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Port Arthur's heritage tourism management gains international exposure
The way in which the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority successfully combines tourism and heritage management was highlighted recently at an international workshop in China.
Entitled Advancing Sustainable Tourism at Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites, the workshop was held at the Mogao Caves World Heritage Site in Gansu Province, China from 26 to 29 September 2009. The workshop brought together around 100 people from 21 countries to discuss a range of issues relating to planning for sustainable tourism; working with the tourism industry; managing the tourist experience on site; and maximising community benefits.
Maria Stacey, PAHSMA Director of Tourism Operations, and Andrew Ross, Marketing Manager, represented the Authority at the workshop, delivering a paper on tourism management at Port Arthur and contributing to the development of guidelines for use at other World Heritage sites.
Speaking after her return, Maria said the experience was both fascinating and inspiring.
“We tend to take it for granted, at Port Arthur, that we are a part of the tourism industry, and that tourism contributes to the conservation of our Sites and their heritage values.
“But that is not always the case internationally. In some places, tourism is viewed as an unmanageable danger to sites and local communities, while others may need to develop the knowledge and skills to work positively with the tourism industry.
“It was fascinating to hear about the range of heritage sites around the world and the issues that they face, and inspiring to hear about the solutions being found to some of those issues.”
The Port Arthur Historic Site has a long-standing relationship with the Dunhuang Academy, which manages the Mogao Caves, having hosted several delegations of the Academy’s staff at Port Arthur.
“The hospitality we provided on those visits was more than returned to us. We were treated as honoured guests and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to see their site and to find out about their truly impressive plans to manage their growing numbers of visitors,” said Maria.
The pair also visited Hong Kong, where they met with key travel agents. China and Hong Kong are a rapidly growing market for tourists to Port Arthur, and Tasmania in general.
Maria and Andrew in front of the 'Nine-Tiered Pagoda' at Mogao.
Rock-cut caves at Mogao, which is in the north-western Chinese province of Gansu.
An example of some of Mogao's cave art
Photography is not permitted inside the caves; these images are from replica caves in the Dunhuang Academy's exhibition centre
An iconic Buddhist image from Mogao
Stupas in the desert at Mogao, which is in the Gobi Desert | <urn:uuid:95dd6281-a046-4280-aa6d-7abf0059679b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.portarthur.org.au/index.aspx?sys=Archived%20News%20Article&intID=1724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954005 | 559 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Are you ready to say goodbye to your rough, dry skin once and for all? In this article I’m going to share some very effective tips that will make your skin soft!
Those of us who were born with non-oily skin often suffer from dry, rough skin especially during the winter months. Even if you have oily skin, being exposed to cold weather and wind can quickly dehydrate your skin and cause it to look and feel rough.
Fortunately, there are a number of relatively easy steps you can take to keep your skin soft and smooth…
Top Ways to Make your Skin Soft
Here are five things you can do to keep your skin looking and feeling as soft and smooth as possible. Be sure that you follow these techniques consistently for best results!
- Moisturize – This is probably the most obvious method to keep your skin soft. It’s important to moisturize your skin once (preferably twice) daily. Make sure you always apply moisturizer after you step out of the bath or shower, since the water will quickly dehydrate your skin. Want to try something new? Make your own homeade skin cream…
- Use Bath Oil – Whenever you take a bath, be sure to add oil. Oil will help condition your dry skin and keep the moisture in.
- Drink Plenty of Water – The skin is easily affected by dehydration, which is why staying well hydrated is a simple way to make sure your body’s water levels do not become depleted.
- Exfoliate your Skin - Exfoliating helps remove dead skin cells and will keep your skin much smoother by reducing rough patches that develop over time. Be sure to exfoliate at least once a week. A dry brush is a simply way to exfoliate. Don’t forget to apply moisturizer after.
- Eat Omega 3 Fatty Acids – These beneficial oils found in certain plants and cold water fish species can be very beneficial to your skin. They actually help the skin cells hold more water and decrease the chance of them becoming dehydrated. The easiest way to consume Omega 3′s is to either take a supplement or consume fish such as salmon or trout at least once a week.
Tips to Maintaining Soft & Smooth Skin
Here are some tips that will help you maintain soft skin:
- Skin Softening body wraps are a great way to keep your skin smooth and moist.
- During the winter months, be sure to use a humidifier. The more your furnace runs, the dryer the air in your home will be. The humidity level should be around 50% for optimal skin.
- When outside, be sure to cover your skin as much as possible. Wind can damage the skin and will dry it out very quickly making it very rough.
- Take short baths or showers, and make sure that the water temperature is not too hot as this will quickly dry your skin out.
- After bathing, pat yourself dry instead of rubbing yourself with the towel.
I hope that these tips I’ve outlined help make your skin softer! If you would like to learn more about skin softening body wraps, please Click Here to download my ebook “Wrap Yourself Slim: Body Wraps Exposed”. I have some great skin softening body wrap recipes and techniques. | <urn:uuid:11888d85-76d5-4115-ab8a-b06cf701bbab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wrapyourselfslim.com/make-skin-soft-how-to-naturally-soften-the-skin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945438 | 683 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Natuashish is a plantation with the government as absentee landlord, but the absence of work makes it, in fact, far more destructive than the cotton fields of Virginia ever were. How many more generations of the most lavishly endowed underclass on the planet have to be destroyed in the name of Canadian "caring"? We need to blow up Indian Affairs and end the compassionate apartheid that segregates natives from Canadians.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Posted by David MacLean at 11:31 PM
Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Fan Box
Canadian Taxpayers Federation on Facebook | <urn:uuid:6429e0f9-47ed-4786-8578-46b26162c9cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taxpayerblog.com/2005/08/remembering-great-column.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930546 | 117 | 1.585938 | 2 |
BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts already has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, but legislative leaders see room for improvement.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Wednesday asked Jack McDevitt, an associate dean at Northeastern University, to lead a special commission on gun violence, with a possible focus on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
McDevitt said the recent killings of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., has galvanized interest in protecting innocent people from gun violence.
DeLeo said the commission's findings could lead to new legislation in the coming months.
Senate President Therese Murray also said Wednesday that she has discussed possible legislation that would address gun violence "without demonizing the mentally ill." | <urn:uuid:ce3622b8-b3f2-4c03-8fe6-1b716b0c2a1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/20487769/2013/01/02/lawmakers-seek-study-on-mass-gun-laws | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95967 | 156 | 1.757813 | 2 |
I am remodeling a bathroom and we have a wall that is bumped out about 12-14 inches from the outside wall. Inside that cavity is the PVC vent pipe for a downstairs bathroom that runs straight up thru the second floor and attic and out the roof. I would like to shift this pipe closer to the outside wall to give us some more room for the remodel. Does this pipe have to be 100% straight or can I use some right angle pieces and move it closer to the outside wall? will the vacuum effect for the toilet to operate properly still be ok if I do divert the pipe for this project. Thanks.
My understanding is that plumbing codes change from locality to locality in the US so regardless of what answer you might get in here, you'd still have to check with someone locally to see if what you want to do would be allowed where you live.
Nestor, thanks for the reply. However I'm not as concerned about the codes as I am the actual question as to whether altering the configuration of the pipe (from totally straight to a couple of right angles) would affect the performance of the toilet vacuum that the vent creates.
As long as you continue the vent in the same size and keep it pointed in an uphill direction (no traps) then it will work fine as a vent pipe. As to the code issue, while I suppose there could be a really anal township somewhere in the country, it should be code compliant anywhere in the U.S.
I agree with Jaybee that putting a dog leg in the vent pipe, or two, or three won't affect the performance of any plumbing fixture vented by that pvc pipe.
But, when you say:
then I'm thinking you don't understand either vent piping or toilets, and I should do some explaining.
A vent pipe doesn't create a vaccuum. If anything, a vent pipe is there to prevent a vaccuum from arising.
You see, when water is running down a sloping drain pipe, it's heavy and flows quickly, and so it can develop quite a bit of momentum. Just in the same way as a subway will draw a wind behind it as it leaves the station and enters the tunnel, water draining down a drain pipe can create a suction behind it. That negative gauge pressure can be strong enough to suck the water out of the p-trap under a sink, shower or tub, thereby allowing sewer gas to waft up into your house through those empty traps. A vent pipe is connected to the drain piping somewhere shortly downstream of the p-trap. That vent pipe's job is to allow air to be sucked into the drain whenever there's a negative gauge pressure in the drain pipe. In that way, air rushes in from the vent piping to fill that partial vaccuum, ensuring that there isn't enough suction behind the draining water to suck the p-trap dry. And that ensures that your bathroom always smells fresh as an Irish meadow in the springtime.
So, vent pipes are there to PREVENT vaccuums from occuring in drain pipes.
A toilet, on the other hand, needs suction in it's drain pipe to work properly. Lemme explain:
A toilet is nothing more than a glorified siphon. With a siphon hose, you suck on the end of the hose to fill it with liquid, and once it's full the laws of physics take over, and the hose becomes a siphon and liquid will flow through that siphon hose as long as it's full of liquid and the outlet of the hose is at a lower elevation that the entrance to the hose.
Obviously sucking on the bottom of a toilet isn't going to fly so we have to find a different way to start a siphon in a toilet bowl. Enter the toilet tank. A toilet tank's job is to pour enough water into the toilet bowl fast enough that the bowl water overflows a "wier" molded into the back of the toilet bowl so fast that the subsequent "discharge channel" (which is the winding pipe you often see molded into porcelain toilet bowls) gets completely filled with water. The sharp bends in that discharge channel are there ONLY to slow down the flow of water through it, thereby increasing the liklihood that it will become flooded with water. If enough water pours over the wier into that discharge channel to fill that discharge channel completely, then the laws of physics again take over and transform that discharge channel into a 2 1/2 inch diameter siphon which sucks the water and everything in the water out of the toilet bowl. As long as that winding discharge channel gets filled completely with water, and nothing comes to interfere with the laws of physics, then you have Sir Isaac Newton's personal guarantee of a successful flush.
So, unlike any other plumbing fixture in your house, you WANT a strong suction behind the water draining out of a toilet to clear the bowl completely, but that kind of suction in a sink or tub would suck the water out of the p-trap. You don't have to worry about that with a toilet because the toilet tank's job is not only to flood the bowl's discharge channel, but to keep adding enough water to the bowl after the flush to refill the bowl again. And so, in a toilet, it's the water in the bowl that performs the same function as the water in a p-trap under the sink. The bowl water prevents sewer gas from wafting into your house's bathrooms through the toilet bowl just as water in the p-traps do.
So, that vent pipe is mostly there for the sink and tub and/or shower in your bathroom. The toilet doesn't need that vent pipe, and lots of homes that have a basement toilet added years after the house was built, DON'T have any sort of venting for the basement toilet at all. The toilet's drain pipe is simply connected to the house's main drain line, and that's it. No vent.
And, it's the toilet bowl's discharge channel filling up completely with water and magically transforming into a powerful siphon that gives rise to a strong flush. The vent didn't do nuthin to help that discharge channel fill with water and doesn't deserve to share in the credit for that.
So, I don't see any problem with the vent pipe not being purely vertical, but when you said the vent pipe creates a vaccuum in the toilet which determines how well the toilet flushes, I saw a real problem there.
I still think you should OK that bend in your vent piping with your plumbing inspector tho. Even if it's against the code in your area, he may have come across this problem before and know a way around it.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,
Jaybee and Nestor, thanks so much for all the information on this subject. I wasn't that knowledgeable on the terminology of the workings of the vent pipe and I probably did misuse the term vacuum. Again, appreciate the expertise. Ivan
there is a rule of thumb in air handling that four 90-degree bends is all you can use. it cuts the airflow below half.
I'm prone to thinking in terms of sweep ells on vent lines, because not only does air have to flow, but water has to flow downhill into the drain when/if it condenses from vapor to liquid in the vent. living in a freezy place, I like the idea of nothing in the way to stop it, cause a block, and cut off the airflow.
I have been told by folks who know that you never reduce a DWV line roof to street in size, but larger diameter vent penetrations are often required going through the attic and roof to insure no ice buildup.
short version: I would not "double offset" the vent line... if you move it closer to the exterior wall (but in the warm zone, please) then also move the whole pipe with a new roof cut and weatherproof.
sig: if this is a new economy, how come they still want my old-fashioned money?
Hey Nestor your information is awesome, the definition of venture pipes is well explained and I get huge knowledge from your post. Keep it up
Using 2 45 degree fittings instead of 1 90 degree ell may help with your problem. But I too see no problem with introducing a jog or two if needed for a remodel. As when you think about it air pressure should not be affected adversely with two additional turns.
"Why isn't everyday Earth Day ?"
For general message board help, click the tab labeled "Tools," and choose "Help" from the dropdown menu. | <urn:uuid:87a5e0a0-5337-4bca-98d4-8053387be4dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boards.diynetwork.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6191013504/m/7643957557?r=3873904657 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954395 | 1,782 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The federal Competition Bureau has added dentistry to its roster of professions in its continuing review of how the policies and practices of the professions' self-regulatory associations may be lessening competition across the country.
Both health and self-regulating professions are priority areas for the bureau, an independent law-enforcement agency that uses criminal and civil prosecution to combat anti-competitive behaviour.
It has chosen to study dentists given the industry's importance to Canadians, both in terms of economic size and personal well-being, the agency said in a recent news release.
In 2006, Canadians spent $9.94 billion on dental services, about 95 per cent of which were private-sector expenditures. The study will look at the methods and practices used by dentistry's self-regulating colleges and associations in provinces across Canada.
|Business Edge photo illustration|
|Dentists say 'whatever we do will stand up to scrutiny' when the Competition Bureau does its review.|
"We welcome this inquiry," says Irwin Fefergrad of Toronto, registrar of the self-regulating Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. "We're open. We're transparent."
Fefergrad says that while dental organizations in some provinces have the dual role of regulator and industry association, his college's sole role is regulation. "We're not turf protectors," he adds.
And, with 11 government-appointed public representatives on the 25-seat council, "I think whatever we do will stand up to scrutiny," he says.
The Competition Bureau announcement came in the wake of the December 2007 release of its report, Self-Regulated Professions: Balancing Competition and Regulation, which looks at accountants, lawyers, optometrists, pharmacists and real estate agents.
The report, the first of its kind by the Ottawa-based bureau, notes policies and practices common among the self-regulatory professional associations that can have a detrimental impact on competition.
For instance, member professionals are subject to rules that govern their advertising, such as restrictions on comparative advertising. Suggested prices and rules regarding fee structures remain common. Professional associations continue to assert authority over who can offer professional services, which can lead to consumers paying higher prices.
And uneven licensing requirements impede inter-provincial mobility.
Earlier in 2007, the Competition Bureau applauded the Ontario government's decision that year to amend its Dental Hygiene Act to permit dental hygienists to work independently of dentists in tooth-scaling and root-planing treatments.
"We say some regulations are harming the public interest by limiting consumer choice, curtailing price competition and hurting the Canadian economy," Sheridan Scott, the bureau's commissioner of competition, said in a speech at the Economic Club of Toronto in December 2007 when the report was released.
"We call on the professions across Canada to re-examine their regulations in the light of our study and the simple question that, at its heart, it poses: 'Is there a true public interest behind every competition-limiting rule you have?' " The study of self-regulated professions is a key priority. The bureau is carrying out its review of professions in its role as advocate for a more competitive marketplace, and it is likely that the variety of professions to go under this agency's magnifying glass will continue to increase.
The study's findings are a warning shot, and the bureau has said that it will conduct a follow-up review of the targeted professions in two years to see if any of its recommendations were adopted. If they aren't, the professional associations may find themselves confronted with the brass knuckles from the bureau's enforcement arm.
How would professional practices fare in their day-to-day operations if the Competition Bureau's vision of a competitive-marketplace Utopia were to come into being?
Mark Katz of Toronto, a competition lawyer with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, says professions that use suggested-fee guides could find it challenging to adapt to a world without any.
"It would be harder for individual professionals to benchmark what they are doing in the marketplace compared with what others are doing," Katz says. "It would presumably make it a lot more difficult to practise.
"The Competition Bureau is advocating a certain position tied to their idea of a perfect world," he adds. "From their perspective, doing away with suggested-fee guides could further that vision. But it's a different story if you have to practise and run a business in the real world."
In a background paper released with its self-regulated professions report, the Competition Bureau acknowledges the prominence of Canada's professions in the country's service sector, which accounts for as much as 70 per cent of the overall economy.
A report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that Canada is saddled with one of the heaviest regulatory regimes for the professions, the bureau notes.
Also, a Conference Board of Canada study found that professional services are in the bottom 20 per cent for relative labour productivity and that labour productivity in the professions in Canada is about half that of the professions in the United States.
"Given the significance of the professions in Canada, it is worrisome that recent evidence shows that they comprise one of the economy's least productive sectors," the bureau backgrounder says.
The bureau says competition concerns arise when regulation exceeds legitimate public-policy goals and limits competition. Examples in the self-regulated professions report include:
* Advertising rules often go beyond what is needed to protect consumers. For instance, lawyers are restricted from using comparative advertising on verifiable factors such as price and they are restricted on the size, style and content of their ads.
* In real estate, Ontario legislation limits price competition. The bureau report recommends that Ontario's real estate regulators remove the restriction that says consumers must pay a flat fee or a percentage of the selling price.
* The bureau report says regulators should consider allowing some professionals to offer more services than they currently do. For example, some accountants in some areas of Canada are not allowed to perform independent audits, despite an increasing shortage of affordable auditors for small to medium-sized businesses and not-for-profits.
Commissioner Scott said in her December 2007 speech that too many regulatory rules go beyond legitimate consumer protection.
"Our study found that rules that limit advertising, set prices for services and restrict who can offer some professional services may go beyond legitimate consumer protection. These rules can lead to higher prices, limit choice and restrict access to the type of information consumers need to make decisions."
(Brock Ketcham is an Edmonton-based writer who specializes in consumer and public policy issues. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org) | <urn:uuid:540f2d37-766a-4ac9-be8a-ab06f207efa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessedge.ca/archives/article.cfm/self-regulators-under-increased-scrutiny-17451 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9608 | 1,374 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Walled Lake Consolidated School District Board of Education listened to a facility study update at a Thursday, April 14 board meeting and learned that many district buildings could fall below 70-percent utilization within the next five years.
The report included additional information from Plante Moran, the firm conducting the study on the district’s 14 elementary schools and five support buildings.
According to Walled Lake Schools Director of Community Relations Judy Evola, the district is conducting the study to “best ensure that we are utilizing our buildings’ space in the most cost-effective, efficient ways and that our facilities balance with our enrollment and curricular needs.”
According to Plante Moran’s preliminary findings that were released in January, the elementary schools are at 83 percent capacity with their current total enrollment of 6,618. The current enrollment capacity is 7,884.
Over the next five years, enrollment is projected to drop to 5,999 elementary school students. This would lower the enrollment capacity to 76 percent, with most of the schools being under-utilized.
“With the decreasing enrollment trend, practically speaking, it would lead one to think that we would be under-utilized at some point,” said Bill Chatfield, the district’s director of operations.
That seems to be the case according to the updated facility presentation, which can be found at www.wlcsd.org. It shows most of the buildings falling to below a 70 percent utilization level within the next five years.
The buildings with the lowest expected building utilization percentages over the next five years were Twin Beach Elementary School at a little over 50 percent, Meadowbrook Elementary at 53 percent, and Oakley Park Elementary at 55 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, Mary Helen Guest Elementary was noted with the highest utilization level at 77 percent, Wixom Elementary was cited at 75 percent, and Pleasant Lake Elementary was noted at 70 percent.
The conditions of the buildings were also graded on a 100-point scale. Those receiving top scores were the Outdoor Education Center at 93, Pleasant Lake at 91, and Meadowbrook at 89. Those with the lowest included Dublin Elementary with 55, Walled Lake and Twin Beach elementaries, which each were scored at slightly under 60.
As far as functional value, the buildings were rated on the condition of building space for programmatic function and quality with components weighted by educational function on a 100-point scale. Core educational functions such as classrooms, large group function, and teacher planning were weighted highest, while support functions like dining and custodial services received the lowest point value.
Receiving the highest function score were the Outdoor Education Center at 93, Pleasant Lake at 91, and Meadowbrook at 90. Those with the lowest scores included Dublin at 55, Twin Beach at 59, and Walled Lake at 59.
The facility study is taking place as the district prepares to make significant budget cuts for the 2011-12 academic year.
While the district initially expected to have to make reductions of $20 million during the upcoming budget year, that number has grown to $24 million after further analysis of several factors, including Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to cut state funding for the 2011-12 year by $470 per student. After factoring in retirement rate increases, special education reductions, health insurance increases, temporary state and federal funds, state-funded programs, enrollment declines, additional unemployment, and Snyder’s proposal, district officials now believe the district will lose $1,559 per pupil for the next school year.
Meanwhile, the district is still asking the public to complete a facility survey found at www.wlcsd.org before Friday, April 22 in order to receive input on the facility study and help determine a course of action. | <urn:uuid:ac73a9a9-ac3b-47a7-8664-709d6b68b5ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spinalcolumnonline.com/2011/04/20/more-tough-news-reported-to-wlcs-on-facility-usage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975007 | 773 | 1.570313 | 2 |
When Lynsey Warnett woke one morning with a severe painful rash covering her whole body, she discovered she had auto-immune condition lupus.
When Lynsey Warnett woke one morning with a severe painful rash covering her whole body, she discovered she had auto-immune condition lupus. She tells Rachel Mainwaring about the impact on her life
HER first child was just 11 months old, yet Lynsey Warnett was in so much pain she couldn’t even hold her little boy.
For months she had been experiencing pain in her hands and doctors had given her painkillers in the hope that they would help.
But they didn’t. The pains got progressively worse and when there was no improvement Lynsey was referred to the University Hospital of Wales, Heath, Cardiff, where she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
But then, one morning, the 34-year-old woke up covered in a severely infected rash. Skin was flaking off her, she was in terrible pain and, when she arrived at the hospital, doctors told her she would have died if she had left it much longer.
Lynsey, mum to Oliver, five, and two-year-old Dylan, of Heath, Cardiff says: “I’d had a miscarriage before having Oliver and had lots of aches and pains after that but I just ignored them and thought they were one of those things.
“I was perfectly fine throughout the pregnancy but they quickly came back after giving birth.
“I went to see the doctor who gave me painkillers but then he referred me to a specialist who believed I was showing signs of arthritis. I had pains shooting up my arms and was in such pain I couldn’t even hold the baby. It was so painful.
“I know now that lupus is often misdiagnosed because it’s great at mimicking other illnesses, but it was when I got a rash which covered every inch of my body that we finally found out what it was.
“The rash was severely infected and extremely painful. My skin was literally peeling off and flaking so much I had to Hoover the carpet three times a day. It got so bad that I rang the hospital and, even though it was during the Christmas holidays, they advised me to go straight in. It was strange because I felt cold, even though my skin was red raw.”
Lynsey was given a skin biopsy and doctors discovered she was suffering from lupus, an auto-immune condition that causes extreme fatigue, pain in the joints and often, but not always, a rash on the skin.
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate rang her GP sister, who advised her to look online to find out more about the condition.
She says: “I had heard of it before but I did what most people do now and went on the internet to get more information. I immediately came across Lupus UK, of which I’m now a member. It was helpful to read about it because it is quite frightening to be told you are unwell.
“But I read about lupus all the time and I like to keep on top of it. I don’t want it to rule my life.”
Lupus is an incurable immune system illness, which is probably genetic in origin and mainly suffered by females. Some 50,000 are now thought to have lupus in the UK and it’s systemic, meaning that it can affect any part of the body.
The two major symptoms are joint and muscle pain and an extreme tiredness that won’t go away no matter how much you rest.
Rashes, depression, anaemia, feverishness, headaches, possible hair loss and mouth ulcers may all be part of the pattern of lupus. And noticeably, while the two major symptoms are invariably present, people with lupus can differ greatly in their symptoms and how the illness can affect them – it is life-threatening for a few and very mild for some.
Miscarriage, often recurrent, is another unhappy complication of lupus but, fortunately, Lynsey has gone on to have another baby, Oliver, who is now two.
She says: “People did try to discourage me from getting pregnant again as they were worried for my health but, thankfully, I had a healthy, normal pregnancy.
“It’s weird really because I actually look quite well. Because of the steroids I have to take my cheeks are quite rounded because they tend to make you put on weight. Also, I’ve got rosy cheeks but that’s because I now have a butterfly shape rash on my face, which is as a result of the lupus. So, ironically, I probably look better than I feel.
“I also have to take a drug which is used for chemotherapy so that results in some hair loss. Luckily, I have quite a lot of hair but I’ve recently cut off four inches and I know it’s been falling out a bit.
“Some days are better than others but a lot of the time, when I wake in the morning, I just don’t think I can get up. Also, if I get a cold, it tends to mean I end up in bed because I can’t seem to fight it and that’s due to the fact the lupus is an auto-immune condition.
“I don’t work at the moment. I used to work in a restaurant but there is no way I’d be able to stand for eight hours.”
Lynsey has to have regular blood tests to monitor the condition and is currently having them every fortnight but she says she tries her best not to let the condition get the better of her.
“I’ve literally had thousands of blood tests so I’m used to them now. I have to keep being closely monitored but that’s OK. I have to tackle it head on. I studied classical singing at college and I’d like to get back to doing that. I’ve also got the two boys who keep me busy.” | <urn:uuid:9b35bfcd-3716-4516-bffe-f09803c58408> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/mum-of-two-lynsey-warnett-speaks-living-2019659 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987377 | 1,304 | 1.53125 | 2 |
This collection consists of a portfolio containing a panorama photograph, divided into 7 photoprints, hinged together. The
photograph was taken from San Pablo and 14th Streets in Oakland, California, circa 1879. The photographer was Albert H. Wulzen.
The following is the text from a note on the inner front cover of the album from J. C. Rowell, a University of California
1 portfolio (7 photoprints) ; 22 cm. in height, and approximately 136 cm. in total length
7 digital objects
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted
in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Collection is available for use. | <urn:uuid:89c2d6a0-6ac9-4964-bd7d-fc90908d64d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1870077r/?brand=calisphere | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932862 | 204 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Boniface Mwangi's first camera was an old Japanese film model, bought with $220 borrowed from a friend. He'd been selling books at his mother's roadside stall in Nairobi since he was 15. Then one day in 2003 he came across a biography of Kenyan photographer Mohamed Amin, whose pictures of the 1984 Ethiopian famine, the book implied, led to Band Aid, Live Aid and a new era of global humanitarianism. "That book opened a new world for me," says Mwangi. "Here was another high school dropout who went on to conquer the world using his camera." Mwangi set out to do the same. Within months his photographs were being published in Kenya, and in a year he had won a national award for Best New Photographer. His inches-close pictures of the tribal bloodletting that followed a disputed 2007 general-election result in Kenya earned him a slew of awards, a letter from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praising his "incredible talent" and a grant from the New York City based Magnum Foundation.
For many, the story of the street hawker who became a world-class photographer seemed to epitomize the notion of an emerging Africa: a giant continent awakening from poverty and disaster, now bursting with hope and opportunity.
Then Mwangi quit. He was haunted by the idea that his success was built on his country's turmoil. He wouldn't, couldn't go on photographing the politicians he heard promise Kenyans a new dawn, only to rob them, ignore them and then, come an election, allow violence to break out. Whatever the cost to his career, the price his country was paying for that kind of execrable leadership which led to more than 1,000 murders during the 2007 08 election crisis, along with the theft of billions of dollars from the state was far greater. "We didn't vote for these guys for them to screw us," he says.
So in 2011, Mwangi formed a group of street artists, with whom he began staging guerrilla art attacks across Nairobi. Aerosol stencils of vultures began to appear on sidewalks and road crossings. Then more-elaborate murals appeared of vultures urinating and wiping their backsides on the Kenyan flag. One February night, Mwangi's group painted a 12‑m tableau on a downtown wall, depicting a smirking, suited vulture sitting next to a list of what the artists saw as Kenyan politicians' crimes since independence. "MPs screwing Kenyans since 1963," read the caption. "Africa is rising," says Mwangi, now 29. "But there's also a lot of anger. There's trouble ahead."
As Africa marks half a century since it began to free itself from colonialism, its future lies in the hands of hundreds of millions of young Africans who, like Mwangi, must choose between Africa rising and Africa uprising. It is not, as the cynics have it, that Africa will never move beyond dictators and disasters, that it cannot and will not develop. Africa's progress is real, dramatic and, by now, well established. The International Monetary Fund says that since 2003, GDP across sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries has risen an average of 5% to 7% per year. In the past decade, six of the 10 fastest-growing countries in the world were African, and this year five African countries will outgrow China, 21 will beat India and only two Gambia and Swaziland will expand more slowly than Europe and the U.S. The result of all this growth? Africa is in the midst of a historic transition, and during the next few decades hundreds of millions of Africans will likely be lifted out of poverty, just as hundreds of millions of Asians were in the past few decades. Bob Geldof's evolution from Live Aid organizer to, this February, the founder of a $200 million Africa-focused private-equity fund is emblematic of the transformation. "This could be the African century," he says.
But if Afro-pessimism is outdated, undiluted Afro-optimism is premature. Africa's progress, though real, will not be smooth. Historically the continent labored under predatory inequality and clownish tyranny. President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) would charter a Concorde airplane for European shopping trips while his people starved. Malawi's Hastings Banda had tent pins hammered into opponents' heads and required his portrait to hang higher than any picture or clock in the country's public buildings. Today, while Africa's economies are modernizing, its rulers too often are still not: in many countries, corruption and impunity and the inequality that results are still routine. "With a very few notable exceptions, our leaders are not part of accountable governments," says Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, chairman of the international mediation body and rights watchdog the Elders. "It's still, If they perform abominably, so what?" The continent's leaders are, by one important measure, less accountable than they were in the past. Since it was set up in 2007 by a Sudanese telecom billionaire, the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance has recorded a striking divergence: material improvement along with political deterioration. This year, for the third time, Mo Ibrahim's foundation declined to award its $5 million prize for African leaders who leave office peacefully and democratically. "We are not completely out of the past and into the future," says Ibrahim. | <urn:uuid:8e6ab79e-443c-4a2f-8cd9-8cb4cc6caf4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2129831,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978448 | 1,140 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Reporter Helene Cooper, whose anti-Bush slant was on display during last year's Israeli-Hezbollah war, reported on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attempt to secure aid for Palestinian groups in Thursday's "Wary of Hamas, U.S. Is to Trim Aid to Palestinian Forces ."
"The Bush administration will reduce by about 40 percent the aid it is seeking from Congress for the security forces of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and set new conditions for monitoring the money because of concerns that some of it could end up with Hamas, the militant Islamist organization, administration officials said Wednesday."
Hamas isn't merely "militant" but in fact calls for the destruction of Israel.
Here's some loaded language: "Congress has delayed Ms. Rice's original request, and it is unclear if even the reduced amount will get out of the House, where the pro-Israel lobby is particularly strong.
"But Ms. Rice's decision to continue to seek aid - albeit less - underscores the more tempered approach the administration is taking to issues involved in peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians after years of solid support of Israel."
In Cooper's worldview, does that make America's "solid support of Israel" against that country's terrorist enemies the opposite of "tempered" - that is, reckless?
Cooper has previously thrown around the word "neoconservative," which is often used as a term of abuse on the left toward conservatives who support Israel and the Iraq War. | <urn:uuid:c88e3727-d85e-4857-8744-e2ace2c3a202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrc.org/print/articles/terrorists-hamas-vs-pro-israel-lobby-us-house | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952633 | 310 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Wild Weather Whacks South Jersey [AUDIO]
Utility officials in South Jersey are hoping the weather calms down after the past couple of weeks.
Since the end of June, hundreds of thousands of South Jersey customers have been knocked off-line by severe wind storms, a heat-wave, severe thunderstorms and multiple lightening strikes.
Matt Likovich, a spokesman for Atlantic City Electric, says the wind storms that knocked down thousands of power poles may have been the worst ever to hit South Jersey- and the extreme conditions that have affected the region since have put a severe strain on the entire electric grid.
” There have been some instances,” he says, “where because of the heat, the lines – so much energy is going through them- they sag, they come into contact with a tree branch or a tree itself and that causes a short circuit or an outage…Basically there’s not a whole lot you can do about this – it’s just deal with the elements as they come…You couple the extreme heat with just the high demand for energy and it just puts a lot of stress on the system – let’s say you drove your automobile at 90 miles an hour – 22 hours a day for 10 days in a row – at the end of that time period the engine would be stressed.”
He says, “It’s been difficult – in this business you’re pretty much on-call on a regular basis…Sometimes Mother Nature is dictating how things play out – we do take precautions – we’ve beefed up our infrastructure over the years with a lot new equipment- and you put things on your equipment like lightening arresters and things of that nature but if Mother Nature wants to strike somewhere – where the lightening arrester is not located, then you still have issues, and it comes to lightening hitting equipment- popping out transformers.”
Likovich adds, “There’s myriad things that can crop up – you try to avoid some of these things but a lot times you just have to deal with the elements as they come and be ready to react…I tell you it’s been challenging for the last week to 10 days – it’s really been an interesting scenario…I would think hopefully we’re going to get a chance to catch our breath here and return a little bit to normalcy when it comes to the weather.” | <urn:uuid:7ed5e967-fdb7-4b90-ae9b-e4eb52031628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nj1015.com/wild-weather-whacks-south-jersey-audio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9477 | 510 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Musician and reality star Bret Michaels’ has had more than his fair share of hospital visits — his lifetime battle with diabetes, his appendectomy in April, and his brain hemorrhage on April 21, which left him fighting for his life in the intensive care unit for days.
According to an update from Michaels’ website, tests included an MRI and CT scan. He also "received a doppler ultrasound of his legs and lower abdomen looking for blood clots and most importantly an ultrasound bubble test of his heart was conducted which proved positive for patent foramen ovale (PFO), a hole in the heart."
So why wasn’t the hole in his heart caught before now?
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist at New York University Cardiac & Vascular Institute in Manhattan, who has not treated Michaels, told FoxNews.com that a PFO is not something that cardiologists just come across; it is something that needs to be specifically tested for.
“Generally when young people have strokes is when we (cardiologists) look for those things,” she said.
After feeling numbness on his left side Thursday night, Michaels. 47, went to the hospital as a precaution. After some testing, doctors concluded that the numbness he felt was actually a symptom of a transient ischemic attack, or a warning stroke.
Common procedure for someone in Michaels’ situation is to undergo a transoesophageal echocardiogram, where an ultrasound probe is inserted down the patient’s throat in order to look directly behind the heart and examine the chambers.
Michaels has unknowingly had a hole in his heart since he was born.
“We see this in children, but the hole in the heart is supposed to close up before they come out of the womb. But it is common for adults where the hole has never closed up. It is congenital,” Goldberg said.
This health scare comes just a day after Michaels appeared on “Oprah Winfrey Show,” where he told Oprah he was making a speedy recovery from his brain hemorrhage.
“His brain hemorrhage is not exactly related, it’s always hard to know unless you know their medical history,” she said. “It is hard to connect the brain hemorrhage to the stroke, but it is possible.”
Michaels is undergoing care at St. Joseph's Hospital's Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Ariz., where doctors said his condition is "operable and treatable."
“Usually blood thinners are a common treatment, which makes the situation more complicated. There are risks and benefits, so he and his doctor will determine if the benefits outweigh the risk,” Goldberg said.
There are also surgical options for Michaels.
“There are procedures that can close the hole in the heart, or he could have a clamshell surgery,” she said.
Clamshells are sealing devices that cover the hole in the hopes that the heart will mend itself.
“There are a lot of options, but he will have to be monitored closely. Patients with a PFO are at a higher risk of stroke.” Goldberg said. | <urn:uuid:63c83d0b-00bd-4fc6-b432-beff57f3b1bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593342,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978462 | 676 | 1.5 | 2 |
Panasonic Launches New Home Fuel Cells in Japan
Jan 17, 2013
| Print this page
Panasonic Corp. and Tokyo Gas Co. have jointly developed a new version of their Ene-Farm home fuel cell that cuts the cost by about $8,500.
Panasonic manufactures the fuel cell and supplies it to Tokyo Gas, in combination with a hot water unit and backup heat source that are produced by Tokyo Gas subsidiary Gastar Co. The new fuel cell model will be available from Tokyo Gas starting April 1, 2013.
The price of the new product will be 1,995,000 yen or about US$22,300 - a price that includes the standard backup heat source and taxes but des not include installation. This is about 760,000 yen, or $8,500, less than the retail price of the Ene-Farm model currently on the market.
The lower cost was made possible by reducing the number of components in the unit. The new fuel cell achieved an overall efficiency of 95.0% (LHV) - the world's highest, according to Panasonic research.
LHV stands for Lower Heating Value. The value is obtained by subtracting the heat of vaporization of the water vapor from the total heat generated when the gas fuel is fully combusted. (Compared to HHV, or Higher Heating Value = 0.903
Back to Breaking News | <urn:uuid:e803c5c2-7a25-422e-ae34-5a51465324a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appliancemagazine.com/news_print.php?article=1644314&zone=0&first=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933642 | 288 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Tri States Public Radio Staff
Audio Recordings Currently a Felony
Thu February 9, 2012
Illinois Lawmakers Review Eavesdropping Bill
A proposal that would allow people to make recordings of police passed out of an Illinois House committee.
Under current law it's legal to make a video of police. But if the recording captures sound, it's a felony that can land someone in jail for years.
Legislators approved the measure (HB 3944) despite objections from law enforcement.
Dan Nelson of the Illinois State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police said police could have a harder time investigating crimes, especially in neighborhoods where people are reluctant to talk to police.
"We think it's going to hinder law enforcement. Possibly put people in harm's way when it comes to being witnesses. Or possibly, in [the] worst case scenario, re-victimizing the victims," Nelson said.
Supporters of the legislation are trying to win approval before the G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago this May. The events are expected to draw thousands of protesters.
Video recordings of last year's Occupy protests in places such as New York and California drew attention to police misconduct.
Thanks to Illinois Public Radio | <urn:uuid:c3388698-00af-42e4-a38d-55a1af9aa140> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tristatesradio.com/post/illinois-lawmakers-review-eavesdropping-bill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951773 | 249 | 1.8125 | 2 |
- The Roaring Fork is a Gold Medal freestone river that originates above Aspen near Independence Pass and winds its way down the valley about 70 miles. It culminates at its confluence with the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs. Throughout this relatively short distance the Roaring Fork falls more in elevation than the Mississippi River does in its entire length, which gives it many different faces. These characteristics make it attractive for many types of recreation activities.
The Roaring Fork River is a popular destination among fishermen, rafters and kayakers. The best way to fish this water is by floating down it. Nearby camping is limited but accommodations are available in the resort towns of Aspen and Glenwood Springs, and the smaller communities of Basalt and Carbondale.
The Roaring Fork can be accessed by taking I-70 from Denver to Glenwood Springs. Highway 82 then follows the river for its entire course up to its origination on Independence Pass. The river can easily be seen for its entire length along the highway, and there are numerous points for public access.
- CO 81621
- User Rating | <urn:uuid:f5fdeb8e-91e7-4671-9bbe-1bb51795eed1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nileguide.com/destination/aspen/things-to-do/roaring-fork-river/323583 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940728 | 227 | 1.820313 | 2 |
[Hagelin.] The Hagelin Cryptographers, an Analysis, CONFIDENTIAL.
New York: Ericsson Telephone, 1942. 28pp Very good condition. Mimeographed sheets, stapled. 11x8, 19pp. Offset, typed document. Stamped "Accessions Division, Nov 11, 1942, Library of Congress". With an accompanying cover letter with the rubberstamp of Ericsson Telephone, Sales Corp, NYC., and dated July 3, 1942. $650
This is a general report on the origin, development and status of the Hagelin "cryptographers"-a word used here to describe the physical machines (rather than the people working on codes).
Sections in the document include:"Models Built at Express Demand of the French Authorities", "Evolution of Hand Cryptographer Type C-362", "Hagelin Cryptographer Models" (BC-38 and C-362), "Methods of Operation", "Superiority of Hagelin Cryptographers over Competing Makes", and others, including a final section "How to Sell Cryptographers".
There is a mention of the "Enigma" machine on page 14, which is limited to mentioning that it is not sold outside of Germany.
From WIki: "Although the Swiss firm founded by Boris Hagelin has manufactured, and continues to manufacture, many kinds of cipher machines, the words "Hagelin machine" will normally inspire thoughts of their unique lug and pin based machines. The basic principle of a Hagelin lug and pin machine is easy enough to describe. In the C-38, used by the U.S. Army as the M-209, six pinwheels, with 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, and 26 positions on them, can be set by the user with an arbitrary series of pins that are active. For every letter enciphered, all the pinwheels rotate one space. The combination of active and inactive pins is presented to a cage with 27 sliding bars. Each bar has two sliding lugs on it, which can be placed either in a position where it is inactive, or in a position corresponding to any of the pinwheels, so that it will slide the bar to the left, if the pin currently presented by that pinwheel is active. The number of lugs sticking out rotates the cipher alphabet against the plaintext alphabet. The two alphabets used are just the regular alphabet, and the alphabet in reverse order, from Z back to A. This meant that encipherment was reciprocal, although the machine still had a switch to select encipherment or decipherment: this determined if the machine printed its output in five letter groups, or if it translated one letter, chosen by the user, to a space. The C-52, a postwar version of the Hagelin lug and pin machine, added an extra five sliding bars to the cage that, instead of moving the cipher alphabet, caused the stepping of the pinwheels to be irregular. The first pinwheel always moved, but the remaining five pinwheels only moved when their corresponding bars were slid to the left. The six pinwheels were labelled A, B, C, D, E, and F from left to right; bar 1 controlled pinwheel B, bar 2 pinwheel C, and so on. Also, on the C-52 the lugs could be moved from bar to bar, and the six pinwheels were chosen from a set with lengths 25, 26, 29, 31, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 46, and 47. Using the pinwheels with lengths 34, 38, 42, 46, 25, and 26 allowed one to achieve compatibility with the C-36: provided one also turned off the irregular pinwheel stepping feature. The alphabet always started from its normal position, instead of the position last used, before being rotated by the projecting slide bars. This was perhaps the machine's main weakness, as it made attacks based on frequency counts of displacements possible, but it was perhaps unavoidable, since there was always a slight possibility of occasional mechanical errors. Particularly as the machines were often used on battlefields." | <urn:uuid:66b49d66-e87a-4b3c-b01c-c28f0a38ba2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://longstreet.typepad.com/books/2012/02/hagelin-the-hagelin-cryptographers-an-analysis-confidential-new-york-ericsson-telephone-1942-28pp-very-good-co.html | 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 | 0.951586 | 856 | 1.8125 | 2 |
ST. LOUIS (KSDK) - NewsChannel 5 received the following statements from officials around the area:
From Illinois Governor Pat Quinn:
"I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the horrific massacre that occurred today at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"All of Illinois prays for the victims of this senseless violence and their families. May God bless the immortal souls of all those who lost their lives. In their remembrance, I have ordered all flags across Illinois to be flown at half-staff beginning today.
"We know firsthand from the tragedy that took place on February 14, 2008 in a classroom at Northern Illinois University that guns have no place in any school, at anytime, anywhere in Illinois or America.
"It is the foremost duty of government to protect public safety, especially the safety of children and students.
"As governor and as a parent, I intend to spearhead passage of strict laws that will protect our children and the people of Illinois from gun violence."
From U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill:
"I'm stunned and sick to my stomach. And as a mother, I'm horrified. All of America is grieving for these children and their families. As we learn more, my prayers are with the students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary, and with their families."
From The Crime Victim Advocacy Center:
"An incident like this reminds us that we are vulnerable to violence at any time," says Julie Lawson, President & CEO of the Crime Victim Advocacy Center (CVAC).
"We will likely see parents and children suffering 'vicarious trauma' - being afraid that the same thing will happen to us as a result of our inherent love and empathy for our fellow Americans," Lawson explains.
"While it is terrifying to think this could happen to anyone, it is also a reminder to be diligent in support of mental health, violence prevention and child safety efforts," she continues. "Children should be taught to always be aware of their surroundings. But they also need to be reminded that this is an unusual situation and they should not fear going to school or other familiar activities."
"Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. They will need a lot of support in coming months as they navigate the feelings of confusion and loss associated with such senseless violence," Lawson says. "It is going to be a long and difficult path to establishing a new sense of normal for these families."
From the National PTA President Betsy Landers:
"National PTA feels enormous sympathy for the students, families and communities affected by the horrendous tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., today. Our country has experienced far too many of these tragedies, and we all share in the sense of loss and hurt.
"School and child safety is one of PTA's core tenets as it is crucial to effective learning. A traumatic event like that of this morning affects the entire community, especially the families and friends of the victims. "This can be an emotional time, and it's important for people affected by this tragedy to connect with and support each other.
"National PTA has many resources to assist students, families, schools and PTAs in coping with school violence. The resources are downloadable at PTA.org/SchoolViolence.
"National PTA believes the protection of children in all school settings is a fundamental right and has made this the utmost priority for our work and advocacy."
From U.S. Senator Roy Blunt:
"I am shocked by this incredible tragedy, and I hope all Americans will join me in praying for the victims and their families after this horrific and senseless act of violence." | <urn:uuid:15fd9db7-31a5-42d3-8122-ca6fc625385d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=352270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968145 | 752 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Natalizumab (marketed as Tysabri)
Audience: Neurological healthcare professionals, patients
[Posted 09/17/2009] FDA continues to receive reports of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in patients receiving Tysabri. Tysabri was approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) in November 2004 and for moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease in January 2008. From July 2006, (when Tysabri marketing resumed) to September 8, 2009, 13 reported cases of Tysabri-related PML were confirmed worldwide in patients being treated for MS with Tysabri monotherapy. There have been no postmarketing reports of PML in patients treated with Tysabri for Crohn’s disease. Less than 2% of Tysabri use in the U.S. has been in patients with Crohn's disease. Based on available data from the U.S. and outside of the U.S., the current rate of PML in patients who have received at least 24 infusions ranges from 0.4 to 1.3 per 1,000 patients.
The risk for developing PML appears to increase with the number of Tysabri infusions received. At this time, the FDA is not requiring changes regarding PML to the Tysabri prescribing information or to the Tysabri risk management plan, called the TOUCH Prescribing Program.
[09/16/2009 - Information For Healthcare Professionals - FDA]
Previous MedWatch Alert: | <urn:uuid:18b602f4-e50e-4e91-a5cd-a62337a1fae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm182667.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949763 | 337 | 1.609375 | 2 |
WriteSteps wants to assist Save the Children in its mission and is thankful to be able to help those in need through the work of the organization. When disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives with food, medical care and education and stays to help communities rebuild through long-term recovery programs.
“Our hearts go out to all of those whose lives have been disrupted by the hurricane,” said Suzanne Klein, Founder and CEO. “The WriteSteps team wants to assist with the recovery efforts. We are standing behind the schools and children affected in the wake of the storm.”
Until January 1, 2013, five percent of the remainder of profits from every teacher kit sold at WriteSteps will go towards providing basic necessities for young children. These may include items such as baby blankets, nutritious food, clothing and hygiene supplies. The donation will assist in providing relief to families in need and will help with the long-term recovery to the region.
Save the Children was chosen due to its proximity to the storm area. WriteSteps is focused on making sure its donations get into the correct hands in a timely manner in order to reach as many people in need as possible.
In 2007, WriteSteps Founder and CEO Suzanne Klein committed herself to creating teacher-friendly writing lessons after her school decided to prioritize writing due to low student outcomes. The writing program she developed - WriteSteps - was so successful in raising test scores and student confidence that the company expanded its scope to refocus instruction on the Common Core State Standards for writing and grammar. Its Common Core release won a "Best of Entrepreneurs"
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
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Terminating Some Terminology Problems between Evangelical Christians and Mormon Christians
Reviewed by Kerry A. Shirts
The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism gives Jerald and Sandra Tanner's chapter single billing in the preface: "The chapter on Terminology Differences stands on its own. Mormons use Bible words but employ their own dictionary to define them. . . . [This chapter] will unlock the door of 'Mormonese' and help the beginner to understand the 'great divide' between Mormons and biblically based Christians" (p. 5). The Tanners emphasize this point: the chapter will not simply explain differences but "demonstrate that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is indeed teaching a different god and a counterfeit gospel" (p. 187). These are big promises. The Counterfeit Gospel claims to be something of a rebuttal to How Wide the Divide? (see p. 6),1 but one of the things the Tanners also seem to want to rebut is caution. Robinson and Blomberg, with doctorates in religion2 and many years in their respective religious communities, both made very careful disclaimers about their abilities to accurately represent the views of all members of their religions.3 Neither of them attempted to claim even good understanding of the other's territory without the help of the other.4 The Tanners, however, seem to think they can single-handedly represent all evangelicals and all Mormons with equal accuracy. I cannot speak for evangelicals. But (to some degree) I can check the Tanners' accuracy in speaking for Latter-day Saints.
The Tanners begin their chapter by agreeing with Stephen E. Robinson that differences in terminology do indeed exist between Mormons and evangelicals (see p. 185). They never quote or mention the book again, although, as I have demonstrated above, one of the stated purposes of The Counterfeit Gospel is to rebut How Wide the Divide? I am sure that the Tanners read all of Blomberg and Robinson's book, and I am sure that in their chapter on terminology they in some way disagree with Robinson and perhaps with Blomberg, but the Tanners' readers cannot know to what they take exception without reading How Wide the Divide? themselves. So in this respect perhaps we ought to thank the Tanners: by their omission, they give any intelligent reader an opportunity to look at a balanced view of the Mormon-evangelical debate.
Because the Tanners did not respond directly to How Wide the Divide? I do not know how much they intended their chapter to be a response. I will, however, use the book in my review of The Counterfeit Gospel, since they at least imply criticism of it. Further, because they use the Infobases CD-ROM as a resource, I assume that anything on the CD-ROM is fair game even if they have not used it—they had access to the information. In the interest of good scholarship, however, I will quote the original sources, not the CD-ROM. Due to space constraints, I will limit my comments to three of the terms they discuss.
The Garden of Eden
The Tanners use the Garden of Eden as an example of how Mormons and "Christians" (i.e., evangelicals) do not refer to the same notion. At first glance, the example makes sense: the Tanners point out that "Christians" believe the garden to have been by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (which flow through modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq) and Mormons believe Eden to have been in Missouri. The Tanners even quote John A. Widtsoe on the matter: "Latter-day Saints know, through modern revelation, that the Garden of Eden was on the North American continent" (p. 186). The above statements are straightforward and true. The Tanners' point, however, is to prove the LDS view unbiblical: "[Eden in Missouri] would throw off the entire first part of Genesis" (pp. 185-86).
But, according to modern scholarship, the book of Genesis cannot be "thrown off" because it does not give any explanation of where Eden would be on today's map. Widtsoe explains this problem in the same work from which the Tanners cite him. He first quotes Genesis 2:10-14, which describes the rivers and lands by Eden, and then observes:
Despite the apparently specific descriptions given, this clue has not led to the location of the Garden of Eden. Careful scholars have not been able to identify any of the four rivers with certainty. None of the rivers mentioned fits into the lands now known. Since the historically well known names of Euphrates, Assyria, and Ethiopia do not fit into the use of them in the Garden of Eden story, it is more than probable that they are ancient names variously applied in later times. Clearly, these rivers and countries belong to early ages of the world's history, and do not apply to present-day terminology.5
Hugh Nibley names A. Herrmann as one of those scholars who are looking for Eden. Herrmann believes the geography described in Genesis to be among the oldest parts of the book and that those parts come from an "ur Genesis" that was originally written by Abraham. Nibley explains Herrmann's position further:
The largest surviving pieces of this lost Book of Abraham are to be found in the Book of Jubilees, according to Herrmann, which, interestingly enough, is of all questioned Apocrypha the one most thoroughly vindicated by the finding of the Scrolls, which show Jubilees to be not a medieval but a genuinely ancient document. According to this source, the entire human race was living in the Land of Eden (not the Garden of Eden, but the land where it had been) when they were overwhelmed by water. This cannot have taken place in Mesopotamia or Egypt, Herrmann observes, since both those lands are described in the sources as being uninhabited in Noah's day, and Kraeling has noted that according to other sources the people in the ark did not have the vaguest idea where they were after the flood, but being in strange surroundings had to learn of their location by revelation. So Herrmann seeks the Land of Eden in Abyssinia, South Arabia, and the headwaters of the Nile—all dubious locales and all far from the conventional Babylonian sites. It is a quest that would have struck the dogmatic scholars of past years with amazement: they knew where the Garden of Eden was.6
By the Tanners' criterion, Herrmann is also unbiblical, as are all other biblical scholars who feel reasonably sure that the Garden of Eden is not by the Tigris and Euphrates.
The Tanners use the Garden of Eden to reason that "a Christian should never take for granted that his LDS friend understands common Christian terms in the biblical way" (p. 186). It is true that Latter-day Saints assign a nontraditional location to the garden. However, as modern scholarship shows, the traditional location cannot be considered any more or less biblical than Missouri. Before even giving their first definition, the Tanners strangle themselves with the rope they intend to use on the Latter-day Saints. Further, there are surely more important elements of the Eden story than location, and Latter-day Saints share these basics with other Christians. Mormons always associate Adam and Eve, the serpent, the flaming sword, the cherubim, and the fall of Adam with the Garden of Eden.7
God in the Bible
The first term the Tanners attempt to define is Godhead. As with the Garden of Eden, much of what the Tanners say about LDS beliefs on this subject is not offensive. They explain that Latter-day Saints believe the Godhead to be composed of three separate individuals, two of which have bodies, and for support they quote Doctrine and Covenants 130:22. They also point out that "the Mormons teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in purpose, not one in essence" (p. 187).
These statements are true, and in fact the Tanners are right in pointing them out as major points of departure from traditional Christianity. Other Christians believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are immaterial and of one essence. And again, the Tanners are to some degree right that our claims are extrabiblical. We base the separateness and the materiality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost on Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 and on Joseph Smith's first vision.
However, the real thrust of the Tanners' argument is on the question of who God was before he was God. They say, "Preceding these three Gods [Father, Son, and Holy Ghost] there would be a countless number of Gods who rule other worlds. Each of these Gods was at one time a mortal on some other world. As resurrected, exalted beings each God and his wife procreated the spirits for their earth" (p. 187). The Tanners follow these statements with quotations from Joseph Smith, B. H. Roberts, Brigham Young, and James E. Talmage.
Most other Latter-day Saints (myself included) would not dare to make quite the story of how God came to be God as the Tanners have. Although we do accept the basic principle contained in these quotes—that God was once as we were—anything beyond that idea is pure speculation. In fact, as the Tanners must be aware, Robinson points out in How Wide the Divide? that this doctrine is only quasi-official.8 It has never been formally canonized. The statements the Tanners use are by and large from the nineteenth century, and the modern prophets and apostles have never given official revelation on the topic. Latter-day Saints accept the idea that God was once human as true, but it is much more a mystery than the Tanners' very explicit description indicates. As Latter-day Saints, we would not presume to know as much about God's past as they claim to understand of us.
Nevertheless, the Tanners are right in saying that this doctrine is not found in the Bible. It is not explicitly stated, although some scriptures hint at it: in John, the Jews accuse Christ of making himself equal to God. He responds, "Verily, verily, I say into you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19). If Christ can only do what he has seen the Father do, then is it not logical that the Father must have had a mortal body at some point, just as Christ did?
Does the Tanners' claim that "the God of the Bible has eternally been God, has no superiors, was never a human before becoming deity, and is a spirit" (p. 191) hold up any better in the Bible? Or can the scriptures they use for support be read equally well from a Latter-day Saint point of view? Below is a discussion of two of the scriptures the Tanners refer to in support of their concept of God—Numbers 23:19 and John 4:24. Ironically, Blomberg also uses these verses in How Wide the Divide?
Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" The Tanners do not explain why they included this scripture, but we can deduce that they quote it in an attempt to refute the LDS notion that God was once a man.
B. H. Roberts replied to that same argument back in the early 1900s. He held a discussion, which appeared in the Improvement Era, with a Jesuit priest, the Reverend Cyril Van der Donckt of Pocatello, Idaho, about the LDS doctrine of God.9 Van der Donckt used the same scripture the Tanners and Blomberg cite. Roberts explains the LDS interpretation of Numbers 23:19 to "Mr. V.":
Mr. V. next brings as proof against God's being an exalted man, what he calls the direct statement of the Bible, that God is not man: "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should be changed" (Numbers 23: 19). "I am God and not man" (Psalm). These passages simply present the contrast between man as he is now, and with all his imperfections on his head, and God. . . . The contrast noted in the scriptures by Mr. V. is not between perfected men and God, but between very imperfect men—men who lie, and are changeable—and God; and since the Latter-day Saints do not hold that man while imperfect is God, or like God, or God like him, the argument of the gentleman, based on the passages quoted, is of no force. . . . Clearly, the contrast is one of conditions, more than of natures, and at its very highest value is the contrast between a perfected nature and one not yet perfected.10
As we have noted, Blomberg also used this scripture, and Robinson gave a reply very similar to that of B. H. Roberts, rightly pointing to the context of the scripture cited.11 In this passage, Balaam has been asked by the Moabite king to curse Israel, which is making plans to invade Canaan. Balaam instead blesses Israel, and when the king, Balak, asks a second time for a cursing, Balaam replies with the verse cited. Obviously the verse, in context, has nothing to do with God's intrinsic being. Such concepts are, in any event, entirely foreign to the Bible, and there is no evidence whatever that they circulated in the ancient Hebrew culture from which the Bible emerged. It only has to do with the moral difference, or the vast difference in constancy, between God as he is now and his imperfect and immature mortal children, a difference Latter-day Saints heartily agree with.
As was true with their argument about the Garden of Eden, one cannot necessarily prove from the Bible that God was once a man; on the other hand, the Tanners cannot prove that he has never been one. Once again, their belief, based on the scripture they have cited, is neither more nor less biblical than that of Latter-day Saints.
This same problem holds true for the scripture they cite in order to "prove" that God the Father is a spirit. Likewise, they do not contextualize Christ's statement; they simply use it as if it were self-evident: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And one cannot blame them for doing so. The scripture looks self-evident, and so seems to support their thesis that "God . . . is a spirit" (p. 191). Many a high school seminary student or missionary has used the scriptures in the same way.
However, a closer examination of the statement reveals some flaws in the Tanners' use of it, and, oddly enough, it is Blomberg, in his defense of the evangelical view, who provides us with the information that can be used to question both his and the Tanners' view: "God's immateriality and invisibility we deduce from numerous texts. John 4:24 declares 'God is spirit,' which by itself does not prove that God might not have a 'spiritual body.' But in context Jesus is pointing out the irrelevance of the debate that existed between Jews and Samaritans over where to worship God in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim."12
Blomberg first gives the correct translation of the Greek, omitting the indefinite article. The Tanners' argument (assuming here that by saying "God is a spirit" the Tanners are referring to his immateriality) is weak because, as Blomberg points out, the scripture does not say he doesn't have at least a spiritual body. Thus Blomberg calls on the context to prove his point: "Jesus' point is that God is everywhere, and so it does not matter where we worship him."13 But Jesus does not say "God is everywhere." Christ simply says we must worship God "in spirit and in truth." Is Blomberg's interpretation unbiblical? Not necessarily, but it is an interpretation. So would it be unbiblical to interpret the scripture the "Mormon way"?
With Blomberg, Latter-day Saints also insist that John 4:24 ought to be read correctly and in context because Christ is not making a pronouncement about the nature of God. He is explaining to the Samaritan woman that the worship of God has to do with inward processes—spirit (whatever that means) and truth. So does the scripture contradict the Latter-day Saint belief that God has a body? No. Is this an interpretation? Absolutely. Once again, the Tanners have not proven their point. This scripture can be and is interpreted in various ways. To use it to prove that God is immaterial is no more unbiblical than to take the anthropomorphisms in the Old Testament literally to prove that God has a body.
Mother in Heaven
The last term I wish to address is Mother in Heaven. I choose this term because the Tanners really can say, in perfect truth, "There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that God has a wife" (p. 196). All the LDS sources that the Tanners quote come from the twentieth century; in fact, I will add one more that they could have used but did not. President Gordon B. Hinckley addressed this topic in the fall of 1991 at the general women's conference:
It was Eliza R. Snow who wrote the words: "Truth is reason; truth eternal / Tells me I've a mother there." (Hymns, 1985, no. 292.)
It has been said that the Prophet Joseph Smith made no correction to what Sister Snow had written. Therefore, we have a Mother in Heaven. . . .
Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me.14
But just because something isn't stated in the Bible doesn't mean that thing isn't true. The Bible does not tell us that water expands when it is frozen either. The Tanners are arguing from silence—a weak argument at best. Recently, David Van Biema wrote about Moses in Time. Archaeological evidence is completely lacking on Moses; the world so far has no confirmation that Moses ever existed other than as a story in an ancient text. Van Biema quotes archaeologist and author James Hoffmeier on this troubling lack of evidence: "There is one important thing to remember. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."15
Consider also what Adolf Holl, a biblical scholar, has said on this issue:
To draw conclusions from silence is a method that historians rightly reject. . . . We have nothing to go by but silence and conjecture, and we know well enough that in the absence of reliable information a supposition in whatever direction can never harden into truth.16
The only way to know whether or not God has a wife would be for God himself to tell us. It goes beyond the Bible to believe in a Mother in Heaven. But a lack of evidence does not mean that person has not existed, as in the case of Moses, or does not exist, as in the case of a Heavenly Mother. One day the Tanners will no longer be alive. If we were able to destroy all evidence of their existence, including their writings, would that mean they had not lived on this earth and written against the Mormons?
The Tanners try to define many more Latter-day Saint terms, but I chose these three because they represent problems that are general to this chapter in The Counterfeit Gospel and, indeed, problems that are endemic to anti-Mormon writing in general.
In the first example, the Bible gives a very specific description of the location of the Garden of Eden. The first response, the one that the Tanners and countless others have used, has been to assume a modern setting for the lands described in scripture. Biblical scholars long ago discovered that they had to question their first responses; in fact, they have had to discard many of the traditional assumptions made about the Bible in light of current knowledge. In The Counterfeit Gospel, at least, the Tanners' arguments are flawed because, in their haste to prove Mormons wrong, they do not look at the current state of biblical scholarship and they do not question their own assumptions.
In the second example, the Bible could be interpreted either way, as biblical scholar John P. Meier explains: "the evidence available allows for no firm decision one way or the other."17 The Tanners either do not accept or do not know that any person who approaches the Bible must interpret it. As we have seen, even what seems to be the most self-evident statement (God is a spirit) can be questioned. When the Bible says that God talked to Moses face to face, Latter-day Saints take that statement literally, while evangelicals take it figuratively. Proving anything in the Bible is almost impossible, and historical Christianity itself is a witness to the many interpretations people can apply to the same text. The Latter-day Saints, recognizing this fact, use the law of witnesses to support their interpretations—they rely on other ancient texts and on modern revelation to help them understand the truths of the Bible. Although evangelicals do not accept these witnesses, the Tanners could have at least relied on the writings of the early church fathers, as Blomberg has done, or entered a discussion with Mormons about the validity of personal revelation. To debate the acceptability of the fathers as witnesses or the need for revelation would be a more accurate and honest attempt at finding the truth than simply listing a set of scriptures out of context without consideration of the possibility of multiple interpretations.
In the third example, the Bible is silent on the existence of a Mother in Heaven—but silence, as is well recognized throughout any honest scholarly community, cannot prove or disprove anything. The scriptures the Tanners list prove only that, in some sense, God is one God—something with which Mormons do agree.
The methodology the Tanners use to make their case is very simple. They define a religious term as it is used by Latter-day Saints and quote LDS authors to support their case. They then define the term evangelically and give biblical passages to support their ideas. Anyone unfamiliar with scholarly writing will feel this chapter is authoritative both because it has numerous quotations and because it seems easy to follow.
However, anyone who has been taught to write a persuasive paper (and almost everyone who has been to high school has) will notice a major problem with this method: never once do the Tanners bring up those quotations or biblical passages that may in some way bring their definitions into question. To truly make their case, the Tanners would have to look at how the Latter-day Saints use the Bible and what arguments they use to support their interpretation. The Tanners select quotations from certain, perhaps disaffected, Latter-day Saint authors, but they never address the responses that other Latter-day Saints have made to the anti-Mormon material.
I have briefly discussed the problem of arguing from silence. The Tanners take that tactic one step further: they silence the voices that would cast doubt on their case and use that silence as a way to seem authoritative.
7. Consider, for instance, Masterful Discourses and Writings of Orson Pratt, compiled by N. B. Lundwall (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1981), 504-5, and Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 47-48, 85-87.
16. Adolf Holl, Jesus in Bad Company, trans. Simon King (London: Collins, 1972), 11. It also might be helpful to consult my article, "The Archaeology of God: Scholarship, History, Myths and Legends," in the First Annual Mormon Apologetics Symposium, June 17-19, 1999 (Felton, Calif.: Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, 1999), 67-135, wherein I discuss, among other things, the ancient Near Eastern archaeology of the Hebrew Mother Goddess figure. See also Daniel C. Peterson, "Nephi and His Asherah: A Note on 1 Nephi 11:8-23," in Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson, ed. Davis Bitton (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1998), 191-243.
17. John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (New York: Double-day, 1991), 2:42. See my article and review of James R. Spencer, "Have You Witnessed to a Mormon Lately?" Journal of Mormon Apologetics 1 (1999): 80-114. | <urn:uuid:5fa0dbad-8278-47a4-abd8-c703b3a0b853> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?reviewed_author&vol=12&num=1&id=342 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964711 | 5,239 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Obama to visit Israel
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will make his first visit to Israel as president in the spring, a White House official said.
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, told reporters about the trip in a briefing Tuesday.
Carney said Obama discussed the planned trip during a recent phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama also will meet with Palestinian leaders and visit Jordan, he said during the daily briefing with reporters.
Obama visited as a candidate in 2008, but Republicans during the last election chided him for not visiting as president, noting that he had visited a number of Muslim nations.
Obama's new secretary of state, John Kerry, plans to visit Israel in March.
Netanyahu suggested in September that spring would be his deadline to decide whether to strike Iran to keep it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The Obama administration is leading Western efforts to bring Iran into negotiations to make its nuclear plans more transparent.
Iran denies planning a weapon, although Western intelligence agencies have accumulated much evidence that such a weapon is in the development stages.
Kerry said during his confirmation hearings that one of his priorities would be reviving moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, and suggested that whatever Israeli government emerged after the Jan. 22 elections would be more amenable to such talks than its predecessor.
Netanyahu, who led the last government, is currently in talks to set up a new one, and has indicated he would prefer a centrist coalition likelier to engage in peace talks than his last government. | <urn:uuid:24594938-2492-42ba-9f9a-607c348b4d1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cjnews.com/news/romney-slams-obama-%E2%80%98daylight%E2%80%99-israel-middle-east-%E2%80%98passivity%E2%80%99?q=node/101862 | 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 | 0.979232 | 307 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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For most loans, it is a simple process. Suppose the school wants to expand its facilities. It is government-approved and has a waiting list, which virtually guarantees a need and capability to secure additional funding.
From this point, it is a construction loan with a few additional requirements. The major difference between commercial lending and institutional lending is that in most cases, schools will have government contracts to support their need for funding. Most of the lenders you will find in this sector are privately backed by philanthropic organizations or individuals. Both get tax breaks for donations to these lenders.
Because charter schools receive funding from the government, there are income considerations lenders will consider -- how many students qualify for free lunch, what is the farthest distance a student goes to get to that school, does the school receive extra income from a day-care or sick-child-care program and so on.
From finding to funding
Depending on the path you choose for your customer -- direct to the lender or specialized broker -- funding generally happens 60 days to 90 days after the lender receives and reviews the appraisal.
As in all commercial deals, notify your customers early on of the cost and the time frame for a legitimate appraisal. This is an area where brokers' local knowledge will help immensely. If you know the right people and have worked in this area before, you will further your clients' belief in you. But remember that you are working in a specific time frame -- many school-owners will want their new addition completed by the beginning of a school year or semester.
You should contact the lenders and get their requirements for what constitutes an acceptable appraisal from a qualified appraiser. Most lenders know if they can get a good appraisal of the building and the land, they will find the value of the school in the school's own records.
After receiving the appraisal, most lenders will begin speaking directly to the school. For the most part, you are done. Unlike a standard commercial loan, many institutional lenders will visit the property and spend the day interviewing the staff and touring the campus. While this may seem somewhat unusual, it is often part of the application process.
Many lenders do not have a cap on the points the broker can charge and there is rarely yield spread. But if a contract is not in place between you and the customer -- including the specialized broker, if you used one -- it will be difficult to collect your commission. That is because brokers typically are not paid directly from the lender but out of proceeds to the customer.
Privately funded schools and charter schools are a part of a wave of education reform that has grown slowly. With the help of private funds or alternative credit routes, charter schools are increasingly becoming an educational choice for American families. With almost 4,000 schools already in place, opportunities for lending abound.
Christopher Farrell and Chris Sanders are co-owners
of Sanctuary Lending, a brokering service that specializes in institutional lending for churches, schools and other facilities throughout the country. In addition to cash-flow funding, valuation funding and equity funding, Sanctuary Lending also acts as a conduit for nonprofit and not-for-profit entities for state programs and accounting. Farrell and Sanders can be reached through www.SanctuaryLending.com or (888) 411-7683.
Page: 1 2 Previous | <urn:uuid:853547ca-3da0-432d-87df-429f28502e9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scotsmanguide.com/default.asp?ID=2128&part=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960511 | 684 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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Reviewing your 2013 finances? Don't forget income protection
If you couldn't work, would your family be able to pay the bills? If not, then you need income protection.
by Michelle McGagh on Dec 17, 2012 at 13:53
Tis the season to be jolly, rack up loads of credit card debt and have a close look at your household finances to ensure you’re better off in 2013 than you have been over the past 12 months.
The end of the year is the time when many of us take the chance to review our spending, making new year’s resolutions to be more thrifty and top up our pensions. But while you’re counting the pennies and trying to cut costs, there is one thing that you should definitely be shelling out for: income protection.
For those not in the know, income protection is an insurance policy that pays out a monthly income it you can’t work because of illness or injury. Many people have mortgage protection insurance to cover their mortgage if they can’t work but what about all the other day-to-day costs of living?
Income protection means that you’ll be able to cover your food bills, heating bill and MOT for the car.
None of us like to think about not being able to provide for our family and most of us believe that ‘it won’t happen to me’ but the truth is that one in five people go on long-term sick leave during their working life.
And for those who think that the government will look after them, think again. According to insurance broker Drewberry, government support amounts to just £5,200 a year on average, or £100 a week, which won’t cover most people’s bills.
The government can’t afford to put its hand in its pocket so we’re going to have to cover our own backs. Drewberry has launched a campaign to help promote income protection and show you just how much of your monthly expenditure is at risk by failing to put in place this straightforward and relatively inexpensive product.
You can check out the campaign and tools on the Drewberry website.
Illness and accidents do not discriminate and details of real life claims from insurer LV= shows the important of income protection:
A 31-year-old male carpet fitter who was brain damaged in a traffic accident has claimed £303 a month for 15 years, a total of £55,449 so far.
A 43-year-old male accountant who had a cyst removed from their brain has claimed £3,194 a month for the past seven years, totalling £255,520 so far.
A 46-year-old female vet who has arthritis has claimed £369 a month for the past 12 years, totalling £51,291.
These stories are a depressing reality but income protection can stop them being a financial disaster. So when you’re looking at your budget for 2013, think about how your family would cope if you couldn’t work. Times are tight but there are some things that are worth paying for, and peace of mind is one of them.
More about this:
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Keep an eye out for us in your inbox, and please add firstname.lastname@example.org to your safe senders list so we don't get junked. | <urn:uuid:6baf5657-d28a-466a-afcf-473d6c56f3a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citywire.co.uk/money/reviewing-your-2013-finances-dont-forget-income-protection/a646203?ref=citywire-money-latest-news-list | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958488 | 852 | 1.5 | 2 |
This is not a neutral, unbiased review. Even before finishing The Cicero Spy Affair: German Access to British Secrets in World War II, I'd bought second and third copies to forward to author and scholar par excellence Richard Wires for autographing and forwarding to relatives as gifts. How many other reviews posted on this website -- or any other, for that matter -- are based on a copy of the subject volume autographed by the author at his home? I bet very few. This review is an appreciation, really. If you like the numerous excerpts I've included below, you will have to get the book to get more, as this is only a sampling.
I met Dr. Wires at Ball State University in 1975, when I was a European history major working for him as a student assistant when he was chairman of the history department. Four years later, he supervised my senior thesis in European intellectual history on Nietzscke, Malraux and Jaspers. Over the last twenty years, we've stayed in touch though postcards during travels, home visits, phone calls and letters. He is a quintessential intellectual whose history of the most remarkable spy episode during WW II, if not ever, warrants only one - and even that is tongue-in-cheek - criticism: stylistic inconsistency. Specifically, the book is only elegantly written where it is not eloquent. A typical passages of the latter characteristic are:
"In the extensive literature about espionage affairs and intelligence activities during World War II the episode known as Operation "Cicero" has gained prominence and popularity, because of its remarkable character and ironies. For more than four months during the winter of 1943-1944 the valet of Britain's ambassador in neutral Turkey photographed secret papers that his employer failed to safeguard properly; by selling his undeveloped films to a representative of German intelligence in Ankara for a reported total of $1.2 million the servant became history's then most highly paid spy. The access to one of its opponents' most important embassies marked Germany's outstanding achievement in an otherwise poor record of secret service work. But little came of the success. Many of the documents were extremely valuable, but the dictatorship never used the information effectively; the enterprising spy escaped being caught but soon discovered that his money was mostly counterfeit."
The prominence and popularity of the literature about Elyesa Bagna, a Turkish kavass, or valet, who brazenly photographed secret papers of Britain's ambassador to neutral Turkey and sold the rolls of film to a handler at the German embassy for $1.2 million in what mostly turned out to be bogus pounds during the height of WW II is extraordinary and "has become a staple of intelligence lore." Fortunately, the Germans made little effective use of their intelligence lodestar, owing to the intrinsic rivalries, conflicts and jealousies of Nazi totalitarianism, a maze of party, military and career figures, including ambassador and one-time Weimar chancellor Franz von Papen, one of the nearly-purged non-Nazis outmaneuvered at the onset of Hitler's takeover of Germany's interwar democratic attempt in 1933. Cicero even inspired a 1952 movie, Five Fingers, portrayed as a documentary that falsely shows German knowledge of D-Day (in truth, the Germans only learned the word "Overlord," meaning little more than a second Allied front against some target in the northwest part of so-called "Fortress Europe," i.e., the German occupied nations of the continent).
The legacy of the affair is in the lessons learned and the embarrassment of the British reluctantly coming to terms with the scope of the compromises even today, as demonstrated by the sluggish sales of The Cicero Spy Affair in the U.K. In the U.S., however, some stores have sold out their initial stock and each speaking engagement by the author generates further opportunities for spoken history telling, one of the highest praises a historian can receive.
Nearly twenty five years ago, a college history professor sitting next to me at a formal lecture by Dr. Wires said he was the only person he'd ever met who could write a speech, read it verbatim as an oration, and hold the audience's rapt attention as he infused us with knowledge, insight and expansion of whatever we knew, or thought we knew, to newer, higher levels. This reader genuinely "heard" the author on every page of The Cicero Spy Affair.
Writing accurate history requires meeting an exacting standard; Dr. Wires has exceeded it, though. Chief Justice Rehnquist demonstrated the difficulties in meeting this standard when he recently said that, if you think you know a subject, write a book on it and read the reviews. The Chief Justice's referenced book mentioned the dates of admission to the union of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, all wrong! He also referenced a Confederate who kept fighting after Appomattox who, in truth, fell at Shiloh three years earlier. The comment by the Chief Justice, who is certainly not mistake-prone but, rather, is blessed with a wry, dry sense of humor, illustrates the demanding standard of the historian's blend of craft, science and art. Even the most accomplished researcher can still err, but The Cicero Spy Affair appears, by all accounts, to be definitive.
Still not convinced you should read it? Your loss. Say you're not a twentieth century history, military intelligence specialist, read it anyway. Read it for its comprehensive research, documentation, analysis and explanations, and accompanying insightful photographs. Its passages on the vacillations and evasions of Europe's key neutral country, in light of Allied, Nazi and Soviet influences, the (thankfully) inefficient competitiveness of the German intelligence offices and the ineptitude of British security as a result of sleeping pills, piano playing and extremely careless handling of very secret writings all will amaze, enrich, entertain and astonish you. Read it. | <urn:uuid:313e994c-d2b5-4294-881f-94284f65be3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Cicero-Spy-Affair-Perspectives/dp/0275964566 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963667 | 1,211 | 1.5 | 2 |
Rabobank report notes continued profitability a leading cause for infrequent land sales in the Golden State.
The overall value of California’s farmland rose slightly in 2011, though trailed behind the same value increases experienced by Midwest land owners.
The information is detailed in “U.S. Farm Land Continues to Dazzle,” a report released today by Rabobank’s Food and Agribusiness Research & Advisory (FAR) group.
The piece, an update to FAR’s June 2011 report ‘Blowing the Farm Land Bubble,’ notes that according to the USDA, California’s cropland land values increased by just 1% in 2011 and 20% overall since 2005. Alternatively, Midwest land values have shown 20% to 30% increases through the latter half of 2011 and into 2012. Rabobank attributes the higher-than-projected growth rate to increased prices for corn, soybean and wheat prices and low interest rates. Within its small increase in statewide land values, the greatest area of appreciation for California has been for land that has reliable water resources.
“California’s crop diversity and profitability continues to shield any major overall downturns in land values for the state,” said Vernon Crowder, senior vice president and agricultural economist with FAR and contributor to the report. “There are some sectors, like dairy, whose losses affect the land and facility values of those specific sectors, but on the whole the state’s farms are well capitalized and diversified.”
Crowder notes that steady and strong profits are deterring farm operators from selling, amid attractive offers from domestic and international buyers – many from outside of the agricultural arena. The most sought after land from California buyers is for permanent crops such as pistachios, almonds, walnuts, mandarins and grapes, all which have enjoyed robust yields and prices in recent years. However, the report warns that those crops while attractive now, are more susceptible to corrections in the future, given the costs involved to redevelop the land for other crops.
Rabobank expects that revisions to the USDA data will show that overall farmland value in California increased closer to 5% and will do the same for 2012 with values in the San Joaquin Valley rising near 20% percent. Crowder cautions however that while the short-term outlook for farmland values in California appears attractive, they are subject to various risks.
“Higher interest rates and the appreciation of the U.S. dollar are always factors to consider when you’re talking about the outlook of farmland values,” said Crowder. “Equally important, water shortages in California can quickly depress land values, as evidenced by the dip we experienced between 2008 and 2010.” | <urn:uuid:5d3bfc6d-ce55-4d6b-a12c-c2a0dd476c2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/legacyproject/article/california_farmland_values_increase_slightly_in_2011_midwest_values_rise_above_expectations_/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935666 | 573 | 1.734375 | 2 |
MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- The Grant County Health District has confirmed that a woman who died there last month likely died of Hantavirus.
The health district says the woman was most likely exposed to the virus in her recreational vehicle south of Moses Lake. This is the second hantavirus-related death in Grant County this year.
The two cases are not linked and the district says there is no increased risk to the public.
Hantavirus is a rare illness caused by a virus in the urine, droppings and saliva of infected rodents. Deer mice are the only carriers in Washington State.
The health district says that since 1993, there have been 45 reported cases of the virus in the state, and 16 of those patients died. | <urn:uuid:5b1bdd16-95ed-43d8-a909-854c01ed2f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.krem.com/news/Grant-County-reports-Hantavirus-death-174664621.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980876 | 156 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A proposed multi-million-dollar, multi-year-in-the-making, multi-use trail system to be located on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) received its first public outing Tuesday. An overflow crowd in the Hondius Room of the Estes Valley Library heard plans for the project planned to parallel existing roadways, for non-motorized travel, outside wilderness designations.
Residents asked questions and were encouraged to participate in the public comments portion of the environmental assessment (EA) being prepared by park officials. The EA is the first step in the review process, to determine whether the project is doable and warranted. Comments will be accepted through March 21. Larry Gamble, chief of the park's branch of planning and compliance, is the project manager.
Comments may be sent to: Larry Gamble, Chief, Branch of Planning & Compliance, Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, CO 80517, email email@example.com or call him at (970) 586-1320. Comments can also be entered directly into the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/ROMO.
Opportunities for public comment will be provided along the way, as the plans progress. Although public comment was not recorded at the initial scoping meeting on Tuesday, questions were considered, and residents could write ideas on sticky notes on maps provided. Otherwise, comments are being taken online, or through the mail. There will be many additional opportunities for public input, Gamble said. Next year, officials will probably decide what to do, and a final decision may be 1.5 years away.
"This is your opportunity to help us get started off on the right foot," Gamble told the crowd. "Share your thoughts and ideas. This is conceptual now."
Now, planners are exploring the possibility of creating a new, multi-use trail that will follow developed road corridors. This follows on the heels of the Bear Lake Road reconstruction, which should be finished by summer, providing a sense of relief to all, Gamble said. The idea for the multi-use trail grew out of planning for the Bear Lake Road project, Gamble said. When the road was moved away from Glacier Creek, that opened up possibilities for the old road grade to be used as a hike/bike trail. The narrow canyon is not wide enough for a trail and road, but could connect as a planned trail out to Spur 66, he said.
Then, RMNP superintendent Vaughn Baker suggested planners look at the broader picture and consider the town's network of trails and the plans of the recreation district for trails. In 2009, Gamble said a feasibility study was done (CDs are available), regarding a trail system from the park's Fall River entrance, to 34 and the Deer Ridge junction, to the Beaver Meadows entrance, to 36, Bear Lake Road and Sprague Lake.
"Here's what we think is possible," Gamble said.
It is feasible to link the areas by trail and to interface with the shuttle system, he said.
So, the next phase involves preparing an environmental assessment to comply with the national environmental policy act (NEPA). IThe assessment must define the purpose, need and goals of the project.
Preparing the EA is a process requiring much public and internal review, and we're just at the beginning, planners emphasized.
The purpose is to explore the possibilities of providing a multi-use trail system to connect with Estes Valley trails, offering self-propelled means of transportation, reduced traffic congestion, alternative experiences within the park.
The need exists for biking trails, as the only place to ride bikes now is on the roads. Biking trails will reduce the possibilities for road accidents and provide another means of travel within the park.
Goals include connecting to other recreational opportunities; expanding opportunities for multi-use; providing alternative means of transportation on the eastern side of the park; connecting to the park's shuttle bus system; dispersing visitors throughout the park, rather than having them concentrated in one area; providing new visitor experiences; minimizing the adverse impacts on visitors and wildlife; minimizing conflicts with and impacts to natural resources; and providing safe, multi-use trails.
The park planners' vision is to ultimately connect the trail in the park with the trail network that is being developed within the Estes Valley, as another way to access and enjoy the national park. The environmental assessment helps to evaluate the potential impacts on natural resources, cultural resources and socioeconomics.
The trail would be about 15.5 miles; in some places, the trail may be separated from the roadway by a barrier, and in other places, it will be detached from the road. Funding has not been identified yet, but it will be a multi-million-dollar project, planners said, taking years to complete.
Planners say the park serves as a destination both for the population local to Colorado's Front Range, as well as for visitors travelling from afar. The majority of Colorado residents regularly participate in walking, running, hiking, bicycling, horseback riding and other trail-based activities. Bicycling is a popular recreational activity for both residents and visitors in Colorado. The creation and maintenance of trail infrastructure is considered a top priority on the Front Range of Colorado, and Colorado residents report that recreational trails are integral to their quality of life. Outdoor recreation is increasingly popular across the country, and current recreation planning emphasizes recreational activities that are healthy, safe and accessible to a diverse population.
Therefore, planners concluded that the project is needed at this time to meet the projected increase in demand for access to recreational opportunities within the park. Bicycling, both road biking and mountain biking, are growing in popularity. Currently, bicycles are only permitted on paved and unpaved roadways within the park; bicycles are currently not permitted on trails within the park. Therefore, the project is needed at this time to better accommodate bicycles, as part of an overall increase in multimodal access to the park.
The park currently experiences heavily concentrated use at popular activity areas and trailheads, resulting in congestion at parking areas, heavy traffic to popular destinations and natural resource impacts. This congestion stems from visitors prefering to use their private vehicles as the primary method of travel within the park. Therefore, the project is needed at this time, planner said.
The timeline for public review includes: winter/spring 2013 — alternatives development and data gathering; late spring 2013 — second public scoping period to review refined alternatives; early 2014 — public review of mul-tiuse trail plan/Environmental Assessment; spring 2014 — analysis of public comments, preparation of decision document; summer 2014 — announcement of decision.
Contact Trail-GazetteJuley Harvey at 970-586-3356 or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:2a8c9f52-69e5-4cc5-a014-0252236f7de5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eptrail.com/rocky-mountain-national-park/ci_22638877/public-scoping-process-begins-proposed-multi-use-trail.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952792 | 1,402 | 1.695313 | 2 |
After the Sept. 11 attacks
NPR goes all-out with live coverage
Originally published in Current, Sept. 24, 2001
By Mike Janssen
News from before a certain moment on Sept. 11, even seconds before the second plane hit the World Trade Center, now seems false, innocent of a reality that has since been revealed.
Listen to that day's Morning Edition, at NPR's website. WNYC reporter Kerry Nolan, talking to Bob Edwards while watching smoke rise from the ruined World Trade Center buildings, was still able to cite the slim chance that a flight radar system could have gone "horribly, horribly awry." The FBI was already investigating the possibility of hijackings.
Soon after the second plane struck the tower, NPR marshaled its news team to produce reports around the clock for the next two days and offer expanded coverage into the next week. It became the feed of choice for many public radio stations and their listeners in the aftermath.
The incredible spectacle of destruction guaranteed that most Americans would choose television over radio for their news. But in the days that followed, NPR's journalists developed a unique take on events that won praise from listeners.
Robert Siegel, hosting All Things Considered from New York, sifted through the papers scattered among the ruins of the World Trade Center towers and read their contents aloud. Listeners also heard tape of one of the towers collapsing. Scott Simon played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" and read W.H. Auden's "September 1, 1939."
Other public radio shows also changed course. News programs refocused their coverage, and cultural shows, including all of NPR's, canceled weekend broadcasts.
The confusing first moments
The news of the World Trade Center catastrophe broke shortly before NPR's regular 9:30 editorial meeting, which stayed on schedule. Throughout the day, editors met about every two hours, says Vice President of News Bruce Drake.
NPR first covered the attacks with phone interviews with eyewitnesses and reporters both in New York and Washington. Some station staffers criticized the network for being slow with the breaking news, and at one point, Edwards said, "We apologize for not having as much information as we'd like to have, but that is what we know so far."
The coverage began when Edwards interrupted a story and interviewed Nolan, followed by an eyewitness and then NPR host and correspondent Jacki Lyden, who saw the smoking buildings from her Brooklyn apartment and called Edwards around 9:20 a.m. "We were just scrambling to put information together," she says.
Edwards said the buildings looked like "two smoke flares."
Though Lyden was anxious to trek to Manhattan, she remained on call for Edwards until 11:30, when she hauled a long-neglected racing bike out of her basement, took it to a bike shop to inflate its tires, and pedaled into town against the current of New Yorkers escaping the disaster. "It looked like all of Manhattan was walking over the Manhattan Bridge," she says.
"You couldn't see the sun," she says of ground zero. "Ash was falling everywhere, and smoke was rising, and people had been telling me about seeing people jump."
Tom Gjelten, NPR's correspondent at the Pentagon, went on the air with Edwards to discuss the hijackings at 9:38the very minute, according to accounts, that the third airplane smashed into the building. He did not hear the accident from his office on the opposite side of the sprawling complex.
"You see all these quotes about how the whole building shook. Bullshit," Gjelten says.
Edwards told Gjelten that others were reporting the Pentagon was on fire, and Gjelten just then heard that the building was being evacuated. He got off the air and left his office to find that no other journalists knew a plane had hit, either.
"Imagine being at the Pentagon, and it's been hit by an airliner, and you don't know it," Edwards says. "That still stuns me."
The story kept deepening, and NPR Vice President of Programming Jay Kernis decided that the network needed to cover it around the clock. For the next two days, Morning Edition aired from 5 a.m. to noon Eastern time, Talk of the Nation from noon to 4 p.m., and All Things Considered from 4 to 10 p.m. TOTN's Neal Conan returned for a 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift, and Scott Simon held down an overnight shift. Terry Gross, whose Fresh Air had stopped production, contributed to the midday shift.
Hosts stopped saying their shows' names and instead announced "special live coverage" a decision made to follow guidelines for breaking news coverage put forth by the Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD). The special identification made it easier for stations that did not usually carry the programs to cut in and out of the broadcasts. (The guidelines were to be discussed at the PRPD conference in Baltimore Sept. 12-16, canceled in the wake of the attacks.)
Almost all of NPR's 70 reporters covered the attacks, and the network also relied on the journalists at WNYC in New York, who ended up uncomfortably close to the action [separate article].
NPR dispensed with underwriting credits, promising make goods to clients. Its website was retooled to a low-graphics version to accommodate the heavy traffic that overloaded many news sites as the story unfolded. Four hundred thousand people visited NPR's site Sept. 11, compared with the usual 70,000 visitors a day. Ratings for NPR's radio coverage will not be available until next month.
"The world's still revolving"
A Pew Internet & American Life Project poll said that more than 80 percent of Americans tuned to television for most of their news in the first few days after the attacks. Another Pew Research Center poll said radio became less important as a news source during the aftermath. But even with a television at hand, Rod Gelatt turned on NPR.
"I go to television to get the picture, the real visual sense of what's going on, but then I find that you want to get more than that, more insight into what is happening," says Gelatt, a professor emeritus in the broadcast news department of the Missouri School of Journalism who was once a public radio newsman. "That's when I turn to NPR, because I think it's obvious that you're going to get much more insight, more detail and more of a variety of stories and opinions even when TV is going nonstop, without commercials."
Gelatt also said that, compared to commercial television, NPR has "less of an alarmist sense."
"I just got a little more of a sense of the world's still revolvingit's OK," he says.
Drake says comments from NPR's listeners echoed Gelatt's. "People who had been watching television and getting agitated and depressive all said that when they turned to NPR and heard these voices that were familiar to them, they got a sense of calm and familiarity," he says. "I think that was something we offered that was really important to people."
Now, as they face the possibility of covering an extended conflict, Drake and his staff are preparing themselves. In the week following the terrorist attacks, the show's schedules reverted to normalcy, but there's cause to think they may be stretched again. NPR's staff and resources might be as well.
"I think it's really important that we pace ourselves," says Gjelten, who has been following the U.S. military response. "This is not a story that's going to be over with it could dominate us for the next six months. We have to be aware of that."
PRI producers likewise shift gears
Like NPR's newsmagazines, many of the shows distributed by Public Radio International covered the terrorist attacks exclusively in the days following Sept. 11. The World offered rolling coverage of developing events from 3 to 9 p.m. on the day of the attacks. Throughout the week, the program offered a more global take on events, in keeping with its usual mission.
Marketplace looked at the economic ramifications in a series of special programs. Its Sept. 12 show featured former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. KCRW's To the Point also provided special coverage.
The BBC World Service turned in 33 consecutive hours of attacks coverage, its longest continuous news broadcast ever. According to PRI, BBC New York business correspondent Steve Evans was in the foyer of the World Trade Center's north building when it was hit by the first hijacked plane and gave an eyewitness account.
Classical 24 programmed four hours of special music Sept. 14 to commemorate the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.
Several of PRI's weekend shows produced special installments, including Sound Money, which looked at the impact of events on the economy (stations also had the option of airing a re-run). And Savvy Traveler, which was free to all PRI affiliates that weekend, gathered reactions from pilots, travelers, flight attendants and travel industry workers.
Many of PRI's shows, including The World, To the Point, Marketplace, BBC World Service and Classical 24 were free to stations in the days following Sept. 11. PRI says that all of the shows saw jumps in carriage. Forty-nine additional stations picked up the BBC, and 50 stations that already carried it added extra hours. The World aired on 28 additional stations.
Studio 360, Whad'Ya Know?, Satellite Sisters and This American Life all fed repeats the weekend of Sept. 15.
Starting tomorrow, PRI will begin feeding weekly hour-long installments of Peacemakers, a selection of Humankind programs produced by independent producer David Freudberg. The shows focus on people who have devoted themselves to resolving conflicts in societies around the world. Some of the shows have aired before, while others are new. Subjects include Ahmed Kathrada, a jailmate of Nelson Mandela's, and Tajae Gaynor, a 20-year-old Bronx native who starting a national anti-violence crusade aimed at young people. According to PRI, the series is intended to balance rising calls for war with "voices of peace."
. To Current's home page . Related stories: Sept. 11 coverage by public TV and NPR; effects on New York stations and canceled meetings in public broadcasting.
Web page posted Sept. 27, 2001
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md. | <urn:uuid:152c777b-076f-478c-8111-5978dfbd876a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.current.org/wp-content/themes/current/archive-site/news/news0117terrorrad.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975245 | 2,177 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Clinton warns Egypt collapse would devastate region
Anti-government protestors have clashed with police in three cities
As the political turmoil in Egypt continues, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she's concerned about an Egyptian military official's assertion that the current situation could lead to the collapse of the Egyptian state.
"I think that would lead to incredible chaos and violence on a scale that would be devastating for Egypt and the region," Clinton said in a CNN interview Tuesday at the State Department. "There has to be some understanding by the new government that the aspirations that the people were expressing during the revolution in Egypt have to be taken seriously. And it -- it cannot in any way be overlooked that there is a large number of Egyptians who are not satisfied with the direction of the economy and the political reform."
Thousands of anti-government protesters have clashed with police and troops in three Egyptian cities, and defied President Mohamed Morsy's curfew orders. Demonstrators are upset with recent political moves by Morsy, and charge that the country's first democratically elected president is a throwback to former dictatorships.
Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's defense minister, warned Tuesday that continued instability could have grave consequences.
"The ongoing conflict among the various political forces... may lead to the collapse of the state and threaten the future of our coming generations," he said.
Clinton said the Egyptian government needs to realize it represents all of Egyptian society and must have a constitution that recognizes the rights of all minority groups.
"I think the messages and the action coming from the (Egyptian) leadership has to be changed in order to give people confidence that they're on the right path to the kind of future they seek," she said.
The U.S. secretary of state said she knows it's not an easy transition.
"It's very difficult going from a closed regime and ... essentially one-man rule, to a democracy that is trying to be born and learn to walk. But there are some clear lessons."
Clinton, who will retire from her position at the end of the week, spent a few tense hours with Morsy last November as the Egyptian president worked with the Israeli government and the leadership of Hamas to broker a cease-fire between the Israelis and the Islamic movement in Gaza.
Copyright 2013 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:05f90840-e663-4c65-90ce-3d2278ab3e36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wptz.com/news/national/Clinton-warns-Egypt-collapse-would-devastate-region/-/8869978/18338886/-/view/print/-/dc4eub/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976644 | 494 | 1.71875 | 2 |
IMAGINE your regular-sized kitchen table is capable of extending to fit the grandest dining room and can comfortably seat 16.
Now imagine that same table being more than 130 years old.
The table is one of about 350 historic items which used to reside inside Glenholme, an 1870s grand Victorian residence on Webster Street which is believed to have sold for more than $2 million on October 31.
The home’s asking price was reduced from $2.5 million to $2.25 million, but was sold with the sale price undisclosed.
The furniture inside Glenholme – including the grand table, a three-metre linen closet and a 100-piece hand painted china dinner set – will go under the hammer at Kittelty’s Auction Rooms in Sebastopol on Sunday.
Auctioneer Dean Kittelty will sell the Glenholme items among 1400 antiques at his monthly auctions from 10.30am. He said he expected the table to fetch thousands at auction.
“The reality is this table is one of the best pieces of furniture we’ve ever seen,” he said.
“It’s got six leaves – the vast majority of tables you see have either two or three leaves – this is so big it even has another set of legs.” Mr Kittelty said the table would have been made in 1880 and would likely fetch between $5000 and $6000.
“We’ve had interest from all over Australia,” he said.
“I’ve had people from Sydney on the phone, we’ve had people from Adelaide on the phone – we’ll get between 350 and 400 people here.”
A set two chairs and a table which existed in a Victorian-era “drawing room” is also expected to generate bidding of at least $1000.
Anybody can register to bid on the day the day and join in on the auction. For more information, call Kittelty’s Auction Rooms on 5332 2899. | <urn:uuid:988bf9a4-e4be-4c27-a1db-2ae086795f94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1140357/furniture-auction-after-webster-street-mansion-sells/?cs=61 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960642 | 431 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Protesters' Plans To Occupy Wall Street Landmark Denied
As Occupy Wall Street protesters marked one year of frustration toward the nation's financial leaders and institutions, police were out in full force to keep them from disrupting the New York Stock Exchange. NY1's Zack Fink filed the following report.
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Early Monday morning, the barricades had already been set up as police readied to keep so-called occupiers out.
"Calm before the storm, shall we say," said one protester.
Just before the New York Stock Exchange opened, occupiers prepared to make their move. Then, things unfolded quickly.
Protesters could not get past the barricades on Wall Street or those on Nassau Street, although some tried and resulted in arrest.
"We are in a terrible situation. And we need to continually draw attention to the crimes in this district. All around us," said one protester.
The heavy police presence forced occupiers to break into smaller groups.
"Right now we are in front of Deutsche Bank because we are hitting up different banks and protesting. For me I am protesting the role of banks in our political system," said one protester.
It's hard to say how many more Occupy Wall Street demonstrations there will be or how much longer the movement will last. But one thing is for sure, at least according to supporters, it's already had an enormous influence on the public debate.
"You see it everywhere people talking about 99 percent. You didn't see that before Occupy Wall Street," said one protester.
"You wouldn't be out here if we hadn't changed the conversation," said another protester.
It's still too early to tell what kind of effect Occupy Wall Street will have, if any, in the November election. But many demonstrators feel satisfied that their voices continue to be heard. | <urn:uuid:692dc6f2-c9c0-4c58-bddd-3981c0acfd3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/169097/protesters--plans-to-occupy-wall-street-landmark-denied | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959718 | 403 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Inventor and entrepreneur
As a child, Carl Dietrich watched his father build model airplanes. Today, he has built a flying car, The Transition® Roadable Aircraft, and a company to manufacture it, called Terrafugia.
Dietrich, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, co-founded Terrafugia with his wife, Anna Dietrich, to provide pilots the convenience of a dual-purpose vehicle: When pilots wish to drive, its wings fold in, and the craft can be driven on any surface road. Once at the airport, when they wish to fly, its wings extend, and the craft is ready for take-off.
Dietrich earned the selective Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for innovation in 2006, and was named one of Boston Business Journal's “40 Under 40” in 2009. | <urn:uuid:b7a32dca-04b3-43b3-bad8-ef22e335e069> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umb.edu/ideasboston/bio/carl_dietrich | 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 | 0.95987 | 196 | 1.695313 | 2 |
My first field placement was at Northeast Middle School. I was assigned to an 8th grade literature course for at-risk students. The class was small and conducted in a literature circle in which students would read and discuss various young adult novels. My experience at Northeast allowed me to learn about the importance of student-teacher relationships. I was also able to learn various techniques for working with at-risk students.
My second field placement was at Lincoln Elementary School. I partook in a true hands-on experience in the 5th grade language arts class. I was responsible for reading various short stories aloud to the class as well as conducting warm-up lessons involving grammar and punctuation. On several occasions I was able to teach short segments of lessons that involved the correct usage of words. I gained the confidence necessary to conduct a classroom during this experience.
My final field
placement, at Nitschmann Middle School, was in a 7th
grade PSSA language arts class. The purpose of this
class was to increase PSSA scores in both the reading
and writing sections. The students’ progress was
monitored closely to ensure that they were achieving
optimally. Practice exercises in workbooks as well as
on the computers, independent reading, and group
reinforcement lessons were keys to the functioning of | <urn:uuid:264f85cd-ce33-44dd-a4c8-cf728d99655d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://home.moravian.edu/students/v/stamv01/resume.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981884 | 269 | 1.617188 | 2 |
What regrets will you have when your “number is up”?
This awareness crossed our minds, a few years back, before Feel Good Buzz was launched. It made us start living our lives differently, so we’d have fewer regrets before it was too late to do anything about them at the end of our lives.
Living and thinking this way has been very freeing; it’s made us bolder, braver and more joyful! This “living without regrets” concept is a big part of why we’re so into sharing our love of optimal, natural health with you all! Here’s a great quote that sums it up . . .
“Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.”
We’ve noticed that as we’ve grown older at Feel Good Buzz, with experience, our worries have lessened. (Although our struggles haven’t necessarily decreased, our concerns about whether or not everything will turn out all right certainly have!). For us, this decrease in worry and increase in mental confidence and emotional stability has led to an even stronger desire and commitment to see exactly how strong, healthy and energetic our bodies can be to keep up with all of the opportunities surrounding us. And that is our desire for you as well- to have the kind of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health that enables you to live an inspired life with us!
We hope that this article inspires you as much as it inspires us! . . .
Here are the “Top Five Regrets of the Dying” as recorded by a palliative nurse:
(What would your biggest regret be if this was your last day of life?)
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. “This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.”
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. “This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. “Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. “Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.”
- I wish that I had let myself be happier. | <urn:uuid:2caec16a-9b3e-4499-8b99-8b75d41dd0b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.feelgoodbuzz.com/tag/freedom | 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 | 0.98748 | 740 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A Mountain to be ConqueredMay 14, 2010
I once stood at the foot of a mountain, and looked up at the enormous task before me. The top seemed an impossible destination; I didn’t even know where to take that first step.
“Go on,” my mother smiled encouragingly at me, “I know you can do it.”
“What have you got to lose?” My father chipped in.
“We’ll be right here to catch you if you fall.” My brothers sang out.
I took my first step. I slipped.
“Try again,” my family urged.
I did. I climbed and climbed. I looked down, they were still there giving me the thumbs up. I laughed, and continued on.
The more I climbed, the better I got. But now and again, a sharp edge or a large impediment would stop me in my tracks. I would try to figure it out on my own, but at times, I would just be stuck. Miraculously, there were always some other climber ready to help me through. All I had to do was ask.
Some climbers were also finding their way up, and their companionship was an ease from the tediousness, as well as a motivation for me to excel with my peers. Some climbers were experienced climbers who had already made it to the top, but who had the benevolence to climb back down to help those climbing up. While climbing, I promised myself that when I got to the top, I would always remember those who had helped me, and the lessons learnt from all the challenges I have endured and overcame.
Some of my fellow climbers continued with me for parts of the journey before we took our separate ways, while others stayed with me much longer.
The further I climbed, the better climber I became. I eventually surpassed those who had helped me, climbing faster ahead. I would linger a while, but we knew eventually I would have to leave them behind.
Days turned to months. Months to years. I watched the shades of the seasons envelope around me one after another in a ceaseless cycle of wonder.
Every so often I would stop to appreciate the view before me, the journey awaiting above me, and the history below me.
Yet the higher I climbed, the more anxious I was to reach the top, and the more infrequent it became for me to stop and enjoy the achievement I had attained. I was too busy reaching for the finish line. I was tired; I was ready to trade the sacrifices I had made for the jews of comfort. I also stopped looking at what was below me, for fear of falling as I now had much more to lose.
The further I climbed, the less climbers I encountered. Those I did encounter was similarly too focussed on their future attainment to stop and help those passing by. At times of tiredness and frustration, I would imagine stopping and never climbing again. I imagined just sitting on the ledge to watch the beauty of the sunrise blend with each sunset, as the days and nights being the only indicators of time, where nothing needed to be attained as all there really was existed right there in front of me.
Yet, I never did stop. Deep within a voice argued that the sacrifices and efforts I had made was to get to the top; not to give up mid-way. So I climbed, and climbed. Each sunrise did melt into each sunset as the days rolled on top of each other in a meaningless cycle, only I wasn’t sitting on a ledge to witness it: the sun shone on my back, and my face was focussed on the face of the mountain in front of me.
I climbed and climbed.
I always imagined that when I arrived at the top I would spread my arms out and shout, “I made it!” I imagined that moment again and again in my mind as I climbed. I imagined how content I would be, and imagined how life would be so effortless after that. I imagined that moment as the turning point pivoting my life’s meaning.
Yet when I arrived, I could only collapse against the flat ground in exhaustion. A relief. I didn’t even have the energy to say “water”, let alone shout out, “I made it!”
After I regained my strength, I explored the world I had entered. A feeling of discontentment set in, followed by a quick shade of anger. I could hear myself saying, “Finally I’m here, what an achievement, blah blah blah.” Yet my heart was crying as I asked myself over and over silently, “Is this it?”
I got used to the life at the top fairly quickly. It was quite mundane, but at least it wasn’t as strenuous as the climb. After some time, the memory of the climb itself started to fade, and I would watch in disdain the new climbers struggling to the top of the mountain huffing and puffing.
“What’s all the fuss about?” I would think to myself, “Surely if I could do it, they should.”
Some of my fellow climbers finally arrived. “About time,” I thought.
Some of the experienced climbers returned. “Ready for retirement,” I thought unkindly.
Then my brothers arrived. I greeted them warmly as I had missed them dearly. I looked around for mum and dad, wondering where they were.
“Where’s mum and dad?” I asked.
“They’re still at the bottom.”
“Why didn’t they climb up?” I asked.
“They were too afraid to leave.”
I felt anger arise in me. Here I had climbed this huge mountain because they had urged me to do it, and they couldn’t even bother doing it themselves? Here they had told me to overcome my fears and worries, yet they couldn’t do it for themselves? Here I had accomplished this task and they weren’t here to see it? Here I had finally made it and they are not here for me to share it?
“What could they possibly be afraid about?” I gasped in frustration.
My brother gave me a hug and whispered, “They were worried about you. They were afraid that if they left, then no one would be there to catch you should you fall.”
That was the moment when I realised that the greatest mountain I needed to climb wasn’t the mountain I was standing on, but the hubris surmounted in my mind.
That was the moment when I looked down the mountain for the first time since I had reached the top, and saw the friends and mentors I had left behind. Some were struggling without anyone by their side, some were joking and taking their time, some went back to help those who had fallen behind, while others had perched themselves on a ledge to enjoy the rhythms of each sunrise and sunset.
At that moment, I realised that I could only be standing where I was because of those who had helped me along the way. Sure they may still be below me on their journey up the mountain, but that was because they knew that the mountain is not an object to be conquered for happiness, but one that provides the myriad experiences and viewpoints that allow us to conquer the most imposing threat to our happiness: our hubris.
I hugged my brother back, and said, “Come on, let’s tell mum and dad that the top isn’t as flash as everyone makes it out to be.” | <urn:uuid:7d916ec3-b2db-4103-a8b5-e1d15c4f9e5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tinlala.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/a-mountain-to-be-conquered/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991028 | 1,623 | 1.515625 | 2 |
World's Largest Accessible Online Library for People with Print Disabilities
World's Largest Accessible Online Library for People with Print Disabilities Offers More Accessibility and Ease of Use - Benetech Launches New Bookshare Library Bookshare, the world's largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities, has been completely rebuilt to make it significantly easier for individuals with print disabilities to access the books they want and need. The new library offers many improvements including strengthened quality control standards for book content, free assistive software applications and a rapidly expanding collection of digital files from contributing publishers. The design changes allow Bookshare to serve its growing membership of over 43,000 users and accommodate its collection of more than 43,000 texts. Bookshare now features the current best practices for website accessibility, Google-like search functions and more Braille options for Bookshare members who are blind. Read the press release about the new Bookshare here.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) February 1, 2009 - Bookshare, the world's largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities, has been completely rebuilt with state-of-the-art web technology to make it easier for individuals with print disabilities to access digital books. The new design provides improved support for Bookshare's rapidly growing collection of over 43,000 digital books comprising general fiction and non-fiction, educational books, children's literature, textbooks and best sellers. The new Bookshare library implements current best practices for website accessibility and simplifies the reading experience for those who have a print disability and the staff who assist them.
The improvements in accessibility and ease of use include a streamlined Google-like interface for search functions, better account management tools, easier navigation from a keyboard or with a mouse, and more Braille options for Bookshare members who are blind. The new library also offers two complimentary ebook readers (software applications that read text in synthetic speech). The Victor Reader Soft Bookshare Edition from HumanWare is intended for people who are blind or have low vision. The Read:OutLoud Bookshare Edition from Don Johnston Incorporated is designed to support people with learning disabilities with a variety of study tools that help students read with better comprehension.
Bookshare is extremely helpful for school because when I enlarge pages in my textbooks with a photocopier, the font doesn't increase as large as the page and I still can't read it Now when I have a chapter assigned from textbooks, I download the text from Bookshare and use ZoomText software to read it in whatever size font I want. It's just amazing. The new Bookshare library is an exciting step forward as we continue to add thousands of new members and new books to the collection, says Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech which operates Bookshare. In 2007, Bookshare received a $32 million five-year award from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to give all students in the U.S. with qualifying print disabilities, regardless of age, free access to the Bookshare library. Since the award, hundreds of schools have signed up their qualified students for Bookshare and many parents have registered their children with qualifying disabilities for individual Bookshare memberships. The number of new Bookshare school and student members increased tenfold in 2008. More than 43,000 people with print disabilities now subscribe to the Bookshare library.
The growing collection of digital textbooks, including U.S. K-12 textbooks from the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center (NIMAC), helps students with print disabilities keep up with their classmates and encourages independent study. Bookshare works with state education agencies, schools, and universities to provide students with print disabilities timely access to the books they need for school.
"Bookshare is extremely helpful for school because when I enlarge pages in my textbooks with a photocopier, the font doesn't increase as large as the page and I still can't read it," says Dana Zarett, a high school student in Long Island, New York, who has impaired vision. "Now when I have a chapter assigned from textbooks, I download the text from Bookshare and use ZoomText software to read it in whatever size font I want. It's just amazing."
Bookshare was originally built by a community of volunteers and now adds over 1,000 books and textbooks a month with the additional support of worldwide nonprofit partners who assist with scanning and proofreading. Many publishers and authors also contribute digital content with global permissions to make books available to print disabled readers worldwide. Bookshare continues to rely on invaluable volunteer assistance to build the collection. To assist these essential efforts, the new library provides improved functionality for volunteers to scan, submit and proofread books more efficiently.
"The new Bookshare library is an exciting step forward as we continue to add thousands of new members and new books to the collection, says Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech which operates Bookshare. "Our goal is to put Silicon Valley technology into the hands of people with disabilities to help them live powerful, independent lives. We expect to offer 100,000 books in the Bookshare library and serve hundreds of thousands of users by 2012. Thanks to the Department of Education funding, this complete rebuild of Bookshare will support the rapid growth of the Bookshare member community."
Bookshare http://www.bookshare.org/ is operated by Benetech http://www.benetech.org/ a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit technology development organization. Bookshare offers people with print disabilities more than 43,000 books and 150 daily periodicals in accessible formats including Braille, large print and synthetic speech. People with print disabilities include readers who are blind or have low vision, learning disabilities or a mobility impairment that prevents them from reading a traditional printed book. View student video profiles of Bookshare student members, Alex Clark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSwzeBCbq8 and Steffon Middleton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho-y-5qzWa0. | <urn:uuid:c0e51cd5-d090-406c-88d9-d785f54d59af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dpiap.org/resources/article.php?id=0000003&genreid=03&genre=ICT+Technology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942794 | 1,249 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Northwestern Mutual Life Building
The cornice of the Northwestern Mutual Life Building needed replacement. The project included providing accurate as-built drawings (to a demanding schedule) of the entire cornice about the perimeter. Collecting this data using traditional methods would have required weeks to complete, as well as the use of scaffolding or a swing stage.
Our 3-D laser scanning technology captured much of the visible data from the sidewalk, approximately 150 ft below, with an accuracy of 1/4 inch at 150ft. Once the data is compiled it was transformed into digital 2-D drawings.
Laser scanning documentation has the ability to provide additional data to vendors and designers as needed without having to return to the site. The scan is a snap shot in time of the existing conditions. In the future old scans and new can be compared and combined to track the change a building has undergone.
Measured drawing of cornice detail with point cloud overlay.
Northwestern Mutual Life Building - Milwaukee, WI. | <urn:uuid:8170b502-0fda-4bce-9344-47f909911aef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sightlinescan.com/case_study.php?Northwestern-Mutual-Life-Building-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945394 | 203 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Investors can expect property yields to increase further in 2013 making property an attractive class thanks to low house price growth, says a report.
The upside of expected very low price growth in 2013, for future aspirant investors at least, is that we would expect yields on housing to broadly increase further, as they have been doing gradually since after the boom years, slowly improving property’s attractiveness as an asset class.
The FNB 2012 House Price Index report reveals that 2012 was a slightly better year overall than 2011, in terms of house price performance.
However, this year average house price growth may be slightly weaker.
Writing in the report, John Loos, FNB household and property sector strategist explains that the average house price in 2012 rose by 5 percent from 3.3 percent in 2011.
In real terms, 2012 continued to show mild real house price decline to -0.6 percent - a lesser decline than the real decline of -1.7 percent in 2011 while the average price of homes transacted was R845 106 in 2012 (R804 536 in 2011).
Loos points out that in real terms, the FNB House Price Index remained well-above levels of the early last decade, with the real price average for 2012 still 70.7 percent above the real average price for 2001.
In nominal terms, the 2012 average price was 218 percent higher than the 2001 price level.
The bank expects house price growth in 2013 to be more subdued than 2012 with nominal average rise of 2.5 percent for the year.
“Given that consumer price inflation looks set to be more around 5 to 6 percent this year on average, that would imply further “downward correction” in real price terms (when house prices are adjusted for CPI inflation),” says Loos.
He points to key issues impacting the housing market:
1. Household financial pressure leading to expectations that the search for affordability in housing remains priority for many.
2. Increases in municipal rates and utilities tariffs are set to remain problematic for homeowners, and this can also exert pressure on house prices, especially on the high end of the market.
3. While further economic weakness can lead to further interest rate reduction, recent years have suggested that the Reserve Bank is reluctant to cut, and any downward movement in rates (such as the lone rate cut in 2011) is likely to be almost insignificant.
He adds that the upside of expected very low price growth in 2013, for future aspirant investors at least, is that we would expect yields on housing to broadly increase further, as they have been doing gradually since after the boom years, slowly improving property’s attractiveness as an asset class. - Denise Mhlanga | <urn:uuid:40ec7081-e9b7-4107-88f1-9817cfcf1cbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.property24.com/articles/low-house-prices-good-for-investors/16933 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955707 | 555 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The McCain-Palin ticket will face a political tsunami over the next two weeks. The Obama-Biden ticket is outspending (by 4 to 1 in key electoral states) and out-organizing the Republicans, employing the same organizational discipline that brought President Bush his 2000 and 2004 electoral victories. The big question now is how much Democrats will add to their congressional majorities. Big margins would bring both big possibilities and big risks.
It already is time to look beyond campaign politics to 2009 governance. Before that, however, these observations should be made about the waning 2008 campaign.
We are reminded how much the political fundamentals drive national decisions. There was a strong desire for change this year, putting Republicans at a disadvantage at the outset. Arizona Sen. John McCain, in the last televised debate with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, declared that he was not President Bush, but he nonetheless was hurt by the incumbent Republican administration's unpopularity. The in party gets blamed when things go badly and gets credit when they go well, fairly or not.
Moreover, at a time when Obama and McCain were running almost even in national polls, the financial meltdown occurred. This gave Democrats — favored by voters in hard economic times — a huge boost entering the campaign's final weeks. Had a major terrorist attack, here or abroad, taken place instead of a financial collapse, McCain would have benefited. But it did not, and that was the way the breaks went.
In the Democratic party, Obama rode the desire for change to a narrow victory over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. His managers also ran a smarter campaign than Clinton's, focusing on non-primary and smaller states, while the Clinton campaign went for wins in big states. Since Democrats decide their nominees by proportional representation, Obama squeaked through. A winner-take-all system, such as Republicans employ, would have produced a Clinton victory.
On the Republican side, McCain benefited from the winner-take-all system to drive former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney out of the race relatively early. Romney ran quite close to McCain in big states but got no delegates there. A proportional representation system could have given Romney the nomination. The financial/economic crisis would have hurt Romney less than it has hurt McCain. Romney is well versed in such issues, is less tied to the Bush administration, and probably would have had a stronger appeal than McCain on matters most on voters' minds.
Obama won big by reversing himself and deciding not to accept public financing (therefore, he had no spending limitations) and thus has had a money advantage usually ceded to Republicans.
We should recognize how much things have changed in our national politics. President Kennedy made history in 1960 when he was elected the first Catholic president. We are on the verge of electing a biracial president. Major figures in this campaign year included not only Obama but two women (Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin), three Catholics (Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani), a Latino (New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson), a Mormon (Romney), a Protestant fundamentalist (former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee), and Jewish Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who almost was named McCain's running mate after having been the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000. Despite worries about racism on election day — largely unfounded, in my judgment — the biggest battle of the 1960s, the one about racial, ethnic, gender, and religious discrimination, has been decided.
On a down note, our national discourse was fouled to an unprecented degree by bloggers, partisan and ideological groups, radio-TV entertainers posing as analysts, and outrightly biased cable-news commentators who poured much disinformation and toxicity into our national consciousness. There also was a lot of just plain careless reporting. (One example: The widely disseminated report that someone shouted "Kill him!", referring to Obama, at a GOP rally. It never happened.) Palin was not as qualified a vice-presidential candidate as, say, Lieberman or Romney would have been. But she is not the right-wing dunce largely portrayed by media; she certainly is better qualified than Vice Presidents Agnew and Quayle and other No. 2 candidates who have lost. This has taken place at a time when citizens increasingly have turned away from traditional print media as an information source. Voters know they are being misled and resent it. Opinion surveys show "media" and "the press" as being held in as low esteem as, for instance, the Congress. This will be a difficult trend to reverse.
Now, fast forward to January.
I have supported Obama's nomination and election since mid-2007. I believe he has the intellect and temperament to break the Bush/Clinton policy-political cycles and give the country a fresh start. His general-election campaign has been less inspiring than his early nominating campaign; it constituted too greatly the usual boilerplate wish list, including trade protectionism, of interest groups important to the Democratic party. But McCain's campaign, in the end, narrowed down as well to the issues which most resonate with core Republicans.
The big opportunity, and danger, for Obama is that he will get such a large Democratic congressional majority that its agenda will conflict with his own. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California surely will return in her present job. But Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada should be replaced, if at all possible, by somone abler and larger minded such as, say, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Nationally, as at the state and local levels, the big story in the next four years will be one of coping with debt and deficits which will make the setting of priorities an imperative. Even if Obama gets a huge majority, such as the 1964 majority which made possible the 1965 passage of Great Society legislation, the surrounding economic/financial climate will not make it possible to attempt another Great Society or anything close to it. There is a huge, backed-up Democratic agenda which simply will have to wait until the country returns to better times. Obama is a practical pol who recognizes this and will want to proceed carefully. Will the Democratic Congress respond to carefulness? That question, made possible by political success, will be the big one as inaugural fever gives way to day-to-day governance. Much more on this later.
Like what you just read? Support high quality local journalism. Become a member of Crosscut today! | <urn:uuid:15386c63-b5ae-4cd9-bc7c-2dcb64a7fa0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crosscut.com/2008/10/18/elections/18578/On-cusp-look-back-look-ahead/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966263 | 1,305 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A local ballot measure in San Jose and a statewide initiative, both only proposals at this point, would attempt to cut the cost of public pensions promised current workers, believed by many to be “vested rights” protected by court decisions.
The watchdog Little Hoover Commission, warning in February that soaring pension costs could “crush” government, said cuts to new hires would not yield enough savings and recommended legislation allowing pension cuts for current workers.
A key point: The commission and the proposed ballot measures would not cut pension amounts already earned by current workers through years of service. The cuts (in benefits or employer contributions) only apply to pensions earned after the change.
The Little Hoover Commission said the courts have held that public employees have a vested right under contract law to the pension benefits offered on their first day on the job, even if it takes five years of work to qualify for them.
But the commission said the rulings, which differ from private-sector pensions that can be cut for future work, have provided openings to modify benefits for current workers that must be clarified.
“Government agencies cannot generate the needed large-scale savings by reducing benefits only for new hires,” said the commission. “It will take years if not decades to turn over the workforce, and the government is hardly in hiring mode today.”
The backers of the proposed ballot measures are already hearing from defenders of the vested rights of current workers.
A paper on vested rights issued by the California Public Employees Retirement System this month suggests the giant system, which covers half the non-federal government workers in the state, would go to court to protect the rights of its members.
San Jose is one of a half dozen large cities in California that have their own retirement systems. But it seems likely that CalPERS would support a legal challenge to a precedent-setting change in vested rights.
Peter Mixon, the CalPERS general counsel, told a board meeting in Petaluma last week that several years ago bankruptcy court looked like an option for struggling local governments.
He said after the Little Hoover recommendation, and the example of the city of Vallejo still in bankruptcy after three years, more local governments may look at modifying the vested rights of employees.
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s proposal, based on California court rulings, would use the declaration of a fiscal emergency to modify vested rights. Mixon said he is unaware of the emergency case law actually being used to modify public pensions.
“That being said, I think this is going to be the battleground to watch,” Mixon told the CalPERS board.
He mentioned that two Detroit pension funds filed a lawsuit to block a new Michigan law authorizing the appointment of “emergency managers” to oversee fiscally troubled local governments, potentially altering pension plans.
In California, the CalPERS paper said, the emergency allowed by the court rulings must meet a rigorous test based on the best interest of society, need and appropriateness and then can only be temporary.
“Thus, even if vested pension rights may be temporarily impaired in a true emergency situation, it is clear that the state’s emergency powers do not enable it to solve its budgetary problems by eliminating or reducing the long-term benefit promises it has made,” said the CalPERS paper.
The office of state Attorney General Kamala Harris, asked by four legislators to review the San Jose emergency proposal, said in a preliminary response last month that the “unilateral impairment” of any contract “causes us deep concern.”
A spokeswoman for Mayor Reed said the city plans to meet with the attorney general’s office to explain its proposal.
San Jose and other local governments, where employee costs are a big part of budgets, have been hit hard by soaring pension costs. Benefits were increased when a booming stock market pumped up pension funds, punctured later by a market crash.
Retirement costs for San Jose, $73 million a decade ago, are $245 million this year and projected to increase to $400 million by 2016 — possibly to $650 million if longer life expectancy, early retirement and other updated experience is included.
The city retirement contributions set by two pension board are now more than 50 percent of the payroll. The city has cut its workforce by 30 percent, laid off police and firefighters, closed libraries and community centers and cut employee pay 10 percent.
Reed persuaded voters last fall to approve a limit on binding arbitration of labor contracts, prohibiting the creation of new unfunded liabilities as well as pay and benefit increases exceeding a five-year average in general fund growth.
The pension boards were restructured early last year to have a majority of independent members with financial expertise, replacing the old “stakeholder” model dominated by representatives of labor and management.
Reed’s new proposal, requiring voter approval in the charter city, would give new hires a “hybrid,” a lower pension and a 401(k)-style investment plan. City contributions would be capped at 9 percent of pay or 50 percent of benefit costs, whichever is less.
Pensions earned by current workers in the future would be lowered to 1.5 percent of final pay for each year served. Among other changes, full retirement age would be gradually extended to 60 for police and firefighters, 65 for other workers.
Last month Reed delayed council action on his proposal until Aug. 2. He also reportedly pushed back a public vote on the plan until next March, allowing time for negotiations with labor unions until Oct.31.
A group led by Dan Pellissier, a former Republican legislative and gubernatorial aide, wants to put a statewide pension initiative on the November ballot next year. But it’s still seeking funding and has not yet filed an initiative.
“It’s getting better and better for us,” Pellissier said last week. “We have some of our top folks in California helping us.”
His plan is different from the Little Hoover and San Jose proposals to lower the pensions earned by current workers in the future. Instead, future employer contributions would be capped at 6 percent of pay, more if needed to pay off any unfunded liability.
Current employees presumably could increase their contributions to maintain current pension levels or accept a smaller pension. New hires would receive a 401(k)-style investment plan.
Pellissier said the group’s lawyers think key vested rights court decisions are “ripe” for review because they were made before public employees were authorized to bargain labor contracts in the late 1970s.
He said one of the “non-vested rights” listed on page 14 of the CalPERS paper supports his view that employer contribution rates are not vested and can be capped by the initiative.
The non-vested right: “Continuation of a benefit or contribution rate where the benefit or contribution rate is subject to change under the terms of the applicable statute, memorandum of understanding or employment contract.”
CalPERS did not immediately respond to a query about Pellissier’s view last week. But it seems possible that the non-vested right may refer to employee contribution rates, not employer rates.
Reporter Ed Mendel covered the Capitol in Sacramento for nearly three decades, most recently for the San Diego Union-Tribune. More stories are at http://calpensions.com/ Posted 25 Jul 11 | <urn:uuid:fa9c2bb3-a69d-4a5d-b2ad-cc3508e850b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://calpensions.com/2011/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960728 | 1,542 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Photographing Small Beads is Easy
A year or so ago I bought a close up filter from Quantaray at a camera store. I wasn’t sure how well it would work because it was only $30 and just screwed on to the lens of my camera. It seemed too easy. But I was really happy I did buy it because a few weeks back we got a shipment of some new millifiori called Road Map. It was a chance to really test it out. Mike really wanted to show how unique the pattern was. I realized that photographing small beads is easy with this tool.
If I didn’t use the close up filter I would have got this image.
This image is with the filter.
For folks shooting anything small this filter is a great alternative to buying an expensive macro lens. I hate spending money when I don’t have to.
This is how I used the lens.
- In order to use this filter the camera has to be right on the top of the subject.
- Because the subject is so small make sure you use a light diffuser and light bounce to cut down on the shadows. Click here for to see prior blog.
- Because the subject is so close to the lens use a narrow aperture and a long shutter speed to help widen the depth of field. Click here to read more about depth of field.
- Finally focus and take your shot. Make sure you always bracket your images. Take a bunch of shots at different exposures. That way you can help ensure that you get at least one good exposure.
If you are a beadmaker that makes small beads and have a D-SLR or SLR this tool is a must have. Here are some more examples of this filter at work. These photos are full frame. I did not crop them to show how much of the frame a small bead can fill up a frame.
If you have used this item or something like this then let me know what you think. What are your techniques for shooting small items? | <urn:uuid:95ae91c6-1191-4031-81ea-c4e7fbd2e5f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frantznewsletter.com/2009/11/25/photographing-small-beads-is-easy/ | 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 | 0.963478 | 422 | 1.78125 | 2 |
During the early 1920s, UK's Austin Motors produced an epic car called Austin Seven. The BMW 3/15 shares the very same chassis as a part of the Anglo-German collaboration and was produced and sold in 1928. The 3/15 was later renamed as BMW Dixi 3/15 DA-1. The car at that time produced a power output of 15 PS came with right hand drive in the very beginning and eventually in both left hand drive and right hand drive options. It had a top speed of 45 Mph. It was one of the simplest yet very elegant car a very straight-forward one by BMW that now has much more value today that it ever had when it was launched! | <urn:uuid:a961e60b-d136-42a7-b471-ad3953cbddae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.automotto.com/10-lovable-cars-bmw-built/slideshow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990872 | 142 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Understanding Single Stock Futures
Of the numerous financial endeavors that a forex trader or businessman can invest in, one of the most attractive, profits wise, are Single Stock Futures, or SSF. What makes SSF more appealing is that it is very cost effective and the process is straightforward.
For an investor with experience in forex trading or futures contracts, he will have little difficulty understanding Single Stock Futures. Basically, SSF allows forex traders to utilize stocks the same way he uses commodities in futures market trading. Because the concept of SSF is similar to futures, the transactions are virtually the same.
There are several advantages and benefits from using Single Stock Futures compared with ordinary stocks. All too often, a stock needs to be sold when the market is in a downtrend, and the difficulties that come with it include the price falling below what you desire. There is also the need to pay fees to the broker.
SSF, however, gives the forex trader the option to buy or sell the stock at any point during the prescribed futures contract period. There is no broker fee to worry about. For an investor, he can go short on an SSF as he would any futures contract. By utilizing this against his shares, the investor has for himself a hedge against adverse market movements.
By analyzing the relationship of one set of stocks to another, a forex trader can, as in futures trading, buy or sell SSF contracts depending on the market situation. Thus, one can profit regardless of the movement of the financial markets.
Of course, other ways of profiting is very possible, because the fluctuations of the SSF price can be likened to forex currency speculation. The same rules and strategies used there could also be applied in SSF.
Another example of the cost effectiveness of Single Stock Futures is that they have lower margins. Obtaining shares of stock requires a 50% margin, whereas in SSF contracts it is only 20%. There is also no interest charge.
A forex trader can also avail of Narrow Based Indices. Somewhat similar to a commodity index, the advantage here is that an investor can go long or short on certain stock groups without having to worry about the financial demands of purchasing individual shares.
Single Stock Futures provide the trader and investor with more opportunities to make money. By applying well tested strategies in futures trading on stocks, a trader can place himself in a very profitable position.
|Foreign exchange guide| | <urn:uuid:6b6994ba-67bc-4e66-a3f1-8237f698bd32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qnetexchange.org/understanding-single-stock-futures.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949868 | 505 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Number Nine, Number Nine
As if we did not have enough reasons for oil to rally, another has just developed and we'll call it Tropical Depression Number 9. A storm that has the possibility of ending up in the Gulf of Mexico can add support to a market that is finding more reasons to rally. Yesterday oil broke a bit on developments in the Eurozone as the Bundesbank tough talk ahead of the meeting was dampening hopes of a bond buying extravaganza. Oil was initially boosted by a report by German news magazine Der Spiegel who said that the ECB may set yield caps for countries in the EU. That would take a huge EU commitment and may cause commodities to sky rocket. Yet the Bundesbank also criticized the European Central Bank’s plan to embark on potentially “unlimited” government bond purchases. On top of that, we have geo-political storms brewing and extra volatility as we say good bye to the September crude contract.
Oil traders have come to realize that the Bundesbank always talks tough ahead of big meetings so that when they give a little, it looks to the market that they are giving a lot. Also the fact that the ECB denied the Der Spiegel report that the new ECB program will set yield caps. In response, the ECB issued a statement saying it is, “misleading to report on decisions which have not yet been taken.” So there! Of course setting yield caps could create commodity frenzy and would drive prices wildly higher.
Oil also is getting support from more talk of war. The Times of Israel reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “is determined to attack Iran before the U.S. elections,” Israel’s Channel 10 News claimed on Monday night, and Israel is now “closer than ever” to a strike designed to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive. In Syria, President Obama drew a line in the sand and warned that if there is any evidence that Syria’s chemical or biological weapons are being moved or used may force him to reconsider U.S. military action. The President said that, “A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized, that would change my calculus.”
Of course all of this drama is not good for gas prices that have already had more bad luck than the Chicago Cubs. We have had refinery fires, pipeline leaks and now a gas recall in Indiana and according to Bloomberg and AAA, we are at a record high for this time of year in the U.S. after refinery breakdowns tightened supply. The $3.72-a-gallon average price of regular gasoline at U.S. retail stations is the highest for this day, and prices will likely continue breaking daily records for at least several more weeks, AAA said. Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, about $3.72 for the past four days, according to data from the nation’s largest motoring organization. It’s the first time since April 23 that a national average in 2012 was the highest ever for the day, Michael Green, a spokesman for AAA in Washington, said in an e-mail. Prices reached a year-to-date high of $3.936 on April 4, before sliding 61¢ to $3.326 on July 1. Since then refinery shutdowns and stronger Brent crude oil boosted prices 39.4¢ to the highest level since May 16, AAA data show.
Yet that may not matter this Labor Day. Bloomberg News reports that the most Americans since 2008 will travel on vacation during the Labor Day weekend this year, as consumers grow more confident that conditions are improving in the world’s largest economy. The number of people taking trips of 50 miles or more will increase to 33 million from 32.1 million last year, the American Automobile Association, the biggest U.S. motoring organization, said in its annual forecast. That’s the most since a record 45.1 million travelers four years ago. This year the long weekend runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3.
The FT reports that Cnooc, China’s main offshore oil and gas producer, posted an unexpectedly large 19% drop in net profit in the first half of the year on higher costs and lower output caused partly by an oil spill. Most analysts had expected the state-controlled energy group would post a small profit fall in the first half. Its Hong Kong-listed shares fell 3% on Tuesday. The net profit drop comes at a sensitive time for Cnooc, which is in the midst of a bid to acquire Canadian oil company Nexen for $15.1 billion in a deal that, if completed, would be the largest ever offshore acquisition by a Chinese company. In announcing first-half results on Tuesday, Cnooc said it cut its interim dividend by 40% to HK$0.15 per share in order to save cash to pay for the Nexen deal, which still needs to be approved by the Canadian government.
The Chronicle is reporting that Mexico may someday realize its potential as a natural gas superpower, but in the lengthy meantime, the country’s gnawing energy craving may feed off Texas pipelines. Mexico energy planners are pressing ahead with an $8 billion expansion of the country’s 5,500-mile natural gas pipeline system, focusing on central and northern industrial cities. And for the foreseeable future, they intend to fuel that network with U.S. natural gas, including from South Texas and Eagle Ford Shale fields. “Mexico has a unique opportunity, we have access to the world’s cheapest gas,” Mexican Energy Minister Jordy Herrera said of the U.S. supply in announcing the new pipeline plans earlier this year. “This is competitiveness for the industry of our country.” The U.S. side of the project awaits regulatory approval. | <urn:uuid:099e4c4f-8742-405c-aea5-b644e43b9cea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.futuresmag.com/2012/08/21/tropical-storm-adds-to-bullish-crude-outlook?t=commodities | 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 | 0.96312 | 1,213 | 1.515625 | 2 |
By Rob Ockenfuss
Kohler, Wis. – Second-round leader Suzann Pettersen’s approach to the 11th hole during the third round struck a sprinkler head and bounced well beyond the hole. As defined by the Rules of Golf, a sprinkler head is an obstruction, but it is also an outside agency.
If a player’s ball in motion is accidentally stopped or deflected by an outside agency, it is a rub of the green, there is no penalty and the ball must be played as it lies (Rule 19-1).
These are the types of bounces that occur during a round of golf and the player must accept the result, whether good or bad. Pettersen was able to two-putt and make a par on the hole.
Rob Ockenfuss is a Manager, Rules Inquiries. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:033cb188-7b59-4aa3-a8e2-9d5f61dc0acf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usga.org/ChampEventRulesCorner.aspx?id=21474847966&blogid=21474852031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965086 | 191 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Evidence that Europe’s austerity policies are not working was in ample supply this morning. The euro zone as a whole is now in its longest recession since the start of monetary union. France has succumbed to the region’s retrenchment. Italy’s GDP slump is now the lengthiest on record. And Greece, still in depression, shrank another 5.3 percent in the first quarter.
To understand why this is happening, Brown University professor Mark Blyth says it is necessary to forget everything you think you know about the euro zone crisis. The monetary union’s troubles are not, as often depicted, the result of runaway spending by bloated, profligate states that are finally being forced to pay the piper. Instead, argues Blyth, it is merely a sequel to the U.S. financial meltdown that started, like its American counterpart, with dangerously-indebted risk-taking on the part of a super-sized banking sector.
In a new book entitled “Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea,” Blythe writes that sovereign budgets have come under strain primarily because taxpayers of various nations have been forced to shoulder the burden of failed banking systems.
The way austerity is being represented by both politicians and the media – as the payback for something called the ‘sovereign debt crisis,’ supposedly brought on by states that apparently ‘spent too much’ – is a quite fundamental misrepresentation of the facts. These problems, including the crisis in the bond markets, started with the banks and will end with the banks. The current mess is not a sovereign debt crisis generated by excessive spending for anyone except the Greeks. For everyone else, the problem is the banks that sovereigns have to take responsibility for, especially in the euro zone. That we call it a ‘sovereign debt crisis’ suggests a very interesting politics of ’bait and switch’ at play.
So why all the misunderstanding? Why has the crisis become conflated with a government debt problem in the public imagination? According to Blythe, this is a convenient way for Wall Street to again saddle the state with massive banking sector losses. | <urn:uuid:4c50a052-6179-4e22-ae0b-9ac6eb82dcb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/tag/sovereign-bonds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960473 | 451 | 1.789063 | 2 |
U.S. Government Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Getty Images
An undated handout photo of Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, earlier this month.
An undated handout photo of Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, earlier this month. U.S. Government Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/Getty Images
The FBI might have missed important and troubling clues about the behavior of Maj. Nidal Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter, due to a simple oversight: FBI agents did not ask Hasan's supervisors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the most relevant information from a filing cabinet.
Although Hasan had come to the attention of both Army and FBI officials long before he was transferred to Fort Hood this past summer, neither side connected the dots, partly because of plain old human error.
Mike German, an FBI agent for 16 years who is now at the American Civil Liberties Union, is philosophical about the missed opportunity. Hasan allegedly killed 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5. Even the best investigation, German says, might not have been able to forecast the actions Hasan is accused of taking.
"Thankfully, that's a very rare event," German says of the Fort Hood shootings. "Here's the problem: It's very hard to predict the future."
NPR has reconstructed what officials in the FBI and Army did or didn't do over the past year with regard to Hasan. FBI and Army spokesmen didn't return NPR's calls, so this report is based on interviews with former FBI officials and sources at Walter Reed, and the military's medical school. Hasan trained at both of those places before he went to Fort Hood. The evidence suggests that what follows is what likely happened.
Read a transcript of the May 2007 memo obtained by NPR in which Dr. Scott Moran, the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, outlines his concerns about Hasan:
It's December 2008. U.S. spy agencies are keeping track of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who used to preach in Virginia but is now living in Yemen. Electronic intercepts reveal that Awlaki and Hasan are trading e-mails. So they send a report about it to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the Washington, D.C., area. Most likely, a supervisor hands it to an FBI agent.
"He'd probably say, 'Check it out, see what you find.' That's probably about it," says Marion Bowman, one of the top officials at the FBI in charge of national security until a few years ago.
Bowman says that at this point, the FBI agent would have done what's called an assessment. The agent might have checked out Hasan in court records and other public government files. Hasan's driving record would have been pulled.
"Their primary reason would be to get a picture," Bowman says.
And then the FBI agent would have probably picked up the phone and called Walter Reed.
A Troubling File At Walter Reed
And at this point, let's freeze that frame for a moment: The FBI agent is reaching for the phone.
And let's go to Walter Reed. As NPR previously reported, Hasan's boss wrote a memo that harshly criticized Hasan.
Dr. Scott Moran, the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, said in that memo that Hasan had poor judgment and was unprofessional. Some colleagues had been troubled by a lecture Hasan gave about Islam. They felt that he was telling them that nonbelievers like them should go to hell on Earth. Hasan showed PowerPoint slides to back it up. Some supervisors had even wondered if Hasan might be psychotic. Much of this information, including the Islamic lecture, was in Hasan's training file. Every resident has a training file, a thick folder that's stored behind a secretary's desk at Walter Reed.
Now, let's go back to the FBI agent. He calls Walter Reed, but he doesn't get any of this information in the training file.
"I'm not surprised," Bowman says. "I'm not surprised at all."
The Wrong File
Bowman says here's what likely happened. It's routine: The agent calls Walter Reed's security office. Then a security officer calls the commander's office. And somebody pulls Hasan's personnel file, not the training file. They tell the FBI agent what's in the personnel file.
But sources at Walter Reed say personnel files in the military are pretty basic: rank, awards, military history. They say the negative details about Hasan were in his separate training file. But the FBI agent didn't meet with Hasan's supervisors or ask anybody at Walter Reed about the training file, according to sources. Bowman says if the agent had done that, things might have been different.
That agent, says Bowman, might have gone to an FBI supervisor and said, " 'You know, we may have some problems here. I don't know if it's a fundamentalist problem — meaning Muslim fundamentalist — or we might have a danger problem. I think we need to open a case.' "
Bowman says you need to put this in context: Each day, the FBI receives more than 100 potential threats to national security. They only have a few dozen agents to check them out. That means only a few hours to decide whether someone is harmless or a potential threat.
And what about the psychiatrists at Walter Reed — why didn't they call the FBI? The psychiatrists say that the Army doesn't train them to spot potential killers. It trains them to heal people. | <urn:uuid:845b1c82-e025-4182-abec-c67ae1ae27de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120765741&ft=1&f=120206378 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972429 | 1,152 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The Nov. 26 crash of the Model 182 R Cessna occurred on the northeast part of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. Greene was en route to the Ruidoso airport from Snyder when the accident occurred.
The report stated that Greene contacted the Roswell airport at 8:21 a.m. He reported he was about 20 miles east of Roswell and at 8,500 feet.
The controller in Roswell then gave Greene the altimeter setting for the Ruidoso airport and advised him at 8:34 a.m. that there was an area of light precipitation, 15 miles ahead of his position which was 10 miles in diameter and extended about 10 miles along his path.
One minute later, Greene advised the controller that he was going to descend 1,000 feet to stay out of the clouds. At 8:41 a.m., the controller asked Greene if he was familiar with the high terrain around the Ruidoso airport. According to the controller, he did not receive a response but a minute later, Greene advised the controller that he was returning to Roswell due to poor visibility.
At 8:54 a.m., Greene said he was going to attempt to go on to Ruidoso and the controller advised him to proceed at his own discretion, but to maintain VFR (visual flight rules). Those call for the pilot to fly only if he has visual reference to the ground or fly on instruments.
The NTSB report noted that Greene was not instrument rated.
Greene acknowledged the Roswell controller's message at 9:05 a.m. and his radio frequency change was approved for the Ruidoso airport. A short time later, the pilot made contact on that airport's Unicom frequency and said he was unable to continue due to poor weather. The airport manager later said he assumed Greene had flown to another airport as no other contact was made.
When the single engine plane was reported missing by Greene's father, who was waiting at the Ruidoso airport, a search ensued and the wreckage was located on Nov. 30.
At the crash location, it was noted that the airplane had a 1,650-foot debris path on the downward slope of a hill and the airspeed indicator was at 150 knots.
Also found at the site was a hand-held GPS system. NTSB officials noted the aircraft had been in a right spiral after reviewing the system.
The report indicated it was consistent with radar data that showed the plane had made a left turn, then a right, and then a series of 360-degree turns just before radar contact was lost.
An autopsy of Green indicated no trace of alcohol or drugs.
Also killed in the crash was Tracy Martinez of San Angelo.
A final description of the accident and probable cause will be released at a later date by the NTSB.
The report did include information on pilot spatial disorientation that causes a pilot to become disoriented due to a lack of visual reference to the natural horizon.
Spatial disorientation can be brought about by low visibility, night conditions and reflected light from the anti-collision rotating beacon. | <urn:uuid:cb9332ed-a877-46a1-a7e7-ac0555fe1a3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=498182&nxd_237113_start=4825 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982031 | 642 | 1.539063 | 2 |
(CNN) -- There is hardly anything in U.S.-Arab relations that screams scandal louder than the torture pictures of Abu Ghraib:
The abuse that went on behind these gates hardened Arab opinion against the United States.
Naked hooded male bodies in the fetal position, piled up on top of each other in a pyramid shape, next to them U.S. soldiers in uniform smiling and giving two thumbs up. Naked males made to touch their genitals on camera, others beaten so hard that paramedics are at hand to treat their wounds in preparation for the next round of torture.
For the Arab world, the human body is a taboo, a sacred temple that should be covered and respected. For many, exposing the naked body is a sin. So it is no surprise that taking pictures of the naked, hooded men was seen as a sick inexcusable act. The United States was already unpopular in the Arab world, mainly because of its war in Iraq. After Abu Ghraib in most quarters, it became despised with a vengeance.
Before the pictures and videos became public in 2004, horror stories of what was going on inside the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were reported on Arab media in bits and pieces. We'd heard from people whose identity was hidden for their own protection.
They described despicable acts of sexual abuse and torture that sounded more from a made-up horror tale than from real-life experience. For many Arab media observers, those claims were simply hard to believe. That is, until hundreds of photos and some videos were made available to the public that showed exactly what former Abu Ghraib prisoners had described on Arab media, and even worse. See the abuse photos »
Arab newspapers and TV networks seemed to run out of words in describing the shock at the images they were printing on their front pages and showing in their newscasts.
Anchors, reporters and guests felt uneasy about this bizarre story and all the twists and turns that followed. Those included a guided media tour of Abu Ghraib, showing that the situation was under control and inmates were being treated with dignity and respect. The shock quickly turned to anger against the United States and pity toward the victims. Arab commentators described the photos as "shameful," the act of U.S. soldiers "barbaric."
The outrage at the acts carried out by U.S. soldiers was a common reaction in the West and among Muslims and Arabs around the world. However, the way the reaction was translated on the ground was different.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt first made his rounds on Arab networks arguing that these were isolated acts, made by a few low-ranking soldiers. He said on the most-watched Arab network, Al-Jazeera, that he was "appalled" at the photos, but he stressed that the images were being "used as a tool" to impact the U.S. military negatively. His boss, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, broke his silence a few weeks later and reiterated that only a handful of low-level Army troops were involved in the abuse. He also offered to resign twice but his resignation was never accepted.
Three months after the photo scandal, amid growing Arab and world outrage that showed no signs of calming, President Bush appeared on the U.S. government-run Arabic-language Al-Hurra TV. Many Arab commentators and columnists were expecting an apology and some high level officials to be held accountable. Neither happened. Bush said, "I view those practices as abhorrent." But he added that Iraqis "must understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know." The president's interview with his own station was seen in the Arab world as an attempt to pacify the situation instead of dealing appropriately with the problem.
When another wave of Abu Ghraib torture photos became public in 2006, the reaction wasn't as strong because it seemed by then that the Arab world had given up on America. Sateh Noureddine of Lebanon's independent newspaper Assafir wrote that the scandal confirms an image of America "already engraved in people's minds in the Middle East." The image is that America isn't genuine about conducting "an experiment of democracy" in the region.
Newspaper headlines from that time captured the mood. The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said, "New Pictures of the Abu Ghraib Scandal: Torture, Killing and Body Mutilation." The Palestinian-owned Al-Quds Al-Arabi wrote "Despicable pictures of at Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, suppressing prisoners by using live ammunition. Sexual abuse, barbaric beating and fallen bodies." The Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Aswat's headline was critical of the U.S. administration's position: "Washington: The new pictures won't add anything other than stir up anger. Those responsible were punished."
As soon as the news broke that more torture pictures could be released this year, Arab media rolled the old photos of humiliated Iraqi prisoners. The same pyramid of naked bodies showed up and that of a female soldier pulling a prisoner on a leash around his neck.
Anchors asked questions about what news the new pictures could bring. Will they show that the Bush administration approved of those torture tactics and applied them in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and perhaps elsewhere? Was the torture a directive given to soldiers rather than low-level military personnel engaging in "abhorrent" practices as the president called them? There is nothing any new photos can prove that wasn't already discussed and oftentimes believed on the Arab street already.
One political cartoon by Lebanese journalist Stavro Jabra from May 2004 describes the mood in the Arab region and its experience of the scandal. It was inspired by one infamous Abu Ghraib photo, but, in the cartoon, the U.S. female soldier is replaced by Lady Liberty. At the end of her leash, instead of the Iraqi prisoner, lies President Bush.
It was a clear reflection of an Arab view that the Abu Ghraib scandal will be a stamp of shame on the Bush administration. History will judge if it is an accurate prediction.
CNN's Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed| | <urn:uuid:de4541c3-d71a-4988-b5d7-301578efbade> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/21/iraq.abu.ghraib.impact/index.html?iref=nextin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979252 | 1,285 | 1.710938 | 2 |
S. Africa safari: Watch out for that elephant...
HLUHLUWE, South Africa — The whole point of spending our honeymoon in the South African bush was to get as close as possible to the animals, especially the wild and possibly dangerous ones. I imagined sneaking through the tall grass to spy on hippos splashing in the water, lions tracking their prey and chummy elephants bathing each other with sand.
Within minutes of entering the Phinda Private Game Reserve for our first safari, I learned an important lesson: Elephants need plenty of personal space.
Somehow, my wife Joyce had agreed to make a four-day safari part of our honeymoon trip in South Africa. We picked Phinda because of its widely-praised conservation efforts and work with the local Zulu community, but mainly because the reserve's animals can go pretty much anywhere. Phinda has leopard, lion, elephant, rhinoceros and Cape buffalo — the Big Five so important to the tourist-trade — and they're all perfectly free to wander right up to your front door and watch you unpack.
The drive from the Durban airport to Phinda began uneventfully but turned out to be a memorable part of the trip. We passed long stretches of pineapple and sugar cane fields, thatched huts scattered in dusty clearings and locals selling bananas. Between the rolling green hills, I caught glimpses of the Indian Ocean.
Then our driver turned onto a dirt road, honked and hollered at cows clogging the way, and stopped to ask for directions. His "shortcut" put us through a back entrance to Phinda, one guarded by the region's anti-poaching unit. The guard told us to wait for an armed escort, but our driver went ahead on his own, picking up speed until we saw two elephants, the little one the size of a small school bus, the larger bull a good match for a two-story building.
Our driver paused, then laid on the gas and horn, aiming to pass behind the larger elephant. That seemed like the wrong move, I thought, but what do I know? Maybe maneuvering a van through elephants is an everyday thing here.
The bull saw the oncoming minivan as a challenger and spun to face us. The younger elephant sprinted to our right. Our driver finally hit the brakes, and the bull rocked back, then began its charge. "What do I do?" our driver yelled.
The elephant flared its ears and rumbled closer, on course for a head-on collision. Our driver tried to slam the clutch into reverse and the engine quit. During a long minute, the notion of once-in-a-lifetime trip had an entirely different meaning.
For whatever reason, the bull stopped short of the minivan's hood and shook his head, giving our driver time to reverse and speed backward.
A few wrong turns later, we encountered a ranger, Sam Mdluli, taking guests out for the afternoon game drive. Our driver, still trembling, handed us over.
We were assigned to Mdluli for the rest of the trip, and quickly grew fond of him. Game rangers are a combination of tour guide, older brother and real-life action hero. They wake you up in the morning, answer all your ridiculous questions and steer their Toyota Land Cruisers off-road through bushes and branches with a loaded rifle just above the wheel.
Flying down the road one morning, the vehicle skidded to a stop and Mdluli bounded from his seat and into the tall grass. He walked a few steps, took a deep dramatic breath, and turned to us with a big smile. "Dung!" he said, holding his palms over what turned out to be black rhino dung. "Ah, it's very fresh. We're in luck. You're going to see some black rhino today."
With Mdluli at the wheel and a tracker perched on the hood, we saw the park's animals, from the endangered black rhinos to dung beetles, usually at a safe distance. The highlight was watching the big cats. We'd pull up near cheetahs or a lion pride and shut off the engine; then our group would sit in silence, staring and snapping pictures for hours. One afternoon, two cheetah brothers struggled to wake up, passing a good 30 minutes yawning, stretching and wiggling on their backs before finally getting up for a hunt as the sun set.
Another morning, a pride of lions sat in the forest pulling apart a wildebeest. Each one found something to gnaw on — half a ribcage, hind legs — and the sharp cracking of bones filled our ears. The gory scene eventually appeared cute, the picture of domestic bliss. A towering lion played with his small female cub, prancing from side to side and sprinting in mock fright when she gave chase. Cubs tumbled over each other, while a lioness finished eating and settled down for a nap.
The animals just went about their business, oblivious to the people piled into the vehicles surrounding them. As long as you kept quiet and seated, you were supposedly safe. The explanation went like this: The Land Cruiser is neither prey nor predator, and the animals see the vehicles often enough that they're not alarmed when one pulls up close. (Of course, that doesn't apply to the brainy elephants.)
Phinda's no-fence policy means it's possible to stumble into a peaceful nyala antelope chewing on leaves in the daytime or hyenas out looking for food at night. So starting the day means a guy with a pistol walks you to the main lodge for a quick snack before the four-hour morning game drive.
You return to a full breakfast, starting with a dollop of local yogurt and perfectly ripe mango, pineapple and papaya slices, none of which tasted like anything we've eaten in the U.S., followed by pancakes or omelets. Lunch was an hour or so later. High tea came next, with just-baked cakes and tarts plus the usual clotted cream and scones. A four-course dinner followed the afternoon game drive.
It was too much but also too good to turn down. We staggered from meal to meal, jet-lagged and overfed, and ran out of Rolaids fast.
The trouble with living like this is that you get used to it. Our stomachs expanded to meet the food supply, and the novelty started to wear off. After the first night, it wasn't a surprise to enter our cabin, with its swimming pool carved into a cliff, and find the floor covered in lit candles, a steamy bubble bath and a chilled bottle of champagne. This was in contrast to our usual vacations spent in rental cabins with nightly rates in the high two-figures.
So how did we afford the luxury trip? First, we trimmed at least $140 off our nightly bill by avoiding high season, December-March, during the Southern hemisphere summer. Prices drop in April. Locals kept asking why we'd picked that time of year, but the weather — that region's fall — seemed perfect to us.
Still, the trip wouldn't have been possible without help from family and friends. My wife used an online registry called Traveler's Joy to describe our honeymoon plans, and the website offered our guests the ability to pick, say, a game drive or a night at the lodge as a wedding gift. Those gifts paid for more than half the trip and made writing thank-you notes a breeze.
They all followed a similar theme: "We hung out with a lion pride, got pretty close to a black rhino (they look prehistoric) and got charged by an elephant the size of a house. We're already planning our next trip back."
If You Go...
PHINDA PRIVATE GAME RESERVE: http://www.phinda.com . Located in northeast South Africa, near the Indian Ocean in the Kwazulu-Natal province.
GETTING THERE: Nearest major airport, King Shaka International in Durban, is a two-hour drive; pickup and return by car is arranged as part of the safari.
PRICES: Phinda has six lodges scattered across 56,000 acres (about 22,600 hectares). Rates vary by type of accommodation and season. The Forest Lodge runs from 4,000 rand nightly (about $476) in early December to a high of 6,600 rand ($786) in February. The Rock Lodge runs as high as 7,255 rand ($864).
HONEYMOON HELP: We registered at http://www.travelersjoy.com , posting photos and notes about our plans. Friends and family paid for parts of the trip as a wedding gift. | <urn:uuid:a164e553-a585-4fc1-8c50-74b61e61ef0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120920/GJLIFESTYLES/120919903/-1/fosnews1418&CSProduct=fosters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961424 | 1,829 | 1.617188 | 2 |
We are looking for subjects for an experiment that will involve trying out different augmented reality user interfaces outdoors on a mobile phone. The experiment will take about an hour to complete and you will receive $15 for your participation.
If you are interested, please contact Nicolas Dedual to make an appointment. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.org.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Award includes funding to support her dissertation on “User Interfaces for Communicating Patient Status and Progress.”
Lauren’s work addresses an important gap in health information technology: there has been limited research to date that explores the impact of providing hospitalized patients with direct access to health information throughout their care. Her research will yield new insights into how such technology can be used to educate and engage hospitalized patients and their families, by developing tablet-computer-based user interfaces with which hospitalized patients and their families can review clinical and health-related information. It will advance scientific knowledge in the field of patient-clinician communication, demonstrate new technical capabilities for sharing information among patients and their care team, and explore potential improvements to patient engagement, knowledge, and satisfaction.
IEEE 3DUI (7th Symposium on 3D User Interfaces), which took place March 4-5 2012 in Costa Mesa, California is focused on the design and development of 3D user interfaces. The poster, “Manipulating Virtual Objects in Hand-Held Augmented Reality using Stored Snapshots” was the work of Ph.D. student Mengu Sukan, with M.S. student Semih Energin and Prof. Steve Feiner. Their work is an example of augmented reality, in which camera imagery is overlaid with live 3D graphics. The poster presents a set of interaction techniques that allow a user to first take snapshots of a scene using a tablet computer, and then jump back and forth between the snapshots, to revisit them virtually for interaction. By storing for each snapshot a still image of the scene, along with the camera position and orientation determined by computer vision software, this approach allows the overlaid 3D graphics to be dynamic and interactive. This makes it possible for the user to move and rotate virtual 3D objects from the vantage points of different locations, without the overhead of physically traveling between those locations. 3DUI attendees tried a real-time demo in which they laid out virtual furniture. They could rapidly transition between the live view and the viewpoints of multiple snapshots, as they moved and rotated items of virtual furniture, iteratively designing a desired layout.
The paper, “Augmented Reality in the Psychomotor Phase of a Procedural Task”, reports on a key part of Steve Henderson’s spring 2011 dissertation. It presents the design and evaluation of a prototype augmented reality user interface designed to assist users in performing an aircraft maintenance assembly task. The prototype tracks the user and multiple physical task objects, and provides dynamic, prescriptive, overlaid instructions on a tracked, see-through, head-worn display in response to the user’s ongoing activity. A user study shows participants were able to complete aspects of the assembly task in which they physically manipulated task objects significantly faster and with significantly greater accuracy when using augmented reality than when using 3D-graphics-based assistance presented on a stationary LCD panel.
This year, Prof. Steven Feiner was honored at CHI 2011 by being elected to the CHI academy. The CHI Academy is an honorary group of individuals who have made extensive contributions to the study of HCI and who have led the shaping of the field.
The official press release can be found here. | <urn:uuid:74d2830d-f169-4043-a4b8-e2d5dc737850> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://graphics.cs.columbia.edu/announcements/ | 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 | 0.938203 | 750 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Can mobile devices work as ID cards, thin clients on a secure net?
The Defense Information Systems Agency is looking for software that will let personnel use their mobile devices as thin clients to access Defense Department networks.
DISA has issued a Broad Agency Announcement requesting proposals for “Common Access Card (CAC)-enabled virtual thin client solutions for managed and unmanaged mobile devices.” The agency is looking for innovative approaches that authenticate via Defense Department Class-III certificates on a CAC for access to DOD networks.
That’s quite a lot to take in, so let’s break it down to find out what DISA is asking for:
Managed and unmanaged mobile devices. To be able to authenticate a device whether or not it is already managed by a network server will be more difficult, but not insurmountable. The recent “bring you own device” (BYOD) craze and cloud-based network management has made this easier than it would have been in the past.
Virtual thin client solutions. Of course, a physical thin client is essentially a box that allows a user to connect to the network and use enterprise versions of applications that use data that sits on a server. The box itself is usually nothing more than some ports for network, monitor, and input devices. A virtual thin client is a piece of software that allows a regular computer to function as a thin client for a certain network. So, in effect, your mobile device would have access to network services as if it were a client connected through a LAN port. As you can imagine, this opens up the network considerably, so strict authentication is paramount.
Common Access Card. For those not in DOD, this is the identification card that is issued to all DOD employees, military personnel and some contractors. It has a photo of the employee, some printed information, a strip of scanner code and an integrated circuit. This card is used in conjunction with a PIN to provide two-factor authentication. Currently, DOD uses it for physical access and authentication on some networked computers. So what DISA is asking for is software that will let a DOD user’s mobile device scan their CAC and have them enter the PIN in order to allow that device access to DOD networks.
Of course, that isn’t all. DISA also requires that no data transferred from the network will stay on the mobile device once the connection is terminated (that’s the thin-client aspect). In addition, it wants the capability to digitally sign and encrypt e-mails just as users can when at a DOD workstation. And data needs to be encrypted as it goes back and forth between the mobile device and server.
Providing secure access to DOD networks from mobile devices would help the department’s push toward mobile computing. And such software could prove useful to other agencies as well.
Companies interested in coming up with this software can peruse the BAA notice here. There are still a couple weeks to get a proposal abstract in. | <urn:uuid:cdf8e0b3-a3e2-48ae-b0da-ba44fa98e2da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/articles/2012/09/26/disa-mobile-device-cac-thin-client.aspx | 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 | 0.951907 | 619 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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STOP! The Puyallup School District Grade Reconfiguration.
Petition Background (Preamble):
What is Grade Reconfiguration?
Currently the Puyallup School District follows a Jr. High School model which includes K-6 at elementary, 7-9 at Jr. High and 10-12 at the high school level. Under the proposed reconfiguration, our district would move to a middle school model and have K-5 at the elementary, 6-8 at the middle school and 9-12 at the high school in the Fall of 2012.
Switching to a middle school model is not the problem. The problem is at the high schools. Currently there is not enough room to house the ninth graders in the existing high school buildings during the traditional school day. Enrollment in grades 10-12 currently exceeds our high schools’ plant capacities, with many students attending classes in portables. Based on this, how can we possibly consider adding 600 more students to each high school? Below are the current number of students and the projected population explosion:
Puyallup High School
Building capacity: 1,600
Emerald Ridge High School
Building capacity: 1,400
Rogers High School
Building capacity: 1,400
*Making this the largest high school in the State of Washington
How does the School Board propose to implement this plan?
The School Board proposes to address the overcrowding issue by encouraging students to seek non-traditional school day options. These options are:
Model 1 – Extended Day
Model 2 – Twilight Academy
Model 3 – Rolling School Year and Day
•Segregation of students. The students who participate in sports, clubs, organizations or part-time jobs would all require first shift and those who do not participate in extracurricular activities would be given second shift thus segregating the student population.
•Fewer athletic opportunities! Two and three ninth grade junior high teams, down to one team.
•Reduced access to teachers, counselors, support staff, library and technology!
•Reduced access to clubs & organizations!
•Disruption in family life.
No school district in the state of Washington has voluntarily chosen to overcrowd their high schools without an emergency dictating it. Which begs the question; do the benefits outweigh the consequences? No!
The Board of Directors needs to listen to the parents and voters of the school district. We DO NOT SUPPORT GRADE RECONFIGURATION! The current grade reconfiguration model is not in the best interest of the students and does not allow equal access to education for all students. Please make your voice heard by signing this petition.
The Puyallup School Board consists of five members who serve alternating four-year terms. Board members are elected by the citizens of the district and are suppose to serve the district at large. The School Board and Superintendent Tony Apostle need to hear from all concerned parents about this proposal.
Cindy Poysnick firstname.lastname@example.org
Pat Donovan email@example.com
Chris Ihrig firstname.lastname@example.org
Greg Heath email@example.com
Diana Seeley firstname.lastname@example.org
Superintendent, Dr. Tony Apostle
The STOP! The Puyallup School District Grade Reconfiguration. petition to The Puyallup School District Board of Directors was written by Cindy Bradeen and is in the category Education at GoPetition. Contact author here. Petition tags: puyallup school district, reconfiguration | <urn:uuid:4f8d11fc-7398-4df4-9247-6806d682bbc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gopetition.com.au/petition/42277.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93025 | 800 | 1.820313 | 2 |
High: 72° F
Low: 54° F
I'm not going to lie: it's been a hard-fought summer here in Maine. So hard fought, in fact, that it hasn't seemed much like summer at all. At least, not until late this week. On Thursday, the clouds broke--as if by magic--and the rain abated. Mainers--including those who pride themselves on their staid Yankee reserve--were positively ebullient. Total strangers stopped one another in parking lots and famers markets, just for the sake of celebrating the return of the sun and all those things normally associated with a New England July.
Here at caninaturalist central, those things included a return to our annual agricultural inquiry as well. The subject of our study this week? Fragaria ananassa, or the domestic strawberry. Picking them is big business in our house, where we freeze enough to serve as our main fruit source for the year. We were frankly worried about the effects of the omnipresent rain and cold over the last six weeks. And, in truth, it did delay the season and limit overall yields. Nevertheless, this morning we returned with two full flats of our favorite variety, known in the strawberry world as "sparkle."
Something as simple as a smallish berry is enough to make us giddy this year. So much so that our resident pest, Mouse, couldn't even wait for the berries to be hulled before diving in. Taking the idea of "pick your own" a little too literally, she tried to eat the entire box of berries as soon as they arrived (and by "box" we really do mean BOX):
At the ripe age of three, Ari has learned a certain restraint where culinary matters are concerned. And she's developed a seriously discerning palate at that. As we cleaned and bagged and froze and jammed and canned, she remained aloof, watching the process with the removed interest of a well-worn foodie. It wasn't, in fact, until our last batch of jam was complete and fully set that she was willing to imbibe. | <urn:uuid:1cb91881-746f-4224-a560-d815517858c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outwithari.blogspot.com/2009/07/fragaria-ananassa.html?showComment=1255143424599 | 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 | 0.976313 | 438 | 1.5 | 2 |
Amazing article! Today hacker Robert Moore spoke up about how he pulled off his crimes (hacking into tons of VOIP serves and reselling communications services). His way in? So simple - he just used the default password for common communications devices (Cisco routers, etc.). Once in, he took control and routed traffic as he desired. URL: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WIARC3KZRXVXQQSNDLRCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=202101781&pgno=2&queryText
This blog isn't about the hack. It's elegant, but in the end common petty thievery and nothing worth a bit of praise. This blog is about the quote from page two:
"Kenneth van Wyk, principal consultant with KRvW Associates, said leaving default passwords up is a widespread and dangerous problem. "It's a huge problem, but it's a problem
the IT industry has known about for at least two decades and we haven't made
much progress in fixing it," said van Wyk. "People focus on functionality when they're setting up a system. Does the thing work? Yes. Fine, move on. They don't spend the time doing the housework and cleaning things up." "
How many times have I been told in the past year "Just run through the test cases" and "just test the positive cases"? I was literally told by one employer (not my current) that SQL injection and other user-security cases were unimportant. This was from an employer going through multiple rounds of lay-offs and terrible morale.
Testing is about proving things work but it is about so much more. If a web page is served up, does it mean it 'works'? What if it takes 3 minutes to serve up the page? Is it OK then? If I can update information about an entry in my database, but I'm not monitoring for errors, can I say it works? What if, each time an update is sent, the update is 'written' but an error is thrown? If all I'm looking for is a row with the updated information, and I'm not running a negative test case to ensure the old information is gone, can I say it worked?
Now that the recruiting series is behind me, I'm going to spend some time investigating this concept. When is testing REALLY finished? (And I mean that as the verb 'testing', not the noun "Testing".)
Are testers “going away”?
2 years ago | <urn:uuid:fd2cc192-6605-40c1-8aa6-586a90365cfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thoughtsonqa.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-much-is-enough-testing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954615 | 542 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Airborne and `Alp'ping it up
HUGH AND COLLEEN GANTZER
The Swiss love their mountains ... flying over them gives you a whole new perspective.
Layer after Layer...a world of white glaciers and blue ranges.
PERSPECTIVES matter. Through the wide windows of our train, hamlets flicker past: wooden chalets sitting on fat, green fields, cows with bells on their collars cropping grass contentedly, ice-melt streams gushing between hamlets; and everywhere, everywhere, the snow-topped mountains rising into the clear blue sky. There seems to be a permanent serenity about Switzerland as if the Gods of the High Alps had banished disharmony from this land.
It's a comforting, Walt Disney-ish, flight of fancy. Or is it? After this morning's experience, it doesn't seem so unreal after all.
This morning, Eddy Peter, our friend in Sion drove us out of his exquisite little village, to the Flying Club. There, 28-year-old Didier Grieb towed a four-seater Robin out of a hanger, wiped down its windows, helped us in ("Step only on the black strip on the wing") and asked us if we had any breathing problems.
"We'll be flying up to 13,000 feet," he said. Our little single prop plane was not pressurised.
We replied that we live at 6,500 feet in the Himalayas and, last month, we'd walked at 13,700 feet in our State of Arunachal. He was reassured. We snapped on our seat belts, he closed the canopy, and the propeller began to turn, faster and faster, till it became a blur. We taxied down the runway, felt a slight lift as if we were in an elevator, and started our one-hour flight over the Alps.
Down below...Human settlements clinging to the valleys
The valley of the Rhone fell away, mountains hunched, hemming it in and extending their fat, knobbly, fingers as if they were holding down the green cushions of the valleys. The gnarled knuckles of these fingers were the high peaks, covered in snow, and the "flesh" between these knuckles were the snowfields and glaciers.
We were high enough now to see how the human settlements clung to the valleys, separated from each other by the intruding fingers of the mountains. A rugged independence was built into the geography of the land. Villagers, forced to be self-reliant with their fields in the valleys, their meadows and farms rising up the slopes, became the Communes of today, levying their own taxes, merging into Cantons that were still independent states with their own flags and laws and language, surrendering only part of their rights to the Confederation.
Didier pointed down. There, far below was the ancient town of Martigny in the bend of the Rhone. Then the nose of the little plane rose, we left the valley behind and began to swing over the mountains. The grey, flinty slopes covered in the serried ranks of vineyards, gave way to the high pastures, the Alpine meadows, which nourished the famed milch cattle of Switzerland. Now, below us was a world of white glaciers and blue ranges rising layer after layer. And there, at the far end, grew the great, squat, snow-covered peak of Mont Blanc, 4,807 metres high: the highest mountain in Western Europe.
We were now soaring on the borders of Italy and France. Wars and unrest had harried those nations repeatedly. But all these troubles had crashed like surf against the foot of the Alps, and mountain-girt Switzerland had lived in peace for 200 years.
In the cockpit a little red light blinked persistently. "That's the radar keeping track of us," Didier said. The tri-junction of three nations was as peaceful and white as the snowfields below. We thought of our Abodes of Snow, our Himalayas, and felt a little anguished. Then we spotted the Great St. Bernard Pass at 2469 m linking Switzerland and Italy and wondered if the Augustinian monks of the monastery still have their burly St. Bernard dogs. These mastiff-like gentle animals saved the lives of over 2,500 people lost in the snow before airborne rescue teams reduced their responsibilities.
All this while, Didier had been pointing out other fascinating things below: skiers and trekkers' huts with the snail-tracks of skis leading away from them; a lonely farm-house sitting atop a quilt of snow; azure lakes scooped out by glaciers; a restaurant and observatory linked by the gossamer strands of a cable car and filled with the colourful dots of waving people; a helicopter like a dragonfly, carrying a sling of supplies for a remote winter-sports facility; the foaming might of hydro-electric stations.
Pilot Didler Grieb and his four-seater Robin aircraft
"Others don't attack us," Eddy Peter had explained, "because we have no base minerals. All we have is the white ore of our glaciers and nice people." But from here, flying high up above them, we saw what they had done. They had tapped their "white ore" to give them unlimited power and irrigation for their smokeless industries, farms and dairies. They had used their harsh flint slopes to grow vines, which liked the drainage and the reflected heat and light of these stony slopes. They had, quite literally, created winter tourism and made their little land into the picture-postcard holiday destination of the world.
We were lost in our thoughts, relaxed on our little flying carpet, when Didier pointed ahead. There, rising like a triumphant finger into the cobalt-blue sky, was the 4,478 m high peak of the Mattterhorn. This was its dramatic southwest face; its other side lay in Italy. We did a sharp left turn here and began to head back to Sion.
We were very pensive as we began to descend into the valley. We too, have mountains at home: higher mountains with more ice-melt streams and rivers than anywhere else in the world; and more "white ore" than any other place excluding the Polar regions. We revere our mountains and rivers deeply, we worship them. The Swiss love their mountains and work with them, reaching out to the world to make their mountains and rivers and lakes better known and better loved by everyone.
We landed, stepped out of our flying carpet and looked up at the high, benign, Alps. Everyone should wing over the Alps. It gives one a new perspective on things. And perspectives do matter.
Our flight was arranged by Alpine Tours, Aeroport de Sion, Sion Tel: 0273235707 Fax: 027335707. Cost: S.Fr.290 for two passengers for 60 minutes.
Send this article to Friends by | <urn:uuid:0114bed8-ea53-4557-93e5-64b853f51a1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2002/08/04/stories/2002080400520800.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970926 | 1,461 | 1.601563 | 2 |
WVU mascot who shot bear cited
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)
A West Virginia University mascot who got in trouble for using his uniform musket to kill a bear has been cited for another problem - not wearing blaze orange during the bear hunt.
Mountaineers mascot Jonathan Kimble wears buckskin and a coonskin cap and fires the musket - loaded with black powder but minus ammunition - at home athletic events.
Kimble wasn't wearing the required hunter orange when he shot a black bear Dec. 3. The kill was legal but triggered a public outcry after Kimble posted a video online.
State Division of Natural Resources spokesman Hoy Murphy says hunters are required to wear 400 square inches of the high-visibility color for safety reasons.
Kimble has agreed to stop hunting with the musket. He didn't immediately comment Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:fe89c632-545c-4e2d-8c26-9f1ca84811f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/west-virginia-mascot-jonathan-kimble-who-hunted-black-bear-cited-for-not-wearing-blaze-orange-121212 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951073 | 180 | 1.523438 | 2 |
You know there is something too complex about campaign finance regulations when someone as smart as political entrepreneur Diana Hsieh runs into trouble in her dealings with the law.
Hsieh details some of the difficulties of complying with Colorado’s campaign finance laws for ballot issue committees on her blog. Hsieh, who is featured in our most recent study of campaign finance laws, is a Colorado activist and blogger who got wrapped up in campaign finance red tape when she decided to speak out against Colorado’s Amendment 62. Hsieh co-wrote a policy paper arguing against passage of the Amendment, which she and her co-author Ari Armstrong funded with a pledge drive on Hsieh’s blog. But because they intended to raise over $200 to fund their effort, they were defined as an “issue committee” under Colorado’s campaign finance laws and had to register with the state and comply with complex and onerous administrative and reporting regulations. As Diana points out on her blog, while the regulations can often look straightforward, the devil is often in the details: “[T]he laws are just not clear. As a result, I’ve tried to do whatever seemed like the safest option open to me. I don’t have an army of lawyers to guide me... and even if I did, that might not be enough! With every wrong move, I risk $50 per day in fines.”
Diana Hsieh is not the only one who’s had problems with the laws. In 2006, a group of neighbors outside of Denver spoke out against the annexation of their neighborhood into a nearby town. They put up No Annexation lawn signs, sent around post cards, and spoke to neighbors and were promptly sued by the proponents of annexation for failing to register and comply with the issue committee regulations. IJ now represents them in a First Amendment challenge to the laws. The case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
IJ commissioned an economist from the University of Missouri to study the burden of these regulations on free speech a few years ago. He created an experiment in which groups of people were given a simple fact pattern and asked to fill out the forms for issue committees. Out of 255 participants, not a single participant filled out the forms correctly and the average score was about 40 percent correct. In the real world, each of these individuals would have faced fines and harassment from their political opponents. The study is available here.
But, as Diana points out, even if the regulations were not burdensome they would still “be a blatant violation of every person’s free speech rights. People should not have to register with the government to speak their minds. They should not have to register with the government to donate money so that others can speak for them.”
With all of the complaining about “undisclosed” money being spent on campaign ads, it’s worth remembering that freedom of speech is a right, not a privilege that must be justified to everyone who does not like what we say. | <urn:uuid:72a63e67-9fe5-4377-8cde-15009d4f3710> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.makenolaw.org/ssimpson/120-campaign-finance-red-tape-in-colorado | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980135 | 634 | 1.695313 | 2 |
You reach a short par 5, you’re playing well but could really use another birdie. You address the ball and swing a little harder than normal, thinking about reaching the green in two. You make your swing, you finish, and watch your tee-shot sail way into the trees on the right. Sound familiar? It does for me, especially when I was a junior golfer. I had the tendency to slide my hips into impact in attempts to get more distance. This fault lead to an in to out swing path, resulting in my blocked shot.
This was one of the drills I have used to help force my hips to stay stationary and turn instead of sliding to get those extra yards. You can clearly see in these two pictures that this student’s hips are moving horizontally. Timing the motions of the hands and sliding hips to create solid contact is nearly impossible with this swing problem. To help maximize consistency a player would ideally, want his hips to turn rather than slide. This drill will help you reduce your hips from sliding.
Place a shaft or stick into the ground just off your lead heel, much like the image shown here (it should be about 3-4 inches from your lead hip). Focus on turning your hips while swinging. If you slide your hips during your swing, you will hit the shaft. Remember that there is some horizontal movement in the golf swing (comes from the weight-shift), but the 3-4 inches leeway should be plenty for you to perform a solid swing without making contact with the shaft.
Think, Turn! ~ This is very important in creating power, and sequencing your swing properly.
Just another note, many players have difficulty “feeling” that they are sliding into impact. If you often hit wild blocks, it’s a good bet that you are occasionally - work on this drill to fix it. | <urn:uuid:c1b82c0e-98fa-4374-91cc-ce9635b2e8eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sirshanksalot.com/golf-drills/swing-path-drills/how-to-stop-pushing/1530-stop-sliding-drill-cure-your-push/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960295 | 385 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Customers planning to opt for gold loans of more than R5 lakh will soon have to furnish their PAN numbers, the working group of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday recommended to the gold loan companies.
“The working group recommends that gold loans NBFCs may obtain a copy of PAN card in all the loan proposals exceeding R5 lakh to strengthen the mechanism of KYC (Know Your Customer),” said the RBI report.
Currently, a PAN card is mandatory for jewellery purchases beyond R5 lakh. The banking regulator also suggested disbursing the gold loan amount via cheque in order to reduce risks associated with handling of high volume of cash transactions at branches of gold loan companies and KYC compliance.
“All loans exceeding a reasonable limit, say, R5 lakh may be disbursed by way of cheque in name of borrowers and not in cash,” said the report.
The RBI committee also suggested introduction of other savings products to discourage investment in physical gold, prohibition of bank finance for buying gold and revival of the two-decade old proposal to set up a Bullion Corporation.
Headed by RBI official KUB Rao, the working group suggested a three-pronged strategy — demand reduction, supply management and monetisation of gold stocks — to deal with the rising gold import which has widened the Current Account Deficit (CAD). The committee suggested the introduction of gold-linked financial instruments, gold bonds and tax incentives on instruments that can impound idle gold.
“Creation of an alternative asset class that may provide returns comparable to return on investment in physical gold with similar flexibility is important,” it said.
Gold import is the second major contributor to the CAD after oil. Gold import in April-December stood at $38 billion. In 2011-12 fiscal it was $56 billion.
The CAD, gap between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, widened to a record high of 5.4% of GDP in July-September quarter.
“Large gold imports, if unche-cked, can potentially threaten the external stability and, therefore, there is an unambiguous need to moderate them,” the report said. | <urn:uuid:ff776c85-3361-42bb-9a0d-f31652e59732> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/mumbai/PAN-card-must-for-high-value-gold-loan/Article1-1007798.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940583 | 456 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Description: Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn't know the meaning of "alternative," but her instincts tell her this is the chance she has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the patient yet firm Ms. Rain, Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.
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USA PATRIOT riding into the sunset
By Paul M. Weyrich
My assistant Annaghia Oliver, who schedules my appointments, told me that the Deputy Attorney General as well as a Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security wanted to see me. What about? I asked. They wouldn't say, I was told. So I agreed to the meeting only to have it cancelled. It seems that the Deputy AG resigned. So the meeting was set again, only this time with an Assistant Attorney General and The Deputy at Homeland Security.
What did they want to discuss? The USA PATRIOT Act. This meeting occurred just as Attorney General Ashcroft was leaving on his 16-state, 18-city tour to push the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001"; parts of which will sunset if not explicitly revived by the Congress.
My colleague Steve Lilienthal and I met with this nice young lady from Justice and the polite young man from Homeland Security for a good hour.
Their argument boiled down to this: "Trust us. The act is working." Now with all due respect -- and these two clearly were sincere and meant well -- I've been around this town too long (36 years) to trust that the government will use greater powers only for the common good.
Remember how, beginning with the sixth grade, we were taught about our unique form of government? One of the things stressed over and over again was the concept of checks and balances.
Steve and I argued that the concept of checks and balances seemed to be rather lacking in the USA PATRIOT Act. Hence the three-to-one margin on the Otter Amendment, which cut off funds for use of the so-called "sneak and peak" provision of the Act. That provision allows the government to go into an office, inspect all the records, copy computer files, make note of even reading material, in short get anything it wants, without notifying the targeted party until way afterwards...perhaps months later.
Rep. Butch Otter of Idaho sponsored the amendment and 112 of his Republican colleagues, about half of the majority party, voted in favor of it, along with most Democrats.
I asked my pair of visitors "putting aside that most Democrats may have been voting for the Otter Amendment for partisan purposes, doesn't it tell you something when almost half of the House Republicans also supported the Otter Amendment?"
The reply I got, one Ashcroft repeated during a visit to Idaho last week, startled me. It was sweeping in its arrogance. I was told that this was all a mistake. They at Justice and Homeland Security didn't have time to weigh in, and had they done so the result would have been completely different.
I said to my young friends: "That was the most arrogant statement coming from a government official that I have heard in years. What you are saying is that these Republican Congressmen are so stupid, and understand nothing about the bill, that if only YOU could have had your say, they all would have turned around their votes"
I received no reply. By the way, in this instance, I don't believe that all Democrats voted for the Otter Amendment to embarrass the Attorney General. Many have very sincere civil libertarian concerns.
Otter said -- after hearing Ashcroft suggesting that his GOP colleagues would have voted against his amendment if only they had heard the Attorney General's explanation -- that Administration officials would be a lot better off if they listened and responded to the deeply held concerns of Members who believe that the USA PATRIOT Act has gone too far.
I felt exactly the same way at the end of my session with my visitors. They were there just to tell me how right they are, not to listen to the concerns expressed by Steve and me.
We, hopefully, are reasonable people. Certainly we want to be able to catch terrorists, but we will never buy the "just trust us" argument.
Otter is right. Why won't these folks listen? One of our concerns has been that the Attorney General has all the authority to determine what a terrorist is. We are concerned not about Ashcroft -- but about a possible subsequent Attorney General named by President Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who might define as terrorists those of us who peacefully oppose government policies. We offered to work with the current Attorney General to come up with a definition of a terrorist, which could then be put into legislation, not leaving complete discretion to the AG. "No way." we were told. You see, if Ashcroft would concede that perhaps some of his critics have valid concerns, and would work with us to remedy those concerns, he would end up with a lot more support for the USA PATRIOT Act than he has right now. On the other hand if the Attorney General just wants confrontation, he can keep on his present course. If so, he shouldn't be surprised if the sunsetted provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act stay that way.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free
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My new column in Thursday's edition of The Wall Street Journal Asia is up:
So far India seems to be weathering the global economic meltdown better than almost any other country. But this blessing might turn into a curse if it makes India skittish about further opening its economy, especially to foreign investment. If the agenda and rhetoric of the main political parties this election season is any indication, that's a very real possibility.
Unlike in the past when the Indian economy contracted pneumonia every time the global economy sneezed, this time the exact opposite seems to be happening: In the final quarter of last year, the U.S. economy shrank by an annualized rate of 6.2% and the Japanese economy by 12.7%. By contrast, India says its economy grew by 5.3% in the same period. (There is a fierce debate among Indian economists about the reliability of government data, but, with some notable exceptions, there is widespread agreement that the country was among the top performers last year.) Next year, India's economy is expected to grow between 5% and 7%. By contrast, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that the combined gross domestic product of its member developed economies will contract by 4.2% in 2009.
But in the face of all this good news, the emerging wisdom among India's political parties is not that its previous round of liberalization worked and now the country needs to move post-haste toward the next round. Rather, they are suggesting that India's relatively strong economic performance shows that it has struck the optimal balance -- open enough to benefit from global upswings and closed enough to avoid global contagions. "This financial crisis might well bring out India's latent but powerful dirigiste impulses," warns Raghuram Rajan, an economic advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a professor at the University of Chicago.
India's export sector is small, thanks in part to the country's failure to liberalize its archaic, union-friendly labor laws that have diminished manufacturing productivity. But politicians are now hinting that perhaps underdeveloped exports are not such a bad thing after all, as this has made India less vulnerable than other Southeast Asian economies to plummeting global demand. India also does not rely on foreign investments as much as many Eastern European countries do, which has allowed it to avoid the capital flight those countries are now experiencing. | <urn:uuid:94fd8887-9dcc-4b56-8cb5-a17482b9aa01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.org/blog/show/is-india-really-immune-to-the | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965251 | 487 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The bridling of Russia’s regions
President Vladimir Putin is showing that he can biff Russia’s regional chieftains. But running the country is another story
STEP out of line, and we will end your political career. That, bluntly, is the message the Kremlin is sending to the 89 governors and presidents who run Russia's regions. The methods vary. This autumn 33 of them are up for re-election. President Vladimir Putin is much more popular than they are. A simple public endorsement can swing an election. Dirtier tricks to do down uppity governors include using the courts, the tax police and blackmail.
This marks a big shift in Russia's balance of power. Only six months ago, Mr Putin's intervention in the St Petersburg gubernatorial poll failed embarrassingly, when his favourite candidate was doing so poorly that she pulled out. That reflected both the entrenched local position of the incumbent, Vladimir Yakovlev, and his close ties with the tycoons within President Boris Yeltsin's family circle.
Now the master-manipulator in that group, Boris Berezovsky, is abroad; Russia's chief prosecutor says he will face criminal charges if he returns. And previously puffed-up local leaders in Russia's regions and ethnic republics are making strenuous public efforts to placate the Kremlin. Mr Yeltsin once told them to “take all the sovereignty you can swallow”. Now they are busily revising their constitutions, and bringing their local laws on privatisation, government structure, citizenship and so on, into line with federal Russian ones.
Tatarstan, for example, the richest and biggest of the ethnic republics, recently dropped long-standing plans to issue its own passports. Its neighbour, Bashkiria, now says that it is “part and parcel of Russia”, a big step down from the days when its leaders liked to see themselves on a near-equal footing with the federal authorities.
The squeeze against regional bosses is proving effective, at least in the short run. The Kremlin's men have won four of the five elections held so far; most of the remaining ones look set to go Mr Putin's way. But it is one thing to misuse a court to have a troublesome local baron removed from the ballot paper—which is what happened two weeks ago to Alexander Rutskoi, an ex-fighter pilot (and bloody-minded old foe of Mr Yeltsin) who used to govern the heavily industrialised Kursk region. It is another to find an efficient, or even democratic, way to run sprawling, chaotic Russia as a whole. Here Mr Putin's plans look fuzzier, and success farther away.
Hopes for more effective government rest mainly on the seven presidential envoys (see our table to the right) appointed in May to manage much bigger chunks of Russia that largely correspond to the country's military districts. Their main power is patronage: they control appointments in the local outposts of federal agencies such as the prosecutor's office and the tax police. These agencies used to be largely in the hands of the elected regional leaders, most of whom used them to their own political and private advantage.
In theory, the new scheme could create a powerful new layer of government. So far, however, progress has been unimpressive—except in the important business of finding grand buildings for headquarters. One envoy, in the Central region, has done practically nothing. Most of the others have made authoritarian noises, and have picked on easy targets, such as wresting the media out of the hands and pockets of local political chiefs. In the North-West region, for example, Viktor Cherkesov, a former KGB man and dissident-hunter, is creating a regional television station to get his ideas across.
The only faintly promising one of the seven is Sergei Kirienko, a business-like former prime minister who now runs the Volga district and wants to make life easier for small firms. His advisers include people like Vladimir Davidov, who put himself through a training course in Arizona with McDonalds, and owns a fast-food outfit in Saratov, on the Volga river. Opening a new restaurant there needs approval from 23 different bureaucrats. Mr Kirienko is listening, he says.
The Kremlin's plans are meeting little resistance. A move to create a new political party of independent-minded governors has flopped. Next year's budget, passed after much squawking from the losers, divides tax revenues greatly in favour of the federal authorities, depriving the rich governors of their main weapon. Regional leaders have lost their automatic right to sit in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament.
As so often in Russian history, initiatives from the centre may bring enthusiastic lip-service from the provinces, while life goes on much as before. The new layer of bureaucracy could even make things worse, creating yet another bunch of greedy officials to prey on investors and cash-rich businesses. A third possibility is that the initiative ends up weakening the centre's hold on the rest of Russia even further. One senior official in Tatarstan's capital, Kazan, hopes that the new Volga region, with its large and fecund Tatar-speaking population, could one day become a reborn version of Idel-Ural, a Tartar-speaking state that emerged briefly after Russia's Bolshevik revolution.
Although most of Russia's regions have been badly ruled, the danger in bringing them to heel is that even useful experiments—on land reform, say, or foreign investment—will be stymied. Mr Putin may succeed in making the rest of Russia run along Kremlin lines, but he has yet to show that this would be an improvement. | <urn:uuid:1cbc807e-cb08-46f7-86c9-ff511fbb4529> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/420720 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953672 | 1,174 | 1.695313 | 2 |
On July 15, 2010 the Senate passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”), which represents the most sweeping change to banking law since Congress adopted the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”), if not before. FIRREA was the congressional action designed to “forever prevent” another banking catastrophe. Many statements from the late 1980s, such as the elimination of “too big to fail” (“TBTF”), have echoed in the debate over “systemically important” financial institutions. Hopefully, the Act’s Financial Stability Oversight Council and the orderly liquidation authority over nonbanks that pose systemic risk will have more success than the FIRREA tools that were not effectively employed to prevent the subprime bubble.
This client alert does not cover the creation of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the “Volcker Rule,” regulation of private fund investment advisers, derivatives and swaps or other matters that primarily impact the country’s biggest banks or nonbank enterprises. These issues are addressed in other Hunton & Williams client alerts. We would be happy to discuss any of those matters. This client alert, however, is limited to issues that should resonate among “main street” bankers.
1. Leveling the Playing Field. The focus of the capital purchase program under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”) and the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (“TLGP”), as well as numerous other programs provided by the U.S. Treasury (“UST”) and the Federal Reserve Board (“Federal Reserve”) was to address systemic risk factors that followed in the wake of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The not-intended consequence of such programs was that consumers and businesses determined that the country’s largest banks were TBTF. Consequently, such financial institutions have enjoyed a lower cost of funds than their industry compatriots who are perceived to lack a similar government bulwark. UST Secretary Geithner has commented of the Act that “these reforms will help level the playing field, allowing community banks to compete more fairly with the nation’s largest financial firms.” The Act seeks to reduce, although it will not eliminate, this pricing disparity through three steps. First, the Act makes permanent the increase in the FDIC’s deposit insurance coverage to $250,000. Second, the Act extends through the end of 2012 the TLGP’s protection for transaction account customers whose balances exceed the limit on deposit insurance. Third, the Act now allows financial institutions to pay interest on corporate transaction accounts.
For many community banks, paying interest on corporate deposits will represent a mixture of opportunity and cost. Some financial institutions may focus on their existing corporate transaction accounts and calculate the cost of paying interest as a pure expense item. While the expenses are easy to measure, what is harder to quantify is the opportunity to compete on a more even basis with larger financial institutions. Currently, as businesses grow, they migrate to larger banks that offer sweep accounts and other sophisticated programs that enable corporate treasurers to obtain some yield on their transaction accounts. Now, however, all financial institutions will be able to compete for such business.
2. Interchange Fees. The Act requires fees charged for debit card transactions to be both “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred by the card issuer. Within nine months of the Act’s enactment, the Federal Reserve is to flesh out the meaning of such terms. The Federal Reserve must consider costs incurred by issuers for fraud prevention, but cannot consider other expenses incurred in connection with the authorization, clearance and settlement of electronic debit transactions unless such costs are specific or incremental to the transactions. Any debit card issuer that has, along with its affiliates, fewer than $10 billion of assets will be exempt from the limit on interchange fees.
It is hard to see how exempt institutions will be able to maintain their existing fee structure. First, the competitive market will require that all fees be the same or merchants will migrate away from doing business with customers who hold debit cards issued by smaller issuers. Second, payment networks and issuers may no longer contract that all transactions be handled exclusively on one network. Instead, merchants will be allowed to route their transactions over any network. The Act also overrides issuer restrictions on merchant action to minimize fees paid, such as merchants providing discounts for cash transactions or establishing minimum transaction amounts for using debit cards.
The Act exempts debit or prepaid cards issued as part of federal, state or local government-administered payment programs. One year after the Federal Reserve’s regulations become effective, an issuer of such a card may charge overdraft fees and a fee for the first withdrawal per month from an ATM.
Certain financial analysts have estimated that the costs of the changes to the interchange fees will be less than 3 percent of earnings for the TBTF banks and between 4 and 8 percent of earnings for other banks. Such estimates do not assume that financial institutions seek to recoup such revenue from changes in existing fee structures, benefits awarded under reward programs or incentives given to customers who use credit cards rather than debit cards. As Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO, noted, “If you’re a restaurant and you can’t charge for the soda, you’re going to charge more for the burger.”
3. Assessments. The Act changes the basis for assessments from a tax based on deposits to one based on assets. The assessment base will be based on average consolidated total assets of the financial institution minus its tangible equity. In the case of custodial banks and bankers’ banks, the FDIC must determine a consistent formula.
The minimum reserve ratio has been increased from 1.15 percent to 1.35 percent of deposits. The Deposit Insurance Fund (“DIF”) is to reach this ratio by September 30, 2020. Currently, the FDIC expects the DIF to reach 1.15 percent by March 31, 2017.
The Act places the burden of the assessments needed (to reach the required threshold) on institutions with total assets above $10 billion. It is unclear whether the assets of sister banks of the same holding company will be aggregated for the purpose of calculating what institutions are subject to such higher assessments.
The FDIC was required by law to pay dividends if the DIF exceeded 1.15 percent. This requirement arguably was counter-cyclical. The Act now removes this requirement. Going forward, the FDIC will have discretion of whether or not to pay dividends.
4. The Office of Thrift Supervision (“OTS”). It seems fair to say that few countries, if they were starting from scratch, would design a system of bank regulation that had as its end result our country’s myriad of federal bank regulatory agencies with overlapping authority over the same financial institutions. As discussed below, in the Act, Congress actually further expands regulatory duplication. The last remnant of the Obama administration’s original proposal to streamline and make more efficient jurisdiction over financial institutions that made it through the Congressional meat grinder concerns the fate of the OTS.
The Act provides for the elimination of the OTS as a separate regulatory body. The OTS is to be merged into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”). The Act establishes a deputy comptroller for federal savings banks. In contrast, the House bill had proposed a Division of Thrift Supervision housed within the OCC and a senior deputy comptroller.
The Act provides that all employees of the OTS would become employees of the OCC and the other federal bank regulator agencies, as the case may be, with similar seniority and positions to the extent available. The OCC would have the authority to adopt rules and regulations governing federal savings banks and will have the same jurisdiction over federal thrifts that the OTS now possesses.
All orders, resolutions, determinations, agreements, regulations, interpretive rules, other interpretations, guidelines, procedures and other advisory materials that have been issued by the OTS will continue in effect after the date of transfer of authority and the demise of the OTS. The OCC and the other federal bank regulatory agencies, as the case may be, however, are to publish no later than the transfer date, the regulations of the OTS that each such agency intends to continue.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) will continue to regulate and supervise state savings banks. The OCC, Federal Reserve and FDIC will consult with one another to discuss changes to OTS regulations, staffing and other matters. The federal bank regulatory authorities must publish any proposed changes to the OTS regulations by the transfer date.
The effective date for such transfers of authority would be one year after the date of enactment of the statute. The Secretary of Treasury, however, in consultation with the other federal bank regulatory authorities, including the OTS, can extend the time period for the transfer of authority, but not by more than 18 months after the date of enactment. Ninety days after the transfer date, the OTS and the position of director of the OTS are to be abolished.
5. The Fate of the Federal Savings Bank Charter and Thrift Holding Companies. The Act prohibits the OCC from granting any additional federal savings bank charters. The existing 757 federal savings bank charters (at March 31, 2010) are grandfathered.
The Act continues the qualified thrift lender (“QTL”) test. Unlike the current lax consideration given to the QTL test by the OTS, the Act strengthens enforcement. There will be dividend restrictions in the event a savings bank is not in compliance with the QTL test. Moreover, the failure to comply may be subject to civil money penalties, administrative action and other sanctions. The provisions of the House bill that proposed forcing a federal savings bank to convert to a national bank if it failed the QTL test were not adopted.
The Federal Reserve will regulate thrift holding companies and their nonbank subsidiaries. The 10(l) election under the Home Owners’ Loan Act (“HOLA”) that currently authorizes holding companies over state savings banks to elect to be regulated either by the OTS or the Federal Reserve is eliminated.
For the first time, thrift holding companies will now be subject to regulations related to capital requirements. In contrast, under existing law, thrift holding companies are not subject to any quantitative capital requirements or leverage limitations. The Federal Reserve’s leverage and risk-based capital requirements, however, will not become applicable for five years. This delayed effectiveness is intended to enable thrift holding companies to deleverage as need be.
6. Financial Holding Companies. For thrift holding companies that are engaged in activities that are financial in nature under the authority created by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Act permits the Federal Reserve to require that such activities be contained in an intermediate thrift holding company. Such intermediate holding companies, as well as financial holding companies (and not just their financial institution subsidiaries), will now be subject to the Federal Reserve’s capital and management requirements.
7. Capital. Senator Collins proposed an amendment (the “Collins Amendment”) that was incorporated into the Act requiring bank regulators to establish for holding companies minimum capital levels that are at least of the same nature as those applicable to financial institutions. In doing so, however, the Act requires that the Federal Reserve seek to make any capital requirements counter-cyclical, “so that the amount of capital required to be maintained by a company increases in times of economic expansion and decreases in times of economic contraction, consistent with the safety and soundness of the company.”
All trust preferred securities (“TRUPs”) issued by bank or thrift holding companies prior to December 31, 2009 (or mutual holding companies prior to May 19, 2010) continue to count as Tier I capital for holding companies with assets under $15 billion at December 31, 2009. Starting on January 1, 2013, holding companies with assets above the $15 billion threshold will deduct one-third of TRUPs a year for the following three years from Tier I capital. (The TRUPs will become Tier II capital.) Within 18 months, the GAO is to conduct a study of hybrid capital elements.
Holding companies that received funding under TARP will continue to be able to count such securities as Tier I capital. The $500 million Regulation Y small bank holding company exemption has been preserved.2
8. Source-of-Strength. The Act codifies the Federal Reserve’s Source-of-Strength Policy Statement. Interestingly, while the Federal Reserve requires holding companies to serve as a source of financial and managerial strength, the statute only requires a holding company to serve as a source of financial strength to its subsidiary financial institutions. Thrift holding companies, as well as bank holding companies, are subject to the source-of-strength requirement. Commercial firms that own ILCs3 also are subject to the source-of-strength requirement.
9. Branching. The Act generally provides for the possibility of unlimited nationwide branching for all financial institutions, not just federal savings banks. Under the Act, national and state banks can branch into states on a de novo basis. As long as a bank domiciled in the host state would be allowed to branch, then an out-of-state financial institution could establish that branch. Once in a state, an out-of-state financial institution may establish additional branches within a state to the same extent as a commercial bank chartered in such state can do so.
The Act also fixes a quirk of the Riegle-Neal Act, by making it clear that a federal savings bank that becomes a commercial bank may continue to operate any branch that it operated immediately before becoming a bank.
10. Transactions with Affiliates. The Act provides that the borrowing or lending of securities (including a guaranty, acceptance, or letter of credit issued on behalf of a securities borrowing or lending transaction) will be a “covered transaction” under the Affiliates Act and Regulation W to the extent it causes a financial institution to have credit exposure to the affiliate. Similarly, a derivative transaction will be subject to restrictions on transactions with affiliates if it creates a credit exposure for the bank. The Federal Reserve may issue regulations or interpretations considering the effect of a netting agreement on the amounts outstanding and collateral coverage requirements. Exceptions for transactions with financial subsidiaries have been eliminated. All of these changes would take effect one year from the enactment of the Act.
11. Insider Transactions. The Act also requires a majority of a financial institution’s disinterested directors to approve in advance of the purchase or sale of any asset to or from any Insider (as defined by Regulation O) if the amount of the transaction exceeds 10 percent of the financial institution’s capital. The transaction also must be on an arm’s-length basis. The Federal Reserve is to adopt regulations further fleshing out this requirement. It can be expected that the Federal Reserve will exclude from the “disinterested director” definition members of management and likely will exclude directors who represent institutional investors.
12. Holding Company Supervision. The Act provides that the Federal Reserve examine nonbank subsidiaries of a bank or thrift holding company. To the extent possible, the Federal Reserve should rely on other agencies’ examination reports and seek to avoid duplication of other agencies’ examination activities. In addition, the Federal Reserve is to give notice to and consult with such agencies, including regulators of functionally regulated subsidiaries. The primary federal regulator of a financial institution is now entitled, under certain circumstances, to examine the holding company and its nonbank subsidiaries to the extent the Federal Reserve fails to do so. The primary regulator, however, must recommend any enforcement action to the Federal Reserve. Sheila Bair has said that the FDIC’s back-up authority over holding companies will augment its back-up authority over financial institutions. Such back-up authority may assist in limited circumstances when one regulator fails to uphold its responsibilities. In most cases, however, rather than streamlining existing federal agency jurisdiction, the Act oftentimes adds to the clutter.
13. Preemption. The Act weakens the authority of the federal bank regulatory agencies to preempt state law rules and regulations. Essentially, Congress is rolling back federal preemption rules to that which existed before the bank regulatory agencies, at the behest of the industry, became more aggressive in finding preemption, and the Supreme Court backed up such findings. Congress does so by reinstituting the standard embodied in the Barnett Bank of Marion County, N.A. vs. Nelson decision. Essentially, the OCC would need to determine that there is substantial evidence of a conflict between the federal rule and the state rule, and that the OCC has previously adopted a substantive standard intended to address the activity in question. We separately will provide information regarding that standard. Subsidiaries of national banks will not be able to rely on preemption.
14. Deposit Cap. The Act includes savings associations and ILCs, as well as banks, in the nationwide deposit limitation. Thus, no acquisition of any financial institution, not just a commercial bank, can be approved if the effect of the acquisition would be to increase the acquiror’s nationwide deposits to more than 10 percent of all deposits.
15. SARBOX. The Act exempts companies with less than $75 million in market capitalization from the requirement to comply with the auditor attestation requirement for internal controls required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SARBOX”).
16. Regulation D. Regulation D is most often used by smaller holding companies to raise capital in private placements. The issuance of securities is exempt from federal registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) if the offering is limited to 35 sophisticated purchasers and an unlimited number of “accredited investors.” Accredited investors are either high earners or have net worths of a million dollars or more. The Act carves out the value of a home from the net-worth test. Moreover, the SEC is charged with evaluating whether to increase the income or net-worth thresholds over time and whether other changes are needed to protect investors. The effect of such changes could be to limit a holding company’s ability to raise capital quickly and without the cost of a SEC registration.
17. Restrictions on Conversions of Troubled Banks. A financial institution may not convert its charter to the extent it has an existing administrative action unless:
- notice is provided to the financial institution’s current regulator;
- the current regulator does not object to the conversion or the plan to address the significant supervisory matters;
- the new regulator ensures the plan is implemented; and
- in the case of an enforcement action issued by a State Attorney General, the financial institution commits to comply with such action.
18. Legal Lending Limit. Congress had considered applying the lending limit applicable to national banks to state banks. In other words, state banks would be subject to a lending limit of 15 percent of capital and reserves as the base rule applicable to any loans to one borrower. This provision did not make its way into the Act.
19. Excessive Compensation. The Act provides that the “appropriate federal regulators” must establish standards prohibiting, as an unsafe and unsound practice, any compensation plan of a bank holding company or other “covered financial institution” that provides an Insider or other employee with “excessive compensation” (undefined) or could lead to a material financial loss to such firm. A “covered financial institution” includes investment advisers, broker dealers, credit unions and any other entity that the appropriate federal regulators jointly deem to be covered. The appropriate “federal regulators” are all federal bank regulatory agencies plus the National Credit Union Administration board, the SEC and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In establishing such standards, the appropriate federal regulators will consider the safety and soundness standards regarding compensation that the FDIC issued in response to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991. The Federal Reserve has previously had the authority to regulate compensation at the holding company level. This authority was eliminated by the Riegle-Neal Act. The Act now provides even more such authority.
The Act requires companies with securities listed on national securities exchanges to require that all boards have compensation committees composed of members independent of the issuer. Certainly, most compensation committees are currently so populated under the best practices that arose following SARBOX. It is likely that the national securities exchanges will mandate independence tests for compensation committee members similar to existing tests for audit committee members, which tests are more strict than the overall requirements for a determination of board independence.
The Act furthermore requires the compensation committee to consider whether committee advisers are independent. These advisors include not just compensation consultants, but also legal counsel and accountants.
The Act also requires national securities exchanges to prohibit the listing of company equity securities if the company’s compensation policies do not include “claw back” provisions if compensation were paid that should not have been in light of information subsequently uncovered. Although these compensation provisions govern firms listed on national security exchanges, it is highly likely that the bank regulatory authorities will adopt them either as best practices or as compensation standards in regulation for all financial institutions.4
20. Fair Lending; Regulatory Burden. The Act contains numerous provisions that will enhance the regulatory burden and challenge the compliance officers of financial institutions. For instance, the federal bank regulatory agencies have already ramped up enforcement of fair lending laws.5 The Act requires financial institutions to inquire whether a small business loan applicant is a woman-owned or minority-owned enterprise. The financial institution will be required to retain for three years information such as the number of the application, the date on which the application was received, the type and purpose of the loan, the amount of credit applied for, the type of action taken, the applicant’s census track, the gross annual revenue of the applicant, and the race, sex
The purpose for such data collection is “to facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws.” Accordingly, financial institutions should consider developing pricing models to ensure that there is clearly no disparate pricing or approval of such credits.
The work of the federal regulatory agencies will result in future further substantive changes. The Act provides for literally hundreds of regulations, studies and reports. Nonetheless, this summary will provide a good foundation of the current key topics primarily of concern to “main street” financial institutions and their holding companies. | <urn:uuid:80e7e0c9-7726-465b-a885-974608c4c645> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4891771b-1d58-426d-9653-8d8275d5484d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948021 | 4,686 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Pitts: Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ have a place in history
Monday, February 13, 2012
This was for us.
And that was a new thing, so we gathered faithfully at the television as that hard-working cartoon engine chugged across the screen, rainbow smoke pouring from its stack, the announcer calling us to order once upon a Saturday. This was “Sooooooul Train,” he said, darn near yodeling the name, “the hippest trip in America, 60 nonstop minutes across the tracks of your mind, with guest stars …”
And oh, the guest stars … Gladys Knight, slinky and gorgeous lip syncing “Friendship Train” as the Pips whirled behind her; the Jackson 5 rocking “Dancing Machine,” Michael gliding as if to make a liar out of Newton; Marvin Gaye, so besotted by some nubile young dancer he forgot to lip sync “Let’s Get It On.” Or maybe the guest was someone little remembered now, someone who flashed and faded -- Jean Knight, Enchantment or the Honey Cone -- but who owned a moment and marked it indelibly.
“Soul Train” host Don Cornelius died Feb. 1 at his home in Los Angeles, apparently a suicide at the age of 75. If you are black and of a certain age that news likely stunned you back to a time when the only things wider than your Afro were your lapels, your favorite movie was “Shaft” or “Cooley High” and there was a stack of 45s next to the turntable on your dresser. “Soul Train,” which Cornelius created in 1970, was essentially a black “American Bandstand,” but to leave it at that is to miss its truest import.
This was for us, those of us who were young and black and coming of age in the post-civil rights years.
‘Something for us’
Don’t take that wrong. “Soul Train” was not exclusionary. White kids joined the “Soul Train gang,” that crew of dancers whose angular athleticism was like nothing you’d ever seen on television. White artists -- Elton John, David Bowie, Gino Vannelli -- played its stage. Young whites such as Wolf Isaac Blitzer from Buffalo were among its many fans.
And yet, this was something especially for us. We knew it from the Afro Sheen commercials (where else on television did they advertise Afro Sheen?), from the fashions the dancers wore and from the way Cornelius took our slang and gave it back to us, stylized and made somehow profound by his cool announcer’s baritone.
“Here’s a big’un we’re sho’nuff diggin’,” he would say, announcing some new tune by James Brown or the Dramatics. Dick Clark didn’t talk like that.
And then, there was his signature sign off: “Join us next week on most of these same stations, and you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey. I’m Don Cornelius and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace … and soul!”
Soul being that beat, that authenticity, that depth of spirit, that hip swagger we felt made us unique.
We were something new, the promise of the civil rights years made manifest in polyester pants and towering Afros -- and here, for the first time on television, was something for us.
If you are white and television has always been for you, if you are black and cannot recall a time before BET, Centric and TV One, you likely cannot appreciate what a revelation that was. If you are black and of a certain age, you cannot forget it. And you understand why there is really only one fitting farewell for Donald Cortez Cornelius.
May he rest in love, peace … and soul. | <urn:uuid:04907375-7108-4e1d-a80b-d516fd4bc42b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/feb/13/don-cornelius-soul-train-have-a-place-in-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97175 | 864 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Letters: April 2009
“Bravina” Ad Sends Wrong Message
How I love to receive the Toastmaster every month! It provides a rich variety of informative and entertaining articles designed to inspire each one of us to continue developing communication and leadership skills. I was, however, very disappointed when I noticed in the February issue the advertisement for “Bravina” – the “speech pill…that will provide you with the control and confidence you need for public speaking.” I am amazed this type of advertisement would take place in our magazine! More importantly, how will this advertisement be perceived by an entire world audience? What is the underlying message?
In my opinion, the ad lacks integrity and respect for [all] Toastmasters, who dedicate their time and efforts to genuine progress in public speaking. Medication is not the key to success in oral communication. Success is the result of consistent efforts in the preparation, practice and presentation of the diverse speaking assignments in the Toastmasters program. That is how we develop self-confidence.
Kathy Stewart • Western Gourmet Toastmasters Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia
More Speech Pill Complaints
For a number of years, in speaking with prospective new Toastmasters, I would state, “There is no pill to make you a better speaker. That only comes from the practice and experience you can get in a Toastmasters club.” So imagine my disgust when in the February issue of the Toastmaster I found a full-page color advertisement for a “natural” supplement that promises to help you overcome the anxiety of public speaking! My first thought was that this was some kind of joke, and try as I might, I just didn’t get it. I am appalled that our organization would accept this ad. The fact that this issue also had an article about protecting the Toastmasters brand is especially ironic.
Not only is this ad in direct conflict with our mission, but it strikes me as ethically unacceptable. First, this product has not been evaluated by the FDA or any other authoritative agency. Second, the photograph accompanying the ad shows a young boy overcome with anxiety. This implies that we should consider administering an untested supplement to a youngster.
I understand that, as a nonprofit organization, we need advertising revenues to finance the printing and distribution of the magazine. However, we need to exercise sound judgment when considering what is acceptable.
Joe Zafian, DTM • Central Connecticut Advanced Toastmasters Berlin, Connecticut
Editor’s Note: The Toastmaster received many letters critical of the Bravina “speech pill” advertisement. As a result, this company is no longer advertising in the magazine.
Lifting Spirits with a Life Lesson
Ever since I became a Toastmaster last year through our newly formed GSK club in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, I’ve enjoyed reading the articles in the Toastmaster. The article by Fran Capo (“Humor Can Help You Through”) in the January issue was really interesting, useful and, most importantly, inspiring.
My sincere appreciation and cheers go out to this outstanding person for sharing her life experience; I’m sure her story has lifted the spirits of many Toastmasters around the world. Within the space of four pages, she successfully delivered a rare and unique life lesson. Thanks, Fran, and thanks, Toastmasters, for presenting such valuable messages through the monthly magazine.
Wazir Sourjah • GSK Toastmasters club • Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
The Prose and Cons
Whenever there is a disagreement about the meaning of a word, always consult an unabridged dictionary. If Keith Hart (“Letters” page, February) did that, he would have seen that his use of the word “prosaic” was correct, after all. Sure, the first meaning is indeed “lacking in wit or imagination,” but the second meaning is “of or having the character or form of prose rather than poetry.”
Donald A. Windsor • Preferred Club • New Berlin, New York
The Benefits of Toastmasters Training
I’ve been a Toastmaster for more than 20 years and I read the Toastmaster from cover to cover. Many thanks to Jeffrey Anderson and Renee Lam for each of their contributions to the “Letters” page in the January issue; they provided reminders of how Toastmasters training has paid off in daily life. Also, many thanks to Fran Capo, whose article in that same issue, “Humor Can Help You Through,” was so logical and uplifting.
Teresa J. Allen, ATM • Southwest Speakers club • Houston, Texas
Within the next 24 hours, take note of how many people use the word “basically” as a filler in their conversation. Note how the word is used and you will realize it’s just another form of the word “ah” or an unnecessary conversation filler. It’s the same with the word “etcetera.” Notice how some folks use “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera” to end their sentences.
Bowman Olds, ATMB • SOS Toastmasters • McLean, Virginia
Do you have something to say? Write it in 200 words or less, sign it with your name, address and club affiliation and send it to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:95a0b347-32ee-4bc7-9e25-61d069ac7ebf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2009/April/Departments/Letters.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950294 | 1,131 | 1.585938 | 2 |
October 10, 2003EU transport ministers debate security, criminal sanctions for pollution
Maritime matters--notably security and pollution--were front and center on the agenda at yesterday's Council meeting of EU Transportation, Telecommunications and Energy ministers.
On the issue of ship and port security, the Council agreed on a general approach, pending the European Parliament's first reading, on the proposal for a Regulation aimed at enhancing security on board ships and in ship/port interface areas. The Council also asked the Presidency to contact with the European Parliament with the aim of reaching an agreement on first reading in the co-decision procedure, enabling rapid adoption of the legislative proposal.
Under the text agreed by the Council, so far as international shipping is concerned, EU Member States shall apply in full the security measures agreed in IMO in December 2002. Certain measures in part B of the ISPS Code that are optional under IMO level are mandatory in Community legislation.
Where European domestic shipping is concerned, it was agreed to apply the same security measures adopted at IMO to Class A passenger ships [a passenger ship engaged on domestic voyages in the course of which it is further than 20 miles from the coast or in sea areas where the probability of exceeding 2.5 m significant wave height is greater than 10 percent].
For other categories of ships operating domestic services, it was agreed that Member States are obliged to carry out a security risk assessment after which they will decide the extent to which they apply security measures without compromising the overall level of security.
SHIP-SOURCE POLLUTION AND SANCTIONS FOR POLLUTION OFFENSES
The Council held a policy debate on the proposal for a Directive on ship source pollution and on the introduction of sanctions, including criminal sanctions, for pollution of the marine environment.
The Presidency concluded that:
á All delegations supported the objective of the Commission proposal to integrate the international rules on ship-source pollution into Community law by means of a Directive and to adopt a legal instrument which is as dissuasive as possible,
á Concerns were expressed by delegations as to the legal correctness of using a Community instrument specifically mentioning penal sanctions. Criminal aspects were deemed more appropriate, to be confined to a Framework Decision based on the Third Pillar of the European Union Treaty,
á Doubts were also expressed on the possibilities of implementing the Directive if it goes beyond the provisions of MARPOL, for instance for ships flying the flag of a third State and which do not call at a port of a Member State
á The principle of being able to act against ships, even under the flag of a third State, was however clearly stated, in particular if the pollution damage reaches the coasts or territorial waters of Member States
á A majority of delegations favoured the prohibition, to ensure monetary penalties related to pollution offenses, as is in fact already the case in several Member States. 3 Marpol 73/78 is the International Convention for the prevention of pollution from ships (1973) and its 1978 Protocol, as amended.
The Council instructed the Permanent Representatives Committee to continue the examination of this proposal with a view of reaching an agreement at its meeting in December, taking into account the objective stated by the European Council in March 2003.
The aim of the Directive is to transpose the international rules on ship-source pollution of the MARPOL Convention into Community legislation and to establish harmonized rules for their enforcement. It also extends the measures to offences that have taken place on the high seas, in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The proposal responds a number of "post-Prestige" moves, including a European Commission declaration of its intent to present a proposal to ensure that any person who has caused or contributed to a pollution incident through grossly negligent behavior should be subject to appropriate sanctions. In March, the European Council called for the "adoption, before the end of 2003, based on the Commission's recent proposal, of a system of sanctions, including criminal sanctions, for pollution offenses on the appropriate legal basis."
Yesterday's Council meeting endorsed a legislative proposal aims at simplifying the recognition of seafararer's certificates by introducing a centralised and harmonised procedure for a Community-wide recognition of third countries complying with the STCW 4 Convention and establishing a specific procedure for the withdrawal of the recognition, as well as for the monitoring on a regular basis of third countries' compliance with the STCW Convention. | <urn:uuid:6cc2f5c7-b1ea-469d-8f11-512d749a049d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMIII/MMIIIOct10.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955496 | 900 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Automation, Cloud Can Eliminate Storage Headaches
After virtualization, automation and the cloud are the next two most important ways to ensure storage provides the performance and capacity your company needs.
Storage performance tuning is making sure that applications are getting just the right amount of performance at the right time. Too little performance means that applications or users are not being as productive as they might be; too much performance means expensive resources sit idle. In the virtualized or cloud data center, performance and making sure it is managed correctly is becoming a time-consuming part of the storage administrator's day.
The key to making sure the right data is on the right type of storage at the right moment is knowing when to leverage solid state storage and when to use hard disk storage. In the modern data center this means moving data to higher-speed devices when the applications and users demand it and moving it potentially into a remote storage cloud when they do not.
[ Where can you cut corners with commodity tech? See Storage Software Vs. Hardware: What's More Important? ]
Some virtualization software applications like the ones I described in my previous column will allow you to move entire volumes, but in most cases the entire volume does not need to be on high-speed storage. Storage automation software should be different. It should understand data activity at a granular, sub-file level for maximum resource allocation. A Sharepoint database for example, might need to be on high-speed storage for performance--but all the documents it manages do not. Over time these could be migrated to high-capacity, low-cost, secondary storage, or to remote cloud storage.
Embrace the cloud
The cloud also should be an important part of any storage infrastructure and it, too, can reduce storage headaches. It can help with provisioning tasks so that they can be made more self-serviceable, which allows business application owners to handle their own provisioning requests based on policies and workflow. Cloud storage also can help with storage virtualization efforts if the cloud storage software can leverage multiple types of storage for the on-premise cache.
A key headache that gets resolved by cloud storage is dealing with capacity expansion. The right cloud storage application should be able to work with other storage automation features and keep the working set of data local, yet leverage the cloud for an almost infinite amount of capacity backend.
As we will discuss in our upcoming webinar, 3 Steps To Use The Cloud To Eliminate Storage Administration Headaches, a final key headache that using the cloud resolves is data protection and disaster recovery. Depending on the configuration, all data can be replicated in near-real time to the cloud, reducing the pressure on the local backup process.
In the case of a disaster that causes loss of access to the building, data in the cloud can be recovered from any other location. Recovery in the second site is as easy as re-installing the cloud software and mounting the cloud volumes. Data will be re-cached locally as needed, but applications can return to operation almost immediately.
IT is being pressured to be more responsive to the needs of the business and it is in IT's best interest to be seen as an asset to the organization, not a cost. Taking advantage of tools such as automation and the cloud makes storage responsive to the needs of IT so it can be responsive to the needs of the business.
Extending core virtualization concepts to storage, networking, I/O, and application delivery is changing the face of the modern data center. In the Pervasive Virtualization report, we discuss all these areas in the context of four main precepts of virtualization. (Free registration required.) | <urn:uuid:8b0a64cd-330d-4e48-b6ed-2ec6c0d76633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/storage/systems/automation-cloud-can-eliminate-storage-h/240007785?cid=SBX_iwk_related_news_Disaster_recovery/business_continuity_storage&itc=SBX_iwk_related_news_Disaster_recovery/business_continuity_storage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932725 | 745 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A regulatory framework for gas drilling that works well for Idaho
Published: March 20,2012
Tags: Idaho Petroleum Council
Nearly three years ago, Bridge Resources invested time and capital and took a risk on drilling to see if those historic “shows” of gas meant there were economic deposits in the area. Today it’s clear that Bridge was on to something good, and there are other companies exploring for natural gas in what has become known as the Payette Basin.
The industry is new to Idaho but it is well-established in other states. While our old rules governing the petroleum industry date back almost 20 years, revised and updated rules approved earlier this year were drafted with input from a wide variety of sources and groups, including representatives from local governments.
Those who crafted the rules also had the benefit of using knowledge and experience from dozens of states where this industry has existed for decades. We took the best they had, learned from their mistakes and put together a regulatory framework that works well for Idaho.
Perhaps that’s why so many local officials support the legislation. For example, Payette is currently the only county with test wells drilled and there all three county commissioners support expansion of the industry.
For them the new laws will mean consistency and certainty across Idaho. They also mean less confusion, tighter regulations, less duplication of regulations and clear lines of authority for local and state regulators alike. Most importantly, the new rules will result in better compliance by the industry, as they were drawn from states where operators have been working for decades.
Currently there is only one basin with exploration activity. We also need to make sure that state agencies can hire and maintain the technical expertise to ensure enforcement. Local governments should not be burdened with that regulatory expense. Moreover, this framework follows the precedent of Idaho’s other natural resource industries, such as water, timber, mining, and fish and game, which are governed at the state level.
However, the new regulations and legislation governing oil and gas go beyond what’s been done in other resource industries in Idaho and in other states. Local governments are guaranteed the ability to regulate the same kinds of activities they have always overseen under the state’s land-use planning act.
Under the legislation, local jurisdictions can impose reasonable operating conditions, including regulations governing facilities, roads, noise and others facets of the industry.
What they cannot do is pass restrictive regulations designed specifically to prevent oil and gas exploration from happening at all. That is not only reflective of Idaho’s constitution, it is also good public policy for the state.
The clean, safe exploration of homegrown resources is the right opportunity at the right time. We all want homegrown energy to power our economy and serve as a bridge to the future. A thriving natural gas industry means good jobs, tax revenue, and money for the state and for local businesses at a time when Idaho needs it most. Royalties for wells on state lands will fund schools across the state – by some estimates as much as $5.7 million per year.
This industry does not have its hand out. They do not want subsidies. They do not ask for tax breaks. They do not want special favors. And they promise good money for the people and the governments of Idaho.
That is why we are so proud of the hard work from so many people in state government, from local entities, from industry, from environmental groups and from regulatory agencies. Their work helped Idaho craft legislation and rules that will help this industry grow and thrive.
And it will happen the Idaho way: adhering to free-market principles while also protecting the local control we value along with the water and quality of life we cherish.
Suzanne Budge is executive director of the Idaho Petroleum Council. | <urn:uuid:9c595bb5-0c92-4d16-818a-5481500762f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://idahobusinessreview.com/2012/03/20/a-regulatory-framework-for-gas-drilling-that-works-well-for-idaho/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967584 | 768 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Fewer Borrowers Are Behind on Mortgages, but for How Long?
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
The number of homeowners behind on their mortgages has now fallen for four straight quarters to the lowest rate in four years.
At the end of last year, the delinquency rate took its deepest dive since things began improving in 2010, falling 14 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from Transunion. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia saw improvements. Unfortunately, these improvements may not last.
(Read More: Americans Are Tapping Into Home Equity Again)
"The declines in the mortgage delinquency rate will likely be muted for the foreseeable futures as the foreclosure process in some states can take more than 1,000 days," notes Tim Martin, of TransUnion's financial services business unit. "It is not clear yet, but recently announced regulatory rules related to mortgage servicing may tend to slow down this process further."
Delinquencies dropped 6 percent annually in 2011 and 7 percent in 2010. This after jumping over 50 percent in each of the previous two years. The trouble is not with new loans but with a long legacy of troubled loans from the housing boom. While these loans make up 60 percent of mortgages outstanding, they account for 90 percent of loans gone bad. Attempts at loan modifications as well as long delays in the foreclosure process have kept these loans stuck in a bloated pipeline.
There are borrowers today that have not made a mortgage payment in several years but have still not lost their homes. New laws in California and Nevada slowed the foreclosure process considerably, while New York and New Jersey are still facing huge backlogs of bad loans that will take years to make their way through the states' court process.
(Read More: New Housing Fears: Home Prices Are Rising Too.)
Nationally, the mortgage delinquency rate now stands at 5.19 percent, down from 6.01 percent a year ago, but still far from the historical average of around one to two percent. While loans made in the past few years, using far stricter underwriting, are faring very well, there is a concern that thousands of mortgage modifications made during the same time will default again. Negative equity, while improving, continues to plague millions of borrowers and makes selling the home impossible. Should these borrowers need to move, they will likely have to default on their home loans.
(Read More: Why Home Builders Won't Drop New Home Prices,) | <urn:uuid:94849a12-732d-45ce-b0e3-3e7738f62ba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/100453098?__source=yahoo%7Crelated%7Cstory%7Ctext%7C&par=yahoo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962562 | 502 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I often talk about my Gaggia Platinum Vision espresso machine and the drinks that it can produce. One important factor in creating the “perfect” cup of coffee is the bean used in the machine. One of my favorite coffees is Lavazza Super crema , which true to its name produces the thickest crema on my espresso shots. Lavazza is known for being Italy’s favorite coffee, a tradition which began in 1895 with Luigi Lavazza.
The organization has grown to include four production plants all operating in Italy:
- Settimo Torinese, the roasting plant situated on the outskirts of Turin
- The Verres plant in Valle d’Aosta, also dedicated to roasting and packaging
- Mokapak plant, located in Gattinara, near Vercelli, produces the Lavazza “Espresso Point”, “BLUE” and “A Modo Mio” machines
- Mokadec, located in Pozzilli (Isernia), is dedicated to the decaffeination process of Lavazza coffee.
Each year, the Lavazza Group buys over two million bags of green coffee from over 50 countries, in accordance to strict quality standards. The Lavazza factory includes two storage towers with 134 silos containing different varieties of coffee. Storage capacity is 5,000 tons. The green coffee is loaded automatically through bag-cutters or tanks and is then sorted to remove powder, stones or other foreign matter.The Laboratory:
As the green beans arrive to the Lavazza plant, they are first processed in the laboratory. The green beans are checked and tests are performed on each batch to access quality. The laboratory is responsible for selecting the beans, creating the blends, defining and checking the quality standards of the batches of the green coffee that have been purchased.The Art of Roasting:
The utmost attention is given, to determine the body and acidity level of the bean, which determines the flavor of the beverage in the cup. The beans undergo a metamorphosis in the roasting phase: high temperatures have a direct result on the aroma to the bean. Here is a look at the results:
- At 212°F the beans are golden in color and smell somewhat like toasted bread, a fragrance that will quickly turn into the sublime aroma of coffee.
- When the temperature rises to more than 302°-356°F the beans become larger, lustrous and brown.
- Roasting reaches its optimum level at 392-446°F and the coffee takes on its distinctive taste.
- At this point, the coffee is removed from the roaster and is cooled quickly with currents of cold air.
After roasting, any broken or damaged beans are discarded. Another important phase is the grinding of the beans. The grinding process can have an impact on the overall quality of the cup of coffee produced. The Lavazza plant grinds between 4,409 and 6,613 lbs of roasted coffee per hour. The process includes applying micrometric adjustments to guarantee each batch is specifically ground based on how the coffee will be brewed.Packaging:
After roasting, the product is removed from the roaster and is quickly treated again to remove bits of coffee. Prior to being vacuum-packed in bags with one-way valves, samples are tested to ensure product meets all performance expectations. The product is then placed into the appropriate packaging for the specific type of coffee to be retailed including:
- Ground products in pods
- Whole-bean products
- Ground products in flexible packets or cans
With over 110 years in the business and still innovating, Lavazza has maintained its position as Italy’s favorite coffee. If you have not had an opportunity to taste a Lavazza blend, I would suggest treating yourself to one of these fine coffees. I hope you also find a favorite for your kitchen.Tracy | <urn:uuid:6f2bc749-7b4a-4241-805a-9f26e20595ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wholelattelove.com/blog.cfm?ItemID=164&blogact=detail&seeBlogID=2106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945389 | 814 | 1.65625 | 2 |
This will never replace the full sized unit and indeed it is not intended to do so. I remember when I was first shown an early ‘ball’ unit the lady demonstrating it said the ‘ball’ means even a man can use it, I am still not sure how much her tongue was in her cheek. However the ‘ball’ unit does get into spaces and round tight turns that other cleaners cannot get. This unit is designed for those places even the ‘ball’ cannot reach and with the new motor it is both lighter and more powerful than other units around. As the air and dust/grit are separate there is no degradation of suction power even when the unit is nearing full.
The battery is designed to give more power when it is near to exhaustion so that suction remains the same. In fact in normal use you have ten minutes of cleaning power but for those extra stubborn bits you can use the turbo mode by pressing a button on the back and in this mode the working time is reduced to six minutes from ten.
Recharge time is three and a half hours but despite Mr Dyson telling me it could be used plugged into the charger to finish a job while charging you cannot use it.
The only thing you need to do apart from charging it and emptying the dirt container when it gets to ‘max’ is to wash the filter in cold water once a month. There is nothing extra to buy as it does not use bags or belts or other consumables.
It is 30cm long and then the longer 22cm tool clips into that. With this tool clipped in it weights 1300grams. It is 20cm tall and a maximum of 11cm wide.
There are two models both confusingly called DC31, the basic model (blue) and the Animal version (purple) and this has a rotating head on the end of the unit to get those stubborn pet hairs from those inaccessible places. I was reviewing the basic blue model.
The explanation of the difference between a standard electric motor and the new Dyson one bears repeating. Conventional motors need carbon brushes that maintain permanent electrical contact with the spinning commutator, in order to complete the electrical circuit required to switch polarity and create torque. This mechanical switching is an inherent disadvantage of brushed motors, because of the reliance of contact between moving parts. The problem with conventional brushed motors is that they emit carbon particles. They’re dirty and have a limited lifespan. Whereas the Dyson digital motors don’t use carbon brushes because they don’t rely on a closed electrical circuit through a commutator. There is no contact to the rotor – just a strong electromagnetic field generated in the stator. The polarity of this field is switched digitally (by a microprocessor) situated within the onboard power electronic circuit. Digital switching is clean because it’s mechanically simple.
The new Dyson motor (he has lots of patents on it) can spin faster up to 104,000 RPM; it is around the third the size of its predecessor and a lot lighter.
So does it work, yes. Getting into those dark corners with the longer tool is easy. The brushed tool enables things like mattresses to get that important clean. You feel quite a draft being omitted from the side of the unit but unlike the older style unit where a good part of the omissions would be carbon here it is nothing but air. The dust is trapped in the unit and any that gets through the tub certainly does not get beyond the filter.
Perhaps the worst thing is the rather confusing instruction sheet with all its diagrams that do not explain.
Doing my Internet searches found the Dyson DC31 Blue at a best price of £129 from the link below.
|add to del.icio.us||Digg this review| | <urn:uuid:06f9202d-9596-4ada-8fcf-890871e2ebff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gadgetspeak.com/gadget/article.rhtm/753/588047/Dyson_DC31.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945199 | 785 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Chevy Camaro 1974-1977, Driver or Passenger Side Parking Light Lens and Reflector by Goodmark®, 2 Required. The header panel is located at the front of a car or truck. It can be just a small sheet metal panel on some vehicles or a large panel to which most of the front end pieces attach on others. In its position at the front of your classic or muscle car, the header panel is subject to damage from gravel, stones and debris thrown up by other vehicles and from even the slightest collision. To make sure the front end of your classic goes together right, you need a reproduction header panel from the restoration experts at Goodmark.
A header panel can be a small sheet metal panel located between the hood and grille, but on many cars and trucks the header panel extends from fender to fender across the front of the vehicle, and houses the grille, headlights and parking lights. Whatever its configuration on your classic, after 40 or 50 years your header panel has probably seen better days. So whether you just want to repair some damage or you’re doing a total restoration, treat your baby to the best, a quality reproduction header panel from Goodmark.
Restoring cars isn’t just a business for the people at Goodmark, they’re also car enthusiasts and restorers just like you, and they wouldn’t make anything they wouldn’t install on their own cars or trucks. Each header panel is CAD/CAM designed to make sure it exactly replicates the original part, and then it’s manufactured with the most modern tooling. Each design is test fit to make sure it looks and fits perfectly. Many Goodmark parts have been approved by the manufacturers of the original equipment and are licensed to be sold as genuine replacement parts.
A Goodmark header panel is an authentic reproduction, made to the same specifications as the original part. Correct in every detail, it will make your car look just as it did the day it came from the factory. And to make sure the restoration of this area of your car is complete; Goodmark has grilles, lights, emblems and moldings to finish the job right. Each part is faithfully reproduced for concours appearance and quality.
Goodmark was founded in 1991 by car enthusiasts, restorers and collectors just like you. They recognized that there was a need for quality restoration parts, especially sheet metal parts, if the restoration of our beloved American classics was to continue. Since that time, Goodmark has created a complete line of sheet metal, trim parts, and accessories for popular cars like the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, and for previously difficult to restore cars like the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda. Goodmark uses CAD/CAM (computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing) software and modern tooling and manufacturing techniques to create parts that are identical to factory original for perfect fit and finish. Quality parts tooled and manufactured by Goodmark are enabling many more American classic and muscle cars to return to the road, looking just as fine as the day they rolled off the assembly line.
Every Customer can leave a review about our service and the product that was purchased. In order to leave your review for your new product, please follow the link in the email you receive after completing your purchase. You can rate appearance, ease of installation, price/value and product quality.
The handle looked fine when I got it out of the box, and it fit where it was supposed to. My only problem with this handle is that it is supposed to be riveted to the door, but that's not a problem with the product, it's just with the design.
This hood made my 2003 Ford Super Crew look like a real boss. I mean it really made a very good upgrade on my truck. It looks like a freaking cobra. Would recommend it to anyone looking to customize their ride. Really pleased with overall look.
At first I thought it was a bit expensive, but... It made a total difference in how the door functions on the car. After removing the old striker, I found that it was not only missing the bushing, but also had a hairline crack. After installing the new striker, a three minute job. Ahh.. a job that actually took less time than planned. After some small adjustments, it worked just like a new door. Gives a totally different impression about the entire car, when the door simply goes "Thunk" rather than trying different ways to make it close properly. I bought the car a couple of months ago in Norway. It seems silly, but if the doors don't close properly, you begin to have doubts about other things on the car. So.... A well spent $50 bucks, for a quality product, that really is "Like New." Actually, I am so happy, that I am going to buy another striker, for the other side of the car. My "bad door" is now so much better than my "good door."
The part is really good, fits like a glove. The metal is covered with some kind black paint. Don't know whether I should remove it before painting. Shipping and installation - no problems.
The old hood seal was terrible. Water was penetrating and I didn't notice it timely. Found all I need at CARiD and purchased. Installed with no problems at all. But anyway, the hood already began to rust, so I'll replace it too. Luckily, now I know where to look for parts - thx CARiD.
Very glad! The hood is of excellent quality and the fit is perfect too. 4" raised scoop looks sick. Can't wait when I ride around the block. Too bad my Camaro's not on the move - looking for a new engine...
It was pretty hard to find parts for old school cars. Digged all the Internet before stumbled upon CARiD. Ordered a pair of rear fenders. Shipped fast - the next day after the order. Quarter panels look great, not a single dent or scratch.
I was so, so happy to find such a huge amount of parts for my old gen1 Mustang! There are like looots of parts in here. Ordered seals and gaskets for $100 and some body parts for $800. Now, I have app half of the car sent to me! | <urn:uuid:1599a257-1edf-4f42-a5dc-26fa0a1221fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carid.com/1977-chevy-camaro-header-panels/goodmark-automotive-lighting-1642781.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969651 | 1,303 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Re: Been there, done that: rewards and "proofs"
George Murphy (firstname.lastname@example.org)
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 15:12:04 -0400
Ted Davis wrote:
> The recent post reminds me of Rimmer's offer to pay $100 (later upped to
> $1000) "to anyone who can prove that there is even one scientific error in
> the Bible!" He was sued twice in unsuccessful attempts to collect.
> This also reminds me of RG Elmendorf's offer of $1000 for "scientific
> proof- positive that the earth moves." Mr Elmendorf, of the Pittsburgh
> Creation Society, will not accept the usual suspects, such as the aberration
> of starlight, the Corilois effect, the earth's tidal bulge, the Foucault
> pendulum, ...., well, you get the picture.
> What's next, a thousand bucks for "scientific proof" that I am not a
> figment of your sotfware's imagination?
25 years ago Al Snyder of California offered a $1000 prize (why is it always
$1000? Haven't they ever heard of inflation?) for anyone who could find an error in his
proof that "Newton's Laws are Full of Flaws" (the title of one of his self-published
books). Needless to say it wasn't hard for me to find the errors & even more needless
to say I never got the $1000.
I also remember vaguely a story of some guy in Germany who offered a similar
prize for something or other & a group of German scientists took him to court & forced
him to pay. Sorry I don't recall the details.
George L. Murphy | <urn:uuid:3a2102db-445a-43e1-be0e-96398c5dc06b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/ASA/199909/0027.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942186 | 370 | 1.523438 | 2 |
School strike Friday
Elementary teachers, some early childhood educators and other school staff are planning to walk off the job on Friday, shutting down public schools around the province.
The move comes as provincial leaders with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario met to determine how to respond to the Liberal government imposing contracts under its controversial Bill 115.
The move, which ETFO is calling a “one-day political protest” is “aimed at the government and education minister for invoking Bill 115.” “The minister made a deliberate and provocative choice to wipe out the democratic rights of tens of thousands of educators,” said president Sam Hammond.
– Torstar News Service | <urn:uuid:888f399c-dd0c-4e25-9b2f-11a2d7289dff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simcoe.com/news-story/2070280-school-strike-friday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938706 | 139 | 1.75 | 2 |
That would put them in line with the very entities they regulate, as the banking industry also opposes the measures.
At least four states have adopted privacy laws restricting employers from looking at what workers are Tweeting and posting to Facebook.
But last year, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) challenged California's law on grounds that it prevents brokerages from policing investment advice, Eaglesham and Rothfeld write.
Now FINRA is joining the chorus to allow access. From WSJ:
Securities regulators worry that the raft of new laws aimed at protecting employees' privacy puts investors at risk. They say the fast spread of financial advice on social networks such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. could create new channels for Ponzi schemes and other frauds, and that fighting those frauds will be harder if state lawmakers snarl efforts by companies to monitor what employees are pitching to investors.
In 2009, a finance exec paid a $10,000 fine in connection with hyping a stock on Twitter, WSJ notes.
http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business | <urn:uuid:d725e051-67e8-4714-8c06-a66540e7cf41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.socialbusinesstoday.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945404 | 226 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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Handel’s Messiah fills the church . . .
Wednesday, 09 May 2012
MUSIC aficionados filled Fairplace Church last Saturday to enjoy a performance of one of the most famous choral works of all time.
Okehampton Choral Society performed Handel’s Messiah, an English language oratorio composed in 1741, at their spring concert in the Church on Saturday, May 5.
Handel composed the work in just 24 days in the summer of 1741, and it is now remembered as his best-known work.
Debuting in Dublin on April 13 1742 and receiving its London premiere a year later, the piece initially received a modest public reception before growing in popularity to become one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
The performance with the Okement Chamber Orchestra was led by Paul Matthews, and directed by John Matthews.
The four visiting soloists for the performance were soprano Christine Marsden, mezzo soprano Rebecca Smith, Gordon Pike from Exeter Cathedral and John Hobbs, well known for his leadership of several Devon choral societies.
All content © of Tavistock Times Gazette unless stated otherwise.
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Sir Ray Tindle
Something to sell? | <urn:uuid:445e0d69-4b15-494d-977e-cb7298a82430> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.okehampton-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=16694&headline=Handel%E2%80%99s%20Messiah%20fills%20the%20church%20.%20.%20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947786 | 304 | 1.625 | 2 |
This double standard is the basis for women's websites listing the names of men who allegedly cheat.
The most popular website is WomanSavers. Its database lists a man's full name, his picture, hometown and explains what he allegedly did wrong. Additionally, ratings on his character, commitment, trustfulness, and abusefulness are also displayed. Any woman can add an entry on any man. However, it is against the rules to add a woman into the database. Her character and trustfulness cannot be evaluated. As is the case throughout feminist society, she is considered above questioning. What makes this website's double standard astounding is that it references four articles which conclude there is only a small difference in the infidelity rate between the genders.
- Intimate Partners, Scarf 1996
- Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, Atwood & Schwartz 2002
- Monogamy Myth, Vaughan 2003
- Is Your Relationship at Risk?, Dworkin-McDaniel 2007
Even more astounding, however, is a survey conducted by the website in which 49% of women said they cheated. Another 26% said that they'd have no problem stepping out on their husbands or boyfriends if they knew they could get away with it. THIS MAKES MANY WOMEN ON THIS SITE BLATANT HYPOCRITES.
WomanSavers also has a forum allowing users to engage in discussions. Some women on the forum post excuses on why they have had affairs. They also support other members who have stepped out on their husbands and boyfriends. A few men have commented in the forum. Some have posted their wives have had affairs. Many members will defend the wife's actions, claiming the husband must have done something wrong. However it should be stated not all women defend backstabbing wives. Some heavily criticize them. Others tell the mistreated husband to stop being a doormat.
A website similar to Womensavers is 'Dont Date Him Girl'. This site accumulated a database of allegedly unfaithful men (complete with names, photos and hometowns) supposedly larger than Womensavers. And like Womensavers, adding a female's name to its database was forbidden. 'Dont Date Him Girl' has been featured on CBSNews, ABCNews, New York Times, The TODAY Show, CNN, FOX News and various women's magazines.
Since major media outlets promoted the site, many men became aware of its existence. Some discovered they were listed in the database. They demanded their names be removed from the listing claiming the women were lying. For example, according to 'OnLine Dating Magazine' one woman posted the name of her former boyfriend, claiming he cheated and subsequently gave her herpes. The boyfriend discovered the accusation, actually took a blood test to prove he did not have herpes and demanded his removal from the site's database. 'Don’t Date Him Girl' complied. The obvious conclusion of this incident: the women either lied about her story or was a slut who has no idea which man gave her herpes.
In the fall of 2010, 'Dont Date Him Girl' removed its database. This was not because the site's owner suddenly believed all cheats should be treated the same. Rather, she had come to the realization a successful lawsuit against her was inevitable. A growing number of men were proving their former girlfriends were liars.
'Dont Date Him Girl' currently has a forum where anyone can post information on former lovers. However, the same female chauvinist hypocrisy that existed in its database permeates this forum. For example, a husband posted the full name of his backstabbing wife and the sleazebag other man. Rather than gaining sympathy, women criticized him for posting the names - despite the fact there are hundreds of men's names, many with photos, already listed in the forum. Another man expressed support for the website and asked if there was a similar site listing the names of unfaithful girlfriends. He was denounced and mocked.
Besides men being able to post, the only apparent difference between the forum and the former database is searchability. There is no search tool for the forum. Presumably this significantly decreases the chance of a lawsuit because its more difficult to find information on a specific person.
Holding only half of the population responsible for their actions is sexist (in other words its feminist). Every individual should be held accountable for their backstabbing. Unfortunately, the thousands of immature and narrow minded women using these websites believe differently. They promote a cheating double standard. | <urn:uuid:5ef2dcec-d142-4211-99f7-b43b8af8ad9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://antifeministsite.blogspot.com/2011/03/cheating-double-standard.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978586 | 925 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Over the years, I’ve had conversations with hundreds of frontline employees in the service industry. All of these employees were passionate about something but, more often than not, their passion had little to do with their job roles.
Many described their jobs as boring, routine, and monotonous.
These conversations have inspired me to explore the question, “Why is it that frontline employees in the service industry oftentimes appear apathetic about customer service and indifferent toward their customers?”
While there are many variables including: company hiring, training, and retention practices; the existing customer service culture; the effectiveness of the employee’s immediate supervisor, etc., one key contributor that most companies miss is to clearly distinguish between an employee’s job functions and job essence.
Job functions are the duties associated with one’s job role. Performance of these functions is mandatory. It’s what the employee was hired to do. It’s what the employee is paid to do. It’s the criteria upon which his performance is judged.
Job essence is the employee’s highest priority—which, for most employees, is to create a delighted customer: one who will repurchase, is less price-sensitive, and will recommend the company/brand to others.
In contrast to job functions, job essence is frequently ignored by both employers and employees. Here’s why: Employers tend to focus on that which can be documented and measured—things like job descriptions, policies, procedures, and checklists. All of these pertain to job function. And employees tend to focus on whatever their managers focus on.
For instance, suppose a restaurant manager tells a newly-hired hostess that customer service is his top priority. (Most do.) But when the hostess’s side work (e.g., folding napkins, filling salt and pepper shakers, etc.) suffers due to her consistent presence out front greeting guests as they arrive, he questions her priorities by asking, “Why aren’t there more napkins folded?”
She will quickly learn the manager’s true priority is folded napkins (job function), not delighted customers (job essence).
You see, whereas performing job functions is mandatory, demonstrating job essence is optional—employees don’t have to do it. And most don’t. And unlike job functions for which employees are paid, there’s no additional cost to the employer for employees to demonstrate job essence. Companies don’t pay their employees extra to care, take initiative, or accept responsibility.
Both job function (competency) and job essence (passion to serve) are required to create delighted customers. Customers won’t appreciate passionate, service-oriented employees who are incompetent. Nor will they respond to capable employees whose customer service they would describe as apathetic or indifferent. In other words, restaurant guests appreciate being greeted warmly and having a clean, folded napkin.
The opportunity to create delighted customers lies at the intersection of job function and job essence.
I have identified seven customer service behaviors that are available to frontline customer service providers at this intersection. These behaviors will enable them to elevate their personal customer service from typical, routine, and expected, to unique, refreshing, and unexpected.
In so doing, they will create delighted customers—loyal customers who will brag about the company/brand to others.
Here are three of the behaviors:
1. Express genuine interest: To express genuine interest in a customer is to go beyond that which a customer typically expects during a customer service interaction. For example, most customers might expect a supermarket cashier to smile, make eye contact, and add a bit of enthusiasm to her voice. These qualities may not always occur but they are the basics of a face-to-face customer service interaction.
To go beyond the basics might mean posing a question or two to the customer.
For example, I once observed the transaction ahead of me while in line at an Albertsons supermarket. As the cashier scanned a bag of dog food, she simply asked, “What kind of dog do you have?”
With that, the cashier and the customer had an enthusiastic exchange about their mutual love of Labrador Retrievers. It wasn’t long—maybe all of 20 seconds while the customer swiped his bank card and signed for his purchases. But an impression was made. A connection was established.
2. Share unique knowledge: To share unique knowledge with a customer means to go beyond the job knowledge that is ordinarily expected of one’s job role. For example, most restaurant guests expect for servers to possess basic job knowledge such as the evening’s specials, the soupe du jour, information about food preparation, ingredients/allergens, availability, pricing, etc.
Unique knowledge goes beyond job knowledge. It is interesting, memorable, and unexpected. It has character and substance.
It’s the difference between: “Tonight, our featured appetizer is the Pâté de Foie Gras” and “Our chef trained at the prestigious Restaurant School in Philadelphia and apprenticed at Le Bec Fin. She also traveled to France to refine her knowledge of French delicacies such as truffles, escargot, and foie gras. In fact, our Pâté de Foie Gras is our featured appetizer. May I tempt you with an order?”
Seriously, which of these two approaches would make an impression on you? Which might motivate you to order the appetizer?
3. Deliver service heroics: To deliver service heroics means to go beyond the customer’s expectations in providing him with an exceptional customer service experience. Sometimes, this will require an employee to go above and beyond the call of duty. He may be challenged to perform beyond the scope of his job description.
I won’t provide my own example here. Instead, I’ll ask you to reflect back on your own experience as a customer. Everyone reading this post has a vivid example of a time when a frontline hourly employee went above and beyond the call of duty to provide exceptional customer service.
Perhaps you wrote a letter to the employee’s boss or maybe you gave him or her a substantial gratuity? If not, I’m confident that you have at least shared the story with many others. An impression was made—one that you won’t soon forget.
Each of these behaviors shares the same set of characteristics: they demonstrate the essence of an employee’s job—his or her highest priority—to create a delighted customer; they’re optional—which is why, as customers, we don’t often experience them; and they’re free—companies don’t pay their employees extra to express genuine interest, share unique knowledge, or deliver service heroics.
By recognizing and communicating the difference between job function and job essence, then guiding employee performance by sharing and rewarding customer service behaviors that go beyond that which customers typically expect, companies will differentiate themselves on the basis of customer service quality.
While most of their competitors will be providing the customer service status quo, these companies will be providing Service Elevated! | <urn:uuid:70aa46ac-f9e7-491b-9192-d9d67633a9a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2010/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949599 | 1,514 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The GE Garages have rolled on to Houston’s Rice University campus, offering hands-on experience with laser cutters, 3D printers, and more. There are also workshops ranging from soldering to working with Autodesk software, scheduled over the next week and a half.
GE Garages is a high-tech, hands-on lab celebrating inventors and entrepreneurs, and providing you the chance to get your hands dirty and discover modern manufacturing processes.
The space is loaded with laser cutters, 3D printers, injection molders, metal inert gas welders, computer numeric control mills, and other high-tech tools. Take a break from studying to custom laser cut your laptop, mold a case for your iPhone, or help weld bike racks for campus!
The garages are located in West Lot 3 at Rice University, and are open from 2pm to 8pm daily (note: hours of operation were recently changed) from now through May 3. Visitors can pop in for playtime, or sign up for one of the workshops. The schedule of workshops can be found on the GE Garages website and the GE Garage Rice University event Facebook page. There are also lots of giveaways and special prizes each day, so be sure to stop by. | <urn:uuid:1ebcc98c-43af-4d68-b1c2-7e7aecb4518d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.makezine.com/2012/04/25/houston-makers-ge-garages-open-on-rice-university-campus/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=a4d6f3de1a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940056 | 256 | 1.585938 | 2 |
South Africa has less than seven weeks to "significantly reduce" its oil imports from Iran, or face possible US sanctions and an oil shortage, Beeld reported on Friday.
The government, oil companies and banks that paid for oil from Iran, had to lodge an official undertaking before June 28 with the USA to scale down on the imports and apply the change visibly.
At least 26 percent of South Africa's crude oil was imported monthly from Iran.
SA Petroleum Industry Association executive director Avhapfani Tshifularo told Beeld: "This is not a business decision for us. It involves a political decision about political pressure."
If South Africa did not drastically cut its imports, it would have to expedite requests to the USA for a postponement and temporary exemption from economic sanctions.
Although diplomatic sources in the department of mineral and energy affairs confirmed that "extremely sensitive" talks were underway, a postponement request had not yet been lodged with the USA, it was reported.
"We expect a Cabinet decision by the end of the month, and we will allow ourselves to be guided by that," Tshifularo said.
The USA has claimed that Iran's banking sector, including its central bank, "finances terrorism", and through money laundering, poses a threat to the international monetary system. | <urn:uuid:c392d260-6610-4af6-8878-a108d8c3ae62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.iafrica.com/news/794013.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975359 | 268 | 1.804688 | 2 |
South Korean officers salute during the joint commission ceremony of 5,780 new officers of the army, navy, air force and marines at the Gyeryong military headquarters in Gyeryong on March 8, south of Seoul. / Kim Jae Hwan, AFP/Getty Images
BEIJING â?? China called for "calm and restraint" Friday on the long-troubled Korean Peninsula, as both North Korea and South Korea exchanged increasingly harsh threats in the wake of new United Nations sanctions punishing the North for a nuclear test last month.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged "relevant parties to exercise calm and restraint and avoid actions that might further escalate tensions."
Ignoring that familiar message from Beijing, North Korea announced Friday it was canceling all non-aggression pacts with South Korea, cutting off its hotline and closing the main, albeit little-used, border crossing inside the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the two nations for six decades.
Newly elected South Korean President Park Geun Hye vowed Friday to deal strongly with North Korean provocations.
"Our current security situation is very grave. North Korea pressed ahead with a nuclear test and long-range missile development and is threatening to nullify the Armistice Agreement," she said at a commissioning ceremony for military graduates, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency.
"If North Korea attacks South Korea with a nuclear weapon, Kim Jong Un's regime will perish from Earth," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok said in a briefing Friday, according to Yonhap.
The words came a day after Beijing agreed to tougher than usual sanctions by the U.N. Security Council against China's longtime ally North Korea as punishment for a nuclear test last month and a satellite launch in December that many analysts viewed as a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The North's nuclear test marked the third time the reclusive, impoverished but highly militarized East Asian nation has defied the world and tested its nuclear program.
Chinese experts have long downplayed the extent of Beijing's influence in Pyongyang. The popular, Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said Friday that all sides should appreciate China attempting the "thankless" task of mediation and understand China's dilemma.
The ongoing annual session of China's legislature dominates the state-run news agenda here, and China's often nationalistic cyberspace was not as moved to comment Friday on the Korean issue as after the North's nuclear test last month.
Luo Yuan, a normally hawkish Chinese military commentator, wrote on his micro-blog Friday that neither North or South could afford the cost of war, "while neighboring countries also don't allow either side to pick a fight, and China especially put its own national security in first place."
This week, Pyongyang threatened to launch a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" on South Korea and the United States, which start joint military exercises Monday. Though many experts dismiss the nuclear threat as bellicose bluster, recent history suggests there is genuine risk of a smaller-scale military provocation against South Korea.
Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a front-line artillery unit that launched a deadly shelling attack on a nearby South Korean island in 2010. North Korea's army units "are fully ready to fight a Korean-style, all-out war," he said, according to state news agency KCNA.
In agreeing to U.N. Resolution 2094 Thursday, China, North Korea's northern neighbor and only significant ally, has gone further than before, but serious doubts remain about how willing Beijing will be to enforce sanctions against the nation that depends on China for fuel, food and diplomatic support.
"If the Chinese government chooses to enforce Resolution 2094 rigorously, it could seriously disrupt if not end, North Korea's proliferation activities," wrote Marcus Noland, senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Unfortunately, if past behavior is any guide, this is unlikely to happen."
Several Chinese experts have publicly called on Beijing in recent weeks to reduce that support, arguing that its provocative behavior harms Chinese interests. Yet Beijing continues to protect its Korean War ally, for fear that regime collapse could launch a flood of Korean refugees into China and result in a unified Korea with U.S. troops right on China's border.
Bruce Bechtol, a former China and Korea analyst at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency who's at Angelo State University in Texas, says China will take real steps against the North only to prevent financial pain to China.
If the United States and other countries threaten to pull money out of Chinese banks that do business with North Korea, "this will force â?? force â?? the Chinese to take action," Bechtol said.
Contributing: Oren Dorell in McLean, Va.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: China urges calm as North and South Korea trade barbs | <urn:uuid:03c08a96-cc46-40e1-8998-82aa2ffb2fa2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetowntalk.com/usatoday/article/1973093 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942435 | 1,016 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Baby alligator seized by wildlife officers
It's at the Janet Huckabee Nature Center where 40/29 News found out the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is now holding a small baby gator that was seized from Greenwood.
"It doesn't happen very often," said Kelly Mulvihill, the director of the Janet Huckabee Nature Center.
Officers with the Arkansas Fish and Game Commission along with the Greenwood Police Department seized a baby alligator Saturday.
Police said after an investigation, that a baby gator was being offered up for sale.
Game and fish stepped in to take the little guy into safety.
Police said the man was cited for being in possession of an alligator, which is illegal in Arkansas.
The Janet Huckabee Nature Center is now the refuge for the baby gator for the time being.
The center's director said this isn't the first time the education center has been approached to take care of the area's wildlife.
"Lots of people call us when they have baby animals that are homeless or adult animals that are injured, we're often the first call. and we direct people where the right place is to go, most of the time it should be a wildlife rehabilitator," said Mulvihill.
"What's the fate of the little gator right now? Do we know? Is it just too early?" our reporter asked.
"It's really too early to tell. We'll probably take it and keep it as long as we can, based on our facilities we have and then if it gets too big for us, we'll find another home for it," said Mulvihill.
Alligators are a native to Arkansas.
Copyright 2013 by 4029tv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:4c4a4eda-ef57-4ba8-b8e4-8331f33973a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.4029tv.com/news/arkansas/river-valley/Baby-alligator-seized-by-wildlife-officers/-/14498626/18579940/-/format/rsss_2.0/view/print/-/ne3xvxz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971643 | 369 | 1.75 | 2 |
FDA recommends approval of AIDS drug Truvada for HIV preventionBreaking News, Top Highlights Saturday, May 12th, 2012
On Thursday, an FDA advisory committee voted 19-3 that the agency approve Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for men who have sex with men and are not infected with HIV. They also voted 19-2 with one abstention to approve the drug for uninfected individuals whose partners are infected with the virus, and 12-8 with two abstentions to extend the approval to anyone who takes part in risky sexual practices.
Truvada is a daily drug that prevents the HIV virus from replicating, as opposed to eliminating it completely. Produced by Gilead Sciences, Inc., the drug is currently used in conjunction with other HIV medication.
Despite the committee’s votes in favor of preventative Truvada approval, over 40 health care professionals and advocates spoke out in resistance to such use, citing the likely decrease in other safe-sex practices and HIV-prevention tactics that might follow Truvada’s broadened availability, as well as the side effects that may harm patients using the drug.
“Approving PrEP would be a reckless act,” said Michael Weinstein, president and founder of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
In making their recommendation decision this week, the FDA looked at data from clinical trials that showed 43.8% fewer infections in men who have sex with men who used Truvada, and 63% infection rate reduction in healthy men and women deemed at risk for contracting HIV, as well as a 73% reduction in those who took both Truvada and another HIV drug, tenofovir. They also considered known side effects of Truvada, ranging from loss of appetite, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting to liver and kidney toxicity and bone density loss.
Supporters of the measure argued that health care professionals need more tools to fight AIDS and HIV infection. As American Foundation for AIDS Research vice president Chris Collins stated, “PrEP is certainly not for everyone, but it may have a role in HIV-infection rates down. It’s time to learn how PrEP may be useful in the real world.”
Short URL: http://lgbtweekly.com/?p=24475 | <urn:uuid:b61284bf-87f4-4a23-8aac-bef919ba18bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lgbtweekly.com/2012/05/12/fda-recommends-approval-of-aids-drug-truvada-for-hiv-prevention/ | 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 | 0.959912 | 480 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Do search engine optimize your website to Google. Here is a detailed guide on SEO and is mainly for beginners, go through:
SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site.
Web site promotion has become a time consuming project and a new position in the web design industry, Search Engine Consultants, has been created. there are some points that should be consider in promoting your website.
1) Build a strong, solid business foundation
2) Join a few Web rings
3) Make your business web site trustable
Get Backlinks, its a commercial site so you should expect to pay for traffic, but its cheap, google backlink services and paid web traffic.
Seriously if you Google "ways to increase my web traffic" then do your homework (budget), you can buy hits, facebook likes (which means more hits), fans, buy tweets by the thousand, and get one of your own free SEO courses, pay particular attention to items 13 to 26 of your online seo course because they all relate to getting your website out there.
(BTW that link is broken, 404 error) otherwise the site looks good for a commercial site.
Probably the best way to promote a blog is by guest posting on other blogs in a similar niche. You can add it to every online directory under the sun, but the chances of that generating any actual traffic are pretty slim. People mostly use that kind of process to crease backlinks to help them climb the Google pagerank ladder. To really increase traffic you need to get involved in your niche on a personal level. Guest posting is the best way of doing this, as it introduces you to people, lets you communicate with them through comments and also paints you as an expert in that area. Posting on forums and commenting on other blogs too are well worthwhile.
Create a blog page on your website, then write new and unique content on this blog and share these posts on social sites, both networking and bookmarking sites. Also work on long tail keywords along with short keywords for getting traffic. | <urn:uuid:2866fbed-91cf-41b1-901d-b02486fedc58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?260813-How-to-bring-traffic-to-my-website&p=1246017 | 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 | 0.9437 | 479 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A picket line went up in front of the Wyandotte Public Schools headquarters right outside the city of Detroit on Aug. 30 in response to a series of allegations regarding blatant racial discrimination, intimidation and violence carried out against students and their parents.
The action was called by Team for Justice in conjunction with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice. Joe Hudson, who has a 13-year-old daughter in the district, is the spokesperson for the civil rights organization TfJ.
He said that African-American students and their white friends have been harassed and stalked by a contractual service employee at the Wilson Middle School.
Even after two personal protection orders were taken out to restrain the behavior of the employee, the same activity continued without any effort by the school district to remove the employee.
Hudson has been attacked before in Wyandotte. After he complained to police about the harassment of him and his daughter, a white man who lived next door to his home continued to walk pass the house shouting racial slurs.
“He would say, ‘You people should not be living here,’” Hudson recalled. Wyandotte is a majority white community. Eventually the man was arrested but the attempts to intimidate the family continue.
Keith Tims, a colleague and friend of Hudson, who also has a 13-year-old at Wilson, said during the demonstration that he has witnessed firsthand the racism and violence against people who are residents of Wyandotte. Tims, a UAW member, expressed his appreciation to MECAWI for supporting TfJ’s efforts to expose and eradicate racism in Wyandotte.
Hudson told the demonstration that if the situation with the school had not been resolved before the next board meeting, he would put a call out for Wyandotte residents and others to attend that Sept. 18 meeting. | <urn:uuid:dc496348-0560-4abe-9ddd-330234cfe100> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.workers.org/2012/09/13/demonstrate-against-racism-in-wyandotte-schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980404 | 383 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The San Francisco midsummer fog was late in coming this year, which means Janet and I got a fantastic view of the July 4th fireworks (legal and not-strictly-legal) from the top of Bernal Hill. Hot days are rare in San Francisco, so random strangers have been smiling at each other on Mission Street and the lines are extra-long on the sidewalks in front of the ice creameries.
You may not be aware of the close relationships among these summer phenomena. Ice cream was invented by modifying a technology originally discovered for fireworks. And the way ice creams flavors are named turns out to have a surprising relationship with the evolutionary origin of the human smile.
Ice cream has always been popular in San Francisco; Swensons, Double Rainbow, and It's It were all founded here, and Rocky Road ice cream was invented across the bay in Oakland during the Great Depression. Prices are not Depression-era at the latest upscale creameries, though, where you'd be lucky to walk away with a pint of ice cream for less than seven dollars. At Smitten, in Hayes Valley, for example, they'll make your ice cream fresh when you order it, freezing it with liquid nitrogen. At other places the selling point is the the unusual flavors (or their interesting names). At Humphry Slocombe you can get foie gras, pink grapfefruit tarragon, or strawberry black olive. Bi-Rite Creamery will happily sell you honey lavender, balsamic strawberry, and salted caramel. Mitchell's specializes in Filipino and other tropical flavors, including halo halo, lucuma, ube (purple yam), and avocado. And Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous seems to keep running out of their latest hip flavor, orange blossom.
Well, actually, it turns out that orange blossom is not a newfangled flavor. Orange blossom is, in fact, the original ice cream flavor, appearing in the earliest recipes by the mid 1600's, the period when ice cream was invented. Ice cream was served in the Restoration court of Charles II as early as 1671, and food scholar Elizabeth David gives us what may be the English royal recipe, handwritten in Grace Countess Granville's Receipt Book by the 1680's:
The Ice Creame
Take a fine pan Like a pudding pan ½ a ¼ of a yard deep, and the bredth of a Trencher; take your Creame & sweeton it wth Sugar and 3 spoonfulls of Orrange flower water, & fill yor pan ¾ full...
By about 1696, a later edition of La Varenne's cookbook suggests using fresh orange flowers:
You must take sweet cream, and put thererto handfuls of powdered sugar, and take petals of Orange Flowers and mince them small, and put them in your Cream, and if you have no fresh Orange Flowers you must take candied, with a drop of good Orange Flower water...
And by 1700 other ice cream flavors were developed as well, including pumpkin, chocolate, and lemon, as well as a plethora of early sorbets: sour cherry, cardamom, coriander-lemon, and strawberry.
Where did these flavors come from? The use of orange flower should give you a clue: the historical roots of ice cream and sorbet, like many of our modern foods, lie in the Muslim world.
Fruit syrups, and the refereshing drinks made from mixing them with water, are called sherbet in Turkish and sharbat in Persian, from Arabic sharbah, from shariba `to drink'. These chilled (but not frozen) drinks have been popular throughoutt the Ottoman, Arab, and Persian worlds continuously since the Middle Ages. On the left is a Gül Şerbeti (rose sherbet) from a modern Turkish cookbook; and Claudia Roden talks nostalgically of the sharbat of Egypt, flavored with lemon, rose, violet, tamarind, mulberry, raisin, or liquorice.
By the 16th century Italian and French travelers had brought back words of these Turkish sherbets. In one of the earliest mentions of the word in Europe, the French naturalist Pierre Belon in 1553 described sherbets in Istanbul made of figs, plums, apricots, and raisins. Thirsty passers-by would buy a glass of syrup from wandering sellers or stands, mixed with water and chilled with ice. But by 1615 sherbets were still unavailable in Europe; here's an excerpt from a letter an Italian traveler sent home in 1615 from Constantinople, from Elizabeth David's lovely book "Harvest of the Cold Months":
scerbet, a certain composition which they make... of sugar, lemon juice, seasonings of fruit and flowers and other ingredients, something like the conserves and marmalades of Naples; when they want to drink, they put some of this composition in a jug of water...
These sherbets were the source of the fruit ices that we now call sorbets. But the Ottoman drinks (and the modern Middle Eastern ones as well) were not frozen; they were cooled with ice or snow just like modern lemonade. People had been putting ice and snow into drinks to cool them for over 4000 years, but freezing sweetened fruit juice or cream requires a much lower temperature than just ice can achieve.
So where did the idea and the technology for freezing arise? Obviously liquid nitrogen, the darling freezing technology of modernist cuisine, was not available in the 16th century.
The insight came from fireworks. In the 9th century, during the Tang dynasty, the Chinese first realized that saltpeter (potassium nitrate) could be mixed with sulpher and coal to create the explosive mixture we now call gunpowder. Gunpowder was quickly adopted by the Muslim world, where potassium nitrate was called Chinese snow in Arabic and Chinese salt in Persian.
But it was in the Arab world rather than China that the processing of purifying and refining potassium nitrate was perfected, and it was here in Damascus that it was discovered, probably by the Damascus physician Ibn Abī Uṣaybi'a, in his 1242 History of Medicine ("Uyūn al-ānbā")) (although he credits a lost work from an earlier Muslim physician, Ibn Bakhtawayh, from 1029), that saltpeter had refrigerating properties: when potassium nitrate (saltpeter) is added to water, it chills the water. Dissolving salts like potassium nitrate (KNO3) in water breaks the bonds between the ions, drawing heat from the surrounding water. This endothermic reaction, the basis of the modern cold pack shown to the right, can drop the temperature of the water enough to freeze pure water, although not low enough to freeze fruit ices or ice cream.
By the early 16th century this discovery was widely used in Muslim India to chill water for drinking. At this time most of what is today northern and central India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as well as parts of Afghanistan, was ruled by the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. The Mughals were originally Turkic speakers from central Asia, and the royal line that conquered Delhi traced their descent from Genghis Khan (Mughal was the Persian word for Mongol), but had adopted the Persian language and culture. By the time of Akbar, the Persian-speaking court at Agra was a center for the arts, architecture and literature. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata were translated from Sanskrit to Persian during this period, and Akbar's keen interest in painting and architecture led to the development of styles of art that mixed Persian, Hindu, and European forms. Like many places where scientific and culinary innovation and mixing flourished (Moorish Spain, early Norman Sicily), Akbar's reign was a beacon of relative religious tolerance, in which the tax on non-Muslims was eliminated and other religions were allowed self-government. Agra (and his later court in Lahore) were steamy hot, and drinks were cooled by spinning a long-necked flask in saltpeter-water. Here's a 1596 description from the Ain I Akbari:
One sér of water is then put into a goglet of pewter, or silver, or any other such metal, and the mouth closed. Then two and a half sérs of saltpetre are thrown into a vessel, together with five sérs of water, and in this mixture the goglet is stirred about for a quarter of an hour, when the water in the goglet will become cold.
Very quickly this idea of using saltpeter to cool water was adopted in Italy. Blas Villafranca, a Spanish physician working in Rome published the idea in 1550, saying that this saltpeter bath had become the common method of cooling wine in Rome. On the left is his picture of the method, showing a bulbous flask clearly adapted from the Indian flasks above; the shape makes it easy to speed up the cooling by turning the bottle in the cold bath.
In 1589 the next step in ice cream technology was taken by the Neapolitan Giambattista Della Porta. In the 2nd edition of his "Magia Naturalis" he experimented with adding saltpeter to snow rather than to water. The result successfully froze watered wine. Della Porta's combination was a happy accident; it was not saltpeter's endothermic reaction with water that caused cooling when mixed with ice, but a completely different chemical property. Adding a solute (anything will do) lowers the freezing point of water, by interfering with the crystal structure of the ice. Adding salt or potassium chloride slowly draws water out from its chrysal mixture, and since the freezing point is lowered, turns into a salty slush. The phase shift from solid to liquid takes energy (another endothermic reaction), resulting in an even colder freezing brine that reaches -20 degrees C, easily cold enough to freeze ice cream or fruit ices.
Sometime between 1615 and 1650, the Neapolitans combined the liquid Ottoman sherbets with the newly invented saltpeter-and-ice freezing method, resulting in a new food: frozen sherbets or frozen sorbets. The idea of freezing other liquids like milks and custards soon followed. We don't have any of these early Italian recipes, the way we have early English and French recipes, but evidence for the Italian innovation comes from contemporary French ice cream makers who discussed learning their recipes from Italy. Soon afterwards the Italians also figured out that common salt worked better than saltpeter for freezing (salt is a smaller molecule than saltpeter; the smaller the molecule, the more ions from each gram of solute interferes with freezing); by 1665 the English chemist Robert Boyle said that ice and common salt was the method "much employ'd" in Italy to chill drinks and fruit.
As for the names of the flavors, mostly they are just the names of the ingredients ("chocolate", "strawberry", "orange blossom", and so on). We commonly assume that such flavor names are purely descriptive, and that factors like the sounds of the names should have no bearing on how the ice cream tastes. To paraphrase Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
What's in a name? that which we call a rose sherbet
By any other name would smell as sweet;
Juliet was roughly correct; the sounds (or "phones") that make up a word don't generally tell you what the word means. By 500 BC Plato (in the Cratylus) and the Chinese linguist Xunzi of the Chinese Warring States period had figured out that the relationship between sound and meaning is usually arbitrary. A moment's thought makes it clear why this must be true: different languages have totally different sounds for the same concept, and languages only have around fifty or so phones, and obviously have a lot more ideas to express than fifty.
But it turns out that research over the last century has shown that Shakespeare was wrong; sometimes the sounds of a name do influence how people perceive ice cream. The phenomenon of sounds carrying meaning is called "sound symbolism". Sound symbolism has been most deeply studied with vowels, and in particular the difference between two classes of vowels, front vowels and back vowels, which are named depending on the position of the tongue. The vowels i (the vowel in the words cheese or bean) and ɪ (the phonetics symbol is a small capital I, pronounced as in mint or slim) are front vowels. because they are made by holding the tongue high up in the front part of the mouth. The picture to the left shows a very schematic cutaway of the head, showing the lips and teeth on the left, and the tongue high up toward the front of the mouth.
By contrast, the vowel ɑ (as in large, pod, or on) is a low back vowel; this sound is made by holding the tongue lower in the back part of the mouth; other back vowels are o (as in cold) and ɔ (as in the word pour or my mother's New York pronunciation of ought). The picture to the right shows a very schematic tongue position for these vowels; lower in general, and more toward the back of the throat.
A number of studies over the last 100 years or so have shown that front vowels in many languages tend to be used in words that refer to small, thin, light things, and back vowels in words that refer to big, fat, heavy things. It's not always true, but it's a tendency that you can see in any of the stressed vowels in words like little, teeny or itsy-bitsy (all front vowels) versus humongous or gargantuan (back vowels). Or the i vowel in Spanish chico (front vowel meaning small) versus gordo (back vowel meaning fat). Or French petit (front vowel) versus grand (back vowel).
In one marketing study, for example, Richard Klink created pairs of made-up product brand names that were identical except for having front vowels or back vowels: nidax (front vowel) verus nodax (back vowel), or detal (front vowel) versus dutal (back vowel). For a number of hypothetical products, he asked people which seemed bigger or smaller, or heavier or lighter, with questions like:
Which brand of laptop seems bigger; Detal or Dutal?
Which brand of vacuum cleaner seems heavier, Keffi or Kuffi?
Which brand of ketchup seems thicker, Nellen or Nullen?
Which brand of beer seems darker, Esab or Usab?
In each case, the participants in the study tended to choose the product named by back vowels (dutal, nodax) as the larger, heavier, thicker, darker product. Similar studies have been conducted in various other languages.
The fact that consumers think of brand names with back vowels as heavy, thick, richer products suggests that they might prefer to name ice cream with back vowels, since ice cream is a product whose whole purpose is to be heavy and rich.
Indeed, it turns out that people seem to (at least mildly) prefer ice creams that are named with back vowels. In a study in the Journal of Consumer Research Eric Yorkston and Geeta Menon had participants read a press release describing a new ice cream about to be released. Half the participants read a version where the ice cream was called "Frish" (front vowel) and the other half read a version where it was called "Frosh" (back vowel), but the press release was otherwise identical. Asked their opinions of this (still hypothetical) ice cream, the "Frosh" people rated it as smoother, creamier, and richer than the "Frish" people, and were more likely to say they would buy it. The participants were even more influenced by the vowels if they were simultanously distracted by performing some other task, suggesting that their response to the vowels was automatic, at a non-conscious level.
If people subconsciously think of ice cream names with back vowels as richer and creamier, it suggests that actual ice cream brands or flavors might also use back vowels. So I ran what Mark Liberman calls a Breakfast Experiment; a quick experiment using some easy-to-access language data. My hypothesis was that we would see more back vowels in names of actual ice cream brands or flavors. Furthermore, if front vowels indeed indicate thin, small, light , we should expect more front vowels in foods that supposed to be thin and light, like crackers.
To test the hypothesis I downloaded two lists of food names from the web. One was a list of 81 ice cream flavors that I constructed by including every flavor sold by either Haagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry's. The second was a list of 592 cracker brands from a dieting website. For each list, I counted the total number of front vowels (i, ɪ, ɛ,e,æ) and the total number of back vowels (details of the study are here). The result, shown in the table to the right, is that ice creams names indeed have more back vowels and cracker names have more front vowels.
Here are some examples of stressed back vowels in ice cream names:
Rocky Road, Jamoca Almond Fudge, Chocolate, Caramel, Cookie Dough, Coconut
And here are samples of the many cracker names with front vowels; note the extraordinary number of ɪ vowels:
Cheese Nips, Cheez It, Wheat Thins, Pretzel thins, Ritz, Krispy, Triscuit, Thin Crisps, Cheese Crisps, Chicken in a Biskit, Snack sticks, Toasted chips, Ritz bits
Of course there are exceptions: vanilla, the orange blossom of our day, has an ɪ. But most of the front vowels in ice cream flavors tend to be the names of small thin ingredients in the ice cream: (thin mint, chip, peanut brittle).
So what's going on? Why are front vowels associated with small, thin, light things, and back vowels with big, solid, heavy things?
The most widely accepted theory, called the Frequency Code, suggests that low frequencies (low pitch) and high frequencies (high pitch) are associated with particular meanings. The frequency code was developed by linguist John Ohala (my old phonetics professor!), extending work by Eugene Morton of the Smithsonian.
Morton noticed that mammals and birds tend to use low-frequency (deeper) sounds when they are aggressive or hostile, but use higher-freqeuncy (higher-pitched) sounds when frightened, appeasing, or friendly. Since larger animals naturally make deeper sounds (the roar of lions) and smaller animals naturally make high-pitched sounds (the tweet of birds), Morton's idea is that animals try to appear larger when they are competing or aggressive, but try to appear smaller and less threatening when they are trying to be friendly or appeasing.
Morton and Ohala thus suggest that humans instinctively associate the pitch of sounds with size. It turns out that front vowels like ɪ and i are higher-pitched in a particular way than back vowels ɑ and o. All vowels are composed of different frequency resonances. When the tongue is high and in the front of the mouth, it creates a small cavity in front of the tongue. Small cavities cause higher-pitched resonances (the smaller the space for vibration, the shorter the wavelength, hence the higher the frequency). One particular resonance (called the second formant) is much higher for front vowels and lower for back vowels.
Thus the frequency code suggests that front vowels are associated with small, thin, things, and back vowels with big heavy things because front vowels have higher pitched resonances, and we instinctively associate higher pitch with smaller things.
This link of high pitch with deference or friendliness may also explain the origin of the smile, which is similarly associated with appeasing or friendly behavior. The way we make a smile is by retracting the corners of the mouth. Animals like monkeys also retract the corners of their mouths to express submission (Ohala's figure (a) on the right), and use the opposite facial expression, which Ohala calls the "o-face" in which the corners of the mouth are drawn forward with the lips possibly protruding (figure (b) on the right), to indicate aggression. Retracting the corners of the mouth shrinks the size of the front cavity in the mouth, just like the vowels ɪ or i. In fact, the similarity in mouth position between smiling and the vowel i explains why we say "cheese" when we take pictures; i is the smiling vowel.
Ohala's theory is thus that smiling evolved when mammals were in competitive situations, as a way to make the voice sound more high-pitched, so as it make the smiler appear smaller and less aggressive, and hence friendlier.
Of course even if Ohala is right about the ancient evolutionary origin of the smile, smiling in humans has evolved into a means of expressing many shades of enjoyment and other emotional meanings, just as back vowels have become part of a rich and beautiful system for expressing complex meanings by combining sounds into words.
Something similarly beautiful was created as saltpeter and snow, sherbet and salt, were passed along and extended from the Chinese to the Arabs to the Mughals to the Neapolitans, to create the sweet lusciousness of ice cream. And it's a nice thought that saltpeter, applied originally to war, became the key hundreds of years later to inventing something that makes us all smile on a hot summer day.
Ice cream, anyone? | <urn:uuid:441236c8-7103-4b39-844b-8f7fed7e48fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://languageoffood.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958473 | 4,605 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Re: Capitalism and XML
[scroll down to end for re-connection to original RELAX NG story] Stefano Debenedetti wrote: > John Cowan wrote: > > Matthew Gertner scripsit: > > > >>(http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1045223 -- like > >>a good reactionary I read reactionary rags) that points out that purely > >>selfish behavior based on this principle can lead to altruistic behavior on > >>the macro level. Good news for everyone, I say. > > > > > > Yes, indeed, and very interesting. > > This article *is* reactionary, I find it outdated to talk about > "scientific confirmation of a human commonplace". This article indeed smells of nasty ideas that I wish were outdated. I had the curiosity to check the two sources cited as reference by the Economist: - the article at http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/415137a, published by Nature (alarm bells ringing) is written by two economists (more alarm bells). Only the abstract is available to non-members, but have a look at this brief to get an idea of where this is going: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-6.html - the article at http://www.santafe.edu/sfi/publications/Abstracts/01-01-007abs.html has 6 named authors (including Fehr, co-author of Nature article) and also involved 11 anthropologists and 1 economist. I just read the introduction and conclusion, and it seems to be a lot more interesting, although we'd have to review the validity of the methodology to find out if the conclusions can be trusted. But at least it goes against the orthodoxy of Homo Economicus canonical model. I assumed the Santa Fe Institute was mostly a conservative think-tank, but that particular study was funded by the MacArthur Foundation (http://www.macfound.org) - didn't know them. Alarm bell, the founder worked in bank & insurance :-) However, I fail to see any obvious connection to biology in either article, so how can The Economist use biological research as as legitimation tool for the ideology reflected by their article ? I hope the journalist is not confusing biology and anthropology but... <snip/> > But of course the funniest thing is the solution proposed: > > "it might be useful to provide opportunities for the public-spirited to > punish the free-riders in society." And Bush Jr is public-spirited, isn't he ? I mean, he is a great defender of the oil "community", right ? Some let's expect that some day "terrorists" (formerly "communists") will be renamed "free-riders" as a justification for their punishment > I was suggesting to do this for the W3C but looking at it now from a > more general perspective, that's the only one good thing about this > article, I really changed my mind: you can't punish whom is more > powerful than you. Think about Kyoto protocol for example, the most > powerful player just decided that environmental issues are less > important than its internal situation and nobody is ever going to > succeed at changing its mind from outside. If we expect our coward European leaders to make Uncle Sam change what he really wants (hint: hidden Chomsky reference), we are doomed. But, taking - hopefully - more modest goals, we can punish the W3C by making them put their "Recommendation" stamp on RELAX NG :-) Alain. --- Alain Rogister CTO http://www.ubiquity.be
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Subscribe in XML format | <urn:uuid:dab556e5-cd3f-48a0-a155-fb36eabce409> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stylusstudio.com/xmldev/200203/post11110.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 | 0.943543 | 842 | 1.75 | 2 |
Gustafson, Goldie Halm
by Harry, Mary, David & Bill Sperling
GOLDIE HALM GUSTAFSON (1903-1951)
Not much is known about “Aunty Goldie” who was named after the Golden Gate Bridge. She was born in Douglas. She first married J. W. Flannigan who was connected with the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mine and then Anaconda Copper Mine in Butte, Montana, where they resided. However, she returned to Juneau alone. Bert Johnson was her second husband. Finally, she married Gus Gustafson who was the skipper of the Estebeth. Goldie died in 1951. There were no children. Gus died in Seattle a year later. Except for the two years in Seattle after the mine cave in, I believe she lived always in Douglas and Juneau. | <urn:uuid:89830e2f-0d87-4cd0-8a73-3f200d0dd5b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.juneau.org/parkrec/museum/forms/GCM/readarticle.php?UID=1062&newxtkey= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98872 | 184 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Thu November 15, 2012
Did The President Set The Right Tone?
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
I'm Michel Martin, and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. In a few minutes, we will speak with the winner of the prestigious National Book Award for Nonfiction, author Katherine Boo. She was honored for her book about the people in a neighborhood in Mumbai, and she'll tell us more about it in a few minutes.
But first, we want to take a look at some of the political news dominating the headlines. President Obama held a news conference on Wednesday, the first since winning reelection. He addressed a wide range of issues from the economy to immigration to the scandal surrounding former CIA Chief David Petraeus. But he emphasized that he had one mandate to help middle class families and those working hard to get into the middle class. Here's a little bit from that press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That's what the American people said. They said: work really hard to help us. Don't worry about the politics of it. Don't worry about the party interests. Don't worry about the special interests. Just work really hard to see if you can help us get ahead, because we're working really hard out here, and we're still struggling, a lot of us. That's my mandate.
MARTIN: We wanted to dig into what the president said and how it's being received, so we've called upon Andrea Seabrook. She is a former NPRcongressional correspondent. She now hosts a podcast and radio show called "DecodeDC." She's here with us in our Washington, D.C. studio.
ANDREA SEABROOK: Thanks. Great to be here.
MARTIN: Also with us from our bureau in New York, Keli Goff. She is political correspondent for TheRoot.com, and that is an online news and commentary website with a particular focus on African-American perspectives.
Welcome back to you, Keli Goff.
KELI GOFF: Always a pleasure to come back.
MARTIN: Andrea, just briefly, tell us about "DecodeDC." What's it all about?
SEABROOK: It's a public radio show and podcast that tries to tell stories of Washington in a different way.
MARTIN: Well, you covered Congress for 10 years, so you know the drill. So I'll start with you. President Obama's opening position bargaining over the fiscal cliff - that's something we've talked a lot about - was a call on Congress to go ahead before tackling spending and other issues and pass a middle class tax cut right away. He said: We could get that done next week. Is that realistic?
SEABROOK: No. It's not realistic.
SEABROOK: I mean, you know, it's the kind of thing that sounds really strong. In fact, he sounded strong and confident. He knows he's in a really good bargaining position here. He just won reelection to a second term. In a lot of ways, a lot of the things that he would have to worry about in terms of how he messages and optics are off the table.
That said, the Republican Party is probably worse - even though there's been a lot of talk in the last couple days about Republicans, who still control the House of Representatives, talking about we've got to get a deal. We've got to get real. In fact, they are in complete disarray in the House of Representatives. They have just lost a major election. Even though they kept the House of Representatives, they lost seats in the Senate when they, by all accounts, should have picked up seats.
And they recognize that their demographics are bad. They're not in the position where they can come together and say: Here's what our stance is going to be on the fiscal cliff. Here's what our stance is going to be on middle-class taxes. And I think it's very unlikely that we'll have any movement in the coming week, certainly.
MARTIN: Well, how did they respond to the press conference? On the one hand, he firmly did assert a mandate. That was something that people were interested to see whether he would do...
MARTIN: ...given the fact that he had an electoral landslide, but the popular was still kind of close. And you could see that congressional leaders were saying: You know, so what? You know, you don't have a - you don't really have a mandate. He was asserting that he did. He was also saying, though, that he could do some self-reflection about how to work with leaders across the aisle better, saying I could always do better. What is your sense in these early days of how that - how was that received?
SEABROOK: I think it was well-received. I think he struck a really careful and smart balance there. He didn't come out and say: The American public supports everything I do. He came out and said: It's obvious that the American public believes that I should be fighting for the middle class, and that we should extend tax cuts for at least those people making $250,000. In fact, he said in the press conference: More people agree with me on that than voted for me.
SEABROOK: And even to acknowledge that a lot of Americans didn't vote for him, yet he was going to try and fight for them anyway is, I think, it's pretty forward-looking for this president.
MARTIN: Keli Goff, what's your perspective on this? I'm particularly interested in the fact that on The Root, for example, a lot of progressives and people reporting on the progressive movement have talked about the fact that they want the president to be more aggressive in asserting, you know, progressive principles and values and interests. What's your perspective on this?
GOFF: And actually, my column today is specifically about how progressives have kind of been craving for him to get angry the last four years. I mean, how many columns - I was going through counting while I was working on my column for today. How many times have we heard progressives say, get angry? Where is the passionate guy that we thought we were voting for?
And we saw some passion and a little bit of anger yesterday. And I actually think that that probably was really exciting to a lot of his supporters who, you know, we know that we've talked about this on your show, Michel, about him trying to find this balance between being the likeable guy who has high favorability ratings and not being the scary, angry black guy.
And yesterday, I think even though he sort of deflected when Ed Henry asked him, do you feel like you have a mandate - if you remember, the president actually kind of dodged that and said, well, my mandate's just a fight for the American people. No. What we saw in his tone is that he knows he has a mandate. I mean, one of the things that I've read is that conservatives had kind of prepared for a lot of Election Day scenarios. They kind of didn't prepare for the one where he not only won, but he won convincingly. And that was really the tone he struck.
I think the bigger story is going to be less about how the president handles negotiations in this new mandate and watching sort of conservatives in the House, for lack of a better term, start eating their own.
Because there are those conservatives who can go back to Southern states and say, yeah, you know, in so many words, I put him in his place and told him I'm not negotiating, no matter what. There are a lot of other Republicans who are going to be in tight races in more moderate states where they actually like things like bipartisanship and working across the aisle, which is something we haven't seen a lot of the last four years. We've seen a lot of obstructionism.
So I anticipate that his tone is going to mean a sort of divide-and-conquer mentality in Congress when some of these members of Congress realize that their seats are going to be in jeopardy if they are not at least perceived to be trying to work with this president - who did win, quite frankly, with a mandate.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I am Michel Martin, and I am speaking with TheRoot.com political correspondent Keli Goff. That's who was speaking just now. Also with us, former NPR congressional correspondent Andrea Seabrook. She now runs the podcast and radio show called "DecodeDC."
Does he have a mandate on immigration? He did seem to come out swinging on immigration. Andrea.
SEABROOK: You know, the thing that makes it seem as if he has a mandate on immigration is not so much that he talked a lot about it in this campaign, because he didn't. He talked a lot about it in his first campaign, and didn't manage to pull it together in the first four years. But what makes it seem as if he might have a mandate is the fact that there's the possibility of movement at all among Republicans. And that's simply because of looking at the demographics of this last election.
Republicans are doing a lot of reflection. A lot of the talk just in society right now is about how the minority has become the majority vote in this election. And a really interesting question is: Can the president move forward? Will the Republicans move themselves into a place where they could see any kind of comprehensive immigration reform?
And if they can, there's, like, this long-standing mandate. It's been so messed up for so long, our laws, that it's almost like if you have a chance at any time, then you've got a run.
MARTIN: We've got to talk about the scandal surrounding former CIA chief General David Petraeus. He, of course, resigned last week after acknowledging that he had had an extramarital affair with a woman who's also a West Point grad named Paula Broadwell who wrote a biography of him, a very favorable biography of him that set off a whole series of reports about other people connected to this relationship.
In addressing the matter, the president highlighted the general's extraordinary career, and he placed a lot less emphasis on what he called a personal matter. Let's listen to a clip of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
OBAMA: We are safer because of the work that Dave Petraeus has done. And my main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on, and that this ends up being a single side note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career.
MARTIN: Now, he called that his hope, that this would be a side note, but is it being perceived that way now? I know we're in the thick of the story, Keli, but you know, what do you think?
GOFF: What I actually thought was more fascinating about this is how there has been so much attempt by conservatives to sort of turn the Benghazi story into some huge White House West Wing cover-up. We saw the president very angrily and forcefully defend his ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, and what's been fascinating is that what started as people saying, oh, this is just a deflection from Benghazi - I don't know if you've been following that. Some of the right wing blogosphere conspiracy theories - even Elisabeth Hasselbeck sort of threw a grenade about that on "The View" - has turned into something that, if "West Wing" wrote this, no one would believe it.
It's been a fascinating yet tragic thing to watch, in part because it does affect our national security, Michel, you know, that we have two high ranking men now, the CIA director and potentially General Allen, who are - clearly were not so much focused on protecting us as much as they should have been. Right?
MARTIN: Just briefly, the president did caution people against rushing to judgment on some of the facts because he says that the facts are not yet completely known. I'll just play a short clip of that. He was talking about the FBI investigation relating to the Petraeus scandal, and he said that he has confidence in the agency, but he wants to see how the investigation proceeds. Here is a clip of that here.
OBAMA: It is also possible that had we been told, then you'd be sitting here asking a question about why were you interfering in a criminal investigation. So I think it's best right now for us to just see how this whole process unfolded.
MARTIN: Andrea, just give us your perspective on this.
SEABROOK: There are certainly really important questions to ask about the David Petraeus question and, just to bring it back, the Benghazi question, but I think there's a lot of angry searching, especially on Fox News, frankly, and a lot of the right wing blogs, for some kind of way in which they can find something wrong with how the president acted with this election. I think the main question that they've brought up with the Petraeus issue is how could it be possible that the president would find - get reelected on Tuesday and find out about this on Thursday - how is that possible?
And I think the president did a good job in the press conference of showing what I think most Americans feel about this, which is just a sense of sadness, that there are personal faults, we all have them, and that they go right up the ladder to some of our most trusted people protecting our national security. That does not necessarily a conspiracy make.
MARTIN: Andrea Seabrook is the host of the podcast and radio show Decode D.C. Keli Goff is political correspondent for TheRoot.com.
Thank you both so much for speaking with us.
GOFF: Thanks for having me.
SEABROOK: Thanks so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:7ce969dd-375a-474c-a459-c8214432e1d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kvnf.org/post/did-president-set-right-tone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984476 | 2,946 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Hamill’s Beat - Worrying about one’s legacy
Prince Charles says he’s worried about the legacy he’ll pass on to his grandchild to be born later this year.
It’s the sort of thing all of us grandparents (and those of us who are prospective grandparents like me and the Prince) worry about.
OK, Charles was thinking about the environment. Apart from that he hasn’t much to fret about. The fact that he can give the Duchy of Cornwall and the throne of England to his grandchild should be a consolation.
Fair enough, his grandchild will have to face a lifetime on state aid. Generations of royals haven’t had a job and they’ve probably lost the will to work by now.
That’s what happens. When nobody in your family has worked for ages, expectations fall and it’s easy to accept a culture of dependency. So we’re always told.
A Bill soon to be considered by the Commons will ensure that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first baby can succeed to the throne whether the child is a boy or a girl.
It will also remove the ban on heirs to the throne marrying a Catholic.
When it goes through, Prince Charles’ new grandchild will be free to marry a Catholic.
Then, if the children from such a marriage are brought up as Catholics, it could spark a constitutional crisis. Catholics would still be barred from the British throne.
Of course, a change in the law allowing a Catholic to become king or queen would be welcomed by most people in multi-cultural Britain.
It would, however, pose a rich dilemma for the North’s band of ultra-loyalist bigots.
Prince Charles has already spoken to the government about his concerns.
The Daily Mail reported that he was told the problem could be resolved by negotiations with the Vatican but he was said to find that answer “unsatisfactory and unconvincing”.
It’s worrying times indeed for the Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment.
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Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West | <urn:uuid:3531f778-3a79-4560-a3a4-d7ca2fc03563> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.derryjournal.com/community/columnists/hamill-s-beat-worrying-about-one-s-legacy-1-4683253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94645 | 511 | 1.53125 | 2 |
BROWN, CARRIE BERTHA PFEIFFER
BROWN, CARRIE BERTHA PFEIFFER (1886–1977). Carrie Brown, clubwoman, the daughter of John and Sophie Pfeiffer, was born in Carrizo Springs, Texas, on August 8, 1886. When she was five years old she and her family moved to Encinal; later they settled in San Antonio. Carrie was educated in the San Antonio public schools and at the University of Texas in Austin, where she was active in the student council and received her B.A. in 1906. Two years later she married Alexander A. Brown, a young physician with a practice in general medicine. They had three children. The Browns surrounded themselves with an outstanding library of fine books and collections of art, china, and antique furniture. Carrie worked with the San Antonio Kindergarten Association, the nonsectarian Immigrant Night School established by the National Council of Jewish Women, the City Federation of Women's Clubs, the Crippled Children's Association, the Bexar County Medical Auxiliary, the PTA, and the Texas Children's Home-Finding Society. She served as president or board member in each of these associations. The state chapter of the American Association of University Women was organized in San Antonio in her home. She served as a charter member, as secretary, and three times as president. From 1941 to 1943 she was president of the Texas State Division of AAUW. Those were the war years, and the organization was involved in war-connected activities.
Her involvement in such educational matters as women on college faculties, child labor bills, education for dependent children, and teacher recruitment resulted in her election to honorary membership in the Delta Kappa Gamma Society. When a vacancy occurred on the University of Texas Board of Regents, Mrs. Brown's many friends urged Governor Coke Stevenson to appoint her. She would have been the first woman to hold the position, but the time was not yet ripe for such an action.
Carrie Brown was a charter member and president of the San Antonio Section of the National Council of Jewish Women. She was a member of Congregation Temple Beth-El and a director of its Sisterhood. She died on June 1, 1977, in San Antonio of a heart attack.
Ruthe Winegarten and Cathy Schechter, Deep in the Heart: The Lives and Legends of Texas Jews (Austin: Eakin Press, 1990).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Betty B. Cohen, "BROWN, CARRIE BERTHA PFEIFFER," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbrvc), accessed May 12, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:77adc61d-979c-4e5a-98a2-98a86d19e879> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbrvc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974137 | 592 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Saving By Paying Extra on Mortgage
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Many people spend a lot of money on home security systems to protect their homes, but no security system will protect them from bankruptcy. By making additional payments on the borrower’s mortgage, it is possible to both dramatically reduce the amount of interest paid and also pay the mortgage off quicker - giving the home buyer a bigger margin for safety each month and allowing them to live mortgage-free sooner. The amount saved will vary based on the initial size of the loan and interest rate.
Simply by making an additional payment over the life of a 15-year mortgage for $300,000 dollars at an interest rate of 5%, amounts to an eventual savings of up to 200 dollars monthly. Hypothetically, by making a payment of $2,572 monthly, rather than the minimum required payment of $2,372, it is possible to reduce the number or required payments from 180 monthly payments, to 161 monthly payments. By doing this, the term of the loan is reduced from 15 years to 13.4 years, and drops the total amount of interest paid into the mortgage from 127,029 to 111,653. It is possible to save even more by making extra payments if the interest rate is higher.
Revealing Mortgage Cycling
When considering the option of paying mortgages off more quickly, it is not uncommon to hear the term of “mortgage cycling” come up. Quite often consumers will see books and ads promising a solution for paying of your mortgage more quickly while saving more money. When considering “mortgage cycling”, various establishments who offer their services may be quite helpful if the borrower is less than familiar with the idea that by paying extra towards your monthly mortgage payment, the loan will be paid off in less time and a great deal of money can be saved in interest.
While appearing to be a new idea towards mortgage management, the concept of “Mortgage cycling” has been used for a very long time, and is quite simple to understand. When attempting “Mortgage Cycling,” there are quite a few techniques that must be understood in order to do it effectively and save the most money. Some of these techniques also tend to be quite risky, such as taking out short term home equity loans in order to pay down the principle of the mortgage. If not done with careful consideration, using this technique could quite possibly end up costing considerably more in interest or even lead to a difficulty in finances that pushes the borrower into foreclosure.
By far, the technique that is the least risky is for the borrower to pay more towards the mortgage principle, by means of paying numerous, sizeable extra payments. Simply by doing this and paying a greater amount towards the principle of the mortgage, the mortgage can be paid off well before the term of the loan. Unfortunately, not all consumers have the extra funds necessary to take advantage of this technique, so what can those consumers do? Read on for further information and techniques.
Coming up with Extra Money Monthly
Most borrowers do not believe that it is possible for them to afford to pay more towards their mortgage. Although they do not believe they have the additional funds required for this, most consumers use their revolving credit accounts to purchase luxuries such as televisions, or daily luxuries like gum or soda. Most definitely, there is absolutely nothing wrong with making these purchases, but if the consumer is seeking an early pay off of their mortgage, they might want to reconsider making these purchases.
As income tax time rapidly approaches, many consumers will be expecting reimbursement for overpaid taxes or credits. For a borrower considering paying off a mortgage early, it should most definitely be considered that the consumer apply their refunds to the principle of their mortgage. This can also be said of any funds that aren’t already obligated, such as settlements from insurance companies, and financial awards.
The rate in which a mortgage can be paid off more quickly varies depending on the additional amount paid and when it is applied to the account. The earlier a larger extra payment is applied to the mortgage, the more the consumer will save. Just to show the effect that making an additional monthly payment can have on a mortgage, consider this:
Hypothetically, if the borrower had a 30 year mortgage for $160,000 at an interest rate of 7%, a minimum monthly payment of 1064.40 would be required. Upon taking a closer look at the second minimum payment, the consumer would deduce that the payment is comprised of merely 131.83 toward the principle and a hefty $932.57 towards the interest. If the borrower adds a minimum of $131.83 to their monthly required payment of $1064.40, an entire month of the term will be eliminated.
Simply by practicing this technique on a monthly basis, the term of the mortgage would be reduced from 30 years to 15 years. By adding the additional payment on a monthly basis, the amount of the payment that would be applied to the principle would continue to grow. After the first year, by doubling the principle, approximately $137 would be paid toward the Mortgage with each payment. As the consumer’s wages increase, so can the extra amount that they pay toward their mortgage.
When examining different methods of paying down the principle, all should be considered with caution. It is feasible for one to consider paying large sums out of their savings accounts and save many thousands of dollars in interests over the term of the mortgage. Careful consideration should be placed on this method as sometimes unforeseen expenses arise and financial security during these times can be especially comforting. Another option for the borrower would be to sell stocks and use the money to pay down the principle. If a borrower is to consider this method, they would be smart to make certain that the rate of return is balanced against the rate of interest of the mortgage. Before applying extra money to a mortgage payment, It would also be wise to evaluate paying off any revolving accounts that have high interest rates, such as credit cards.
By far the easiest method for paying larger amounts toward the principle of a mortgage is to save any additional funds through the month and use it as an extra payment. After the payment is made, any other additional funds could be applied to the payment as well. Just by make a few small adjustment and paying more towards the principle of the Mortgage, the need for difficult to understand mortgage cycling would be eliminated.
It is also imperative that the borrower keep in mind the tax-deductible nature of mortgage interest. Because interest on many mortgages is tax-deductible, Some of the payment that the borrower is paying is actually being paid by the government.
Consider this, a person having a mortgage with a 7% rate of interest will have the government paying 1.89% of the cost of interest which would be 27% of the 7% rate of interest on the loan. By use of this deduction, the actual post-tax mortgage rate would be 5.11%. Upon consideration of this reduced rate, the consumer might consider investing money in another area that might yield a higher return.
Additionally, there is another advantage to this method. If money is invested rather than being applied to the principle of the mortgage, any returns received would be taxed. Investments paying an interest rate of 7% would actually have the money earned reduced because of the taxes required on the return. | <urn:uuid:23143289-98af-4dd8-b2c9-fc99c096d6bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/helpful-advice/save-by-paying-more.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970476 | 1,534 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Berlin : René Groebli
For the love of Rita
Pinter & Milch – Galerie für Fotografie – presents the famous photo essay "The Eye of Love“ by renowned Swiss photographer René Groebli.
Born 1927 in Zurich, Switzerland, René Groebli started his career as a photo reporter for various international magazines. Groebli married in October 1951, but had to return to work just a few days after the wedding. The photographer and his wife Rita were finally able to take their honeymoon in 1953, and they travelled to France, where he created images of poetic beauty. The Eye of Love reveals the photographer’s loving and tender view of his wife, a gaze of desire and admiration. In this declaration of love, René Groebli created a timeless work. Then as now, the images have the power to touch viewers and let them see through The Eye of Love. Edward Steichen acquired one image from this series (Sitzender Akt, Seated Nude) for the photography collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and invited Groebli to participate in the legendary exhibition The Family of Man.
René Groebli on his work: "I tried to convey the typical atmosphere of French hotel rooms. There were so many impressions: the poor-looking furniture in a cheap hotel, the 'Amors' embroidered on the curtains. And I was in love with the girl, the girl who is my wife. I think a series of photographs should be compared with a novel or even a poem rather than a painting: let us tell something!"
The exhibition is part of the 5. European Month of Photography 2012 in Berlin. From over 700 photographs presented by around 90 participating institutions, the judging panel chose a picture from "The Eye of Love“ to be the cover picture of the festival.
The Eye of Love - René Groebli
In part of European Month of Photography in Berlin
From November 10, 2012 to January 16th, 2013.
Pinter & Milch
Galerie für Fotografie
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday . 12:00-19:00 | <urn:uuid:f2e311f6-2d73-4b4f-b918-9c4ee8b35745> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lejournaldelaphotographie.com/archives/by_date/2012-11-13/9251/berlin-rene-groebli-for-the-love-of-rita | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945975 | 451 | 1.59375 | 2 |
I really liked this law enforcement elevation product called the Mobile Adjustable Ramp System (MARS) made by Patriot 3 in the United States.
It is fitted on top of armored or unarmored personnel carriers and used by law enforcement or SWAT teams to carry out raids and rescues on multiple stories simultaneously.
Two independent moving hydraulic platforms can be fitted on a single vehicle and each ramp can extended independently by remote control.
The ramps extends over 40 feet, enough to gain entry to the second and even third stories of buildings, unto an aircraft, breach a fenced perimeter, or even be used as a sniper post.
According to the Ideas and Discoveries Magazine (Dec. 2012), MARS has been fitted on the Ford F550 pickup truck and at $370,000--can seat 9, hold 40 gallons of gas in an armored tank, go up to 100 miles per hour, and as an armored-cased vehicle, it "can withstand up to 24 hours of relentless gunfire."
While this vehicle may look a little funny, it serves it's purpose which it to take the height advantage away from the bad guys--get in and get out--quickly and safely. | <urn:uuid:950f93f2-0f8b-45b9-a646-c7c1267dc26c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.andyblumenthal.com/2012/10/overcoming-height-factor.html | 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 | 0.952016 | 241 | 1.617188 | 2 |
|Uploaded:||April 15, 2010|
|Updated:||April 15, 2010|
There is all different types of groups that teens and young adults fall into as far as categorizing ones pop self. What I mean by that is simple, there are grunge kids, stoner kids, hip hop kids, metal, goth, punk, rock, classical, and country kids. I myself fall into metal/goth/rock/hip hop/ grunge/....everything! The tutorial that I am submitting now, is on “how to draw emo kids”, step by step. I have two lessons on this particular class of individuals, emo, and emo people. I know most of you know what emo is, and I have talked about it several times before in other tutorials. Being emo is another way to say you are emotionally unstable. The word “emo” is short for “emotional”. The two characters in the drawing is a scene from my sister and I fighting. I just colored and styled the hair different, and added clothing that I thought fit each person. The emo girl to the left is my sister, and the emo girl to the right is me. I by all means am not emo at all. I'm mostly metal, grunge, and goth. The rock and grunge come from my parents, and the goth is from me. I'm more like a happy or nerdy goth, but you know what? It doesn't matter what I am, as long as I am a human. I love the way this scene came out, and I think, all the people who try out this lesson will have fun too. I will be back in a bit so keep those pencils at hand, because there is more on the way! | <urn:uuid:d7b92c62-1460-4033-b23a-86f56d4f064a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/4556/2/1/22693/how-to-draw-emo-kids-step-7.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960682 | 379 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Heroes visit the Hall
Hurricane Irene blew through Upstate New York in less than 24 hours.
But the damage it left behind won’t soon be forgotten.
Dave Lord and his team of firefighters from the East Bay area of California received the call from New York State looking for rescue workers to make the trip and be available for help following the storm.
Soon 34 men and women from the Alameda County, Oakland, Fremont, Richmond, Hayward and Contra Costa County Fire Departments were on their way to New York. Originally assigned to Brooklyn by the Office of Emergency Management, the team was soon split up and assigned upstate.
“The mission changed twice on us,” Lord said. “When we landed at La Guardia airport, we helped in Brooklyn as the storm came through the five boroughs. But the water kept coming up and up and soon we were split up between Essex County and 14 of us were reassigned to Delhi in Delaware County.”
Two towns southeast of Cooperstown, Margaretsville and Fleishmanns, saw severe damage with flooding. These rescue workers answered the call and were there to help.
“There was severe damage,” Lord said. “There were houses washed off their foundations. The whole downtown infrastructure was decimated. I was standing next to a building and the high water mark was a good foot over my head.”
Lord’s team worked to do reconnaissance, assess the damage and provide resource management. Once that work was done, the team began actually assigning resources out to help people of the community.
“It was a pretty scary time for those folks.”
With their hard work behind them, the firemen couldn’t get a flight back to California for a few days – so they decided to make a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mostly Giants fans, the men walked through the Autumn Glory exhibit featuring artifacts from the 2010 World Series on Friday.
No one had been to the Museum before, and a number of the guys said this visit was something they have always wanted to do and put on their bucket list.
“I’ve got chills,” said Lord.
I am lucky enough to walk through the Baseball Hall of Fame everyday. But it gave me chills to meet men who spend their lives helping others.
Samantha Carr is the manager of web and digital media at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. | <urn:uuid:76cf9e71-9646-4945-aaaa-86a05ed57633> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baseballhall.mlblogs.com/2011/09/09/heroes-visit-the-hall/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=e9ecfe8d49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979675 | 514 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Stan Friedman
KNOXVILLE, TN (July 20, 2012) – Students at CHIC 2012 have impressed workshop and seminar leaders with their passion to serve the poor and broken next door and around the world.
Throughout the week, activities and seminars have opened the eyes of the teens to issues they had never been aware or didn’t know how respond to. There also have been opportunities to serve, ranging from feeding the homeless in Knoxville to rolling bandages from torn bed sheets that will be used by hospitals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“All week, they would come into our seminar and were just so passionate about serving the world,” said Dave Husby, director of Covenant World Relief. “They want to be part of God’s solution to heal the broken.”
The interest shown by the students belies the any myth that their generation cares only about themselves. “We know that this generation cares about the world and not just their corner of the world,” said Meagan Gillan, executive minister of the Department of Women Ministries.
The department sponsored the bandage rolling, which was a popular destination for students. “The bed sheets that these kids are laying their hands on and which were donated by Covenanters from around the country as well as local hotels, will make a tremendous difference.”
“I wasn’t sure at first whether I wanted to do the bandages because there were so many options,” says Lauren Bourne, who attends Forest Park Covenant Church in Muskegon, Michigan. “Then I realized it was something I could do that would actually save somebody’s life.”
Over the course of the week, the students rolled 1,345 bandages, Gillan said.
Teenagers got a hint of the obstacles faced by students in developing countries. At one of the morning “experiences,” CHIC participants sat on grass that had been watered by organizers beneath the hot sun that raised temperatures to a humid 90 degrees.
Many of the students hesitated before sitting on the grass because they didn’t want to get wet. Then they learned that had they been in India or other parts of the world, they might actually be sitting in mud or dung.
The girls most likely wouldn’t even be attending school, said Bobby Lee, pastor of Converge Covenant Church in Oakland, California. Oftentimes girls are kept home to help with chores. If they ever did get into a school, they might have to miss four to seven days when they got their periods. Getting pregnant would end all hopes of getting an education.
“It was so shocking,” said Andrea Wallace of Rockford, Illinois. “It was tragic.”
Wallace said she will lead a prayer group at her public school this year, and educational opportunities around the world will be one of the issues they focus on.
Teens also learned that similar issues were much closer to home than they knew. One of the stations highlighted the problems faced in many urban schools that are under-resourced. “It seems like another world but it’s only 30 minutes away,” said Madeline Shupe, who attends Hinsdale Covenant Church in Hinsdale, Illinois.
Learning about justice issues has led students to examine their own hearts. Debbie Blue, executive minister of the Department of Compassion, Mercy, and Justice, led a workshop in which students pulled a tag out of a bucket that indicated what ethnic group they would be part of during the session.
A teen that pulled out a tag that said he was Jewish approached Blue afterward and confessed that he had been anti-Semitic and was ashamed of the thoughts he had held. His worldview had changed.
Throughout the week, students led worship services and served meals at a local homeless ministry. On Thursday, they threw a daylong red-carpet banquet. The teens also worked at a farm that supplies food to the shelter.
The director of the Covenant’s Advocacy for Victims of Abuse ministry (AVA) said she was grateful to see that the number of boys attending her workshop on domestic violence, including date rape, equaled the number of girls.
“One boy told me he came because he wanted to know how to be a better man, a better boyfriend, and a better husband,” said Yvonne DeVaughn, AVA’s national coordinator.
Several students used the opportunity to share their own experiences of abuse. DeVaughn had not planned for that to happen.
One said she had just gotten out of an abusive relationship and another said CHIC was giving her the courage to leave her violent boyfriend. “Their stories just reiterated all the things we have been talking about and helped students see the reality.”
Some of the discussion and video segments also focused on the abuse boys have suffered. A church leader who attended wanted to order one of the videos DeVaughn used and show it at her church.
DeVaughn said some of the participants signed up to be on the AVA email list and were interested in ways they can spread information at their schools and churches about domestic violence. | <urn:uuid:19b1b8cc-d19f-4f68-8812-4d651267cc1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.covchurch.org/news/2012/07/20/social-justice-issues-have-opened-chic-students-eyes-and-hearts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980636 | 1,083 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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