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We call it communion.
Most Sundays, we stand in a circle and pass the bread and cup around. The body of Christ. The cup of forgiveness. It goes from hand to hand. It’s funny when she has trouble pulling off a piece of bread, or when he forgets what to say. The symbols are sacred to us, but it is also the meal of a family. We smile conspiratorially at one another, affectionately.
As the bread is passed around, I sometimes catch a glimpse of something deeper going on. A flicker in the lines around the mouth. A brief expression of the eyes. A deep inhalation. A signal that this is one of those thin places, where we are closer to God’s holiness. I have seen it before when I served communion, but when we pass it around in a circle, we experience that closeness together. People can see it on my face, too, if I let down my guard enough. When we pass it around in a circle, I am reminded that I am not supposed to do life on my own.
We call that communion, too.
My faith community has loved one another well this week, and I have been proud to be a part of them. This week, what is saving my life has been that communion of the saints.
What is saving your life this week? | <urn:uuid:e83b5850-568d-4325-b6ae-26ca1f7a2c20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://throughaglass.net/archives/2012/05/11/saving-my-life-7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970936 | 283 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I keep talking about Ilya’s demo. So here it is. He shows that Synchronous Technology has far more flexibility than history. But you have to remember that on top of all of this, Solid Edge also has history capabilities. A commenter pointed out a couple of weeks ago that direct edit is not without its weaknesses. If you move one of those holes from the part off into space, you can’t just change a dimension to get it back – its gone (unless you can still use Undo to get it back). This is something I’ve talked about before, once a face is moved out of the topology, the software forgets about it, which is both an advantage and a weakness of direct edit systems. If you put a fillet over something and it blows away a flat face, you can’t get that face back easily.
Anyway, Ilya shows that you can control the live rules, control the dimensions, and add sketch-like relations to faces on a model to control the design intent on the fly. I think Solid Edge should lead with this kind of demo rather than the full-power demos they lead with now. Live Rules looks too much like magic to the uninitiated, and nobody trusts magic CAD demos. Breaking it down to its simplest elements should be the entry point for everyone. And the tutorials that come with the software should do the same. Maybe even the default settings should bet set to make minimal use of Live Rules initially.
Tell me what you think of this demo. Especially skeptics out there. I want to know if this makes more sense to you than whatever you have seen before.
The demo comes in two parts, and is given by Ilya himself. He has a little accent, but is totally understandable.
I’d really like to thank Ilya for a great performance, and others who helped come up with the flow of ideas and simple ways to convey them. | <urn:uuid:73d7156e-e475-469c-a970-5b89289a66c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ontheedge.dezignstuff.com/breaking-down-synchronous-technology-to-its-simplest-elements/625 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957268 | 400 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Denmark is witnessing their own version of a world-wide phenomenon, the rapid increase in percentage of women in the workforce. At a time when the percent of Danish males has declined from 92% of the workforce in the 1960s to 72% of workers in 2005, the percent of women has risen from 42% to 72% in the same time period.
The same surge is occurring in higher education as women are now the majority of college students in many countries. I must admit confusion as to why men are less interested in college and why have so fewer men in Denmark decided they did not wish to be in the workforce. One possible explanation is that many are now working “off the books” in jobs that enable one to receive pay without allowing the government to know you are working.
Copenhagen Post June 7, 2007 “The Workplace is a Woman’s Domain” | <urn:uuid:a6dd1e70-922a-4d81-b2d3-e79af2820019> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theimpudentobserver.com/gender-issues/women-are-taking-over/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983596 | 184 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In this session we will look at some of the practices that you shouldn't follow when developing a SQL Server database. We will cover items such as query design, table design, indexes, constraints and more.
After this session you will have some practices that you know you should avoid in your SQL Server database if you want the best performance. If you have them you will know what you need to do to resolve them.
The origins, use and evolution of OLAP software over the last 25 years. This is a personal view (not a history lesson) from an experienced BI practitioner who has used a variety of OLAP software, such as, SQL Server Analysis Services since graduating in 1985.
The target audience is anyone who feels, where reporting is concerned, that they are running on the spot in the Red Queen's Race! Please join me to learn more about the processes involved in designing, displaying and producing reports effectively, using SSRS.
Some tips and tricks which I have picked in my last few projects which can help you optimize cube design , optimize query and processing performance .
Attunity will be presenting their award winning change data capture (CDC) products for SSIS. This session will discuss whatchange data capture is, why it's used, and will demonstrate how CDC processingcan be seamlessly integrated into SSIS.
Powershell is a powerful scripting engine that can be used to automate admin tasks making more efficient use of your time. This session will introduce Powershell and how it can be used within a SQL Server environment.
I had to import and process 100+ files for my latest project and wondered if there was a way to generate SSIS packages based on a repository table containing the rules. As it turns out, this can be done but the programming model is a bit awkward.
The samples that you can find online are not allways functional and debugging is difficult. I did get it to work though and will show you how I did it and what problems I ran into.
After this session you will know how to generate packages that contain sources, destinations, cached lookups, derived columns, conditional splits, sorts, union all, etc.
This session is not about the script component inside SSIS but about generating SSIS packages and programmatically reading and changing properties of existing packages.This session should also be usefull if you're not a full blown developer but more of a DBA type. I'm a DBA and I got through this :-)
Learn about the most frequently made Analysis Services design mistakes, the problems they cause, and how to fix them or not make them in the first place
SQLDIAG is a great tool that was introduced in SQL Server 2005 to help co-ordinate the collection of perfmon logs and SQLTraces as well as gathering other system data. In this session you’ll learn how to configure, customize and run SQLDIAG as well as the perfstats script from Microsoft which adds locking, blocking and wait stats to the list of collectors that SQLDIAG co-ordinates. This tool is one of the secrets of the trade for efficient data collection and this session is a must for anyone not using it extensively already. Using the output from sqldiag we'll then look at SQLNexus to analyze the results. I'll show you how to configure, run and draw conclusions from the reports created by this tool which is by far the most useful piece of software in the troubleshooting kit bag of people that have taken the time to learn it. This session is based on 2 chapters from Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting.
If you want to learn how to make your business systems available then attend this session | <urn:uuid:e78c6174-e1b3-440b-af46-854534872b1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sqlbits.com/(S(ckin5tat3ut34q55gkgc32eo))/Content/Event7?type=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9397 | 752 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Hospitals Face Fines for Readmitted Medicare Patients
Starting Monday, Medicare can fine hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications.
The new power is part of the 2010 health care reform law's push to improve quality and also save taxpayers money, the Associated Press reported.
The government estimates that about two-thirds of hospitals serving Medicare patients -- or about 2,200 facilities -- will have to pay penalties averaging about $125,000 per hospital this coming year.
Later in October, Medicare will begin posting details online and people will be able to see their community hospitals' performance by using the agency's "Hospital Compare" website, the AP reported.
Hospitals have spent well over a year preparing, including finding ways to improve communication with rehabilitation centers and doctors who care for patients after they've been discharged, as well as connecting individually with patients.
California Bans Gay 'Cure' Therapies
Controversial therapies to "cure" homosexuality in teens will be banned in California, making it the first state to take such action.
The law, which was signed into law Saturday and takes effect Jan. 1, was welcomed by gay rights groups across the country. They say the therapies can cause serious emotional harm to gay and lesbian youth, The New York Times reported.
"This bill bans nonscientific 'therapies' that have driven young people to depression and suicide," Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement. "These practices have no basis in science or medicine, and they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery."
The law states that no mental health provider shall give minors therapy meant to change their sexual orientation, including efforts to "change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex," the Times reported.
The law was supported by many medical and psychological societies, as well by gay rights advocates.
However, some therapists and conservative religious leaders who say they say can affect homosexual feelings denounced the new law as a violation of free choice, the Times reported.
Proper Prescribing of Opioid Painkillers Focus of Online Program
A new online tool to help train health-care providers on the proper prescribing of opioid painkillers is meant to reduce addiction and overdose deaths, the U.S. government said Monday.
The new training materials include videos of simulated doctor-patient conversations on the safe and effective use of opioid painkillers, the White House Drug Policy Office and the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse said in a news release.
The initiative is part of the effort to combat the nation's epidemic of prescription drug abuse.
"Physicians can be the first line of defense against prescription drug abuse by knowing how to prescribe opioid pain medications safely and effectively," National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow said in the news release. "These CME (continuing medical education) courses provide practical guidance for clinicians in screening their pain patients for risk factors before prescribing. They also help medical professionals identify when patients are abusing their medications, using videos that model effective communication about sensitive issues, without losing sight of addressing pain."
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Join the Doctors Lounge online medical community | <urn:uuid:18015d94-29be-455e-901f-e2039eefe088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/hd/32419 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935145 | 756 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I decided it would be better to avoid photos for this--don't believe all the hype about chickens on "vegetarian diets". While I do think it's best to avoid feeding ground up rotten and/or diseased cows, chickens or other livestock to hens, chickens are absolutely not vegetarian creatures. Bugs & worms aside, they are total protein fiends and will take great pains to get as much protein as possible.
We have heard from other flock owners that they have noticed their hens will chase down mice and gorge themselves if given the chance. We observed last summer that our hens had caught a snake, and then chased each other around trying to snatch morsels to dine on.
Two days ago I saw something a little odd out in the run, and then I realized it was remnants of a snake carcass, so our "vegetarian" flock was at it again, and apparantly had a lovely snack.
For other small flock owners out there, I heartily recommend feeding organic liver to your chickens. In the late winter/early spring our flock was beginning to look a little ragged, and we fed them a deer liver and hunter had given us. The liver had spent many weeks in the freezer, so all bugs and parasites were long dead, and we simply thawed the liver and fed it to them raw.
Within 24 hours the protein and vitamin A infusion made such an obvious difference in appearance of the flock that I'll be accepting donations of deer and elk liver again this fall! | <urn:uuid:45e02056-3729-4fb1-bb30-41e1149bfbdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://happyhens.blogspot.com/2005/05/chickens-are-not-vegetarians.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973637 | 311 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Sharing Nursing's Knowledge: What's in the Latest Issue
Have you signed up to receive Sharing Nursing’s Knowledge? The monthly Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) e-newsletter will keep you up to date on the latest nursing news, research and trends. Here are descriptions of some of the stories in the May issue:
A growing number of people are re-starting their careers by becoming nurses and, in so doing, helping to curb a looming nursing shortage and making valuable additions to the nursing workforce. Many second career nurses are able to enter the workforce quickly thanks to accelerated nurse education programs, which enable students to earn baccalaureate degrees in 12 to 18 months and master’s degrees in two to three years.
Pamela Austin Thompson, MS, RN, CENP, FAAN, CEO of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), is leading a new RWJF-supported initiative called Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN). APIN represents an historic collaboration among four of the nation’s largest nursing groups to lead a nationwide effort to help new nurses earn baccalaureate and higher degrees in nursing and transition into practice.
The North Carolina Action Coalition has made significant strides in advancing the recommendations in the Future of Nursing report: the Coalition has begun a dialogue with key health care leaders across disciplines to remove unnecessary regulatory and reimbursement requirements; is working to create a common course catalog of pre-requisites for RN-to-BSN programs across all state-funded nursing schools; and is encouraged by the addition of a graduate nursing leadership course at East Carolina University to better equip nurses to lead change through participation on hospital and other health-related boards.
The Neighborhood, a unique and innovative online teaching application developed by RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow Jean Giddens, RN, PhD, FAAN, is being used in schools of nursing across the country to engage students in concept-based learning. The Neighborhood includes 48 diverse “patient” and “health professional” characters, each with his or her own medical history and biography. The stories in The Neighborhood are written from the patients’ perspectives through narratives and video vignettes posted online, which help bring the characters’ stories more vividly to life and provide context for learning about health conditions. | <urn:uuid:d296694d-9769-4948-bbaf-7fedc04a99e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rwjf.org/en/blogs/human-capital-blog/2012/06/sharing-nursings-knowledge-whats-in-the-latest-issue-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953328 | 475 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Integrate Risk Lowering Strategies
People, on average, don't want the lowest price. You can verify this fact by noticing that not everyone drives a Ford Focus or a Hyundai. Did you know that in a given supermarket, Coke and Pepsi combined outsell the store brand cola by a margin of about 12 to 1? And unlike cars, there just isn't that much difference between a Coke and a Big K Cola. No, people don't want low price - they want low risk. | <urn:uuid:de2bfdd8-19c4-4591-b38b-d3d2216a3802> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sin20.com/news/lower-risk-when-marketing-adult-b2b-marketing-tip | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961419 | 101 | 1.523438 | 2 |
From: Adam Safron (email@example.com)
Date: Fri Jan 04 2008 - 09:48:17 MST
Or so the story goes... How instrumental was the dream? Would drugs
have allowed competing scientists to discover the structure before
him? I strongly doubt this. Think about the relevant problems as
much as possible. Read as much as possible from diverse sources. Try
to stay healthy and live a balanced life. These seem like more
reliable paths to scientific greatness.
On Jan 4, 2008, at 11:44 AM, Adam Safron wrote:
> That was a dream, which isn't necessarily an altogether different
> type of thing. Here Kekulé saw a snake eating it's own tail and
> then thought a ring-structure might explain the data. He was right.
> On Jan 4, 2008, at 11:24 AM, David Picón Álvarez wrote:
>> Wasn't the discovery of the chemical structure of benzene
>> supposedly mediated by a psychedelic experience?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat May 18 2013 - 04:01:09 MDT | <urn:uuid:e8471469-54aa-42b4-89ae-f4e2cea486c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sl4.org/archive/0801/17427.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936246 | 247 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Four Infineon executives will serve jail time after pleading guilty to being part of an "international conspiracy" to fix the price of computer memory, the US Department of Justice announced today.
Heinrich Florian, Günter Hefner, Peter Schaefer, and T. Rudd Corwin will serve between four and six months in the clink and pay $250,000 each to settle their role in the price fixing scandal. All of the workers operated in Infineon's sales division both here and in Germany. They have agreed to help with the DoJ's ongoing investigation into the conduct of the major memory makers.
"These four executives are the first to plead guilty to a charge of fixing prices in what is still a very active and far-reaching investigation into antitrust violations in the DRAM industry," said Scott D. Hammond, the Antitrust Division's Director of Criminal Enforcement. "We will continue in our efforts to bring to justice other domestic and foreign-based executives who were involved with fixing DRAM prices."
Infineon admitted in September to keeping the price of memory artificially high between 1999 and 2002. It agreed to pay a $160m fine for its actions. Micron made a similar admission in November, although the company will likely avoid paying a fine. Samsung and Hynix are also under investigation.
Dell was one of the leading computer/server makers that complained about the memory maker's actions with CEO Michael Dell referring to the companies as a cartel at one point. A number of other hardware makers were affected by the pricing.
The four Infineon staffers were charged with participating in meetings to discuss the price of DRAM memory in which they set certain prices for the products. In addition, the DoJ charged them with exchanging information on customer purchases. The DoJ found them in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. ® | <urn:uuid:3ee4b070-178b-4f22-8099-377cf92c303a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2004/12/02/infineon_execs_plea/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972437 | 382 | 1.625 | 2 |
IT HAS BEEN suggested that the clinical syndrome of restlessness, confusion, nausea, vomiting, bradycardia, and hypertension occurring during or immediately after transurethral resection of the prostate is caused by hypotonicity secondary to absorption of irrigation water. Intravenous administration of hypertonic solutions such as 5% saline, 30% urea, or 25% mannitol has been advocated to prevent or reverse the process. This syndrome, and its relation to hypotonicity, was investigated in a double-blind study using intravenous fluid replacement therapy and sterile water irrigation in 14 consecutive electroresections of the prostate. Serial measurements of blood volume, serum electrolyte, and solute concentrations were performed before and after surgery, and the patients' subjective as well as objective responses carefully noted.
Consecutive transurethral procedures with sterile water irrigation were performed in 14 men, 20 to 79 years of age. Spinal anesthesia was used. Most operations were resections for benign prostatic hypertrophy. Intravenous fluid replacement therapy, | <urn:uuid:bfb5b591-c228-426f-a51b-c3c822906ab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=563540 | 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 | 0.963476 | 216 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Ft. Hood hero cop's union weighs in
Updated 2:30 p.m. ET
Fort Hood Sgt. Kimberly Munley has been credited with stopping Thursday's deadly rampage at Fort Hood by shooting the alleged gunman four times and taking wounds of her own.
Munley is a civilian police officer at Ft. Hood and a member of American Federation of Government Employee's Local 1920. AFGE is the largest federal employees union in the country.
“Sgt. Munley acted with great heroism, yesterday, as she and her partner were the first to respond to calls for help during the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood,” AFGE President John Gage said in a statement. “As a part its family, we offer our thoughts, our prayers, our support and our strength to our brave soldiers and their families, and our brothers and sisters, who are affected by this senseless and pointless tragedy."
The union represents 1,700 civilian Defense Department employees at the base, according to spokesman Michael Victorian. The union does not know if any of its members are among Thursday's victims.
The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:9ec79484-149e-4b5b-9ea0-2b68e105b6bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/11/ft_hood_hero_cops_union_weighs.html?wprss=federal-eye | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974161 | 234 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Library Card Policies
The East Central Georgia Regional Library participates in PINES, the state wide circulation and cataloging system. The following regulations are in compliance with PINES regulations and requirements.
Library cards are free to all residents of Georgia. Persons who attend school, own property or are employed in Georgia are also eligible for a free PINES card. PINES cards are valid for 2 years.
Property owners who do not reside in Georgia may be required to show proof of ownership, such as a tax bill or deed. Persons employed in Georgia or attending school in Georgia may be required to show proof of employment or enrollment.
Out-of-state cards are available to persons living outside Georgia who do not meet the above criteria for a $25 annual fee, payable at the time the card is issued. A temporary card is available for a $12.50 charge and is good for 6 months.
Signing a PINES card application denotes acceptance of responsibility for lost or damaged materials.
There is no minimum age for a child to receive a PINES card. A parent or legal guardian may register a child. Parent or guardian must show proper ID to register a child. A parent or guardian must sign the application for all children under 18. Signing a child’s PINES card application denotes acceptance of responsibility for all fines, lost or damaged materials charged on that card.
A library card is required in order to check out materials.
Proper identification must be presented to register.
An applicant for a new card is required to provide proper ID, which includes current local address.
Acceptable ID for a PINES card:
a) photo ID showing current local address, OR
b) photo ID and one item from approved list (see below) showing current, local address (if photo ID does not have correct address), OR
c) TWO (2) items from approved list showing current, local address.
Acceptable ID includes a valid driver’s license, a valid voter registration card, checks with pre‐printed addresses, a utility bill, tax receipt or other piece of mail that shows the user’s name and present address. The registering library is responsible for ensuring that a correct address is obtained.
Applicants for a card must complete and sign an application form, available at any PINES participating library’s circulation desk.
Parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 must sign their child’s application.
The charge for a replacement PINES card is $2.
The Library is subject to an annual audit of finances and financial responsibility, including adherence to pertinent rules and regulations. Due to high losses of material and the requirement of the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB), which dictates that governments have a responsibility to be accountable for the use of resources and to demonstrate a reasonable endeavor to recover property paid for with tax payer’s money, the library cannot issue a library card to anyone residing at a property whose residents are transient, e.g., hotels, motels, hospitals, halfway houses and mission homes. Persons at these addresses may receive a card which can only be used for computer access and other services which do not include the circulation of materials. If they wish, they also have the option of a deposit card: a deposit is required to cover the cost of materials checked out and the deposit is refunded with the return of the materials and the closing of the account. Also, if a fiscally responsible officer at a transient property gives written acknowledgement, accepting responsibility for loss or damage to material, a card may be issued to a resident of that property. | <urn:uuid:43eb3805-4113-4995-9521-0eecd5147558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecgrl.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:library-card-policies&catid=35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933569 | 738 | 1.703125 | 2 |
CMA is an award-winning educational institution registered with the Ministry of Education and is accredited and appraised by the Taiwan ROC for the Association of Children’s Abacus Calculation.
- Our mental arithmetic programme has been tried and tested for more than 20 years.
- We have acquired an impressive track record over the years.
- We have produced star students who have performed exceptionally well academically.
- We are the pioneer of the 'two-hand, four-fingers' abacus technique.
- Our syllabi effectively promote the use of both the left and right brain.
- Our curricula incorporate the use of multimedia-based and online learning to enhance learning.
- We create a lively and enjoyable learning environment for our students.
- Our ability-based programme allows students to learn according to individual pace.
- Students will sit for an international CMA examination to assess his progress. | <urn:uuid:ed3c0b2d-cdf0-46fe-a9e0-20b2440b286e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cma.edu.sg/programme-whycma.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940351 | 188 | 1.585938 | 2 |
CHUCK WAGGIN (sung)
Who do you trust? Who do you listen to? How are you gonna live your life? This is the choice We’ve gotta wrestle through Every girl and boy and man and wife!
(spoken) God gave Adam and Eve a choice: Trust him, or trust the voices they heard around them.
(pause) They chose poorly. By turning away from God, they said they didn’t believe him. They were going to go their own way. And “sin” entered the world.
Two little “sins” drop into the scene and jump around mischievously.
“Sin” is when we ignore God. When we go our own way. When we put ourselves first – in front of our friends and neighbors, and in front of God. When we say to God “I don’t care what you say – I’m gonna do it my way!!”
“Sin” entering the world changed everything.
Because of who God is. God is so pure, sin cannot be near him. Now, that serpent knew that. He was trying to hurt God, and he knew if he could get Adam and Eve to sin, then THEY couldn’t be close to God! God’s most beloved creatures would have to live their lives apart from him!
Couldn’t God just change the rules so they could be with him again? He can do anything, right?
Yes, God can do anything. Anything except change his own nature. He can’t change who he is. If God changed who he was, he wouldn’t be God anymore. So even though it made God very, very sad, Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and live new lives in a wild, mean world. | <urn:uuid:2fd59473-1e85-4a71-a37a-c7fc517b0bd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whatsinthebible.com/video-archive/dvd-1-who-do-you-trust/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957499 | 387 | 1.671875 | 2 |
February 28, 2013
By Subramaniam Krishnan The Finance Minister today presented the Finance Bill, 2013 before the Parliament. The proposals of the Finance Minister for the financial services sector and capital markets include constitution of a Standing Council of Experts as a recommendatory body to analyse the international competitiveness of the Indian financial sector , transaction costs of doing business in India, permitting banks to act as...
July 1, 2010 |
The need to keep tax rates and laws under certain norms has been emphasised by political philosophers and economic analysts from time immemorial. The country's direct tax laws have been complicated ever since the Income Tax Act 1922 came into force. The 1961 Act was no better and with too frequent amendments to law as well as the rates, tax law and administration have increasingly contributed to complications, confusion and corruption. The direct taxes code (DTC)
December 21, 2003 |
In today's era of free flow of trade and technology across the globe, it is common for a foreign enterprise to depute its expert technicians to other countries for executing certain contracts. Salaries of such technicians can be paid by either the employers or by the contracting party in the country of deputation. There should be proper determination of tax liabilities of such expatriates in the country of deputation under its relevant tax law and the relevant Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, if any. An interesting controversy arose in the case of Commissioner of Income-Tax vs Sedco Forex International Drilling (264 ITR 320)
April 11, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: Batting for Vodafone , another US-based organisation TEI has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh objecting to the government decision to amend the I-T Act retrospectively to bring into tax net overseas M&As involving domestic assets. "...a government is free to change its tax policies, but fairness demands that the change should be prospective where the changes will have a significant negative effect on taxpayers," said the Washington-based Tax Executives Institute (TEI)
March 16, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: In a quick response to the government's move to amend the I-T Act retrospectively to recover Rs 11,000 crore from Vodafone despite losing the case in the Supreme Court, the UK-based telecom major on Friday said it has begun consultations with lawyers on the issue. "We are examining this proposed decision with our lawyers, but we do not believe this retrospective change in tax law should have any impact on the final judgement handed down by the Supreme Court in our tax case," Vodafone said in a statement.
March 20, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: The government has stoutly defended the retrospective change in income tax law which will give powers to authorities to tax crossborder transactions wherein the underlying asset is located in India. "On the issue of Vodafone...this is the legislature saying that this was its intent always... It is not that the intent has changed now-...Such transactions were always to be subjected to tax," said finance secretary RS Gujral at a CII post-budget interaction.
September 26, 2010 |
NEW DELHI: Global consultancy firm Deloitte on Sunday said that certain provisions in the proposed Direct Taxes Code (DTC) could adversely impact the global competitiveness of domestic companies and even hurt overall corporate tax collections in the long run. "The tax law (in DTC Bill) should be more liberal than what it is today. Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) legislation either has to be deferred in implementation or else it should be made less rigorous," Deloitte India Tax Partner-Outbound Services Vipul Jhaveri told media.
September 21, 2012 |
MUMBAI: The Parthasarathi Shome panel , which is looking into the taxation issues relating to Gaar ( general anti-avoidance rules ), is likely to submit its final report by end of the month. "We are looking into the issue of 'indirect transfer of Indian assets now and hopeful of submitting the report relating to it by end of the month," chairman of expert committee on Gaar Parthasarathi Shome told reporters here. Indirect transfer of shares where the underlying asset is Indian has become a contentious issue in the recent past especially with the government demanding $2.2-billion tax from Vodafone for its purchase of Hutch in 2007.
August 7, 2012 |
NEW DELHI: Attacking Finance Minister P Chidambaram on his proposals on tax regime, CPI(M) today said these sought to reverse the decisions of Parliament and his government itself and claimed that the measures would facilitate tax avoidance by multinationals and corporates. "The measures announced are meant to help multinational companies' non-payment of tax on assets they acquire in India and to facilitate tax avoidance by foreign and Indian corporates," the CPI(M)
November 20, 2007 |
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has upheld the new accounting standards prescribed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on deferred tax liability of listed companies. The accounting norms, which seek to bring out the true accounting income of companies, have been made mandatory to ensure that books of all enterprises that follow them are comparable and their financial statements are true and transparent. Accounting Standards (AS-22) | <urn:uuid:8580b2cc-398b-447d-a75b-bfc463c1a3aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/keyword/tax-law/featured/5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962547 | 1,089 | 1.75 | 2 |
Michael Bianco from January 2001by: Wanda de Liefde
I remember sitting at Alligator Alley, in Sunrise Florida, watching one act after another take the stage. Nothing moved me. I sat there for quite a while having a drink and pleasant conversation. Suddenly from the stage closest to where I was sitting, beautiful sounds erupted. The man behind the sounds Michael Bianco known for playing two guitars simultaneously and also known for playing that unusual instrument called the stick.
Wanda: Tell me what inspired you to play two instruments at the same time?
Michael: Back in the early days of playing at the Now Art Café, in Hollywood, I was doing a lot of experimenting. That's when I put up a second guitar. It never left the Café for five years.
Wanda: Can you briefly describe the technique that is involved when playing two guitars?
Michael: The technique involves tapping the strings against the freeboard of the guitar (or both guitars). Different degrees of sustain can be achieved by how long the fingers are pressed against the strings.
Wanda: How do you create all the additional sounds that accompany your performance?
Michael: Lots of guitar effects (no synths yet). All the music is basically in real time, with nothing prerecorded except drums and percussion.
Wanda: Tell me about the stick. What exactly is a stick? How does it work?
Michael: The stick was invented by Emmett Chapman in 1972. It was designed specifically for the tapping technique. Mine has ten strings (5 bass and 5 melody). Unlike the guitar, the lowest string on the stick is in the middle so it takes a little getting used to in the beginning.
Wanda: Playing two guitars simultaneously and playing the stick, are these things you enjoy doing to entertain an audience or is there a little part of you that is the type of person that enjoys a challenge?
Michael: For me it is more for the challenge. There is still a lot of "unexplored" guitar territory out there, and the tapping technique is just one of the many roads one can take.
Wanda: When you started to play two guitars and the stick, was there anybody "out there" you could emulate?
Michael: In LA around 1985 I saw Stanley Jordan doing a rare performance using two guitars. Back then I had no vision of ever doing that myself. By the time I started to do it there was no one to emulate; however, there were a lot of stick players out there to be seen and heard, especially via the Internet. I like Bob Culbertson (world class stick player from San Jose, CA) a lot. He has been a major stick influence for me.
Wanda: How do people react when they first see you?
Michael: That depends on the audience. Most people have never seen a stick performance. The most common reaction is "did you make that yourself/"
Wanda: I know you do many local performances, where do these usually take place?
Michael: I have been staying fairly local lately. I post all my gigs on my web site (www.michaelbianco.com). I never really went on tour per se, but my favorite opening act was with Tuck and Patty a few years back.
Wanda: How did you ever get in touch with Jeff Beck?
Michael: That was through Jennifer Batten, actually. She has been on tour with him for a while, and for anyone who has never heard her play, "wow!" You can check her out at www.batten.com.
Wanda: That must have been a dream come true. Did Jeff Beck have an impact on your style?
Michael: Jeff Beck was definitely a major influence on my playing back in the beginning and still every time I see him perform live. He is still as incredible as ever.
Wanda: What about the other celebrities you performed with. Have they inspired you?
Michael: I have always been a fan of Steve Vai and got to play for him (not with him) a while back. His technique and use of effects are pretty amazing. I have also played with his current bass player, Philip Bynoe.
Wanda: I understand that you have released a few CDs? What are they called and how would you define the music they reveal?
Michael: My first release was "Virtual Reality" (solo 7 string guitar), which is no longer available. My second self-titled "Bianco" is a live performance using two guitars. It is more New Age. I also have a Christmas album available, which is played entirely on the Chapman Stick. For those who like "recognizable melodies" I just released a CD full of classics ranging from Beethoven to Mr. Bojangles.
Wanda: Where can we get a copy of them?
Michael: All my CDs are available at gigs or www.michaelbianco.com.
Wanda: Are you currently working on any new releases?
Michael: I am working on something that really is different from all my other CDs. It is going to be more of a techno/ambient sort of thing.
Wanda: In your experience, what do you feel grabs the initial attention of the audience; your act, the music itself or do you feel it is a combination of both?
Michael: It really takes a lot to impress today's audiences with all the diversity out there. I think it is a combination of both. An act is just what it says, it is an act. I try to make the music as real as possible. I think keeping a good balance between the two helps to achieve that total package.
Wanda: You have performed locally, released your own CDs. Where does Michael Bianco go from here? Will he learn to play yet another demanding instrument? Will he pursue a record deal? Which direction would you like your career to take?
Michael: I don't think there are any record "deals" anymore. I am not talking about the teen idol thing. Times have changed. I think the Internet is a big part of that change. Musicians can now really put their stuff "out there" without a record deal. As far as what I will be doing in the future? I hope to continue sharing my music with as many people as possible and to complete my instructional book and video.
Best New Age Artist
In 1988, the guitarist Michael Bianco found a copy of the seven-string Ibanez guitar designed by Steve Vai. The extra string (a low B for the curious) adds a depth and texture to his sound that isnt duplicated elsewhere in these parts. Bianco combines finger-tapping, hammer-ons and hammer-offs, and a touch of slap bass (plus a few electronic sound effects, most noticeably delay and reverb) to create the sound the New Age crowd needs to survive. He tosses a bit of Hendrix and a bit of Thelonius Monk to keep the sound interesting. The Boston native spent a few years on New Orleans Bourbon Street before moving to South Florida seven years ago.
If you think Stanley Jordan is the coolest thing in guitarists since sliced bread, rush out and buy this album. Like Jordan, South Florida based Michael Bianco utilizes the two-handed tapping technique, enabling him to play impossibly complex figures and lines. However Bianco avoids the problem Jordan had with his early work, in that he doesnt hesitate to use effects to change the texture of the guitar sound. Theres also evidence here of more creativity and musical inventiveness in the songwriting than we saw with Jordan.
According to the liner notes, the album was recorded with no overdubs, so what you hear is what you get .If thats true, musicians-and especially guitarists-will laud Bianco with critical raves for years to come.
By: Robert Archer
Jam Indies Reviews
Michael Bianco is a local guitar legend and rightly so. His self-released CD simply entitled Bianco is nothing short of spectacular, to say the least.
His guitar playing is mesmerizing and hypnotic. It takes you to other worlds beyond our daily realm.
These instrumental tunes are masterpieces that not only exhibit his prowess and advanced musical skills, but also demonstrate his keen ability and talent at songwriting.
He makes the music flow forth as if from a magical fountain with such inspiring songs like "First Flight," "Mystic Journey," "Rain Forest" and "Windsong."
This CD will delight the musician as well as the average music lover. But live he demonstrates his amazing abilities even more by playing a 7 string Ibanez, and 6 string Fender guitar simultaneously on most of his songs making it sound like three guitars! He even has mastered the ever-so-complex Chapman stick.
Every music piece Bianco plays is layered with effects and sounds that make the Michael Bianco trademark.
This site maintained by Robert Heale Mason
e-mail Robert Mason to trade links etc
Copyright Robert H Mason 1999 All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:9a6e9d2a-79a7-4cd8-a671-d2c463f03f63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michaelbianco.com/ArticlesBianco.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97249 | 1,869 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Stop Motion Animation has always been interesting to me since I “discovered” that one could make animated flip books by drawing each frame a little different. Fast forward 20 years or so, and computer technology has gotten to the point where this sort of thing can be done electronically quite easily and at an incredibly low price of a camera, computer, and free or paid-for software (here’s the technique using GIMP, a free, good quality photo editing tool) to put everything together.
The frames in the picture above are of my latest [PVC man] animation, which can be made with some electroluminescent lights, gloves, and some PVC pipe. Each frame was individually photographed, and after several hours of work we had enough footage for 17 seconds of so of stop-motion animation.
Although by no means perfect, the quality of these animations has gone up dramatically from the first animations that I made using an old ENV2 camera phone. Although I was using a “custom mount” for it, it’s amazing these came out as well as they did. As with everything hacking related, this process is a constant work in progress. Check out the videos after the break for the [PVC man] video as well as one of the early ENV2-produced stop-motion shorts! | <urn:uuid:d0c27091-e569-49a0-b692-788afa8a23ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2012/04/23/stop-motion-animation-creation/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=9e4b539e19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971372 | 275 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
When we’re talking about spirituality it is the unseen that is the force at work. What I do know about both the seen and unseen is that without saying what you want, whether out loud or non verbally, you will not get it. Prayer, meditation and writing are examples of putting out to the unseen what you want. Asking for anything in from a parent, spouse, relative or friend means communicating to that person what you want and then putting yourself where you need to be to receive it. One can not say I want to paint and expect that you will become a painter by never picking up a brush. The act of creating a painting and creating a situation or life that you want must start with you. It must start with the belief that says all things are possible. Do you believe? | <urn:uuid:51a16054-2e6b-4cbf-9670-8627570a1980> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spiritualitythinkaboutit.org/discussions-2/ask-and-ye-shall-receive-or-loa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977033 | 169 | 1.664063 | 2 |
(CNN) -- The Colombian government said it would appeal to international bodies over what it called a threat made over the weekend by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
On his weekly Sunday television show, Chavez ordered the Venezuelan military to begin preparations for a war with the neighboring country, warning of a conspiracy between Colombia and the United States to attack Venezuela.
"The two governments have joined together to fool the world or to try to fool the world," Chavez said.
Addressing his military commanders, he added, "Let's not waste a single day in the preparation of our main mission: to prepare ourselves for war and to help the people prepare for war. It's everyone's responsibility."
On Sunday Colombia's government responded, saying it has not undertaken any hostile actions toward Venezuela. Colombia said it would ask for intervention from the United Nations Security Council and the Organization of American States.
A Colombian government spokesman, Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, called Chavez's remarks "war threats."
On Monday Venezuela retorted by calling Colombia's response "hypocritical" and "immoral."
Chavez's accusations of threats from Colombia and the United States come from an agreement between the two countries that allows U.S. military personnel to be stationed at seven Colombian military bases.
The Venezuelan leader is the leading critic of the agreement and has said that the agreement is part of a plot to destabilize his leftist government.
"Don't be mistaken, Mr. Obama, and order an overt aggression against Venezuela using Colombia," Chavez said Sunday, in a reference to U.S. President Barack Obama. "Don't make that mistake, because we are willing to do whatever it takes. Venezuela will never again be a colony."
On Monday the U.S. State Department said it supported talks to defuse the conflict.
"We support Colombia's call for dialogue between Venezuela and Colombia to overcome recent tensions in the relationship," a State Department spokesman told CNN en Español. "As a member of the hemispheric community, we are prepared to work collaboratively to promote peaceful solutions to disputes in the region."
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been rocky since the summer.
In August, Colombia accused Venezuela of supplying guerillas with shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons. Such weapons seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had been traced to Venezuela, Colombia said.
The FARC has been fighting the Colombian government for more than 45 years.
Chavez, at the time, said the accusation amounted to blackmail.
Last month Venezuelan authorities said they captured two Colombian spies. Colombia denied the claim.
Also in October, near the border between the two countries, Venezuelan authorities found the murdered bodies of 10 men that Colombia described as an amateur soccer team that had been kidnapped near the border. Venezuela said the men were paramilitaries.
Tensions were last stoked a week ago when two Venezuelan national guardsmen at an international bridge between the two countries were killed by gunmen on motorcycles.
Venezuela blamed Colombian paramilitaries for the attacks, and accused the Colombian government of complacency toward such groups. | <urn:uuid:5332107c-0ec2-438f-8ca8-504629a66704> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/09/venezuela.colombia/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960941 | 638 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Oakley - all EyewearAbout
Oakley is a well known brand that was started by Jim Jannard in 1975. The brand specifically designs a range of sunglasses dedicated to extreme sporting events. The sunglasses feature wrap-around styles engineered with fine-technological advancement to create lightweight pair of sunglasses offering the protection of UVA, UVB. The first Oakley sunglasses namely Factory Pilot Eyeshades, were sport-oriented and primarily resembled a pair of goggles; these were followed by the casual sunglass style -Oakley Frogskin. The Oakley eyewear frames are often made of sturdy Titanium material and boasts of quality and strength. With the rubber pads on the temple ends for comfort as well the pad for the nose, the unique size of these classic sunglasses comes in a wide range of colours including black, pewter, bronze, dark carbon, platinum, and silver. The sunglasses designed by the brand are ideal for different styles of sports like cycling, water-sports, golfing among others. Oakley is an official part of the United States Olympic Committee. In view of this, the brand will provide official eyewear to the team for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held later in London and beyond. This reiterates the class that the brand exudes among masses as well as classes. | <urn:uuid:3f13004b-ca09-473f-962e-a78e00b17021> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unitedshades.com/all-men-women/all-sunglasses-eyeglasses/Oakley/catalog/_nwby/color-Brown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949399 | 265 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Earlier this month, a policeman offering no explanation simply confiscated the cigarettes that Rachak Hamza, 25, had been vending in a desperate effort to make ends meet. Local papers in the easter Algerian port city of Jijel, say Hamza erupted in a "fit of rage," returning to the scene with a tank of gas which he used to drench his body before lighting a match. But unlike the similar act of outrage by vegetable vendor Mohammed Bouazizi that triggered last year's revolution in neighboring Tunisia, Hamza's story was quickly forgotten. Indeed, it was just one of at least 50 acts of self-immolation as protest reported across Algeria since January last year, according to local health authorities. None of them has, thus far, inspired a revolt.
Closer to the capital, the words "we want freedom" are spray-painted in Arabic alongside mobile homes in the suburb of Ain Taya. Down the road, in French, the words "On Vuet Vivre" we want to live decorate another building.
Algeria's ruling party took nearly half the seats in parliamentary elections last week, a stunning deviation from previous votes that saw significant opposition victories, particularly among Islamist parties. The ruling National Liberation Front said Wednesday the vote confirmed the electorate's desire "to safeguard national stability," but opposition groups have cried fraud. If the wave of religious conservatism sweeping this North African country is any indication, Islamists are far more influential in Algeria than its election results reflect.
On the street, beleaguered citizens believe change is beyond reach. Unemployment is too high; youth activism is too low; and memories are still seared by the decade-long bloodbath that followed the military's overturning of the 1991 election that looked set to bring the Islamists to power. Corruption is rampant, draining the country of much of the wealth generated by its oil exports. "The issue here, very simple, is democracy," says Makri Abderrazak, a former member of parliament and vice president of the Movement for the Society of Peace, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which swept elections in Tunisia and Egypt. "People want jobs, people want basic rights, people want to benefit from the country's resources, but this government is not giving them the chance and this fraudulent election means things will only get worse."
To many observers, Algeria, Africa's second largest nation, has all the ingredients for a perfect storm. So why then has it been the exception to the so-called Arab Spring, even as activists take to the streets and Islamist parties increasingly garner grassroot support? Algerians offer a number of explanations.
Unlike in many Arab nations, Algeria's president of 13 years, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has earned considerable support among his citizens. Many credit him with ending the bloody civil war of the 1990s that left more than 200,000 dead. Protesters did, of course, take to Algeria's streets in January 2011, as their peers in Tunisia and Egypt were doing. But Bouteflika responded promptly, scrapping Algeria's controversial emergency law, a longtime demand of the opposition, and offering pay rises and other concessions to placate growing discontent.
Abderrazak, who also serves as campaign manager for the Islamist-coalition, the Green Alliance, argues that as the head of state Bouteflika should be held responsible for the failures of his government, but many don't agree. "Bouteflika is not Mubarak, and Algeria is not Egypt," says Walid Sid Ahmed, 28, an entrepreneur from Telemly, a section of the capital, Algiers. Human rights activist and blogger Yacine Zaid says Algeria's moment may have passed. "We already tried our revolution, and it has cost more than 200,000 lives, and thousands more missing," he says. "The biggest problem in Algeria and it has oil which silences even the West from defending us, as long as their interests are secured."
Algeria, an OPEC member, has the third-largest proven oil reserves in Africa behind Libya and Nigeria. The U.S. buys about 30 percent of Algeria's crude-oil exports, accounting for 3.6 percent of its petroleum imports in 2010. About 60 percent of Algeria's income comes from oil production.
"Algeria is still a possible Arab Spring country," says Paul Sullivan, a North Africa expert at National Defense University in Washington. "The economic and social trends point that way." But to many in this former French colony, the lingering trauma of war is still far too vivid to contemplate a revolt, and the potential for Islamist victories trigger fears of an even bloodier war. The civil war began in 1992 after Algeria's military staged a coup d'état blocking the country's leading Islamic movement, the Islamic Salvation Front, from a potentially crushing victory in the second round of what would have been Algeria's first democratic election. Guerilla war ensued sparking massacres that destroyed villages . The war ended in 2005 with the signing of the controversial Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation proposed by Bouteflika, which offered an amnesty for most violence committed in the civil war. "They were very dark days for us," recalls Kamal Adnan, 58, a taxi driver. "It is a miracle to be alive."
Sullivan adds: "Many may be looking at Syria, a country which has a powerful military that is tight with the leadership, just like Algeria. Algers' pouvoir is mostly made up of retired generals and they don't want any trouble."
Politically, the country has come a long way since then, but economically, it is at a stalemate, which raises the risk of social instability. Government spending is on the rise, particularly with recent increases on subsidizing basic consumer commodities such as wheat, sugar, and milk, as well as an increase of civil servant wages, creation of new public jobs and funding public housing projects for the middle class and poor. Most significantly, 70 percent of Algeria's population is under 25 years of age and unemployment is over 10 percent. They are growing increasingly disenfranchised with shrinking opportunities and lack of political inspiration among the country's leadership. "The young people are lost, and there is no reliable opposition movement that is strong enough to lead them," said Zaid. "They are living spirits, shouldering a lot of misery, expecting change to happen anywhere but Algeria." | <urn:uuid:259177d6-2a50-488c-8dfa-da9e79495098> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2115184,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968961 | 1,312 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I can't pretend I've gone back through all of the novels, or read all of the short fiction in the Enderverse to start this thread.
What interests me is the idea of Bean and Ender being reunited on Lusitania. At the end of Shadow of the Giant, it seemed to me like a slam-dunk that Bean would eventually end up on Lusitania where another version of the Recolada virus would be able to fix his genetic trouble. The brain working on it was troublesome though. I'd always had trouble with the math of how Ender lived so long even with relativistic effects of space travel until OSC subtlety slipped the stasis option into Ender in Exile (I was thrilled because it seems like OSC's mind is moving in the same direction.)
I can see it already. Jane introduces herself to Bean sometime in the indeterminate past. Maybe it's Jane that starts Bean doing stints in stasis to keep prolonging his life while she monitors all planets for promising genetic therapies to keep him alive, eventually rerouting him to Lusitania for the recolada treatment only to realize he is already too big to survive even with the treatment (It would work fine on his kids at this point though). This of course simply means he has to do a trip into philotic out-space, but how does he come back? As Bean in the 6 year old body, Bean the man who married Petra, or even as the old man he might feel like? It occurred to me too that Bean might feel such a kinship with Jane that he'd end up accidentally projecting himself onto the philotic net along with Jane, but I couldn't figure out if they could maintain separate consciousness, or if they'd become two personalities of ostensibly the same entity (possible religious connotation?).
If you add in the surprise factor to Ender that Jane was aware of Bean the whole time (if you're worried it takes away from Ender's or Miro's relationship with Jane, remember with Bean traveling at relativistic speeds Jane can only give so much of herself to him.) Also how cool would it be if the reunion of Bean and Ender revolved around the discovery of a fifth sentient species (third technologically advanced) with which war seems inevitable. Except that the two human minds most responsible for the first Xenocide prevent any war at all. Also fun possibility of Bean's kids hitting it off with Peter and Valentine of Ender's creation, and a genetic crossing of the two.
Anyway, in my mind this is how it happens, and I never would have bothered writing about it before, but OSC kept writing Ender books. With each new one he wrote things I wanted to see. Even ways that I'd imagined, but in fantastic details I couldn't have anticipated. There are so many authors for whom I'd imagine continuing a series to be a mistake, and maybe COTM was, but OSC keeps me enthralled. Going to the bookstore to find the short stories that sneaked by me now.
So anyway, that's it...anybody want to play with me on these ideas? Agree, disagree, add in other details, call me names... | <urn:uuid:62df2d38-11b5-488e-b229-3e91d84bb98b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/battleschool/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000016;p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973858 | 654 | 1.507813 | 2 |
New iPad’s Retina display: how to reduce image file size?
Even till the day of the Keynote about the new iPad, I couldn’t believe the rumours telling the new iPad will have a Retina Display. I thought it was a too big challenge for the Apple engineers to make a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels was workable for a mobile device. I was waiting for Apple coming with some smart solution to up the screens resolution, without doubling the size in both directions. Apple actually surprised me by releasing the new iPad with this ridiculous big screen. As a user, this was off course fantastic news! As a developer, just doubling the size of my artwork wasn’t enough.
When I started working on my first app update to support the Retina display, I found out the hard way that just doubling the size of my images and including them as ‘@2x’ images blew the size of my app completely out of proportion. Mosaic Wallpaper Designer currently takes 5.5MB of your space to download it from the App Store. After I have included my reworked images, it grew to around 45MB! Even though this is an universal app and most of the UI is already in Retina resolution to support the iPhone 4 and 4S.
As a coder, I had to search for some tricks to reduce file size of my graphics to make the the file size workable again. Because I don’t think I’m the only one facing this kind of problems, I would like to share some of my experiences with you. For people with a graphical background, this may be pretty obvious, but this article is more targeted at Independent Developers without much of a graphical knowledge. If you have any additions to this article, add a comment below or contact me!
Choosing the right file type
There are more differences between .png and .jpg then their file extensions. Choosing the correct type can save huge amount of disk space. To make the right decision, it’s important to know what the difference are between the different types of images. I found a good articles which explains the difference between .jpg and .png very well. Since .jpg and .png are the most used files formats, this definitely is worth a read.
Optimizing image quality with Photoshop
With my basic knowledge of Photoshop, I always pressed ‘Save as..” when I was done with creating my images. While searching for ways to get my file size down, I found out that there is a better way when developing for iOS: ‘Save for Web and Devices…’. In the following screen you have much more influence on the quality of the saved image. You can also see an example of the chosen settings and the file size when you save the image with these settings. I noticed that in much cases, I could drop the quality dramatically without seeing a mayer difference in the resulting image. Be aware that you are actually changing the quality of the image itself instead of only reducing file size. In a lot of cases this isn’t a problem, but in some cases this is definitely not what you want.
Using tools like ImageOptim
There are a lot of tools out there which reduce file size of images automatically. The one I found most useful was ImageOptim.
This tool reduced some of my images file sizes for an average somewhere around 30%, without any noticeable drop in image quality. You can drag and drop images into ImageOptim or access it through the Terminal, which also makes it very easy to use. I recommend to use this to every mobile developer. I will use it for every project from now on, even if it isn’t really necessary to reduce file size. Mobile development is all about doing great stuff with limited resources.
If you have any additions to this article, add a comment below or contact me! | <urn:uuid:b6edf45f-abcf-42b6-83b0-17272d2d7f71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://erwinzwart.com/2012/03/18/new-ipads-retina-display-how-to-reduce-image-file-size/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952161 | 803 | 1.570313 | 2 |
"We once had a client who had a pottery vase they were using as a toilet brush holder," says Stuart Whitehurst, vice president of Skinner, Inc. auctioneers in Boston. "They had no idea it was made in the late 1800s by Boston pottery maker William Grueby and that its yellow glaze was extremely rare. That toilet brush holder ended up being worth $18,000." So how do you know if Grandma's umbrella stand is actually precious pottery? JustArtPottery.com has a large gallery of patterns and frequently publishes articles on how to tell what kind of pottery you own. And one of the hottest items on the market right now, Whitehurst says, is Chinese porcelain. Commonly found in a traditional blue and white motif, it's now exceptionally popular because Chinese collectors are trying to reclaim pieces that were brought to the States by American missionaries in the 20th century. | <urn:uuid:abd48c5d-7ae7-48b5-8b9a-5cb9795e48da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/home/How-to-Care-for-Valuables-in-the-Home-What-Are-Your-Possessions-Wor/11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983299 | 190 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The attempt to re-occupy Zuccotti Park and subsequent arrests of dozens of protesters in New York over the weekend was the start of what Occupy organizers said will be a comeback for the movement this spring and summer. But some city and state governments, armed with new ordinances specifically aimed at the Occupy movement, are ready to prevent demonstrators from re-establishing encampments.
Police in New York put 74 people in handcuffs Saturday night as protesters tried to establish a foothold in the birthplace of Occupy Wall Street, a public plaza in the heart of the financial district. The move followed a week during which protesters tried to occupy several Bank of America branches in New York and more than 100 people demonstrated outside a Mitt Romney fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
“Clearly the Occupy movement as we’ve known it – that is sort of occupying public spaces around government structures – is facing a stronger legal challenge,” said Gene Policinski, executive director of the Washington-based First Amendment Center, a self-described nonpartisan think tank that educates people about issues surrounding the First Amendment.
Cities around the country are making it more difficult for Occupy demonstrators to set up shop on public land. In Atlanta, the City Council is clarifying rules for local parks by banning things such as tents and plywood. Idaho and Tennessee state legislatures banned camping on public property not designated as a camp site.
A large turnout is also expected at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, in August and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in September. Some of the protesters' tactics may not be tolerated, Policinski said, and protesters could be arrested in groups of 400 to 500 and detained for up to two days while police "say they’re sorting out who is actively involved and who is not."
Policinski said that such mass arrests could result in the bulk of Occupy demonstrators winding up in custody while the conventions go on unscathed.
In Charlotte, city officials are prepared to allow protesters to march and hold rallies around the Democratic convention, but camping overnight on public land is out of the question.
“We did not have a prohibition on camping on city property before the Occupy movement came along,” city attorney Bob Hagemann said. “In late January, after a public input process, our City Council passed a couple of ordinances, one of which did prohibit camping.” Soon after, tents and other structures were removed from a local plaza, and the Occupy movement ended its 24-hour presence in the city.
Tampa officials will take a similar approach around the Republican convention. Occupy organizers are not deterred.
“You’re seeing a lot of folks who are both planning for enormous mass actions and also smaller, little affinity actions,” said Haywood Carey, one of the principal organizers of Occupy Wall Street.
Pete Dutro, who sits on the Occupy Wall Street Finance Committee, said the movement spent the winter strategizing.
“There has been a lot of coordination between the different occupations. There have been a lot of conference calls and Skype calls,” he said.
Amin Hussein, who has been involved in organizing Occupy protests in New York since Day One, said activists have a better sense of where the movement is heading in the coming months.
“We spent a lot of time getting to know each other better and building a sense of community. We’re able to communicate better, and there’s an element of trust and coordination,” Hussein said.
They have less money to work with than they did at the height of the movement though. At a recent Occupy Wall Street general assembly in New York, it was announced that the group has less than $45,000 in its general fund.
But Carey said money is not a factor.
“We were doing what we did before we had money. We’re going to continue doing (it) whether or not we have money," he said. | <urn:uuid:f8231c42-b5fa-42a2-bcda-45d803474920> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/19/occupy-movement-plans-a-comeback/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960928 | 821 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Stationary cycling class popular at the YMCA
Thursday, 21 August 2008 05:25
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 August 2008 02:55
Enjoy a long, strenuous bike ride without leaving the climate-controlled surroundings of the Pullum Family YMCA.
Spinning is an aerobic exercise program that takes place on a stationary bike, and Dottie Thomas, wellness director and spinning instructor at YMCA, said it is the most popular fitness class.
“We have 10 bikes at the YMCA,” Thomas said. “If we had 50, we would use every one of them.”
The YMCA requires riders to sign up for the class 48 hours ahead of the scheduled class.
“We had a storm one weekend that caused our phones to be out of service,” she said. “People lined up at 5:30 a.m. (Monday) in order to sign up for the Wednesday class.”
Spinning classes are taught at both the YMCA and The Club in Gulf Breeze, and both facilities have 11 classes each week. | <urn:uuid:c485ec10-f6f7-418c-9982-d9f288485e8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://navarrepress.com/news/archives/109-stationary-cycling-class-popular-at-the-ymca | 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 | 0.951762 | 234 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Burglars target elementary school
Cafeteria workers at a Brazoria County elementary school arrived at work Friday to find the school had been burglarized.
"It's disheartening more than anything," Principal Susan Harriman said. "Money is hard to come by these days, and anything that they've taken affects the children."
Columbia-Brazoria Independent School District Police said that they aren't sure how many people could have been involved in the break-in at Wild Peach Elementary, 3311 County Road 353, however, they said it was "impossible" to believe it was a solo crime.
"It's upsetting that people would want to steal from a school," parent Penny Frisby said.
According to CBISD Police Chief Danny Hankins, the burglars kicked and pried their way in through a classroom window.
"There were doorknobs lying in the floors in the hallways," Hankins said. "There were doors that were open that are usually locked. It's just amazing the amount of damage that was done by whoever did it."
Once inside, they went from room to room stealing TVs, computers and video game consoles, mostly from the after-school program classroom.
"It's things kids enjoy doing that they don't have right now," Harriman said. "It'll affect the after-school program more so than our daily operations."
More than 100 children are enrolled in the after-school program.
According to district spokesman Dr. Darryl Morris, property damages alone are estimated to be about $7,000. ?
CBISD police said they don't have descriptions of the suspects.
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Columbia-Brazoria ISD at 979-345-5147. | <urn:uuid:78692dd8-2d8b-42b1-87b4-71eaa20eb3e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.click2houston.com/news/Burglars-target-elementary-school/-/1735978/18424066/-/view/print/-/64ym80/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989872 | 375 | 1.664063 | 2 |
May 2013 has already been a very memorable month for PEAS! Only days after receiving a nomination for the Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovator Award, PEAS heard on Tuesday 7th May that we have been shortlisted from hundreds of entries for the Charity Awards 2013, in the category 'International Aid and Development' alongside just two other charities.
Yesterday we received the news that PEAS and founder John Rendel were nominated for the Rockefeller Foundation's top 100 Next Century Innovators.
Has cheering on the London marathon this weekend inspired you to get on your running shoes and shuffle round the park? If so, why not run for PEAS? You could even borrow our PEAS suit and try and beat a world record as the fastest ever pea!
A busy first term at George Secondary School in Zambia has just concluded and we have a number of noteworthy developments to report.
Did you know that the average intake across the new PEAS schools that opened in Uganda last month was 320? An increase of 60% on last year’s enrolment figures at new schools!
On Saturday 16th February 2013, Green Shoots Secondary School, Hoima District, led by Director Cephus Ssenyonga and Headteacher Victor Rubongoya, held a community event to celebrate the progress in exam results from 2011 to 2012.
PEAS has expanded our student population by 92% in 2012, with 4358 students now in the PEAS network.
On Friday night (11/11/11) Katherine Parkinson (IT Crowd) and her team, employees from Oliver Wyman, reigned victorious as the winners of the inaugural 'An Education' quiz, at Westminster school.
Thanks to Hazel's Footprints Trust, Sarah Ntiiro High School has got a new permanent kitchen building with fuel-efficient wood burning stoves.
Students at Onwards and Upwards spent their holidays making bricks as part of the school's Income Generating Activity. | <urn:uuid:b10969fe-cab2-468f-8f97-bd25ab84a7e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peas.org.uk/news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954256 | 398 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Antoinette Williams: Importance of volunteering
Antoinette was born in Fort Irwin; her mother an aspiring teacher and her father in the military. She is 20 years old and an only child. Since she was a child she has found inspiration in uplifting stories and the ordinary heroes. She plans to be a psychologist when she grow up and she would like to build organizations dedicated to showing the importance of volunteer work in small towns and communities. She has lived in Barstow all her life and have been blessed with the opportunities not many people have — that is to grow at her own pace and be part of organizations that really help build a foundation of character and networking.
Q: Describe a special memory you have in Barstow.
A: A special memory I have here in Barstow is the Mardi Gras Parade this year. Barstow College ASB, that I am President of, got to experience what the parade actually means to the community and how it affects the community as a whole. It was a beautiful spectacle of Barstow residents supporting each other and the wonderful entertainment at hand. That is an example of community to her.
Q: What do you do in your free time?
A: I love to do volunteer work like helping with Dr. Seuss Birthday Bash, helping with an organization called Delta Kappa Gamma and their annual Spring Fling in April and doing relaxing things such as going to the movies or spending time with friends and family.
Q: Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you.
A: When I see someone hurt or being mistreated, my heart goes out to them and I try to find a way to help them realize their own value and worth.
Q: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
A: It would be more volunteer work for small towns to do and improve self-esteem, and importance of community.
Q: If you could change one thing about Barstow, what would it be?
A: So far I do not know what fundamentally I can change in Barstow, yet.
Q: What person, living or from history, would you most like to have dinner with and why?
A: I would love to have dinner with Ghandi because of his inner strength to fight the evils that many of us would be scared to face and attack. He is so inspirational to me because he broke barriers in what we call a society. It is hard to find that here today in 2012 because everyone is so complacent in who and what they are. He did not see color lines, education background, socioeconomic status, he saw the value of each human being and that is inspiring.
Q: Who is someone who had a big influence on your life?
A: Being an only child, I found the strength to be a young woman of self respect from my mother because of the way she carriers herself and how she shows what true self-worth really is. She understands my passion for volunteer work because she also loves doing it. She is an amazing woman and always will be to me.
Q: What words of advice do you have for the next generation?
A: Never look to someone for a self-esteem boost or advice until you learn that you are your own best foundation for advice and self-worth. No matter how technology evolves or the next trending thing in social media it can not define who you are and how vital you are to the growth of the human race. Being aware and educated about many subjects helps you build a foundation and become an example for someone who is struggling through something that you now have experience in.
Q: What is something you are particularly proud of?
A: I am proud of the fact that I came to the community college here in Barstow because I learned the importance of community through all the volunteer work I have done. I also have built a foundation of confidence and self-esteem in the courses I have taken here at the college. Having a foundation of that here at a community college helps me at the next levels of college on how to retain information and help build that as a part of my character for my career.
Q: What’s your favorite movie and why?
A: My favorite movie is the Bucket List because it shows that no matter what circumstances come to you in this life we have to dig deep, cherish and enjoy the time we are given on this planet.
Q: Tell us about your favorite thing about living in Barstow?
A: The close community and how we all grow together as we get older and realize the different experiences really help all of our characters become a community.
Q: What is the best thing about your job?
A: It gives me the ability to work on my creativity.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
A: I don’t have a particular place that I want to travel to I would like to travel to many places and countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, London, and Egypt. I feel I can broaden my horizon on how to look at the human race and learn the ways we are growing and that we are being hindered.
Q: Tell us about one thing you want to accomplish in life.
A: I like to think of myself as a trailblazer in the making. I feel that one thing to accomplish in my life is to build an organization dedicated to helping children, teens, and young adults learn the essentials of learning how to think and have the self-confidence to achieve anything they feel is important to spend their energy on building.
Q: What’s your favorite place to eat in Barstow?
Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A: I see myself at the point in my life where I transition into having a family, enjoying my career and exploring the world.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
A: Thank you for this opportunity to share with the community who I am. | <urn:uuid:a3f12bde-f8e1-4e26-9533-0ade414c2553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/antoinette-13783-child-importance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976041 | 1,253 | 1.757813 | 2 |
BERLIN – Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged German lawmakers on Friday to approve the latest bailout for Greece despite their growing unease about the cost to taxpayers less than a year before federal elections.
Schaeuble praised the new Greek government's commitment to tough austerity measures but said speculation - including among German politicians - that Athens's international creditors will eventually have to write off debt could derail the reform drive.
The vote in the lower house Bundestag is seen as a test of Chancellor Angela Merkel's authority over her center-right coalition. A 'yes' vote is not in doubt but the number of coalition lawmakers voting against will be keenly watched.
Schaeuble said failure to approve the package, which aims to cut the Greek debt load to 124 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, could spell disaster for Europe. He also tried to quash the talk of a debt writedown.
"If we say the debts will be written off (Greece's) willingness to make savings is correspondingly weakened. Such false speculation does not solve the problems," he said. "A Greek bankruptcy could lead to the break-up of the euro zone."
The government acknowledged for the first time this week that the bailout will mean lost federal revenues.
All week, German newspapers have reverberated with predictions, including from some coalition lawmakers, that Germany and other euro zone countries will eventually have to write off some of their Greek debt holdings.
Schaeuble said Germany was insisting on strict monitoring of Greece's reforms to ensure it met its fiscal targets, adding that the country's competitiveness was finally improving as a result of the austerity program.
A minority of Merkel's lawmakers will vote against the package but criticism of the Greek bailouts within her coalition has softened in recent months after she decided the cost of expelling Greece from the euro zone would be far greater.
In a test vote on Wednesday, 15 of the 237 lawmakers in Merkel's own conservative bloc voted against the aid package and one abstained - though only about two thirds of lawmakers attended the meeting, participants said.
The Free Democrats, the CDU's junior coalition partner, expect about 10 of their 93 lawmakers to vote against or abstain, said a parliamentary source.
That means Merkel is heading for a bigger rebellion than in a Bundestag vote in July on a rescue package for Spanish banks, which saw 22 rebels from her center-right coalition.
With the approach of next September's federal elections in Germany, the center-left opposition is also starting to show greater reluctance to support Merkel's European policies.
The Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens will back the aid package but the SPD's challenger for the chancellorship, Peer Steinbrueck, told German television on Friday: "We will vote for it because we don't want our reliability as European partners left in any doubt. It has nothing to do with the government."
He has accused Merkel's government of deceiving German voters about the true costs of the Greek bailouts but it is difficult for the SPD to make political capital out of the issue as they are strongly pro-euro and support more EU integration.
In Friday's Bundestag debate, SPD parliamentary leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused the government of putting off the "economically unavoidable" debt haircut for Greece for its own political reasons.
"You can postpone it until after Christmas, until after the Lower Saxony election, the Bavarian election or the federal elections, but it will come."
(Additional reporting by Stephen Brown; Editing by Janet McBride) | <urn:uuid:2bce923a-d97e-4d71-8ea1-c6d2e2341dd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/11/30/germany-schaeuble-urges-mps-to-back-greek-bailout-despite-unease/ | 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 | 0.964143 | 730 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The end is near for the French flagship sedan
|Luca Ciferri is Automotive News Europe's Editor-in-Chief.|
France will no longer have a domestically produced flagship when output of the Citroen C6 ends later this month. The C6's demise marks the end of an era in France that reached its pinnacle in the 1950s. That was when the first Citroen DS sedan arrived.
The iconic shark-shaped car proved that the French could compete with any automaker in Europe in making a truly premium large sedan.
The C6 and the 1955 DS are both large sedans made by the same parent, but that is where the similarities end.
The Citroen DS debuted in 1955.
The original DS was a dream car that pulled people away from Mercedes-Benz while Citroen has been unable to make the C6 competitive against the German premium brands. Only 556 C6s were sold in Europe in the first 10 months of this year. It's easy to understand why Citroen had to halt production of the car. Sister brand Peugeot also has quit the large sedan segment.
That means Patriotic French consumers looking for a large sedan might be in trouble. Sure, Renault makes the Latitude, but many car buyers in France have shunned the car because it is a rebadge of the Samsung SM5, which is imported from South Korea. Through October, Renault sold 3,792 Latitudes, which is a decline of almost 59 percent from the same period last year, JATO's numbers show.
Renault will soon decide whether to develop a new flagship sedan that would share it underpinnings with the Mercedes E class. The new car would be sold under Renault's near-premium Initiale Paris sub-brand.
But one has to wonder whether Renault should follow Peugeot and Citroen and abandon the large sedan segment, which is dominated by the BMW 5 series (101,600 sales in Europe after 10 months); the Audi A6 (89,300); and the E class (86,400). In Europe, this market segment speaks German. It is time for France to realize this.
You can reach Luca Ciferri at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:7fb9a2b4-bb7d-4eaa-9e6a-bcf780503950> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autonews.com/article/20121212/BLOG15/312129996/1295/eurostars&cciid=internal-aneinside-mostright | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95484 | 470 | 1.601563 | 2 |
S TATE and federal elected officials eyeing a run for city offices could soon be required to resign before becoming a candidate.
City Councilman Jim Kenney on Thursday introduced an amendment to the city's Home Rule Charter that would apply to such candidates as a congressman running for mayor.
Should the proposal pass, the decision to change the charter would be left up to voters in November.
Kenney said that the change would "level the playing field." Currently, those who hold city offices must resign before seeking any public office. Six years ago, Kenney pushed a charter change that would allow city officials to remain in office while running for another office, but voters shot down that effort. | <urn:uuid:5ea827ce-28f6-49b3-b3e5-3ca502ad10e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-30/news/31261463_1_city-offices-charter-change-city-race | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969405 | 138 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Canon U.S.A.’s Live Learning events are in full swing for the Spring season, highlighted by the upcoming “Deconstructing the Story” workshops for professional and advanced cinematographers, photographers and videographers. These three day, hands-on sessions provide intensive learning opportunities designed to demonstrate improved techniques for shooting successful video projects with Canon EOS HD DSLR cameras. During the opening day, foundations of EOS cine-style production techniques are taught in intimate student breakout groups. That’s followed by a full day of student shooting in a 24-hour film festival style, topped off by a final day of editing; all provided from the experts of the renowned stillmotion™ team, a group of leading innovators in the use of EOS HD video products, along with Canon professional market representatives.
Designed for professional and advanced EOS HD DSLR users, participants of these workshops will receive instruction from stillmotion assisted by Canon team members. As part of the workshops, students will have the opportunity to work with an assortment of Canon camera bodies and lenses along with the supporting production accessories to make the experience as impactful as possible. Students will work in small groups immersing themselves in each aspect of video production with EOS while receiving guidance on the technical and creative aspects to ensure the final result is worthy of new client interest.
The 2011 schedule for the “Deconstructing the Story” workshops is as follows:
Orlando: May 24th to May 26th
Cincinnati: May 31st to June 2nd
New York: June 7th to June 9th
Austin: June 21st to June 23th
Seattle: June 28th to June 30th
For more information on these workshops please visit: www.usa.canon.com/story | <urn:uuid:3715e311-f7c8-4dca-92dd-a8a66561cb06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=792 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955831 | 372 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Mythical mermaids have fascinated humans for centuries, and alluring creatures in bikini tops and fish tails seem to be keeping the love alive.
One of the first mermaid shows in the United States can be traced back to Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida, where mermaids debuted synchronized ballet moves at an 18-seat theater in October 1947.
Mermaid shows have evolved from that Florida roadside attraction off U.S. 19. Here are five spots where mermaids are making a big splash:
The Sip 'n Dip Lounge: Great Falls, Mont.
The mermaid attraction at the Sip 'n Dip Lounge in Great Falls, Mont., started when a housekeeper at the adjoining O'Haire Motor Inn agreed to put on a costume and swim around for guests on New Year's Eve 1995. A glass wall between the bar and the 21,000 gallon swimming pool provided a perfect place for tiki lounge patrons to take in a show.
A live piano bar had been the primary entertainment until Sip 'n Dip general manager Sandra Johnson-Thares and her mother came up with the idea to add mermaids. They thought it would boost the lounge's "fun factor."
"I never in my life believed the mermaid attraction would be such a big hit," said Johnson-Thares. Both locals and tourists are drawn by the kitschy entertainment. Celebrities like "Splash" mermaid Daryl Hannah have stopped in for a visit, too.
"People are fascinated with them, and it's not something you'd expect to see in Montana," she chuckled.
Johnson-Thares makes the mermaid costumes using stretch velvet fabric and "a lot of sequins." Six women work part-time as mermaids five days a week.
"Some of our mermaids are students and others are moms," she said. "We use the newspaper and radio to advertise for mermaid positions when they open up." | <urn:uuid:e42e7943-34c1-4cb4-b742-eeec127c0d95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyff4.com/news/money/travel/Mermaids-Entertainers-with-a-tail/-/9323924/16545064/-/u8xr1rz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95058 | 403 | 1.515625 | 2 |
1311 Adams Avenue,
No one has favorited this theater yet
Opened as the Star Theatre, it was renamed Granada Theatre in 1952. The Granada Theatre is owned by the Grandson’s of the Greulich family. Originally owned by John Greulich, who owned an interest in the Pendleton, OR theatres before the talkies. He sold his intersts in Pendleton and purchased half-interest in the La Grande theatres before the depression. During the depression he was given ownership of the State Theatre (known as the Sherry Theatre at that time).
During WWII, his son was in Europe, and during that time John Greulich died. His son returned and sold the other half-interest from Don Myers to Ted Jones of Western Amusement.
The relationship with Western Amusement and the Greulich family worked out until the son died and the family bought out Western Amusement.
The Granada Theatre was remodeled and it was converted into a triplex. The family also operate the La Grande Drive-In, which is open every summer season, and is one of three that operate in Oregon.
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater | <urn:uuid:aabb1586-cc4e-469a-bd44-e37055c22b88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18852 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982061 | 249 | 1.664063 | 2 |
'But I'm not flexible. I don't have the right clothes. And I might look silly."
These are the inevitable concerns of the new yoga student, and with good reason. Just Google "yoga'' and you're likely to find some lithe young thing bending her body in ways you had no idea the human body could move. Or you'll find the shirtless Adonis with the stoic face, balancing on one arm, his legs in the air.
Yes, these things are possible with years of dedicated practice. But where does the beginner start? In an effort to demystify the contortions, misconceptions and perceptions of a yoga practice, I bring you, the new student, the following misconceptions to reconsider:
Yoga is Too Hard: It can be. It can also be easy. The beauty is, yoga is whatever you make it. Find a beginner's class and you're likely to join a group of people in the same place you are, finding their way into their bodies, hearts and souls. It's a process. Trust it.
Yoga is Too Easy: It can be. It can also be hard. The beauty is, yoga is whatever you make it. I can't say it enough. Try that beginner's class anyway. There always is more to learn, like developing a relationship with your breath, discovering the innate grace of movement and the peace of starting, doing and finishing.
I'm Not Flexible: Ah, yes, a common concern. Here's the simple answer: Yoga gets you flexible. Consider this: You don't get a driver's license and suddenly know how to drive. You get behind the wheel, you listen to direction, you stay in parking lots awhile and pretty soon you're cruising the highway. Yoga works like that. We'll give you the keys.
I Don't Have the Right Clothes: Is there a Walmart nearby? Great. Get some sweat pants, a loose T-shirt and you're good to go. Unless you've got a photo shoot scheduled for the cover of Yoga Journal, you don't need to shop at expensive retailers. Unless, of course, you want to.
I'll Look Silly: Of course you won't, but even if you think you will, no one will care. Yoga is one on one. You, and you. Give yourself time to get to know your own body and you will be rewarded with the realization that silliness is totally a state of mind.
FIND YOUR WAY
Here are some tips to make that first class the one that starts an amazing journey, and keeps you coming back.
Expectations: Don't have any. It's that simple. Expectations usually disappoint us. Go with an open mind, and soon you'll find an open heart.
Talk to your teacher: He or she gets it, or at least they should. Talk to them about your concerns, medical conditions or limitations they should know about, and any reservations you may have. Your teacher will help you modify and adapt. If they don't help or insist you try something you know isn't right for you, don't give up on yoga, but do find another teacher.
Cut Yourself Some Slack: Nothing comes to us the first time. Remember your first time behind the wheel? You might have hit a curb, bumped into a trash can or dinged the side mirror. Although we try to keep the curbs and trash cans out of your way, allow yourself to be human and trust the evolutionary process. Remind yourself that wherever you are is exactly where you're supposed to be.
Have fun, find joy: Yoga isn't about twisted postures. It's about finding joy in whatever you do. Try not to take yourself too seriously. We practice breathing through discomfort, facing our fears, overcoming obstacles, connecting to inner peace and becoming a more balanced person. Who can't use those skills off the yoga mat? It's a process, a journey, one that can be filled with utter joy and render a new outlook on life. All this from yoga, you ask? You betcha.
Diana Reed is a yoga teacher, writer and co-owner of Gaya Jyoti Yoga in Hernando County. She can be reached at (352) 610-1083 or gayajyotiyoga.com. | <urn:uuid:14b54e5e-2ff2-4d46-9a96-9d7ddcd6887d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tampabay.com/features/fitness/new-to-yoga-relax-and-enjoy-your-journey/1228277 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964837 | 892 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Pistis Sophia, by G.R.S. Mead, , at sacred-texts.com
Bartholomew said: "A man who hath intercourse with a male, what is his vengeance?"
Of the chastisement of him who hath intercourse with males.Jesus said: "The measure of the man who hath intercourse with males and of the man with whom he lieth, is the same as that of the blasphemer.
"When then the time is completed through the sphere, the receivers of Yaldabaōth come after their soul, and he with his forty-and-nine demons taketh vengeance on it eleven years.
"Thereafter they carry it to the fire-rivers and seething pitch-seas, which are full of demons with pigs' faces. They eat into them and take vengeance on [?] them in the fire-rivers another eleven years.
"Thereafter they carry them into the outer darkness until the day of judgment when the great darkness is judged; and then they will be dissolved and destroyed."
Thomas said: "We have heard that there are some on the earth who take the male seed and the female monthly blood, and make it into a lentil porridge and eat it, |387. saying: 'We have faith in Esau and Jacob.' Is this then seemly or not?"
Jesus was wroth with the world in that hour
Of the chastisement of a foul act of sorcery.and said unto Thomas: "Amēn, I say: This sin is more heinous than all sins and iniquities. Such men will straightway be taken into the outer darkness and not be cast back anew into the sphere, but they shall perish, be destroyed in the outer darkness in a region where there is neither pity nor light, but howling and grinding of teeth. And all the souls which shall be brought into the outer darkness, will not be cast back anew, but will be destroyed and dissolved."
John answered [and said]: "A man who hath committed no sin, but done good persistently, but hath not found the mysteries to pass through the rulers, when he cometh out of the body, what will happen unto him?"
Of the after-death state of the righteous man who path not been initiated.Jesus said: "If the time of such an one is completed through the sphere, the receivers of Bainchōōōch, who is one of the triple-powered gods, come after his soul and lead his soul with joy and exultation and spend three days circling round with it and instructing it concerning the creations of the world with joy and exultation.
"Thereafter they lead it down into the Amente and instruct it concerning the instruments of chastisement in the Amente; but they will not take vengeance on it therewith. But they will only instruct it concerning them, and the smoke of the flame of the chastisements catcheth it only a little.
"Thereafter they carry it up unto the way of the midst and instruct it concerning the chastisements of the ways of the midst, the smoke from the flame catching it a little.
"Thereafter they lead it unto the Virgin of Light, and she judgeth it and depositeth it with
the little Sabaōth, the Good, him of the Midst, until the sphere turneth itself, and Zeus and Aphrodite come in face of the Virgin of Light, while Kronos and Arēs come behind her.
"At that hour she taketh that righteous soul and handeth it over to her receivers, that they may cast it into the peons of the sphere. And the servitors of the sphere lead it forth into a water which is below the sphere; and a seething fire ariseth and eateth into it until it purifieth it utterly.
"Thereafter cometh Yaluham, the receiver of Sabaōth, the Adamas, who giveth the cup of forgetfulness unto the souls, and he bringeth the water of forgetfulness and handeth it to the soul; [and it drinketh it] and forgetteth all things and all the regions to which it had gone.
Of the cup of wisdom."Thereafter there cometh a receiver of the little Sabaōth, the Good, him of the Midst. He himself bringeth a cup filled with thoughts and wisdom, and soberness is in it; [and] he handeth it to the soul. And they cast it into a body which can neither sleep nor forget because of the cup of soberness which hath been handed unto it; but |389. it will whip its heart persistently to question about the mysteries of the Light until it find them, through the decision of the Virgin of Light, and inherit the Light for ever." | <urn:uuid:20e736dc-a743-4a30-9baf-159e4b52bf6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ps/ps152.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950285 | 1,012 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Some of SFC’s current tools that need support are:
1. The “Trail map” – \ a “nearly exhaustive SFC leader’s handbook” that can help guide leaders, through the ins and outs of this unique ministry.
2. Website – SFC produces a website with listing for each chapter to promote current events along with a great number of other online resources.
3. Weekly Winter Word – Each week of the winter a new bible study, geared specifically towards the needs, problems of a snowboarder or skier, is released.
4. Video Library – The SFC international office is always updating a library of video resources that range from feature length films that can be used at outreach events to explanatory films aimed at connecting with the Church.
5. Gospels of John – Every chapter is equipped with a stack of paper copies of the Gospel of John, specially equipped with a challenge to snowboarders and skiers to pursue a life like that of Jesus.
6. Fundraising tools – Tthis season 2 chapters will be receiving a $500 grant to fund special projects to reach their community for Jesus.
7. Book Library – SFC is compiling a literally library of literary resources that address the specific challenges of leading a group of volunteers in reaching this special community for Christ.
8. Conferences –SFC International offices hosts 5 conferences to equip and encourage our leaders to continue fighting the good fight.
9. More…new resources just like these are added each year.
At a cost of $60 per patient, LoveManifest in partnership with DPWA & AG Eye Hospital in Tirichurapalli, India, is able to provide free mobile eye camps to identify patients with cataracts. Surgeries are performed (usually same day) free of charge, and include medications, post operative care, and follow up care. It’s that simple.
By Ride Nature
On September 16th, 2013 we will be sending a team to Southern India for 2 weeks with the hope and prayer that thousands of lives will be transformed through the power of Jesus Christ. We need your help to get Bibles, boards, and other supplies on this trip!
Uganda has 2.5 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and 10 million children living in poverty. We are working in an urban slum area, where families are struggling to survive. Families don’t have resources to meet even the most basic needs, and 60% of our children don’t get regular meals at home. The cost of school supplies, uniforms, and fees puts education out of reach.
Most had lost hope of ever completing their education and escaping the relentless hunger and poverty that threatens their lives.
At Calvary Primary School, we feed 408 children two meals each day during the school term. We provide school fees or partial tuition assistance for these children. We also provide supplies, uniforms, and personal hygiene items. When children are sick, we take them for medical care. We provide tuition for 86 students in secondary schools, and 6 in vocational training.
Shepherd’s Hope has sought to begin urban farming in our community for over a year. By GOD’S grace the 5700 block of Lowe Ave is about to become the food center of Englewood. Over the winter the LORD placed on the heart of Executive Director Brian Anderson that HE wanted us to use a different method of urban farming in the Englewood community. A relatively new type of farming that could take place year-round. After doing some research, it sounded relatively easy and used very little water compared to conventional farming. The method would provide protein, fruits and vegetables using a symbiotic relationship in a greenhouse environment. The LORD had peaked his interest and so he and another team member from Shepherd’s Hope attended a 3-day seminar in Milwaukee on aquaponic farming. After 3 days their heads were spinning and the LORD was right again; this would be the perfect way to farm this Englewood community.
Trafficking is hell. 27 million slaves. 1.2 million trafficked each year. Sold for sex. Sold into slavery.
There are great organizations who rescue victims every day…but then what? How does a trafficking victim reintegrate into society?
In Moldova, one of the top exporters of sexually trafficked women, Beginning of Life offers a new chance at life through a specialized restoration home program. Together, we are establishing the Center for Self Defense to teach women how to protect their bodies from sexual violence.
Once operational, the Center will serve trafficking victims and other vulnerable women. Specifically, we will use self-defense training like mixed-martial arts to rebuild confidence, and develop inner strength.
Mostly, we want to make sure these women can literally fight sex trafficking if they have to. To stop sexual violence against their bodies, and to have the confidence in themselves.
Housed in the basement of a church in Chisinau, Moldova, the Center for Self-Defense is a joint project of Children’s HopeChest and Beginning of Life.
Help us stop sex trafficking, and empower women to protect their bodies and fight sexual violence.
Need: The Current local clinic in our region is no longer in service. All of our widows and people sick with HIV/AIDS must travel far to receive basic treatment and medication.
Solution: If we raise $2,000 in this campaign, we will be able to hire a mobile nurse on staff to travel throughout our 30 villages providing check-ups, distributing medication, and offer counsel and support to those in need.
Financial pressure is a leading reason cited by men and women for considering an abortion decision. Often, the difference between life and death is as simple as knowing that he or she is not alone and that she has material help from someone who cares. Understanding this, the Steamboat Springs Pregnancy Resource Center invests in our clients’ long-term health by more than just serving them with life-affirming education and options. We come alongside them with education that will help them to succeed as prudent, responsible parents and with supplies that will lessen their financial pressures. Donations to the SSPRC will help us encourage and empower young moms and single parents with cribs, car seats, baby equipment and supplies, and diapers and wet wipes—supplies they will earn through their participation in an education program that allows them to meet weekly with a personal advocate. This project not only affirms life, it promotes an abundant life for our clients and their families.
The Story of Kolya:
Left to wander the streets at age 2 1/2, Kolya started sniffing glue and became addicted to other drugs by an age where most kids are learning how to read or play baseball! Thankfully, he was brought to a Christian rehab center in Mariupol, Ukraine, and today Kolya has been clean of drugs and alcohol for nearly three years! He was adopted by Pastor Gennadiy Makhnienko, a loving mentor and role model. He is known for his talents as a poet and song-writer and now he is using those gifts as well as his physical strength and endurance to share his remarkable story to inspire others.
Twenty former orphans are biking 2,500 miles from Ekaterinburg, Russia (near the Ural Mountains) to Lake Baikal in Siberia to raise awareness of adoption and foster care!
At designated stops along the route, Kolya and his friends will be sharing their testimonies with thousands of Russians in order to promote adoption for children just like themselves.
These kids train for months to prepare for the intense physical, mental and emotional strain of biking such a long distance (2,500 miles, remember!) in often horrendous weather conditions and sharing such personal stories.
Won’t you support Kolya and his friends as they share their vision of a Russia Without Orphans? $2/mile/child.
In the Republic of Moldova, PEER Servants partners with Invest-Credit, a local microfinance institution whose mission is to provide financial services with a commitment to excellence that will make a difference in client’s lives.
Moldova is considered the poorest country in Europe and has struggled both economically and politically since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Migration is one of the most severe problems Moldova faces, with estimates ranging from one-quarter to one-third of the working age population living abroad. According to the International Organization of Migration, one-third of these are believed to be living abroad illegally.
Though the country is blessed with fertile soils and bountiful harvests of fruits and vegetables, the strained economy has led many to seek higher income in other countries. The effects of migration are widespread. Families are torn apart; one or both parents will move abroad and leave their children with relatives. Communities have lost the invigorating energy of young adults. Invest-Credit, however, believes that the people of Moldova are its greatest resource, a more fertile ground for transformation and growth than even the rich soil.
With 58% of Moldovans living in rural areas, Invest-Credit developed a unique initiative, a mobile microfinance office, to reach individuals in rural areas who would not otherwise have access to microfinance services. Through the mobile office, Invest-Credit had been able to serve three villages. With the support of a Giving of Life grant, they would be able to expand outreach to more communities.
We give life to the children we serve by being The Voice of More for foster children who have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused and neglected. Children 6 to 12 years old head up to cam in the mountains with us for five days of positive memories. We share God’s plan for their lives and teach them how to build a firm foundation, pray to God, trust God, and follow a Godly plan…with the partnership of the Department of Human Services here in El Paso County in Colorado Springs. Royal Family KIDS’ Camp occurs in 36 states around the country each summer, reaching about five percent of foster children each summer. Here in Colorado Springs, we have a tea party one afternoon for the girls to speak identity, affirmation, and encouragement into them - and treat them royally - and have Camp Grandpa and Grandma pray over them and show them that men can value them just because they’re valuable. We have a Birthday Party for EVERY child in the middle of the week since most have never had a birthday party, tried cake, nor have they been celebrated. We also have a variety/talent show that the kids can sing, dance, whistle, kick dirt…whatever their talent is. We go crazy with applause! Each day is spent with time singing songs, listening to Bible Stories, watching puppet skits and dramas with camp staff, and loads of activity time to swim, ride horses, paint, play basketball, and other activities.
We believe that the solution to the greatest humanitarian crises of the last century is the Gospel being deeply rooted in, and lived out, through the people of God. Project love is a multimedia (video/web based)local church resource and challenge being developed for believers of all ages. It consists of teaching and testimony videos that demystify a missional lifestyle of evangelism, and at the same time, calls the audience into a 20 day challenge: Partner with God, to sow the good news of Jesus, everyday, for 20 days. The project challenges and equips.
Initially, Project:love will be spread organically though social media. There will be an official start date for project:love (June 1st). Once the 20 days are completed, project:love will continue to be made freely available to the local church as a powerful catalytic resource. We foresee the resource/challenge being accepted by small groups, and youth/young-adult groups long after the initial 20 day challenge is over!
We believe the next great move of God is not going to be thousands and millions gathering around leaders with strong personalities (though there is nothing wrong with that). Rather, the next great awakening is going to be laymen led. We see, on the horizon, the pew sitter lining up on stage at local churches throughout the modern world giving testimony of the power of the Gospel flowing through them in every day life. Through project:love, we believe thousands will be provoked to spread everywhere the fragrance of life (Jesus)! | <urn:uuid:33c605b1-3650-4d8c-a67c-51f4ffbcbb42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://givingoflife.com/browse/least/P16 | 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 | 0.954769 | 2,572 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Kenya coffee – a unique and underappreciated taste.
For those who love coffee, coffee from Kenya offers a taste that is truly distinctive and pleasing.
Kenya produces over 2 million bags of coffee each year, grown in red volcanic soil on plateaus to the north and east of Nairobi.
In the same way that Ethiopia produces coffee with a taste that is clearly of East African origin, the same goes for Kenya. However, Kenya coffee is also quite distinct from Ethiopian.
Many coffee experts view the best of coffees from Kenya as being among the very finest in the world.
If it’s so good, why don’t we hear more about Kenya coffee?
Why isn’t it up there with the big names like Blue Mountain Jamaica coffee and Hawaii’s Kona coffee?
Even Colombian coffee gets more coverage and accolades.
While a few coffee drinkers know what to expect from Kenya, most people don’t have it high on their list of coffees to try.
There are two reasons why Kenya coffee appears to be unappreciated...
These two reasons are related.
The first is that coffee from Kenya is not well marketed. The Kenya Coffee Board has done a very patchy job in promoting the quality of its coffees to key overseas markets, like the U.S. Coffee growers have also been struggling with an antiquated auction system, held each Tuesday in Nairobi.
As with all products, sometimes aggressive marketing will overshadow the quality of the coffee itself.
The second reason is that the quality of the coffee from Kenya has been inconsistent at times. And that inconsistency makes buyers nervous. Political and social unrest in Kenya have not helped small farmers produce consistently good crops.
How to choose the best Kenya coffee...
Kenya AA is the finest grade of coffee from Kenya, and the easiest to find.
In addition, it is slowly becoming possible to find premium coffees from specific regions of Kenya. Starbucks has recently introduced their “Black Apron Kirinyaga Kenya”, grown by small farmers and processed through a cooperative venture between six coffee mills.
Kenya offers some marvelous coffees, and it is well worth seeking out the best of them and giving them a try. Try some from Green Mountain Coffee.
And a final update: For the first time, Fair Trade Coffee is now available from Kenya. That's great news for small farmers there and will hopefully result in a growth of the market for all coffees from Kenya.
More about gourmet specialty coffee... | <urn:uuid:bf13beac-da09-453c-8bbc-d995d20f62d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coffeedetective.com/kenya-coffee.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959487 | 526 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Officials from the Lakewood Fire Department offer some great safety tips for the holidays.
Everything is beautiful this time of year because, frankly, you make it that way. But your favorite Lakewood Patch editor and the Lakewood Fire Department want to make sure your decorations aren't going to burn your old house down. We checked in with Fire Chief Scott Gilman and Fire Marshal Tim Dunphy for some decorating safety tips this holiday season. “The Lakewood Fire Department would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and safe and happy holidays,” said Dunphy. Here's some solid advice: • Gilman said that the “number one cause of fires during the holidays” is from unattended candles. “Never leave them unattended or within three feet of any combustible materials,” said Gilman. “And don’t keep them around natural or uncut …
Friday, December 7, 2012
Faulty HVAC fan may be the culprit in Friday’s evacuation of the middle school.
Sometimes, when there’s smoke, there’s no fire. A malfunctioning fan in the ceiling is to blame for a fire alarm at Garfield Middle School — and the evacuation of about 600 students — on Friday morning. Lakewood City Schools spokeswoman Christine Gordillo said that a faulty fan in the HVAC unit in the ceiling “burnt out and emitted some smoke.” Lakewood Fire Marshal Tim Dunphy called the issue an “electrical fan motor malfunction.” “Everything checked out OK,” he said. The students were evacuated just after 8 a.m., but classes resumed about 30 minutes later. “They checked it and made sure there was no fire,” Gordillo said. “The fan has got to be replaced.”
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
When an employee at Madison Avenue Repair Shop went into cardiac arrest, his co-worker ran across the street to the Lakewood Fire Department — a move that saved his friend’s life.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Don Guerra is lucky to be alive after he went into cardiac arrest while working at the Madison Avenue Repair Shop last Wednesday afternoon. It was the quick-thinking of his co-worker Spencer Knapp that saved his life. It also didn’t hurt that the Lakewood Fire Department headquarters is right across the street. “He started making sort of a snoring noise,” recalls Knapp, whose father owns the full-service gas station. “I looked over, he had his head down. I looked away and looked back and he was on the floor.” Another employee called 911, while Knapp bolted across the street. “He wasn’t breathing,” Knapp said. “They were able to get him going again in the ambulance. If I hadn’t gone …
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Nick Cleary, a fifth-grader at Roosevelt Elementary School, selected as this year's student representative to the fire department.
Students at Roosevelt Elementary School got a good lesson in fire prevention, as firefighters from the Lakewood Fire Department stopped by to talk to the students about the important topic. Coinciding with Fire Prevention Week, fire officials have been making their way around the district to teach a few valuable lessons. Students in the district were asked to take a fire safety test and write an essay about fire prevention. There were several students in the district with some honorary fire safety titles. Nick Cleary, a fifth-grader at Roosevelt Elementary School, was selected as the honorary Junior Fire Chief. | <urn:uuid:2a59642d-1118-4e90-b75f-b74d1b982972> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lakewood-oh.patch.com/topics/Tim+Dunphy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975422 | 765 | 1.546875 | 2 |
What's behind the record Calif. gas prices?
(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - The price of gas in California set another all time high overnight. The state average hit $4.66 per gallon, breaking the old record set just one day earlier.
The national average is a full 85 cents less.
For California drivers, Sunday brought yet another jump in gas prices. The statewide average went up a nickel overnight. It has happened every day for the past week.
Drivers said Sunday they have never seen anything like it, and Jeffrey Spring of AAA said they're right.
"In a week, it's gone up about 52 cents. That is absolutely unprecedented," Spring said.
In part, it is due to California's efforts to protect its spectacular natural environment. Air pollution regulations require special summer and winter gasoline blends in the state.
Refineries are making that seasonal switch now, but that reduces supply, which was already tight after a fire in August shut down part of a Chevron refinery at Richmond, near San Francisco.
Then, last week a power failure temporarily knocked out an Exxon refinery at Torrance in Southern California.
"The Richmond refinery and the Torrance refinery account for about 25 percent of the production in California, because they're two of the biggest refineries we have. It's easy to see why the wholesalers panicked," Spring said.
As wholesalers raised prices, drivers started to panic as gas seemed to get more expensive, and many say they don't see it going down anytime soon.
State energy officials are trying to reassure drivers that price spikes like this don't last.
"This is a very dramatic one, but we do know that what goes up does come down, and often quite quickly," said Alison Roberts, a spokesperson for the California Energy Commission.
In fact, the wholesale price has already started coming down. On Friday, it dropped 55 cents per gallon on the spot market in Los Angeles.
But gas station owners who paid thousands more to fill their tanks in the past week are likely to keep retail prices up until they get their money back. So relief for California drivers is still days away.
- Colo. senator who pushed for gun control may lose job
- 6/18: Officials say NSA stopped over 50 potential terror attacks; Hi-tech giant creates next generation of Edisons
- Couple's steamy romance e-books save their home
- Two teens stranded 8,000 feet up on cliff rescued by chopper
- David Coleman Headley: Terror sleeper agent foiled by NSA
- Innovative Ariz. class turns students' dreams into reality
- Couple reeling from recession rewrites story, publishes romance novels
- Officials say NSA programs stopped over 50 potential terror attacks
- President Obama defends decisions on surveillance and Syria
- SCOTUS: States can't require voters to prove citizenship; Couple reeling from recession publishes novels
- Ghost army: How a group of artists helped win WWII
- Colo. state senator faces recall after passage of gun control law
- Iran's new president-elect seen as bridge-builder
- Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
- Hi-tech giant spends millions to create next generation of Edisons
- Notebook: Banks | <urn:uuid:a43497f1-52dd-480b-ab06-e897848ab206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57527583/whats-behind-the-record-calif-gas-prices/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94959 | 671 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Voter registration ends FridayPublished 11:00pm Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Pike County residents are in the process of deciding who to cast their votes for on Election Day, but there’s an important step they must make before they vote.
“If you aren’t registered by Friday, you can’t vote,” said Board of Registrars Chair Melissa Ingram.
Oct. 26 is the last day voters can update their information or register to vote. Forms are available to download at pikecountyboardofregistrars.com in order to speed up the process.
“Lately it’s been one person, after another, and people are waiting in line to register to vote,” Ingram said. “In the last week we’ve had 1,080. It’s great that so many people are realizing the importance of this right, but we want to make sure everyone who wants to vote is prepared.”
After a voter is registered, polling places, maps, instructions and important dates can be found online at the Board of Registrars website to help the process run smoothly for Pike County voters. There is even a link for sample ballots.
“Just remember, Friday at 5 p.m.,” Ingram said. “We can’t change anything or add anyone after that time and have them eligible to vote on Election Day.” | <urn:uuid:f4c31f7d-eda3-410c-b0d2-c30d8b7ef9b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.troymessenger.com/2012/10/23/voter-registration-ends-friday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949649 | 301 | 1.71875 | 2 |
You may be looking for the item, the Silver Chair, this article is about the book.
|The Silver Chair|
|First Edition Published||
- Behind the Gym
- Jill is Given a Task
- The Sailing of a King
- A Parliament of Owls
- The Wild Wastelands of the North
- The Hill of the Strange Trenches
- The House of Harfang
- How They Discovered Something Worth Knowing
- Travels Without the Sun
- In The Dark Castle
- The Queen of Underland
- Underland Without the Queen
- The Bottom of the World
- The Disappearance of Jill
- The Healing of Harms
Jill's TaskEditThe Silver Chair tells the story of Eustace Scrubb's second trip to Narnia, accompanied by his friend Jill Pole, who had never been there before. The two of them are running from bullies at their school when they enter a door to hide, and find themselves in Aslan's country, next to a great cliff. Trying to show off, Pole wandered close to the edge, and in an effort to keep her from falling off, Scrubb fell off of the cliff himself. Because of this, the lion Aslan tells Jill the task that he has for both of them, but that her part would now be harder because she made Scrubb fall off the cliff. She needed to remember The Four Signs they would need to find Prince Rilian. Once she remembered them, Aslan blew her into Narnia to join Eustace. Scrubb was talking to an Owl named Glimfeather, and he took the two of them to the Parliment of Owls, where it was decided that someone had to be sent with them, to help. A Marsh-wiggle was chosen, by the name of Puddleglum. The Owls flew the children to the Marshlands to see him, and the three of them set off the next day.
They traveled north, and soon were in Ettinsmoor. As they travelled, they encountered giants, who did not seem to notice them at all. Days later, they come across a Giants' Bridge. After they crossed it, they met a beautiful woman wearing a fluttering green dress, who introduced herself as the Lady of the Green Kirtle. A Knight who wore dark armor was with her, though he did not speak at all. The Lady told them of a castle not far ahead where some friendly giants lived, and that they would love to have guests for their Autumn Feast that was not far off. The children were so desperate for beds and hot baths that they did exactly what the Lady said, and Jill gave up repeating the signs she had gotten from Aslan.
Once they were inside the castle Harfang, they realized just how difficult it was going to be to get out. They figured out the sign that they had missed, and began investigating a way to get out of the castle and on with their task. In the process, Jill discovered a giant's cookbook that was open to a page labeled "Man". There was a page for Marshwiggle as well, and they immediately escaped the castle - only to find themselves lost in Underland.
The Earthmen who lived in Underland took Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum on a long journey across the Sunless Sea to the Dark Castle where they would wait for their Queen. A man was there to keep them company while they waited, and they learned that he was the silent Knight who had ridden with the Lady of the Green Kirtle, who happened to be Queen of Underland. After a time, Earthmen came and bound the knight into a silver chair, where they were told to leave him no matter what he said, or he would kill them. But as they watched, the Knight spoke the words of the last sign to them, and they had no choice but to free him, for fear of muffing this sign like the first three. Upon being cut loose, the knight took his sword and destroyed the silver chair, before introducing himself to them as Prince Rilian of Narnia.When the Queen arrived, she took some green powder, threw it on the hearth present there. It had an enchanting smell. She then took a stringed instrument, and began to play it, speaking in very beautiful tones to them. The children, the Prince and the Marsh-wiggle talked to her about the Overworld, mainly about the sun and Aslan, while trying to fight off the enchantment. Though the others were about to completely succumb to it, Puddleglum fought against it. This made the others' heads clear, and the witch-queen angry. She then turned into a poison-coloured serpent, and attacked. Though it coiled around Rilian, they killed it, and when the Queen died, a chasm opened in the earth, leading to the fiery world of Bism. The Earthmen, now disenchanted as well, jumped down into it, for it was their home. Soon the chasm was sealed. The three travelers escaped with Prince Rilian through a tunnel the Queen was having dug in order to conquer the land that lay above it. That land was Narnia, and Rilian was returned to the castle to see his father Caspian X before his death, and take his place as King of Narnia.
When Caspian died, Aslan appears to the children, and blows, but everything seemed to be blown away this time. Then the children saw that they were back on the mountain, with the body of the dead King. Aslan tells Eustace to get a thorn and drive it into his paw. Eustace obeyed, and Aslan's blood splashed all over Caspian, which brought him back alive again as a young man. The boys then get swords, and Jill gets a riding crop.
Aslan leads them to the wall of Experiment House and roars, so the wall collapses, and they frighten the bullies away. The Head witnesses what happened, reported the incident, but wasn't believed since Caspian had returned to Narnia with Aslan, at whose word the wall is made whole again.
Far off in Narnia, Rilian buried his father, Caspian, and mourned for him. He became a good king of Narnia, and the land was at peace.
- The Silver Chair (BBC)
- The Silver Chair is yet to be adapted into a cinematic feature film in 2015
It has also been produced in audio format:
- The Silver Chair (Focus on the Family Radio Theatre)
- Harper Audio audiobook read by Jeremy Northam
- Cair Paravel
- River Shribble
- City Ruinous
- Aslan's Country
- Eustace Scrubb
- Jill Pole
- King Caspian X
- Black Knight/Prince Rilian
- Lady of the Green Kirtle
- King and Queen of Harfang
- Giants of Harfang
- It is thought to be, that the Lady of the Green Kirtle (The Underworld Queen) is also the White Witch, and was pushed into the ground by Aslan, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , and had been waiting to strike since. | <urn:uuid:d3d05983-ae7e-4586-9236-ca62d92a2bbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Silver_Chair | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982357 | 1,531 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Julia Steiny: Helping Men Become Terrific Dads, Co-Parents
Jim Alexander, Dads Making a Difference and Children’s Friend and Service are all helping men like Maurice Thibodeau become better fathers.
When each of his two children were born, Maurice Thibodeau promised himself that he would always be the best dad possible for them. His own father took off when he was in his teens. His kids should never know such pain.
But, as happens all too often, relations soured badly between him and “the ex.” “I’m laid back and she’s, well… not.” Conversations, most importantly negotiations about the kids, quickly boiled into yelling and “belittling.”
Thibodeau, a landscaper, wound up in Family Court, a system fathers consider notoriously unsympathetic to them. Thibodeau says, “Dads feel like walking into a court is like walking into a gun fight.”
But worst of all, he could feel himself being impatient with his kids. He wasn’t meeting his own standard of a great dad.
So his heart was wide open when he heard about the 2009 New England Fathering Conference. He went, and “that opened a whole new horizon.”
On that horizon, eventually, was a life-changing relationship. Jim Alexander is the Male Involvement Specialist in a program called Dads Making a Difference (DMD). He runs dads’ support groups and models good parenting in men’s homes. Resembling a wise elder or trusted family doctor, he builds honest, close relationships with men whose troubles with relationships have inevitably extended to their kids.
DMD is a program of Children’s Friend and Service, an agency that’s been serving vulnerable children since 1834. Nicole Hebert, now Assistant Vice President of Programs, was there in the mid-1990s when “we started to feel the dads’ piece was missing. If you’re serious about improving the lives of kids, you have to look at the dads.” In 1995 the agency launched a fatherhood initiative that pulled together a group of family-related agencies into the Father and Family Network of Rhode Island. Herbert says, “We trained staff throughout Children’s Friend so they could help mothers understand the importance of the dad in their children’s lives.”
Then in 2006 Children’s Friend started Dads Making a Difference, opening up support groups for urban dads. “Dads” can be step-dads, grandfathers, or whoever is the most important male in a child’s life.
Alexander runs the support groups and has a home-based caseload of 15 fathers (and a huge waiting list). “I listen to their stories. We talk about their goals. Some have been incarcerated. Most need help with employment, training, becoming self-sufficient. A lot of the dads need counseling, but most put it off. I point them to opportunities, but it’s up to them to take advantage.”
Overwhelmingly, the biggest problem are the dads’ rocky relationships with their children’s moms. These break-ups, divorces and family fights chew up children. Schoolwork suffers. Kids act out. Unless Alexander or some other guide intervenes, kids often spiral into social distress.
So once a week Alexander gathers the dads and their children for what Thibodeau’s children call “kids school.” During the first hour they all share a healthy family meal. Alexander models how to have an effective family dinner, with lots of interaction and no TV. Then he might demonstrate how to read a book to a little child, or help an older kid with homework. He stresses the importance of playing and having fun together.
During the second hour, the kids go off for an activity, so the men can talk alone. Alexander gently suggests strategies for maintaining relationships, especially with the people in the children’s lives. Most especially with the difficult Other Parent.
After months of Alexander’s friendship and coaching, Thibodeau was watching TV one night when he suddenly decided he was ready to take a new, more positive approach. “I picked up the phone and called the ex. Let’s sit down in a public place and talk. Bring the kids and we’ll go to Dunkin Donuts. I got us coffee and we sat down together. I was non-confrontational. We’d been butting heads and that wasn’t the way to do things. I understood that being deliberate about relationships was humongous. I can’t say how humongous. So I said that us working it out would be in the best interests of the kids. And she agreed! Which honestly was shocking. By the end of the conversation, we walked out smiling. It was a sense of relief.”
Mind you, he still struggles with the fact that his kids live in two worlds. He feels he’s on top of their manners, for example, and she’s not. He’s working on that. In a non-confrontational way. With Alexander’s help.
Of course, the big winners are the kids. Their parents are committed to peace. And Thibodeau is thrilled with how he’s grown as a parent. He doesn’t yell. And he’s gotten deeply involved in their schooling, so his kids are dying to show off their work. “My daughter’s reading skills became tremendous. I’m working on teaching reading to my son. It’s a big enjoyment to me.”
Alexander says, “The most important role I play is to support them.” And that changes lives, several at once.
I admire Children’s Friend’s efforts to help dads. Sadly, the country needs an army of Jim Alexanders and another army for the moms. Most American families are now several generations away from getting traditional parenting support from grandparents, extended family and spiritual elders. Too many families are isolated and operating with some wretched parenting information and habits.
America desperately needs a robust, viral conversation about parenting. But sure, we can start with talking about dads.
Julia Steiny wrote the education column for the Providence Journal for 16 years. She is a freelance writer and consultant on data projects such as infoworks.ride.ri.gov , RI’s school-accountability site and ridatahub.org , an innovative data-analysis tool. She is the founding director of the Youth Restoration Project, a restorative-practices initiative. She blogs and can be reached for questions or comments at www.juliasteiny.com.
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Ask any knowledgeable consumer in the market for FireWire storage for advice and youill hear, "get something with the Oxford 911 chipset, itis the fastest." Then youill say, "What the &$@% is that?" Well, I recently spoke with James Lewis the president of Oxford Semiconductor, the company responsible for this burst of speed, to find out.
Oxford got its start in England, making application specific integrated circuits (ASICis) for customers to their specifications. As the company began to build and market its own standard chipsets, USB was all the rage.
"USB was coming along at that point, but we could see some issues with USB in that there were lots of manufacturers moving into that field, and support issues were not terribly good. As we guessed, the chip prices really got fought down before the market even developed fully. We were glad that we overlooked that one. At that point the specs for FireWire, for 1394 were just being defined, so we decided weid be first to market with that rather than last to market with USB." The company didnit ignore USB entirely though. "The onset of legacy free PCis has meant thereis been a big aftermarket requirement for serial and parallel ports to connect. [...] Weive had our chips used in things like serial to USB adapters for the iMac."
Right now though the focus is firmly on FireWire. The 911 is the companyis 2nd generation IDE to FireWire bridge chipset, the first being the 900 which entered the market at the tail end of 1999. "[It] was quite a major step in terms of integration because it has a RISC processor, an ARM processor." ARM being the same Apple held British company responsible for the StrongARM processor that was used in the late Newton PDA.
Mac performance site, Accelerate Your Mac has been following the emergence of the 911 with benchmarks and real word tests so you can see the differences between the theoretical maximums mentioned here, and the level of performance you can expect. There are also two build guides for hard drive case kits from Other World Computing and TransIntl:
Are devices with this chipset commanding a price premium? It doesnit seem to be the case, although a cursory examination of the two manufacturers mentioned above plus LaCie revealed little. Comparison between manufacturersi products wouldnit necessarily isolate the 911is cost since there are other variables like case design, economies of scale, etc. Other World for example, doesnit seem to be selling identical drives using old and new chipsets. LaCie doesnit mention the 911 at all, although listing a sustained transfer rate of 35MB/sec is a telltale sign that somethingis improved. If a manufacturer doesnit specifically mention the 911 in its marketing, it might be worthwhile to ask. As of this writing, you can expect to pay around $240 US for a 40 GB external drive with a 911 chipset.
This is done with two processors, one being an ARM 7 which is a "soft" processor. Think of it as a very simple example of what Connectixis Virtual PC is; software code that acts like a piece of hardware. The ARM 7 resides in less than 512 K of flash memory. Itis customizable and hence upgradeable via the FireWire port, and it handles the management of things like boot up. Thereis also a coprocessor in hardware to do time critical command interpretation and translation. As a result, the ARM only needs to use about 30% of its processing power at any given time.
Oxford is demoing a version of firmware that lets the ARM do more: administering a filesystem. Why should they want to do this? Connect a FireWire hard drive to a Mac, and the Mac administers the files, right? Sure, but what if you want to access data on the drive when itis not connected to a computer?
Add an MP3 codec and some audio chips and youive got a hard drive that doubles as a standalone MP3 player. "This merges into Appleis iTunes very well," said Mr. Lewis. "Obviously iTunes allows you to manage MP3 files on your Mac. What we can do now is just write those MP3 files from [the] directory structure on your Mac, dump them into the MP3 player in seconds." Remember now, this is at 42 MB/sec FireWire speeds, not USB. Could this setup conceivably enable a hybrid MP3 player and FireWire hard drive? Yes. That means no more synchronizing with iTunes at all. Keep the iTunes library on this hybrid device. Use iTunes when itis connected to a Mac or unplug it, and use it as a standalone player.
By sticking to the open specification of FireWire, they havenit needed any assistance from Apple. "Weive obviously had discussions with Apple, just to make them aware of what weire doing and allow them to test the chips. Theyive kept a healthy interest in everything weive done so far, and stuff that weire doing for the future."
And what does the future hold for Oxford Semiconductor? Theyire working on some Bluetooth projects, and theyire looking into USB 2.0. But with most of their engineering effort behind FireWire, new things are in the works. "If you look at where the 1394 spec is going, thatis where weire going as well." With the 911, the bridge is no longer the bottleneck. Using 400 Mbps FireWire, and getting maximum throughputs of 42 MB/sec, "thatis more or less the maximum that disk drives will give you at the moment." But the 911is can, because of their IDE controller, host both a master and a slave device, or two hard drives. Thatis one clue about future devices. Another has got to be the impending arrival of 1394b which is FireWire at 800 Mbps. | <urn:uuid:787f4cd7-0b82-4d31-83f2-b6edd8ebe291> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Inside_Oxford_Semiconductor_The_Oxford_911_FireWire_Bridge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958383 | 1,203 | 1.75 | 2 |
Bear and Kooda's fight for life goes to VCAT
Kooda is one of two Cobram dogs that will be put down if its owners lose their case at VCAT.
A YOUNG Cobram couple fighting to save their 11-month-old dogs, Bear and Kooda, will become the first Victorians to challenge the state's tough new dangerous dog laws.
Nathan Laffan and Samantha Graham, both aged 20, have been granted legal aid to appeal against the decision by Moira Shire Council officers to seize their dogs in September last year, days before the laws came into effect.
Their case, one of 10 appeals lodged with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal since the restricted breed dog legislation was introduced on September 30, will be heard on February 14.
Ms Graham said the appeal would centre on their claim that the dogs have been wrongly identified as pit bull terriers - a restricted breed.
She said she had bought the dogs from a local breeder and was told they were out of a bull mastiff cross American bulldog and a staffie cross ridgeback.
However, after hearing about the impending laws allowing councils to seize and destroy unregistered pit bulls, she contacted the Moira Shire to get confirmation that the dogs were not pit bulls so she could register them.
When a council ranger arrived at the couple's house to examine Bear and Kooda, he instead announced that he would have to take them because he believed they were pit bulls. The couple's legal challenge will be based on evidence from the breeder and Ms Graham's research.
Ms Graham said the Moira Shire Council officer made a mistake, as staffies and pit bulls look strikingly similar despite having very different temperaments.
''I think these new laws are ridiculous,'' she said. ''My two wouldn't hurt a fly.''
The Moira Shire Council did not respond to The Sunday Age's requests for a comment.
Ballarat couple David and Megan Thurston had been expected to be the first to challenge the new laws to try to save their seized dog Butch but the case has been delayed until April.
The crackdown on dangerous dogs came after the mauling death of four-year-old Ayen Chol by a stray pit bull terrier led to calls to ban the breed and other vicious dogs.
Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh declared that pit bulls and their crosses had ''lost their licence to exist'' and pointed to how there had been 5180 hospital admissions for dog-related injuries in Victoria from 2000 to 2010.
Under the new laws, councils can seize and destroy unregistered pit bulls and their crosses based on visual identification.
Pet owners have raised concerns that similar-looking breeds such as American Staffordshire terriers and their cross-breeds may be wrongly seized and euthanased. Some veterinarians say they are unable to identify the cross-breeds with certainty.
American Pit Bull Terrier Association of Australia president Colin Muir said the problem with the new laws was that seized dogs could be held in pounds for months before a VCAT hearing was held. ''The owners are in limbo, the council's in limbo, the dog sits in the pound … that's not good for anybody,'' he said.
''The thing is there's no way these laws can ever stop dog attacks because you're saying they are only caused by one breed of dog and that's just ridiculous.''
The latest dog attack on Tuesday night involved an unregistered six-month-old Rhodesian ridgeback cross. The dog, which mauled four-year-old Katie Strickland in a Pakenham backyard, was seized by Cardinia Shire Council rangers and is expected to be put down.
American Staffordshire Terrier Club of Victoria's Lincoln Hancock said the attack showed the new laws were not working. ''We don't support breed specific legislation because it's clearly unscientific and ineffective,'' he said. ''These laws are doing nothing to reduce dog attacks.''
But Mr Walsh disagreed, saying the crackdown meant dangerous dogs were being removed from the street. He urged the owners of dangerous pet dogs to be vigilant, especially if they were around children.
State government statistics show that 495 dogs are registered as either dangerous or restricted.
Restricted breed dogs are those that have not attacked a person or animal but are considered a risk to public safety, whereas dogs defined as ''dangerous'' have attacked a person causing serious injury or have menaced people more than once.
No figures were available from the Department of Primary Industries on the total number of dogs seized and euthanased by councils under the new law. | <urn:uuid:dece6ee1-bcea-47c8-a3bb-7bce76494395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.watoday.com.au/victoria/bear-and-koodas-fight-for-life-goes-to-vcat-20120128-1qn98.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977816 | 954 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Hayden Bookshelves and display cases housed pint-sized treats for pint-sized scavengers Thursday morning.
The Hayden Public Library hosted its traditional Easter egg hunt for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners.
Dozens of children with makeshift baskets in hand ran about the library in search of the bright-colored plastic eggs chocked full of small treasures.
Parents, armed with cameras and video cameras, cheered their children on with small bits of encouragement.
Librarians Mona Weaver, Cindy Leck and Suzie Copeland filled 231 eggs of different sizes with coins and candy donated by the library.
The older children looked for the smaller eggs, which contained nickels.
Leanne Barnett, 5, and Virginia Jones, 6, proudly counted their coins.
"The smaller ones were harder to find," Jones said matter-of-factly.
The girls said they looked forward to finding more hidden prizes next week, when their parents planned to hide eggs around the house.
They couldn't, of course, leave out the master of hide-and-seek.
"If the Easter Bunny comes to my house, I'm wishing for another skirt," Barnett said.
Four-year-old Chance Pierce didn't sound as confident about the rabbit's return.
In the meantime, he said his newfound stash of candy would hold him until a second hunt for hidden treasures at his house.
Pierce and his friends, Jeremy Tuck, 3, and Baylee Carson, 4, reportedly looked high and low for the eggs. "They were all over," Carson said.
Each boy, clutching his basket tightly, looked longingly at the untouched jellybeans and Lifesavers.
The children weren't allowed to eat the candy in the library. Carson decided to sort through his candy even though he couldn't eat it until he was outside. Pierce apologetically offered his services.
"I would help you eat them, but we can't here," he told Carson.
The library held the Easter egg hunt a week early because of spring break next week.
Thursday marked the library's 22nd year of giving children an opportunity to scout for eggs within its walls.
A few local organizations previously helped to sponsor the event before the library took it over, Weaver said.
"I don't ever remember there not being an Easter egg hunt," she added.
Toddlers hunt for eggs on one side of the library, while the preschoolers and kindergartners begin their search on the other side.
It prevents the older children from taking all the eggs before the younger children have a chance to fill their baskets, Leck said. | <urn:uuid:947d6369-7bcc-4a7c-8f65-634e66f56eea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2002/mar/21/hayden_youngsters_get/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978964 | 542 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Ida (Marquardt) Bosch (1912 - 1997)
Written by Anton Bosch, son, Nürnberg, Germany
Translation from German to English by Brigitte von Budde
She continues to live in the memory of her family, relatives and
IDA BOSCH (nee Marquardt)
Born on August 19, 1912 in Kandel, Kutschurgan Enclave, Odessa District,
Died on August 21, 1997, Nürnberg, Germany
With love and thankfulness: Anton, Irma, Aida, Linda and Liana
The funeral was on Monday, August 25, 1997, at 12:30 p.m. at the
Reichelsdorf cemetery in Nürnberg.
Mrs. Ida Bosch was born on August 19, 1912, in Kandel/Odessa (today
Rybalskoje) to the farming family of Rosina and Valentin Marquardt
as the seventh of eight children. Her ancestors went from the area
of the Rhine (Marquardt from Hördt/Straßburg; Stroh, her mother's
name, from Mundelsheim/Neckar) to South Russia and made their living
Her childhood fell into the turmoil of the Russian civil war.
She still remembered in detail the army units of the white and red
opponents moving through Kandel as well as the Austrian occupational
forces and the massacre which, in 1919, was inflicted by the Bolsheviks
on the peace loving farmers of Kandel, Selz, Baden and Straßburg.
As an eight year old girl she attended elementary school and sang
in the church choir where her beautiful voice was discovered as
a gift from God. She was active in the church choir for eight voices
as soprano and was allowed to sing at times as soloist works by
Händel, Bach and Schubert (her favorite song from Ave Maria.)
As a result of anti-religious politics by the Bolshevik government
she was not permitted to sing in the church choir; the church of
Kandel was closed in the spring of 1935, the steeple taken off and
the house of God was converted into a club. Pastor Johannes Albert
who had baptized her son two weeks earlier was arrested, shot and
killed innocently in the prison of Odessa in 1937.
Due to her ancestry her parents as well-to-do farmers were expropriated
by the new governing powers and deported from Kandel. When she was
16, she and the Marquardt family were deported from the Black Sea
to the far north and settled 300 km from the town of Archangelsk
in the virgin forest. As she later said, during the first winter
of 1928/29 all children under the age of 12 died in the camp.
Thanks to ordinary Russian people the Marquardts managed after
two years of detention in the camp to return by night. They were
accepted by the recently founded colchos and were allowed to take
up a permanent residence in Kandel.
On November 23, 1933, she married Georg Bosch whose parents had
earlier starved to death (in that year as a result of the expropriation
more than 300 residents of Kandel died.)
In Kandel Mrs. Bosch gave birth to two children: Anton (1934),
and Rosa (1938).
From 1941 until 1944, Kandel was under Romanian wartime administration.
The Bosch family managed the farm privately and gained moderate
prosperity that did not last long. On March 19, 1944, Ida Bosch
and her family were resettled by the German administration to Poland/Warthegau
where her daughter Rosa died at the end of June of larynx diphtheria
and her husband was drafted into the SS ("as cannon fodder") on
September 1, 1944. From now on she had to be mother and father because
even though Georg Bosch survived the war, he was captured in the
West by the Americans and died in 1964 in Wolfratshausen.
On April 28, 1945, the day when the US-army invaded Pettstädt/Weißenfels
a.d. Saale (Sachsen-Anhalt), Mrs. Bosch gave birth to twins (Georg
and Rosina.) After the retreat of the Americans and the invasion
by the Red Army she and her three children were taken forcefully
by the Russians to an assembly camp near the town of Halle and were
deported to the northern Ural Mountains in cattle wagons. The twins
died two days before their arrival on October 28, 1945. At the end
of her physical strength and close to bewilderment she buried both
at a grave side that could not be found later on.
From 1945 until 1956, she was kept there in political custody
with 65 German families and had to do hard labor (fell trees and
build a railroad.) Hardly able to speak Russian (she spoke only
a few words Russian, neither able to read nor write because she
had attended the German elementary school in Kandel), she climbed
to the top to become forewoman of a working brigade building a light
railway and could soon move from a barracks and into a self-made
After the camps were dissolved, she settled with her relatives
in Karaganda/Kazakhstan in 1961 because as before it was not permitted
to return to Kandel/Odessa (today Rybalskoje). There she bought
a house and worked in a cake factory until her retirement in 1968.
Tied to her house and yard, she did not want to move to Germany
under any circumstance but was brought along by her son Anton anyway.
On May 1, 1974, she arrived in Nürnberg and moved into a rental
apartment in Langwasser; as of spring 1977, she had moved into her
own granny annex in the house of Anton and Irma Bosch, Schwimbacherstraße
9, Reichelsdorf, where she shared in caring for her three grandchildren
Aida, Linda and Liana, and grew tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables
in her yard. She went to church regularly and for a while sang in
the church choir of Reichelsdorf.
Mrs. Bosch ran her own household until her first illness in 1989,
when she suffered a stroke leaving her unable to speak and paralyzed
on the left side. Thanks to her strong willpower, she recuperated
almost completely; the only thing she couldn't do anymore was to
On August 19, 1992, she celebrated her 80th birthday surrounded
by family and friends who after the [Berlin] wall had come down
could emigrate to Germany in numbers.
Due to the long insidious illness (she suffered from diabetes
mellitus), first her right leg was amputated in 1993, and in the
fall of 1994, her other leg so that she then became permanently
Hardened by her tough fate, she could and had to endure much inhumane
suffering. In spite of all adversities she remained true to the
Roman-Catholic faith; before her emigration to Germany she was one
of the active founders of Catholic lay church service in the underground
Mrs. Bosch died of kidney failure last Tuesday, two days after
her 85th birthday as the last member of the Marquardt family in
the retirement home in Reichelsdorf.
As she had the privilege while she was still alive to see her
husband once more in Germany (he died on 14/10/1964), his bones
will be brought here and buried in the Bosch family grave. While
they were alive, they could not be together but now both of them
And now, dear brothers and sisters, I am thinking of Ida Bosch
who today we take to her last resting place. In her became reality
that of which the Apostle Paul spoke. First of all, she is someone
with a long journey.
Dear friends and relatives, when the family talked to me about
the funeral they told me about their mother's life. The son, Mr.
Bosch, has written about her life in detail. I remind you that he
has already given you the text. And they have told me that in the
former Soviet Union alone there were 12 residences that their mother
has had. It can be said that such a life which consists of such
unheard of wanderings is actually an odyssey.
Her body has become worthless in old age. She lost her eyesight
gradually because of her illness and finally one leg and then the
Today when we carry her mortal remains to her grave the hope remains
for us that also the 2nd part of Paul's's vision becomes reality:
That she will now find a new home in heaven and that her body will
be transformed into a glorified body.
And now let us remember her life at least briefly. Every single
phase cannot be mentioned. It would take hours to tell all that
what happened in her life. And I think many of you have experienced
similar things. You know what it means when I now give a few sketches
and phases of her life.
Her life began on August 19, 1912, in Kandel/Odessa (today Rybalskoje).
She came from a large family, a farming family, and her ancestors
had once emigrated from the area of the Rhine River. Her childhood,
and here terrible things are already beginning to occur, falls into
the time of the Russian civil war and, thus still a child she had
to witness horror and atrocities. When she was going to school it
became noticeable in her that she had a special talent for music.
She liked to sing and she sang beautifully and that's why she was
a member of the childrens' choir and her favorite song was Ave
Maria which we will hear later and which preceded the funeral
An atheistic government had come to power in the meantime, a government
that despised and hurt religion and human dignity, and thus even
the children's choir was prohibited, the church was closed, partially
destroyed, used for worldly purposes, the pastor was shot and killed
later on. The expropriation of her parents' farm followed. Ida's
family was deported, far away to the 'White Sea', up north. Then
she was a young girl, 16 years old. Finally the family returned
to Kandel after two years and worked in a colchos.
She married in 1933; it was a fateful year for the German country.
Another misfortune was beginning. In 1933, she was united in marriage
with Georg Bosch who was blessed with four children. However, misfortune,
the war, joined the mother's happiness. Three children died; it
can be said victims of circumstances.
In 1941, the area came under Romanian-German administration and
the family was resettled to Poland and her husband had to join the
military. Right afterwards he was taken captive and came to the
West; he died in 1964 in Wolfratshausen (by Munich) and is also
buried there. However, the Bosch family wants to re-bury the remains
of the husband of their deceased mother so that the two of them
can be united at least in death.
Mrs. Bosch had to move again with her children after the end of
the war or towards the end of the war. Now the US-army had marched
in and thus the next place was Sachsen-Anhalt. However, now the
Red Army, which had the final say, won and now the deportation to
the Ural Mountains followed. The twins, who were born only a few
months earlier, died on this journey. They were buried along the
way and now nobody knows the location anymore.
1961, Kazakhstan. She moved to relatives, finally found work and
could get a house. That's how it was until her retirement.
Actually, she did not want to go to the West, to Germany, she
wanted to stay but her son Anton took her along anyway in 1974,
to the West, to us, to Germany. And thus the first place was at
first Nürnberg-Langwasser and finally here, Nürnberg-Reichelsdorf.
At last, she found rest, here in this place, in this town, in this
parish. She could work in her yard, could care for her son's family
and finally could attend church services freely. For the first few
years she was also here in the church choir. I want to thank her
now for her service.
Now, at the end of her life another difficulty arose: a serious
illness, a painful suffering. But she had received enormous hope
and great strength from her Christian faith.
She died on August 21, 1997, two days after her 85th birthday.
Mr. Bosch, you told me that when you were with her before her
birthday you had told her, "Mother, what can we give you?" She replied,
"I don't want anything but to get up one more time." By now she
was very much confined to her bed. Well, now she has passed away
and in agreement with you I want to ring out with the song Ave
Maria that has given her so much comfort.
Now her favorite song Ave Maria by Schubert
is heard in Latin, sung by Mr. Bimüller with a pleasant and strong
tenor voice accompanied by an electrical piano.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.
Sancta Maria, mater dei, ora pro nobis pecatoribus nunc, et in hora | <urn:uuid:7e3e2b2d-dd66-47ea-a464-2e10c75ebf33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/outreach/friends/bosch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982309 | 2,950 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Supreme Court today prodded a reluctant government to bring out details of the billions of dollars in unaccounted money stashed away by Indian citizens in bank accounts in overseas tax havens.
The court's direction comes close on the heels of union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee stating that legal constraints are blocking the government's move to trace billions of dollars originating from arms deals, drug trafficking and smuggling that are stashed away in bank accounts overseas.
Accusing the government of being reluctant to publish details about the people holding billions of dollars in unaccounted wealth in overseas bank deposits, a bench comprising justices B Sudarshan Reddy and S S Nijjar directed the government to file its response by Thursday next.
The Supreme Court asked the government as to what action it had taken against individuals and firms having secret foreign accounts.
While estimates on the amount of money deposited illegally in overseas banks by Indians vary from $500 billion to $1.4 trillion, the Supreme Court said the government has a duty to explain it to law-abiding citizens.
"You know the names, where the money is lying?… What are the sources of the money? Where has the money come from? Still you are talking about double taxation issue," the court observed. | <urn:uuid:953ee2c0-dbab-4231-87aa-96649bd7bd33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.domain-b.com/economy/Govt/20110127_overseas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963257 | 255 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Peter Hayashi of Newton, a 56-year-old father of two and former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, is one of the last people you’d expect to see buying pot on the street.
But Hayashi suffers from allodynia, a hypersensitive reaction to sensation, which leaves him in severe and constant pain. Even a gentle breeze across his face can be excruciating; he spends most days swathed in layers of stretch clothing, lying on a waterbed.
The clinical psychologist has tried many prescribed medications and several alternative therapies. He has access to the best Harvard doctors and researchers. But not until he tried marijuana did he experience an ease of symptoms and a big improvement in the quality of his life.
“I didn’t want to bring it into my house with my kids, but it’s inescapable that I’m much better off having it here when I need it,” he said. “I buy it on the street, but don’t feel I have safe access.”
This good man is technically a criminal, a status that would change if Massachusetts voters decide Nov. 6 to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Here’s hoping the question passes, despite opponents who remain intent on treating this benign, helpful substance like a dangerous and evil gateway drug.
Let’s be honest. Many of us have smoked marijuana and some of us still do. Successful people such as Bill Maher, Andrew Sullivan, Woody Harrelson and scores of others are open about their affinity for recreational weed. In 2008, the state voted overwhelmingly to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The sky has yet to fall, also consumption of Twinkies has likely risen.
Still, though, opponents of Question 3 contend that the proposed law is flawed and would lead to widespread use of marijuana, as though it’s not already easy to get on the streets. They claim that marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs, despite numerous studies that refute the claim. They say pot can lead to addiction, but any substance used in excess can lead to addiction, and far more social drinkers become alcoholics than recreational pot smokers become potheads.
If the referendum passes, Massachusetts would become the 18th state to legalize medicinal marijuana. Doctors would have the option to prescribe it to patients who meet certain guidelines, including having been diagnosed with cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, ALS or multiple sclerosis. The law would allow patients to keep a 65-day supply, and up to 35 nonprofit dispensaries statewide would be eligible to sell it. Fraudulent use calls for jail time.
Dr. James Broadhurst, a Worcester physician, leads the opposition. He said marijuana isn’t medicine and hasn’t been evaluated by the Federal Drug Administration, which is a rather circuitous argument, given that it can’t be properly studied because it’s illegal. And Broadhurst acknowledged that “there’s no question marijuana has medicinal value,” but said the list of diagnoses that would allow someone to obtain the drug is too broad.
“This is a gateway to legalization,” he said. “This is a sham.” Asked if he believed pot should be legalized, he said, “That’s not the question that’s in front of us … If we’re going to legalize marijuana, let’s do it. But let’s not wrap it in this cloak and exploit the sick.”
People in pain, such as Peter Hayashi, are more than willing to be “exploited” if it means safe and legal access to a substance that improves their lives. Since he began inhaling pot with a vaporizer, Hayashi was able to attend his first open house at his son’s school, and said he can spend “quality time” with his daughter when she comes home from college.
“If the bill passed, it would mean a lot to me,” Hayashi said. “But I’m just one of many patients it would mean a lot to.”
Many of us know one. Voting yes on Question 3 is a no-brainer.
Attacks on thesis dishonest (May 16, 2013)
College food gets 3rd degree (May 14, 2013)
News from the week that was (May 12, 2013)
Bishop’s mea culpa was honest (May 9, 2013)
Innocence, terror lay side-by-side at Worcester funeral home (May 7, 2013)
Misguided outrage on Main St. (May 5, 2013)
Stefan comes to bury Tsarnaev, not to praise him (May 4, 2013)
With liberty and justice for all (May 2, 2013)
Slots man just one of us, right? (Apr 28, 2013)
Feminist excelled at friendships (Apr 25, 2013) | <urn:uuid:76c5f312-7039-427e-8239-4c4ad074206a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121028/COLUMN01/110289796/0/business14 | 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 | 0.968289 | 1,042 | 1.640625 | 2 |
How can I not buy some tickets in the MegaMillions lottery for the drawing this Friday? This game is in 42 states plus the District of Columbia. (It is not in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, so if you are in one of those places, call a friend in another state – a friend you trust – to buy a ticket for you.)
I admit it: I wasted $20 on yesterday’s drawing, when the jackpot was a paltry $363 million, understanding that lottery tickets are basically a tax on stupidity. Actually, I wasted $17, because one of my twenty lines of numbers included the “MegaBall” and one of the other numbers – a combination worth $3. Apparently 1.3 million other gamblers also won back $3 of their hard-earned money. Forty-seven people won the $250,000 price received for getting all 5 regular numbers, but not the MegaBall. Sooooooo close!
Despite the odds of losing all or nearly all of your wager, at some point it becomes what a friend calls a “utility bet,” using the word “utility” in its economic sense. In other words, the possibility, almost no matter how vanishingly small, of winning such an enormous prize makes it worth taking a flier with some modest amount of money.
And the odds of winning are indeed long, at about 175,711,536 to one.
But by the time the next numbers are drawn, on Friday evening, the grand prize will be over half a billion dollars; over $600 million would not be a surprise to see. (If you take the money all at once, you’ll get a little over 70% of the published amount.) The previous record, in 2007, was $390 million (which was split by two winners.)
Again, don’t you have to buy a ticket, even knowing you’re extremely likely to lose your money?
This reminds me of a question the above-mentioned friend likes to ask, and which I’ll ask you. There is no right answer; it’s just a reflection of your personality.
Imagine you’re given the opportunity to bet on a coin flip. You can take any real, government-issued coin out of your pocket for the bet, so you know that the coin is fair. You can bet any amount you want to bet. If the coin comes up heads, you lose your bet. If the coin comes up tails, you win ten times your bet. In other words, risk $1 to try to win $10, or risk $100 to try to win $1,000, etc. And you can only play once.? How much would you bet?
I hope I don’t sound too much like Mitt Romney when I say that at ten-to-one, I’d probably bet $10,000. And I don’t have anything like Romney money…it would really bum me out to lose $10,000. But the chance to win $100,000 would probably be worth the risk.
An interesting thought experiment is to see how your answer, or your friends’ answers, change as you change the multiplier. In other words, what would your answer be if you could only win twice what you bet, and what if you would win 50 times what you bet? (I know I would bet much less, probably not even one tenth as much, if the multiplier dropped to 2, and would probably only double my bet if the multiplier went to 50 because I just wouldn’t feel like I could afford to lose more.)
I’d love to hear your answers…again, there’s no right answer; it’s a personality question, not a math question!
I guess I’ll be heading back to the shop at the gas station to waste another $20 on Friday’s MegaMillions drawing…
|Print article||This entry was posted by Rossputin on 03/28/12 at 07:35:00 am . Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.| | <urn:uuid:a463479e-e26e-4c23-8a9b-8dd6a165c896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php/megamillions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961848 | 876 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Rescue officials: Ducklings make foul Easter gifts
Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.
LOS ANGELES — A fluffy duckling might seem appealing next to a basket of Easter eggs, but shelter officials and animal welfare experts want gift-happy parents to picture something else: Poop.
The average domestic duck relieves itself once every 15 minutes, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That’s why very few people have ducks for pets — except at Easter.
Yet millions of people have or will celebrate spring and Easter by getting their children a duckling, figuring they can release it in a pond when it gets too big to keep.
“We usually get tons of calls right after Easter,” said Susie Coston, national shelter director for the Farm Sanctuary.
Duck diapers are readily available online, but it takes more than that to raise a duck, said Carol Chrysong, the 56-year-old founder of The Lucky Duck Rescue & Sanctuary in Los Angeles. The sanctuary is home to 120 of them, including a drake and two hens that Chrysong keeps as her pets, and the cleanup is exhausting, she said.
“I do a massive amount of work every day before and after work. I am pretty exhausted,” Chrysong said.
The upsides to keeping a duck as a pet include their surprisingly doglike behavior, which has them greeting owners upon arrival (Muscovy ducks even wag their tails), learning tricks and being extreme loyal, she said.
The downside, though, is cleaning up after a diaperless duck that also likes to get into water or puddles and splash — then walk around, Chrysong said. An indoor duck would have to sit on a poop mat and sleep in a playpen full of shavings if it stays inside.
Chrysong added that ducks are in heat up to 10 months out of the year, so “if you don’t want to have the sex talk with your child, don’t get a duck.” Experts say that most ducklings sold at Easter are drakes, so parents hoping for fresh eggs are out of luck.
Coston also discouraged ducks as pets, especially since they can live up to 20 years and more. She noted that it’s unlikely a child can take the duck to college.
Parents often assume they can set a duck free at a local pond once it outgrows its duckling stage, but “domestic ducks are not equipped to survive in the wild like their wild cousins,” she said.
They can’t fly, their colors don’t match the environment and they don’t know how to act in the wild, “so they fall prey to many wild animals, dogs and, sadly, even people,” she said. In many cases, territorial ducks at a pond will kill newcomers.
Lydia Yasuda, a photographer from Diamond Bar, Calif., volunteers weekly at Chrysong’s rescue after Chrysong took in her daughter’s duckling. He had followed the girl around at a lake, and “we thought he could grow up and we could take him to the pond,” said Yasuda.
Then the Yasudas started to read about caring for ducks. Her husband said no and they live in an apartment, so Benji went to the duck rescue.
Chrysong, who also keeps two horses and a dog on her half-acre of property in a rural area near Los Angeles, said she herself fell in love with ducks at age 8, when she and her sister received ducks as Easter gifts. “Those two ducks followed us all over Inglewood. They would wait outside when we took them to the store,” she recalled.
When the ducks were 5, her parents released them at a pond, she said.
“It was devastating for me. They kept following us to the car. Eventually, my father said, ‘Let’s go,’ and we left them there in the parking lot. I never got over it. Now I know what happens to them. That’s why I am so aggressive about the work we do,” Chrysong said.
When she got a home in San Fernando Valley 27 years ago, she got a few ducks and people gave her the occasional bird before she decided to open a shelter. She gained charity status in 2008.
Then “the tsunami of ducks started coming my way. And I mean wave after wave of them,” she said. “I would have 10 million ducks here if I took all the ducks.”
She places ducks only if adopters will take a group. She doesn’t want one duck dying of grief because it lost its flock, she said.
Cities such as Los Angeles could help prevent parents from giving ducks as temporary pets by barring the sale of lone ducklings, she said.
Most major national pet store chains have stopped selling chicks, bunnies or ducklings — all popular Easter gifts — so almost all sales are made online, at feed stores or independent pet stores.
Parents who have children who want a duck for Easter should visit a pet store or zoo instead, she said. That’ll be less messy and a lot less work, Chrysong said as she recalled her experiences.
“The duck lady is starting to show serious signs of wear,” she said. | <urn:uuid:e9ee31e5-23cd-4b78-92a4-5344e371bd99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20130319/WIRE/130319599/0/www.houmatoday.com?Title=Rescue-officials-Ducklings-make-foul-Easter-gifts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975811 | 1,169 | 1.835938 | 2 |
ILLINOIS STATE ARCHIVES
Lake County Circuit Court Case Files Index (1840–1898)
Compiled by the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System, Northern Illinois University
This database was compiled from original Lake County Circuit Court Case Files (IRAD Accession 1/0259/01) located at the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The database consists of over 2,400 case files created by the Lake County circuit court from 23 April 1841 through 24 November 1898. There is also one case dated 6 March 1840 and another case dated 3 March 1902. IRAD Intern, Char Henn, meticulously transcribed the information contained in this database directly from the case file jackets with the assistance of Bruce Johnson, IRAD Intern. The data gathered by the IRAD interns was then entered into a computer database by Barbara Heflin, Assistant Supervisor of the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) System.
Each entry found in the index contains the following categories of information: the names of the plaintiff and defendant; the date the case was heard by the court; and the case number. Names of plaintiffs and defendants were transcribed directly from the case files. Every attempt was made to obtain accurate spellings of names. If the spelling of a name could not be determined from the case jacket, a search of the various case documents was conducted. However, names were often spelled a variety of ways throughout the case documents. It was also sometimes difficult to decipher handwriting in some case files. Therefore, when searching this database, we suggest that researchers check alternative spellings of names if they do not find an entry for the name for which they are searching.
To create a more comprehensive index to the Lake County Circuit Court Case Files, the names of all parties listed on the case jacket were entered into the database as a separate record. When multiple parties are involved, the name of the plaintiff or defendant is followed by the abbreviation et al. indicating that other parties were involved in the case.
The names of parties to non-adversary proceedings (i.e., cases that do not involve opposing parties) were entered into the database in the plaintiff field. A term indicating the party's title (e.g., guardian) or the type of action (e.g., application for adoption) was entered into the defendant field. To allow the name of each party in a non-adversary proceeding to appear in the defendant index under a common subject term, a unique number was added to the defendant field after the title or type of action. For example, "Minor (0043/05)" denotes the fifth minor who was a party involved in case number 43.
Missing cases are denoted by the words "File Missing" enclosed in brackets (i.e., [File Missing]) in both the plaintiff and defendant name fields. Twenty-five (25) case files were missing from the numerical sequence of these case files. These cases were missing before the case files were accessioned into the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System. It is possible that the missing cases represent numbers which were inadvertently or, perhaps, intentionally skipped during the assignment process or that these case files are still in the circuit clerk's office. The missing cases may have also been lost or misplaced over the years.
History of the Lake County Circuit Court
Illinois circuit courts were established by the Constitution of 1818. [Constitution of 1818, Article IV, section 4] The circuit court had original jurisdiction in all criminal cases and all civil cases including common law and chancery cases. The circuit court was also a court of appeals in probate matters and causes cognizable by the county court and justice of the peace. [Constitution of 1870, Article VI, section 12; Laws of Illinois 1871-72, p. 109; Illinois Revised Statutes 1874, p. 344; Laws of Illinois 1895, p. 189; Laws of Illinois 1933, p. 688; Laws of Illinois 1935, p. 1]
Originally, circuit court was held by justices of the Supreme Court; however, in 1835, the judiciary was reorganized and circuit court judges were appointed by the General Assembly. [Constitution of 1818, Article IV, section 4, Revised Laws of Illinois 1827, p. 118; Laws of Illinois 1841, p. 173] In an Act passed in 1841, additional associate justices of the Supreme Court were appointed by joint ballot of the General Assembly and these justices together with the other justices of the Supreme Court, held the circuit court. [Laws of Illinois 1841, p. 173; Illinois Revised Statutes 1845, p. 143] In 1849, another change in the selection process for circuit court justices was made in accordance with the Constitution of 1848 which provided for the election of circuit court judges by the judicial district electorate. [Constitution of 1848, Article V, Sections 7, 15] The Constitution of 1870 altered the circuit court districts and established population requirements for counties that may comprise a circuit. [Constitution of 1870, Article VI, Section 13] However, from 1849 to the present, circuit judges have been elected officers of the judicial district electorate.
In September 1839, the Lake County commissioner's court appointed the first session of the circuit court to be held at a school house constructed of hewed logs located in Burlington (now Libertyville). [John J. Halsey, LL.D, A History of Lake County Illinois, Lake Forest College, 1912, p. 70] The first session of the circuit court of the Seventh Circuit held in Lake County was convened in April 1840 with Judge John Pearson presiding. [John J. Halsey, LL.D., A History of Lake County Illinois, Lake Forest College, 1912, p. 74] The Seventh Circuit, by the Act of 1841, was made to consist of the following counties: Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Cook, Grundy, Will and Iroquois.
On April 13, 1841, the County Seat of Lake County was relocated and permanently established at Little Fort (now Waukegan) on the southeast quarter of Section 21 and county offices were accordingly moved from Burlington (Libertyville). [John J. Halsey, LL.D., A History of Lake County Illinois, Lake Forest College, 1912, p. 76] The first term of the circuit court held at Little Fort opened on October 20, 1841. The sessions were held in the upper room of an old storehouse under the bluff known as the Kingston Building. In 1853, a small brick building, intended to be as nearly fireproof as possible, was erected for the offices of the county clerk and circuit clerk. This building, located south of the courthouse and north of the jail, was used for nearly twenty-five (25) years. [Bateman, et al., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Lake County, A Reproduction of Unigraphics, Inc., 1905, p. 639] In 1877, a new Lake County courthouse was erected at a cost of about $40,000 and the circuit court met there until the construction of the present courthouse.
The following individuals served as circuit court judges in Lake County from 1838 through 1915:
- 1838–1840 — John Pearson of Danville (Circuit Judge)
- 1841–1849 — Theophilus W. Smith of Chicago (Associate Judge of the Supreme Court)
- 1843–1849 — Richard M. Young of Quincy (Associate Judge of the Supreme Court)
- 1846–1849 — Hugh T. Dickey of Chicago (Associate Judge of the Supreme Court)
- 1850–1852 — Giles Spring (Circuit Judge)
- 1852–1855 — B.S. Mounts (Circuit Judge)
- 1853–1855 — Buckner S. Morris (Circuit Judge
- 1855–1863 — George Manierre of Cook County (Circuit Judge)
- 1863–1873 — Eratus S. Williams of Cook County (Circuit Judge)
- 1873–1879 — Theodore D. Murphy of McHenry County (Circuit Judge)
- 1877–1879 — Hiram H. Cody of DuPage County (Circuit Judge)
- 1877–1897 — Clark W. Upton of Lake County (Circuit Judge)
- 1879–1891 — Isaac G. Wilson of Kane County (Circuit Judge)
- 1891–1897 — Clark W. Upton of Lake County (Circuit Judge)
- 1879–1897 — Charles Kellum of DeKalb County (Circuit Judge)
- 1891–1897 — Henry B. Willis of Kane County (Circuit Judge)
- 1897–1902 — John C. Garver of Winnebago County (Circuit Judge)
- 1897–1903 — Charles E. Fuller of Boone County (Circuit Judge)
- 1897–1903 — Charles H. Donnelly of McHenry County (Circuit Judge)
- 1902–1915 — Arthur H. Frost of Winnebago County (replaced John C. Garver, deceased)
The office of the clerk of the circuit court was created by the Constitution of 1818. [Constitution of 1818, Article IV, Section 6] Until 1848, clerks were appointed by the circuit judges; however, the Constitution of 1848 made the office elective. [Constitution of 1818, Article IV, Section 6; Revised Laws of Illinois 1833, p. 152; Illinois Revised Statutes 1845, p. 146] Unlike the judges of the circuit court who are elected by the judicial district electorate, the clerk of the circuit court is elected by the county electorate. The statutory duties of the circuit clerk were originally limited to selection of juries until 1827 when these duties were expanded to include issuing process, entering judgments of the court, and keeping docket and fee books. [Laws of Illinois 1819, p. 256; Revised Laws of Illinois 1827, pp. 311-17] In 1829, the clerk began to keep a complete court record of circuit court proceedings. [Revised Laws of Illinois 1829, p. 44]
The circuit clerk performs the ministerial duties of the circuit court of Lake County. The clerk is charged with the duty of filing and preserving the records of the circuit court and those of the branch circuit courts. He is required to preserve a complete record of all proceedings, judgments, orders and decrees of the court. Individuals who served as clerks of the circuit court in Lake County from 1838 through 1902 include:
- 1838–1841 — Archimedes B. Wynkoop
- 1841–1846 — Isaac R. Gavin
- 1846–1847 — Isaac Hopkinson (replaced Gavin, resigned)
- 1847–1848 — George Thomson
- 1848–1860 — Augustus B. Cotes
- 1860–1868 — Josiah M. Truesdell
- 1868–1880 — William J. Lucas
- 1880 — George Thomson (replaced Lucas, deceased)
- 1880–1888 — Charles Phillips
- 1888–1900 — William M. Ragan
- 1900–1902 — Lewis O. Brockway
The circuit court played a significant role in the organization and development of Lake County. The court heard cases involving many of the county's earliest citizens as well as events which shaped its future. The Lake County Circuit Court Case Files are a rich source of both genealogical and local history research. This record series is a valuable addition to the IRAD holdings and researchers are encouraged to utilize this resource.
The Lake County Circuit Court Case Files show the names of the plaintiff, defendant, judge and clerk of the court; the court dates; and usually the charge or cause of action. Documents contained in these case files include: summonses; injunctions; affidavits of witnesses; bonds; receipts; depositions; petitions; decrees and court orders. Criminal cases also include: jury and witness lists, indictments, warrants, writs of habeas corpus, verdicts, dismissals and transcripts of coroner's inquests.
Although the Lake County Circuit Court Case Files do include some criminal and common law cases, most of the cases involve chancery matters. A chancery court is a court of equitable jurisdiction; that is, a chancery court hears cases involving disputes between two or more parties whose rights or claims are in dispute. Chancery court cases generally involve contested estates, divorces, personal injury, real and personal property foreclosures, partitions of real estate, bonded indebtedness, breach of contract, insanity, indenture, dower, trust deed stipulations, guardianship, and other family matters.
Copies of the files found in this index may be obtained by mail or telephone. Inquiries should be made directly to the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. IRAD cannot accept requests by e-mail at this time. Please contact:
Illinois Regional Archives Depository
c/o Regional History Center
Founders Memorial Library
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115 | <urn:uuid:630aab28-1cbe-46a9-acdc-35a414cc1a30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases/lake.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944338 | 2,752 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The number of choices for retirement today seem to be endless. Between the alphabet soup of choices, which one is best for you? Today, I will be discussing some of the features of each.
First, there is no rule of thumb. Everyone’s circumstances are different, and thus your particular needs will be unique. What could be best for you may be less than ideal for someone else.
Of the retirement options, there are individual plans and those offered by employers. Before you branch into doing your own retirement plan, you should determine what options your employer offers. The reason behind this step is that employer plans can include options or features you cannot obtain in private or individual plans. For most employer plans, the amount you can contribute during the year is higher. The costs could also be lower, although this is not always the case. The company plan may also offer a match.
If your employer is offering a match, then this is a plan you want to participate in regardless of the time you may believe you will work for the company. I have visited with many employees who thought they were going to be with their current company only a few months or perhaps a year. And yet, they are now reaching their third or fifth anniversary. Had they started participating in the company Savings Plan or 401-k at their first opportunity, by the time they really do leave, they may accumulate a tidy sum from the employer’s match. Because of the match, this is one retirement plan you do not want to miss.
If your employer does not offer a match, then the amount you are able to save during the year will be the determining factor of whether you participate through your employer or you open a personal retirement account. The employer’s investment options may also play a role in this decision. If your company plan only offers seven or fewer investment choices, you will need to determine if the performance record for these options warrants your participation. If their performance is less than desirable, even though you could defer more of your income, it may be worthwhile to open a personal retirement plan, such as an IRA, where your investment choices are far greater.
If you have your own business rather than working for someone else, then there are additional options for you. If you are the only worker for your firm and you do not expect to hire any employees, the Individual 401-k or the SEP are excellent options for your business. If you have employees, you may elect to install a traditional 401-k or a plan called SIMPLE. Both of these plans may require you to contribute on behalf of your employees in the event you want to make significant contributions for yourself.
At the personal level, any individual with earned income can contribute to a Traditional IRA or to a Roth IRA. For some company plans, you have the same options, Traditional 401-k or Roth 401-k. How you select between the two will be the same whether you are contributing to a personal plan or to a company plan.
To have the best opportunity to manage the income tax impact during your retirement, it is best to have several different pools of money from which you can take withdrawals. If all of your retirement assets are tax-deferred from personal accounts or employer options, then there is little you can do except take the withdrawal and report it as income. However, if you have different pools of funds and they are taxed differently, then you can add a level of control to your income tax liability. Thus, during your working years when your income tax liability is low, you should strongly consider adding to a Roth IRA or Roth 401-k. While you will not receive a current tax savings from your contribution to a Roth account, the funds will grow tax-deferred and all of the withdrawals taken will be income tax free.
Once you can no longer contribute to the Roth due to income levels, then directing all of your retirement deferrals to the Traditional accounts will be your next best option. You may also want to start contributing to a traditional plan as your tax rate increases. You can contribute to both a Traditional and Roth IRA. The combined contributions though cannot exceed the annual limit.
Contributing to your own retirement account whether through your employer or on your own will be a major step in creating your financial independence. If you have questions or need assistance in managing assets, please contact my office or that of an area professional.
HOW TO REACH THE WRITER
Would you like a response to a financial question? Send your question to Doug Horn, 115 W. Broadway, Maryville, TN 37801. Be sure to mark your envelope Money Matters.
Doug Horn, CFP, is an area financial planner with more than 24 years financial experience and founder of Quality Financial Concepts, located in downtown Maryville on Broadway.
Doug Horn, CFP, Registered Investment Advisor in Tennessee and Texas and Registered Principal, Branch Office of and Securities offered through CUE Financial, Member FINRA, SIPC. | <urn:uuid:6e898706-4821-4e41-adbd-982c396b1b56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blounttoday.com/news/2008/jan/30/selecting-best-retirement-options/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960976 | 1,012 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Ricky Gervais is currently on the cover of The New Humanist magazine, clad only in jeans and a crown of thorns. Across his shoulders is a microphone and stand meant to stir images of the crucified Christ. It doesn't surprise me to see Christians up in arms about this.
Gervais proudly proclaims he's an atheist and a few Christians on Twitter are a-twitter about the cover and the ensuing story. Gervais is poking his non-believing finger into the pot occasionally, stirring 'em right up too. And those Christians are drinking from that cup of nonsense like it's eggnog on Christmas Eve.
It's time to stop the longtime battle regarding atheists and their views. They are as entitled to their views as we believe we are.
If we were to take down all the decorations and sayings, plaques and paintings, trees and nativity scenes that cause so much upset in the atheist community, it still wouldn't change anything; one day, over 2000 years ago, God came to us in the humbled form of a baby born of a virgin. He wasn't born in a palace and his birth wasn't heralded by the elite...angels announced his arrival to shepherds, the lowliest in society.
There weren't Christmas trees and families gathering over fancy meals and exchanging presents. The caves surrounding His weren't adorned with lights synced to whatever song by the Trans Siberian Orchestra fit the mood.
His mother and father weren't surrounded by a peaceful beautiful light and halos; they were in a cave used as a barn and as we all know, barns don't smell too good.
Neighbors didn't hit the last minute sales at Dillard's or the mall to get the baby Jesus a little sweater or rattle. Chances are, they too were huddled close together for warmth and eating what meager scraps they could gather together for a small meal. Jesus was wrapped in rags and laying in a manger, which is a feeding trough. The animals ate in the same place where Jesus was laid.
Atheists aren't suffering with what Christians suffer with today;the knowledge that that precious baby, God Himself in the form of man was sent here for one reason and one reason alone; he was on earth to suffer and die on the cross.
It only stands to reason that Santa, caroling and even atheist nonsense from Ricky Gervais is overshadowed by the meaning of Christmas. Christmas could be celebrated in June with none of the trappings and still have the same gravity that it holds on December 25th.
Jesus's birth, no matter how celebrated (or not) still happened and whether or not there are believers, decorations, music and gifts, is meant to be remembered as the day our Savior was born...to die.
Praise God that He was raised three days later! Enjoy the video below...it tells the real reason Jesus was born. | <urn:uuid:cbfdbe51-fddc-4f93-baab-d2ee75f9c569> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beyondthepeachpages.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-and-atheists.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982117 | 602 | 1.5 | 2 |
UAlbany School of Public Health Establishes Center for Global Health
Center will serve as focal point for international research, collaborations and programs
Contact(s): Catherine Herman (518) 956-8150
"With many of our faculty engaged in international research and collaborations and with students coming here from close to 40 nations, the Center offers a broad world view of Public Health," said Philip C. Nasca, dean of the School of Public Health. "This Center will serve as the locus for our many international initiatives, and will help remind us that we are only as healthy as the world we live in."
The Center will serve as the focal point for collaborations with universities and public health agencies in Costa Rica, the Republic of Georgia, Turkey, Vietnam, and Mexico.
The Center will also offer a semester-long Global Health Seminar series, which will focus on public health's role related to war. The series will explore issues facing active duty personnel as well as returning veterans, assessing the impact of war on those involved in conflict situations including Iraq, Afghanistan and African nations. The role of war and its impact on women and children caught in the crossfire will also be addressed.
"Our faculty and students will contribute to public health programs and research projects when they serve abroad but they will also grow as individuals by being immersed in a different culture, speaking a different language, and learning how other countries deliver health services," said Carol Whittaker, assistant dean for Global Public Health and director of the Center.
The Center has already helped launch the school's new Master's International (MI) Program. Students accepted to the MI Program will earn a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree and spend 27 months serving in the Peace Corps while earning the degree. Following their experience in the Peace Corps, students will return to the School of Public Health for one final semester to complete work toward the MPH degree.
Through its partnership with the New York State Department of Health, UAlbany's School of Public Health offers students immediate access to internships at the Health Department, Albany Medical College, and variety of other public and private health institutions throughout New York. The school serves as the academic anchor of the East Campus, the biotech hub of the university's life sciences research, which includes the Cancer Research Center, home to the Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics and the Center for Functional Genomics.
Students and faculty at UAlbany's globally-oriented School of Public Health study the most profound health issues facing us today: the origins of disease such as cancer, the threat of bioterrorism, the spread of HIV/AIDS and other emerging diseases, the lack of affordable and accessible health care for individuals and families, environmental hazards, substance abuse and social violence, maternal mortality in developing countries, the promises and threats of genetic engineering, and protecting food and water supplies.
For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds
Educationally and culturally, the University at Albany-SUNY puts "The World Within Reach" for its 18,000 students. An internationally recognized research university with 56 undergraduate majors and 128 graduate degree programs, UAlbany is a leader among all New York State colleges and universities in such diverse fields as public policy, nanotechnology and criminal justice. With a curriculum enhanced by 300 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers. For more information about this globally ranked University, visit www.albany.edu. For UAlbany's extensive roster of faculty experts, visit www.albany.edu/news/experts.shtml. | <urn:uuid:6cb0b02f-2ba3-47d7-b8a7-1b7782df418e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albany.edu/news/release_4380.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945846 | 745 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Monday, July 20, 2009
TOERIFC: Black Book
The films of Paul Verhoeven seldom deal with morality and appearances in conventional ways. Verhoeven's filmography represents a prolonged examination of the depths hidden beneath overly familiar surfaces; he often mines within genre templates for the emotional truths obscured by superficiality. And in his 2006 masterpiece Black Book, he turns to the question of historical truth, examining the history book truths we take for granted, exploring the vast gray areas that exist between black and white, good and evil, hero and villain. If Verhoeven was making a Western, most of his characters would wear gray hats. His is a morally ambiguous universe in the deepest sense, one with no easy answers, no pat moral conclusions.
This perspective is especially challenging here because Black Book is about the end of World War II in the Netherlands, where in the final months of the war, the Nazis, Dutch collaborators and anti-Nazi Resistance fighters continued to fight, always thinking about what would happen once the war was over. The film's central character is young Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten), a Jewish woman who soon changes her name to Ellis de Vries as part of her disguise from the Nazis. When the film opens, she is living with a Christian family who begrudgingly shelter her, forcing her to faithfully recite Bible verses before she is allowed to eat (exactly the kind of self-righteous hypocrisy Verhoeven most loves to mock). When her shelter is destroyed by Nazi bombs and her identity discovered, she attempts to escape with her family, but instead she winds up the sole survivor after the sinister German officer Franken (Waldemar Kobus) ambushes the boat and kills everyone else. Now named Ellis, she falls in with a group of Resistance fighters and, at their behest, infiltrates the Nazi command by cozying up to SS officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch).
Of course, the plot only grows more complex from there. The script, written by Verhoeven with his frequent collaborator Gerard Soeteman, is serpentine and epic, structured around the multiple twists, betrayals, moves and countermoves that characterize this tale of wartime spying and resistance. The film is lengthy, but with the exception of the brief framing segments in post-war Israel, its action covers only around a year or two, from the last few months of the war to the immediate post-war period, the time of liberation, revenge and readjustment. This brief time frame is packed with incident, however. Verhoeven has always known how to tell a story. In fact, he's often been picked on for this very skill, for his ability to work competently — even vigorously — within conventional storytelling modes. That's why he was such a good fit for Hollywood, at least for a time, despite his penchant for outrageous provocation and radical subtexts. He's a provocateur and a satirist, but even more than that he's a storyteller, an entertainer. Rather than using satire to undermine entertainment, the way so many covert satirists have, he allows the two strains of his work to coexist, to intertwine, so that in a Verhoeven film the excitingly sensual surface he offers up is inseparable from the cerebral and thematic undercurrents of his stories.
This means that his films are always rollicking good fun, if nothing else, and Black Book is no exception. His action sequences are thrilling and visceral, and the plot is a complex web of deceit and double-crosses, with new twists continually introducing complete shifts in the status quo. Of course, sexuality is also almost always an important factor in Verhoeven's films. In Black Book especially, however, Verhoeven's treatment of sexuality is far from simple exploitation or gratuitous titillation. One of the film's most important subtexts is its subtle revelation of the ways in which women are used and then punished for their sexuality, for their charm and beauty. Ellis seduces the Nazi Müntze only out of necessity, after the Nazis capture a shipment of weapons along with several Resistance fighters, including Tim (Ronald Armbrust), the son of the Resistance ring's leader Kuipers (Derek de Lint). She agrees to help by infiltrating the SS headquarters, planting a bug in Franken's office and generally providing information on what's going on, as the Resistance cell tries to figure out a way to free their captured comrades.
So Ellis uses her sexuality for the benefit of her friends; she is willing to sleep with Müntze, and even to expose herself to the unwelcome attention of the brutish Franken, the man who murdered her family. But she is not praised for her behavior; she is silently, implicitly judged. Before she goes undercover, the doctor and Resistance fighter Akkermans (Thom Hoffman) makes sure that he sleeps with her first, as though marking her before the Germans get ahold of her, claiming her as Dutch property. Her sexuality is a tool, a weapon, a resource, and also something to be fought over, but she is never treated as an equal, as someone to be respected in her own right. Even when she first joins the Resistance group, she is eager to help, but seems disappointed when she learns that all she has to do is pose as Akkermans' wife, kissing him to distract Nazi inspection parties as they smuggle underground materials from place to place. This assignment establishes the boundaries of what she will be asked to do as a part of this group, though her quick thinking when the mission nearly goes wrong indicates that she is more than just a pretty prop, that she can think for herself and ingeniously get her allies out of tight spots. Still, they do not respect her, and Ellis knows it.
One of the key moments here comes when Ellis arrives at the Resistance's secret base while they are listening in on the microphone that Ellis planted. They hear Franken having loud, raucous sex with his secretary Ronnie (Halina Reijn), and the Resistance fighters are laughing wildly, mocking the lovers and especially the girl. They call her a whore and comment on how horny she must be, and they laugh uproariously. Ellis looks uncomfortable, her head bent down, her eyes averted from everyone else, certainly not laughing. She realizes that Ronnie, an ordinary and not very bright young woman, is just doing what she must to survive, that she's no Nazi or "Nazi lover" but only someone who knew, as Ellis did, that she could use her sexuality as a way to get by during a difficult time. And Ellis knows, too, that the others might just as easily say the same things about her. She's sleeping with Müntze just as Ronnie is sleeping with Franken. Ellis has a pretext for her actions, but in the end sex is sex.
Complicating matters even further is the fact that Müntze is not an unsympathetic character, and in fact he is portrayed as a relatively decent guy. He is an SS officer, but by this late point in the war, he has realized that his country is losing, and instead of reacting out of greed (as Franken does) or self-preservation (as so many others do), he attempts to calm down the violence in his own little corner of the war, negotiating with the Resistance to halt the hostilities on both sides. He knows the war is over in all but name, and sees little point in further death, further violence and horror. Moreover, he very quickly deduces that Ellis is a disguised Jew, and not long after discovers that she is a member of the Resistance. But in both cases he keeps her secret, protecting her and conspiring with her.
There is a hint of tension between them, of course, which bursts out in the wittily Freudian scene where Ellis thinks Müntze is getting an erection under the covers, only to find he's pointing a gun at her: underscoring the forced, duplicitous sexuality that thrust them together. Even so, the relationship between them is surprisingly tender and sweet, a true romance in the midst of so much deceit and treachery and violence. He is, perhaps, a good man who had been warped by the war, forced into his position by cowardice or some other motivation — it's never made clear how or why he became such a high-ranking SS officer, or what he must've done in the past. But with Ellis, he is loyal and kind, and their sex scenes have a warmth and passion that never feels like playacting.
This brings up the question of appearances and surfaces again, and of acting. Carice van Houten is asked to virtually carry the film on her tiny shoulders — she is its center and its heart, almost never offscreen — and she gives a phenomenal performance. In many ways, she is also playing an actress, a woman who must be able to disguise her true self completely. She must do this first as a Jew, dying her hair blonde and changing her name, shedding her Jewish roots. She even dyes her pubic hair, as though changing even her sexuality; Verhoeven shows her daubing between her legs with a brush, making art of her sex. Then her disguise becomes even more complex when she is employed by the Nazis. There is an extraordinary sequence when she first sees Franken and recognizes him as the man who murdered her family. The creepy, lumpen oaf is hunched over a piano, cheerfully singing a song and playing; he is as goofy and awkward here as he was cold and evil in the earlier scene. Ellis stares blankly at him, and runs from the room, retching and throwing up when she reaches the bathroom. But she takes a moment, cleans herself up quickly and pulls herself together, and when Müntze asks her what's wrong, she smiles and takes an eager swig of champagne, then goes out to sing a torch song with accompaniment from Franken, lewdly dancing and posing as she sings the sexually suggestive lyrics.
Van Houten is excellent at conveying these sudden shifts, the way Ellis' face can quickly and smoothly transition from a sour, numb expression into a bright and seemingly genuine smile. Verhoeven, with his concern for the relationship between appearances and reality, is especially interested in this fluid masking of emotions: at what point do Ellis' faked smiles become real? At what point does her façade of affection and desire for Müntze bleed into something deeper, more true? Such questions are at the heart of the film, and they go beyond Ellis' undercover theatrics, extending to every aspect of the story, to every character. Virtually all these people are wearing masks of various kinds, and they're all more than they appear to be on the surface. For one thing, the film rejects facile categorizations of "good guys" and "bad guys," suggesting that real evil is not always as easy to identify as the cartoonish Franken, who in any event is also capable of playfulness and good humor, and who seems to love making music. Moreover, Verhoeven is saying, often evil can be mistaken for good, and vice versa — not to mention the complications of most people combining the two within themselves.
Verhoeven explicitly mocks the moral absolutism that ignores such gray areas. This is especially obvious in the character of Theo (Johnny de Mol), a devout Christian who becomes hysterical after killing a man to protect Ellis. He believes that because he has committed murder, he is now "as bad as the Nazis," an absolutely absurd idea that demonstrates a complete inability to see moral gray areas. Verhoeven, by contrast, is interested only in the gray areas, in why people do what they do, in the complicated interactions of morality and practicality from day to day. For Verhoeven, morality never exists in a vacuum, but is integrated with people's situations: the choices available to them and the choices they make as a result.
What's also interesting about the film is its almost-complete emphasis on the kinds of stories not often told about World War II, the stories that are generally overlooked and glossed-over. Verhoeven has always been interested in this material, in the history of resistance and collaboration in his homeland. In 1977, he made the epic Soldier of Orange, which is similarly engaged with issues of collaboration and resistance, with the interesting ways in which wartime can warp or divert a person's character and destiny. In many ways, that film seems like a warm-up for Black Book, a first examination of the territory he'd return to here, now mining even deeper, digging even further into the ugly contradictions of his nation's past.
Those contradictions are laid bare here, particularly during the film's final hour, in which Ellis, suspected of collaboration with the Nazis, is forced into hiding along with Müntze, who's fleeing the dubious "justice" of the post-war regime. Verhoeven has often been accused of a lack of subtlety, and the final hour of this film could certainly provide copious material for anyone wishing to make that case. He heaps suffering and degradation on his poor heroine, who is misused and betrayed despite all her efforts to do what was right, to help her friends and exact revenge for what happened to her family. Instead, she is arrested as a collaborator, labeled a "Nazi whore" who sang for the Germans. She is, at one point, stripped and slathered in excrement, at a prison where drunken soldiers and prison guards abuse and humiliate the prisoners. And then she is betrayed again, nearly killed by the last person she thought she could trust, Akkermans himself, who turns out to be a genuine collaborator, the man who kept tipping off Franken to the locations of fleeing Jews.
Verhoeven undoubtedly makes things difficult for his heroine, and he also makes her plight difficult to watch — this Passion of Ellis is harrowing and often stomach-churning, both physically (the feces bath) and emotionally (the execution of Müntze). But no matter how much Ellis suffers, Verhoeven never strips her of her dignity: her warmth and passion, her energetic spirit, her honesty, her defiance. When the prison guards demand that she sing for them like she once did for the Nazis, she simply shakes her head: "not for you." She is an ordinary woman in extraordinary times, and she rises to the occasion in every way, molding herself to be tough enough for what she has to face.
And she always retains her idiosyncratic sense of humor, her playfulness — seen in tossed-off little moments like the one where she takes a bite of a carrot meant for a rabbit, then turns around to speak with the bite stuffed into her cheek like a chipmunk, or the scene where she brushes her teeth by gargling with champagne, then opens her mouth wide for inspection with a grin. Verhoeven obviously admires her cheekiness, and he admires his actress too, admires the versatility she brings to this role: compare the matronly, melancholy Rachel seen in the Israeli framing story against bold, blonde Ellis for some indication of the range and depth van Houten brings to this character.
Indeed, "range and depth" is a fairly good summation of Black Book as a whole as well. It's an extraordinarily complex and multi-faceted film, both narratively and thematically. Even as its plot continually subdivides and changes directions, Verhoeven probes deeper and deeper into the sexual, political and psychological subtexts of his story and characters. His style is direct and bombastic, with a subtle stylization to the way he groups other characters into two-shots with his heroine, tracing her varying relationships with the men she encounters. Ellis is always turning towards the camera, flashing it a smile or a penetrating gaze; Verhoeven makes it natural enough that it never quite breaks the fourth wall, though the technique does call attention to itself, and to the continual highlighting of the star.
I could certainly find a lot more to say about Black Book — it's a film I suspect I could write a book about, delving into each scene and giving it the careful consideration it deserves. It's that rich, that layered. For now, however, I'll simply open up the discussion for others to share their impressions of Verhoeven's film. What does everyone else think? | <urn:uuid:0f667ea0-8293-4279-804e-9e758022ad57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.com/2009/07/toerifc-black-book.html?showComment=1248187150781 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974216 | 3,382 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Nov 14 2008
On January 13, 2007 in this picture, it is 7 degrees below zero. The river is solidly gorged looking upriver from the town bridge. This happens when the water freezes solid in the channel after it remains exceedingly cold for a few days. When the water is below freezing temperatures it stays liquid when it is moving but becomes more and more slushy as the extreme cold continues.
The slush eventually jams briefly going through the channels leading into the shallow lake below town. The second it does that, presto, the river there turns into a solid chunk of ice because it no longer is moving. More slush jams into that and repeats the process.
Over a few days the gorge can move several miles up the river. From this view you are looking downriver from the town bridge. The black blob in the middle is the top of the old bridge abutment.
The ice is not skating rink material, as you can see, rising nearly to the bottom of the bridge.
In this photo the gorge is actively occurring. The solid white is the frozen river and the steam is rising where it is moving into the jam.
The water that does not freeze solid is still trying to find a way downhill, even though the regular channel is solidly blocked. So the river starts runs around on the flats, cutting new channels, perhaps gorging some more.
This makes an awful mess of the town campground and boat launch. The road is gone at the entrance where the river running through it just cut it away.
This view is from Burnt Tree Fishing Access on January 13.
This is the same view on January 14 after the gorge arrived overnight.
In this photo about ten days later the river cuts a channel back through the ice after the weather warmed.
Another view of Burnt Tree shows the depth of the ice as the channel cuts through it.
The boat launch itself which drops sharply to the river is buried to the right of the picnic table. The pile of ice shows this launch is out of commission for months.
The normal river channel once again is in front of the row of willow trees. The foreground shows the snow has melted, so all the white beyond the willow trees is ice left from the river wandering around on the flats.
Burnt Tree Fishing Access on February 10 shows what a few days at 50 degrees will do.
The Eight Mile boat launch is now open because someone plowed it so a boat trailer can be used, if one backs carefully. The slot for the trailer is narrow but workable.
Fishing has resumed! | <urn:uuid:88d54dcb-2a4c-45d1-a750-136b58480b0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riverstonegallery.com/info/ennis-doings/madison-river-gorge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963514 | 533 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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Here is the London 1912 Directory listing in 1921 & my Olympic Zone walk in 2006
London street name changes about 1938
The Olympics is coming in 2012, this site has been about the history of the area; very soon, it will become an entire introduction in where to go and what to do whilst visiting London & Stratford in 2012. Congratulations to the fantastic Olympians in Beijing, and well done - you stand proud.
Meanwhile, here are a many thousands of historical pubs in the South of England
Becontree Hundred in 1863 , Chafford Hundred in 1863
Stratford History & West Ham History
& Silvertown & Plaistow & North Woolwich & Canning Town
& Hornchurch & Romford & Havering, plus Rainham & Wennington
Great Warley & Little Warley, South Weald
NEW - History of Barking & History of Dagenham
History of Pubs in London - indexes
This is a brand new fun and games site for London. I guess it is really aimed at the coming Olympics in 2012, but in the mean time we can add something of interest to whet the appetite.
From the navigation menu, you will see a few other London sites that I run, and these may interest you, especially all the historical Pubs in London & Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire & Cambridge, Suffolk, Kent and Dorset - these site create a massive Trade directory of the South East of England, for the last two hundred years. All the sites can be searched by surname, address etc from any site, through the search engine.I have not yet added the fun & games part yet - but for historical detail, I can recommend no better than the Essex Record Office, in Chelmsford [this is my fun & games]- here is an online database of much of what is on offer- SEAX - it is absolutely brilliant. (Just login as guest if you are a guest). You may also want to visit the Newham Heritage and Archive site, and it's forums - see the Newham Story.
Just for interest to those outside the UK, and to explain the old currency system in England - see Pounds, Shillings and Pence; the currency in the UK is now 100 pennies per Pound, but I look forward to us joining the Euro, in line with other sensible European countries.
The coming Olympic games will be largely centred around Stratford in East London, and the Hackney marsh areas; plus a variety of other top class venues around the Capital. Stratford started it's life as part of Essex, and still has an postcode which does not rank it amongst the London Postal Districts, i.e. EC1 - 4, & WC1- 4; and is therefore listed as East London. It is extremely well linked with Essex and London, through an excellent Rail network. The sailing will be in Dorset, near to Weymouth; and the cycling in South Weald, Essex - see the Essex 1841 site
Newham Story website
tells the story of Newham and its people.
You can share your memories, family stories, photos, and knowledge of Newham - as it is today and as it was in the past. Look round the site to see what other people have added. You can add your own story and photo to the site?
The Newham Story is in two parts. The first is the Newham Story website; there are also the Newham Story forums. The forums are at www.newhamstory.com/forums The site is run by the London Borough of Newham's Heritage & Archives service whose aims are to preserve, promote and interpret the rich diversity of the heritage of Newham, and make it accessible to all.
A good game can be had in seeing if any of these mainly Victorian establishments are still open, and if they are, consuming large quantities of the English Beer, better known as Bitter. Sadly, this will cost you an 'arm and a leg', or rather 'Loadsa money', as the Pubs are rather expensive these days - I would rather take a day trip to France on the Eurotunnel from Ashford, have a nice meal, a French chat, and pick up some duty free wine, and some tobacco whilst there. For a good listing of the better modern Pubs to drink in, try the Pigs Ear site - part of the CAMRA [Campaign for Real Ale], rather than the chemical liquids we have become too far intoxicated by.
A favourite pastime is the game - 'having a laugh' [pronounced " 'aving a larf "] - which includes practical pranks at other peoples expense & usually meant light heartedly rather than any nasty form of bullying.
Another interesting side for London is the Nursery Rhymes that have been passed down through the years, e.g. 'ring a ring of roses, a pocketful full of posies, atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down' - this relates to the endemic loss of population from the likes of the plague and other illnesses. Fortunately, there is not too much of this to be found in London these days, with the modern and successful NHS [National Health System] put in place by the Labour Governments in the 1940s.
Best Broadband Providers in the UK - tested in October 2010.A very strong recommendation for a Gas Safe engineer in Essex is N R Heating who fixed several gas leaks in my home today. The work was very professional, totally committed to safety and quality; plus the price was very competitive. New boiler installation was also another brilliant service. A very high class recommendation for a Gas Safe Engineer in Hornchurch. And Last updated on: Friday, 27-Jan-2012 01:05:00 GMT | <urn:uuid:29ea7411-194a-405b-8f65-99c9e7ced858> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://historyofstratford.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947741 | 1,197 | 1.507813 | 2 |
South Africa's Desmond Tutu Wins $1 Million Prize
Anti-apartheid leader honored for ‘lifelong commitment to speaking truth to power’
Faith Karimi CNN
October 04, 2012(CNN) -- A billionaire's foundation announced Thursday a one-off $1 million award to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu for "his lifelong commitment to speaking truth to power."
The foundation, which promotes good governance in the continent, was established by Sudan-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim.
An anti-apartheid leader and Nobel laureate, Tutu is an outspoken critic on issues affecting the continent and beyond.
"Tutu is and has throughout his life been one of Africa's great voices for justice, freedom, democracy and responsible, responsive government," the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said in a statement. "In everything he stands for, says and does, he displays a consistent determination to give a voice to the voiceless and to speak the uncomfortable truth."
Last month, Tutu reiterated his calls that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former U.S. President George W. Bush should be "made to answer" at the International Criminal Court for initiating the 2003 Iraq War.
At the time, the two leaders cited Iraq's ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction as reasons for the war. No significant caches of chemical or biological weapons were found after the invasion.
Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and later chaired South Africa's reconciliation commission to examine apartheid-era crimes.
The London-based foundation also awards an annual $5 million prize to a former African head of state who practices good governance.
Only a handful of leaders, including former South African President Nelson Mandela, have won the good governance award since it was launched in 2007. The foundation did not award the prize on certain years, saying there were no qualified candidates. | <urn:uuid:3dbef61d-a0c4-41ca-ac42-11ec1747f72e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theskanner.com/article/South-Africas-Desmond-Tutu-Wins-1-Million-Prize-2012-10-04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96492 | 380 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Each year, the 50 families of Oeiras participating in the project receive in their homes the visit of the project’s team, which performs a diagnostic focusing on the energy use, as well as the environmental behaviour, associated with the households’ daily habits. Each family is given advise as regards water and energy use, waste recycling, urban mobility, sustainable approach to gardening and consumption of resources in general.
The “eco-families” receive a brief report with practical suggestions taking into account their own lifestyle. The main goal of the project is to help citizens reduce their energy consumption, and associated GHG emissions, thus supporting the 3x20 goals that Oeiras committed to reaching by joining the Covenant of Mayors.
Each family is also offered a “sustainability kit” comprising several products that support the adoption of a more eco-friendly way of living. Compact fluorescent lamps, flow rate reducing devices, power switching cords, pocket guides for the rational use of energy, and eco-driving leaflets are among the examples of the materials given to each household.
The project is already running its third edition, having become so popular that the waiting list already can cover another two years of project. In order to increase the visibility of Oeiras’ Eco-Family, the last two editions have counted with the support of public personalities. Two actresses, widely known to the Portuguese audiences for their remarkable work in theatre and television, have agreed to be the face of the project, thus sponsoring it with their celebrity.
The majority of the families have identified their motivation to participate in the project to be closely related to the interest in getting aware of their own energy consumption and the possibilities to change behaviours. The analysis resulting from the inquiries performed by the end of the first two editions revealed that most people already have a good sustainability consciousness, even if the main problem remains the overuse of individual transport in the daily house/work/house travels.
Additional information regarding the project can be found (in Portuguese) on OEINERGE’s Facebook account: www.facebook.com/oeinerge | <urn:uuid:b4c97eed-3c66-4d93-bb76-fdceb7d8cf71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energy-cities.eu/Oeiras-Families-Towards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960681 | 434 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Ten Questions You Need To Answer Before The Next Global Depression Sets In
August 20th, 2012
Reader Views: 868
The global financial system is beginning to come apart like a cheap suit. When the normal life you rely on ceases to function properly, what are you going to do? If you do not have a plan you will be left helpless in a rapidly deteriorating situation that will put you and your family in danger. It costs you no money to think through some basic questions and come up with realistic answers. The sooner you address this, the more secure your future will be when things don’t go as planned.
Everyone expects the government to be there with a safety net when things go wrong, but the government may not be there in the future when you need them or they may require things of you that you are not willing to do or give up. When times are uncertain, it is your responsibility to care for your family and that is a responsibility you cannot pawn off on someone else. If you have no plan or don’t know where to start, you can begin with some basic questions.
How will I feed my family? ‚Äď If your income is cut off or your food supplier is shut down, what is your backup plan to provide food for your family and how long will you be able to do so? The acquisition of potable water is also a concern you need to address.
How and where will I shelter my family? ‚Äď If you lose your job and the ability to pay your bills, will you still be able to live in your current home? If your community becomes dangerous will you stay there and if not where will you go?
How will I provide security for my family? ‚Äď When the financial system breaks down, many who depend on it will become desperate. They will do things they normally would not do in order to maintain their living standard. Many will become violent as their comfort zone is breached by many unknown variables they are not ready to confront.
How will I preserve my wealth for future use? ‚Äď If you have wealth in the form of paper assets and they are stored with institutions, you may lose access to them in an emergency. They may also become lost, stolen or greatly devalued depending on the circumstances. If the well being of your family depends on those assets, are you prepared to lose them? If not what are your contingency plans to protect those assets so you have buying power in the future no matter what happens to the system?
What will I use for transportation? ‚Äď In a depression type of collapse it may be difficult to acquire fuel or get your vehicle repaired. What is your backup plan if you need to evacuate your family to another area? Do you have a storage of fuel supplies, an alternate fuel source or the ability to maintain your own vehicle? Do you have an alternate source of transportation you can use?
How will I provide clothing for my family? ‚Äď If you have no income or savings, how will you provide clothing for your family? Can you make your own or do you have a plan to trade for what you need? Should you store extra clothing now for future use and how much should it be?
Do I have others I can depend on if I need help? ‚Äď If the situation deteriorates, do you have others you can rely on? It may be a need for food, clothing, shelter or security but in a prolonged situation you will need help in some form at some point.
What will I do to earn a paycheck? ‚Äď In a serious downturn that lasts many years, what will you do to earn a paycheck? What skills do you have that can be traded for the things you need? What equipment do you have that can be used to provide a product or service?
How will I provide medical services to my family? ‚Äď If the situation is desperate and medical help is expensive or unavailable, how prepared are you to care for a sick or injured family member? While broken bones and internal injuries may require a professional, can you care for minor injuries and provide medicine for sick individuals?
Can I provide power and communications if the grid is disabled? ‚Äď The financial collapse of nations can lead to the shutdown of major service providers or leave you unable to pay for those services. If you can provide your own power and communications during critical times, it can provide you with information and capabilities to keep your family safe. Even a solar panel, 12v battery and small power inverter can give you many capabilities.
Once you have answered these questions in as much detail as possible you will have the outline for a basic plan to follow. As you answer these questions, more questions will arise that will lead to more detailed planning. Planning is a continuous process that develops more capabilities as you progress. In the future, the more capabilities you have, the easier it will be to navigate the disruptions in society that you are likely to encounter.
Hat Tip to Silver Bear Cafe!
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
Contributed by Tom Chatham of Project Chesapeake.
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The Daily Sheeple Home Page | <urn:uuid:a1b926c4-3729-4ce1-b247-57ddcd27cc1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailysheeple.com/ten-questions-you-need-to-answer-before-the-next-global-depression-sets-in_082012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954517 | 1,104 | 1.507813 | 2 |
I HAVE A GREAT IDEA to improve the health of Australians, and it goes to the heart of the problem: the performance of doctors. The profession has been operating free of scrutiny for too long and must be made much more transparent. As consumers we need to be assured that our local medico is up to standard.
How can we gain such an assurance? Easy: governments should measure and publicise, preferably on a website, the performance of doctors. What is their diagnosis strike rate? How many times do patients keep coming back with the same complaint? Doctors would get marks for having healthy patients, and lose marks when patients don’t get much better. If the mortality trendline leaps up off the chart then the surgery should be listed as a failed practice and everyone struck off. Higher scoring doctors, on the other hand, should be paid more.
Sure, there might be some downsides. The tabloid media would trawl the data to construct and publish surgery league tables. Low scoring doctors would be dragged through the toxic swamp of talkback radio. Doctors would try to explain the complexity of health issues but no one would listen. A shame, but our right to know and choose must come first.
Practices in suburbs with chronic health problems would go to the wall as patients flee to higher ranking medicos. The newest doctors would serve the poor while others would insist that patients pass a health test or pay inflated upfront fees before they get in the door. After all, this would be a free market at work.
When it inevitably goes pear-shaped, health ministers would spin and recycle time-honoured slogans about choice, transparency, quality and competition. If that doesn’t work they’d accuse the doctors, especially the bulk billers consigned to the poor, of having something to hide.
THIS IS A FANCIFUL prospect for doctors, of course, but not for schools as they grapple with the inevitable and well-documented impact of league tables. The move towards transparency for schools, ultimately represented by comparative tables, is a story of superficial and populist politics triumphing over caution. Supporters of league tables have an easy case to mount and sustain, couched as it is in the language of openness, transparency, choice and democracy. The education community will plead a case about research, evidence and equity, but the outcome is almost assured. As the American educationalist Gene Glass writes, “Where education is concerned, the old adage holds true: facts are negotiable; beliefs are rock solid.”
It’s possible that the fight isn’t over. The education interest groups have created a surprisingly broad front on the issue of league tables. The Australian Education Union, probably the best-organised group, has been joined willingly by subject associations and principals’ groups representing all education sectors. A capacity meeting in Sydney at the end of August saw Catholics and sinners, Greens and Nationals rubbing shoulders, with even Fred Nile offering the odd sentiment in support. While no shrinking violet, Julia Gillard seems to be talking less about the right of parents to choose and more about the need for information about schools so that she can plug the equity gaps.
But it is more likely that the current saga is playing out to an inevitable conclusion: there will be league tables, they will be constructed and presented in spurious and even fraudulent ways, they will accelerate the flight of parents towards middle class (“high performing”) schools and they will worsen prospects for our most disadvantaged children, schools and communities. The whole process will sit nicely alongside other “reforms” to mock official rhetoric about equity. And it is all proceeding despite the existence of better and more credible ways to increase the flow of accurate information to parents about schools.
The education ministers know all this but the rhetoric surrounding transparency is too attractive to ignore. Revealing such information, according to Julia Gillard, throws sunlight on what schools are doing. Nice line, but wrong source of light: league tables are a spotlight, not sunlight – they throw a bright, harsh and narrow band of light onto one aspect of schooling, leaving everything around it in darkness. Tests such as NAPLAN, the National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy, are very useful tools to help analyse and improve student learning, but not much more. They were never intended to say anything useful about the performance of schools.
One of the more farcical elements of this unfolding drama is the image of all the education ministers furiously washing their hands as they announce that they don’t support “simplistic league tables” while watching the tabloid media do their very best to create exactly that. Indeed, the only state with legislative protection against such tables is reversing that policy faster than the average onlooker can say “cash from Canberra.”
THE EVIDENCE that some sections of the media have created misleading stories out of school NAPLAN test data is now out there for all to see. Unsurprisingly, it is the News Limited tabloids that are engaged in a race to the bottom in standards of reporting school test results.
The Hobart Mercury was first off the blocks. It crunched student literacy and numeracy results to come up with a total score for each school: words plus sums, divided by two, equals the worth of a school. Not content with leaving even the half-smart reader to work out what it all means, it then compared student attendance rates and achievement levels, coming to the stunning conclusion that you have to attend school to get the results. It also highlighted best and worst schools but basically concluded that other differences between the schools were probably too complex for readers to digest.
For Queenslanders the Courier-Mail first reported on the 2007 NAPLAN results in May this year. It revealed that small regional state schools were the star performers, something which is hardly surprising: most are too far away from other schools to have their enrolment depleted by what we call competition. The Courier-Mail’s more recent publication of the 2008 NAPLAN test results is worth a closer look. The paper published these results alphabetically by school, and buried deep in its report is this comment from the journalists Tanya Chilcott and Jane Chudleigh: “The Courier-Mail has chosen not to publish the information in league tables… in recognition that school resources and the socioeconomic status of students can affect results”
This encouraging depth of understanding didn’t extend to the headline: “Private schools top the class.” Nor did any qualifications temper the language of the main article. Complexities such as the resourcing and enrolment profile of schools were neatly flicked to one side; outstanding and poor test scores alike were simply attributed to schools and types of schools or to good teaching.
The report variously mentioned that schools “performed particularly well” or “made the top 100” or “did much better than” others. In the language of a sporting competition, readers were told that “State high schools were trounced by their private school counterparts” and that “Queensland came an embarrassing second last” compared to other states.
While the journalists involved might understand that the publication of NAPLAN results invites unfair comparisons, the stories in both newspapers illustrate a disconnect between any such understanding and what the newspapers are happy to print.
WHAT does NAPLAN really show for Queensland? Even a cursory scrutiny of the data shows that honest reporting would have stayed with the complexities and ditched the headlines and lead story. Like all student achievement data NAPLAN doesn’t say much at all about the worth of schools.
The most obvious complexity the Courier-Mail largely chose to ignore is the relationship between the results attributed to a school and the socioeconomic status, or SES, of the surrounding area. This can be mapped by using a sample of the first fifty state primary schools with more than 100 students listed in the paper’s “How your school performs” supplement.
In the graph below the average score of each school’s Year 5 cohort in reading, on the vertical axis, is compared to the average family income of people in the school’s local area (drawn from ABS data) on the horizontal axis. The graph shows that the reading results linked to particular schools rise with the income level of each school’s drawing area. As is always the case, there are schools outside the line of best fit, but the relationship shown is clear. There is nothing at all surprising in this graph, but it probably wouldn’t sell newspapers.
CHART 1 | QUEENSLAND NAPLAN: YEAR 5 – READING
First fifty government primary schools alphabetically
The Courier-Mail report leaned heavily on the alleged differences between private and public schools and included stories and comments which purport to explain such differences. Yet research consistently shows that the differences between the academic profile of public and private schools are overwhelmingly created by who walks in through the school gate each day.
Schools now have an extremely variable capacity to choose who does and does not enrol. The issues revolving around school choice, school obligations, operating procedures and various mechanisms to engineer enrolment are well known to most observers, but didn’t form any part of the Courier-Mail’s story.
We can even see how the relationship between academic achievement and enrolment profile creates a hierarchy among private schools. By looking at the first fifty non-government secondary schools listed in the “How your school performs” supplement we can see the relationship between Year 9 reading results and the SES of the students enrolled. In the graph below the vertical axis again shows Year 9 reading and the horizontal axis shows each school’s SES funding score. (Private schools usually don’t have distinct drawing areas so it isn’t possible to graph the relationship between “school achievement” and family income of the local area. But the SES index, used by the federal education department to calculate funding, is constructed from census collection district SES data for the students enrolled at each school.)
CHART 2 | QUEENSLAND NAPLAN: YEAR 9 – READING
First fifty non-government secondary schools alphabetically
WHAT IS NEW in all this? Not much at all. School NAPLAN results simply show what any other comparison of raw test scores shows: that our schools are increasingly enrolling quite different populations – so different that comparing like with like is not possible in any fair and valid way. It is these different enrolment profiles that create most of the variations among schools. In the words of the head of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, Barry McGaw, “little of the difference among schools in the educational performance of their students is a consequence of what the schools do; 70 per cent of it is due to whom they enrol.”
There is ample evidence to show this. In New South Wales the top of the HSC ladder is dominated by the (ever increasing) academically selective schools, both public and private, followed by (in approximate order) high-fee private schools, a mix of public schools in middle class areas and lower fee private schools, dominant regional schools, some more distant rural schools, and the rest. When I recently compiled two ranked lists of NSW private schools, by share of high achievers in the HSC and also by school SES score, thirty-three of the “top” fifty schools were common to both lists.
In Victoria, if VCE results are any guide, the highest scoring state schools belong to two main groups. The first includes many middle class schools in inner or eastern Melbourne. These are the schools that Melbourne University’s Stephen Lamb shows were best able to capitalise on state government devolution policies, and especially dezoning. The second group includes schools located in quite distant rural areas. In 2008 there were twenty government schools in the first 100; half of these were rural schools. In a previous article for Inside Story I explored some reasons for the phenomenon of apparent high achievement in many rural schools.
Anyone who believes that such rankings are about good and bad schools should again consider the hierarchy of private schools. The VCE ranking of private schools substantially reflects the level of fees charged and the socioeconomic funding index of the schools. The first fifty ranked private schools in 2005 charged upper end (Year 12) day fees averaging just over $17,000 (in 2008–09 dollars). Fees for the second fifty averaged $9500. Fees in schools below this top 100 averaged $5500.
The strong and enduring link between social class and student/school achievement should never be used as an excuse for schools. Every teacher and every school can make a difference for their enrolled students. But it remains true to say that the academic hierarchies between and among public and private schools have more to do with sifting and sorting enrolments than anything else.
THERE IS ALSO strong evidence to suggest that these hierarchies are becoming ever more entrenched, with combinations of deliberate policy and neglect helping to increase the gaps between schools. The moves to greater “transparency” and especially the creation of league tables will simply accelerate shifts in the enrolment profile of schools, increasing the divides.
The evidence is getting harder to avoid. The education consultant Barbara Preston has shown the changing ratio between low and high income families in schools. In 1996 there was an average of thirteen low-income for every ten high-income students in public school playgrounds. Now there are sixteen for every ten. The opposite trend occurred in private schools.
I have looked at the increasing academic divide in rural New South Wales using current and previous HSC results to map the changing academic profile of schools (bearing in mind that end-of-school student achievement data is a crude measure – especially as many young people don’t even get to the end of school, which means that HSC scores almost certainly understate the differences between schools). Enrolment figures show there were three main groups of secondary schools in the larger regional NSW centres in 2007: private schools, larger public high schools and smaller public high schools. In 2007 there were twelve larger public secondary schools in these towns; thirteen schools were noticeably smaller.
Obviously a range of factors affect school size and growth or decline, including the size of the area from which students are drawn and local demographic shifts, as well as genuine differences in quality and school leadership. But two things happened between 2000 and 2007: enrolment in the larger public secondary schools stayed constant while enrolment in the smaller schools fell by almost 20 per cent; and the number of private schools with HSC candidates increased (with a corresponding small decline in the average size of each school).
The share of high-end HSC results among these schools also changed. As a group, the private schools increased their share of high achievers by around 42 per cent, and the dozen larger public high schools increased their share of high achievers by 30 per cent. By contrast, nearby smaller high schools not only lost students but their share of high achievers almost halved. There was a clear quantitative and qualitative shift of students away from specific public schools.
FOR A RANGE of reasons it tends to be the more aspirational and able – and mainly middle class – students who shift schools. Various studies point to this qualitative and quantitative shift. In his Melbourne study Stephen Lamb shows that the students who travelled to attend schools away from their local area had a higher academic ability.
In the NSW example above, the schools that lost enrolments tended to be those with lower average family incomes and more Indigenous enrolments. One would like to believe that the movement of students reflected considered family decisions about teaching quality, but one of the common threads running through research into school choice is parents’ fear of the consequences for their children if they have to enrol with less able, at risk or sometimes just different fellow students in the local government school.
The schools that the middle class leave behind have a higher concentration of the most disadvantaged students, with an obvious impact on the academic profile of the school – and their position on any league table. Apart from the shameful impact on our most disadvantaged students this trend has significant implications for communities and social cohesion. It also makes harder the job of lifting the achievement of low-achieving students. Increasingly there is no one at school who can show the strugglers how it is done.
Those opposed to the publication of league tables believe that the greater availability of what amounts to social rankings of schools will worsen this situation. The extent to which this happens partly relates to the affordability of private schools. A review of private school funding might well lead to a redistribution of resources (federal government protestations notwithstanding) from high-fee to low-fee private schools. Even if they get only some of the $2.6 billion windfall they will be able to reach into yet another layer of the middle class.
The impact of league table rankings will also depend on how far the current moves to make public schools more autonomous proceed. Stephen Lamb’s study clearly shows that giving local schools greater discretion over enrolments accelerates the shift of students into schools in higher SES areas. Moves in Western Australia to create a class of “independent” public schools will certainly achieve the same result. Even in relatively centralised systems there aren’t too many rules capable of standing between a school principal and a “desirable” student enrolment.
The signs are that the school divide is about to get much worse. •
Chris Bonnor, former school principal, is co-author (with Jane Caro) of The Stupid Country – How Australia is Dismantling Public Education (UNSW Press, 2007) | <urn:uuid:45e9e26a-5654-4dd3-aa46-9cbba0a9d564> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inside.org.au/one-league-away-from-disaster/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966761 | 3,642 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Autistic Teen Runs Through Traffic, Gets TASERed
If you are believe some of the internet rhetoric you might not think that autism is a serious disorder. People, particularly parents, who try to inform you otherwise are often shouted down by the internet crowd that wants to take ownership of autism and pretend that it is simply another variation of the human condition, not a disorder. But reality delivers some rude jolts to this internet based ideology. One such jolt occurred recently when a 15 year autistic boy ran away from an Orange Co. California social services centre and ended up running through traffic until he was TASERed by police and returned to his family. Fortunately the young man is reported to be in good condition. | <urn:uuid:ced72fed-6a34-489c-a8f5-b5fe4c46d14b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://autisminnb.blogspot.com/2007/09/autistic-teen-runs-through-traffic-gets.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973417 | 153 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A traffic light or speed bump is seriously needed at the intersection of 60th Road and 60th Street in Maspeth. Crossing there is dangerous.
Cars fly on 60th Street because there is no traffic light from 59th Drive to Metropolitan Avenue. They want to beat the lights.
There is a stop sign at 60th Street and 62nd Avenue, but few drivers stop for that too if the light is green at Metropolitan Avenue a block away.
There is a stop sign when you come down 60th Road at 60th Street but drivers turn or keep going straight down 60th Road even though they see a car coming up 60th Street and that's when they crash.
There have been numerous accidents at this intersection over the years. The last accident a few months ago required the jaws of life to extract the driver of one of the vehicles involved. The impact of the crash was so great the force pushed the front seat to the back seat.
I live on 60th Road and I have to tell my daughter when we walk down to the corner to stay away from the curb because I am afraid of a crash because cars jump the curb in the crashes I have seen at this intersection.
One of my neighbors who has lived here for 44 years told me that every civic association in those years has tried to get a traffic light here an ailed.
Assemblywoman Margaret Markey contacted the Department of Transportation (DOT) last summer on behalf of The Maspeth West Block Association to do a trafffic study at this intersection.
I spoke to DOT and they said the traffic study was done last August, but less than 500 or more cars passed by that intersection in one hour. They said we cannot have another traffic study study done for 18 months after that one.
So sometime in 2011 we can have another one.
I am not surprised that there wasn't much traffic in August because the schools are closed then and people take vacations in that month.
I would be happy even if we could get a speed bump there to slow down these drivers.
I hope there is never a major traffic accident at this intersection where someone dies.
Charlene L. Stubbs | <urn:uuid:532d0806-7960-4d88-afe5-5db8369613a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensledger.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Maspeth-s+dangerous+intersection%20&id=7838628&instance=lead_story_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973162 | 444 | 1.773438 | 2 |
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Here, There, Everywhere!
Are you having trouble getting to your after school activity? No, yes, maybe? Well if you are, then maybe you should cut down on too many after school activities. Making your parents drive back and forth is tiring for you and your parents. Some after school activities are good, but not too many. This website will tell you reasons to cut some down.
12 & under
Health & Safety > Fitness & Exercise
Sports & Recreation | <urn:uuid:84a23480-dc05-480e-bb33-0fc8a9641729> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/f?p=52300:100:3254985378302342::::P100_TEAM_ID:501579709 | 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 | 0.933776 | 126 | 1.523438 | 2 |
We all know that life happens. It can happen in small ways, like locking your keys in your car, or life can happen in bigger ways, like a fender bender on your way to work. While it's true that you can't always prepare for the unpredictable turns life can take, in some cases, you actually can. That's why you buy life insurance; it provides protection for your family in case the worst were to happen to you.
The conversation about life insurance can be a difficult one to have, but it's essential. In the event of your death, your family's life will change radically, and having a life insurance policy in place can help ease their fears and stress, if not their grief. By preparing now, you'll be leaving a legacy that protects their future.
A study by the LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping consumers make smart insurance decisions, indicates that nearly a third of all consumers believe they need more life insurance, including 20 percent of current policyholders and about half of those who do not have any coverage. The study also found that 28 percent of couples wish their spouse or partner had more life insurance.
For many consumers, however, the prospect of buying a life insurance policy can be an intimidating one, simply because they often don't know where to start. According to the LIFE Foundation, the first step is assessing your need.
If you are unsure of how to get started, follow these three steps:
1. Find a figure. Using an online life insurance calculator (which can be found at www.lifehappens.org/howmuch) can help you get an initial idea of how much life insurance you need. The figure should take into account financial needs immediately following a death, as well as the amount needed to sustain your household in the future. Keep in mind that it's not just breadwinners who should consider policies. Work done by stay-at-home parents can be extremely costly when compared with hired professionals, and a life insurance policy can cover those costs.
2. Determine what kind of insurance you need (www.lifehappens.org/whatkind). Term and permanent life insurance are the two major choices. Term insurance provides protection for a specific period of time, with 20 years being the most common term length. Permanent insurance provides lifelong protection, and will remain in force for as long as you continue to pay your premiums. Permanent policies also have the ability to accumulate cash value on a tax-deferred basis.
3. Get professional help. Buying life insurance can be confusing, but there are plenty of professionals who can help guide you through the terminology and technical details. There are many resources available on the Web to help you learn more about the process, but you can also meet with a professional agent to get personalized assistance. If you are looking for an agent or advisor, you can start with the agent locator at www.lifehappens.org/agent-locator.
Once you have a policy, it's also important to keep it updated, as life changes can alter the amount of coverage you need.
Making the effort to research and buy life insurance today will ensure that your family is cared for after you're gone and well into the future. For additional information, visit www.lifehappens.org. | <urn:uuid:0634fe87-74ee-40b6-8321-f8c81ac0dbf4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fox23news.com/ara/moneyandfinance/story/Three-steps-to-assessing-your-life-insurance-to/2LN2uIrPHEiXyPfwJVRv6g.cspx | 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 | 0.964195 | 679 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The Grade 7 and 8 students of St. Dominic Catholic School, who helped make the Bronte Veterans Garden a reality, will be recognized at Queen’s Park today (Friday) with the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement.
The garden, located in Donovan Bailey Park on Bronte Road, was created after St. Dominic students went to the Town of Oakville saying more was needed to honour Canadian soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
Students staffed information booths and raised funds with the help of sponsors including MEDIchair, Richard Brock of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 486, Bronte, to bring their idea to life.
The garden opened in 2011 and features several plaques, placed in front of newly planted trees, which commemorate the lives of several Canadian soldiers.
One plaque remembers Col. Geoff Parker of Oakville who was killed while serving in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 18, 2010 when a suicide car bomber attacked the International Security Assistance Force convoy in which he was travelling.
News that they would be receiving an award for their work on the garden was well received by the students involved.
“When we heard we were receiving this award we were pretty proud of ourselves,” said Tessa D’Attoma, 14, who noted the fundraising efforts included movie nights and popcorn days.
“It’s great to get an award for doing something that was so fun.”
The work of the St. Dominic students to honour Canada’s veterans did not begin with the garden, but some years earlier when the students sent a letter and poster of tribute to the family of Cpl. Robert James Mitchell who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006.
Mitchell’s mother, Carol, wrote back and would later visit the school on multiple occasions thanking the students for remembering her son.
Amazed by the impact of their small gesture and driven by their teacher, John MacPhail, the students would send letters and posters to the families of other soldiers killed in Afghanistan and would eventually work to create the Bronte Veterans Garden.
“All of this has really been life changing. What we have done is so little, but it really makes a change for some people,” said Faith Gruber, 12.
“A lot of the families we have done posters for have replied to us saying they were always afraid that after a couple of years nobody would remember their sons or daughters or parents. I think this (garden) really honours them.”
Canada’s Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay visited the Bronte Veterans Garden last June and praised St. Dominic students — calling what they had done “an expression of love for soldiers, for their families, (and) for their country.”
MacPhail also congratulated his students for the creation of the garden and for earning the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement.
“I’m just proud they were recognized,” said MacPhail.
“It’s just fabulous that our community supported our young people. It certainly goes to show how dedicated Oakville is to supporting even its youngest citizens to become productive members of society and how if you have a good idea, not only will your school community support you, but your municipal government will take your idea seriously and see how they can make it a reality.”
The Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Awards are part of the Province’s Heritage Week celebrations. | <urn:uuid:978afa05-6176-40c5-b905-897f06fd5439> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/2890778-st-dominic-students-honoured-today-for-veterans-garden-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978746 | 731 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Public Access is an art project produced by David Horvitz in late December 2010 and early January 2011. For roughly two weeks, he drove along California's coast from the Mexican border up through the Oregon border. Along the way, he stopped and took pictures of himself looking out at the beach and other scenic vantage points, his stance recalling the iconic romantic painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich from 1818 and Bas Jan Ader's 1971 Farewell to Faraway Friends. He then uploaded these photographs to the Wikipedia entries for these locations, adding new images or replacing existent images. This action produced a flurry of discussion amongst the Wikipedia community, as its members tried to figure out his identity and the purpose of the photos. Many of the original photos were cropped or deleted entirely. This post assembles documentation from Public Access. Graphic designer Eric Nylund has created a PDF publication for the project, which includes a text written by Ed Steck. This text and many of the photos taken for Public Access are now on view in the exhibit "As Yet Untitled: Artists and Writers in Collaboration" at SF Camerawork in San Francisco.
Founded by curator Michael Connor in 2009, Marian Spore was a limited-duration art space that closed on December 18, 2010. Rather than organizing group or solo shows per se, the gallery was a perpetual work in progress; Connor added pieces irregularly, leaving them on display so that repeat visitors would find an accumulation of works. Connor has put the acquisitions into storage and will continue looking for buyers, considering the works on loan until they find a permanent home. Situated in a 16,000 ft loft on the fourth floor of a building in the gargantuan Sunset Park industrial complex Industry City and named after an artist who believed she was in communication with spirits of dead artists (and who was the third wife of Industry City’s founder), I visited Marian Spore for the first time only a week before the closing. Connor looked surprised when I referred to the “current exhibition” of all thirteen works he had gathered over the past months; after all, as the collection grew, each object had been on view continuously.
In 1993 Howard Rheingold wrote a remarkable book called The Virtual Community. In this book he gives what might best be called a personal account of the expanding culture of people communicating via computer networks. I asked him some questions about the relationship between virtual and traditional communities, most appropriately, via e-mail.
Howard Rheingold has been publishing books and articles on computer culture for many years. He is the multimedia columnist for Publish magazine and editor of Whole Earth Review. He has also been a consultant to the US office of Technology Assessment, and recently he took charge of Planet Wired a network project that will document the digital revolution with local examples, made accessible via the Net to a world-wide audience.
More than merely informative, his book The Virtual Community is above all a highly personal account of the way in which people are using computer networks as communication devices, or rather how they are engaging in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), the term Rheingold prefers. Rheingold maintains that Computer Mediated Communication creates a new sense of community; people from around the world are linked together in public discussions, people who exchange ideas and messages, share interests and work together, outside of the constraints of geographical space and across social barriers.
In his book he provides us with a somewhat formal definition of virtual communities, which he describes as “social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace”. Rheingold has himself been actively involved in one of the early network communities in the US, The Well, based in San Francisco.
Using networking technologies within the context of traditional geographic communities produces Community Networks. I began by asking Rheingold to explain ...
Ultra-red is an activist art group founded in 1994. The group proposes an alternate model for art and activism, one in which it is not the artist's critical intervention that serves as the source of cultural action, but rather that art might contribute to and challenge the process of collective organization and relationship building itself.
high-definition digital video; 1 minute 41 seconds; ed. of 3 + AP; courtesy the artist
Brooding, solitary and usually male, the trope of “the artist in the studio” has existed in multiple iterations throughout the history of art. From Rembrandt’s workshop to the twentieth-century Parisian studios of Picasso, Braque and others, to Warhol’s Factory, the studio contains within it an evolving narrative, albeit one that remains focused on a specific physical site of artistic production. In a particularly damning critique of this romantic construct, Daniel Buren posited in a 1971 essay, “The Function of the Studio,” that the studio has a “simultaneously idealizing and ossifying function,”1 a state of “purgatory” that grants artists limited agency in the production and dissemination of their own work and culture at large. Buren’s essay is a concise example of the postmodern conception of “post-studio” practice—a practice cultivated by the likes of Robert Smithson, who came to reject the confines of the physical studio as a site of production in favor of the unconfined natural landscape, or by John Baldessari’s infamous “Post-Studio Art” class at CalArts, in which students were encouraged to “stop daubing away at canvases or chipping away at stone”2 and embrace a wider framework for art production. The influence of these artists is clearly evident in a range of contemporary artistic practices that continue to question traditional modes of production and dissemination.
The legacy of “post-studio” art is amplified for artists working with digital forms and online environments. Generally these types of practices are less an overt negation of the “ossifying” element of the studio and more a reflection of how the digital has changed cultural production at large. What happens when the studio in question is simply a laptop in ...
What do you mean by ‘crisis of the unit of measure’?
It is as if the metre, the standard set to measure cognitive and affective experience, no longer works. We see the same crisis in the fields of politics and history: social prosperity is no longer produced by labour time, but by knowledge, by a general knowing, by ‘general intellect’, and as a result social prosperity and labour time are no longer directly connected. The new standard to measure prosperity is within the domain of intelligence, language and collaboration. The problem is that social prosperity is still measured by the old standard of labour time, while realities have changed and it is actually determined by ’general intellect’. We can see the same thing happening in 20th-century art. It demonstrates the inadequacy of the old standards and suggests, in the formal sphere and through the formal work of poetry, new standards for the appraisal of our cognitive and affective experience. This is a point that brought the artistic avant-garde close to the radical social movement and in this sense there is a kind of brotherhood between the two: they would like to explain that the old standards are no longer valid and to look for what might be new standards. Another way to put the problem is: how can you locate a new public sphere, which has nothing to do with the state? Avant-garde art proved the impotence, the inadequacy, the disproportion of the old standards through a formal investigation. The common ground of art and social movements is never about content. Art that relates to social resistance is beside the point, or rather art expressing views on social resistance is not relevant. The radical movement and avant-garde poetry touch on the formal investigation that yields an index of new forms ...
Humor, fun and nonsense often figure greatly in the current modes of communication on the web, whereby memes and sardonic blog comments are commonplace -- if not expected. Such trappings have found their way into media art practices from Cory Arcangel’s cover of Arnold Schoenberg’s op.11 Drie Klavierstucke using cat videos on YouTube to F.A.T. Lab’s Kanye West Interrupt bookmarklet. The question that these works and others like it raises is this: does humor appear to be a synergistic outgrowth of technology (and how does it relate to its development)?
In the latest exhibition "Fun with Software" at Bristol’s Arnolfini, curator Olga Goriunova seeks to document and explore how humorous approaches to software lead to innovation. Working with early net and media artists from JODI to Graham Harwood, the exhibition is a retrospective of peculiar approaches to computation. I sat down with Goriunova to talk about the show’s premise and how that premise contextualizes and contrasts the current era of humor and technology.
The latest edition of Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival has jumped across the Northwest UK from Liverpool, where it debuted last year to Manchester. In its second major urban manifestation, after a small rural retreat in the Peak District, the festival followed its previous format and presented exhibitions, performances, cinema screening, talks and workshops across cultural venues in the city. Seeking to agitate, AND’s theme of questioning normality in various forms was represented in Manchester with a focus on identity.
Is it still necessary to define art by intent and context? The gallery world would have us believe this to be the case, but the internet tells a more mutable story. Contrary to the long held belief that art needs intent and context, I suggest that if we look outside of galleries, we’ll find the actions, events and people that create contemporary art with or without the art world’s label.
Over the past 20 years, the theory Relational Aesthetics (referred to in this essay as RA) has interpreted social exchanges as an art form. Founding theoretician Nicholas Bourriaud describes this development as “a set of artistic practices that take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context”. In reality, art erroneously known to typify RA’s theorization hasn’t strayed far from the model of the 1960’s Happening, an event beholden to the conventions of the gallery and the direction of its individual creator. In her essay Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, Claire Bishop describes Rikrit Tiravanija’s dinners as events circumscribed in advance, using their location as a crutch to differentiate the otherwise ordinary action of eating a meal as art. A better example of the theory of RA succinctly put into action can be seen in anonymous group activities on the internet, where people form relations and meaning without hierarchy.
Started in 2003, 4Chan.org is one such site, and host to 50 image posting message boards, (though one board in particular, simply titled ‘/b/’, is responsible for originating many of the memes we use to burn our free time.) The site’s 700,000 daily users post and comment in complete anonymity; a bathroom-stall culture generating posts that alternate between comedic brilliance, virulent hate ...
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Getting Brainy With Baby
Of all the places you think about taking your baby, a museum probably isn't one of them. The long, echoing hallways and rooms full of breakable items don't exactly mesh with your little bundle of joy, right? If you're itching to feed your brain and live like a sophisticated human being once again, try one of our top picks for baby-friendly museums.
Immerse yourself and your family in the world of science at this museum. It's clearly family-friendly — strollers are welcome everywhere, all bathrooms are equipped with changing stations and they openly advertise the fact that women are free to breastfeed throughout the museum (although if you prefer privacy, just ask and they'll get you a quiet spot). Stop by the Preschool Place with your baby. It's a soft place where she can play, roll and look at lots of bright colors and textures. The museum also has story times, sing-alongs and other activities through the week.
Check out each museum's photograph policy. You'll want to document your baby's first time at a museum, but some museums won't allow photography.
Not only does the Art Institute of Chicago allow strollers throughout the building, but it lends them out, free of charge. If you don't feel like lugging yours around, there are some available for use at multiple entrances. While most of the museum enforces the "no touch" rule you'll find at most museums, the Touch Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago lets your baby put her hands on paintings, sculptures and statues. If you're looking for a place to rest your feet while you nurse your baby, try the nursing area in the women's restroom on the lower level.
The Carnegie Museum of Art has lots of programs for school-aged kids, but it's pretty accommodating to babies, too. Strollers are available free of charge, and there are story times filled with nursery rhymes that children of any age will love. A full-service cafe gets your food to you fast — a big bonus to any mama with a squirmy baby — and the Brown Bag Lunchroom has a public microwave that's a lifesaver for moms with bottle-fed babies.
If you have a smaller stroller (think umbrella-style), you're free to push it around the Metropolitan Museum of Art with no problem. If you have a full-size or jogging stroller, they'll ask you to check it, but they'll let you use a carrier free of charge. If you need to sit awhile, or if the baby gets a little restless, there's an on-site library filled with almost 500 children's books. They may ask you to check large bags, so keep your diaper bag to a minimum if you want it with you while you're here.
Fun with baby
Need more great ideas for spending quality time with your baby? Check out Baby's Day Out City Guide — you'll discover all the top baby-friendly destinations and how to enjoy them with your little one. | <urn:uuid:926f15e7-ee7f-4de6-a166-19865068ad4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sheknows.com/videos/articles/970275/top-baby-friendly-museums | 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 | 0.955184 | 622 | 1.664063 | 2 |
PORT NECHES, Texas — David Arceneaux said he felt a chill as he looked across Block Bayou at a line of trees about 100 yards away.
“I’m not crazy. I don’t do drugs and I’m not a drinker,” Arceneaux said before telling his tale of seeing not one but two Bigfoot-like creatures huddled together one December morning.
The Nederland, Texas, native visits Oak Bluff Cemetery about once a month to clean the graves of a friend and a cousin, something he has done for years without incident. But on an overcast, windless day, Arceneaux said he got the fright of his life.
“I heard a blood-curdling scream and a lady nearby asked me if I was OK. I told her it wasn’t me,” Arceneaux said. “We walked over to the water and looked to the left then straight ahead.”
He said what he saw next amazed him. Two Bigfoot-like creatures who had been throwing rocks in the water looked across at him and the unknown female. One was standing next to a tree, arms around the trunk and the other was squatted down. As the second creature rose from the crouching position Arceneaux estimated the creature was about eight-foot tall. So he snapped a photo with his phone, he said.
“All of a sudden they started walking then running through the woods,” he said of the bipedal creatures. “When they began to run, the lady said ‘I’m leaving’ and left. I stayed a few more seconds and then thought there may be a way for them to cross here so I left, scared.”
Arceneaux said he could see the face of the creature “clear as day.” There was hair from the mouth down like a man and when the creature turned he could see hair hanging down its arm.
Disturbed by what he saw, Arceneaux said he went home and watched an episode of “Finding Bigfoot” but had to change the channel when they played an audio recording of Bigfoot — it was too real.
“This is my first time back here since December,” he said.
Arceneaux said he spoke to a game warden, describing the situation, and was told there had been other sightings along the Neches River. Calls placed to a local game warden was not returned by Tuesday afternoon.
There are a number of organizations throughout Texas that researches and documents Bigfoot sightings, such as Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy and Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization. These groups strive to find evidence to scientifically prove the existence of the creature.
Arceneaux said he did not come forward with his story sooner because he worried about what others would think of him. He has shown this photographic evidence — which was taken at a far distance with a cell phone — to friends and family and only had one person scoff. He will continue to research Bigfoot, he said, but remains wary of returning to the spot where the encounter occurred. | <urn:uuid:afbdcb7d-0b41-4150-ae04-1cda4802d234> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mankatofreepress.com/community-news-network/x503857054/Man-claims-he-saw-Bigfoot-on-Texas-river | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984468 | 649 | 1.75 | 2 |
Astrology of the Kent State Massacre May 4, 1970
If you’re familiar with the language of Astrology, and perhaps even if you’re not, you may wish to view the Horoscope of the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970 with today being its 40th anniversary.
As you know, in mundane charts an angular planet is a prime suspect in cases of death but at 12:34 pm on May 4, 1970, Kent Ohio, there isn’t one angular planet (Moon/Mc), there are two…Jupiter Rx in Libra at Ic, opposing Moon in early Taurus.
All discussion on governmental abuse of power, Richard Nixon (its poster child), Kent State, the chart itself, and other related topics will be warmly welcomed if you can manage to navigate Blogger’s commenting requirements and proffer your insights concerning the above-linked post.
(If you’re not signed up with Blogger already, you can ‘pretend’ sign up as if you’re starting a blog but not actually create one. Then you can say, suckas!)
We may as well face it for it’s just as true in 2010 as it was in 1970: Speakin’ Power to the Man can be dangerous for your health. And the crazy-makin’ part is that dissenting is one of the most “American” actions anyone can ever take, thanks to our country’s founding when freedom-loving Uranus was traversing thoughtful, communicative Gemini.
To me it seems the anti-war protests of the 1960s and 70s in the US held a Venusian values competition to prove who deserved to be ‘right’ – student protesters taking the higher ground of moral values now lost, or the establishment fighting to maintain its power structures and the status quo where it led and the masses meekly followed.
Add to that a backdrop of the titanic Pluto-to-natal-Neptune power struggle underway then for America and you have a combustible brew of dynamic energies too hot to readily handle.
The Kent State Massacre is the kind of old and still-open wound that youth-worshiping America prefers to look away from in horror as we rush to retreat into our national Sagittarian nature (ASC in the Sibly chart) which chants the Jupiter Mantra each day and imagines there’s always a new quest to seek and fulfill…just over the next horizon.
Only in this case, the ‘next horizon’ was merely a campus hilltop in Ohio where a cadre of National Guardsmen took aim and fired their weapons at unarmed students by authority passed through a chain of command that extended like a monster’s tentacle into the highest office of the nation.
And they called him Tricky Dick for good reason. | <urn:uuid:a287462d-e7ad-4be2-aec1-61449dcf6b24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judecowell.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/astrology-of-the-kent-state-massacre-may-4-1970/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934776 | 592 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Iraq's Debt Three Years Later
Three years ago, a study of low and declining prices on Iraq's debt by Michael Greenstone of MIT helped paint a bleak picture of the effectiveness of the surge, as, for example, in this November 2007 New York Times op-ed by Austan Goolsbee "In the Bond Market, a Bleak Prognosis for Iraq." But as reported in this week's Boston Globe piece "Gambling on Iraq’s Slow Rise from Ruin," a re-examination of Iraq's debt now leads Greenstone to change his view. Greenstone now says "The market’s assessment is that the prospects for a functioning Iraqi state in the future have improved dramatically.’’ The good news in this recent story is tempered a bit, at least for Californians, by the comparable assessment Iraq's debt and California's debt.
Posted by John B. Taylor at 7:45 AM | <urn:uuid:7e2dcde4-ba76-4e97-9a12-428a6f27b718> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnbtaylorsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/iraqs-debt-three-years-later.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951225 | 196 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.); Students; Desks; Women's clothing; Photography of interiors
Agnes H. Taylor, a Pomona College student, sits at a roll-top desk. A map of California is on the wall. A time table of the Southern Pacific railroad rests in a trash bin. The calendar suggests that this photo was taken in May 1902.
Los Angeles (Calif.); Clubs; Parks; Children; Lawns
Members of the Lebanon Club [a Southern California based club made up of former residents of Lebanon, New Hampshire] sit on a lawn in a park. Mrs. Boynton is sitting on the front row, third from the left. Her husband Cyrus Boynton is kneeling on...
Santa Monica (Calif.); University of Southern California; College sports; Track and field athletes; Hammer throwing; Athletic fields; Grandstands
A track and field athlete releases a hammer during a hammer throw event at a USC field day held in Santa Monica. A crowd sits in the bleachers in the background and a man [possibly a judge or a photographer] is crouched on the field. | <urn:uuid:9067870c-e3cb-461a-b16a-f26e5e4edb16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/search/collection/bce/searchterm/Southern | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933361 | 233 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Stocks rise following expansion in manufacturing
U.S. stocks mostly rose on Monday as growth in manufacturing provided more evidence that the economy may be picking up, or at least not getting any worse.
The gains came after news that U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the first time in four months.
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, also said its gauge of manufacturing employment rose following a decline in August. That's a hopeful sign that the government's monthly employment report, due out Friday, could come in better than analysts have been expecting.
Also Monday, the government said U.S. builders spent more on home construction in August, the latest positive sign for the housing market.
Investors are looking for signs that there will be more workers with money to spend, said Jerry Webman, chief economist for OppenheimerFunds Inc. That can create a "virtuous cycle" that generates its own fuel for a recovery.
"If you're going to manufacture more you're going to employ more people, and if you employ more people you're going to pay them money, and they're going to buy some stuff," helping the economy, Webman said.
It was still a choppy day on Wall Street. The manufacturing report came out half an hour after trading began, and sent stocks sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrial average rose as much as 161 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose as much as 1.1 percent.
But market indexes gave up most of their gains in the afternoon. The decline started after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed needs to keep interest rates low because the economy isn't growing fast enough to reduce high unemployment. Bernanke made the remarks in a speech to the Economic Club of Indiana.
It wasn't clear whether investors were reacting directly to Bernanke's remarks or just taking profits from a morning in which stocks showed their strongest gains in two weeks. Monday was only the third day since Sept. 17 that the S&P 500 has risen.
The S&P closed 0.3 percent higher, rising 3.82 points to 1,444.49. The Dow rose 77.98 points to close at 13,515.11. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.70 points to close at 3,113.53.
Goldman Sachs jumped $3.18, or 2.8 percent, to $116.86 after Barron's wrote that investors are too pessimistic on the investment bank's prospects.
Other financial stocks rose, too. Bank of America rose 13 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $8.96, and JPMorgan Chase rose 49 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $40.97.
Monday was the first day of trading of the fourth quarter, and the early gains were a welcome change from the way the last quarter ended. U.S. indices fell on Friday for the fifth day out of six.
Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, said investors believe that the news about the economy has stopped getting worse. Besides the U.S. manufacturing news on Monday, she noted that recent data from China suggests that manufacturing has improved there as well.
"The numbers were still weak, but they were not as bad as before," Krosby said. "So that was a positive backdrop for the market."
Wendy's Co. fell 28 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $4.25 after a Janney Capital Markets analyst lowered his rating on the stock, saying he is seeing signs that the hamburger chain's revenue won't be as strong as expected.
Markets around Europe rose. Results last Friday of an audit of 14 Spanish banks showed the lenders need $77.6 billion in capital. That was roughly what was expected, and well within the amount Madrid can get from fellow European countries.
A slight improvement in a survey of manufacturing in the 17 countries that use the euro also helped.
However, credit rating agency Moody's might downgrade Spain's debt to junk status this week. That's likely to limit enthusiasm in Europe until the Moody's decision is known.
Germany's DAX stock index rose 1.5 percent, France's CAC-40 was up 2.4 percent, and Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.4 percent. Spain's Ibex was up 1 percent.
The euro slightly to $1.2886 from $1.2855 late Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged from late Friday at 1.63 percent. | <urn:uuid:3dbb4825-519d-413f-a2a4-7cb5e5842928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/10/stocks_rise_following_expansio.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 | 0.975144 | 941 | 1.5625 | 2 |
As the regional chamber of commerce and economic development organization, the Vail Valley Partnership encourages our members to buy local, which is an easy way to support the local community. With over 770 local member businesses, you can find a partner for all of your business needs through our business directory at VailValleyPartnership.com.Why support local business? Local businesses, many of which are VVP members, have established a community connection, which helps our community establish a vital economy and provides jobs to our residents. A quick Google search of "economic benefits of shopping local" shows 3,750,000 results; there are likely close to 3 million reasons that can be found to shop locally. US News & World Report recently reported on "how consumers and communities can benefit from buying local." Their report used a case study done by consultants Civic Economics, in 2004, which conducted the Andersonville Study of Retail Economics (a fact-finding mission commissioned by Chicago's Andersonville Chamber of Commerce and the Andersonville Development Corp.)The study examined the economic impact of 10 local businesses in the Andersonville commercial district against that of chain businesses in the area. The study's findings: Of every $100 spent at local businesses, $68 remains in the Chicago economy, while of every $100 spent at a chain, $43 remains in the Chicago economy. For every square foot occupied by a local firm, the local economic impact is $179. For every square foot occupied by a chain firm, local economic impact is $105.The Anderson Study also showed that nonprofit organizations receive greater support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses. Given the vast number of non-profit organizations doing great things in our community, this becomes even more important in an area such as the Vail Valley. Another case study of interest, the AIBA Economic Impact case study from December 2002, shows that businesses owned by people who live in the community are less likely to leave and are more invested in the community's future. Again, this makes intuitive sense - and helps create a stable economy.Similar case studies can be found without digging too deeply; and it all makes sense intuitively as well. Shopping local Vail Valley businesses helps benefit our community in ways that Internet shopping or trips outside the valley don't. Re-circulation of money, jobs, community character, increased levels of customer service (most of the time). These all contribute to a sense of community and enhanced economic vitality for our valley.It's important to note that shopping local and supporting local business is more than just a retail shopping standpoint. Our community is filled with local business-to-business service providers and professional service firms; the above benefits exist for these businesses as well. "Creative Industries," an industry segment outlined by the state of Colorado, is among our top job creators and includes graphic design, consulting firms, architects, advertising and public relations firms and more. These business, as much as retail storefronts, deserve high consideration for local businesses when discussing "shopping local."To help support our local small businesses, the Partnership is happy to launch our own "shop local" program. Our shop local program includes enhanced business listings on VailValleyPartnership.com and VisitVailValley.com and the ability to participate in our Trippons.com mobile coupon program, including additional exposure to destination guests via our email confirmations and websites. The Partnership will also be promoting local businesses on an ongoing basis via our media partners. Each and every effort we do to promote the "shop local" message is designed to support the Vail Valley's small business community.From retail to professional services to industry meetings or business retreats, we encourage you to visit our shop local business directory and local business deals on VailValleyPartnership.com to learn more about local businesses offering discounts and special offers available to the local community. We'll have a year-round presence in our local media outlets, helping promote the "shop local" message and promoting our business members.Amazon.com or businesses in Denver just can't benefit our community the way local businesses can. Modest changes in consumer spending habits can generate substantial local economic impact.How can your business participate? If you want to spotlight your business in our "shop local" campaign and other promotional channels, join the Vail Valley Partnership. Membership starts at $1 per day. Visit www.vailvalleypartnership.com to learn more. Chris Romer is executive director of the Vail Valley Partnership. | <urn:uuid:1e3dc620-a998-4f83-871e-8ecbe0e47ec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20130221/BIZ/130229980 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945165 | 918 | 1.570313 | 2 |
But while the conventional wisdom is that Republicans drew the ire of women voters by wanting to hand their medical decisions over to their employers and by pursuing mandatory state sponsored rape laws, polling suggests that the gender gap is about much more than abortion. A CNN/ORC poll last week showed the favorability of the health care law jumping by 10 points among women since November, from 37% to 47% (with 43% of women opposed). Men oppose it by a large margin. The two are more than likely intertwined. I have little doubt that health care is was brought front and center to women by the Republican war on women's reproductive health care.
But it's not just the marginal favorability of President Obama's health reform law that is at issue here. Women are not simply more in favor of health care, more of them say health care is the top influencer of their vote for President.
Among women voters in swing states, healthcare was the top issue respondents said would influence their vote for president, followed by gas prices and unemployment. Among men, the top issue was the deficit and national debt. Healthcare ranked third, and unemployment ranked fifth.Translation: Women are not just turning in favor of ObamaCare, they are making it more and more the defining issue.
Mitt Romney has responded to the widening gender gap between President Obama and himself by saying this:
"We have work to do, to make sure we take our message to the women of America, so they understand how we're going to get good jobs and we're going to have a bright economic future for them and for their kids. And make sure that these distortions that the Democrats throw in are clarified and the truth is heard," Romney said, according to Politico.Yes, because who can you trust more to create jobs than the vulture capitalist whose firm picked out financially stressed companies, replaced their assets with debts, took the cash for themselves, and left families and individuals destitute? Who can you trust to care about the future of your kids if you can't trust the guy with a $100 million trust fund for his own kids?
And what is that about "distortions" the Democrats are throwing in? These "distortions" wouldn't happen to be crap that came out of your own mouth, would it, gubnah? You know, stuff like:
- Mitt Romney's vow to repeal ObamaCare, and thus the ban on insurance companies to be able to discriminate against women.
- Mitt Romney's support for putting your health care decision squarely in the hands of... your boss.
- Mitt Romney's pledge to end Planned Parenthood, an institution that serves as the primary family planning organization in the country and the only way to access health care for millions of women. By the way, this is what President Obama had to say about that:
- Mitt Romney's "absolute" support for a 'personhood' amendment, which would not only ban abortions but also forms of birth control.
- Romney's loving embrace of the Ryan budget, which slashes Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by a full third, and turns Medicaid into a block grant program that would result in 38 million more poor people, single mothers, and children without health care relative to current law. Who woulda thunk women wouldn't particularly like the health care lifeline for single mothers and poor children cut off.
The GOP war on women didn't start this year. But its front burner status has highlighted for women their true nature. The Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and SCHIP figures just as largely as their frontal attacks on women's health care decisions, but now with the open support of state sponsored rape and the attack on contraceptives, Republicans have provide women with a big picture narrative within which the rest of the policy attacks fit in perfectly.
The gender gap is the healthcare gap. Republicans aren't losing women because Democrats are distorting their record; they are losing women because of their record. And Mitt Romney is losing women by big margins to the President because he has willingly and openly embraced his party's radical views on women's health care. | <urn:uuid:196ca0f1-defd-4a53-aeb9-2136e6fcab15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/04/gender-gap-you-can-also-call-it.html?m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97899 | 835 | 1.679688 | 2 |
By: Connie Blaszczyk, Managing Editor, Resource Center
Given the depth and magnitude of the current economic recession, it’d be easy to assume that today’s recruiting environment favors the employer. Nothing could be further from the truth, says David Russo, author of 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent (FT Press.)
Russo sees a “perfect storm” brewing between workers and employers, one that has been cultivated by a lack of honesty. The reality is that today’s most talented workers are more independent than ever before and willing to push back when push comes to shove. It’s these workers, and their level of employee loyality, that will impact the future success of companies, particularly as the economy starts to recover.
Monster: In your book, you say that despite the economic downturn, this is an employee market. How can that be?
David Russo: Many people say that idea is ridiculous. Of course, many people who have and who will lose jobs have been negatively affected by the recession. Yet people with tremendous abilities and talents are still in high demand. This group is larger than a cadre. And companies who deny that these folks have lots of choices are fooling themselves.
These choice employees are typically younger than boomers. In fact, they learned from their parents and grandparents that companies are not to be trusted to control their lives, whether it’s financially, socially or psychologically.
Keep in mind -- the skillsets that used to be parsed by industry, market segments and education have blurred. Basic business skills enable people to be entrepreneurial, leaders and/or contributors. Of course, there are anomolies in specialized fields, like mathematics, science and medicine. But, by and large, skill sets are transferrable from one market and industry to another. That means great employees are not trapped or pigeon- holed -- if they’re good, bright and educated -- their skills allow them to move anywhere and everywhere.
The other part of this issue is that companies have decided -- and even announced -- that life-long employment is no longer achievable or desirable. What they say now is that that employees will be prepared for life-long employment. That means we have is the perfect storm for individuals who feel that it’s foolish to be loyal to one organization.
Monster: How do you see this dynamic playing out between employers and employees?
David Russo: I see it in large companies -- politics and organization stratifications wear on a person’s ability to contribute. They find themselves limited to performing in a “restricted space.” When the latitude to be creative or to innovate, even in small and personal ways, is gone, employees often opt for smaller organizations where they can stretch and grow. And to free themselves from the binds of politically chargedinfrastructure, employees will often go into business for themselves.
I also see young contributors with lots to offer pushing back on leadership. They’re willing to say, “What have you done for me lately?” without fear of reprisal. They see push coming to shove, and no promise or prospects for the long term. So employees say, “Why not be prepared for the inevitable with eyes wide open?” Thus, loyalty to an organization is not relegated to business history.
This trend had been in place before the downturn. It started when the Gen X workforce began to mature, and remembered how their parents were treated under re-engineering and re-structuring, and looked around and said, “Is this all there is?”
In my generation as well as with Boomers, the feeling was that company was family. When we got our paychecks we were thankful for the opportunity and the shared loyalty. When today’s younger workers (those who deliver their part of the bargain to employers) get their paycheck, they say, “We’re even.”
Monster: What can employers do to change this dynamic and be more competitive in their hiring practices?
David Russo: Some companies know how to do this -- Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson and the Men’s Warehouse are great examples. These companies offer their employees a work environment that allows them to do exceptional work while acknowledging the company’s dependence on them to succeed.
These companies tell employees that they value them as persons, not just when they deliver the goods. But they’re also clear that they must deliver the goods in order to be recognized.
They show recognition and respect for their people via the behavior of their managers. There’s no pecking order -- the leadership is all qualitative. It gives people an opportunity to have high respect for their leaders -- gained by listening and taking risks. It’s about leadership that delivers as a resource, not as an overseer, and is willing to act as a coalesceing agent to guide and encourage; and to create an environment for motivation.
Behaviors of employees are always somewhat self-centered. But when they want to deliver valuable contributions and help the company advance and compete, then everyone goes forward. AND this enlightened self-interest works for employee and employer alike.
Monster: You talk about creating a “preferred self environment” in the workplace as a means of generating innovation. How can companies that are pushed to the brink of survival find room for innovation?
David Russo: Some people presume that “preferred self” means putting individual behavior above the team. It’s not.
A “preferred self” is simply a person who has all of the shackles of politics and mistrust and self-preservation modes of behavior lifted from their shoulders so their skills can be focused and applied to achieving the outcomes necessary to propel both the project and company forward.
So many organizations fail to see that the noise that surrounds a worker’s ability to perform affects results, not just for the individual, but for the company. This is true for middle managers in particular. The parameters they’re often given are a millstone.
In the book, I say we’re holding middle managers to these tremendous pressures to produce results without allowing them to interact with employees in the ways tuned to generate those results. They’re required to be scorekeepers instead of coaches. Middle managers are the glue in larger companies.
Monster: How can companies, particularly larger companies, improve their employee relations?
David Russo: It’s almost humorous. Nothing we’re talking about is any great shakes. Organizations have to learn to tell the truth. Large companies lie to employees every day. Nothing is more insulting and disrespctful, particularly to smart people.
Remember -- if you start treating employees as if they’re stupid, they’ll start acting stupid. They’ll act against your best interests. “Watch how I can take a 3-week project and make it last 3 months.” “Watch how I can act politically to cover myself -- rather than collaborating with others.” “Treat me like I don’t count – and I promise you, I won’t count.”
The bottom line is that when this recession is over and the economic backsliding is done, great companies will have the majority of great employees, which will allow them to bury their competitors.
David Russo is Principal and CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc, a consulting practice that helps executive teams build high-performing organizations by developing win-win relationships with the workforce. Russo is perhaps best known as the architect of the famously engaged culture that has made SAS Institute the most successful privately held software company in the world. In the 19 years he was the Vice President for HR of SAS, and since, that company’s extraordinary culture attracts accolades from even such places as CBS’ 60 Minutes. Even today, with all of Russo’s original programs and philosophies still very much in place at SAS, this “great place” achieved the coveted Number 1 spot on Fortune’s annual list of Best companies to Work For. | <urn:uuid:7dfc5303-83a3-46cc-925a-a17105897e1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hiring.local-jobs.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/employee-retention-strategies/retaining-employees.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965857 | 1,684 | 1.601563 | 2 |
21. Clinical Course
- Marrow - erythroid hyperplasia without other pathology
- DIAGNOSIS: warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA); he was started on prednisone.
- He was transfused with 4 RBC units on day 2 of admission when his Hct dropped to 14%. Hemolysis continued, requiring 2 to 4 RBC units/d despite steroids. He eventually received Imuran and subsequently vincristine, to which he finally responded.
- Total number of RBC units received was 25.
- During this admission, the patient developed methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infection, successfully treated with levofloxacin and vancomycin.
- Breakpoint #3:
Is there a unifying disease entity for this patient and how can this be established? | <urn:uuid:20354030-67df-42f6-bde8-0011ee7f483d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicine.yale.edu/labmed/education/cme/casestudies/3/21.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948432 | 178 | 1.5 | 2 |
Justice can be define as “The quality of being fair and reasonable”. Now a days the law has so many loopholes, is hard to seek justice for the innocent.
Justice can be swift, When you bring Africa to the equations.
The video you are about to watch is a local armed robber, Whose mission in life is to bring misery and pain to others life.
He was apprend be a group of men in Nigeria, West Africa for stealing. The locals who are frustrated and angry decided to take matters into their own hands.
Since the law is slow on prosecuting criminals, this is what happens when you steal in Africa video below.
While you watch this video think to yourself, what would have happened to the thief if police was called and is this RIGHT?!
Here is the First Video:
Very graphic video: Badly beaten thief being set on fire alive in Tanzania, it appears presence of a policeman saved his life. | <urn:uuid:b3281d6b-ec32-4275-8e45-9b82590a086b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newspitter.com/2011/07/13/thief-burnt-alive-in-africa-graphic-video | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970589 | 195 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The drawback is that some feats, as neat as they are, just aren’t very interesting. Like the lady who made the large yarn ball. Some of the footage shown is of people and places that time forgot, which consist of old hermits who lived on the same out of the way farm all their lives. Looking back at 1930s America that doesn’t seem that hard to believe. But at the time I’m sure folks were wowed by it. The information is presented quickly and at times is a bit hard to digest or get a handle on, making it a bit difficult for those that want to go and actually check Ripley’s facts. An interesting note here is that Ripley did have a fact checker, one of the best and most dedicated in a linguist named Norbert Pearlroth, who had been with Rip since his early newspaper days. So I’m sure most of the facts stand true, believe it or not.
The two-disc DVD is a good look at Ripley and the legacy he created. We see in these 24 short films the beginning of the latter-day television shows, one hosted by Jack Palance is the one I remember most, which continued to bring these odd feats, strange places, and people right to our doorsteps and into our homes. The major drawback to the two-disc set is that there are no special features at all. Not even a five-minute look at the life of Robert L. Ripley, which would have been the best part of the set, giving us a bit more information on the man and what he created. It would have been nice to further explore the T.V. shows that came later, the museums and “odditoriums” he opened and which house many of his finds and art work. If you want to know more you have to search it out which is okay but it seems like a missed opportunity to make this set even better by adding just one more short film on Ripley himself. I say rent this one for its bits of good facts, displays of oddities, and historical significant but overall not really worth the loot, especially with no extras.
Believe It Or Not.
Available to order through Warner Bros. Archive. | <urn:uuid:8f75eb27-88c8-4495-a538-0e82e34a3e2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/video/article/dvd-review-ripleys-believe-it-or/page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983718 | 465 | 1.78125 | 2 |
06-9-04 - (Simi Valley, California-AP) Preparations are under way to take former President Reagan's casket on a cross-country journey. A black Cadillac hearse arrived at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, where the former president's body has been lying in repose. A second hearse was brought in as a spare.
Reagan's family will escort his body from the library to a nearby Navy base for a flight to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. A procession Wednesday evening will carry the body into the Rotunda of the US Capitol building, where it will lie in state until Friday's funeral service.
President Bush is expected to go to the Capitol sometime Thursday evening to view the casket. He and the first lady also plan to call on Nancy Reagan, who'll be staying at the official guest residence near the White House. | <urn:uuid:33893025-177d-4ad9-805a-5a18a9ecb4d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/821242.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958235 | 180 | 1.695313 | 2 |
If you don't know what that means, first go here (scroll down to second half of post), then to see it live and in person, go here.
So you're back? We'll move on.
From Media Matters:
On the February 13 edition of her nationally syndicated radio show, discussing the February 12 Black History Month event at the White House, host Laura Ingraham noted that "[President Bush] welcomed [Rev.] Al Sharpton to the White House," and added: "I hope they nailed down all the valuables." Ingraham then aired an audio clip of a portion of Bush's comments at the event and remarked, referring to Sharpton: "I can't believe they let him through the front door there at Black History Month."
On another Fox radio show, host Tom Sullivan compared speeches by Barack Obama and... Adolf Hitler. Hitler. Barack Obama. He compared these. Then he denied doing so. You can check out the Media Matters stories and see what you think. Looks pretty clear to me.
This is going on. In the United States. Today. | <urn:uuid:7db7b254-65d8-4211-88bc-53003ba68c45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wmtc.ca/2008/02/follow-up-of-sorts-still-waitin-on-that.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959105 | 224 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Southlake Times > News
Students remember classmates following plane crash
This week, the traditional Carroll green is being replaced with a different color.
Students at Carroll Middle School and Carroll Senior High School are wearing maroon in honor of two of their classmates, who, along with two family members, died Saturday in a plane crash in Van Zandt County.
Paul Ledet, 17, was a junior at Carroll Senior High School. His brother, 13-year-old Mason, was an eighth-grader at Carroll Middle School.
They, along with their father, 60-year-old Leonard Ledet, and his brother, 62-year-old Gregory Ledet, were in a Beech A-36 single-engine plane when it crashed.
Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the plane had left Northwest Regional Airport in Roanoke and was headed to Athens. He said it was diverted to Terrell because of bad weather and that the crash happened during the diversion. Knudson said the family’s ultimate destination was Mississippi.
Leonard Ledet was a dentist with an office in Southlake. Gregory Ledet was from Keller.
Students wore maroon to school to show support for the students who were big Texas A&M fans. Julie Thannum, Carroll ISD spokeswoman, said students may wear maroon ribbons the rest of the week as well.
Thannum said staff members and counselors were notified of the incident Sunday to be available for students when they returned to school Tuesday.
“Counselors were available for students who felt the need to talk,” Thannum said. “The grief process is different for everyone.”
Thannum said the district also resumed a normal schedule Tuesday.
“Normalcy is important when handling grief, so we stayed on schedule,” Thannum said.
Thannum said the students and local youth ministers will host a community vigil for the students tonight at Dragon Stadium. She said it will take place about 15 minutes after the conclusion of the Homecoming pep rally, close to 9 p.m.
Thannum also said Carroll Senior High School and Carroll Middle School are putting together a memory book of the students to give to the family.
“It was a tough day,” Thannum said. “This was a huge loss for the Dragon family.”
The Ledet family released the following statement: “The family thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers – particularly the prayers – during this difficult time. They ask that you please respect their privacy as they grieve the loss of their loved ones." | <urn:uuid:660a77db-f5f8-4665-a94f-d8a500c69cfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mesquitenews.com/articles/2012/10/10/southlake_times/news/9600.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983964 | 551 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Overcoming decades of anti-tax sentiment in California, Gov. Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 -- billed as a tax hike to rescue the state's schools -- narrowly won Tuesday.
"I know a lot of people had some doubts and some questions: Can you really go to the people and ask them to vote for a tax?'' Brown told supporters as the measure inched into the "yes" column just after 11 p.m. "Here we are ... We have a vote of the people, I think the only state in the country that says let's raise our taxes, for our kids for our schools, and for our California dream.''
While Proposition 30 was on pace to pass by a slight margin, two other tax measures were more lopsided: Proposition 38, a competing tax-for-schools measure,
With most precincts reporting, results showed the Bay Area, Los Angeles and coastal areas supporting the measure while inland and rural areas were rejecting it.
Brown made Proposition 30 the hallmark of his administration, spending the year trying to convince voters that California schools have reached a breaking point and need taxpayers to come to the rescue. It will raise $6 billion annually for education and the state budget by increasing the sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years and raising income taxes on the wealthy by up to 3 percent for seven years.
"It sold itself," he said at a victory party in Sacramento.
The governor has repeatedly promised that rejecting Proposition 30 would have meant $6 billion in fresh cuts to schools starting Jan. 1 -- threatening to shorten the K-12 school year and raise tuition at public universities again.
Kevin Thompson, a teacher in Union School District in San Jose, who took time off from teaching to campaign for the measure. "The early returns look really good," he said earlier Tuesday night. "I think the message is out, that this is the way we're going to invest in our students and our schools."
Meanwhile, wealthy attorney Molly Munger's Proposition 38, a competing tax-for-schools measure, trailed badly, as expected, despite Munger providing most of the money for the $48 million campaign. Proposition 38 sought to raise $10 billion, mostly for K-12 schools, by raising the income tax on the wealthy and middle class, who bristled at the idea of hiking their own taxes by hundreds of dollars a year.
"Win or lose, Molly Munger put public education back on the front burner, where it belongs, during this election cycle," said Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for Yes on 38.
However, a third tax measure, Proposition 39, passed as expected, closing a loophole that allowed big multistate businesses to pay fewer state taxes. The result could add $1 billion a year in new revenues to the state. Bay Area hedge fund manager Tom Steyer bankrolled nearly the entire $39 million campaign for Proposition 39, which voters approved overwhelmingly.
But deep into the night Tuesday and Wednesday morning, all eyes were on Proposition 30.
Supporters led by teachers, other employee unions, Democratic politicians and even some businesses waged a $40 million campaign. Brown personally campaigned around the state in recent weeks and has staked his political reputation on the measure as his top priority during his current term.
Principal Amy Caroza estimated that Coliseum College Prep Academy in Oakland would have lost $200,000 if Proposition 30 failed and said she didn't know how the school would offset that loss.
Voters have spent the last two decades rejecting one tax hike after another, and many voters either didn't believe Brown that the cuts would happen or thought the state should make due with the money it has. They also continue to be skeptical of state government and think new projects like the $69 billion high-speed rail line are a waste when the state needs more for schools and public safety.
In addition to anti-tax groups and conservatives, Munger briefly launched attack ads on Proposition 30 last month while a group with ties to the Koch brothers donated millions of dollars to defeat the measure.
"We are grateful for all the hard work from thousands of small business owners, taxpayers and many groups from around the state in helping us communicate our 'no on 30' messages to voters," the No on 30 campaign said in a statement.
Staff writer Sandy Kleffman contributed. Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at twitter.com/rosenberg17. | <urn:uuid:3435500f-999f-4af9-8220-d15a9dffb43d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_21948165/prop-30-victorious | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976707 | 904 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The coming Republican budget fight
Just because Republicans have a supermajority in both the Indiana House and Senate, that doesn’t mean there won’t be big fights this session of the General Assembly. There’s a doozy of an intramural slugfest shaping up between GOP Gov. Mike Pence and legislative Republicans over the size and scope of the state budget.
The fight is most obviously about Pence’s intention to live up to his campaign promise by seeking a 10 percent cut in the income tax.
The governor says it will spur the economy and encourage further fiscal responsibility by the state while still leaving a healthy reserve.
Most legislative leaders, including Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, think it’s too risky to go for a cut right now when the state is still trying to deal with tax cuts already made.
Red State is best model
The Associated Press has produced an interesting if flawed comparison of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and his Red State fiscal model and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and his Blue State model.
“Indiana achieved and maintained an AAA bond rating from the three major credit-rating agencies throughout the recession by cutting spending and accepting billions of dollars in federal aid,” The AP writes. “Maryland maintained the coveted AAA bond rating it has held for decades by raising taxes, cutting spending and accepting billions of dollars in federal aid.”
How reasonable and even-handed that sounds. How very fair. If we avoid the extremes of a California and its unacceptably massive deficits and a Kansas that cut way too much in taxes, well, then, either economic model can work just fine.
Daniels' bold Purdue letter
Those who expected Mitch Daniels to go into quiet retirement as Purdue University president after eight tumultuous years as governor will be sorely disappointed. He started his tenure by releasing a public “open letter to the people of Purdue” containing the kinds of statements about higher education usually coming from critics of universities, not leaders of universities, especially ones just starting out.
The thrust of the critique is to complain about what some are starting to call the higher education bubble. “College costs too much and delivers too little,” he said in the letter. “Students are leaving, when they graduate at all, with loads of debt but without evidence that they grew much in either knowledge or critical thinking.” When enough people realize how much they’re paying for so little, the bubble will burst.
Unified approach to top priority
After announcing that Indiana’s economic future depends on “making job creation job one,” Gov. Mike Pence expressed the most profound sentiment in his State of the State address. “Let’s be clear,” he said. “Government doesn’t create jobs, other than government jobs, but government can create the conditions where people can be the risk takers, innovators and workers who will create the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow.” If only the stimulate-and-invest geniuses in the federal government could grasp the concept.
Pence make a good case for the one item of his agenda that is both the most important component of creating a healthier economy and the one he will have the hardest time getting through the legislature: a 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut. He rightly argues that such fiscal restraint will spur growth.
When we ignore our principles
Two strong principles help shape our criminal justice system. One is that everyone is equal under the law. The other is that once the assigned punishment has been delivered, even a criminal gets a second chance.
But we ignore those principles when it comes to one group of criminals: sex offenders, especially those who have preyed on children. Even after they get out of prison, they are hounded. They must register their whereabouts, sometimes a lifetime requirement. They can’t go to public parks. They can’t live within a certain distance of a school. Sometimes it seems there’s nothing we can do to them that is out of bounds.
But not so fast, said the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Indiana law barring most registered sex offenders from using social networking sites such as Facebook is unconstitutional. | <urn:uuid:e596eb7a-a922-417f-a8cc-802d28ac6911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130126/EDITORIAL/130129668/1015/LOCAL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953567 | 881 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Juan Matus (don Juan)
“Many people on the Earth, who become involved in religion superficially, believe that their ‘religious duty’ is to weep.
“Yet, spiritual warriors neither weep, nor complain, nor pity themselves. They see their own defects and — without stopping to fight — get rid of them once and for all!
“When we are concerned only with seeking our defects and grieving about our imperfections — we miss the opportunity to perform a really serious work on helping people and developing ourselves.
“We have to be able to take our attention off the personal ‘I’ — and to look at the One Whom we love! We have to learn to live and to act by His example and follow His precepts!
“We have to ask Him to help us to understand our mistakes and to reform — yet, we should keep in mind that the success depends, first of all, on our own efforts.
“And the main thing — we have to change our attitude towards events which look unfavorable to us. We have to learn to regard them from His standpoint, i.e. from the standpoint of the Evolution of the Universal Consciousness and spiritual growth of individual consciousnesses on the Path to Him.
“… Do you know, for example, how to master the art of perfect control over matter? It is very simple! One has to learn to laugh!
“I like to laugh! Do you want Me to tell you about the laugh of Nagual?
“Spiritual warriors from the very beginning must learn the laugh of Nagual: they laugh at their own vices and thus make them burst like soap-bubbles — vices burst together with the inflated feeling of self-importance!
“Many people believe that it is weapons that make man strong. This is wrong! It is laugh that makes man strong! The laugh of Nagual turns the envelope of the ‘I’ into nothing. The only thing one has to add is calm and love — and then… There is only infinite, flowing, free consciousness…
“Search for personal power is just a hook, a trick which the One Power uses for ‘catching’ and teaching them who do not hear when they are told about Love… or Tenderness…
“If they do not learn this from the Power, they are not going to progress…
“There is the following law: the Power does not belong to anyone, only you can belong to the Power.
“The Power just is, and It is the Power of Love.
“When you gain Freedom, you just merge with It into One… Your desires and the desire of the Power become the same, your choice and the choice of the Power become identical…
“They who try… to ‘command’ the Power fall into Its trap. The Power catches them by this desire, and they become Its tool, even without knowing about this. They live as the blind, stricken by the feeling of self-importance, and may never become sighted.
“And the process of growing coarse power can become irreversible like a cancer process…
“… On the other hand, the ability of laughing at one’s own vices, making fun of them is the first step to the real mergence with the Power!
“They who have learned to laugh so that their vices, which they laugh at, cease to exist — they are about to perform great deeds!
“The spiritual warrior can laugh only at oneself and never makes fun of other people!
“From the state of union with the Truth, the warrior looks at own imperfections and laughs at them! And when there remains nothing of them — the warrior becomes Everything, becomes a true Nagual, the warrior’s laugh unites with the joy of Beingness, with the Freedom and Power!
“Then the warrior gains the ability to affect the particles of the Great Whole, removing everything that prevents the joy of beingness, prevents the Radiant Light of the Power from becoming manifested in others — in those who entrusted this warrior to be their leader, their Nagual on the Path to the Freedom.
“See how beautiful the laugh of Nagual is: it heals souls, ridding them of burden and pain, it makes them capable of flying into the unknown…
“Do you understand now the basics of the art of perfect control over matter?
“When you have mastered this, I will tell you further… And do not forget to put on My hat: this can help.
“… Impeccable acting of the spiritual warrior in interaction with the Power fills warrior’s life with special acuteness and silent passion.
“And the life of Nagual becomes a manifestation of the action of the Power.
“One can learn wisdom in universities — and this is good. Yet, one can and should learn the higher Wisdom interacting with the Power. When you seek solutions for the Nagual’s party, when you find methods for teaching the students — you gain Wisdom.
“Genaro and I are Those Who live and act, and not just speak about this. We have always lived and live now a life filled to the brim with the state of impeccable Love and Power.
“Feel this state of Nagual’s life in the moment of ‘now’, feel that the Power of God fills every moment, everything:
“… This burning campfire…
“… The quietness of the forest…
“… Earth under your body…
“… This place of power, which allows one to cognize the living consciousness of the Earth… and further, deeper… more deeper…, where there is only Great Love and Power of the Creator!
“… This cannot be conveyed to others by means of words. This has to be ‘tasted’: as one bites off, chews, and swallows a piece of bread — only then you can know it.
“Such is the spiritual Path: if you have chosen it — walk it! Then every moment of life in interaction with the Power becomes an invaluable experience for the soul.
“In the life of true spiritual warriors there are no holes, they never feel bored, cannot be depressed by past failures or worries about the future. The spiritual warrior has only life to live and lives it to the end with maximal efficiency, with full awareness of the Goal, with full responsibility for own decisions! And then the Power fills this life to the brim…
“You can be the Hands of God if you do not separate yourselves from the Ocean of the Creator. It is the Ocean of Love-Power that pervades your bodies and cocoons and manifests Itself through them. We called it — kindling of all emanations of the cocoon, aligning their energies to the subtlety of the Primordial Plane.” | <urn:uuid:a547ec74-10bd-45c5-a1d0-06da2fea11ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://native-american-spirituality.info/juan_matus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942169 | 1,458 | 1.640625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived Monday in Washington, where she will be presented Congress' highest award. It's the latest milestone in her remarkable journey from political prisoner to globe-trotting stateswoman.
The Nobel Peace laureate embarks on a 17-day U.S. tour that will include meetings at the State Department and likely the White House. She then goes to New York, the American Midwest and California. The trip comes as the Obama administration considers easing remaining sanctions on the country, also known as Burma.
She meets Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Since her release from house arrest in late 2010, Suu Kyi has transitioned from dissident to parliamentarian as Myanmar has shifted from five decades of repressive military rule, gaining international acceptance for a former pariah regime.
After being confined to her homeland since 1989 because she was either under detention or afraid she wouldn't be permitted to return, Suu Kyi has in the past four months spread her wings. She has traveled to Thailand and five nations in Europe, where she was accorded honors usually reserved for heads of state.
Revered by Republicans and Democrats alike, Suu Kyi will get star treatment too in the U.S., although her schedule is being carefully planned to avoid upstaging the itinerary of Myanmar President Thein Sein, who arrives in the U.S. the following week to attend the U.N. General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
"The idea that she will be at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, to receive the highest award Congress can give, just a couple of years after she was under house arrest in her own country, is just remarkable," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., one of the lawmakers who sponsored her 2008 award of the Congressional Gold Medal.
For years, some of Washington's most powerful politicians have been among Suu Kyi's strongest advocates, and it's been a rare area of bipartisan consensus. Both when sanctions against the Myanmar junta were imposed, and over the past year when they have been suspended, Democrats and Republicans have found common cause.
The Obama administration is now considering easing a ban on imports from Myanmar into the U.S., the main plank remaining in the tough economic sanctions that Washington has chipped away at this year to reward the progress toward democracy.
While Congress last month renewed the sanctions for another year, President Barack Obama could waive its provisions. He may, however, look for further concrete action by Myanmar to earn it.
Myanmar appeared to take a step in the right direction Monday when it announced it was freeing more than 500 prisoners, which activists expected to include dozens of political detainees.
Suu Kyi is under political pressure from Thein Sein's government to press the U.S. to remove the restrictions — and it's a step that she appears willing to consider, although many of her longtime supporters in exile oppose it, saying Myanmar should not be rewarded at a time when ethnic violence is escalating in some parts of the country.
"We don't want to say whether the U.S should maintain the import ban or not," Suu Kyi's party spokesman Nyan Win said ahead of her visit. "I understand the U.S is keeping the import ban because they want to keep a watch on the country's political and economic reform and I think the U.S should continue to observe (the situation)."
Combining high-level meetings with award ceremonies and get-togethers with Burmese expatriates, Suu Kyi will have a frenetic schedule in the U.S.
She spends four days in Washington. Her meeting with Clinton — who made a landmark visit to Myanmar last December — will be followed Wednesday with the congressional award ceremony and meetings with House and Senate leaders. The White House has yet to announce whether she will meet Obama. Suu Kyi will also address human rights activists and meet Burmese journalists at Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
She then travels to New York, where she worked 1969-71 at the United Nations. Her schedule is carefully arranged not to clash with Thein Sein's but she is slated to attend a high-level meeting organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a day before the Myanmar leader addresses the General Assembly.
Suu Kyi will then go to Kentucky to address the University of Louisville, before traveling to meet with one of America's largest Burmese communities in Fort Wayne, Ind. She will also visit San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Associated Press writer Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:c07e82a7-6957-4c8d-a0b4-e967b8825b18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tribunenews.com/index.php/k2/edition-categories/u-s-and-world-news/itemlist/tag/Congressional%20Gold%20Medal?change_font=increase | 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 | 0.966111 | 977 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The House of Representatives voted 98-42 against the legislation, the first of four bills introduced to Parliament that aim to lift the country's ban on same-sex marriage. A separate bill was also being debated in the Senate on Wednesday.
Polls show that most Australians support gay marriage, but the Liberal Party-led conservative opposition coalition and many in the ruling center-left Labor Party are against it.
"I think at some future time our Parliament will catch up with community opinion, just as it has on other issues," senior government minister Anthony Albanese told reporters after the vote. "When marriage equality occurs, people will wonder what the fuss was about."
Australian law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Labor lifted its long-standing opposition to gay marriage last year, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard remains opposed to it.
Gillard allowed Labor members to make a rare "conscience vote" on the bill Wednesday, which lets lawmakers vote by their personal beliefs without risking expulsion if they defy the party line. Opposition leader Tony Abbott did not give Liberal members that option.
Gillard's government holds a razor-thin majority in Parliament and several Labor members personally oppose
Finance Minister Penny Wong, who is gay, acknowledged in recent days that the legislation was unlikely to pass, but still argued passionately for its approval during the debate.
"If you subscribe to the principal of equality, as I'm sure most in the chamber would, then substitute 'same sex' for 'race' in this debate and see if it changes your view," Wong, who has a Chinese-Malaysian father and Australian mother of European descent, told lawmakers. "Just imagine if we told Australians today that they could not marry the person they love because of the color of their skin."
The debate prompted one Liberal senator to step down as Abbott's parliamentary secretary after the senator made comments suggesting that permitting gay marriage could lead to calls for the legalization of bestiality and polygamy.
Abbott called Bernardi's comments "ill-disciplined."
"They're views that I don't share," Abbott told reporters after Bernardi's resignation. "They're views that I think many people will find repugnant."
Gillard canceled a scheduled address to a Christian lobby group this month over what she called "heartless" comments made by the group's managing director that suggested being gay was a bigger health hazard than smoking.
The Senate is expected to vote on its bill later this week. | <urn:uuid:850eb490-4d21-4a91-9e9d-ad0075d6f0fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eveningsun.com/nationworldnews/ci_21577634/australian-lawmakers-uphold-ban-gay-marriage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980502 | 508 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Tonight, we are posting the first point of Julius Evola’s Orientations and will continue for the next ten Sundays. This is a project we have had in mind for quite some time and it is opportune in conjunction with the translation of the letters to Carl Schmitt. Although the same topics were eventually treated in more depth in Men among the Ruins and Ride the Tiger, it is useful to explore the points in their basic form. The eleven points were originally written in 1950 and led both to Evola becoming the de facto leader of “reaction”, as well as the criminal charge against him of “promoting Fascism”. Point 1 can certainly be read that way in its open support for the axis powers against the allies; nevertheless, as he said in his own defense, Evola is promoting the “healthy and normal” values of “well bred men”, not Fascism per se.
Nevertheless, the points were intended to be metapolitical, not tied to contingent events and thus adaptable to different conditions and times. Perhaps an exploration of the points will bring some order to the “Right”, which is in disarray. Carl Schmitt held that the fundamental political concept is the identification of the “enemy”. The various rights seem to be locked in various incompatible attempts to define that enemy. In Europe, we see the Right sometimes as pro-Israel and anti-Islam, and also as its opposite. The Right is pro-pagan and anti-Catholic, or else it is pro-Catholic and anti-Jewish. Usually, they simply oppose each other.
In the USA, the enemy of the right is Africans or Mexicans. Or else, the enemy includes liberals and anti-Capitalists, or even more commonly, anti-Zionists. There are elements of the so-called New Right who are progressives and support practices that no well-bred men would have considered healthy and normal. The various movements of the right and of self-described conservatives are divided against themselves. The Left, on the other hand, is united. It understands the spirit it opposes, usually with only nominal opposition. This first point must be read in the light of the Birth and Essence of the Modern Myth. Progress is the continuation of this process of the degeneration of castes. The Left knows this, the Right does not, or else forgets it.
There is a decided lack of imagination in the isolated attempts to bring back the “glory” of National Socialism or Fascism—systems which had their own serious flaws, as a quick reading of this point may indicate. To continue to hold to that is to ignore historical and current reality and misses the ideal of the eleven points as metapolitical. Instead, the “inner meaning of the battle” must be understood; there needs to be a return to the spiritual forces that Evola alludes to here: the spirits of Rome and of the Middle Ages. The text follows.
It is useless to create illusions with the pipe dream of any optimism whatsoever: we find ourselves today at the end of a cycle. Already for centuries, at first unfelt, then with the surge of a mass that caves in, numerous processes in the West have destroyed every normal and legitimate ordering of men, and distorted every higher conception of living, acting, knowing, and struggling. And the impulse of this downfall, its speed and its dizziness, is called “progress.” And hymns were sung to “progress” and we were deluded that this civilization is — a civilization of matter and machines — civilization par excellence. The entire history of the world was preordained to it: until the ultimate consequences of this whole process was such as to bring a few to an awakening.
Where, and under what symbols, those who sought to organize the forces for a possible resistance, is well-known. On the one hand, there is a nation [Italy] which, from when it became unified, had known only the mediocre climate of liberalism, democracy, and constitutional monarchy — dared take up again the symbol of Rome [the eagle] as the basis for a new political conception and for a new ideal of virility and dignity. Analogous forces were awakened in the nation [Germany] that had made in the Middle Ages the Roman symbol of the Imperium as its own, to reassert the principle of authority and the supremacy of those values that have their root in blood, in race, and in the deepest strength of a people. And while in other European nations some groups were already oriented in the same direction, a third force in the Asian continent [Japan] added itself to the alliance, the nation of samurai, in which the adoption of exterior forms of modern civilization did not compromise the fidelity to a warrior tradition centered on the symbol of the solar Empire of divine right.
We do not pretend that in these currents the distinction between the essential and the incidental is clear cut, that in them it made to the ideas by the opposing party an adequate persuasion and qualification of persons, that there were various outdated influences affected by the same forces that had to be combatted. The process of ideological purification would have been able to take place a second time, so that some immediate and non-deferrable political problems were solved. But it was also clear that an alliance of forces was taking form, representing an open challenge to “modern” civilization: both to that of the democracies inherited from the French Revolution and to the other, representing the extreme limit of the degradation of Western man: the collectivistic civilization of the Fourth Estate, the communist civilization of the mass-man without a face.
The rhythms accelerated and the tensions increased finishing in an armed conflict of these forces. What prevailed was the massive power of a coalition that did not back down in the face of the most hybrid of their agreements, and of the most hypocritical of this ideological mobilization in order to crush the world that was rising up and that intended to assert its right. Whether or not our men were equal to the task, if errors were committed in regard to timeliness, complete preparation, or measure of risk, that is beside the point, that is not something that compromised the inner meaning of the battle that was fought. Likewise, it does not interest us, that today history is avenged on the victors, that the democratic powers which, having formed a coalition with the forces of red subversion just to conduct the war up to the senseless extremism of a unconditional surrender and total destruction, today sees come back to roost against the allies of yesterday a danger more terrible than the one they wished to avoid.
The only thing that counts is this: we find ourselves today in the middle of a world of ruins. And the problem to be posed is: do men still exist on their feet within the middle of these ruins? And what should they, what else can they still do?
Point 2 ⇒ | <urn:uuid:96864932-4a6e-4141-ad81-a44162ae8458> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gornahoor.net/?p=4428 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971298 | 1,426 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Last week, I almost killed over when I saw the price of raspberries at a local grocery store. Eight bucks for a pint of raspberries. I don't know about you, but I go through a pint in 2-3 days. Thats a lot of money on one fruit. Of course, haven't we all noticed the higher prices in food lately?
I've been keeping my eye on it because I love food, to eat, but also, my dad is a farmer. He's growing wheat, soybeans, and corn this year because of the prices. I guess that the higher price at market offsets the higher gas prices, but I haven't crunched the numbers.
Along with this, I visited a local farmer's market, only to find that everything wasn't local. There was watermelons, peaches, and other produce not in season. One vendor said, "Wait a week or two and I'll have Georgia peaches."
However, I know peach season isn't until June depending on where they are grown. This guy wasn't going to put a veil over me. The past couple of years in Austin gave me the knowledge of seasonal produce, how to choose the right one, and the compassion to buy local. This guy was a fake.
But I took my tomatoes and my peaches home, to find the tomatoes unripened and the peaches going bad. They say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." So I took those peaches, mixed them with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, let them marry for awhile. Then I took them and made a cobbler.
So what have I learned, research farmer's markets in local areas, and if you get some bad produce try and find something to make out it.
(adapted from Gourmet)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granola without dried fruit
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3 lb peaches, sliced
1/2-1 cup sugar
Take sliced peaches mix with sugar and spice and let marry for a little bit. Then place in baking dish.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Stir together sugar, flour, granola, spices, and salt in a bowl, then work in butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture forms small clumps.
Take crumb mixture and spread over peaches.
Bake in middle of oven until topping is golden and peaches are tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm. | <urn:uuid:499ac5ad-215b-409a-8221-b77923b7e0e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://austinpie.blogspot.com/2008/05/food-prices.html?showComment=1209688980000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96024 | 566 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Students fill meters with artistic change
BLACKSBURG — For most people, parking meters and positive thoughts generally don’t go hand in hand.
A group of Harding Avenue Elementary School students worked to change that last week by giving a few of those coin-eating monsters a face-lift.
On Aug. 30, 15 fifth-grade students from Rebecca Gove’s art class spent close to three hours decorating four parking meters along College Avenue as part of “Park Your Art,” a joint effort of the town of Blacksburg and the Blacksburg Partnership Collaborative for the Arts.
Twelve meters will be decorated but remain functional until they are removed in November as part of the ongoing construction of the downtown street. Each painted meter will then be auctioned off, with the proceeds benefiting the restoration of the Alexander Black House and Cultural Center in Blacksburg.
Blacksburg Partnership President Diane Akers said local artists were encouraged to submit concepts for the parking meters, which then had to be approved by the group prior to being painted. She said they had originally planned for only nine meters to be painted but had such a great response they decided to raise that number to 12.
Gove said she first learned of the project from a parent and immediately had each of her fifth-grade students work on a parking meter design the first week of school. Gove chose four designs to submit to the partnership, and each of the four was approved to be painted.
Following the school’s early release Aug. 29, Gove and her 15 volunteer artists began to transform the generic-looking meters into colorful works of art and left their mark on the downtown area.
“Lots of people are going to see this,” student artist Haley Freeborn said as she painted.
Freeborn and three classmates worked to transform their meter into a cherry tree with a snake crawling up it.
Classmate Erin Sudweeks, who designed the meter, said she added the snake because the person beside her had drawn a dragon, and she just really likes snakes.
A little farther down the street, another group worked to transform its meter into the face of a clown with an Afro, a design created by student artist Seth Boehringer.
“I thought, ‘What does this [the meter] look like? A cyclops.’ Then I added another eye, and now it’s a human,” Boehringer said of his design.
Though the artists were excited for people to see their meters, many also said it was important to them for people to know who they were representing.
“It’s [the project] what Harding Avenue stands for. We’re a part of this town,” Freeborn said.
Her classmate Nathan Gallagher agreed and added he hoped a positive reaction might even impact the future of his school.
“Maybe they’ll see it and be like ‘Oh Harding Avenue. Maybe we can send our kids there.’ And that will be like more taxes going to it [the school] and maybe that can save it [the school],” Gallagher said.
The school board had talked of closing Harding Avenue Elementary, along with Shawsville Elementary School, during this year’s budget deliberations but decided to make other cuts instead.
Gove said she was more concerned about the impact the meters have on the artists.
Gove said she felt it was important for her students to have a connection with art outside of the classroom and that this project had provided an opportunity to experience that firsthand.
“I hope it’s an experience they take with them into middle and high school. A great memory of, ‘Hey that was really fun art we did,’ ” Gove said.
Though the meters will likely be on display less than three months, artist Gavin Snyder seemed sure their work would have a lasting impression.
“We’re a part of downtown history now,” Snyder said.
The Roanoke Times | 381-1643
No Comments »
No comments yet. | <urn:uuid:057dd5b2-ea99-4a4c-80fa-d4f76cae9bb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.roanoke.com/theburgs/entertainment/2012/09/06/students-fill-meters-with-artistic-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982886 | 857 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Like YouTube in 2006 and Facebook in 2008, 2012 will go down as the year that online polling joined telephone polling as part of our electoral process. This victory for online technology wasn't a foregone conclusion. The criticisms leveled at online polls, especially before this election cycle, reminded me of many of the avoidance tactics I used to hear from companies that were afraid to embrace social media. But in this election all but the die-hards made room for online polling, just as marketing teams have now near-universally gone social. (Full disclosure: the phone-versus-online polling issue is on my radar because I've just joined Vision Critical, a tech solutions company that owns Angus Reid Public Opinion, one of the online pollsters.)
What helps a tech path cross over from resistance to inevitability? There are four key mental and organizational shifts that I have seen in companies that adopt social media, and which we can recognize in the way online polling was embraced over recent months:
Assessing the bottom line. The prospect of cost savings has long been a major driver of tech adoption, though many businesses are all-too-willing to pay a premium for the benefit of change-avoidance. The polling companies that actually did include cell phone users did so at an enormous price (between 1.8 and 3.8 the cost of a traditional telephone poll): because the FCC prohibits robo-calling cell phones (and thank goodness for that!), it takes a huge phone bank of people willing to plough through a lot of hang-ups in order to generate the same number of completed surveys. By looking at the bottom-line costs of doing things the old way — and just as crucially, the bottom line savings from doing things the new way — organizations can find a powerful motivation to accept the risks and anxieties of trying something new.
Benchmarking against reality. Once you know that more than 90% of respondents refuse to answer phone surveys, online surveys start to look pretty robust. That's the kind of perspective shift that helps organizations embrace their online opportunities; conversely, those that compare the flaws and imperfections of online life with their hypothetically rosy offline alternative have a hard time accepting the trade-offs of digital solutions. When I hear professionals gripe about the superficiality or occasional hostility of the social web, I always wonder what magical rose garden they were living in offline. Smart organizations benchmark their tech choices against a different standard: reality.
Differentiating among tech solutions. Businesses often need to be persistent in experimenting with a range of tech tools before they find the right option. Yes, some online polls have been dead wrong...but this time, the major online pollsters got it right! Writing off every version of a new technology, based on a single bad experience, is a classic way to deprive yourself or your business of the benefits from tech adoption. If I had written off MP3 players on the basis of my Iomega HipZip, I would never have become the proud owner of a first-edition iPod. And if your organization writes off LinkedIn or Twitter because you're turned off by the frivolity of Facebook or the ribaldry of a Reddit, you're missing out on some crucial conversations.
Embracing the inevitable. Just as many marketers had to be dragged into the world of social media kicking and screaming, there are pollsters who will hold onto their phone banks until the last landline has been severed. What makes the adoption of new tools possible for even the most hardened resistor is the ultimate recognition that change is inevitable. Those customers you want to engage? They're on Facebook and Twitter. Those voters you want to survey? They're on the web. The faster a company can embrace an inevitable tech change, the sooner it leads to thrive in a new medium.
The pay-off from making these shifts goes way beyond doing things cheaper, though companies do find real financial savings in moving from the old technology to the new. And it's not just about being faster, though companies that make the mental and organizational shifts required to adopt one new technology are well-positioned to make subsequent shifts faster, so that they stay ahead of the innovation curve.
The real benefit of tech adoption, if you get it right, is that you do things better. That's what we've seen from companies who have built stronger brands and customer relationships through social media, and it's what we saw in the adoption of online polling. When the final votes were tallied, the online pollsters proved themselves by delivering results that were every bit as accurate as their phone-ringing brethren: according to Fordham University's assessment of polling accuracy in the 2012 election, 3 of the 5 most accurate polls came from companies that relied on online polling. | <urn:uuid:cba775c8-32d4-4b4d-9935-292bda695451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/11/what_we_can_learn_from_the_suc.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959136 | 966 | 1.59375 | 2 |
US President Barack Obama has beaten Jesus Christ to be American’s number one hero, according to a new Harris poll.
The top 10 list based on the poll showed Obama at number one position, Christ at number two, and Martin Luther King at number three.
Wrapping up the top five
Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
They were followed by Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger, and Mother Teresa in the same order.
The online survey involved 2,634 US adults, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The news report said that those surveyed were asked whom they admired enough to call their heroes, but were not shown any list of people to choose from.
In a Harris Poll conducted in 2001, Jesus Christ was the hero mentioned most often, followed by Martin Luther King, Colin Powell, John F. Kennedy and Mother Teresa.
Bush was rated 19th at the time, but the latest list shows him to be on number five.
John McCain, who was not in the top 20 in 2001, is presently number seven.
Mother Teresa, who was number 5 in 2001, is now number 10.
American’s top 10 heroes are:
1. Barack Obama
2. Jesus Christ
3. Martin Luther King
4. Ronald Reagan
5. George W. Bush
6. Abraham Lincoln
7. John McCain
8. John F. Kennedy
9. Chesley Sullenberger
10. Mother Teresa | <urn:uuid:e49afcdc-904e-4e80-8e98-2bae80ffa877> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Americas/Obama-is-America-s-No-1-hero-not-Jesus/Article1-381238.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934524 | 313 | 1.59375 | 2 |
<-- New registeree here. I have a 7 month old Pit Bull that still pees inside, unfortunately he gives no warning. The only warning I can think of is occasionally he wanders into another room, to which I run after him to see if he pees and sometimes he does. We have been rewarding and praising him with treats when he goes outside, and we have been trying to do it often, but it appears that (from what I'm reading here) is I need to take him out constantly, up to twice and hour. We are thinking of training him to "ring the bells" that are dangling from the door to signal us, but we're not sure how to do that. Are bullies trainable to do this?
I take it potty trips will happen less when ours gets older? Like, say at 2 years and older, or later than that? | <urn:uuid:fb009efc-3bac-43d6-96b1-6961706ef4a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gopitbull.com/pitbull-behavior/48650-house-training.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984139 | 180 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Hotels with History
These 10 luxurious hotels have intriguing past lives that make them what they are today.
Selecting a hotel that enhances your travel experience is a delicate art, much like choosing the right book to bring on vacation. Just as you wouldn’t want to read Anna Karenina on a hot beach in Florida, you wouldn’t want to rest your head in a gleaming high-rise in ancient Peru. Instead, why not opt for a 15th-century conquistador’s manor, set on the training grounds of sacred Incan warriors?
Often a hotel’s history is shorthand for the history of the destination itself. For those who appreciate the idea of property reincarnation, there are buildings all over the world with illustrious past lives—as castles, manors, private residences, industrial mills, monasteries and even prisons—that have since been reimagined as lodgings.
Hotels built to be hotels pack a different punch, hosting legendary guests that contribute to their storied legacies. Lesley M.M. Blume tapped the intrigue of the St. Regis New York in It Happened Here, her limited-edition libretto for Thornwillow Press. The slim volume contains big tales of mustachioed artist Salvador Dalí meeting the wild and wonderful Andy Warhol—and splattering him with paint—as well as style icon Diana Vreeland dancing on a table in a white Chanel dress. The Charlie Hotel, in West Hollywood, was originally built as a haven of bungalows for Charlie Chaplin and his contemporaries to get away from it all. (Today, the Hollywood set uses the refurbished property the same way.) And the story of Raffles, in Singapore, reads like an adventure novel—complete with tigers, escaped prisoners and the finest ballroom in the East.
Whether it’s a grand hotel gilded with gossip or a reconsidered building with a storied past, a historic property offers a mix of understanding and intrigue with an enticing sidecar—by staying there, you become part of its legend. Here are ten of our favorite hotels with history. These walls may not be able to talk, but we certainly can. | <urn:uuid:3e391bce-07cd-44a8-a3f2-731751cae11e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.departures.com/articles/hotels-with-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938584 | 457 | 1.640625 | 2 |
To get out of this economic sickness we can take certain medicines that will probably get us back on our feet.† Or we can take certain drugs that probably will not.† Medicines that will not make us better quickly.† Chances are we will take the latter.
There are medicines that revive economies.† We know they do.† We have seen them work here and in dozens of countries.† They are called tax cuts.† Tax cuts for entrepreneurs and smaller businesses. And relief from regulations.
There are other medicines that may stabilize economies.† But try as they may, they do not do a good job at getting the patient out of bed and back to work. These are higher taxes and heavy regulation.
Obviously our economy is sick.† Various folks blame unregulated capitalism for this.† They call for more regulations on that capitalism.† They are in no mood to cut regulations.† They are in no mood to cut taxes to reward capitalists.
Understandable.† We DO need more regulation.† Our financial universe has grown so quickly.† Regulations have not kept up with the new players and their tools.† But while we need more regulation there, we could do with a lot less regulation elsewhere.† We are not going to get less.† Not when the country is in the mood it is in.† And so that is one medicine we will be denied.
We are not likely to get tax cuts either.† We donít feel like offering rewards to the capitalists we are convinced got us into this mess. So those are more medicines we will be denied.
We are likely to get more handouts to consumers.† This medicine has not done much for economies that are sick.† We are likely to get more bridges and roads and sewer systems.† We will get more government spending that is supposed to "create" jobs.† Sorry, but such projects have a poor history.
The problem is obvious.† In order to spend money on such programs government has to have money.† It gets it from whom?† From the folks who might have invested in new ventures.† From the folks who might have invested in expansion of their business.
If government takes money from them it clearly keeps them from creating jobs.† So it snuffs out jobs by taking the money from the entrepreneurs.† It uses that money to create jobs with its big programs.† Trouble is, that sort of job creation is very slow.
A faster way to create the jobs is to let the entrepreneurs keep the money.† Better yet, lighten the tax load on them.† So they can make money more easily when they do what they do best - create and grow ventures.
But, as I wrote above, we are in no mood to do this.† We are in a mood to punish entrepreneurs, capitalists.† We are in a mood to build sewer systems.† We are in a mood to tie cowboy capitalists down with new regulations.† To take the cowboy out of cowboy capitalism.
And government believes it knows how to create jobs faster than entrepreneurs do.† This is why our candidates promised to spend tens of billions in alternate energy projects that would create millions of new jobs.
Government figures it knows best.
Well, politicians had more to do with building the house of cards that has collapsed than any other player.† They figured they knew how to run the mortgage industry better than bankers did.† They forced, forced bankers to make subprime mortgages to people who barely had a pulse.† Then they forced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to trade in those mortgages. Those two companies created bonds against the morgages.† They were low quality bonds.† The companies said they were high quality bonds because the government stood behind them.
They got traded around the world.† When someone found out how lousy they were the house of cards collapsed around our ears.
In other words, government played a huge role in getting us into this mess.† More government is not a great medicine for getting us out.
From Tom ... as in Morgan.††††††††††††††††††
For more columns and for Tomís radio shows (and to write to Tom): tomasinmorgan.com. | <urn:uuid:1de8a17a-f5b2-4652-8823-df7a529136e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evesun.com/news/stories/2008-12-01/5771/The-medicine-we-will-be-denied/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96996 | 877 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The greatest advantage of online business is that easy-to-start with less investment that means, anyone with little technical knowledge can start it. However, it all depends on exactly what kind of online business you do. Blogging is one such simple to start online business with less risk that you can begin with less than $100 investment or even lesser.
Few years back, it was like you can quickly build a high traffic blog and start making money in few weeks. Many people started doing this as a part-time job or even as full-time job and started making decent income from their blogs. I also started in that way to setup a side income in my life. It is true that technology changes every time and that evolution could impact anything built over that technology. When it comes to blogging, search engines are the major source of traffic apart from direct visitors and social media visitors.
For a blog to grow faster, search engine traffic is important especially from Google that holds high market share as of today. Without Google, even established blogs can go down in a day or two. The best example being the Google’s recent algorithm changes like Panda, Penguin. The effects of these search algorithm changes had introduced lot of dynamic changes in the blogosphere in recent times and that comfort of quickly building a high traffic blog is no longer available to every one. Hence at most cases, if you are starting a blog with the intent to make decent income, you may not grow really as expected. I could not think of a blog growth strategy without search traffic and in most cases that will be worst hit.
Hence today, I want to see those major reasons/factors that tells that blogging is a high risk online business (in terms of time/work as an investment).
SEO Is “Do or Die”.
As mentioned earlier, the traffic strategy had changed a lot and bloggers has to diversify their traffic sources. However, search engine traffic plays a major role in bringing targeted visitors that converts and makes you money.
You have to implement SEO techniques in order to build a high traffic blog.
Such techniques are unpredictable today or what you employ today may not work tomorrow.
You have to constantly run behind the SEO trends and tweak your blog according.
- The major drawback is that you don’t have much control over SEO or search traffic.
- No SEO means, no or less search traffic and that directly affects your blogging business.
Hence i see SEO as a high risk factor.
There are many examples that shows SEO had affected business and made companies to ran away from their business.
You can see this list of web sites hardly affected because of Google’s Panda update here, here and another Penguin update here. Even the well trusted, wpmu.org (WordPress multi-user official site) got a hit recently. If you are a newbie blogger you may not realize this soon but going forward, you will be working hard to win search engines. The next question comes like, without SEO is it possible to grow a blog ?
Blogging without SEO, is that Possible ?
There are lot of alternative ways to drive traffic to a blog apart from search engines and very recently, many are started advising on this topic.
Social media tools like Fb, Twitter, g+ are playing a major role in driving traffic next to search engines. All you have to put yourself into that social presence and build a network around your blog.
Apart from social tools, you can make others to link your blog from other blogs/sites or you can spread your links naturally/manually through guest blogging or similar methods.
However, these non-SEO methods are hardly a slow process that takes time to see results.
You have to manage multiple social media tools every day and you have to dedicate a lot of time to interact with your network around your blog. More important, people should believe and trust in your words.
- Unless, you have a team to work for your blog you could not easily do that single handed. Definitely, you have to spend a lot of time for your blog growth.
People like me are already working in a day job and it is really tough to spend time on all these diversified sources.
- Alternatively, you can do stuffs that goes viral however, it may bring in some spike in traffic and that slowly melts down the next day.
That’s why i see like the alternative methods are time consuming and if you are handling a blog (as a business) single handed, you are gonna kill your time.
Hence the non-SEO strategies are also time killers.
All above, the solution is: you have to build value to your visitors like: addressing the visitor problems, giving away valuable stuffs/products, offering valuable services etc. You could not build such value in a day or two, you have to plan and constantly work for it.
- Basically, its not blogging as business instead it is like “build business around a blog”.
Now the question comes like, how to manage this situation and how to bring up your business without SEO dependency ? what kind of strategy to employ for blogging success and that too in short duration ?
The simple answer to all these dilemma’s: don’t just do blogging – build a product and blog around the product – open up a service and blog around around your service.
This way, you are not solely dependent on your blog especially for traffic and income. Your product or service can take you up in the market, it can build a reputation for your business among the visitors and finally, turns the visitors into customers for the long term.
Yes, all these happens without the help of uncertain unsealed unsure ugly SEO strategies….
Stay tuned for more informs…good luck ! | <urn:uuid:02f3322c-74a0-49e9-91e4-bd16177c38ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blasho.com/why-blogging-is-a-high-risk-online-business-that-kills-your-time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962142 | 1,195 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It's a tragic story, but one that reveals the hypocrisy of those same Catholic hospitals who argued against allowing their employees the right to make reproductive choices for themselves and who pressure and terrorize women at their "pregnancy centers." When it's a woman seeking legal medical assistance for an unwanted pregnancy, it's all about taking her needing to take responsibility and God's will and giving that fetus inside her personhood status. But when it's about medical negligence allowing the death of two potentially viable fetuses, well then, personhood goes right out the window.
When 31-year-old Lori Hodghill went into a Colorado Catholic hospital on New Year's Day 2006 because she wasn't feeling well, it didn't take long for things to rapidly spiral downhill. Seven months pregnant with twin boys, she passed out due to a blockage in an artery, which led to a heart attack. The obstetrician on call did not respond to his page and less than an hour after she entered the emergency room, Lori Hodghill and the twins she was carrying died.
Hodghill's husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital on behalf of himself and their daughter, claiming that even if the obstetrician couldn't make it in, he could have instructed the ER staff to conduct an emergency caesarian section and at least save his sons when his wife couldn't be resuscitated.
The lead defendant in the case is Catholic Health Initiatives, the Englewood-based nonprofit that runs St. Thomas More Hospital as well as roughly 170 other health facilities in 17 states. Last year, the hospital chain reported national assets of $15 billion. The organization’s mission, according to its promotional literature, is to “nurture the healing ministry of the Church” and to be guided by “fidelity to the Gospel.” Toward those ends, Catholic Health facilities seek to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Church authored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those rules have stirred controversy for decades, mainly for forbidding non-natural birth control and abortions. “Catholic health care ministry witnesses to the sanctity of life ‘from the moment of conception until death,’” the directives state. “The Church’s defense of life encompasses the unborn.”
But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic Health’s lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect “unborn persons,” and Catholic Health’s lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments. Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights.
That, my friends, is trying to have your cake and eat it, too. I could respect Catholic Health's stance on contraception and abortion far more if it was at least consistent. | <urn:uuid:7d71ddf1-54f3-41ae-aa48-25941cc1a2e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crooksandliars.com/node/65649/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97266 | 626 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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