is an advanced communications network enabling myriad communication forms. It almost doesn’t make sense to compare them.”
The mobile internet changes everything — how we behave, spend, declare our intentions, and consume content. That’s why Google is pushing so aggressively its Android smartphone platform and Nexus One handsets. It’s also why Apple has helped software developers to distribute three billion iPhone apps. “That mobile device is never more than a metre or two away from my body, even when I’m asleep,” explains Android’s Eric Tseng. “It knows all my friends through contacts applications; it knows where I am because it’s got a GPS chip; what I’m doing as I’ve got my calendar on it; and it’s got all this contextual knowledge about me. That’s very powerful.”
Already 16 million Britons access the internet through their phones, with five million doing so to visit Facebook — putting it comfortably ahead of Google traffic. And we’re just at the start of this revolution: 3G mobile penetration in Western Europe rose from 17 per cent in 2007 to 29 per cent in 2009, and is forecast to reach 67 per cent next year; in Japan it is already 91 per cent. The lesson from Japan is that, unlike the desktop internet, where people are averse to paying for content, the networked mobile phone is a consumer goldmine. Morgan Stanley estimates that $43 billion was made from the mobile internet in Japan in 2008. Proportionately, Europe today is where Japan was almost a decade ago.
Why is Facebook so well positioned? Because , when all your friends are on Facebook, it makes no sense to go elsewhere.
Mr Zuckerberg’s human-powered view of the internet also taps into our yearning, as social creatures, to climb Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to attain self-actualisation: of the 400 million active Facebook users (up from 200 million last summer), half log on in any given day; they share five billion pieces of content a week and upload more than three billion photos each month. On average, they spend more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook. Those who access it via their mobile devices are “twice as active”. Now do you see why the search gurus in Google’s Mountain View headquarters are so anxious?
So it’s a slam-dunk that Facebook, quickly emerging as the repository of all human intentions, will trounce Google, right? Well, possibly — except for two teeny details. The first is money. Google has $24.5 billion in the bank, after making $6.5 billion profit in the past year. And Facebook — although Mr Zuckerberg predicted a 70 per cent revenue growth this year — only went “cashflow positive” last autumn. There’s a lot you can do with the odd $25 billion: from writing open cheques to YouTube until it can dominate the market in online TV and film distribution, to saturation- advertising its Chrome browser on London buses. Don’t be surprised if Facebook announces a public share offering soon to build a war chest.
Mr Zuckerberg’s second challenge is to convince his customers to surrender their privacy. A business based on giving advertisers access to your personal data must somehow convince you that it’s in your interests to do so: and so far, his repeated clumsy attempts have met a substantial consumer backlash. Early reactions to Buzz have also reminded Google that many of us are unhappy ceding vast amounts of personal information to a private business.
And never forget how quickly fashions change in the online ecosystem. Remember Friendster, Friends Reunited, even MySpace — owned by this newspaper’s parent, and currently struggling in between CEOs? All were the next big social thing once. That’s people for you.
You never can rely on them.
David Rowan is editor of Wired | <urn:uuid:30433f51-ed78-4aa6-b47e-a9eb5321a5ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christianlouca.com/tag/3g-mobile-penetration/ | 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 | 0.931373 | 1,397 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Posted by peskypippi | Posted in Celebrations, Christmas, Food, Traditions, Uncategorized | Posted on 05-12-2011
Tags: Christmas, divinity, Holidays, Omega-3, Orange, peanut brittle, ribbon candy, simple, Vitamin C, walnuts
You’d think I was raised in the Great Depression by looking at the contents of my stocking hung at the mantle at Christmas. All I got in my stocking were oranges and whole walnuts.
Someone must’ve known I needed Vitamin C and heart-health Omega-3 fatty acids back then.
Maybe it was to counter all the sweets I enjoyed at Christmastime:
- Divinity–the gooey white marshmallow-like candy
- Peanut brittle
- Cracking walnuts with a real nutcrackers and picks–ya really appreciate the nut when it takes like 5 minutes to eat just one.
- Ribbon candy–remember the gorgeous colors? And when your aunt said to take “just one,” you actually took like 7 because they all stuck together?
Enjoy the simple things this Holidays. And take time to crack some nuts…or crack your tooth on a piece of ribbon candy. | <urn:uuid:dae9e6f5-56a0-468f-ac69-6729aa0523be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peskypippi.com/2011/12/05/all-i-got-for-christmas-was-an-orange/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940037 | 252 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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