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(CNN) -- Two Indian soldiers died in a firefight with Pakistani army troops in the disputed Kashmir region, the Indian army said Tuesday, amid heightened tensions in the region following a deadly clash two days ago.
India said a group of Pakistani troops had crossed the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the region, and entered the Indian-controlled side of the Himalayan territory.
According to the Indian military, the Pakistani troops had taken advantage of thick fog in a wooded area to intrude into the Mendhar sector of Poonch district, but were spotted by a routine Indian patrol.
After a firefight lasting about 30 minutes the Pakistani troops retreated to their side of the Line of Control, the Indian military said, leaving two Indian soldiers dead.
"This is yet another grave provocation by Pakistan Army which is being taken up sternly through official channels," a military statement said.
Gen. Asim Bajwa, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, told CNN: "We totally deny this baseless allegation."
Col. Rajesh Kalia, a spokesman for the Indian Army's northern command, told CNN: "We have lost two army soldiers in this incident and one of the bodies has been badly mutilated."
Kalia said the Indian military had not heard of any Pakistani casualties in the firefight.
Tensions flared over the weekend when a Pakistani soldier was killed in a clash between the two sides, according to the Pakistani military.
There were differing accounts of Sunday's incident.
According to the Pakistani military, Indian troops crossed the Line of Control and attacked a military post. Pakistani army troops repulsed the attack, but one Pakistani soldier was killed and another critically injured, the military said.
The Indian Defense Ministry, however, said Pakistani troops opened fire unprovoked on Indian posts in the north Uri sector of Indian-administered Kashmir. Indian troops retaliated and forced Pakistani troops to stop firing, the ministry said. It did not immediately report the number of casualties.
A statement Tuesday from the Pakistani military said: "Pakistan military officials deny (the) Indian allegation of unprovoked firing. It looks like Indian propaganda to divert the attention of the world from Sunday's raid on a Pakistani post by Indian troops, in which a Pakistani soldier was killed."
The territory under dispute lies in India's Kashmir Valley, separated from Pakistan by the 450-mile Line of Control.
The two South Asian nuclear neighbors have had a cease-fire along the de facto border since November 2003. But the cease-fire has been violated repeatedly, with both sides accusing the other of offenses.
Bilateral talks were suspended in 2008 after an attack by Pakistani militants in Mumbai, India's most populous city. The negotiations resumed last year.
The conflict dates back to 1947, after Britain relinquished control of the Indian subcontinent, giving birth to modern India and Pakistan.
Kashmir was free to accede to either nation. Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of the kingdom at the time, initially chose to remain independent but eventually opted to join India, thereby handing key powers to the central government in New Delhi. In exchange, India guaranteed him military protection and vowed to hold a popular vote on the issue.
The South Asian rivals have fought two full-scale wars over the territorial issue.
Islamabad has always said that majority-Muslim Kashmir should have been a part of Pakistan. A United Nations resolution adopted after the first war called for a referendum allowing the people of Kashmir to choose which country they wanted to join, but that vote for self-determination has never been held. Pakistan wants that referendum to take place.
India says that Pakistan lends support to separatist groups fighting against government control and argues that a 1972 agreement mandates a resolution to the Kashmir dispute through bilateral talks.
Shaan Khan and Habib Nasir reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Mukhtar Ahmad reported from Srinagar, India; CNN's Aliza Kassim also contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:914b062e-c2c8-4c56-90ab-a3971aa8d235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/08/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-clash/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962036 | 816 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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15 Rajab 1434
Turkey: On every corner of İstanbul an iftar table this Ramadan
Istanbul, (Today's Zaman):
Throughout Ramadan many streets of İstanbul host iftars (fast-breaking dinner) and events of a wide variety to accompany them, from entertainment for children to religious discussions and performances of whirling dervishes to concerts and poetry recitations.
The district of Esenler is hoping to break its own record of having the longest iftar table. Inside, on the Ensenler Cultural Center stage, programs for children, shadow plays and conferences take place every evening.
The historic peninsula, the center of old İstanbul, is likely to be the most attractive location in the city during Ramadan. The Fatih district, Sultanahmet Square, Beyazıt Square and the Eminönü neighborhood all host Ramadan events. In addition to an exhibition of traditional Turkish cuisine and crafts by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the ancient theater in Sultanahmet Square hosts a different event every evening: whirling dervish sema shows, performances of an Ottoman janissary band, a Hacıvat and Karagöz shadow puppet show, concerts by Ahmet Özhan and religious discussions are all featured on the theaters schedule. Across Fatih, street iftars are held at 17 different locations. A Ramadan tent set up in Eminönü will host 5,000 people every evening.
The Beyoğlu Municipality has set up iftar tables in various neighborhoods of the district. Concerts are set to take place every evening during Ramadan near the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) building in Tepebaşı. Turkish classical musician Münip Utandı, neyzen (reed flute player) Süleyman Ergüner and the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Kent Orchestra are among the performing acts.
Throughout Ramadan, craftsmen from Turkey and around the world will continue to display the works they had showcased as part of the sixth edition of the International Traditional Handicraft Days between July 20 and 29.
The Şile district continues to host events specifically for children after iftar at an ancient theater, Maşkatlık Park, Ağva Square and Boyacıdere Park.
Twenty-five neighborhoods and 20 villages of Beykoz feature iftar on the street throughout Ramadan. District residents of different religions meet at numerous iftar tables set on the streets of Polonezköy and several other neighborhoods. In a historic Beykoz tent, iftar tables will seat 10,000 guests, while at Belediye Square entertainment for children will be available every Saturday and Sunday.
A total of 25,000 people have their iftars at nine locations in Üsküdar during Ramadan. Ramadan events held at the Bağlarbaşı Cultural Center, consisting mostly of programs for children, continue this year. The neighboring Kadıköy Municipality has been distributing aid packages for 4,000 needy families and Selamiçeşme Özgürlük Park hosts festivities during Ramadan.
Open-air iftar table for 100,000 in Ümraniye
The Ümraniye Municipality is hoping to host a total of 100,000 people by the end of Ramadan at open-air iftar tables at seven different locations across the district. Twelve famous writers and preachers, including Dursun Ali Erzincanlı and Yavuz Bahadıroğlu, will address the Ümraniye residents in separate events during Ramadan.
In Bayrampaşa, only one Ramadan tent was set up, while the Bayrampaşa Municipality, in addition to hosting iftars for storeowners in neighborhoods where many shops are located, will organize 22 iftar programs outside of Turkey throughout Ramadan. The Gaziosmanpaşa and Zeytinburnu municipalities prefer to set up iftar tables on the street instead of hosting dinners in Ramadan tents.
The Bağcılar Municipality set up a Ramadan tent with air-conditioning to offer a comfortable dining experience for residents. The tent is set to host various celebrities, including famous doctor Ender Saraç, singer Latif Doğan and actor Necati Şaşmaz.
Open-air movie theaters are established in three locations of the Ataşehir district to serve audiences on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. In Arnavutköy, a soup fountain was installed for the residents who cannot make it for iftar dinner at home, while Karagöz-Hacıvat shadow puppet shows and animated shows will take place on the districts festival field.
Beylikdüzü Municipality launches own talent competition
The Beylikdüzü Municipality has established an exclusive Ramadan town on a vast field where after-iftar shows, including Ramadan discussions and concerts, are to take place. The municipality will also host a talent competition for adults.
One of the busiest districts of İstanbul, Şişli, has a Ramadan tent to offer iftar for 3,000 guests every night during Ramadan. The Sultanbeyli Municipality hosts residents at three separate locations where iftar tables are set up every night. The many side events include concerts, religious discussions and Quran recitals.
The Pendik Municipality offers iftar in tents set up at locations along the coast for 3,000 during Ramadan, while in the neighboring district of Tuzla street iftars are held in 17 neighborhoods. A pavilion was set up near the shoreline for various activities for the duration of Ramadan.
In the districts of Küçükçekmece, Esenyurt, Çekmeköy and Kartal, iftar tables are also set up on the streets for thousands or residents to break their fast, while the municipalities of Bahçelievler and Silivri distribute aid for needy families along with other activities to take place throughout Ramadan.
The municipalities of Eyüp, Sarıyer, Maltepe, Kağıthane, Beşiktaş and Çatalca are holding a wide variety of events, ranging from concerts to religious discussions and from Quran and poetry recitals to comedy plays. The Başakşehir Municipality hosts special Ramadan programs at four locations. Well-known hafizes (Muslims who have memorized the entire Quran), including Ahmet Naina from Egypt and Rahim Kirhaki from Iran are set to take the stage in Başakşehir this Ramadan. Sevgi Korkut / Büşra Kırkpınar / Rümeysa Tuncer / Şule Dağlı İstanbul
Back to Ramadan index
Articles on Ramadan | <urn:uuid:de421fb8-26ad-48a2-aa18-8e2cc3007087> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.muslimnews.co.uk/ramadan/article.php?article=20621 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931923 | 1,454 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Crime Magazine is about true crime: organized crime, celebrity crime, serial killers, corruption, sex crimes, capital punishment, prisons, assassinations, justice issues, crime books, crime films and crime studies.
Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan
Danny "Dapper Dan" Hogan was a charismatic Irish mob boss in St. Paul, Minnesota during Prohibition. Due to his close relationships with the officers of the deeply corrupt St. Paul Police Department, Hogan was able to act as a go between. Known as the "Smiling Peacemaker" to local police officials, Police Chief John "The Big Fellow" O'Connor of Saint Paul allowed criminals and fugitives to operate in the city as long as they checked in with police, paid a small bribe and promised not to kill, kidnap, or rob within city limits.
Around 1909, he permanently settled in Saint Paul, and turned to organizing major crimes from the sanctuary of the city. He became so closely connected to Saint Paul's political machine that the police not only feared him, but actively protected his associates. Hogan was described by the Justice Department as "one of the most resourceful and keenest criminals" in the nation. He acted as an "ambassador" for Chief O'Connor and the visiting mobsters. Hogan himself owned the Green Lantern saloon on Wabasha Street in Saint Paul, which was also an illegal gambling casino, and became a speakeasy during Prohibition. Hogan was involved in planning armed robberies in the towns surrounding the Twin Cities, and also in money laundering in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.
On December 4, 1928, Hogan got behind the wheel of his Paige coupe and turned on the ignition. A bomb located beneath the floorboards detonated and blew off his right leg. He slipped into a coma at the hospital and died nine hours after the blast. He was given a funeral worthy of Prohibition-era Chicago and was buried in Calvary Cemetery. Hogan's death was especially notable because it was one of the first instances of death by a car bomb. The most likely culprits in his assassination were rival mob figures. Although the murder is still considered unsolved, recently declassified FBI files reveal that the most likely person responsible was Harry Sawyer, Hogan's underboss. According to the FBI files, Sawyer felt that Hogan had cheated him out of his cut from a nearby casino.
Visit Michael Thomas Barry’s official author website – www.michaelthomasbarry.com & order his true crime book, Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949, from Amazon or Barnes & Noble through the following links – | <urn:uuid:59b278ba-f46e-48aa-a44e-8cce6d3f1bcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crimemagazine.com/prohibition-era-mob-boss-dapper-dan-hogan-murdered-december-4-1928?page=22 | 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 | 0.982433 | 535 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Turkey calls on the international community and the United Nations to launch the necessary initiatives against Israel’s military operation in Gaza, according to a written statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry late Nov. 14.
Turkey said Israel’s operation against Gaza was the latest example of the country’s hostile policies.
“We harshly condemn Israel’s offensive and it must be stopped immediately,” the statement said, adding that no country, including Israel, was above international law.
Israeli operation over Gaza Strip echoes across region
CAIRO - Reuters
Egypt officially requested today a meeting of the U.N. Security Council
to discuss what it described as Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Foreign
Ministry said, Reuters reported.
Egypt, which in 1979 became the
first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, recalled its
ambassador from Israel
yesterday after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip
killed Hamas's top military commander.
The peace with Israel
never been warm, even under U.S.-ally Hosni Mubarak, but ties have
turned even cooler since the longtime autocrat was ousted last year and
Islamists took power.
Egypt's representative to the United
Nations called for the meeting in formal letters to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the current head of the council,
India's representative, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a
The Egyptian ambassador expressed Egypt's "serious
alarm at the Israeli aggression on Gaza" and described the attack as a
violation of international law.
He called for urgent
international action, particularly from the council, "to confront this
serious situation which threatens international peace and security."
Foreign Minister Kamel Amr has called on the United States to intervene
and end "Israeli aggression" on the Gaza Strip, state media reported
Amr "requested that the United States immediately
intervene to stop Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people in Gaza",
MENA news agency reported, adding that Amr spoke to U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton by telephone. Iran condemns Israel's Gaza strikes as 'terrorism'
Iran condemned today as "organised terrorism" an offensive by Israel
against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
considers the criminal act of Israeli military forces in killing
civilians as organised terrorism and strongly condemns it," Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the
semi-official Fars news agency.
The spokesman also criticised
what he called "the silence of international organizations claiming to
defend human rights," following the strikes.
Israel killed the military commander of Hamas on Wednesday in an air strike on Gaza and threatened an invasion of the enclave.
Hamas retaliated today by firing dozens of rockets into southern Israel, killing three people. | <urn:uuid:809a1481-d894-48e5-ad2e-69f53f3d8c81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-harshly-condemns-israels-operation-against-gaza.aspx?pageID=238&nID=34704&NewsCatID=352 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937242 | 585 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Batman tragedy as 12 killed
SCORES of people were seated in Theatre 9 of the Century Aurora 16 movie complex in Colorado, engrossed in the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, when the gunman struck.
Wearing a bulletproof vest and a gas mask, he "just appeared" at the front of the cinema, witnesses said, released a gas canister and opened fire.
Terrified patrons scrambled over seats and searched for the exits as the shooter – named by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security as 24-year-old Aurora local James Holmes – sprayed bullets into the theatre, killing 12 people and wounding at least 38.
Tragedy ... Shamecca Davis hugs her son Isaiah Bow, who was a witness to the shooting. Photo: AP
The Denver Post said the youngest victim was a three-month-old baby.
The shooter was arrested shortly after the attack, and law enforcement officials identified him as 24-year-old citizen and neuroscience graduate student James Holmes.
Authorities did not release a motive.
Moviegoers wait across the street as police string crime scene tape around parking lots encircling the movie theatre yesterday in Aurora, Colorado. Photo: AP
Holmes wore body armour, used an assault rifle, a shotgun and a Glock handgun, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said.
He said investigators are confident the gunman acted alone.
FBI agents and police also discovered Holmes' apartment was booby trapped.
James Holmes ... police say he acted alone.
Holmes was studying neuroscience in a PhD program at the University of Colorado-Denver graduate school, university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said.
University officials earlier said he was a student at the university's medical school.
Holmes was in the process of withdrawing at the time of the shootings.
Police released a written statement from Holmes' family: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."
A man who lives next door to the family said Holmes seemed to be shy.
President Barack Obama was woken by aides and told of the tragedy.
"As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family," he told a nation too accustomed to carnage on this scale.
Aurora is half an hour drive from Littleton, where two students of Columbine High School killed 12 students and a teacher in 1999 before killing themselves.
"All of us must have the people of Aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of family, friends, and neighbours, and we must stand together with them in the challenging hours and days to come," Mr Obama said.
The Aurora killing began at 12.30am as the third – and darkest – instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman series unfolded on the screen.
"Witnesses tell us [the gunman] released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire," Aurora police chief Dan Oates said. There were reports the gunman was dressed as Bane – Batman's nemesis in the movie.
Denver reporter Justin Joseph said the man stood up brandishing a gun as soon as Batman appeared on screen.
"As people ran, [he] opened fire, hitting people," Mr Joseph told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
"Police sources have told us there are 10 bodies inside the cinema, most of them children or teenagers, and one baby. A baby was shot at point-blank range. The family were gathered around screaming."
As moviegoers fled for their lives, the gunman escaped to a car park behind the cinema, where he was captured. Mr Joseph said a gas mask, rifle, handgun and at least one additional weapon were found, reportedly in the gunman's car, which was parked in the lot. Police later raided his apartment, where there were reports they found explosives.
Witness Hayden Miller was inside Theatre 16 when he heard several shots.
"Like little explosions going on and shortly after that we heard people screaming," he said.
Hayden at first thought it was part of a louder movie next door. But then he saw "people hunched over leaving theatre".
Paul Otermat, who was inside the cinema, thought it was a "publicity stunt" for the film before the man threw tear-gas at the audience and opened fire.
James Wilburn told the Denver Post he was sitting in the second row when the emergency door to his right opened and a man entered.
"He was dressed in black," Mr Wilburn said, "wearing a flak jacket and a gas mask."
He was carrying a shotgun and had a rifle strapped to his back, Mr Wilburn said. When he started shooting, he hid on the floor.
Once the shotgun was empty, the gunman calmly dropped it to the floor, took the rifle and went on firing.
Naya Thompson, 21, and her 22-year-old boyfriend Derrick Poage were running for their lives.
She said the gas spread and the gunman may have dropped two canisters. "It was like a tear-gas," Ms Thompson said. "I was coughing and choking and I couldn't breathe." | <urn:uuid:69f9c13d-f33d-483a-a53e-6b881ffd3a0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smh.com.au/world/batman-tragedy-as-12-killed-20120720-22g03.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984272 | 1,074 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said they wrote a $1 trillion plan to finance government agencies through Sept. 30 that can win bipartisan support in the House and Senate. (Getty Images)
Sen. Richard Shelby’s debut as the top GOP negotiator on federal spending was marked by a rare show of bipartisanship Tuesday as he and his Democratic counterpart agreed on a $1 trillion plan to finance government agencies through Sept. 30.
The deal, scheduled to be debated this week on the Senate floor, would end the threat of a government shutdown for the next six months by finishing the work left by the previous Congress.
Shelby, R-Ala., and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said they wrote the spending plan to win bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The plan includes many spending decisions already approved by the House and would protect favored programs such as transportation, cybersecurity and scientific research from deeper cuts.
This is the first bill the Senate Appropriations Committee has produced with Mikulski as chairwoman and Shelby as the top-ranking Republican.
If signed by President Obama, the bill will close the book on fiscal 2013, a task Congress should have completed last year. It would allow lawmakers to move on to fiscal 2014 spending issues and 10-year budget negotiations, which are proving controversial.
The government is operating on a stopgap spending bill that expires March 27. Without a deal covering the rest of the fiscal year, or another stopgap bill, the government will shut down.
“Many Americans have lost faith that Republicans and Democrats can work together on anything,” Shelby said. “This bill demonstrates that it’s possible.”
Shelby’s former tenure as top Republican on the Senate banking committee included a blistering partisan dispute over new Wall Street regulations. Compared with that experience, his role on the Appropriations Committee is off to a collegial start.
He and Mikulski and their staffs hammered out details of the spending plan over the past several days behind closed doors. It was released publicly late Monday night, and senators prepared to offer amendments Tuesday.
Mikulski said work on fiscal 2013 spending bills was postponed last fall during the contentious election season.
“Here we are — we’re the cooler heads, and we’re ready to prevail,” she said.
Mikulski said the legislation would hold most federal agencies at fiscal 2012 funding levels and would provide spending plans for defense, military construction, veterans affairs, agriculture, homeland security, commerce, justice and science programs.
“We had to look at not what we would like to do and not even what we should do, but what we must do to keep the government operating in order to achieve the national goals that America wants,” she said.
Shelby said he wanted to maintain funding for programs involving medical research, information technology and cybersecurity.
The proposal complies with spending caps set by the 2011 deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and would give the Defense Department flexibility in implementing its share of $85 billion in fiscal 2013 sequestration spending cuts.
Despite the teamwork, Shelby and Mikulski’s deal ran into controversy Tuesday afternoon.
Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona objected that they hadn’t had enough time to review the 587-page, $1.043 trillion plan. They said some provisions — such as $120 million in public health initiatives for Guam — contradict defense policy agreed to in an earlier law.
“What we have found so far is so egregious,” McCain said.
He complained about $15 million for an incentive program to pay defense contractors an additional 5 percent if work is done by a company owned by a native Hawaiian.
The objections from McCain and Coburn stranded Shelby and Mikulski on the Senate floor Tuesday, unable to start debate on their bill.
Shelby urged his fellow Republicans to drop their objections.
“We’ve got this deadline,” he said. “I don’t think either party is interested ... in going to the brink again.”
Mary Orndorff Troyan reports for the Gannett Washington Bureau. | <urn:uuid:93a422b9-14f6-4479-aca3-e44b15f736ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130313/CONGRESS03/303130001/Senate-appropriators-hash-out-deal-2013-spending?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962528 | 895 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Others call that resilience. Couric’s admirers say she earned it the old--fashioned way: by wringing good out of bad. In March 2000, around the time Couric cofounded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance (NCCRA), she underwent a colonoscopy on Today. Afterward, the U.S. colonoscopy rate increased 20 percent—something researchers dubbedthe Couric Effect. In 2005 she repeated that effort for breast cancer by having a mammogram on the show. Three years later, she joined other celebrities to start Stand Up to Cancer. All told, Couric has helped raise more than $300 million for cancer research, awareness and care.
In 2006, Couric made her next big career move, replacing Dan Rather as CBS Evening News anchor in a situation that partly echoed the one that had brought her to Today. This time a panic over declining ratings was accompanied by a reporting scandal that led to the ousting of a beloved, institutional figure. CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves thought Couric could reverse the damage. Reportedly, Moonves believed that the way to attract viewers to the news was to make it more like entertainment. At his behest, CBS built a new $2.9 million set for her.
But problems occurred before she even made her debut. A portrait of her accompanying a promotional magazine story about the revamped show was Photoshopped by CBS’s photo department to make her look 20 pounds thinner. No one had told Couric that would happen, and when she first saw the picture, she thought, Wow, I look good! But the public caught on to the digital manipulation right away. That month an expert on body image lectured at the school Couric’s 11-year-old daughter attended. The specialist, who didn’t know the child was a student there, projected the altered photo of Couric on a huge screen in order to generate discussion.
Once the show aired, curiosity to see the morning star as the first solo female evening-news network anchor caused a brief bump in the ratings, and more 18- to 49-year-old women tuned in. But the vast majority of evening-news viewers are men over 50, and Couric’s informality irritated them. Some of her new colleagues were peeved, too. Her reported $15 million salary was a huge chunk of the news division’s budget at a time when veteran reporters such as Lesley Stahl were asked to take massive (up to $500,000) pay cuts. For the first time in her career, Couric’s Everest of a Q score (likability rating) declined, and 29 percent of respondents to a 2007 Gallup poll said they did not like her—making her more disliked than either of the other network anchors. On occasion, her professional demeanor faltered. When one of her news editors said sputum, a word that apparently grates on Couric, she hit him on the arm—and continued hitting him in what seemed a sort of rage. The incident made a juicy tabloid story.
Experiencing failure—really, for the first time since not getting into her first-choice college (Smith)—“was an affront to my whole sort of mien,” Couric says. Her younger daughter tried to comfort her.
“Mom, you know what Samantha on Sex and the City says?” Carrie asked. “ ‘If I listened to what every bitch in New York City says about me, I’d never leave the house.’ ”
Couric remembers laughing and telling Carrie, “There is so much wrong with that.”
In 2006 the CBS job wasn’t the only new thing in Couric’s life. Two years after breaking up with TV producer and Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, she began dating Brooks Perlin, an entrepreneur who, tabloids quickly pointed out, is 17 years younger than Couric. Instantly labeled a cougar, the newswoman derided the epithet as “obnoxious” and “stupid.” Few expected either Couric’s tenure at CBS or her relationship with Perlin to last long. Both outlived speculation, but they succumbed almost simultaneously. There were high points during her Evening News tenure, especially her 2008 interview with Sarah Palin. But no serious renewal talks accompanied the end of her five-year contract, and her final sign-off was, according to the New York Times, “almost relieved.” A few months later, Perlin moved out. | <urn:uuid:306a56bd-607f-41b8-8102-97797c2930ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.more.com/entertainment/celebrities-movies-tv-music/unsinkable-katie-couric-0?page=3&quicktabs_2=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973086 | 952 | 1.601563 | 2 |
SHARING BACKYARDS (Oh, Canada! Part III)
This is so, so interesting to me. And not just because it’s Canadian.
I confess; my current city does not have its urban agriculture act together.
It has one (1) community garden, inconveniently located on the outskirts of the city. It took a fair amount of research for me to discover its whereabouts. And while you might think it’d be easy to get a plot in a secret garden once you discovered its magic location, it turns out I’m number 29 on the waiting list and will continue to be so for years.
Clearly, the city could use more than one secret community garden. For perspective, the two adjacent cities have 12 and 15 community gardens each.
My city (my city!) has absorbed “community gardens “ into its “urban space plan,” a project so steeped in bureaucracy that it pits playgrounds for children and community gardens against one another in terms of priority of funding.
Enter “Sharing Backyards,” a project created by Vancouver-based City Farmer.
Sharing Backyards is a program that connects private land-owners (homeowners with yard space) to people who are looking for garden plots.
Bureaucracy-free community gardens.
I’m meeting with some garden-activists tomorrow, and we’ll take a look at the Sharing Backyards model. Truth be told, what works above the 49th parallel does not always (does not usually) work in the States, but it’s worth a try. Community gardens don’t need to be a “city” project, and frankly, many of the most successful, longstanding community gardens in NYC, Boston, and other U.S. cities are the products of grassroots, community, and guerrilla efforts; the official city stamp came much, much later.
If you’re curious, here’s the link to the sharing backyards website:
And if you haven’t checked out City Farmer: http://www.cityfarmer.info/about/ | <urn:uuid:f98139e0-a339-41b0-bbf4-7335f1bbbcca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenextsmallthing.tumblr.com/tagged/locally-grown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934514 | 445 | 1.507813 | 2 |
This post was written by Tom Chernaik, CEO of CMP.LY. At the time I wrote this post, I was working with CMP.LY.
Recent events have brought focus to the digital and social media disclosure requirements for promotions and marketing communications. In the past month, we have seen the FTC hold a daylong workshop on the topic and settle an investigation of Spokeo for $800,000 for violations of both the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and for lack of disclosure by employees. Furthermore, Facebook settled a class action lawsuit for a lack of disclosure around its Sponsored Stories product by pledging to donate $10mm to charity and providing users more information this ad product along with new opt-out options.
Most recently, on June 20, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK ruled against Nike and banned a campaign they were running leading up to the Olympics due to Tweets from sponsored athletes about the brand because they lacked the required disclosures.
With the Olympics around the corner, it seems that London has gone a bit mad about the games. Leveraging that excitement, many brands have focused efforts on social media — in particular leveraging sponsored athletes to help deliver their marketing messages. In early April, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) made public statements about concerns with sponsored Olympic athlete Tweets. The discussion had been brewing since as Tweets were identified in the press about cars, razors and other perks shared with athletes.
Nike was one of the brands cited by the OFT. Back in January, the brand’s campaign was shared in the personal Twitter accounts of two football (soccer in the US) stars, Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere. The ASA received a complaint and investigated the matter.
Nike UK responded that both players were well known for being sponsored by the brand and argued that Twitter “followers” would not be misled about the relationship it had with the players. The company further argued that the web address in the tweet was clearly branded as Nike, and that the message carried the company’s known ad tagline — clearly indicating which tweets by the players were personal and which were ads.
Although Nike indicated that the players were free, as part of the campaign, to independently reply or re-tweet consumer tweets at their own discretion, the ASA said it was understood from its investigation that the final content of the tweets was “agreed with the help of a member of the Nike marketing team”.
Social Media Disclosure Must be Obvious
The ASA said the average Twitter user quickly scrolls through many tweets a day and that the marketing code states that ads must be “obviously identifiable”. (Note that this is similar to the FTC’s “clear and conspicuous”.) The ASA stated:
We considered that the Nike reference was not prominent and could be missed. We considered there was nothing obvious in the tweets to indicate they were Nike marketing communications.
It concluded Nike breached the advertising CAP code. As a result, the campaign has been banned and all of the related posts will have to be removed.
Disclosures in social media are nothing new. Since the FTC’s 2009 update expanding the Guidelines for Testimonials and Endorsements, it has been clear that Tweets, Status Updates and other social messages require disclosure. More than the disclosure itself, the FTC requires that marketers:
- Mandate a policy that is in compliance with the law
- Make sure that those who work for them or on their behalf know what the rules are; and
- Monitor for compliance with their policies
In the UK, both the OFT and the ASA have weighed in, stating that disclosures must be included in such messages and clarifying that even celebrities — traditionally a gray area in the US — must disclose their connections to a brand when they are paid or incentivized.
What’s next for social media disclosure?
What have we learned in the past few weeks of activity? We’ve learned that regulators are serious about ensuring that advertising is not deceptive and that sponsorship or other relationships between brands and their advocates are clearly disclosed.
The good news is that the FTC is expected to issue additional guidance for Dot-Com Disclosures later this year. That document was last updated in 2000, when Mark Zuckerberg was a sophomore in high school and before Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest were even an idea. In advance of the FTC guidance, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) issued an updated draft of their Social Media Disclosure Guidelines this week. (Disclosure: CMP.LY CEO Tom Chernaik is Co-Chair of the Members Ethics Advisory Panel of WOMMA.) The previous version is referenced throughout the FTC’s 2009 update and in the social media policies of countless organizations.
It is our hope that, with this renewed attention from regulators and additional guidance and clarification, marketers will focus on getting attention in all the right ways. We look forward to brands and agencies better understanding that the benefits of transparent disclosures to their client relationships far outweigh the consequences of the alternatives. | <urn:uuid:8918cd44-b2c6-43dc-9e51-8d924c6984e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whizbangpowwow.com/tag/social-media-marketing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978713 | 1,046 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Karl Fessenden: Why International Services Trade Agreements Are NecessaryOctober 23, 2012
Karl Fessenden of GE Power Generation Services, calls for agreements to liberalize international trade in energy services.
While the WTO dithers, it is increasingly clear that modern business needs an international agreement on services. This agreement would support the growth of high-skill jobs in the United States and other countries. It would also enhance the competitiveness of advanced manufacturing, as I recently said in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Trade subcommittee in September.
Services are a driver of job growth. Today, the services sector accounts for nearly 85 percent of non-agricultural U.S. employment. But we can’t rely on simply providing services inside the United States; an ‘export’ of a service takes place every time a U.S. business sells its time and expertise to customers abroad, or to foreign-based customers in the United States. In a global marketplace, services might encompass sending U.S. workers overseas to complete a task, or a U.S. business invoicing a customer abroad for a project completed and delivered over the Internet.
My GE business, Power Generation Services (PGS), provides electric utilities around the world with services to support GE’s gas and steam turbines, as well as other related equipment. I see the importance of services every day. For PGS, service support begins as soon as we install a turbine and lasts until it is retired, which could be as long as 30 years. Our services span from contractual maintenance and equipment repair to parts provisioning and remote monitoring & diagnostics. We have nearly 7,600 employees in over 100 countries – of which 4,100 are based in the US. We have more than 50 GE sites in 15 countries on 6 continents, and we have 9 joint ventures. Many of these people and operations are providing services ‘exports’.
Offering energy services supports the exports of US-made products. Gas turbines are GE’s—and the United States’—biggest clean energy export. Our ability to be a large manufacturer in the US is directly tied to the services we provide and is a key reason our customers purchase power generation equipment from us. Providing services for these turbines (and the related equipment) enables manufacturers, like GE, to maintain a repeat relationship with customers and long-term, post-sale revenue stream.
To continue to succeed, we need the operating certainty and market access that only comes through international agreements—especially given the rise in restrictions on services since 2008.
For example, numerous countries have measures, designed to foster local innovation and production, which require local sourcing or mandatory technology transfers from overseas companies operating on their soil. These are known as “forced local content” or “localization barriers to trade.” Though their objectives might be understandable, they tend to be expensive, result in inefficiencies and in fact dissuade local investment by manufacturers of advanced technologies.
Instead, governments can attract investment in local markets by putting in place policies and regulations that foster a dynamic, entrepreneurial business environment and create “win-win” opportunities for investors and local businesses alike. A services agreement would enable this by increasing market access.
The movement of people is another important issue for PGS. My business relies on its ability to send employees at a moment’s notice to locations around the world and to easily operate and service the equipment we export. However, many countries enact restrictions, such as onerous entry requirements and slow visa application and work permit processes, that impede us from deploying our technicians and delay the host nation from getting its power plants back on line. An agreement to facilitate and speed movement of highly-trained energy services personnel between countries would allow us to serve our customers more efficiently and effectively.
The old vision of trade simply doesn’t reflect modern business. An international agreement to address some of these issues has been stalled for six years at the WTO, but recently, a group of countries, including the United States, began discussing how to expand the WTO’s General Agreements on Trade in Services (known as GATS) next year. They need to address these points.
Today, trade happens through integrated global supply chains and includes life-cycle commitments to servicing, maintaining and operating the goods across international borders. Services today are “sourced” globally, and this allows for new opportunities for jobs. As we expand our business operations and enter more markets, we need to ensure that the system’s rules are sound and reflect modern business—so companies like mine can compete.
If you’re interested in learning more on this topic, check out Brad Jensen’s book on Global Trade in Services for an exhaustive study.
Karl Fessenden is Vice President of Power Generation Services at GE Power and Water. | <urn:uuid:01390d83-6504-483b-88c5-1ac7522a6017> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ideaslaboratory.com/2012/10/23/karl-fessenden-why-international-services-trade-agreements-are-necessary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951445 | 1,006 | 1.640625 | 2 |
- cuts While still leaning on the “Buffett Rule” that he’s been pushing for months and planning to end the Bush tax cuts for the super-rich, Obama’s plan would also cut $2.50 for each dollar raised from tax proposals affecting high income-earners.
- jobs With the GOP blocking much of Obama’s job plan last year, he’s taking another try at it, offering up $350 billion in job-growth spending, which includes $50 billion to improve infrastructure and $60 billion to modernize schools.
- defense Echoing the words of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the budget proposal would cut non-war spending. However, automatic cuts set to kick in next year will likely get replaced by a “balanced deficit-reduction package.” source
Read ShortFormBlog • Follow | <urn:uuid:17d1fcdb-8575-4af5-a846-75c8c3f5ab55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shortformblog.com/post/17552196950/obama-2013-budget-three-things | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9462 | 179 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Businesswoman Angela Simmons is taking a stand against the horse-drawn carriage industry in her open letter to Councilmember Mark Weprin.
In the letter, Simmons discusses the mistreatment of horses by the industry and urges the councilmember to join New Yorkers for Clean, Livable & Safe Streets and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in passing the Intro 86A legislation.
The legislation would phase out horse-drawn carriages in the city and would secure the horses’ safe retirement.
Angela also provides the councilmember an alternative method of transportation for tourists among these methods, including electric vintage-replica tour cars. This solution would be a win-win for both parties.
We hope the Councilmember will meet with Angela soon.
If you’re interested in taking a stand against the injustice, sign the petition here. | <urn:uuid:444221ab-1827-4bf9-8b52-2dd95b29b568> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalgrind.com/node/825428?gpage=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938827 | 177 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Rains damage 0.5m tons rice crop in Sindh
As a result of this, exporters will lose traditional two months advantage of early arrival of crop over other rice producing countries.
Besides, forward selling in rice trade chain, starting from growers, millers and exporters, would cause heavy losses and many foreign contracts would be cancelled.
Arif Hussain Mahesar, president Sindh-Balochistan Rice Mills Association, said since paddy in lower Sindh is normally harvested in September, it gives edge to Pakistani exporters over other countries exporters.
However, damage caused by persistent and heavy rains has hit around 0.5 million tons or 20 to 25 per cent of total paddy of an average of 2.4 millions annually harvested in the province. The five districts of the province, including Badin, Sanghar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas which have been the most affected on an average produce around 0.8 million tons Irri-6 per annum.
However, heavy downpour in these districts has inundated paddy and cotton fields causing heavy damage to the standing crops.
Mr Mahesar estimated that around 0.3 million tons Irri-6 could be harvested in these districts.
Though paddy in upper districts which produces around 75 per cent of the Irri-6 is fully safe but the advantage of early arrival of crop given by lower districts to export trade has been eroded by the damage caused by heavy rains, he added.
He further explained the next paddy crop is due late in October and during two months gap Pakistani exporters would have no Irri-6 to export and they would suffer heavy losses because they would not be able to honour commitments made in the world market.
Mr Mahesar hoped that the upper five districts, including Larkana, Kambat (Shahdad Kot), Shikarpur, Jacocabad and Khandh Kot Kashmor would produce around 1.8 million tons. However, the crop arrival be not before end October 2011, he added.
He said rains have affected paddy over 0.5 million acres in lower districts while the remaining area of 1.25 million acres in upper districts is safe and would enable the country earn substantial foreign exchange.
The rice export had been gradually increasing. Last year the country earned little over $2 billion in foreign exchange. The average price of Irri-6 in the world market current is around $470 per ton.
Courtesy by Dawn.com | <urn:uuid:34ee5078-758a-4cfd-922c-9fcaf93882c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://desiakhbar.com/site/rains-damage-0-5m-tons-rice-crop-in-sindh/ | 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 | 0.955897 | 517 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Security Best Practices Pay OffBy Samuel Greengard | Posted 2012-02-01 Email Print
Well-prepared companies fare significantly better than their competitors when faced with IT security threats.
IT security concerns never go out of style.
The recent data breach at Zappos.com—in which 24 million customers had personal information stolen—is just the latest in a seemingly endless series of reminders that a comprehensive and multi-layered security strategy is essential to any business.
According to Symantec’s 2012 Endpoint Security Best Practices Survey, endpoint attacks—including malware, spam, denial-of-service attacks, vandalism and outright theft—cost the typical organization about $470,000 annually. The report cites a number of common problems that result from these threats, including: IT labor costs required to apply fixes after an attack; loss of organizational, customer, and employee data; and damage to an organization’s brand and reputation.
But attention to the problem pays off. Particularly interesting is Symantec’s assertion that “top-tier” or best practice organizations are approximately 2.5 times less likely to have experienced a large number of endpoint attacks in the past year. They’re also 3.5 times less likely to have experienced downtime and they have about 4 times less downtime than other organizations. The report surveyed 1,425 IT professionals from 32 countries.
What constitutes a top-tier company? According to Symantec, nearly 100 percent of them promptly apply OS and application updates to endpoints and infrastructure, including physical and virtual servers, desktop machines and mobile devices.
Best practice companies also use firewall protection, intrusion detection and deploy tools to prevent the unauthorized copying of data to and from peripheral devices, including USB drives. Encryption, access control, data loss prevention and reputation-based security are the most commonly used technologies.
But the report also points out that best practice security is more than the sum of tools and technologies. An overwhelming 99 percent of these top performers provide some form of employee security training, with 82 percent doing so at least once a year.
By contrast, poor performers secure only about 20 percent of their physical endpoints and 10 percent of their virtual servers. Remarkably, roughly half from this group consider technologies such as encryption, access control, data loss prevention and reputation-based security as somewhat or extremely necessary, and only 66 percent train employees at least once a year. | <urn:uuid:2c121258-f63b-4d80-8f7e-73e8e74985e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Security/Security-Best-Practices-Pay-Off-790551/ | 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 | 0.941335 | 497 | 1.617188 | 2 |
This is my second submission to Yeastspotting…
The recipe for this traditional wheat bread from England comes from Dan Lepard’s book “The Handmade Loaf”, that I mentioned before. I’ve made quite a few breads from it, and at first this one seemed a little too involved, because it required not only a levain (sourdough starter), but also a barm . But, I was inspired to try it after reading a wonderful post about it.
Lepard came up with a nice strategy to duplicate the barm at home by taking a bottle-conditioned beer, and adding to it a small amount of your own levain. It’s a simple bread once the barm is ready and bubbly…
125g Chimay beer (or other beer containing live yeast)
25g bread flour
2 tsp white levain (commercial or made from scratch)
Heat the beer to 160F, remove from the heat and quickly add the flour. Transfer to a bowl and allow it to cool to 68F, then add your white levain. Leave it at room temperature overnight or until it is very bubbly (my barm fermented for 30 hours).
To make the bread dough…
125g water at room temperature
250g bread flour
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
Mix the barm in a large bowl with the water to completely dissolve it, then add the flour and salt. Mix it all with your hands; it will be pretty shaggy and you will doubt that it will ever become smooth…. don’t worry, just let the dough sit there for 10 minutes, covered.
Now follow this timeline, kneading for 10 to 15 seconds (yes, seconds) at each timepoint:
10 minutes / 20 minutes / 30 minutes / 1 hour / 2 hours /3 hours / 5 hours
After 5 hours, knead it briefly again, allow the dough to relax for 10-20 minutes, and shape it into a “boule” (see one method here). Gently transfer it to your vessel of choice for the final rise (about 4 hours) before baking. I used a banetton lined with a fine cloth, sprinkled with cornmeal.
The bread will rise to 1.5X its initial volume; when you press it gently with a finger, it should feel airy and light. I baked mine in a clay pot at 430F for 30 minutes covered, and for 15 additional minutes with the lid off.
This bread is a winner in every way: flavor, crust and crumb texture, and looks. The beer gives it a subtle sourness completely different from a regular sourdough, made with levain only. It is a perfect match for a ham sandwich, or to go along a hearty soup or salad. I kept thinking about split pea soup while munching on the bread. I’ll definitely make it again, with different beers and flour mixtures, as advised in Lepard’s book.
jump for more comments….
General comments: please, don’t be put off by the time it takes to make this bread. Even though it’s about 10 hours from beginning to end, it’s essentially a hands-free time. Also, you can start the bread in the afternoon and let it rise in the fridge overnight. Next morning bring the bread to room temperature, let it rise for a couple of hours and bake it. Some bakers say that you can put the bread straight from the fridge into the oven, but I prefer to slowly warm it up.
Several recipes in Dan Lepard’s book follow similar timing – once you make them a few times, you’ll become familiar with how the dough behaves, and… trust me: paraphrasing Star Trek, “Resistance is futile”. You will be hooked…
Around the 2 hour mark, the dough will show a definite change in texture,and you can tell the gluten is developing. After 3 hours air bubbles will appear, and soon you’ll learn how to treat them right: no excessive force, no excessive gentleness. The way you handle the dough in its final shaping will deeply affect the crumb texture. Don’t crush the air bubbles, but also don’t leave a huge air pocket in the middle of your bread!
With bread baking, practice is everything. Pick a recipe and make it over and over and over… remember, it’s only flour, water, a tiny bit of yeast and salt!
Important note to self: not a good idea to turn the beer bottle up and down a few times to distribute the yeast inside before opening it. Don’t know what I was thinking, but a lot of beer and time was lost in the process of cleaning the mess. | <urn:uuid:1495166b-3e66-4eb6-8345-ab146213a81d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bewitchingkitchen.com/2009/09/09/barm-bread/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937579 | 1,013 | 1.742188 | 2 |
As cloud services pick up speed in the private sector, questions about security, cost savings, implementation and best-practice models have emerged in concert with its rapid growth and adoption. But are institutions of higher learning following suit? Cambridge, MA-based Forrester Consulting turned their focus on 12 universities in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, India, and New Zealand, surveying CIOs and IT directors for their July 2012 report “Cloud Bursts Into Higher Education.”
They found out how and why these schools are employing the cloud; plus they give some suggestions as to where the partnership between higher education and the cloud is headed.
So, how is Higher Ed approaching cloud services?
The Forrester study found that universities are adopting cloud services to boost productivity, and speed, budget, and scalability were the top three features university interviewees valued most about cloud services. But the study uncovered an interesting dynamic: professors and department staff are leading the way with cloud services at their universities, implementing cloud applications as needed, and circumventing the IT department. One side benefit of this autonomy is that IT departments can then focus their resources on other, critical IT tasks.
Echoing concerns coming from the private sector, universities are concerned about security. In fact, the report states “security is the No. 1 roadblock to cloud service adoption.” For schools, the two primary concerns are keeping research (intellectual property) and private student information confidential and secure.
The most common cloud adoption right now is the private cloud, with many of these schools keeping private information, like emails and research, on their private cloud, and “student-related information” on the schools’ servers. The report does note, however, that hybrid clouds are in use, and expected to increase. Additionally, as academic institutions partner up to offer expanded learning experiences, often online, expect to see a growth in the use of community clouds for sharing research and course materials.
Lastly, schools are looking to the cloud for cost savings; however, as cloud usage goes up so do costs. While several interviewees claimed significant cost savings with adoption of various cloud models, in one example the “expanded use of the services over three to seven years raised the cost of SaaS to nearly even with the cost of a perpetual license and on-premises deployment.” In other words, as academic staff and students become more familiar and comfortable with using cloud services, related costs increase, thereby erasing some of the gains.
Learning the Cloud Way – Part II | <urn:uuid:dce499a0-62cc-4ba4-9afa-e3d8c9d92e67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ivci.com/2013/03/04/leaning-the-cloud-way-part-i/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963199 | 528 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Huxley , circa 1964
Rick Huxley was an English musician who was the bassist for The Dave Clark Five, a group that was part of the British Invasion.
Born in Dartford, Kent, he joined the group in 1958, and played on all of the band's hits including "Glad All Over" and "Bits and Pieces". After the group disbanded in 1970, Huxley pursued a career in property as well as continuing to be involved in the music business. He was in attendance and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2008 as part of the DC5, also in attendance were Lenny Davidson and Dave Clark.
Huxley died on Monday, at the age of 72, after suffering from emphysema for some years. | <urn:uuid:8cb5be92-f865-49be-9b84-70e17f0e7557> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75091&mobile=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993833 | 163 | 1.5 | 2 |
Carriers, News 757, 777, 787, 787 dreamliner, A320, a330, A330-200, a330-300, A350, Airbus, airbus a330, aircraft model, airplane model, b777, Boeing, Boeing 757, Boeing 787, boeing 787 dreamliner, desktop model, Dreamliner, mahogany model, model aircraft, model airplane, model plane, plane model, scale model, warplanes, wood plane model, wooden airplane model
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus is considering beefing up its A330 passenger jet in a bid to expand a recent winning sales streak for the junior member of its wide-body jet family, the planemaker said on Monday.
While the twin-engined aircraft, in service since the 1990s, is enjoying a second honeymoon with airlines due, in part, to delays in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, analysts say it faces a threat from a possible stretched version of the 787.
An Airbus spokeswoman said a decision on how to enhance the A330 would be taken in the second half of the year.
The EADS unit is considering increasing the maximum amount of weight the A330 can carry by up to 5 tonnes and adding drag-reducing wingtip devices called “sharklets” — upward-slanting wingtips designed to help the aircraft fly further on the same amount of fuel.
They are already planned for the smaller narrowbody A320 and similar devices appear on some Boeing 757s.
A330 sales have flourished in the past two years as Boeing encountered delays in bringing out its carbon-composite 787, which recently entered service.
It has shorter range than either the 787 or Airbus’s planned carbon-fibre alternative, the future A350, but has sold well to airlines operating intermediate long-haul routes.
With the changes under consideration, the A330 would be able to lift up to 240 tonnes at take-off, Airbus said — an increase of 5 tonnes for the most popular variant, the A330-300, and 2 tonnes for the A330-200.
Increasing the maximum take-off weight allows airlines to add more fuel to carry the same number of people and their baggage further, or else carry a larger payload.
France’s La Tribune newspaper said the moves to increase the maximum tolerated weight at take-off would add 7 percent to the range of the A330, potentially giving it a range over 7,000 nautical miles.
With a three-class layout, the A330-300 carries 295 people up to 5,650 nautical miles or 10,500 kilometres, while the A330-200 — a later spin-off with a shorter fuselage and more range — takes 253 people up to 12,500 km.
Boeing has said it was considering a stretched version of its 787 called the 787-10 that would carry about 300 people approximately 6,800 nautical miles.
The move has been described by an industry official familiar with Boeing pre-marketing as a potential “A330 killer”.
The skirmish addresses a lucrative niche of the industry alongside high-profile battles between the A350 and Boeing’s 787 and the older but larger 777, which had record sales last year.
Airbus has said the carbon A350 will eventually outshine the 777 because it will be lighter and cheaper to run, while Boeing was expected to make similar claims about the 787-10 against the A330, which stems from roughly the same era as the 777.
Carriers, News 777, 777X, 787, Airbus A350-1000, aircraft models, airplane models, b777, B777X, Boeing, boeing 777, Boeing 777X, custom models, helicopter models, model airplanes, model helicopters, model planes, plane models, Popular Airlines, warplanes, wooden airplane models
Boeing is looking at expansive and more modest changes to the 777 widebody to keep the product viable, but a strategy decision is not likely soon, says Air Lease Corp. Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy.
Boeing is already in talks with potential customers about the so-called 777X, says Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Jim Albaugh.
Some of the proposals being looked at include a brand-new engine to replace the GE90, which General Electric would first have to develop, Udvar-Hazy says.
Also on the agenda are potentially a new wing, or, at least, aerodynamic improvements.
Udvar-Hazy says the options range from major changes to a Band-Aid approach to keep the aircraft competitive versus the Airbus A350-1000.
Some options are “extremely costly, in terms of development and would involve significant redesign of the airplane,” he says.
The near-term focus for Boeing will be on getting the 787 into customer hands, he adds, so, “I don’t think Boeing is going to come to any quick decision.”
Blog Articles, News, Travel A380, b777, b777-200, fifa, worldcup
2010 Fifa World Cup mascot
With millions of fans all over the world trying to fly to South Africa to root for their favorite teams in the famed World Cup, airliners have also joined in the hype like KLM Royal Dutch Airlines recently placing more flights bound for Africa. And the battle between Spain and Germany on Wednesday could result to a multi-million dollar bonus for airlines as thousands of fans flock to South Africa hoping to watch the game live.
KLM was quoting EUR€4,000 for an economy ticket leaving on Friday and returning Tuesday, but seats were available for about EUR€1,450 with a longer stay as seen on the company’s website.
As the game finals are drawing near, a showdown between the world’s three major airlines alliances wherein each has a flag carrier representing one of the remaining teams have sprung.
Merged in 2004, KLM and its sister airline, Air France, are part of the Skyteam alliance. Iberia, together with its planned merger partner British Airways, is part of the “oneworld” global airlines club. Germany’s Lufthansa and South African Airways are part of the Star Alliance.
KLM will add four flights to Johannesburg, three from Amsterdam and one from Paris. A spokeswoman of Air France said that the airline already operates an A380 superjumbo daily from Paris to Johannesburg and could bring in another 250-seat Boeing 777-200.
The A380 Superjumbo jet of Air France
Last month, Lufthansa flew the German team to South Africa on its recently acquired A380 and is hoping the world’s largest airliner will bring luck to the team. Spokesman Jan Baerwalde said “If they win the Cup, we have promised to bring the team back again on the A380.”
Lufthansa's newly delivered A380 superjumbo jet
News Airbus A320, b777, B787, Boeing 737, Boeing Dreamliner, Obama
In a meeting with his Russian counterpart last week, President Barack Obama lauded Russian Technologies plan to buy 50 Boeing 737s.
“I am especially pleased that Boeing and Russian Technologies are moving forward with a $4 billion deal on 50 Boeing 737s,” Obama said.
Russian Technologies (Rostechnologii) announced June 1 that it had chosen Boeing’s 737 over Airbus’ A320 for the large new narrow-body airliner order. The state-owned company operates carrier Rosavia and is working with Aeroflot on a deal for that carrier to lease some of the jets.
Thursday last week, Boeing announced it had signed a five-year contract extension with Russia’s VSMPO AVISMA Corp. and an agreement with Innovation Center of Skolkovo, Russia, during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s U.S. visit.
VSMPO AVISM has supplied raw material and titanium parts to Boeing since 1997. The extension continues deliveries of titanium forgings and rough-machined titanium forgings for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, 777 and 737 aircraft through 2015.
“This contract is another milestone in Boeing’s longstanding relationship with Russian Technologies/VSMPO-AVISMA — our strategic partner and supplier in Russia,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Jim Albaugh said in a news release.
Boeing expects to spend as much as $27 billion on Russian titanium, aerospace design-engineering services and other services and materials over the next 30 years.
Blog Articles b777, b777 model plane, boeing 777, boeing 777 model plane, md-11, md-11 model plane, md11, md11 model plane
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the company that invented overnight shipping 38 years ago, has made international express shipping even faster with the unveiling today of its first Boeing 777 Freighter (777F) during ceremonies with The Boeing Company in Everett, Wash. FedEx Express is the first U.S.-based global all-cargo freight airline to take delivery of the 777F, and has placed the largest order for the aircraft model to date.
“The Boeing 777 is an extraordinary testament to our dedication to fleet enhancement, allowing FedEx Express to provide unmatched services to our customers around the world” said David J. Bronczek, president and chief executive officer, FedEx Express. “Its payload capacity, range and environmental efficiencies create well-rounded, long-term strategic value for our company in meeting the global shipping demands of customers.”
Introduction of the 777F to the FedEx fleet of more than 650 aircraft expands what is already the world’s largest cargo airline. Its international routes will provide service benefits to customers and enhance the efficiency of the FedEx Express global network.
The 777F is the world’s largest twin-engine cargo aircraft. Its flight range, the equivalent of about 6,675 land miles, or nearly three times the approximate distance between the east and west coasts of the U.S., is the longest of any two-engine freighter, with a payload capacity of 215,000 pounds (98 metric tons).
This represents an increase in range of more than 2,400 miles and an additional 14,000pounds of payload over the MD-11 freighter, which until now has been the primary long-haul aircraft in the company’s fleet.
The global freighter’s range enables FedEx Express to fly between major markets and hubs in Asia, Europe and the U.S. with more freight and in less time than it takes today, allowing latercut-off times for customers in the markets to drop off their shipments. For example, 777F transit times from points in Asia to the U.S. will be from one to three hours faster than those of the MD-11.
By April 2010, FedEx Express plans to have four 777Fs serving routes between Asia and the U.S. In all, there will be 15 777Fs in the company’s fleet by the end of fiscal 2014; FedEx Express also has a second order of 15 777Fs, which will be delivered between fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2019, and holds options on 15 more 777Fs. | <urn:uuid:de255acd-fd62-48b8-b0e4-f2bad531ca11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.warplanes.com/tag/b777/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930343 | 2,380 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Project 1: Pilot study and evaluation
The pilot study was the initial phase of the eViP programme. Here, each partner explored the feasibility of repurposing and enriching Virtual Patient (VP) examples selected from the existing VP collections. These were repurposed and enriched in different ways, and for different purposes.
Partners obtained feedback from the staff regarding the repurposing and enrichment of VPs, and also student feedback from those who had used the repurposed VPs.
Each partner institution selected the appropriate VP cases for the pilot study from the existing VP collections and repurposed an existing VP from one context to another.
In addition, some VPs could be “content enriched”, which means that additional multi-media, animations, and supportive material that would enhance the VP could be added.
As part of this initial pilot study, a total of 19 VPs were repurposed and enriched.
The pilot study also enabled eViP partners to develop their expertise in a variety of areas. For example, Karolinska Institutet is heavily involved in repurposing VPs to different cultures and languages focused on repurposing and enriching VPs for assessment. On the other hand, Jagiellonian University, Poland, successfully adapted LMU Munchen University’s VPs for their own culture. LMU, which already had a large VP collection for Continuing Medical Education purposes, focused on repurposing the VPs for undergraduates.
Because of the various types of repurposing and enrichment undertaken by the various eViP partners, the evaluation criteria differed. However as a minimum, all partners agreed to evaluate and obtain feedback from staff involved in the repurposing and content enrichment process; after all, this was the main focus of the pilot study.
The majority of partners also conducted supplementary student evaluation and feedback to better inform the pilot study. Some examples can be seen below:
“I would definitely say that it’s easier to convert an existing case than it is to create a new case from scratch.[...] If there were more places to find good quality e-learning resources to enrich patient cases then that would speed up the process”. (respondent on the University of Warwick pilot study evaluation)
“Much more environmentally friendly. Interactive choices was a good way to get us thinking about the case” (Student feedback on St George’s University pilot study evaluation)
Many partners initially found the repurposing and enrichment of the VPs to be time consuming, although they expected the process to accelerate. Students responded very well to this pilot study.
Without any attempt at regulation or co-ordination, the partners in this pilot study demonstrated repurposing and enriching for the majority of uses described in the original rationale for VPs.
However, repurposing and enriching in this exercise was not attempting to investigate the issue of multilingual access (through metadata for example), since these issues are dealt with in Project 2 and Project 3, but rather to look beyond that step to the point where partners and non-partners would attempt to repurpose and enrich the VPs for their own needs. | <urn:uuid:8d1951e2-8890-49cc-88f4-bf8a92bfe61f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virtualpatients.eu/evip-wp1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954138 | 654 | 1.59375 | 2 |
UPDATE: On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government on 3 out of the 4 major issues, most notably declaring that the Arizona immigration law SB 1070 pre-empted (trumped) federal law. The court rejected the parts of the law that: 1) Make it a state crime for illegal immigrants not to possess their federal registration cards; 2) Make it a crime for illegal immigration to work, apply for work or solicit work; 3) Allow state and local police to arrest illegal immigrants without a warrant when probably cause exists that they committed “any public offense that makes the person removable from the United States.”
The only issue that the Court did not decide was the provision which requires officers to check the immigration status of individuals subsequent to a lawful arrest. This was left to the state courts to interpret further. There is a chance that if the state courts interpret the "status check" provision too broadly, that it will make its way back to SCOTUS as early as next term. The Court suggested that the interpretation would have to be narrow to survive.
On Friday President Obama graced the White House Rosewood Garden to announce an executive action that would put an end to the deportation of some undocumented youth brought here as children by their parents.
Accompanying the new policy, is also a deferred action provision for a period of two years subject to renewal as well as eligibility for worker's authorization for those who meet certain requirements.
This is an unprecedented move by a president whose administration has deported more illegal immigrants than previous administrations. While this is a watered down version of the DREAM Act, because it won't grant a path towards citizenship, it has strategically shaken up the political landscape that will either cost or seal the president's reelection in November.
Similar to the DREAM Act, the new law is set to apply to those undocumented youth under the age of 16 who have been in the U.S. for 5 years or more and are willing to pursue an education or join the military.
The law will also apply to those who do not present a risk to national security or public safety and are under the age of 30. Unlike the DREAM Act, it does not provide a pathway to citizenship. The president emphasized in his speech that this is by no means an amnesty but, in his own words, "a temporary stop-gap measure that will allow us to focus resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people."
The decision has sparked debate across the country and on the blogosphere. Some have questioned the motives behind the sudden change in policy, while others have commended the president for finally making some good on the promises he made in 2008.
Under the new directives, an estimated 830,000 people will be added into an already stagnant labor market. This has caused some of the president's critics to condemn his decision as a betrayal to the American people whose livelihoods are still compromised by unsolved problems ailing the economy.
However, and most importantly, through this executive action President Obama has expanded his advantage over his main opponent. Mitt Romney will have to act strategically or risk seeing his campaign sink. During the Republican primaries, Romney took on a hard line approach to illegal immigration promising to act swiftly against undocumented immigrants if elected.
Obama's new law serves as a litmus test to Romney, whose supporters will expect a promise to rescind the executive order once elected. However, expressing explicitly that he would take such actions will certainly cost him the Latino vote. Romney, currently on a six-city bus tour promoting his campaign, announced a very brief response to the policy shift several hours after the president's statement.
In the footage, Romney disagrees with Obama's approach but with a more subtle and tolerant tone -- very different from the one he displayed during the primaries.
Whether a self-serving or misguided approach to a long-term issue, as many have argued, this is a prudent campaign strategy that might have just sealed the deal for the president in key swing states such as Nevada and New Mexico.
In addition, as I have argued in a previous article, similar to Arizona's SB1070 and other draconian legislation that some states have put in place, Obama's new policy is an action stemming from Congress' inaction and incompetence in handling the immigration problem.
On countless occasions, Obama has repeated the redundant line, "send me the DREAM Act, put it on my desk, and I will sign it right away." Congress' failure to devise a comprehensive immigration reform that addresses our economic needs and secures our political interests has forced the president's hand to act without their discretion.
This is indeed an enormous victory for courageous DREAMERS and activists across the country whose growing popularity has landed them on the cover of the June 2012 issue of Time magazine. Through relentless persistence and by publicly embracing their undocumented status, these young people are slowly but surely carving out a space for themselves in the political landscape of America.
And regardless of their non-citizenship status, these people through their family ties, have the ability to swing the election pendulum to Obama's favor. | <urn:uuid:1c88fce6-c89b-4ccb-93af-219cdebc6a1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.policymic.com/articles/9776/obama-immigration-policy-will-change-the-face-of-the-2012-election&op= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971644 | 1,043 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Disneyland opened in 1955 with much fanfare -- and a great many problems, causing opening day to be referred to as "black Sunday" by cast members. Some of these problems included:
Because of a plumber's strike during construction, Walt had to choose between having mechanical elephants in the Jungle Cruise ride squirt water out of their noses and having enough bathrooms in the park. Walt chose the elephants.
Some of the cement in the park had been set over night and was still wet on opening day. A guest who foolishly brought her chihuahua dog to the park (apparently because she didn't understand exactly what kind of "park" this was) became hysterical when she discovered that her pet was missing and its leash was embedded in cement that was quickly drying in the morning sun.
The park was overcrowded because a talented forger had created thousands of fake tickets and was selling them from his small home overlooking Santa Monica bay. For years after this, people referred to buying inexpensive items of dubious quality as "shopping at the bay." Almost half a century later, the term was immortalized when "The Bay" became "eBay."
Because there was nobody counting how many people boarded the River Belle, the riverboat was filled way beyond capacity. It sunk at the far end of Tom Sawyer Island. There were (thankfully) no significant injuries, but the boat was so large and sank so deep that it was impossible to raise. Years later, filmmaker James Cameron went down in a submersible and filmed the wreckage as part of a fascinating Imax film. The River Belle was replaced almost exactly a year later by a sister ship, the Mark Twain, and a few pieces of wreckage that floated to the surface were used in the building of the River Belle Terrace restaurant.
At one point in the day, Fantasyland had to be closed due to a gas leak. This incident lead to a rather rude joke being told at Grumpy's expense for years to follow.
On the morning of opening day, Walt Disney took a quick spin around the park and was disappointed that there were so many areas left incomplete or unfinished. As a last-minute fix, he had name tags printed for dozens of employees with Latin names on them. The idea was that the fancy-sounding names would give the impression of a park filled with foreign intellectuals and distract guests from other problems. | <urn:uuid:492ed132-200f-4212-b5f1-c3c576889e5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disneylies.com/disneyland/more/opening.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990167 | 485 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
This is the one who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
For there are three that testify:
the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth--and not I only, but also all who know the truth--
because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.
It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.
And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.
Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.
Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.
The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.
They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.
We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.
So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone--and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.
I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name. | <urn:uuid:1e21a36e-3393-451e-96c2-76b94e92f7f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/passage.aspx?q=1%20John+5:;2%20John+1:;3%20John+1: | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987766 | 1,320 | 1.5 | 2 |
UNICEF reports an increase in deaths in the last four months. As CNN's Rafael Romo reports, some blame the political crisis.
Hondurans will answer two questions Sunday when the troubled Central American nation holds elections: Who will win the presidency, and will voters heed calls for a boycott?
Closing argument wrapped up Friday in the trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief accused of killing thousands of people three decades ago.
Prosecutors in the trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief asked a U.N.-backed Cambodian court Wednesday to sentence the man to 40 years in prison for his role in the torture and deaths of thousands.
A Chinese blogger who helped victims of a devastating earthquake has been sentenced to three years in prison, his attorney said Monday.
Raul Castro's government in Cuba continues to repress civil rights and persecute dissenters three years after he became the communist nation's top leader, Human Rights Watch says in a report released Wednesday.
Chinese authorities should abolish secret jails used to unlawfully detain citizens who travel to the capital and other major cities to file complaints, Human Rights Watch says.
More than 200 indigenous people who refused to vacate their land in eastern Paraguay were sprayed late last week with what some believe was pesticide, sending seven to the hospital, a government cabinet member said this week.
A global human rights group is urging Kenya to stop Somali military recruiters from enlisting displaced men and boys in Kenya's sprawling Dadaab refugee camps to fight in their war against Islamic militants.
The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution endorsing a U.N. report calling for both Israel and Palestine to carry out independent investigations of possible war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip during last winter's conflict.
A resolution calling for independent investigations into alleged war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during last winter's Gaza war was the focus of debate in the U.N. General Assembly.
The war crimes tribunal trying Bosnian genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic is imposing a lawyer on him, it announced Thursday.
Nearly two dozen Americans -- most thought to work for the CIA -- were sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday by an Italian court for their role in the seizing of a suspected terrorist in Italy in 2003, the prosecutor in the case told CNN.
The Italian government is vowing to fight a European court ruling that crucifixes in classrooms violate students' right to freedom of religion.
Bosnian war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic launched a full-throated attack on the International War Crimes Tribunal Tuesday, as he appeared at a hearing to discuss his refusal to appear for trial.
Grammy Award-winning Beniniose singer Angelique Kidjo performs at the Culture Project U.N. Day Concert.
Grammy-winning singer Angelique Kidjo joined human rights activists to demand courts martial for troops who publicly gang raped women in the streets of the West African country of Guinea last month.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic was released from prison in Sweden Tuesday, after serving two thirds of an 11-year sentence for crimes against humanity.
CNN's Paula Hancocks reports on the lack of water in Gaza refugee camps.
Israel is denying Palestinians access to adequate water supplies by controlling shared water resources, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday.
Prosecutors in the long-awaited war crimes trial of Radovan Karadzic said they will push ahead Tuesday, though the Bosnian Serb leader is expected to be a no-show once again.
U.N. judges adjourned the long-awaited war-crimes trial of Radovan Karadzic on Monday after the former Bosnian Serb leader refused to appear on the opening day.
The Israeli government has ruled out setting up an independent investigative body that would interview Israeli military personnel about allegations that the military committed war crimes during its offensive against Hamas earlier this year.
The human rights group Amnesty International is calling on Nigeria to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir if he attends an African Union Summit there on Thursday.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic intends to skip the start of his war crimes trial because he says he has had too little time to prepare, a spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Thursday.
CNN's Paula Hancocks asks the Israeli president about the Goldstone report, Iran and Israel's relationship with Turkey.
Israeli President Shimon Peres rejected a United Nations report on his country's incursion into Gaza as "one-sided" and "unfair" in an interview with CNN.
The United Nations Council for Human Rights approved a controversial report Friday which accuses Israel and Hamas of "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during the December-January war in Gaza.
The U.N. Council for Human Rights began debate Thursday over whether to adopt the recommendations of a controversial U.N. report examining the three-week winter war between Israel and the militant group Hamas in Gaza.
While President Obama takes plenty of heat over his plans to overhaul domestic policies, critics have also taken aim at his foreign policy approach, particularly as it relates to human rights around the globe.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour leads a discussion on the U.S. administration's record on international human rights.
Humanitarian organizations have been unable to meet the "massive needs" of civilians facing brutal attacks in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a medical aid group said Wednesday.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked to investigate whether Panama tortured an Ecuadorian citizen who was being held as an illegal immigrant, an official hemispheric human rights organization said.
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session Thursday to reopen discussion of Israel's three-week offensive against the Islamic militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a Monday speech at the opening session of the Knesset, slammed a United Nations report critical of Israel's tactics during its offensive into Gaza.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday defended a controversial decision to defer action on a United Nations report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes.
A group of independent U.N. experts expressed concern Friday over the increased use of mercenaries in Honduras, where a de facto president has been in power since a military-led coup in June.
The Dalai Lama, accepting a human rights prize from a U.S. foundation Tuesday, chastised the United States for not fully addressing the economic divide between its poorest and richest citizens.
A controversial emergency decree limiting some freedoms in Honduras remained in place Tuesday, despite de facto President Roberto Micheletti's stated intention to repeal it.
Palestinians on Tuesday urged the United Nations to "punish" Israel as a scathing U.N. report accused the nation of war crimes during its military offensive in Gaza last winter.
Former President Carter has contacted the de facto president of Honduras to urge a resolution to the crisis in the Central American country.
The de facto president of Honduras denied Wednesday that his government turned off the power at the embassy where deposed President Jose Manual Zelaya surprisingly reappeared this week, and said that the people inside were free to come and go.
This week world leaders will gather in New York for the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be among them, Iranians reject his claim to leadership. They strongly oppose any meeting or recognition of Ahmadinejad, especially by President Obama.
A United Nations report issued Tuesday says both Israel and the Palestinians committed actions amounting to war crimes during Israel's military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18.
Villagers march more than 300 kilometers from northwest Cambodia to ask the prime minister to save their homes from developers. Some 400 families in the country's south learn their farmland had been given to developers only when bulldozers arrive.
Iran is spending more time investigating the victims of torture and rape behind bars than investigating those who committed such abuses, a human rights group claimed Thursday.
Death row inmates in Japan spend decades in isolation and face inhuman conditions that can lead to mental illness, Amnesty International said Thursday.
A woman put on trial for wearing clothing deemed indecent by Sudanese authorities was jailed Monday for refusing to pay a court-ordered fine, her lawyer said.
A Sudanese journalist on trial for indecency is ordered to pay a fine. CNN's David McKenzie reports.
The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba is endangering the health of millions by limiting Cubans' access to medicines and medical technology, human rights group Amnesty International alleged Wednesday.
At least 1,000 prisoners are on death row in Iraq, which now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, the human rights group Amnesty International says in a report being released Tuesday.
An Amnesty International report says Iraq has one of the highest execution rates in the world. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
Disturbing video appears to show executions style killings during the Sri Lankan war. CNN's Sara SIdner reports.
Over the past year, Saudi Arabia has arrested 44 al Qaeda suspects across the country, the Saudi interior ministry announced on Wednesday.
Hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months, some by the nation's security forces, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
A new Human Rights Watch report catalogues the systematic assault on Iraq's gay community. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.
Iran should release seven Baha'i prisoners accused of espionage because it does not have any evidence against them, their lawyer Shirin Ebadi told CNN on Saturday.
The trial of seven Baha'i prisoners accused of espionage in Iran will begin on Tuesday, despite that one of their lawyers is now behind bars and the other is outside the country, state-run media reported Saturday.
Iran reportedly plans next week to put on trial seven Baha'i prisoners accused of espionage, even though one of their lawyers has become a fellow detainee and the other is outside the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lays out commitment and expectations during an 11-day, seven nation trip to Africa
The young girl whispered in a hushed tone. She looked down as she spoke, only glancing up from her dark round eyes every now and then. She wanted to tell more, but she was too ashamed. She was just 9 years old when, she says, Congolese soldiers gang-raped her on her way to school.
The European Union, France and Britain denounced Iran's ongoing mass trial after two embassy employees and a French citizen appeared in court Saturday on charges related to post-presidential election violence.
There was an "alarming spike" in the number of Iranian executions between the disputed June 12 presidential election and Wednesday's inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term, Amnesty International reported Friday.
Palestinian militant groups including the armed wing of Hamas are committing war crimes when they fire rockets into Israel, according to a report by campaign group Human Rights Watch.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on her biggest international trip yet: Africa. Seven countries in 11 days. Issues as diverse as economic entrepreneurship and gender-based violence.
A human rights group urged Burundi to reverse a law that makes homosexuality illegal, saying it risks worsening the harsh treatment of gays in the eastern Africa nation.
Human rights groups pressed Friday for information on how a fundamentalist Islamist sect leader died and are seeking an investigation.
Nicaragua's total ban on abortion is a "cruel, inhuman disgrace" that's led to the rise in maternal deaths, human rights organization Amnesty International has said.
The head of a leading Russian human rights group accused the presidents of Russia and Chechnya of complicity in murdering their top activist in Chechnya.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports on reaction to the killing of prominent Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova.
Protesters across six continents on Saturday demanded the release of hundreds of detainees in Iran who were arrested in the bloody aftermath of the Islamic republic's disputed presidential election.
CNN's Paula Newton and Frederik Pleitgen report on protests in dozens of cities in support of the Iranian opposition party.
CNN's Nic Robertson reviews Amnesty Intl.'s claim Saudi Arabia is abusing human rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
Saudi Arabia's campaign against the al Qaeda terrorist network has led to "massive human rights violations" by security forces, including torture and the arrests of non-violent reformists, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday.
Police and soldiers killed at least 133 people during two days of riots between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria last year, Human Rights Watch alleged Monday.
Government agents used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, and beat and kidnapped a human rights lawyer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Saturday, citing witnesses.
One of Iran's most powerful clerics makes provocative comments inciting more protests. CNN's Reza Sayah reports.
A leading human rights activist was abducted and killed in Russia Wednesday, the organization she worked for told CNN.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor expressed his incredulity at the testimony against him at his war crimes trial Tuesday, saying "there is no way" he is guilty of any of the charges.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor rejects the war crime charges against him. CNN's Phil Black reports.
A death-penalty trial of seven Baha'i prisoners accused of spying for Israel has been delayed, Iranian officials have told family members, according to the U.S. Baha'i Office of External Affairs.
CNN's Anderson Cooper asks President Obama whether he wants a war crimes investigation.
Fresh fighting erupted Sunday between Somalia's transitional government forces and Islamist rebels, continuing a wave of violence that a top United Nations official called a "grave violation of human rights" that could possibly amount to war crimes.
Seven Baha'i prisoners face a death-penalty trial Saturday in Iran amid calls for their release from a U.S. panel on religious freedom.
Pregnant women in Peru are dying at scandalous rates, according to the author of an Amnesty International report into maternal mortality in the South American country.
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says he has evidence to prove Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is guilty of genocide, even though he is not charged with the crime.
Israeli troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilian adults and children, broke laws and committed war crimes during their winter offensive in Gaza, Amnesty International said in a scathing report released Thursday.
Iranians wounded during protests are being seized at hospitals by members of an Islamic militia, an Amnesty International official told CNN.
CNN's Brian Todd reports on criticism of President Obama's handling of Iran, and the fine line he's walking.
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday that says it supports "all Iranians who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law."
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi arrived in Rome Wednesday for a historic -- and controversial -- first visit to the capital of Italy, Libya's former colonial master.
In 1982, they were young men serving their obligatory military service -- Argentine conscripts who fought against the British that year during the Falklands War. More than 25 years later, many of those former combatants are in a legal battle against their former officers, alleging torture, starvation and murder at the hands of their own military.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who faces charges of crimes against humanity, visited Zimbabwe on Sunday for a regional trade meeting.
A CNN documentary that sparked worldwide condemnation of Thailand's alleged practice of pushing Myanmar's Rohingya boat people out to sea has won an Amnesty International Media Award.
A U.N. team entered Gaza on Monday to investigate possible human rights abuses by Israel and Hamas during a three-week conflict that ended January 18.
An American human rights group documenting widespread sexual violence against Darfuri women in Sudan and Chad has called for "vigorous prosecution of rape as a war crime."
Saudi Arabian officials beheaded and then publicly displayed the body of a convicted killer in Riyadh on Friday, an act that prompted a stiff denunciation by a leading human rights monitor.
Global economic troubles are fueling a human-rights crisis, Amnesty International warned as it released its "Report 2009: State of the World's Human Rights" on Thursday.
Last week President Obama announced that he would suppress prisoner abuse photographs that he earlier said he would release. Given the president's stated commitment to government transparency, this reversal was both surprising and profoundly disappointing.
The photograph was shocking: a hooded detainee, in U.S. custody, standing on a box with electrical wires hooked up to his fingers.
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He’s also a proud U.S. Marine.
And he would be the first to tell anyone he wouldn’t be where he is today without his military career.
“It made me. The Marines gave me my work ethic,” he said.
Nearly 20 years ago, Scott left Tupelo for Parris Island, S.C., to begin a five-year stint with the Marines.
“I grew up that day when I stepped off that bus,” he said.
The discipline and training he received paid huge dividends, and the experience helped Scott turn an idea into a successful business.
Computer Universe was founded in Tupelo in 2001, and a second store in Pontotoc opened this year. Scott has the green light to open other stores as well.
Scott is among more than 26,000 veterans who own businesses in Mississippi. Nationwide, there are about 3 million veteran-owned businesses.
Veterans are twice a likely to open their own businesses than non-veterans, according to U.S. Census Bureau and veterans-related groups.
There are no clear-cut reasons why that’s the case, but Scott said it all leads back to the structure of the military.
“It’s the training, the intregrity – not that others don’t have integrity. But it’s a different level. And there’s the work ethic,” he said.
Veteran-owned businesses are an economic force as well.
According to veteranownedbusiness.com, they post annual sales of more than $1.2 trillion, employ nearly 5.8 million people and generate annual payroll of more than $210 billion.
Veteran-owned businesses also are slightly more likely to offer benefits such as health insurance, contributions to retirement plans, profit sharing and paid leave than businesses overall.
IDEA TO REALITY
Scott knew much about diesel mechanics, having worked on a farm growing up. When he joined the Marines, tractors gave way to light armored vehicles and their electronics and hydraulics.
After the Marines, he worked for a computer company in Oklahoma City that later became publicly traded. Scott said he learned a lot about running a business from the experience, and he was ready to return to his roots.
“I’ve been all over the world but there’s no place like Northeast Mississippi,” he said “I wanted to come home.”
He and his brother, Joe, came up with the idea of a computer sales and service business in Tupelo.
“We started building computers in the garage,” Eddie Scott said. “Then we opened a store next to Dodge’s and the rest is history.”
Starting with three employees, the company now has 19. More will be added if Scott’s expansion plans come to fruition.
“I’d like to think we can grow to 10 stores eventually,” he said.
Veterans have been opening their own businesses since the Revolutionary War, and it’s no different today.
As they return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, some have jobs to return to, while others are looking for something else to do.
Would-be entrepreneurs have a host of programs they can tap for financial help and advice.
For example, the U.S. Small Business Administration has the Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative and the Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
The federal government also has special programs such as Public Law 106-50. Passed in 1999, it establishes a goal for the government to spend at least 3 percent of federal contract dollars with service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses.
And organizations like the National Veteran-Owned Business Association promote national campaigns like “Buy Veteran.”
Scott said the Veterans Administration has provided him a loan for his home, as well as a small business loan. He also gets medical care through the VA.
But perhaps the most impactful benefit has come simply from being in the military.
“I think the biggest thing was the training and all the things you go through,” he said. “You have to have discipline. The promotion system is merit-based. If you want to get anywhere at all, you have to excel at what you do. You have to work hard at everything. That applies to life, too.”
The military experience can’t be duplicated, said Scott, firmly believing everyone would benefit from it.
“I’d sweat that sweat again,” he said.
Besides, he said, where else does someone have the opportunity to travel the world. Meeting new people and new cultures, he said, was enlightening.
What better way is there to prepare to serve a diverse customer base?
“I’ve been to 30-plus countries,” Scott said. “I’ve been elbow-to-elbow with people who are white, brown, black, yellow, red, you name it. I can talk to anybody.” | <urn:uuid:e4552b6c-99a1-4fb7-98bb-43c7f833bafc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://djournal.com/view/full_story/20800913/article-Military-man--businessman--Veteran-credits-experience-for-his-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974579 | 1,067 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Adapted from THE ROOTS OF MODERN MAGICK 1700-2000: An Anthology
"The letter F, placed in the center of a Blazing Star, signifies the active principle of the Creative Elohim."
— A.E. Waite, The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross
"The female organs of generation were revered as symbols of the generative powers of nature or matter, as the male were of the generative powers of God. They are usually represented emblematically, by the Shell, or Concha Veneris, which was therefore worn by devout persons of antiquity, as it still continues to be by pilgrims, and many of the common women of Italy…The male organs of generation are sometimes found represented by signs of the same sort, which might properly be called the symbol of symbols. One of the most remarkable of these is a cross, in the form of the letter T, which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation, before the church adopted it as the sign of salvation; a lucky coincidence of ideas, which, without doubt, facilitated the reception of it among the faithful. To the representative of the male organs was sometimes added a human head, which gives it the exact appearance of a crucifix..."
— Richard Payne Knight, 1786
Special Prolegomena For Our Web Site Readers
My intent, in compiling my most recent book, was to collect the best of my short essays on magical history, written over the last twenty years, edit them for anachronisms, errors, and more recent information, and publish them more-or-less in chronological order, from 1700 to 2000. I tacked on an appendix with some experimental work that I thought might prove profitable in the years ahead, and set out to write an introduction, which, as it turned out, proved largely to be a completely new essay with some fresh insights into the central gnosis of magick in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
It was my intention for this period to avoid all intellectual reference to the work of the OTO as it presently exists. I even toyed seriously with the idea of including the secret essays by Dr. P.B. Randolph on sexual magick as used by the Brotherhood of Eulis (aka The Triplicate Order) and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light in the twenty years or so preceding the founding of OTO by Kellner and Ruess, as separate appendices. These had generously been provided — purchased for me, in fact — some years ago by Hymenaeus Beta and "backgrounded" in my earlier book for Looking Glass Press, The Story of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, but I decided to save these for a later volume I have in mind to create.
What follows is original research, but there are several notes of a cautionary nature I should make for my friends here. For a book, let alone an experiment in the relatively new field of "ebook publishing" which still has bugs in it (they could certainly do with a human being acting as proofreader, rather than machines reading machines), this will do as an introduction to the volume. The work is aimed at the broader magical community, but may reach virtually anyone at any level — or no level — of initiation, but for the more initiated (in the broader sense of the term), one is likely to derive different insights from this text according to their level of spiritual development in the magical sense.
In the book and earlier in the pages of Agape I have covered the work, for example, of Hargrave Jennings, but no serious magician should be content to rest with my essay; Jennings is a hard read, but should be read in the original for full effect. Likewise, the 18th Century genius of the authentic tradition, Richard Payne Knight, is dealt with briefly and I trust effectively, but one should at least make it their business to read his work as written. Although the greater magical community does a great deal with qabalistic studies, and the Freemasonic influence upon at least the structure of contemporary magick are so pervasive as to be taken as given, almost no sympathetic writers in modern times have given much thought to the influence 17th and 18th century Jewish Mysticism has had on modern magick. In an ironic twist, this tremendous influence from Tzvi and Franck, the Chassidim, the Safed mystics of the 1600s et al where mentioned at all, tend to be mentioned by anti-Semitic writers in their efforts to defame magick, Masonry or mysticism as "Judaic conspiracies". The sane magical community’s commentators and historians rarely mention this influence, though it is a matter of standard interest now in Judaic studies, and is currently having a profound effect even in Reform Judaism, as well as being something of the latest "new age" fad.
Source materials on the Frankists or Zoharists are a bit hard to find — the whole phenomenon is still considered something of an embarrassment in Jewish Academia, but Qabalism (or Kabbalism, Cabbalism, Qabbalism, et al) is practically falling off the trees into your hands since scholars such as Gershon Sholem and Martin Buber published respectable studies on the subject through the heart of the century just passed. There is some history of the Hellfire Clubs, albeit generally prurient in nature, and one need not rely on the bilious and turgid accounts of Ms. Cooper-Oakley or A.E. Waite alone anymore to get to the sources of the history and ritual of the Asiatic Brethren and Fratres Lucis. In short, the reader is encouraged to go to the sources and make one’s own determinations, and not to rely solely on mine. Somehow, with this particular crew, I doubt that will come as a shocking suggestion. You might want to start out with the Antiquities of the Illuminati web site, that manages to integrate a great number of these varied strands in a sensible and coherent way. If all else fails you, mortgage your house, and buy a bunch of reprints from Kessenger or Health Research.
One other note, more explanatory than cautionary, and certainly *not* apologetic, on why I give relatively brief attention to the Golden Dawn tradition. It is still current, which can as easily (or with equal difficulty, I should say) be traced back to the 18th Century. It yields far more support for the original claims of the Golden Dawn’s "pedigree" than I once credited, and I thank Hymenaeus Beta for pointing out to me recently the work of Frederick Holland’s Society of Eight, clearly in the GD/SRIA lineage, and still informed in the middle 1800s by the authentic gnosis. What happened between this work and that of the historical Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and successor bodies to sell their essential heritage to Victorian sensibilities is a story in and of itself, and mostly I choose to leave this to a separate study. "Strictly above the waist magick" simply misses the point, in my view.
Magick In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries: A Summary
There is an authentic magical tradition, anchored in a specific technology of gnosis and organized in a graduated, initiatory pattern. There are byways, sideways and pitfalls, but there is no other authentic tradition, at least in the West.
We refer, of course, not to all mysticism, but to the magical approach to gnosis only. Magick may be defined as "the yoga of the West" and makes use of ritual, ceremony and a traditionally secret approach to sexuality as a means of transcendence that is unique, save only for the remotely comparable Tantric Yoga of the East, to which it has often been compared.
Tracing the history of the authentic tradition can be a tricky business. Ideally, it is transmitted through an organized body of manifestation with a full grasp of the sacred technology involved — including its implications, and an efficient methodology for communicating both technology and methodology. Yet, when the historian attempts to trace backwards from the present one finds the (understandable) tendency to secrecy a barrier to overcome layer by layer. This protective measure in a world often hostile to healthy sexuality of any sort almost invariably overlaps into organizational secrecy, obscure symbols and fictionalized and mythologized internal historical claims, which tend to blur the continuity of authentic tradition.
At the same time, and equally consistent, we find sound organizational structures evaporate after a generation or two, due largely to emergent administrative bureaucracy, a tendency to descend into puerile and insipid self-caricature of the original purposes, incompetent and often authoritarian leadership formations, and the inevitable death of the body of manifestation. The tradition is then carried on by either surviving members true to the authentic tradition some years later and under a different or variant name, or, in the fullness of time, a rediscovery and recreation of the tradition by a new generation of idealists, who then pull together the surviving remnant of the tradition. Following the unique continuity of ideas is the only reliable method of assessing whether a given manifestation is in the tradition or not.
In the Eighteenth Century, everything changed. This statement could be made, perhaps, of any time, of any century, but certain time periods — brief as these things go — start out in one way and end in another, starkly different from the previous era. The Eighteenth Century started out as a continuation of the great age of monarchies and empires and exploration and lingering medieval superstition, and, by the end, had transformed into an age of reason and revolution.
The occult world of 1700 was much the same as that which had preceded it going back to the ancient ideas of Greece and Rome, traces of European paganism and magical notions that probably stretch back to Egypt and Sumer. How much of the occult there was in the trade guild signs, passwords and initiation rituals that existed as the century began is an object of some dispute. Certainly, craft Masonry, which dated from antiquity, unquestionably had some sort of system of guild recognition and admission procedures. Whether this was merely a form of protection for guild proprietary secrets and wage concerns, perhaps mixed with bits of conventional moral piety, or something more in line with the occult Speculative Masonry that arose and quickly spread and grew more and more elaborate early in the 1700s, has proven grist for many mills without satisfactory resolution.
In any event, it was at this point in history that Speculative Masonry arose, along with sophisticated ideas concerning earlier concepts of Rosicrucianism and Speculative Alchemy, which quickly intermixed one with the other in rich if enigmatic blends. Along with this, and coincident with it were ideas about human liberty that would come to a head only in the last years of the century. These concepts also influenced both mainstream and what came to be called "fringe Freemasonry" in the form of Illuminism and a curious synthesis of occult bunkum, genuine mystical philosophy, a spiritual vision of liberty, equality and fraternity based in that philosophy, and a host of rumors that amazed and amused the aristocracy on the eve of their destruction.
Enlightened Despotism led to a liberalization of attitudes towards the much-beleaguered Jews of Europe, known in Hebrew as the Haskalah or enlightenment, notably in Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia. While this produced, on the one hand, a marked tendency among Jews towards assimilationism and by religious reform, the Haskala arrived in the middle of a mystical revolution that had been going on in Judaism behind the ghetto walls for a hundred years. This was a war between the messianic visions of Shabbati Tzvi and Nathan of Gaza, and later Jacob Franck and his daughter Eva; the ecstatic Qabalistic mysticism of Israel Baal Shem Tov and the first generation of Hassidism in the middle; with traditional Orthodox Judaism at one end of the spectrum, and early Reform Judaism at the other.
The Qabalistic mysticism, mostly understood (or misunderstood) from the interpretations of renegade Jewish converts, had long intrigued the world of gentile metaphysicians in much the same way that Eastern Mysticism would titillate later generations. The Haskala, with its opening across the ghetto wall, produced eventually an odd synthesis of Speculative Freemasonic, Political Revolutionary, Rosicrucian and alchemical ideas, gradually incorporating Jewish Qabalism, as some Masonic bodies began to admit Jews, and Jews began to influence the fundamental ideas of Speculative Freemasonry. Organizations such as The Knights of Light, the Fraters Lucis or Brothers of Light, and the Asiatic Brethren began to appear in "high degree" Freemasonry, even as Steven Morin introduced Scottish Rite Masonry to America. It is important to our thesis to understand that the European Masonic experience and that in America were quite different.
From its earliest origins, the Ethical Deism and egalitarian ideals of Freemasonry in America attracted and was influenced by Jewish Brethren. As Paul Bessel put it, "Jews were actively involved in the beginnings of Freemasonry in America. There is evidence they were among those who established Masonry in 7 of the original 13 states: Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. A Jewish Mason, Moses Michael Hays, helped introduce the Scottish Rite in America. Hays was also Deputy Inspector General of Masonry for North America in 1768, and Grand Master of Massachusetts from 1788 to 1792. Paul Revere served under him as Deputy Grand Master. There were several other Jews who held the title of Deputy Inspector General of Masonry in the late 1700’s: Solomon Bush in Pennsylvania, Joseph Myers in Maryland and later in South Carolina, and Abraham Forst of Philadelphia in Virginia in 1781. Another Jewish Grand Master was Moses Seixas in Rhode Island from 1791 until 1800. There were many other American Jewish Masons in early American history, including one in George Washington’s original Fredericksburg Lodge."
Herbert S. Goldberg, 33° put it this way: "Jewish Masons played an important part in the American Revolution, with 24 of them serving as officers in George Washington’s army. In addition, several helped finance the American cause, including Haym Salomon, a Philadelphia Jewish Mason who, with others, contributed and raised money for the American war effort and loaned money to Jefferson, Madison, Lee, and others for their personal expenses. Salomon was imprisoned by the British and died in his 40’s bankrupt and with penniless heirs."
"the Scottish Rite was founded on May 31, 1801… There were eleven gentlemen of Charleston who founded the Supreme Council. Four of these founders were Jewish and are buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Coming Street in Charleston. The four Jewish founders are Israel De Lieben, First S.G.I.G.; Emanuel De La Motta, First Grand Treasurer General; Abraham Alexander, Sr., First Grand Secretary General; and Moses Clava Levy, Treasurer General."
The European Masonic experience was somewhat different, as noted, with Masonic ideals and interest in Jewish Qabala clashing inside the fraternity with the all too familiar old and deep strains of anti-Semitic views and attitudes. The difference between American Masonry and the European brand, though varied by country, can best be understood against this background. Certainly, some of the early Jewish brethren were essentially ordinary Jews seeking to meet with non Jewish peers on an equal basis. Others were mystics with decidedly heterodox views. These trends came together and ‘regularized’ first in the German "Judenloge" and still later in a genuinely integrated Freemasonry in other European countries. As the distinction was lesser in America, so was the influx of Jewish dissidents and mystics, as opposed to rather ordinary Jews and non Jews interested in fraternity, ritual, ethics and philanthropy. We shall return to the mystical trend, of Frankists and Qabalists in Freemasonic bodies in Europe presently. It forms a key bridge in the Authentic Tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries.
On a different track, as early as the 1780s Richard Payne Knight began a detailed investigation of the role of graphic male and female symbolism in both ancient and modern spirituality. He documents the survival of phallic worship less than 50 miles from Naples as late as 1781. He focused on common amulets of the period, noting that the "most in vogue represents a hand clinched, with the point of the thumb thrust betwixt the index and middle finger…We have proof of the hand above described having a connection with Priapus," he says in a letter dated December 30, 1781, "in a most elegant small idol of bronze of that Divinity…which was found in the ruins of Herculaneum; it has an enormous Phallus, and with an arch look and gesture, stretches out its right hand in the form above mentioned, and which was probably an emblem of consummation…" Knight goes on to recount an eyewitness account of a barely Christianized rite held at Isernia September 27, 1780, in which women offered wax votives of erect penises of various size, with the words ‘let it be like this’ and similar magical appeals.
His work would come to be followed up upon in the 19th Century by such scholars of magick as Emma Hardinge Britten and later Peter Davidson.
The Asiatic Brethren, which overlapped with the Fraters Lucis, seem to have linked a number of these trends, including the above mentioned esoteric (and, sub rosa, erotic) ideas of the Zoharists (Frankists), the enigmatic Jewish messianic cult of Jacob Franck; High Degree Freemasonry, which often conferred royal and ecclesiastical titles as integral parts of their initiatory system (e.g. Prince, Levite, Priest, et al); and the radicalism of the Illuminati with their ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity which eventually profoundly transformed the world order. Naturally, though not without opposition, the admission of Jews on an equitable basis was highly attractive to advocates of the Haskala on both sides of the ghetto walls. As the 18th Century progressed, we thus find egalitarian, Qabalistic and esoteric "messianic" Jews exercising a significant influence on both mainstream and esoteric Freemasonry.
This movement coincides with the notorious Hellfire Clubs in France and, more notably, Britain, with their odd mixture of religious trappings, classical paganism, frank and graphic eroticism, and a creed of "Do what thou wilt". An aristocratic indulgence, there is almost certainly an overlap with certain contemporary forms of Freemasonry, especially those with an especial taste for secrecy and the outré.
By mid century, certainly, some version of the Knights of Light was at work. As the world became engulfed in revolution, these movements became, at their fringes, more and more intertwined, overlapping into the 19th century in fact.
Chris McIntosh, as quoted in Esoteric and Science News for March 2, 2003, describes the situation at the end of the century in this way:
"Freemasonry, according to Carl von Ecker, provides perhaps the only route to enlightenment for the Jews, and therefore it must be open to them.
"Although the Eckers had thus defended the admission of Jews, the issue continued to be a cause of dissension within the order. Some of the Schleswig members, for example, felt that, although existing Jewish members should be allowed to remain, new ones should be restricted. There was trouble also in the Hamburg branch of the order. Carl von Ecker applied for Masonic authorization from Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig, who agreed only on condition that Jewish members be expelled from the group. Carl von Hessen proposed a compromise in which Jewish Asiatic Brethren would form a separate lodge called the Melchisedeck lodge, but the Hamburg Jewish members rejected this proposal and left the order.
"(Ephraim Joseph) Hirschfeld, meanwhile, was having his own problems in the Schleswig branch, culminating in a legal battle which began when he sued Ecker for payment of a debt. Ecker retaliated by claiming that Hirschfeld had threatened his life, and the affair quickly escalated. Hirschfeld was placed under house arrest and expelled from the order in a circular that accused him of having gone too far in imposing Jewish kabbalistic elements on the rituals of the order. Although kabbalistic meditation was valuable, the circular argued, its object was to lead the Christian beyond the limits attainable by a Jew.
"In the midst of Hirschfeld’s troubles Heinrich von Ecker died in August 1791, while the trial was still in progress. Hirschfeld was released and restored to favour with Carl von Hessen, but he was not allowed to resume his former position in the order. Resentment against him still simmered, and he was suspected of having written an anonymous polemic against the Asiatics entitled Der Asiate in seiner Bloesse oder gruendlicher Beweis: dass die Ritter und Brueder Eingeweihten aus Asien echte Rosenkreuzer sind, which appeared in 1790. This repeated the claim that the Asiatics were merely the Rosicrucians in a new disguise and castigated them for their unjust treatment of Hirschfeld .
"In February 1792 a mysterious person, referred to as I. Ben Jos. appeared in Schleswig and was presented by Hirschfeld as a leading member of the order. Katz identifies him as none other than Thomas von Schoenfeld, the Viennese Jew who had played a seminal role in the foundation of the order. He paid 550 Taler to settle Hirschfeld’s debts, and the two of them travelled to Strasbourg where they made the acquaintance of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, the "Philosophe Inconnu", whose work had exerted such a strong influence on high degree Masonry. From here Schoenfeld went on to Paris where he tragically died on the guillotine on 5 April 1793. With the Asiatic Brethren in a state of collapse, Hirschfeld went back to his native Karlsruhe and eventually settled at Offenbach, near Frankfurt."
Offenbach had become the headquarters of the Zoharist sect of Jacob Franck, who died there as Baron Franck and was succeeded by his daughter Eve. The martyred Schoenfeld, be it noted, had been born Moses Dobruska, of a Rabbinical family, is likely to have been associated with Franck, and, like Franck and many of his sect, had nominally converted to Roman Catholicism, thus receiving the favor, patronage and titles from the Austrian royal house.
"As late as 1817 Hirschfeld was still dreaming of resurrecting the order," Chris McIntosh informs us. And A.E. Waite notes that an official organ of the Order, Der Signatstern, continued to publish until circa 1810.
Though we would do well to consider the influence at this point of Cagliostro’s Egyptian Rite Masonry and the somewhat later Rite of Memphis and Rite of Misraim in connection with Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition, the Asiatic Brethren/ Knights of Light appear to have continued more or less intact, and were encountered in both Europe and the Middle East by some of the great luminaries of occultism of the 19th Century.
Wyants informs us: "The rituals and information of The Asiatic Brethern/Fratres Lucis later became an inspiration for the Rose of Perfect Silence in Paris of which P.B. Randolph became a member and obtained a charter to run his own Rosicrucian organization. Randolph sold scryer’s mirrors from the Paris motherlodge to the members of his USA branch. In London Francis Irwin, S.R.I.A. members A.F.A. Woodford and S.C. Bingham had the material, and later the Golden Dawn in England and Francesco Brunelli’s Arcana Arcanorum in Italy, yes even Theodor Ruess’s original O.T.O. idea, all were inspired by the overrated Fratres Lucis."
One line of selectivity needs to be noted here. In the 1700s Continential bodies with names like "Golden Lodge" or "Lodge of the Red Dawn" began to appear, and a line can be traced from these to the S.R.I.A. and ultimately the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Britain a century or more later. In between, we find overlapping personages. For example, Frederick Holland’s Society of Eight, founded in 1883, included Kenneth Mackenzie, John Yarker, F.G. Irwin, Frederick Hockley, Benjamin Cox, Wynn Westcott and S.L. Mathers as members. Though absent from the SRIA and Golden Dawn, it cannot be doubted that elements of the authentic tradition showed up in such groups as "The Society of Eight". In "The Temple Rebuilt" especially, but also in "The Revelation of the Shechinah" published in 1886 and 1888, Frederick Holland anticipates the slightly later and similar work of Peter Davidson’s "Vital Christianity".
"Putting a lamp in a dark place," Holland tells his fellows, "a lamp in a sepulcher, a candle by a skull, a candle upon a tomb, a Phallus in its home, the Cteis, pointing out to us where to find the Lux e tenebris.
"Here is a skull, a tomb, empty, worn out; it is but the ruins of the temple of a man, a piece of earth that has been in child by the sun, but the man is gone, the child is born. The lamp is still burning outside the ruined temple.
"The subtle has been separated from the gross, and the great work is performed: CONSUMMATUM EST." Elsewhere he tells us, "Give me the sign of the Master Mason?
"That is the sign of the Master Builder. It is the belly where the faculty of generation is, and the genital members answer to the elemental world: your porchway, or entrance to King Solomon’s Temple." Clearly, this little circle, at least, can be thought of as within the authentic tradition. Why it did not make it into the later Golden Dawn is perhaps explained by late Victorian culture as such.
It would serve our interests to examine what we know of the teachings of this Brotherhood of Light in the last decades of the 18th Century.
Like the Elus Cohens before them, the Asiatic Brethren and Brotherhood of Light communicated the mysteries by initiatory degrees, taking the form of ecclesiastical ordination, and alluding to the ancient priesthood of Israel and the Order of Melchizedeck.
The titles and format here should be taken for what they are and are not. They are not, per se, titles in a particular religion, but reflected the fusionist tendency emanating from the Zoharists on the one hand, and the liberal elements of Freemasonry on the other. The number of elements and titles originating in primordial Judaism, and high church Christianity, reflect a philosophy of common ground allowing participation by people of varying religious persuasions united by initiation and consecration.
Conspicuously missing is the term "Rabbi" which strongly suggests the Zoharist influence. "Priest" or "Levite" or "Kohen" are used, referring to the hereditary priesthood of Israel, still extant but since Second Temple Times (ending in 70 C.E. with the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans), so to speak, out of work. The Hebrew Priesthood, the Kohenim, are actually a hereditary group with a distinct DNA marker, passed from father to son. In contrast, other Jewish DNA markers are also found worldwide, resembling those of Kurds more than that of other semitic peoples, including the Arabs. In any case, the Fratres Lucis, Elus Kohens and later Oriental Templars obviously used priestly terms largely for symbolic purposes, or perceived magical (as opposed to religious, in the strict sense) powers transferred by laying on of hands, or more simply still as administrative titles.
The mysterious Biblical story of "Melchizedeck" (Genesis 14:18 Psalm 110 and Hebrews 7:1 in the NT) meaning, roughly, "King of Righteousness" in the mystical and Masonic lodges of this period came to be a buzz term for groups admitting both Jews and non Jews. This terminology was also incorporated, in the 1800s, into Mormon Church ritual.
In keeping with this line of thinking, the election of a Master of a Lodge of the Fraters Lucis resembles closely an episcopal ordination. The Temple was furnished to resemble the ancient Temple of Jerusalem. After election, the newly elected officer is brought to the altar, Psalm 2 is read by the Knight Chancellor, whereupon he, joined by the Assessor and Sword Bearer, who would bare his head and chest, and, after receiving a promise to honorably fulfill the office and revere the principles of the Order given by the Provincial Administrator, the Chancellor then "takes up the Golden Cup in which the Priest’s Oil is kept and anoints the Crown of the Head of the Elect, in the pattern of two pieces of a tree bent in the shape of a Cross, saying; - ‘God elects you as the Chief of the Elect.’
He then anoints Left Hand, Heart and Right Hand, etc., followed by vesting him with a cap and robe, saying "He who is the Chief Priest amongst his Brothers on whose head has been poured the Holy Chrism and whose Hand has been touched should be clothed with the Sacerdotal Robe, and let him not uncover his head nor rend his robe." The invocation includes the quotations from Revelations (II:8,17 and IV:5) pertaining to the 7 Churches of Asia, a reference back to the Asiatic Brethren, as with "Order of Melchizedeck", a euphemism for ‘mixed’ Lodges of Jews, in specific Zoharists, and gentiles.
The initiations themselves, which follow upon and assume initiation into the three primary degrees of conventional Freemasonry, include many intriguing references to the central gnosis of the authentic tradition.
The Knight Novice of the Third Year is told, "From remote times, my Brother Knight Novice, there have been certain persons united in mysterious and indissoluble bonds, who have endeavored by uniting their power to probe the occult forces of Being and prove them. Such societies have gone under many and various names…These various societies were seated at this or that place according to their leaders, but their center was always in Asia." Again, "Asia" should be seen as a euphemism for the melding of traditions.
The candidate is later told, "The chief objects, my Worthy Brother, which on the one hand were ill understood by the Freemasons, but which, on the other hand, they were always seeking, were Alchemy, Theosophy and Magic…they took you into a darkened room…our Matter is not found where Metals grow…They tookest away thy clothing; it shows that our Matter is stripped of the Veil with which Nature has clothed it, for it can be drawn from the breast of a Mother. They removed thy shoe…this sign of renunciation has always a mysterious signification …Thine eyes were blindfolded; which teaches that though our Matter is luminous and in itself shining and clear, yet that it is only to be found in the darkest dwelling…we procure our Matter from its dwelling in the volcano, and that our Order has for its chief object the Physical Mysteries wrought by Fire…the Path can only be found in Silence and Secrecy…we have another Poinard beside the one that was shown to thee, and which we thrust into the bosom of our Matter until it pours forth blood…The Sun and Moon denote the Masculine and Feminine Elements, or that which is Active and that which is Passive…"
Here, all in the primary initiation of the Fratres Lucis, is, for the initiated, an almost complete description of the technology of the sexual gnosis of the authentic tradition up to this period. It is with some amusement that the initiated reader peruses A.E. Waite’s description of the rituals in The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, taken entirely from the equally earnest, equally uncomprehending manuscript as preserved and analyzed by the Theosophical writer Ms. Cooper-Oakley.
The last two degrees of the system are of equal interest to the initiated reader. In the Knight Levite initiation, we find the following lecture, almost totally incomprehensible to non initiates into the authentic tradition, but most revealing to the initiated:
"What is Perfection? 1,2,3 & 4. What is the Perfect Plane? That which Flames, gives Light, but destroys not .What is it that must not be spoken, whilst the purest Stones of Marble are being procured? Majim, Majim. What are the Elohim? Elih and Ki, the Light without Will, and the Light with Will; the Light without Color and the Light with Color. What gives the Color? The Will. How many of these are together, and when did they begin? They are altogether One and the Same, now and forever. What is the Serpent that flies in the air and burns? The asp found on its scales represents it. How long was Moses with Schamajim ? Forty days. What did he bring with him? The natural Law, set forth on Stone. What was he amongst the people of Israel? Lawgiver, Levite, Protector and the Great Captain."
After the lecture, the candidate is received among the Levites. A note says that the degree opens at "the hour when we come to Sacrifice," and closes in "the hour when the Sacrifice is Consummated."
The final degree, Knight Priest, the candidate is anointed by the Provincial Administrator on the right ear, right eye, and right thumb with holy oil and told, "Thou art a Priest forever in the Order of Melchizedeck." One keeps in mind the Biblical point that Mechizedeck is a priest of "God Most High" from Salem, apparently not a Hebrew, but who blesses Moses and Israel and, in turn, is welcomed into their community.
The unexpurgated teachings of Dr. P. B. Randolph are carried forward to the last 19th Century flowering of the Old Aeon, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light. These instructions are specific and deal with the matrix of Love and Will that leaves us at the dawn of what has been termed "the rebirth of magick" as the nineteenth century came to an end.
Most recent update by TAG August 16, 2005 CE. | <urn:uuid:e9bb115e-7b99-47cb-a10a-e2de202be9f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mindspring.com/~hellfire/bishop/trad.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962678 | 7,336 | 1.804688 | 2 |
There are many problems with what happened Wednesday with filmmaker Spike Lee on Twitter.
One problem was that what Spike Lee thought was the home address of George Zimmerman — the man who shot teenager Trayvon Martin — actually belonged to a couple in their seventies. The bigger problem was that he tweeted what he thought was the address of George Zimmerman to his 240,000-odd followers in the first place.
The expected happened after he sent the tweet out. Menacing calls. Menacing letters. Menacing envelopes with Taste The Rainbow printed on them. (I am not making this up.)
It makes you reflect on how creepy these candy slogans can be, if said with the right inflection.
Of course it’s a problem that someone lettered “TASTE THE RAINBOW” on an envelope and frightened a retired couple.
But even the right address would have been the wrong address.
What did Lee reasonably expect? That his followers were going to send the “Zimmerman residence” indignant letters? That they might ship him Edible Arrangements with passive-aggressive but politely-worded notes?
Of course not. Instead, people responded by becoming exactly the thing they were trying to punish: vigilantes, pursuing their own sense of right and wrong without regard to law or fact. Did nobody learn anything?
The fact that it was an elderly couple and not the intended recipient just pointed up the wrongness of this whole situation more starkly. You can't just go around tweeting the addresses of people and subjecting them to the Twitter mob’s blunt justice. There is much to be angry about in the story of Trayvon Martin. But you can’t fix a wrong with another wrong.
I’m glad Lee apologized, tweeting, “Justice in court.” That’s where it has to happen. If only that thought had come sooner.
One injustice is more than enough. | <urn:uuid:34f2970f-a673-4b4e-bfed-64372d68cf81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/spike-lees-twitter-mistake/2012/03/29/gIQAKgujjS_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97619 | 403 | 1.6875 | 2 |
It is a basic principle and only solution to eradicate evil from society that if a person or an institution commits any wrongdoing mistakenly or deliberately they must admit the mistake instead of obstinate on their gaffe otherwise the mistakes become fistula for the society.
And this is what happening in our society when everybody has its justification for his work whether it is right or wrong. Every person who steals electricity or diminution in weights or violates traffic rules also has the justification for his wrong deed. If anyone ask that why you steal electricity or lessen in weight they give you a justification that everybody doing this so why I don’t. This is not a matter of an individual as our government and other sections of the society are also doing the same thing. I remember a statement of an MNA and former federal minister of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Abdul Qayyum Jatoi who said live on TV show that corruption was a right of PPP government.
It’s just a glance but practically is all happening in the country……. The government immersed under serious corruption charges but if you listen the justification for the charges you will definitely be forced to laugh.
One party has a justification that it is democracy and only people have a right to accountable a democratic government only after five years …. One party said that if we are a corrupt government so why people remained silent on our corruption ……. Another demands proof for their corruption but nobody is willing to accept that they are doing something wrong and should show penitence.
In a situation like this, I remember a quotation “Mistake is not an issue but it only becomes issue when someone insist on the mistake and not ready to improve its mistake” …. And this is a conclusion where I fully agreed. | <urn:uuid:a7cb979e-189f-4c67-b57b-5af47e374bfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.thenewstribe.com/blog/67784/justification/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959483 | 361 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Jon Teitel's "Forgotten Legends" Series: Saint Mary's Tom Meschery
Jon Teitel: Some of your nicknames were the "Mad Russian" and the "Renaissance Man". How did you get those nicknames, and which one did you like the most?
Tom Meschery: The "Russian" part was because I am a Russian immigrant, while the "Mad" part was because I had a temper and got caught up in a few on-court altercations. Rudy LaRusso was a favorite target. "Renaissance Man" probably came about because I write poetry and read a lot of literature. I think that hardly constitutes a Renaissance Man, but I sure like it the best.
JT: You were born in China after your parents fled from Russia in 1917 due to the October Revolution, and after spending part of WWII in a Tokyo prison camp your family emigrated to the US and changed its name from Meshcheryakov to Meschery. How did you survive the prison camp, and how hard was it to be a an Asian immigrant in America in the 1950s?
TM: The camp was a women's/children's camp, so it was not that difficult. Food was scarce but we were generally treated well. My mom and sister were there, and we had lots of help from nuns, missionaries and fellow prisoners. We received regular Red Cross packages that were air-dropped. The last months of the war were harrowing as our camp was bombed, but we made it out alive and wandered the streets under guard, sleeping wherever there was shelter. A hospital finally took us in and we stayed in an attic for the duration to end of war. It was a little tough in the US while my name was Mescheryakov and I still spoke broken English, but once my dad changed our name and I began to become integrated into society (primarily through sports, as I was very coordinated), things became better. Being good at something always helps.
JT: You were an All-American at Lowell High School before going to St. Mary's. How did you get into basketball, and why did you decide to attend Saint Mary's?
TM: I was in the Lowell HS district. I got into basketball because a playground director by the name of Cappy Lavin (a former star player at San Francisco) taught me to play from my grammar school days through the 8th grade. After that I honed my skills by playing in playground pick-up games all over the city. My high school coach Benny Neff (a San Francisco legend) helped me a great deal. I chose Saint Mary's because the offered me $36 million: just joking! The principal recruiter for Saint Mary's was a fellow named John Henning, a great man who was the head of the AFL-CIO in California. He convinced me that Saint Mary's would be right for me. They also had a strong freshman recruiting class, so I knew we could win, and we did: our freshman team did not lose a game!
JT: In college you were a two-time All American and named conference POY. What did it mean to you to win such outstanding individual honors?
TM: The honors were great for my ego, and it also justified all the hard work that I had put in. As a team player it also meant that I had strong teammates who recognized my ability and helped me in any way they could.
JT: In the spring of 1961 you were drafted seventh overall by Philadelphia (six spots behind Walt Bellamy). Did you see that as a validation of your college career or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA?
TM: Yes. As for Walter (who always referred to himself in the third person and used his full name!), I felt that I had a better rookie season than he did. The statistical edge was his, but he was a pretty selfish player and not one of my favorites. I passed up an opportunity to go to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship in order to play ball.
JT: In 1962 you led the league in personal fouls, and you played 79+ games in eight of your 10 seasons. How important a part of your game was your physicality, and how were you able to remain so durable throughout your career?
TM: As for the personal fouls, I always felt that they came out of my tenacity to play defense. When you play hard, you commit some fouls. Also, I was not super-fast, so being physical was necessary if I was going to compete against speedier players. I was durable, but I cannot give you a good reason for it. I have always been strong ever since I was a kid. I also had a high tolerance for pain, and often played through injuries that might have sent today's players to the doctor.
JT: In March 1962 you scored 16 points in a win over the Knicks, as your teammate Wilt Chamberlain (who you once picked a fight with) scored an NBA-record 100 points. When did you start to realize that Wilt was on his way to such a legendary night, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterwards?
TM: At the start of the fourth quarter when "The Zink" (our PA guy Dave Zinkoff) announced that Wilt had around 80 points. The feeling in the locker room was a bit surreal because there were virtually no reporters. The game was not considered an important one and was being played in Hershey, PA (not Philly), so it was quiet with just a couple of local reporters and some quickly assembled camera crews. The rest of us dressed and headed for the bus while Wilt and Coach Frank McGuire remained. Before the season started, McGuire had actually predicted Wilt would score 100 points during the season!
JT: In the 1962 Eastern Division Finals you had a two-point loss to the eventual champion Celtics in Game 7 after a game-winning shot by Hall of Famer Sam Jones. Do you think you should have won that series, and where does that Celtics team rank among the best you have ever seen (Bob Cousy and Bill Russell called it the greatest Celtics team of all-time)?
TM: Yes, we should have won. During a timeout in those last seconds Tom Gola asked McGuire if he could guard Sam, but McGuire kept Guy Rodgers on him even though Guy was not a good defender: voila! If we would have won, we would have slaughtered the Lakers in the Finals. The Celtics were much better the following year with the addition of John Havlicek.
JT: In 1963 your West squad lost by seven in the All-Star Game. What did it mean to you to be named an All-Star, and how on earth did you lose the game when you had seven future Hall of Fame teammates (Walt Bellamy, Bob Pettit, Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Lenny Wilkens and Bailey Howell)?
TM: I was simply delighted to have made the team so I was sort of a stargazer. As for the loss, I consider it a Bill Russell victory.
JT: In 1964 you had a 10-point win over St. Louis in Game 7 of the Western Division Finals before losing to the Celtics in the NBA Finals. How special was it to win Game 7 and reach the Finals, and how frustrating was it to keep running into the Celtics in the playoffs?
TM: The win over the Hawks was special in itself, as they had given us trouble all year. It was particularly pleasing for me because I had a very good series. It was frustrating to lose to the Celtics, but we were a bit injured and beat up from the Hawks series. Of course, the Celtics had a better team at each position, and their reserves were stronger than ours.
JT: In the 1967 NBA Finals you had a three-point loss to the 76ers in Game 6. How great was your former teammate Wilt down the stretch (six blocks in the 4th quarter), and how did it feel to face your former coach (Alex Hannum) leading a team from the city where you used to play?
TM: It was a game that proved that irony rules the earth. My much-loved ex-coach Hannum and ex-teammate Wilt came back to beat us, but Nate Thurmond was a fantastic center and gave Wilt everything he could handle. It was tough series and the Warriors had nothing to hang their heads over: we acquitted ourselves well.
JT: In the summer of 1967 you were selected by Seattle in the expansion draft and ended up leading the team in rebounding during their inaugural season with 10.2 RPG. Was it awkward to be the highest-paid player on the team, and what is your secret for rebounding?
TM: It was not awkward at all: we are not talking millions here! However I am pretty sure that Walt Hazzard was paid more than me; check it out. My secrets for rebounding: always keep moving, always block out (but not for too long), go hard for the ball when you think it is about to reach its greatest height, try to see which direction the ball bounces off the rim in practice, work on your leg strength, once you catch the ball spread your legs/elbows as you bring the ball down, be determined, and do not worry about hurting anyone.
JT: You averaged 12.7 PPG during your 10-year NBA career, and your 8.6 RPG is still in the top-100 all-time. How satisfied are you with your career, and do you have any regrets?
TM: I am satisfied that I did the best I could in every game I played. My only regret is that I missed reaching the 10,000-point mark by less than 100 points.
JT: You had various head and assistant coaching stints in the ABA, CBA and NBA. How did you like being a coach, and what were the biggest differences between the various leagues?
TM: I hated being a coach. I had no patience for incompetence and laziness, of which there is more than you can imagine. I also did not possess a good vision of the whole game, which made me a bad game-day coach. The biggest difference between the ABA and NBA back when I coached was the caliber of players. In the ABA, there were only a few bona fide stars and lots of marginally-talented players. I loved the three-point rule, which the NBA later adopted, but I hated the red, white and blue ball, which the NBA did not adopt (thank God!).
JT: After leaving the coaching ranks you got your MFA from Iowa and studied poetry with future US poet laureate Mark Strand. Why did you decide to go get a Masters degree, and what role does poetry play in your life?
TM: I took a class from Mark at Washington while I was playing. When I decided to quit coaching, Mark suggested that I apply to the Iowa Writers Workshop. He later taught there for a semester and I took another class with him. I also studied under Donald Justice and Marvin Bell (the first Poet Laureate of the state of Iowa), who were highly influential in my development as a poet. I love poetry: it is an ongoing investigation of my life and the world around me, and is a way of seeing clearly.
Meschery is also on Jon's list of best pro players in WCC history.
Gonzaga: John Stockton (1985)
Loyola Marymount: Rick Adelman (1969)
Pepperdine: Dennis Johnson (1977)
Portland: Ray Scott (1962)
Saint Mary's: Tom Meschery (1962)
San Diego: Stan Washington (1975)
San Francisco: Bill Russell (1957)
Santa Clara: Steve Nash (1997) | <urn:uuid:d4ba8624-5bbd-4246-bdd6-f88616901320> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/jon-teitels-forgotten-legends-series-saint-marys-tom-meschery-169283 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989752 | 2,473 | 1.757813 | 2 |
-Re: Custom Scripting Engine
Connor Woodson 2013-01-23, 01:10
There are two ways to go about using R with java (that I've found). Both
are a little bit of a hassle depending on your setup.
JRI is a JNI for R, so you don't need R installed on the machine for it to
work. But you do need to include a set of DLLs in the classpath; the best
way I've found to do this is to bundle the dll's in the .jar and then copy
them to the local directory at runtime (as copying them elsewhere and
changing java.library.path won't work). There are some features missing
from JRI, though, especially the ability for multiple
environments/sessions; I don't quite yet have down a plan for the R/Pig
integration, but having sessions might be useful.
The other method is through Rserve, which is both a java package and an
application; the application sets up an R server that by default allows
only a single connection from a local machine (if you wanted, each
map-reduce job could connect to the same R server/instance, but I don't
think that's useful). To start this up, you would need R installed and then
run Rserve. In EMR, this would be possible as it does have R, so you would
just need a bootstrap script to start R. Optionally, it is probably
possible to tell Rserve to start from within java, but that's much trickier.
I prefer the first method as it eliminates the requirement of having R
installed; however, I'm hoping to implement both (for Rserve, I'll require
that the server is already started; and maybe include an option for
connecting to a specific server).
I don't have a clear vision of how R/Pig will interact; it will have to be
something different than Python or JScript, but I don't know how different.
I want to just scratch out something basic and then try and evolve it from
I'll go ahead and submit that Jira.
On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 4:44 PM, Jonathan Coveney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> Ahhh, I see. That makes sense. Sadly, this won't currently be possible in
> the current version of Pig, but this is a really good reason to want to do
> this. Can you make a ticket about making it possible to plug in
> ScriptingEngines without having a make a code change to Pig? I think this
> would be useful for this reason.
> That said, if you dig down into how these implementations work, they are
> based on EvalFunc's, so manually making UDF's to do it is an annoyance, but
> functionally quite similar.
> Question about R: is there a JVM implementation, or are you shelling out?
> 2013/1/22 Connor Woodson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > I'm starting work on an R scripting engine; I'm not entirely sure how it
> > will be used, but I know that there have been attempts to get R working
> > with MapReduce / EMR and I thought it would be cool to do that through
> > (One fun use case might be to generate plots/graphs during the MR job
> > do something with them))
> > The easy answer for how to get this working with Pig is to just stick new
> > scripting engines with the existing ones and update the ScriptingEngine
> > enum to include those; however, I would like to use this in EMR which
> > doesn't update its software regularly and so I was hoping there was some
> > hook to get this scripting engine called, but it looks like it'll just
> > to be used for UDFs for now.
> > If a change is going to be made, I think what would be helpful is a
> > in how the ScriptingEngine decides which subclass to call; right now
> > what I can tell) it will only look at the file suffix or the #! first
> > of the script and try and match those with its internal list. Maybe allow
> > an annotation like
> > #@ <FQCN of a ScriptingEngine>
> > as the first line of a script to force Pig to use a specific engine.
> > - Connor
> > On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Jonathan Coveney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >wrote:
> > > So, something like this is not currently possible, but I think it would
> > be
> > > possible to expose a set of interfaces that would make this possible. | <urn:uuid:d9c0f9d3-de93-48e6-9785-c67610555a71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://search-hadoop.com/m/NsKOw16noag&subj=Re+Custom+Scripting+Engine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95871 | 1,041 | 1.507813 | 2 |
RUMORS GOT in the way of facts on Wednesday, sending thousands of Georgia drivers to gas stations in hopes of getting that last drop of fuel before the pumps shut down.
Thursday morning, most found the pumps still working.
Yes, there are problems with pipelines and refineries knocked out by Hurricane Katrina, but coastal Georgia is supplied by tanker ships coming into the ports of Savannah, Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. There is plenty of gas - as long as people don't panic.
If only our educational and economic systems were as efficient as the rumor mill, we'd have no problems. It took little time Wednesday for the rumors to start flying:
Gas stations are closing at 6 p.m.
Gas stations are closing at 4 p.m.
Gas prices have hit $5 a gallon.
There will be no gas after Friday.
It was all bunk.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Sonny Perdue in a news conference asked Georgians to limit their discretionary driving this weekend: "There's plenty of gas on the way and the only reason we would have problems locally is if we rush out to hoard and try to accumulate gasoline that we won't need for a long time."
What he said was not what many panic-driven gas buyers heard, and they began lining up at stations across the state. As a result, some stations in the Atlanta area did run out of gas, at least for the night.
Meanwhile, shortly after his news conference, Mr. Perdue signed an executive order authorizing the state to impose sanctions on gas stations that gouge consumers on prices.
"Frankly, when you prey upon the fears, the paranoia of citizens, it is akin to looting in a different sort of way," he said.
By Wednesday afternoon, several pipeline companies were reporting that service had been restored and that gas supplies were on the way. Any shortage will soon be alleviated.
Gas is available and more is on the way. If we all follow our normal buying habits, no one will have to do without. There's no crisis unless we panic. Calm down and enjoy the Labor Day weekend. | <urn:uuid:cdeb9618-47b8-439e-9296-2d2c870a0c94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://savannahnow.com/stories/090105/3261719.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978449 | 439 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I’d be lying if I said I never imagined doing some cruel, heartless things to useless celebrities who don’t deserve their fame. Like most satirical writers, I write about it instead, taking verbal and visual potshots at whoever has annoyed me.
Someone with a much larger platform seemed to have the same idea: comedian turned writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait. Many remember Goldthwait’s stage persona as a mentally incapacitated screecher who starred in such movies as One Crazy Summer, the Police Academy series, and Scrooged. What many do not remember is the volatile dark comedy he wrote and directed, Shakes the Clown, about an alcoholic birthday clown, which became a cult hit.
A little over ten years later, Bobcat started shaking society’s tree with such films as Sleeping Dogs Lie and World’s Greatest Dad. Now, he has uprooted that tree with his latest film, God Bless America, a “violent film about kindness.”
I attended a screening of the film and later had the chance to sit down with Goldthwait and star Joel Murray.
Fame used to mean something. I know this because, when I was a kid, I used to study famous people. I constantly read about them, wrote about them, even took tests on them where, if I didn’t pass, I’d run hide for fear of my parents’ disappointment. Being famous used to mean bringing something valuable to this world, to make it a better place for humanity to live. Of course, being notorious was the other side of the coin, but we’ll leave that for another time, or movie.
Just think of all the famous people from history: Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglas, Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie, Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Robinson, Mother Theresa, Hugh Hefner. These are people who helped change the world because the world needed changing, not because they wanted to get on YouTube. Now, think of the famous people of today: Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, The Real Housewives of Anywhere. This is a new breed of fame, people that are famous for obnoxiously sticking their faces into every part of our lives; people famous for being famous.
The film stars Joel Murray (of Mad Men fame, but more known to this ’80s child as George Calamari from, once again, One Crazy Summer) as Frank Murdock, a normal guy with a normal car, a normal job, a normal divorce, and a normal dislike for his obnoxious neighbors. He despises pop culture and how it takes over his television, water-cooler conversations, and even his own daughter’s personality, claiming “nobody talks about anything anymore.”
When Frank’s doctor tells him that he has developed a lethal brain tumor, things change. While contemplating suicide, Frank catches a peek at a Super Sweet 16-like show called Chloe, and decides that, before he takes himself out, he’s going to leave the world a better place by taking Chloe with him. What starts as a ridiculously awful and funny assassination attempt turns into a cross-country cleansing of American culture. With the help of angsty teenager Roxy (played by Tara Lynn Barr), Frank takes aim at political and religious zealots, obnoxious talk show hosts, rude people in movie theaters, and anyone else who is “just plain mean” in an awkwardly violent comedy that will not only make us laugh at ourselves, but hopefully make us a little bit nicer.
The best thing about this movie is the awkward dark comedy style of humor that everyone seems to love these days. Joel Murray does an excellent job of playing the part of a regular guy that has just had enough of the idiots of the world. He doesn’t grow bulging muscles over-night, get his hands on a tank and turn into Rambo. He just has a gun and an aspiring level of kindness that people need to achieve, or risk his wrath. Tara Lynn Barr does an amazing job as well, incorporating the excitable energy of a normal teenager into the bloodthirsty spirit of Charlie Manson.
While the message about what needs to be fixed in society remains clear throughout the film, Bobcat stays self-aware enough in the script to add complex elements to the characters; the internal struggle to keep themselves from becoming social screen icons themselves while doing their civic duty; the mental battle between doing what you believe is right versus the temptation to become a spokesperson for that message; the challenges of saving someone’s humanity when they don’t believe that they are being exploited. These complexities ground the movie, so that it not only becomes a little less formulaic, but just more human in general.
The only issue the movie really has is in the “monologues”. While the information is funny, enlightening, and is a nice break from the stream of violence, they tend to be a little drawn out, making Frank, and the movie itself, seem a bit more preachy than it needs to be. While we did not get a chance to discuss this issue with Bobcat Goldthwait directly, we were able to discuss other, more humorous things about the film and America in general with him and Joel Murray in an interview with the duo.
Whether you hate pop culture or are pop culture, the movie is entertaining. It’s dark, funny, and self-aware. It’s the movie that America needs to make us a little more self-aware.
I give God Bless America 4 out of 5 blood-soaked screaming mothers. Oh, you’ll know it when you see it. I promise
Patrick Emmel is a humor writer on pop culture and celebrities that would probably make the top 5 list of any real-life Frank Murdock. You can see more of his work at www.theineptowl.com or heckle him on Twitter @Patrick_AE.
Find out what Patrick thought of another dark comedy with his manly movie review of the Goon, which just came out on disc. –> | <urn:uuid:eaf77781-d379-4406-a846-5374f9d9189d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mancave.cbslocal.com/2012/06/15/be-nice-or-die-god-bless-america-review-interview/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964121 | 1,268 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Sun, Aug 24, 2003
Glider and Skydiving Aircraft Collide
Six Germans are dead after an aircraft carrying skydivers to
altitude collided with a single-place glider in the skies over
Bavaria Saturday. The entangled wreckage of both aircraft landed in
a cornfield north of Munich.
"All we know at this point is that the two aircraft crashed into
each other in mid-air," said police spokesman Josef Bauer. "The
wreckage landed in a field just outside of the town. Luckily no one
on the ground was hurt. We don't know at what altitude the accident
happened," Bauer said when asked about a local television news
report saying the crash happened at an altitude of 1,200 meters
(3,900 feet). "The investigation is not still going on."
Bauer said skies were clear and visibility was unlimited at the
time of the midair.
The dead included the pilot of the glider, as well as the pilot
aboard the Cessna single-engine aircraft (type unknown at this
point). German police and civil aviation authorities are
Three-Eight Charlie If you know the name of the first woman to fly solo around the world, you’re ahead of most people. By the way, if you thought it was Amelia Earhart, you&r>[...]
Holding pattern. A racetrack pattern, involving two turns and two legs, used to keep an aircraft within a prescribed airspace with respect to a geographic fix.>[...]
“We need a world-class system of weather prediction in the United States – one, as the National Academy of Sciences recently put it, that is ‘second to none'." So>[...]
Send Them A Story -- We Don't Mind! Do you need another set of eyes to see that story you can't believe Jim just wrote? Want to spread Hognose's unique wisdom and perspective to th>[...]
Cites 'Strong Record On Aviation Security' The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) has endorsed Congressman Ed Markey for the U.S. Senate, specifically noting his proven rec>[...] | <urn:uuid:f612ad88-32aa-47ab-8139-4fe3429c28de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=fccbe9e0-94d4-4969-ab37-b145a223d7d7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952838 | 450 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Jordan ready to help Algeria
Jordan-Algeria, Politics, 1/28/1998
"What is now going on in Algeria is a crime. There have been people slaughtered." "The ugly image of killing spoils our reputation and deforms our image abroad," said Jordanian Foreign Minister Dr. Fayez al-Taraunah, in a statement, bitterly expressing his feelings.
"All those who commit such cowardly crimes, those who support them and stand behind them should be exposed," he said. Jordan is ready to provide Algeria will all support.
"We are in Jordan fully ready to provide our brothers in Algeria with all help necessary to end this horrible nightmare," reaffirming Jordan's call for not interfering with internal affairs of other countries, al-Taraunah said.
"The violence, killing and bloodshed has increased in such a way that it has formed a danger facing the whole Algerian people," he said. The criminals did not stop their crimes even in Ramadan, he said.
"Now is the time to end these inhumane and immoral crimes," he said, "All local and international efforts should be allotted to overcome this dangerous criminal phenomenon and stop this terrorism, whatever its origin."
Jordanian Foreign Minister defended Islam as saying that what is taking place in Algeria is not related to Islam; Islam respects human rights and protects man's life and dignity, he said.
Massacres in Algeria before the lesser Bairam
European Union's investigation in Algeria
Al-chief to meet envoys on Algeria
Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.
| Advertise on ArabicNews.com. MyFlowers.com sold more than $2700 of flowers in one month advertising on ArabicNews.com! Make your company, and products a success. Special rate for new and small business. Inquire!Advertising Info | <urn:uuid:1789425f-c142-4e99-950d-4a2272431461> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/980128/1998012801.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947768 | 398 | 1.5 | 2 |
Approximately 222 publishers' advertising pamphlets from primarily Los Angeles-based bookstores from the 1900s to the 1920s.
The majority of pamphlets were produced by Alfred A. Knopf, Macmillan, Houghton-Mifflin, Scribner, Doubleday, Page & Company,
Duran Books and P.F. Collier & Son.
This collection consists of publishers' advertising pamphlets from primarily Los Angeles Bookstores. The first box contains
pamphlets from Fowler Brothers and C.C. Parker Booksellers. Fowler Brothers bookstore was the oldest family-owned bookstore
in Los Angeles, in operation from 1888 to 1994, when it closed due to changing times and disruptive subway construction. It
began initially as a church and Sunday school supply house, but became a book and stationery store that survived six different
2 boxes (1.0 linear ft.)
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information. | <urn:uuid:ecfdfa0d-1a73-4875-ba47-0ca8b5923a18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8w1020v1/ | 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 | 0.935389 | 294 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The West Coast Offense (WCO) is a name generally associated with legendary San Francisco coach Bill Walsh. The early roots of this offense were instilled by Marv Levy, then head coach at the University of California Berkeley and further developed in the vertical passing offense of Al Davis, a disciple of Sid Gillman, but took hold in 1968, when Walsh joined the staff of iconic coach Paul Brown with the AFL expansion Cincinnati Bengals. It was there that Walsh developed the philosophy now known as the "West Coast Offense.”
Interestingly enough, Brown is also the mentor of Don Shula and many of the innovators who pioneered the modern NFL passing game. Until this time and even in Shula’s early years with the Dolphins, the NFL was primarily a running league. Like the running game, the early passing game was a highly disciplined precision offense, practiced to perfection. The schemes and routes rehearsed until a system of timing developed that took advantage of a Quarterback’s footwork to release the ball in precise rhythm with cuts of a primary receiver.
The basic change in the WCO is not necessarily the actual plays; it is more the freedom given to the QB to exploit a defense by removing the rigid constraints encouraged by the Lombardi inspired running attack. Offenses were being defended by reading blocking patterns and sending more defenders to the point of attack on a run play or dropping into coverage when blocking schemes dictated a pass. The WCO was developed to exploit defensive adjustments by the extension of layers within the basic play.
In the WCO passing game, it is important that both the quarterback and the receivers be able to read the coverage of the defense. Unlike many passing plays that are designed for a primary receiver, the quarterback needs to be able to choose the receiver he is going to throw the ball to prior to the snap. The receivers need to be able to recognize the coverage, and make necessary adjustments to their routes, or even run entirely different routes. The WCO does not rely on a dominate receiver because any receiver can become the primary receiver based on the read at the line of scrimmage.
The much talked about receiver progression is not driven by the QBs ability to identify different targets in the course of a play, but by the design of the play moving defenders away from the intended target. A quick pass on a three-step drop, is followed by the same receiver running the same pattern, looking exactly the same but with the intention of exploiting the defender adjusting to that route while leaving a route behind him open.
The first fifteen to twenty plays are often scripted to see how the defense reacts to those plays in order to understand how that will affect the secondary and tertiary layers of the same play. That is what all those pictures fans see QBs and coaches look at on the sideline, not the actual play, but how the defense reacted to it. With the WCO offense, the same play is dynamic and designed to exploit a defense in motion, using the defense against itself in the course of a game.
The philosophical difference in Miami will come from a change to attacking from the offensive side of the ball verses the defensive side. Bill Parcells was a defensive coach, who believed football games were won the defensive side of the ball, with the offense responsible for scoring points, but most importantly, for ball control, and not giving away points. Tony Sparano, as a disciple of Parcells, followed the same philosophy and the Dolphins were built in that image.
The hiring of Dan Henning is a clear indication of this philosophy, because the Henning offense was a regimented run based offense that employed a dominate receiver in passing situations. It is easy to see why Brandon Marshall was acquired given these constraints. Sparano knew the philosophy was antiquated and tried to modernize it by dabbling with the Wildcat and then hiring Brian Daboll, but the structure initiated by Parcells and Henning could not evolve, especially in the presence of Brandon Marshall, though it did begin to take root.
Now, removing Marshall from the equation not only makes sense, but also is imperative to the evolution of the Miami offense. The teams now playing at the top of the league with the possible exception of the Giants… Green Bay, New Orleans, New England among others have abandoned the notion of defense winning championships, but a combination of both will always be necessary.
In Miami, there will not be an extreme change on the defensive side of the ball, but the offense will look more like the Marino era than any conception that has followed. This philosophy puts a premium on QB play, but is actually QB friendly due the use of layered plays. In a layered offense, plays are built from basic three step drops that grow from the quick out, slant and Hitch, to five-step drops and seven-step drops designed to give the receivers time to maneuver before the ball is thrown. This technique gives maximum separation between the receiver and defenders, whether running vertical routes or crosses.
It will take time, but it is apparent why many folks around the league think Ryan Tannehill may be further ahead of Moore or Garrard in many aspects of this offense. It is also clear why Tannehill was drafted. What is not clear is why Matt Flynn was left on the table, but Joe Philbin and Mike Sherman are much better judges of these two players than personnel folks less familiar with both.
Welcome to a new world in Miami where the West Coast Offense takes center stage! | <urn:uuid:49d51bff-6bf5-4e9f-be1a-dec8a36b0428> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dolphinshout.com/2012/05/west-coast-comes-to-miami.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972696 | 1,114 | 1.53125 | 2 |
SDSU professor to speak on the rise of American narcissism
April 24, 2012
By Brigitte Graf ‘13
Dr. Jean Twenge, a psychology professor from San Diego State University, will be the keynote speaker for the psychology department’s Honors Research Colloquium on Tuesday, April 24.
The author of three books and numerous academic papers, Dr. Twenge will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Michel Student Center ballroom on the rise of narcissism in American culture, particularly its affect on today’s generation of college students. Her research was also discussed in a recent issue of Time Magazine.
Dr. Twenge “has done some really interesting research focusing on college students,” said Dr. Anthony Hermann, a psychology professor at Bradley. “Over the past 30 years, she’s looked at a particular questionnaire called the narcissism personality inventory. What she’s documented is that college students are more likely to endorse stigmas that are more self-centered.”
These stigmas will be the focus of her speech, titled “The Narcissism Epidemic and its Implications for Education and the Workplace.” Before Dr. Twenge takes the stage, poster presentations of various research projects completed by Bradley’s junior and senior psychology students will be displayed at 7 p.m. Admission to the colloquium is free and open to the public.
“There has been some really exciting research done by our students who are on their way to great careers in the field of psychology,” Dr. Hermann said. “For Dr. Twenge’s talk, [attendees] can expect it to be interesting, funny, enlightening and a good example of how psychological science can help us understand ourselves better.”
The Daniel J. Elias Endowment Fund is sponsoring Dr. Twenge’s visit. Established by the parents of Daniel J. Elias in honor of their late son who was a psychology student at Bradley, the fund encourages student research and supports venues where that research can be prominently featured.
“The goals of the foundation are to promote scholarship and psychological science among college students,” said Dr. Hermann. “The [psychology] department’s goals are the same; the two really merge well together. We were looking for a high-quality speaker who would be able to widen interest.” | <urn:uuid:38c4ba4e-71aa-49d3-9212-d52321a6a96b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bradley.edu/academic/departments/psychology/news/story.dot?id=202171 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950401 | 514 | 1.5625 | 2 |
By pumping water through telescopic poles, we are able to access and clean windows to heights in excess of 65 feet (5-6 floors).
Not only does this remove the need for expensive access methods such as scaffolding or scissor risers, it also removes completely any health and safety risks that can sometimes restrict access, and is extremely cost effective.
The Reach & Wash system can be used to clean windows, UPVC, facades, glass roofs, paneling and cladding. Other benefits include:
- Cleans up to 66 Feet (6 floors)
- Eliminates ladders, cherry pickers and cradles
- Operators work from the safety of the ground
- Reaches previously inaccessible windows with ease
- Maintains privacy and reduced disturbances
- Saves money | <urn:uuid:9b265cd7-a869-4ac4-92bb-e0c176422bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.verti-tech.co.uk/reach-wash.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930196 | 165 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I have been using the AttoPilot 90A sensor on my 3DR quad copter, from the start. It works, even though AC firmware requires some software lines to define calibration ratios (I looking forward to that to be set in the Mission Planner configuration).
Anyway, a few days ago I read a post from Arnt-Inge about AttoPilot sensor noise was interfering with sonar signal. That got me thinking about how the Atto-sensor is installed, and I started to worry about if the black ground wire in the Atto-sensor signal cable might act as a parasitic shunt to the main battery ground lead. Simply put, the motor current and other power consumers on the copter should have their current returning via the battery pack cable, not via the tiny Atto-sensor ground wire (and the APM board cirquit).
This evening I set up a test to find out whether the Atto-sensor three wire signal cable, black ground wire, acts as a parasitic shunt or not. I simply cut the black wire and connected a low impedance digital current meter.
Test turned out positive. At rest there is a 30mA current from the APM board to the sensor ground.
At full motor power it mesures 450mA. Half of an ampere. Hmm.
For me this is slightly disturbing. Having parasitic current like this in low level signal cables is simply dirty, even though I am not sure what significant implications it has.
I would like to know what you hardware guys have to say about this, please??
(this issue was also posted in the hardware issue forum, but that is a bit too narrow, since it is meant to be a tech support forum of the DIY store, sorry)
I wonder if this has anything to do with the random lack of gyro stability when I plug in the battery when the AttoPilot sensor is already attached to the APM board? I find if I have the AttoPilot sensor disconnected when I connect the battery the APM board initialises correctly and is stable, otherwise I randomly get barely any attitude stabilisation. After that I connect the AttoPilot sensor and all is OK, including alt-hold (2.1alpha). I did end up shielding all three wires to the sonar with the shield only connected at the APM ground end. Bit hard to see how a current could be present between the ground pin on the APM and the ground pin on the AttoPilot board when both are connected to the ground of the battery.
I put a ferrite on the atto cable, the noise was more or less gone that way. This can be read in all baro if I remember right. I will not do more before I get apm2, hope the program is quite stable when it arrives.
Tomas, looking at the circuit diagram, it seems the battery negative, or to be precise, the ground wire, merely passes through the board for convenience.
If you have that huge current flowing in the signal ground, I respectfully suggest that you have a wiring problem.
Measure the VOLTAGE over the battery ground wire, from battery itself, to each connection point, right up to the PDB.
Use a needle to stick through insulation.
Your description implies you have a large voltage drop along the ground wire.
And that is really going to mess up the readings from your sensor.
Richard - I would say it is pretty much a standard AttoPilot sensor setup, as described in the ACM wikis on this website.
And I think it is mainly a DC "problem", though most likely with a small AC component (from ESC motor drive, when motors running). But Arnt-Inge claims that a ferrite choke on the AttoSensor cable solved his noise problem, so that would indicate that in his case there actually was a significant AC component too.
Actually I don´t even know if this issue is a problem, but it might be, in some way, for instance like A-I implied. Anyhow, the presence of that current in a sensor cable is not sound to me. It is half baked circuit design.
But let this be clear, this is not so much about my specific setup. It is a general and predictable consequence of applying a second connection line (the sensor cable black ground) from the APM board directly to a point near the minus pole of the battery. So if you are using the AttoPilot current sensor, then you have this parasitic current too. More or less.
Factors that proportionally influence the amount of parasitic current is mainly the resistance in cables from PDB (Power Distribution Board) to battery, resistance in the PDB itself, and the conductance of ground circuit from PDB via APM board and AttoSensor cable to the ground point at the sensor itself. In short, the "problem" gets worse if the AC battery connection cable is too thin, and if the PDB board has too little cross section area of it´s printed copper.
The solution I can think of is radical:
There should be no ground-to-ground connection between Atto-sensor and APM. The Atto-sensor ground should be routed into a high impedance analog input and the voltage difference between it and the current / voltage sensor outputs should be measured. This would occupy one or two more analog inputs but it would be clean.
Suggest new hardware design
Even more radical and better would be a new PDB design that would integrate current and voltage sensing features, tailored for the ArduCopter. It should be considered to use Hall effect sensor for current sensing to avoid the voltage drop over the shunt resistor.
Frankly I think power monitoring in the AC is being treated astonishingly as a not so important issue;
Maybe you think I am whining. Not so. More like this: The ArduPilot/ Arducopter system is very sophisticated in many ways. And cool. In this fantastic technical framework, let us not ignore the need to monitor the status of the electrical drive line. After all, if it fails - down we go.
Have you done my suggested tests :-)
Sorry for not responding appropriately.
Anyhow -yes. Not now, but before, when I was on to the poor climb performance of my stock quad (now performance is good after having replaced crap propellers with carbon reinforced ones. Cable resistance was not the issue).
Here are the values measured at that time, and nothing has changed, except for the props :)
Tell me what you think. Does it look abnormal in any way?
By the way, it would be so interesting if some other AttoPilot sensor users would do the same simple measurent as I did, and report their findings here. It is very simple and non destructive (well, you will have to sacrifice a servo extension lead, but if you can bear with that):
No, that isn't what I meant.
Stick a needle into the battery ground wire, second needle just in front of the first connector.
Move second needle to after connector, measure.
Move second needle to just in front of whatever is next, measure, this way, all the way to the PDB.
From what you describe, you have a bad joint on your ground line.
This would be about the only way to find it.
Gustav, thanks for your helping efforts. But what you are suggesting is basically what I did in that link I provided to another thread. See, I do not have any joints on the negative battery connectors way to the PDB! It is going unbroken from battery connector to (good) solder joint at PDB. On the way it is soldered (but not cut) to the Atto sensor. And I HAVE already measured total voltage drop from battery connector to PBD at 29A, and it was 0,104 V. Follows (ohms law) that the internal resistence of the negative connection wire is 3,6 milliOhm, that confirms I have a good connection rather than a bad one. And I don´t have a HUGE current in the sensor ground, it´s like 0,45A at full motor power. And I am not saying it is a problem. My sensor readings (current, voltage, sonar) are ok, so I am not trying to solve a sensor problem. (But Arnt-Inges posting indicated that he experienced a noise problem, most likely caused by ESC noise having its way through the very same ground wire. A ferrite choke solved his problem).
The point I am trying to make is the following: The purpose of the three part output leads from from AttoPilot voltage and current sensor is to deliver low level voltages (representing battery voltage and battery current) to the APM analog inputs. The black ground wire is supposed to be the ground reference for the two signals representing current and voltage. Its purpose is not to act as a complimentary return line from PDB to battery negative connector. But it inevitably does this as soon as it is there. Not only for me. For everybody hooking up the AttoPilot sensor three wires to the APM board. The amount of current follows proportional to the inverse of the internal resistance of the respective wire.
The only way to completely avoid this "parasitic" current with the design at hand would be to leave the black ground line open. Haven´t tried that. Might work. But it might screw up battery voltage measurement as a function of current (due to voltage drop).
Ok, sorry if I made a lot of fuzz about a minor issue. I am just saying there is room for improvement. And we all want it to work perfect, don´t we?
I see you have already put a lot of thought into the problem.
But with all due respect, if you have 450mA flowing in the ground wire of the sensor at full power, there IS a problem.
Even if it only going to give you false readings on the APM.
As for noise, looking at the circuit, there should not be any.
It is a fairly low impedance DC circuit.
But since the sensor references it's ground, AT the PCB, and the APM references its ground at, well, it's ground input, and these two grounds change their voltage relationship to one another, as the current changes, there is almost no way to get accurate readings.
According to the website, the sensor is scaled for 3V3 circuits/A2D's.
So even something like a 100mV drop, is going to affect the accuracy badly
Leaving the sensor ground disconnected will screw you around just as much.
The best way out of this, is to mount the sensor as close to the PDB as possible.
Well Gustav, maybe you are right. But I did not notice any adverse effect on the current / voltage reading. Admitted, I did not check up on the curves. It seemed to work fairly well, once calibrated.
But anyhow, 450 mA sensor ground current at full rpm is not sound. And actually it might have been the double. Because when I did the measurement I inserted a servo extension lead, thereby approximately doubling the resistance of the sensor ground lead. Then I measured 450mA. So when running without the extension lead it would be reasonable to assume like 900mA at full power...
Now then, since I was tearing the quad apart anyway, to install APM2 board, I did exactly what you suggested. I moved the sensor as close as possible (4cm) to the PDB, and I used AWG12 wires (before, the battery leads were AWG16).
Tomorrow, if weather permits, I look forward to do premiere flight with APM2.
Finally, to anybody following this thread, again: All of you using the AttoPilot current sensor will experience this ground lead current (with or without side effects). The longer and thinner leads between PDB and sensor, the greater the ground lead current. And very soon I will stop nagging about this ;)
If you want to be able to adjust the voltage and current scaling parameters via the MP check the description and attachment to Arducopter issue 313. The reference to the pin numbers for APM2 won't apply, but the use of adjustable parameters rather than #define statements should. You won't be able to use the nice dialog box in the MP for the adjustments, but the two scaling parameters will be exposed so you can adjust them without recompiling.
As suggested elsewhere in these forums I have been using the GPS hdop field to transfer motor current, and reading it on an Ardustation. I noticed that while I can measure reasonably linear scalings of current on the Attopilot sensor, starting from 0, when I connect a voltmeter to the Attopilot sensor pins, I see a deadband at the bottom 0.5A or so in the values read by the APM and transferred to the Ardustation. I was wondering what was going on, any maybe it is this grounding issue that is causing it. I will take a closer look at this.
The current draw has been included in the MAVLink 1.0 packet defintions, so the hdop patch won't be necessary in the future. | <urn:uuid:72ec7eee-0ff0-4bdb-b2ed-d1c1e6dda1af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diydrones.com/group/arducopterusergroup/forum/topics/parasitic-current-in-attopilot-voltage-current-sensor-signal?xg_source=activity | 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 | 0.956197 | 2,772 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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Authors: Adair, Samuel Lyle
Date: not dated
Adair thanked the Ladies Circle for sending a fount, plate and cups for use in the church in Osawatomie. His appreciation was expressed in a religious sense. He asked for their prayers and said they have those of the church. He reported on sickness and on difficulties related to the church. He also commented on the "irreligion" in the area.
Keywords: Adair, Samuel Lyle; Churches; Illness; Lykins County, Kansas Territory (see also Miami County, Kansas); Massachusetts; Miami County, Kansas (see also Lykins County, Kansas Territory); Osawatomie, Kansas Territory; Religion; Women
Letter, Robert A. Tovey to My Dear Wife [Eliza (Matthew) Tovey]
Authors: Tovey, Robert Atkins
Date: December 17, 1854
Robert Atkins Tovey, Sr, having arrived in "Kanzas" Territory, wrote to his wife, Eliza (Matthew) Tovey, at their home in Albany, New York. Tovey described his working and living conditions, calling his Native American boss "most pleasant" and his living arrangements "comfortable," though infested with rats. Tovey, also a preacher, mentioned that the Methodist Church, the single place of worship in town, was willing to share their space with other denominations.
Keywords: Churches; Daily life; Emigration and immigration; Immigrants; Labor; Native Americans; Religion; Tovey, Robert Atkins
Letter, Warren Beckwith to M. H. Moore [Henry Miles]
Authors: Beckwith, Warren
Date: March 9, 1855
Beckwith wrote from Pawnee, K. T., to Henry Miles Moore of Weston, Missouri. Beckwith described building construction in Pawnee, reporting that a warehouse would be completed in time for the first session of the Territorial Legislature and that Catholic and Episcopal churches were being built.
Keywords: Beckwith, Warren; Churches; Construction; Davis County, Kansas Territory; Geary County, Kansas; Kansas Territory. Legislature; Moore, H. Miles (Henry Miles), b. 1826; Pawnee, Kansas Territory; Town development; Town sites
Letter, S. L. Adair to Rev. S. S. Jocelyn
Authors: Adair, Samuel Lyle
Date: September 8, 1855
This long letter was written in Osawatomie to Jocelyn, who was Samuel Adair's contact with the American Missionary Association. The first three pages dealt with some disagreement over Adair's salary and support that was to be provided by the association, his efforts on behalf of religion, and prospects for a "union" church building that would be shared by several denominations. The last page discussed economic conditions in Kansas Territory and the difficulty of getting items to Kansas either via the Missouri River or by overland freighting from St. Louis. This appears to be a draft of a letter sent to Jocelyn.
Keywords: Adair, Samuel Lyle; American Missionary Association; Churches; Economic conditions; Freight and freightage; Jocelyn, S. S.; Lykins County, Kansas Territory (see also Miami County, Kansas); Miami County, Kansas (see also Lykins County, Kansas Territory); Missouri River; Osawatomie, Kansas Territory; Transportation
Letter, E. Nute, Jr. to Rev. E. E. Hale
Authors: Nute, Ephraim
Date: October 3, 1855
Ephraim Nute, a Unitarian minister writing from Lawrence, K. T. to Edward Everett Hale, described the natural environment, economic developments, politics, religious affairs, and daily life in Kansas Territory. Nute commented on the need for more saw mills, efforts to construct a church, prospects for "free-thinking Christianity," and the possibility of armed conflict in the territory.
Keywords: Border ruffians; Churches; Construction; Daily life; Economic development; Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909; Houses; Lawrence, Kansas Territory; Nute, Ephraim; Religion; Sawmills; Timber; Unitarian churches; Violence
|See results 6 - 10| | <urn:uuid:38cb8b77-ed7f-45f2-a5f3-37891308f81b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=keyword&selected_keyword=Churches&sort_by=true&submit=Go&startsearchat=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940712 | 971 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In an age of sound-bite journalism, the Catholic Church's positions on complex issues are often relegated to simplified remarks. While we respect the opinions of others, it is essential to avoid simplifying the current religious liberty debate to the point of distortion, as New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, unfortunately, did in her May 24 column in The Tribune ("Father doesn't know best," Opinion).
In an effort to make a case against the church's objection to the Health and Human Services mandate requiring most religious institutions to offer contraception within their health insurance policies, Dowd ignores complicated First Amendment issues and church teaching to try to paint the Catholic Church as anti-women and abusive. Unfortunately, a column that was ostensibly about a relevant issue ended up as nothing more than a rambling attack on the Catholic Church.
What Dowd missed was an opportunity to discuss an important national question whether government, without a compelling reason, can override religious beliefs and impose its standards on the internal policies of a religious employer.
Despite Dowd's unsubstantiated assertions that the Catholic Church is trying to impose its beliefs on others, the situation is actually the reverse. The church is practicing its faith within its institutions it is HHS that is intruding on the manner in which this is done. HHS is imposing its definition of religion on the church and requiring that specific insurance provisions be offered to employees at church institutions. Under the HHS definition, "houses of worship" that serve only their members are "religions," and thereby exempt from the mandate.
However, religious entities that put their faith into action by serving people who are not members of their religion are not eligible for the exemption. In Utah, this means our Catholic social service organizations, such as Catholic Community Services, elementary and high schools, and the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen, would have to choose between serving only Catholics, in violation of our beliefs, or pay for an insurance policy that offers contraception, also contrary to church teaching.
Dowd doesn't ask if government should be able to force a religious institution to violate its beliefs without a compelling reason. While she faults the church for questioning the mandate, she never asks why HHS circumvents the First Amendment. After all, pregnancy is not a disease, contraception is readily available to those who want it, and government does not demand free coverage for other drugs, including life-saving prescriptions such as high blood pressure pills, cancer medications or insulin injections.
Where is the compelling governmental interest to justify forcing the Catholic Church to violate its beliefs?
Dowd asserts that the Catholic Church's arguments against the mandate are all about a desire to subjugate women. As evidence, she cites cases of priests sexually abusing minors. Sexual abuse by church officials, or anyone else, is intolerable and must be addressed, but those issues have nothing to do with a government mandate regarding internal employee benefit decisions.
Dowd is convinced that church leaders are heading to court to undermine President Barack Obama in an election year. Actually, the organizations suing over the mandate are removing the matter from the political arena and placing it into the legal system.
Meanwhile, Catholic entities continue to work with the executive branch on the president's proposed, but as yet unwritten, accommodation for religious organizations. Catholic leaders supported congressional efforts to pass legislation addressing the issues. The legislation failed.
The next step is to ask the courts to determine the parameters of the First Amendment, as they were established to do. Going to court is not a political maneuver. It is a protection available to any person or entity that feels a constitutional right has been violated.
Rev. John C. Wester is bishop of the Catholic diocese of Salt Lake City. | <urn:uuid:58499462-df5d-465d-9c90-32aea0be37d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=54202839&itype=cmsid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970951 | 747 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Autism in the News- 07.14.11
Hastings college is first in UK to get autism award (UK)
Sussex Coast College Hastings (SCCH) last week became the only general further education college in the country to be awarded autism accreditation status from the National Autistic Society (NAS). Read more.
Woodbury, Minn., women team up to help families living with autism (Woodbury, Minn.)
For Kristin Pruitt and Lisa Valera, celebrating the Fourth of July with family is not an easy thing. In fact, they usually just avoid it. Pruitt’s 12-year-old son was diagnosed eight years ago with autism that is triggered by noise, crowded spaces and hectic events. Johnathon is a monotone boy who’s uncomfortable with hugging, expressing emotion and making eye contact. Read more.
Autism funding to help families (The Observer)
A centre offering assistance and therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder will start helping Gladstone families almost immediately thanks to new funding. Autism Queensland program manager Valerie Preston said the centre would offer family and group-based early intervention programs for children aged under six. Read more.
Mom finds support and understanding through autism society (The Western Star)
Ever since her son was three Sheila Wight has been dealing with his behavioural issues. Tyler Best is now 15 and last summer was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. That diagnosis has given the single mother from Pasadena and her son more control over their lives. Read more.
Joey Travolta film camp at St. Mary’s opens new horizons for campers with autism, Asperger’s syndrome (San Diego, Calif.)
In a small classroom at St. Mary’s College, Joey Travolta is in “director mode.” From testing sound equipment to pointing out markers in the scene where his actors should stand to deliver their lines, every aspect of the room he commands is reminiscent of a Hollywood film set. Read more. | <urn:uuid:4c7f1e26-6b67-4f6e-8034-a193b21dbdeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/07/14/autism-in-the-news-07-14-11/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=81d32a40f7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954827 | 427 | 1.75 | 2 |
Another virtual cache for The Strip.
An unusual cache as you have two different ways to log the cache and two very different views all from the same coordinates!!
The Las Vegas Eiffel Tower is half the size of the original and cost twenty million dollars to build. The original in Paris cost one million dollars.
This tower would have been larger but owing to it's proximity to McCarran International Airport this was not allowed. The tower is a very good replica but if you look closely the steel sections are welded and the rivets are actually stuck on!
To log the cache you can e-mail at HERE and tell me how many doors go into Paris from this spot or you can take a lift to the top of the tower and post a picture of the lake from the top.
The top of the tower is probably the best place to view the fountains from, especially at night. If taken at night I have found that pictures come out well without use of a flash.
Enjoy the views.
Dave & Niki | <urn:uuid:70829e47-4b73-4012-9bda-0604553aacd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3f16e8e3-18a1-4081-bb92-77aa1a42f15f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958644 | 213 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Gaza: Investigate Abduction, Torture by Islamic Jihad
|Publisher||Human Rights Watch|
|Publication Date||30 May 2008|
|Cite as||Human Rights Watch, Gaza: Investigate Abduction, Torture by Islamic Jihad, 30 May 2008, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4843fd4826.html [accessed 19 June 2013]|
|Disclaimer||This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.|
(New York, May 30, 2008) - Hamas authorities in Gaza should investigate the recent abduction and apparent torture of three men by the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should hold accountable any individuals responsible for serious abuses.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman who gave his name as "Abu Ahmad" told Human Rights Watch in a telephone interview that the group held the men in a private detention center and interrogated them for close to two weeks.
"An armed group like al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain, or interrogate suspects," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division. "As the de facto political authority in Gaza, the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya needs to show it won't tolerate vigilante abuse."
A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry told Human Rights Watch that, as of May 18, all three men had been transferred to the custody of the Hamas-controlled Internal Security Force. The spokesman, Ihab al-Ghussein, said Hamas had called on Islamic Jihad to transfer the men after learning of their detention. "They were severely beaten and tortured," he said.
However, al-Ghussein also said that the Internal Security Force was now interrogating the men regarding the allegations of collaboration. "The interrogation is still under way and after that [the three men] will be transferred to the prosecution [authorities]," al-Ghussein said.
Human Rights Watch said that Hamas should either release the men now in their custody or charge them with a recognizable criminal offense and try them in accordance with international fair trial standards. While in detention, the men should be treated fairly and granted access to a lawyer. They should also be speedily brought before a judicial authority with the power to review the legality of their detention and order their release.
Despite some improvements in recent months, Hamas-run security forces in Gaza frequently use force against detainees during interrogations and deny them their due process rights, Human Rights Watch said.
Relatives of one of the abducted men, Salah Abdullah Awad, 44, a former captain in the General Intelligence Service of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, told Human Rights Watch he showed visible signs of torture when they recently visited him in prison.
"He was unable to stand normally on his feet. Someone was helping him to stand and walk," Awad's 24-year-old son Bakr told Human Rights Watch. "He was very tired, with clear signs of torture on his body. There were remains of burns on his feet."
The Hamas spokesman criticized Islamic Jihad for abducting and torturing the men, but stopped short of announcing an investigation into their actions. "We have stressed that the factions have no right to arrest any person," al-Ghussein said.
Bakr Awad told Human Rights Watch that his father was abducted from outside their family home in the town of Rafah on May 7, but that the family only learned of his whereabouts on May 20.
"During the whole time of his detention, we did not receive any information or signal about him," Bakr Awad said. "We were looking for him on the streets and at his friend's."
Salah Awad told his family when they visited him in prison on May 24 that he had been coerced under torture to make a videotaped confession, which was released on the internet. Salah "tried to tuck up his jellabiya [a shoulder-to-ankle length garment] to show the traces of torture on the rest of his body, but the internal security officer who was at his desk in the office told him to be quiet and not to do so," Bakr Awad said.
The spokesman for Islamic Jihad told Human Rights Watch that the group "arrested" Salah Awad and the other men for their alleged collaboration with Israeli security forces in separate targeted attacks between 2005 and 2008 that killed three armed group leaders and the March 2008 shelling of a mosque that killed eight Hamas fighters. He denied the group had tortured any of the men. "They were questioned without any physical pressure," he said. "Al-Quds Brigades held the spies in its own places and specialized people interrogated them."
The al-Quds Brigades also placed on the internet a similar videotaped confession of another prisoner, Saleh Khalil Abu Zaid, 60, a former construction worker. Human Rights Watch spoke with a 16-year-old witness about Abu Zaid's May 10 abduction:
"I saw a white Subaru car carrying four or five masked gunmen. They drove slowly and stopped near a man when he was walking in the street. They got out carrying Kalashnikovs and told him to get into the car. One took him by the arm and put him in the middle of the back seat, and drove away."
Since Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June 2007, rival factions in the West Bank and Gaza have attacked, detained, and in some cases killed their opponents. Arbitrary arrests, torture and due process violations by both Fatah and Hamas forces are common.
"The Hamas authorities in Gaza, who control the governing institutions there, have a duty to prosecute those responsible for these abductions and apparent use of torture," Stork said.
Palestinian law and international human rights law alike prohibit arbitrary arrests and detention, as well as torture and other serious abuses in detention, Human Rights Watch said. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example, requires that all detained persons be brought promptly before a judge and have access to legal counsel and family members. Persons detained under suspicion of having committed a crime should be charged with a recognizable criminal offense, and receive a prompt trial meeting international fair trial standards.
Palestinian Authority: Punish Imam's Death in Custody
Press Release, April 4, 2008
More of Human Rights Watch's work on Israel/OPT | <urn:uuid:0e142a9a-2a86-458b-9ed9-de34f48f1ea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=country&category=&publisher=HRW&type=&coi=ISR&rid=4562d8cf2&docid=4843fd4826&skip=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976317 | 1,359 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Clement sorry for calling teen a ‘jackass’
Explore This Story
OTTAWA—Treasury Board President Tony Clement has apologized for insulting a 15-year-old boy during a Twitter spat over spelling mistakes.
Keith Pettinger, a student at Parry Sound High School, was following Clement’s Twitter feed on Saturday evening and decided to call out the cabinet minister on his spelling.
Clement, watching Hockey Night in Canada, said on Twitter: “Coach’s Corner gave me a lot to think about tonite.”
Pettinger shot back: “If you can’t spell, how can you run Canada’s treasury?” Then, in a subsequent tweet, he asked whether Clement would like to come to school with him and learn to spell properly.
Clement didn’t respond until Sunday, and then through the direct-message feature on Twitter, which only the recipient can see.
“Ha ha ur fnny,” Clement’s first tweet said. Then the minister accused Pettinger of misspelling “don’t know.”
“It’s ‘don’t know’ not ‘dunno.’ Jack ass (sic),” Clement said in his Twitter message to Pettinger.
Pettinger replied to Clement that he wasn’t aware of using that spelling, but then said, in a couple of Twitter replies: “I must admit that my spelling and grammar is not great. I’m sorry for calling you out . . . . I just wanted someone so involved with my and Canada’s money to spell properly.”
Pettinger sent screen shots of the conversation to the Star and said in an email: “I believe that this is wrong, and uncalled for. One of our country’s leaders cannot be insulting fellow Canadians.”
On Monday, Clement acknowledged the outburst and apologized.
“The message was a private communication. That said, in hindsight, I could have been more polite. I apologize for offending him,” the minister told the Star.
Clement is a prolific presence on Twitter and was even featured in a local CBC Radio show on Monday as one of the politicians who has built a large, active following on social media. When CBC’s Ottawa Morning host Robyn Bresnahan asked him the secret to his Twitter success, Clement replied: “Authenticity. Dimensionality. Engagement.”
This was the second known time that Clement has called someone a jackass on Twitter. Keith Torrie, national director of the Young Liberals of Canada, was similarly described that way by the minister over a year ago for noting that he saw fellow minister John Baird carrying a Harry Rosen bag aboard a flight to Toronto.
“Hey jackass, Baird’s attending a funeral tomorrow,” Clement wrote to Torrie.
As news of the Pettinger spat spread on Twitter on Monday, Clement tweeted that he did not know Pettinger was only 15, but said he stood by his apology.
- 'The silence is deafening': Rob Ford stays mum on crack allegations as brother blasts media
- Man hacked to death in London in suspected terror attack
- Police make second arrest in Tim Bosma murder investigation
- As world gawks at Rob Ford scandal, Toronto police wait and watch
- Mayor Rob Ford dismissed as football coach at Don Bosco Secondary School
- U.S. admits it killed four Americans in overseas attacks
- Updated 'He is my person. My other half.' Widow mourns at Tim Bosma's funeral
- Updated Stephen Harper 'sorry, frustrated, angry' over secret payout to Mike Duffy | <urn:uuid:2f6a4c02-ed82-4e0e-89cc-6e20fce25150> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/01/09/clement_sorry_for_calling_teen_a_jackass.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951607 | 787 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Peterson: Easter Suite (Arthaus: 107063)
Usually ships within 1-3 days
The \Easter Suite" has remained one of the least known compositions by Oscar Peterson, even though virtually all sources mention it as one of his major works. It was commissioned by the South Bank Show, London Weekend Television's flagship arts programme, and broadcast nation-wide on Good Friday, April 24th, 1984. Its eight movements follow the events related in the gospel story. This recording of the world premiere performance also features an interview with Peterson, explaining how he went about composing the suite, his initial scepticism about interpreting such a topic in the medium of jazz and his relation to spiritual music. He also describes in detail the various motifs of the work. If the passion and resurrection seem surprising as topics for a longer jazz work, Oscar Peterson with his"Easter Suite" appears in a long line of other jazz greats, who at least in their later works created religiously inspired works." | <urn:uuid:1031fd28-af6b-478a-8e93-f63eddfb98f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://naxosdirect.co.uk/items/peterson-easter-suite-arthaus-107063-153966 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970836 | 202 | 1.585938 | 2 |
"There are some militarists who say: ‘We are not interested in politics but only in the profession of arms.’ It is vital that these simple-minded militarists be made to realize the relationship that exists between politics and military affairs. Military action is a method used to attain a political goal. While military affairs and political affairs are not identical, it is impossible to isolate one from the other."
Mao Tse-tung, On Guerrilla Warfare
"Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance."
H.H. Munro (Saki), The Achievement of the Cat.
"If you want to be big time, you’ve got to sacrifice: who you hang out with, what you eat, how long you practice, the way you live your life."
Lou Holtz, on TV several years ago during a halftime show
"It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face…and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember…I…I…I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized…like I was shot…like I was shot with a diamond…a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God…the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men…trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love…but they had the strength…the strength…to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral…and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling…without passion…without judgment…without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us."
Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now on having the strength to do what is necessary to succeed in armed conflict. | <urn:uuid:f5f099ef-4022-41a2-9fd4-d4139f73e9ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brandonfriedman.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976091 | 636 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Freshen Up Your Clothes From the Clothes Dryer
Clothes dried in the sun have that fresh, natural smell. You may have liked that sun-dried scent back in the days when people actually had clotheslines. These days, space is so cramped that people do not have room to string a full line of clothes to dry out in the sun. Clothes dried in a clothes dryer may not have the same fresh smell as their sun-dried counterparts, but you can always imitate that smell using some common household products.
How To Give Clothes That Fresh Sunny Smell
Here are some ideas on how you could make your clothes smell just like they were dried by the wind and the sun:
Fabric softener pads. These are dry pads that you throw into the dryer at its last cycle. Not only do these pads fluff up your clothes, but they also give your clothes a fresh, sun-dried smell.
Baby powder. A small amount of baby powder throw into the last drying cycle can also help your clothes smell fresh and clean. Make sure to remove all the powder residue from your clothes before wearing them.
Ionic dryer balls. Some supermarkets and auction shops on the Internet carry these plastic balls that contain ceramic balls. As these ceramic balls rub against each other, they generate an ionic charge that removes foul odors from wet clothes. The nice thing about ionic dryer balls is that they don’t damage your clothes at all.
Try some of these products for yourself, and smell the difference in your clothes. If you enjoy reading this article, you’ll surely enjoy learning how to get rid of musty clothes smell. | <urn:uuid:d2c518d9-d4e4-4bbc-823d-3e762124e304> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cleaningglow.com/cool-cleaning-products-4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961962 | 348 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world.
NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home.”
The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.
“This active recruitment of Israeli students is part of Israel’s orchestrated effort to suppress the Palestinian solidarity movement under the guise of combating “delegitimization” of Israel and anti-Semitism.”
The involvement of the official Israeli student union as well as Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College in these state propaganda programs will likely bolster Palestinian calls for the international boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
“This is our opportunity, as Israeli students, to provide hasbara [state propaganda] that is correct and balanced, to help in the struggle against the delegitimization of the State of Israel and against hatred of Jews in the world.”
That is one of the exhortations in a Hebrew document issued by NUIS, and translated by The Electronic Intifada, inviting Israeli students to apply for a program to help spread Israel’s message. | <urn:uuid:6239db1e-2ec1-4a9e-b72b-c485b8b41997> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/israeli-students-to-get-2000-to-spread-state-propaganda-on-facebook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948346 | 307 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Mars Science Laboratory arrived at its destination Sunday night at 11:31 p.m. The MSL team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's control center in Pasadena was ecstatic; the mission control room was flooded with jubilant pandemonium. According to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who was there along with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren, "Everybody in the morning should be sticking their chests out saying, 'That's MY Curiosity rover on Mars!'" The rover is checking out in perfect shape so far, and soon the science will begin.
Progress reports rolled in last night at a rate of about one per minute. Each time a milestone in the intricate system was transmitted home, the team clapped and broke out in spontaneous laughter.
Read more at Ars Technica. | <urn:uuid:d18cb2b2-af4c-4b1b-b978-14a7a2cad179> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boulderweekly.com/article-9403-curiosity-lands-on-mars.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93872 | 161 | 1.71875 | 2 |
I had the opportunity to attend a youth summer camp that the company I work for (http://www.uaii.org) holds every year in Big Pine, CA. The camp is for American Indian children (ages 5 to 17 years) residing in the Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Fresno areas and it is a week long. This is the second time I’ve attended, as I did attend last year’s camp as well, and just like last year I was so inspired about the overall
experience and specifically a couple different things.
First of all, I was amazed at how you (or at least I) feel so very rejuvenated and inspired after spending that much time with our youth. By “our youth” I mean American Indian youth (I am also American Indian, a member of the Chukchansi tribe of Coarsegold, CA). I’ve heard various people claim that American Indian culture is being lost and will eventually cease to exist because of assimilation, however, after having this camp experience and seeing the efforts made in my local American Indian community…. I’m not so sure I believe that.
The camp is great fun for the youth. Around 70 youth attended the first camp, and the second camp is going on as I write this and has about the same amount of youth. They participate in so many activities: horseback riding, archery, pow wow dancing, drumming, pinewood derby, and theater to name a few. Some elders of the Paiute tribe also came to sing some songs for the youth. But I believe another highlight for me was the farewell ceremony. A ceremony was held where adult staff and volunteers did a blessing, prayer, and sang a traveling song. The real highlight was two youth (around 8 year old male and female) sang a song in their own tribal language. These are youth that have been raised in the city, many experiencing difficult life situation… but it spoke volumes to me the pride and courage they showed singing in front of the crowd and the extent to which they knew a great deal about their tribal cultures. In addition to that, every person in the crowd shook hands with every other person at camp during the ceremony, and as I was shaking their hands I was amazed at how many young ones were able to tell me farwell in their tribal languages. It makes me sad to think American Indian tribal traditions are being forgotten over the years, but this inspired me to think otherwise. It confirmed what I’ve been taught in school….cultures change. But in this case it may be changing but traditional practices are not totally being lost.
I was also amazed at how well the youth listened. They were so well behaved for the most part and I believe that is because their interest was consistently captured on positive activities.
I love how the young ones are sometimes so funny (in a good way) in what they say, and they don’t even realize.
I’m doing a video documenting the experience so I’ll have to see if I can post it up here. | <urn:uuid:54ce2107-631e-4c9a-aa14-84c61edbaf45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ethnography.com/2009/08/a-rejuvenating-and-inspiring-experience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984485 | 636 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Let Zimbabwe’s children bloom
My first year in Zimbabwe has flown by and spring is once more in the air as the jacaranda trees lining Harare's streets burst into bloom once more, in a riot of regal purple. The beauty of the garden suburbs is deceptive. Despite the steady economic recovery of the past 24 months, the levels of poverty are still very high and disproportionately affect the million-plus children estimated to have lost one or more parents to the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
Jacaranda in bloom
Almost exactly a year ago I witnessed the launch of a major textbook distribution programme that has now successfully completed its distribution of around 13 million books to all the estimated 2.6 million primary school students. A similar exercise is now underway to provide secondary textbooks using cost savings from the initial phase.
The Prime Minister at the launch
Last week I was fortunate enough to attend another major programme launch, efficiently organised once more by UNICEF and again presided over by the Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. We had gathered at the National Art Gallery where there was a striking collection of Shona and Ndebele cultural sculpture and a professional photographic display of today's Zimbabwean children – at work, at play and at school. Entertainment came courtesy of UNICEF's regional goodwill ambassador and musical superstar Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi, who was also joined in voice by the disabled singing sensation Prudence Mabhena.
Despite the lovely atmosphere the stark facts and figures kept everyone reminded of the purpose: 1 in 3 children suffers chronic malnutrition and 700,000 children live in extreme poverty – they suffer from hunger for most of the year, become physically weak, and are much more likely to die from infections that other people survive. Horrendous levels of violence and abuse are also suffered by children in Zimbabwe, especially girls (60% of reported rape survivors are children).
Holding the future
The children's representative present reminded the Prime Minister and other senior distinguished guests of the need for action: to protect, love and cherish children, allowing all to have access to food to eat, schooling and medical services when needed.
The government's national action plan to support orphans and vulnerable children for the coming five years was launched, supported by the Child Protection Fund (CPF). The UK (DFID) together with the Netherlands, Sweden and the Delegation of the European Union to Zimbabwe are supporting specific interventions through CPF, under UNICEF management.
In addition to BEAM school fee support for orphans, the CPF will scale up regular cash payments to 80,000 of the poorest households in the country, benefitting 300,000 of the most vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. Just last March I met the first grandparents to benefit, who were singlehandedly raising their dead children's children. By the end of this year, this pilot in one locality will have already scaled up to ten districts spread across all the provinces of Harare.
The words of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, quoted at the launch, are well worth repeating: "There is no duty more important than ensuring that children's rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want, and that they can grow up in peace." | <urn:uuid:e6c44615-52d7-40ea-a0ee-93103f123b2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2011/10/let-zimbabwes-children-bloom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963072 | 670 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Green Party said today that the government’s decision to appoint the commissioners to consider the Auckland Plan – instead of leaving the choice to Auckland’s locally elected representatives – is an example of anti-democratic and anti-local government policies.
Press Release – Green Party
The real agenda behind the increased powers of Ministerial intervention in National’s Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill is now clear, the Green Party said today.
“The Government suspended regional democracy in Canterbury in order to implement its irrigation expansion agenda when councillors weren’t doing this fast enough,” said Green Party local government spokesperson Eugenie Sage.
“National’s Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill, which it is pushing through against immense opposition, will make it much easier for the Minister to interfere with and dominate councils to implement the Government’s policy programme.
“The Minister claimed that regional democracy in Canterbury should not be reinstated because the Commissioners were “stable, effective and efficient”. We now know that it was because the National Ministers wanted to achieve their own agenda without public accountability.
“This sets a very low benchmark for the removal of democracy when the imposition of one policy, in this case expanding irrigation, overrides all other considerations.
“The Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill has a loose definition of the types of “problem” in councils which can trigger Ministerial intervention. It sets a very low threshold for Ministerial interference, and gives the Minister wide scope to intervene and push central government priorities.
“National is anti-local government and anti-democratic.
“The list is growing: the Government removed ECan elections; gave draconian powers to CERA which have continued long after the emergency, crippling the role of elected councillors in Christchurch’s rebuild; and is pushing anti-local government legislation through Parliament.
“On top of this, Ministers have decided that they, not the elected councillors, will appoint the influential hearing commissioners on the Auckland Plan.
“National does not respect local government and is attacking it on all fronts.
“Any region in New Zealand could be moved towards a solely economic growth model if you axe elected representatives.
“The National Government’s inappropriate interference in Canterbury leaves little doubt in my mind that it will do the same to other communities.
“We need to strengthen our democratic tradition and allow councils to continue to promote the four wellbeings – environmental, economic, social and cultural – which are the foundation of a healthy society; not dump on democracy as National is doing,” said Ms Sage. | <urn:uuid:8be2243a-0f49-442b-a15e-76f1df89169b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://auckland.scoop.co.nz/2012/10/government-anti-local-government-and-anti-democracy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934327 | 539 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Federal judge in Va. strikes down part of health-care law
Tuesday, December 14, 2010; 12:49 AM
RICHMOND - A federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional for the government to compel Americans to buy health insurance, marking the first time a court has struck down any facet of the massive new law to overhaul the nation's health-care system.
Although the opinion by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson gives significant political ammunition to the law's opponents, it does not invalidate the entire law or force federal and state officials to stop the work of putting it into effect - steps Virginia had asked him to take.
The ruling by Hudson, named to the bench by George W. Bush, sets up a conflict with opinions by two Democratic-appointed judges who have concluded recently that the law is constitutional. The cases are among two dozen in federal courts across the country that challenge many aspects of the law. The final word is widely expected to come from the U.S. Supreme Court.
In his 42-page opinion, Hudson concluded that requiring most people to get insurance or pay a fine - as the law mandates starting in 2014 - is an unprecedented expansion of federal power and cannot be justified under Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce.
The ruling elated Virginia's Republican governor and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), who brought the case, and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill, who are vowing to try to take apart all or pieces of the law. "I am gratified we prevailed," Cuccinelli said in a statement. "This won't be the final round . . . but today is a critical milestone in the protection of the Constitution."
But the opinion is a partial win and a partial loss for the law's foes and supporters alike, according to legal and health-policy specialists. Its immediate practical effects - on patients, the health-care industry or regulators writing the fine print of how the statute will be carried out - will probably be slight, specialists say.
"It's important to distinguish between the theater and the politics, and the implementation [of the law], which is still being carried out," said Drew E. Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health-care research and policy organization.
White House officials played down the ruling's impact. They hinted that they will appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but did not indicate how quickly they might act. Meanwhile, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has begun trying to enlist fellow governors to press the Justice Department to skip over the customary step of bringing the case before federal circuit judges - and take it directly to the nation's highest court.
The lawsuit challenged the 2,000-page legislation that Congress adopted in March at the urging of President Obama, setting in motion the broadest changes to the U.S. health-care system in 41/2 decades. The legislation is designed to widen access to private and public health insurance and, to some degree, slow medical spending. Heralded by Democrats as a signature advance in domestic policy, the law continues to be disputed by Republicans, who will gain power in the new Congress in January, and GOP-led statehouses, as well as in the courts.
Hudson's ruling largely traced the reasoning he had followed when he issued an opinion over the summer, declining to dismiss the case at an earlier stage.
In the Virginia case, as in others across the country, the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate, as the provision is known, hinged primarily on an interpretation of the clause in the U.S. Constitution that relates to the government's powers to regulate commerce.
Virginia argued that people who choose not to carry health insurance are not engaging in any type of commerce. For that reason, the commonwealth contended, Congress exceeded its powers by enacting a law that requires most Americans to buy coverage. | <urn:uuid:12719228-41a7-4ba5-829f-476f03801f78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/13/AR2010121302420.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965546 | 803 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Indiana Law may be the only law school in the country with a unique three-tiered LRAP program targeting loan reduction and repayment. For more than 12 years, Indiana Law’s LRAP One program has enabled rising third-year law students to apply for and receive public interest scholarships between $5,000 and $8,000 for their third year of school, allowing them to reduce their reliance on loans.
We think this program is particularly good for students who demonstrate an unyielding focus on public interest while in law school, through action and involvement. The program not only helps reduce the principal on existing loans, but also eliminates the interest additional loans might have accrued. Recently, the School initiated an LRAP Two program. LRAP Two provides fellowships to students who will embark on public interest work in the public interest upon graduation. Again, these fellowships are generous at the same level of support (from $3,000 to $8,000).
Indiana Law is currently working through details to launch LRAP Three, a third, more traditional repayment program. This program will aid graduates working in public interest positions in making their monthly student loan payments. These programs, coupled with a special summer fellowship program and a Legal Services Office Fellowship ($4,000 available to a second- or third-year student working in Legal Services), reflect Indiana Law’s high level of commitment to students with public interest aspirations.
The Kathleen A. Buck Loan Repayment Assistance Program supports and assists Indiana Law graduates who choose careers in public interest law and aids public interest employers in recruiting and retaining talented and experienced lawyers by relieving the burdens imposed by rising student debt loads. An Academy of Law Alumni Fellows member and a beloved 1973 alumna, her work in the public interest was recognized by countless organizations before her death in 2001, Buck’s bequest shines a positive light on a legal profession that needs talented lawyers to represent underserved communities.
The focus of Skadden is to “groom” the next wave of public interest attorneys. Skadden seeks to provide “apprenticeships” for promising new attorneys. Interested candidates must develop a project and find a host organization willing to sponsor the candidate.
Past Recipient: Steve Sharpe
The focus of Equal Justice Works is to fund entrepreneurial or “cutting edge” projects. How does it work?The student is responsible for developing a project idea and finding a host organization.
Past Recipient: Jeff Gold, Indiana Legal Services & Tenants Assistance Project Advisor
This program works to improve access to justice by increasing the availability of pro bono legal services nationwide to low-income clients. Supported by an AmeriCorps grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, the program is a postgraduate opportunity to address gaps in legal services through pro bono management and direct legal services.
During their 11-month fellowships, each Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow recruits 100 volunteer law students and lawyers—and the amount of taxpayer dollars per client served is only $40. Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Fellows work to narrow the justice gap in many areas, including health care, public benefits, affordable housing, lost wages, protection orders and education.
A number of nonprofit organizations administer their own fellowships. The organization determines the salary, duration of the fellowship, and the scope of the fellow’s work within the organization. Candidates apply directly to the organization, and the organization usually chooses the fellow without outside assistance. The fellowship is basically a temporary job with the organization, typically designed for new law graduates or attorneys with little experience in the practice area. There is no expectation that the fellow will continue working with the organization when the fellowship ends. Indeed, unless a staff position opens or the organization is able to find additional funding to increase its staff, the fellow is unlikely to remain.
PMF is a competitive program that recruits law grads and those from other disciplines to work in executive branch agencies.
The purpose of the Program is to attract to the Federal service outstanding men and women from a variety of academic disciplines and career paths who have a clear interest in, and commitment to, excellence in the leadership and management of public policies and programs.
This rigorous two-year paid fellowship includes:
The PMF selection process consists of four parts:
For more information on fellowships, visit PSLawNet.
The Law Student Travel and Accommodations Reimbursement Program (L-STAR) is a national fundraising initiative that runs in conjunction with law school on-campus interviewing (OCI) programs. If a law student stays with family or friends instead of in a hotel during a callback interview, the interviewing law firm(s) agrees to donate $165 to that student's public interest funding organization. Many firms have also agreed to donate $35 for students who are able to forego transportation to and from the airport in the destination city.
By participating, law firms enjoy recognition for supporting public interest law at law schools across the country. Participating students can enjoy the fact that they are making it possible for their classmates to provide legal services to those most in need of the energy, dedication, and talent of law students. Each summer, L-STAR's member organizations fund over 120 law students working in volunteer and low-paying jobs with various non-profit and governmental agencies. | <urn:uuid:98e8e187-a46a-426e-9fe0-d19427c0708f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.indiana.edu/students/clinic/probono/forgiveness-programs.shtml | 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 | 0.955368 | 1,093 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Sep 9, 2011
Find the Right Financial Advisor for You
Invest in your future by hiring an expert to help plan your financial strategy
Finding the right financial advisor is critical to avoiding costly mistakes. But if there is anything that Black folks seem more resistant to than talking about money, it is paying for professional financial services. Many people don't want to pay for something they feel they can do for themselves.
"Someone in the early stages of planning and without excess money to spare should look for a reputable company that provides unbiased financial education and will help you make the best decision," says Samirian Hill, president and founder of BudgetWise Financial Solutions, LLC of Southfield.
Whatever areas of financial planning you need help with—budgeting, debt management, retirement planning, investing, estate planning, tax planning or others—there are individuals trained to help you achieve the best outcomes.
These professionals spend every day focused on the details of their specialty, staying abreast of changing regulations and laws. Of course, you should become as knowledgeable as possible about managing your money through resources like personal finance books and workshops. Still, the wisdom of experts will likely result in more savings, reduced debt and a better long-term strategy than a novice could come up with alone.
If you need budget or debt management expertise, visit the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) or call 800-388-2227. The largest nonprofit credit counseling organization in the country, it provides online tools like budget worksheets, as well as referrals to local agencies. Such organizations can do a free evaluation of your situation and offer counseling regarding debt, bankruptcy and housing. In some cases, they may be able to help get clients' credit card interest rates and monthly payments lowered.
There is the option of working with a financial coach. This professional typically specializes in budgeting, cash flow and debt management. Many charge between $50 and $150 per hour. They can provide the month-to-month hand holding that is sometimes necessary to help clients learn to live within their means.
You should meet with a financial professional who specializes in your area of need. For example, a retirement specialist may not be well versed in taxes or estate planning. He or she can, however, help determine the best retirement product for you, what yearly contribution you should make, and how much risk is appropriate for you based on your age, lifestyle and the number of years before you retire. At some financial planning firms, the staff includes professionals with different areas of expertise, enabling clients to get all the guidance they need in one place.
To find the right planner, first ask for referrals from friends and family. Get recommendations from those who have used a planner's services and can vouch for his or her character, competence and performance. You also can search for financial planners through registries like the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors or Garrett Planning Network. They maintain a list of advisers that have gotten training and agreed to the organization's ethical standards.
Once you have selected about three potential advisors, begin the process of interviewing. Make sure they don't make you feel intimidated when asking questions. Determine your comfort level with them. Ask for client referrals.
Jackie Davis, owner of a State Farm Insurance Agency in Belleville, suggests finding out how they earn money. "When choosing a financial advisor, it helps to understand how your advisor gets paid because those who live off commissions may have different goals than advisors who work on salary." In other words, an advisor's recommendation of one product over another could be influenced by the commission he or she could make.
Fee-only advisors charge a flat rate per service. They do not receive a commission on the products they sell and do not manage your portfolio on an on-going basis. Others advisors are commission-based and may or may not charge for office visits. Also, there are hybrid-fee-based advisors who receive payment from some of the products they sell, but most of their income comes from client fees.
Whoever you choose, be sure to monitor your accounts. In addition to meeting annually at tax time, review your quarterly and monthly statements. Remember, the financial advisor works for you, not the other way around.
GLINDA BRIDGFORTH IS THE AUTHOR OF "GIRL, GET YOUR CREDIT STRAIGHT!" AND FOUNDER OF BRIDGFORTH FINANCIAL AND ASSOCIATES, LLC. | <urn:uuid:b4728ce3-9603-43e3-bd53-bfbf2f2571a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blacdetroit.com/BLAC-Detroit-Blogs/BLAC-Money/September-2011/BLAC-Detroit-Money-Blog-Find-the-Right-Financial-Advisor-for-You/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956983 | 912 | 1.679688 | 2 |
· Hello, my name is John Hively. I’m the economist from outside the box. Welcome! In this blog, I share tips, thoughts, ideas, lists, stories, articles, podcasts, pictures, speeches and interviews about the economy. Needless to suggest, I also break down what others are saying about economics. And you can’t do this without analyzing political decisions, such as the impending Obama stimulus plan.
· For beginners, here’s something you haven’t likely heard. Think about this. The unemployment rate has risen since April 2007, corporate profits have dropped, but dividends have soared! How is that possible?
· It’s easy, but you won’t hear the obvious from academic or business economists. Corporations have been cutting jobs and transferring the lost wages and benefits into dividends and higher CEO compensation. That income transfer process occurs throughout the business cycle but it is most glaring during a recession.
· In part, that’s how and why income has been redistributed upward, especially during the last thirty years, and why the affluent have gotten richer and the rest of us haven’t.
· So why aren’t policy makers discussing the obvious? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to consider changing the system.
· As for my credentials: I earned degrees in economics, communication and education.
· I’m also a writer, a public school teacher and a public speaker.
· My writing credits include a traditionally published book, The Rigged Game: Corporate America and a People Betrayed. Black Rose Books released it internationally in the summer of 2006.
· Want to read a book about how the economy really works? You’ll find them here starting with my own book, The Rigged Game: Corporate America and a People Betrayed, along with links on where to buy them. In The Rigged Game, I show how all recessions begin in the financial markets; meaning that an economic downturn is nothing more than a huge income redistribution from people that work for a living primarily to the rich.
· The Center for Corporate Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to rein in corporate abuses and hold them publicly accountable for their actions, listed The Rigged Game as a must read on its website during 2007.
· The Rigged Game is selling in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Libraries in Turkey, Singapore, China and Australia have purchased it.
· The Portland Business Journal published twenty plus freelance articles I wrote from 2002-2003. | <urn:uuid:02bcdca4-a8d8-40e3-aa13-a171cbce44ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnhively.wordpress.com/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946969 | 541 | 1.539063 | 2 |
|Police Brutality in Atenco, Mexico|
|Written by John Gibler, ZNet|
|Sunday, 07 May 2006 04:09|
The flower vendors called to the residents of neighboring San Salvador Atenco for help and the Atenco residents blocked the highway that borders their town and leads to Texcoco.
The police response was overwhelming: hundreds of state and federal police, most clad in riot gear, arrived to lift the blockade. Atenco resisted, with machetes, clubs, Molotov cocktails and bottle rockets. The police tried to lift the blockade five times throughout the day, and five times they were repelled.
The violence was extreme. Photographs published in local papers show Atenco protestors beating a fallen policemen, police beating tens of fallen protestors. Severe beatings. Protesters kicking one fallen police officer in the face, groups of police pulverizing tens of protestors with rocks and batons.
Police also attacked photographers from both the national and the international press. Photographers and television cameramen from Associated Press, Reuters, Milenio, Jornada and Televisa all reported beatings and attempts to confiscate cameras. Photographs and film coverage of the beatings were published on the internet and shown on national television. Local and international news articles however, have not mentioned the systematic police violence against reporters.
All told on Wednesday, over 50 people were injured and 100 detained by the police. Protestors took 11 police hostage, but released them to the Red Cross later in the evening. A fourteen year-old boy was shot in the chest and killed in the afternoon. Local media reported that the boy was killed by projectiles from the protestors, but the death certificate said otherwise: bullet wound to the chest.
Atenco is famous across Mexico for having resisted in 2002 the forced displacement from their community to make way for a new Mexico City Airport. Villagers, mostly small farmers, formed the People's Front in Defense of Land (Frente del Pueblo en Defensa de La Tierra) and, wielding their machetes, became a symbol of popular protest in Mexico.
Organizers from the People's Front have attended several meetings of the Zapatista's Other Campaign, and hosted subcomandante Marcos' arrival in Atenco. During his visit, Marcos promised to align the Zapatista Army of National Liberation with Atenco's struggle. The Atenco Front, with machetes in hand, was in charge of providing security for Marcos during the May first Labor Day march to Mexico City's main plaza where the Front's leader, Ignacio Del Valle, spoke before tens of thousands gathered in the plaza.
Two days later riot police stormed the house where he had been hiding since the attack in Texcoco. At that moment the Televisa cameraman was outside the house filming the police operation when some five police officers approached and repeatedly beat him with clubs. As a result there is no film coverage of the police raid.
Several newspaper photographers, however, photographed Del Valle's arrival to prison several hours later that night. He was carried in a headlock by a masked police officer, who, in the photographs, is pointing for the photographers to leave the area. Another masked officer walked slightly behind, grabbing Del Valle's back. The two masked officers walk Del Valle through a gauntlet of a hundred riot police with helmets and shields. Del Valle's head is covered with a towel in the pictures, but his face, swollen and bloody is partially visible. Also visible is a blood stain the size of a fist on the groin of his jeans, evidence of repeated strikes to his testicles.
Police Siege Town, Take over 200 prisoners
The following day, Thursday May 4th, Mexico woke to the bloody images of violence from the day before. Atenco woke to a police siege that led to hundreds more wounded and detained.
Around 6:30 AM, over three thousand police surrounded Atenco and invaded, filling the streets, cutting down everyone in their way with clubs and firing tear gas, both to disorient, and to kill. Several protestors were shot in the head at close range with metal gas pellets three inches long and an inch in diameter.
Within two hours the police had occupied Atenco.
Then the terror began. The police went house to house, breaking windows and doors, pulling people into the street, beating them and then piling them in police vans and trucks. The police had a masked individual in civilian clothes who pointed out which houses to raid. Several people who had participated as speakers in high-profile Other Campaign events in Mexico City were singled out and beaten. One woman who spoke in the Zocalo in Mexico City on May first was pulled into the street and kicked repeatedly in the groin.
The police violence on Thursday was indiscriminate. Both mainstream and alternative press reporters were attacked. Several members of the caravan that accompanies the Other Campaign across the country were beaten and arrested.
Samantha Dietmar, a young German photographer who has been covering the Other Campaign since January was grabbed in the doorway of her hotel, beaten in the face and thrown into a truck. A neighbor who witnessed the attack said that she asked why the police were taking her: "What did she do?" The police officer responded, the woman said: "She did whatever I say she did."
Dietmar was taken to a women's prison on the outskirts of Mexico City. A human rights lawyer who was able to interview her said that she had serious pain in her eyes from the tear gas, and that she had been beaten in the face and body. Dietmar will most likely be deported.
The same lawyer said that five women were raped in the police vans when taken to jail.
Between two and three hundred people were detained, but only 109 have been recognized by the police. A list is circulating on the internet, compiled from witness accounts, of 275 people who have been detained. At least 18 people are missing.
Hundreds of people sought hiding in houses across the town. In one house, 23 people were packed into a 12-by-12 foot room. Just outside the hiding room, Alexis Benhumea, a 20-year old economy student in Mexico City, laid unconscious for 12 hours. Just after 6:30 AM he was shot in the head, most likely with a gas pellet. The impact broke his skull open in two places, exposing his brain.
Alexis was carried into a house by his father and two friends for hiding. One of the protestors hiding out in the house made an impromptu bandage for the wound to stop the bleeding. The thick bandage was soaked in blood by the afternoon. Alexis's father and those hiding out in the house so feared for their lives, and Alexis' life, that they dared not leave their hiding place. Indeed, just outside the house, state and federal police blocked both ends of the street and constantly patrolled up and down the street.
"I was sure that they would kill him and dump him somewhere if I tried to go out and seek medical help," said Angel Benhumea, Alexis' father. "I didn't think he would make it."
After coordinating by cellular telephones with friends in Mexico City, correspondents with Indymedia Chiapas and Narco News were able to rent a taxi van (which operate in Mexico like public buses rather than individual taxis) and stage a rescue, taking Alexis and his father to a hospital 40 minutes away, on the eastern border of Mexico City. Alexis arrived alive and survived four hours of intensive brain surgery: hemorrhaging had filled 30 percent of his brain. At the time of writing, Alexis' condition is still critical, and the extent of brain damage is unknown.
Alexis Benhumea was attacked twice: first with the pellet that broke his skull, and second with the police siege that made it impossible for his family to seek medical attention.
By mid-afternoon Atenco was an occupied city. Burn marks and broken glass, thousands of police standing guard, leaning in doorways, lying in stairways, sprawled out sleeping in the shade of the central plaza. Yet the climate was tense. When I took a picture from a car window of a group of police, one whipped around and loaded a gas pellet in his rifle, but not in time to fire.
Around 5:30 in the afternoon, the state and federal police lifted their siege, piling into their trucks and driving off.
Zapatistas March to Atenco
Thursday in the evening the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and local labor and student organizations convoked a march for Friday at 4PM from the University of Chapingo to Atenco.
At 4PM Marcos arrived at the university—leaving the house in Mexico City where he had been surrounded by police and federal intelligence officers since Wednesday evening. About a thousand people had already gathered for the march by the time of his arrival.
The march left from Chapingo at around 5PM with some two thousand people. But the march kept growing. Standing on overpasses, it was impossible to see the end of the march as it occupied the highway that leads to Atenco. Estimates among local reporters ranged from 4 to 10 thousand people by the time the march reached Atenco.
As the march crossed through the town of Texcoco, where the violence began on Wednesday, locals closed the metal doors used to cover their windows at night, making the fear in Texcoco visible and audible. In the four months of the Other Campaign, nothing like this has happened before. Yet the police were not waiting for the marchers. A few motorcycle state police went ahead of the march, and several trucks with federal police trailed behind.
The marchers arrived in Atenco without confrontations with the police. In the central plaza, several local community leaders and parents whose children had been beaten and detained spoke to the crowd that filled the town plaza.
"My boy was on his way to work when they grabbed him," one woman said, "is that justice?"
Subcomandante Marcos attacked the media manipulation of the violence in Atenco, accusing the government of directing newspaper, television and radio directors of holding back images of police brutality while publishing and passing over and over the same images of protestors beating police.
Marcos held in the air five empty shotgun shells, most likely slug shells, that locals found on the ground after the siege. "Here is the proof of who killed the boy," Marcos said.
He offered to hand one of the shells over to reporters from Televisa and TV Azteca, the largest media corporations in Mexico, but the reporters refused to identify themselves. Marcos said he would grant interviews to any reporter who agrees to publish the interview "without cuts or edits," signaling a major shift in the Zapatista's media policy during the Other Campaign, which had been to refuse all interview requests.
Marcos reinstated the Zapatista's support for Atenco and its political prisoners.
"You are not alone," he said, "We will continue carrying out mobilizations across the country until all the political prisoners are freed."
He also accused the government of plotting the repression: why were the police ready to attack here if the problem was in Texcoco, he asked. "Because they want their airport once again, and they are coming for your land."
Marcos said that he and participants in the Other Campaign would stay in Mexico City indefinitely and called for a national public gathering in Atenco over the next two days.
All photos by John Gibler
Originally published in ZNet | <urn:uuid:e70aec20-caa8-4bb5-bd4e-2333deba042f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=280&Itemid=0 | 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 | 0.980133 | 2,403 | 1.820313 | 2 |
from the 1925 Portland Oregonian
We are thinking now of a dog, whose coat was flame in the sunshine and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or unworthy thought.
This dog is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave.
Beneath a cherry tree or an apple or any flowering shrub of the garden is an excellent place to bury a good dog.
Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer or gnawed at a flavorous bone or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death. Yet it is a small matter.
For if the dog be well-remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where the dog sleeps. On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pastureland, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog and all one to you, and nothing is gained and nothing is lost -- if memory lives.
But there is one best place to bury a dog. If you bury him in this spot, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again.
And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they shall not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he belongs there. People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth knowing.
The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master.
Cu Sidh Sassy Velvet Skye HC
July 11, 1989 - April 12, 1996
Random Acres Cu Sidh Comedy
November 11, 1990 - February 4, 1998
Random Acres Just Fer Grins
December 14, 1988 - May 28, 1998
Ch. Loch Vale Shamrock
March 17, 1993 - March 5, 1999
Loch Vale Shannon's Spun Gold
May 19, 1994 - August 22, 2002
Windcrest Catch Th' Moon
June 11, 1991 - February 7, 2005
Loch Vale Four Leaf Clover
May 19, 1994 - October 27, 2006
Shenstone Loch Vale Gossip
January 17, 1997 - July 10, 2007
Apache Moon Over Loch Vale
December 30, 1996 - July 10, 2007
© 1999 Loch Vale Collies | <urn:uuid:7370ee77-1891-4f32-9273-c202eb65f1d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lochvale.freeservers.com/tribute1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948292 | 605 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON More than one in 10 of the nation's airline pilots are cleared to carry a handgun while flying, and the number will continue to grow, according to a Transportation Security Administration projection.
The TSA, which has declined to disclose the number of armed pilots, revealed in a recent budget document that 10.8% of airline crewmembers were authorized to carry guns.
The Federal Air Marshal Service, a TSA agency that runs the armed-pilots program, reports that 85,000 to 90,000 pilots and crewmembers flying domestic passenger and cargo planes are eligible to carry a gun. That puts the number of armed pilots at about 9,500 — a figure Air Marshal spokesman Nelson Minerly did not dispute. The marshal service keeps the exact number confidential.
The TSA projects the program to grow to 16.5% of eligible pilots by the year 2011.
Aviation experts were surprised and alarmed that so many pilots are toting guns in the sky.
"That's a big number compared to what I thought it would be," said aviation-security consultant Rich Roth, who said he had predicted there would be fewer than 1,000 armed pilots. The 5-year-old program trains pilots for one week and arms them with .40-caliber semiautomatic pistols.
"That's a scary number," said Joseph Gutheinz, a former Transportation Department special agent and aviation attorney in Houston. "By allowing so many pilots the opportunity to fly armed, we're giving terrorists opportunity to identify somebody who has a gun and overpower him."
Capt. Bob Hesselbein, head of security for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the number of armed pilots is "a tremendous deterrent" to hijackings. "An organized terrorist team, their challenge is to take control of the cabin, then the flight deck."
Armed pilots have come under scrutiny since March 22 when the gun of a US Airways pilot fired in the cockpit of Flight 1536 as it approached Charlotte from Denver. No one was hurt, and the plane landed safely after the bullet pierced the fuselage.
A report by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said the gun fired while the pilot was stowing it.
The marshal service is investigating. The firing was the first such incident, which indicates that "this isn't a problem with the program," Air Marshal spokesman Greg Alter said.
Hesselbein, whose union lobbied Congress for the program, said armed pilots are on about 15% of domestic flights.
Marcus Flagg, president of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Association, which represents armed pilots, said their numbers could grow more if training facilities expanded.
Pilots train at a federal center in New Mexico. Classes hold 48 people and have been filled or nearly filled for five years, Minerly said.
Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article. Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map. | <urn:uuid:4de32342-ae77-4b1a-bfb6-fafdbc9f60b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-03-31-armed-pilots_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957861 | 623 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Oracle Sails Out of OpenWorld, Into Uncharted Waters
- 5:56 PM
Talk about a study in contrasts. In the dying hours of OpenWorld, Larry Ellison and Oracle unveiled their own social network.
Even the name was awkward. The Oracle Social Network, Ellison called it, and as he demoed the thing on Wednesday afternoon during his closing keynote speech at Oracle’s flagship conference, he struggled to describe the basic ins and outs of a system that mimics what’s become commonplace with Facebook and Twitter and even corporate social services like Chatter from Salesforce.com.
It was a moment that nicely summed up Oracle’s belated efforts to reinvent itself in the face of “disruptive technologies” challenging its traditional business from all sides. Ellison and company realize they need to move with the times, but these efforts feel much like an afterthought – and even half-hearted – and you have to question whether they can pull these new technologies off without undermining their existing business.
“Oracle has a lot to lose by throwing disruptive technologies into the market. In some ways, the only person they’d disrupt is themselves,” Bill Hostmann of research outfit Gartner told Wired after taking in Ellison’s keynote. “But on the other hand, OpenWorld has shown that they’re going to address each one of those technology evolutions.”
At OpenWorld, the company rolled out not only a social network, but a “NoSQL” database along the lines of MongoDB and Cassandra and a “public cloud” that follows in the footsteps of Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine. In each case, Oracle is imitating technologies that have reinvented the enterprise IT world in recent years, and Ellison almost acknowledges that the company is late to the party.
“When you need a cloud, you just need a cloud,” Ellison said during his closing keynote. “Everyone’s got a cloud, and now we need a cloud.”
Last year, Ellison mocked the concept of the cloud, but he hedged this ongoing ridicule by saying that cloud services would eventually run on Oracle software and that many, including services from Amazon and Rackspace, already ran it – in a way. Now the company has inched closer to the cloud world is was skeptical of.
“I think Larry got the memo,” Hostmann said. “His salespeople were competing more and more with cloud providers and Oracle didn’t have an offering in the [cloud] infrastructure business.” Or as Salesforce.com boss and ex-Ellison protégé Marc Benioff put it: “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”
There were also times when Ellison seemed to deny the imitations. “We didn’t noticelast week,” he said. “We noticed a while ago.” But with these new offerings, Oracle is indeed trailing the pack. “I think they’re a bit late to the game,” Doug Toombs, a manager at research outfit Tier 1 Research, told Wired.
In many ways, the company is simply repurposing what it already has. Oracle didn’t build a NoSQL database from scratch. It rejigged the existing BerkeleyDB relational database, trying to transform the old way of doing things into the new.
OpenWorld itself reflected this effort. This miniature city of a conference began like it always does. All three convention centers of the sprawling Moscone complex were packed to the gills with customers, analysts, entrepreneurs, press, vendors, and developers. Massive red and white tents filled a barricaded city block. An America’s Cup racing simulator dominated one of the halls. And Ellison kicked things off by pitching some very old-school technology, hailing the company’s hardware appliances as the future of the enterprise.
But then, bit by bit, the new messages spilled out onto the more than 45,000 people in attendance. He was still Larry Ellison. And this was still Oracle. But the new terminology crept in, and the two didn’t exactly seem to mesh. There was the Oracle Social Network, and yes, they will call the other two the Oracle Public Cloud and the Oracle NoSQL Database.
Like Dell and HP, Oracle wants it both ways. It wants both the old and the new. While this is certainly a more sensible strategy than placing all your bets on the old, the balancing act isn’t easy to pull off.
“They’re in a very difficult position. Their market space is being disrupted by technologies that are offering things at a price point that isn’t very appealing for them to compete with,” says Max Schireson, president of 10gen, the startup behind the open-source NoSQL database MongoDB. “When I put myself in their shoes, it’s very hard to decide what to do. It’s very hard to decide whether to cannibalize your own product. It’s a classic innovator’s dilemma.”
Clearly, Larry Ellison isn’t completely comfortable in those shoes either. | <urn:uuid:8d1fb46f-53da-43cb-b5cc-aa809a68fef0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/oracle-sails-out-of-openworld-into-uncharted-waters/ | 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 | 0.958809 | 1,092 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Doggie daycare has become a big business and until last week, it was completely unregulated in Massachusetts.
Last August, Guy Reynolds, of Hull, brought his beloved bulldog Cooper to a daycare facility. Reynolds thought he'd be safer with humans than left alone on a hot summer day.
He was wrong. A few hours later Reynolds got a dreaded phone call.
"He said your dog is dead. I said 'What? How can that be?' He said we found him outside and he wasn't breathing," Reynolds said in describing the call.
The people working at the doggie daycare center didn't realize Cooper needed special treatment because of his facial structure, and there was no law at the time saying they had to know.
There had been no regulation of the doggie daycare industry at all until now.
As of Nov. 1, every city and town in the state is required to have a designated animal control officer.
That person is responsible for registering and inspecting all doggie daycare facilities annually and for reporting any problems.
While the dog officers will receive special training, there is no provision mandating the same for the workers who actually take care of the animals. | <urn:uuid:0bcca491-5810-4606-aa1b-0546ab19b553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcvb.com/news/investigative/Doggie-daycare-gets-new-regulations/-/12520878/17349816/-/x7l0iyz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985524 | 246 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Revised Healthcare Cleaning Manual is designed to be used across different healthcare settings, including acute care, mental health care, primary care and the ambulance service.
This guidance has been brought up to date to reflect the diversity of care settings. There is a new, improved collection of cleaning method statements as well as new advice on the use of emerging cleaning technologies.
The National Reporting and Learning Service has worked jointly with the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals and NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency to produce the guide. This replaces the guidance contained in the NHS Cleaning Manual.
An MS Word version is also available below - see final document below. | <urn:uuid:b5ef15f8-f6e1-4f94-909b-58241a780aa8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nrls.npsa.nhs.uk/resources/type/guidance/?entryid45=61830&p=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950994 | 130 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Democrat from Illinois
Barack Obama is the president of the United States. Obama was formerly a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Recent statements involving Barack Obama
"Over the last several months, there was a review board headed by two distinguished Americans, Mike Mullen and Tom Pickering, who investigated every element of" the Benghazi incident.
Recent stories featuring Barack Obama
The president’s one-day swing to the Austin area gave rise to fact checks of, and about, him.
Barack Obama came and went. Rick Perry and a leader of Texas Democrats took the occasion to loft jobs-related claims--now fact-checked.
What better way to welcome Obama to Central Texas than walking through the most popular PolitiFact fact checks of, or about, him this year--plus they include a 2012 check of Romney.
A Texas congressman is silly, one reader writes.
PolitiFact Texas writes as if facts are irrelevant, another says.
Let’s open the mailbag.
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# Name: Nicholas Noyes
# Sex: M
# Birth: 1616 in Cholderton, Wiltshire, England
# Death: 23 NOV 1701 in Newbury, Essex Co, MA
Son of William Noyes (Noyce) and Ann Parker from England.
Nicholas and Mary (Cutting) Noyes, b. Oct. 30, 1643. Nicholas was a brother of Rev.
James Noyes of Newbury, and was a son of Rev. William and Anne (Parker) Noyes, of Cholderton, Eng. Rev. William Noyes, the father, was a clergyman of excellent repute; their mother, Anne, was a daughter of Rev. Robert Parker, a very celebrated preacher and author. Her will, probated April 20, 1658, bequeathed something to her sons James and Nicholas in New England.
Nicholas Noyes is said to have been the first man to step ashore at Parker river, Newbury, in 1635.
As a young man, Nicholas Noyes (b. 1615-16) is recorded as the first of the new settlers to leap ashore at the landing site in Newbury, MA in 1635. There is an historical marker at the location, which is on the left bank of the Parker River as you look toward the Atlantic Ocean from the bridge on Route 1A that crosses the river. The site, near the spot where River bends to the right, may be reached by turning right from Route 1A onto Cottage Rd., just past the Lower Green, and following Cottage Rd. until it ends at a parking area and boat landing; the marker is a boulder on the left. Nicholas was chosen Deacon of the First Parish Church of Newbury when it was gathered. In 1637 he walked the forty miles from Newbury to Cambridge to qualify as a freeman and voter. About 1640 he married Mary Cutting, daughter of a shipmaster, Capt. John Cutting and his wife Mary.
Nicholas and Mary Noyes had ten children born in Newbury: Mary (1641), Hannah (1643), John (1645), (Reverand) Nicholas (1647), Cutting (1649), Sarah (1653), Timothy (1655), James (1657), Abigail (1659), Rachel (1661) and Thomas (1663).
Nicholas Noyes, Rev. William A. and Anne (Stephens) Anne Parker Noyes, was born at Cholderton, Wiltshire, about 1614 (about 60 in 1674), died at Newbury MA 23 Nov. 1701, aged about 86; married about 1640 Mary Cutting, born in England say 1620, died at Newbury before Nicholas, daughter of Capt. John and Mary Cutting.
Nicholas and his brother James came to Ipswich MA on the Mary and John in 1634. On board also were John Woodbridge, George Brown, Richard Brown and Thomas Parker, perhaps relatives. All passengers signed the oath of allegiance to the king and the church 24 Mar. 1633-4, before they were allowed to sail from London. The brothers settled briefly at Medford.
In 1635 they joined the 23 men and their families who formed a cattle-breeding company and settled at Newbury in 1635. Newbury’s first minister was Thomas Parker, a cousin. A monument marks the spot where the settlers disembarked in May or June, 1635. Tradition states that young Nicholas was the first person to leap ashore when their boat anchored in the Quascacumquen (now the Parker) River.
Nicholas returned to England on business, and returned in 1639 on the Jonathan, accompanied by Anthony Somerby of Newbury and Peter Noyes of Sudbury.
Nicholas took the freeman’s oath 17 May 1637, when he and eight others walked from Newbury to Cambridge to vote for Gov. Winthrop. He served Newbury on the school committee in 1652, and was deputy to the general court in 1660, 1679, 1680 and 1681. He was named deacon in 1683/4, supporting the Rev. Parker in a long bitter church vs state dispute. His will made 4 July 1700 was proved 29 Dec. 1701. He left an estate of 2700 pounds.
In 1653 Mary was charged with violating the sumptuary laws by wearing a silk hood and scarf, but won release by proving her husband was worth over 200 pounds.
REF> Harriette Eliza Noyes, Col. Henry Noyes First manuscript (only original copy) singed and dated 1897.
Children (Noyes), born at Newbury:
i. Mary2, b. 15 Oct. 1641, d. Newbury 5 Sept. 1721; m. 23 Mar. 1659 John French of Salisbury, d. 4 May 1706, son of Edward and Ann (Goodale) French: 10 French ch.
ii. Hannah, b. 30 Oct. 1643, d. Newbury 5 Jan. 1705; m. 1st there 14 May 1663 Peter Cheney, b. in 1639, d. Newbury in Jan. 1694, son of John and Martha Cheney: 11 Cheney ch.; m. 2nd Newbury 3 June 1700 John Atkinson, b. Boston in 1636, will proved 29 Sept. 1715: no ch. Atkinson had m. 1st 27 Apr. 1664 Sarah Mirick: 10 Atkinson ch.
130 John, b. 20 Jan. 1645/6; m. Mary Poor.
iv. Rev. Nicholas, b. 22 Dec. 1647, d. Salem MA 13 Dec. 1717; unmarried. Graduate of Harvard, BA in 1667, MA in 1716, pastor at Haddam CT 13 years, chaplain to the CT regiment in 1675 during the Great Swamp Fight. He was ordained at Salem 14 Nov. 1683, serving with the aging Rev. John Higginson. He was a leader in persecuting the accused witches in 1692, and officated at their excommunications and executions (Sibley, Harvard Graduates, 2:239-246).
128 Cutting, b. 23 Sept. 1649.
vi. Sarah, b. 13 Sept. 1651, d. Newbury 21 Feb. 1651/2.
vii. Sarah, b. 22 Aug. 1653, d. a widow; m. Newbury 13 Apr. 1674 Matthew Pettingill, b. Wenham MA c1648, d. Newbury in July 1714, son of Richard and Joanna (Ingersoll) Pettingill: 11 Pettingill ch.
viii. Timothy, b. 23 June 1655, d. Newbury 21 Aug. 1718; m. there 13 Jan. 1681 Mary Knight, b. there 8 Sept. 1657, dau. of John and Bathsheba (Ingersoll) Knight: 11 ch.
ix. Col. James, b. 16 May 1657, d. there in Apr. 1725; m. there 31 Mar. 1684 Hannah Knight, b. there 30 Aug. 1664, d. there 25 Sept. 1745, sister of Mary: 11 ch.
x. Abigail, b. 11 Apr. 1659, d. Salisbury MA 27 Jan. 1747; m. 8 May 1707 Simeon French, b. Salisbury 24 Oct. 1657, d. there 19 Apr. 1732, son of Joseph and Susanna (Stacy) French: no ch. He had m. 1st in 1685 Joanna Jackson, who d. 15 May 1704, 47y: 7 ch.
xi. Rachel, b. 20 Mar. 1660/1; d. Newbury 24 May 1720; m. there in 1682 Capt. James Jackman, b. there 2 June 1655, d. there 16 Sept. 1723, son of James and Joanna Jackman: 6 Jackman ch.
xii. Thomas, b. 20 June 1663, d. Haverhill MA in Dec. 1695; m. Newbury 16 Nov. 1686 Sarah Knight, b. there 13 Apr. 1660, d. there 10 Mar. 1707/08, sister of Mary and Hannah: 3 ch.
xiii. Rebecca, b. 18 May 1665, d. Newbury 21 Dec. 1683; unmarried.
He died in Newbury on 23 Nov., 1701.
Of early historical interest is the role that Rev. Nicholas (Harvard A.B., 1647), the second son of Nicholas and Mary, played in the Salem witch trials, where he officiated at the hanging of alleged witches in 1692; he later repented of his part in the persecutions and helped to provide assistance to the dependent families.
Early Noyes descendants often were ministers and teachers, and sometimes distinguished by their rectitude – for example, the Salem trials and the founding of Yale, partly motivated by the belief that Harvard College was becoming too liberal. However, descendants of the line also may be interested to know of another of their ancestors via Nicholas Noyes (Noyes Geneology (1904), cited below, vol. 1, p. 402), perhaps equally devout and committed to bringing God’s Kingdom, but at the opposite end politically – Rev. John Humphrey Noyes (1811 – 1886). He was a leader of the Perfectionist movement and founded the Oneida Community, one of the great utopian socialist experiments in American history. He was an early proponent of the equality of women and of a different approach to sexuality and marriage than his Puritan ancestors (or teachers at Yale Divinity School).(For example, Alfred Kazin wrote on the book jacket of Spencer Klaw’s Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community (NY: Penguin Press, 1993): “The Oneida Community was the most practical and, because of its sexual code, the merriest of our nineteenth-century Utopias. Its founder and dictator, John Humphrey Noyes, would have fascinated Dostoyevsky.”)
The basic reference for the Noyes family genealogy is the remarkable work by Col. Henry E. Noyes and Miss Harriette E. Noyes in two volumes, Geneological Record of Some of the Noyes Descendants of James, Nicholas, and Peter Noyes, published in Boston, MA in 1904. [Volume 1 covers descendants of Nicholas Noyes; vol. 2 the descendants of Rev. James Noyes and of Peter Noyes, who arrived later.] A copy is available in the second floor geneological library of the Historical Society of Old Newbury, located on 98 High St. (Route 1A) in Newburyport. | <urn:uuid:f9accafc-f554-4826-b2a7-39eed9857815> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noyesgenealogy.com/?page_id=20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934145 | 2,295 | 1.75 | 2 |
(fnf-europe.org) This year we launched our “future of Europe” series with an event on the definition of freedom in the member states. The concept of freedom, which we too often take for granted in the West, has a variety of definitions. It is a precious and volatile concept and too easily do those succeed, who want to restrict freedom. A delegation of leading representatives of ALDE member parties and media as well as economic experts from the South Caucasus shared their first-hand experience with representatives of the EU institutions and European liberals in Brussels.
The seminar took place in the framework of the “Potsdam Process”, a regional platform that has been facilitated by the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation for Freedom in order to provide a platform for dialogue to those in the South Caucasus who want to strengthen regional cooperation in order to promote freedom, peace and prosperity in the region.
Following initiatives by the ALDE Party directed towards the South Caucasus, including the party council in Yerevan earlier this year, Philipp Hansen, Head of Political Unit at the ALDE Party greeted the delegation and emphasized the importance of regular communication in order to stay aware of the individual needs of the ALDE Party members. During the meeting with Sir Graham Watson MEP, the group praised the success of the liberal campaign on political freedoms in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest which achieved the release of a number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Sir Graham stressed the need for the intensification of people-to-people exchanges in the region as well as trade and partnership agreements in order to help catalyze change in the region.
Hans von Baalen MEP, President of Liberal International, acknowledged the uniqueness of the three states, adding that he appreciates the added value and diversity that the South Caucasian member parties give to the ALDE Party. However, he identified the lack of a coherent idea in the EU about the South Caucasus as one of its primary problems – instead of treating Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia as three independent countries, they are lumped together. This overly simplified approach leads to conflicting messages being sent by the different EU institutions.
Denis Daniilidis, from the European External Action Service and Peter Stano, Spokesman of Commissioner Füle, agreed that the EU must do its best to speak with one voice with regards to the countries in the South Caucasus. They reiterated the importance of hearing frank assessments from the region in order to adapt the EU’s neighborhood policy towards the region in order for it to be truly a catalyst for positive change.
This view was echoed by Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy MEP. As a member of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly, a parliamentary forum to promote political association and further economic integration between the European Union and the Eastern European Partners, he stressed that he and his fellow MEPs want to help, but rely on trustworthy information to do so. “Delegation visits, such as this one, are an invaluable in that they allow both sides to connect on a personal level,” he said “which allows for continued information exchange between trusted and reliable sources.”
Reliable information can only be obtained through personal networks, Amanda Paul, Expert on the South Caucasus and Programme Executive at the European Policy Centre, confirmed. Also volatile is the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which after twenty years is still the greatest threat to security in the region. Particularly the EU must pay closer attention to this issue, but due to its lack of realpolitik- interest, the EU lacks a strategy for the region, Paul explained. It is a shame that the EU does not recognize the three countries in the South Caucasus as the attractive potential market it is, a participant interjected. “We need the EU,” he continued, “since our elites have no political will to promote true change. We live in societies where free speech and liberty are only words without meaning.”
Security and Defense expert, Macin Wróblewski from the Permanent Representation of Poland to NATO, agreed that it is a priority for the region to deal with its unresolved territorial issues, including the issues of internally displaced people and giving a voice to the sidelined Karabak-community.
Paul pointed out that the cases of the Arab Spring countries showed that dictatorships are not sustainable and that the countries in the South Caucasus should not rely on outside pressure, but as in the Arab Spring countries, society must bring change from within and people must go to the streets for what they believe in. One member of the delegation responded that “we [from the South Caucasus] don’t want to be an additional problem for the EU, but we must implore the EU not to shake hands with dictators and make concessions towards authoritarian regimes. Otherwise people will stop believing in European values.”
For more information about the Potsdam Process and our work in the region, please visit the Website of our FNF South Caucasus Office. | <urn:uuid:93b25e07-fe52-4318-9649-b44c723e3e0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://georgien.blogspot.com/2012/12/dialog-potsdam-process-towards-freedom.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95361 | 1,015 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Saturday, March 24, 2012
I’m going to make two posts that may seem off topic but do relate to the heart of confronting organized crime before I dive in to the Kelowna summer jam. Since blog posts usually get buried after they’re made, I’ve devoted a web page to keep track of the K Town OC. (Organized Crime in Kelowna)
The term Canadian Values is a term politicians often exploit to promote their own political party while trying to tear their opponent’s political party. Often politics is more about tearing something down then building someone up. The new attack adds against Bob Rae are a prime example.
The liberal party was wiped off the map last election. Yet the Harper government is so paranoid about them that they have issued new attack adds targeting their new leader no where near an election. Bob Rae rightly pointed out that the Harper governed just tears things down. They aren’t capable of building anything up.
Unfortunately, the Liberals have vowed to fight fire with fire and the resulting mess reminds me of that pivotal BC leadership debate between Mike Harcourt, Rita Johnston and Gordon Wilson.
Rita Johnston were fighting back and forth like cats and dogs. Rita Johnston was insulting everything possible about Mike Harcourt including his manhood. Mike Harcourt just stood there and smiled holding a BC Care Card in one hand and an American Express card in the other saying which do you really prefer? As the debate got heatred and Harcourt and Johnston were arguing back and forth, Gordon Wilson said “There you have if British Columbia. This is why nothing gets done in Victoria.” He stole the show.
Gordon Wilson, who’s party was previous nonexistent prior to that debate, stole the show. He was calm, intelligent and constructive. He gave voters a hopeful alternative. Unfortunately, his marriage to one of his MPs was scandalized and Gordon Campbell took over the party and sent it straight down the toilet. Gordon Wilson was hopeful. Gordon Campbell was not. One tried to build something up, the other succeeded in tearing it down.
Which brings us back to the term Canadian Values. Most Canadians have an image of what they feel is important and how they want to be viewed in the world’s eyes. When I think of Canadian Values I think of the Canadian General in Rwanda portrayed in the movie shake Hands with the devil. Canadians have been known for their peacekeeping efforts. Most Canadians want Canada to be peace keepers not war mongers or war profiteers
One of the values that most Canadians cherish is compassion. Compassion is not a bad thing. Christ had compassion. The good Samaritan had compassion. Even Meg Ryan who played a Canadian in the movie French Kiss had compassion.
Unfortunately politicians have tried to tarnish and scandalize the value of compassion. Linear thinking politicians try to related it to a left versus right debate. The right scandalizes compassion while calling it socialist. They claim we shouldn’t have compassion because that takes us down the road that leads to Communism. That is probably the most ironic statement in recorded history.
Hijacked Communism like we saw under Lenin, Stalin and East Berlin was known for it’s lack of compassion and lack of tolerance. It really wasn’t that much different from what hitler gave us in Fascism. Two different roads leading to the same place - dictatorship.
I really liked Carol James. She tried to restore dignity to British Columbia with the motto “Because everyone matters.” She cared about seniors getting exploited and shut out. It was a heart warming campaign that made you feel proud. It restored our dignity in ourselves and in our country. So do Jack Layton.
Jack Layton had been around as a politician for many years. No one really took him seriously because he was labeled as a left wing union loving socialist. They kept saying the NDP would tax and spend us dry when they were the ones that did exactly that with Mulroney style pork barrel politics. Brian Mulroney was not a good man. That is why the Reform party separated themselves from him. Stephen Harpers brought the party full circle into enduring the very insanity they originally sought to correct.
As people because disenfranchised with the corruption within the Liberals and the heartless intolerance and extremism within the Harper Government people started to take Jack Layton seriously and heard him out instead of listening to the silly stereotypes that not longer were believable.
Jack Layton came across as a friendly politician who really cared. Not just someone who kissed a baby on camera while holding a knife in his hand to stab voters in the back. Jack Layton personified his motto of love, compassion, hope and optimism. Those are all good values that most of us cherish.
Another politician who historically inspired us was Lester Pearson. He was a man who built things up. Her accomplished many great things as a result. I have heard it said by a Reformer of old that Old Age Pension was welfare for the aged. In one sense I can understand what he meant. OAP is separate from CPP. CPP is a pension that we all pay into. OAP is not. It’s just a top up that everyone gets when they reach 65.
Should someone who ism independently wealthy get OAP? That is a valid question. The problem is that many companies payed a better wage 20 years ago then they do now. Compare that to the skyrocketing cost of housing in the last 20 years and you see a huge discrepancy. That’s not even including the fact that most large corporations keep many employees as part time to reduce their wage increases and benefits.
Most seniors now are in the poverty range. Most retirement pension plans take the OAP and the CPP into consideration when they calculate their pay outs. Cutting the OAP from most seniors would have tragic results. However, to question whether or not the extreme rich should receive the OAP at all is a valid question.
The problem is that the heartless right gets it’s campaign donations form the extremely rich. If the Harper government was to submit legislation stopping the OAP for people with a certain amount of assets then those campaign contributors would complain.
I’m just trying to say that we should indeed remember the spirit of Jack Layton. Love, compassion, hope and optimism are good things. Rolling up are sleeves and working together to build a better country with a vision of Canadian values is a good thing. Attack adds that tear each other down is not. | <urn:uuid:87e9b765-666c-4dd0-94d7-58ceca9bbe09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gangstersout.blogspot.ca/2012/03/canadian-values.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977854 | 1,337 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Events > NSW/ACT
Seminar: Projected effects from pricing greenhouse gas emissions in Australian Energy Markets
TIME / DATE / VENUE:
SYDNEY 9.45am for 10am - 11.30am on Thursday 24 May 2012 at AusGrid Auditorium, George Street, City
NEWCASTLE 5.30pm for 6pm - 7.30pm on Thursday 24 May 2012 at Engineers Australia Newcastle Auditorium, 122 Parry Street, Newcastle West
RSVP: by Friday 18 May 2012 to register. It is essential to register if you will be attending.
ACIL Tasman is a leading Australian independent economic consultancy specialising in the use of applied economics and econometrics with emphasis on the development and analysis of policy and strategy. The firm has built a reputation for quality research, credible analysis, and innovative advice on economic, policy and strategic matters over a period of more than twenty years.
This seminar will discuss the effect of pricing greenhouse gas emissions through an emissions trading scheme on the electricity and gas supply industries including
- Assessing, measuring and reporting carbon emissions
- Modelling an emissions trading scheme
- Emissions trading and the effect on electricity and gas markets
- Renewable energy market policy - benefits and costs
- Projected community and industry economic benefits and costs
- Domestic versus international greenhouse gas emission markets
- Global developments - where to from here?
SPEAKER - Paul Hyslop, Chief Executive Officer of ACIL Tasman
Paul Hyslop is Chief Executive Officer of ACIL Tasman. He has more than twenty years experience in the energy sector. He has worked at senior executive levels in a broad range of businesses and in a broad range of areas including business management and development, mergers and acquisitions, business regulation, energy market development and regulation and power system operation. He advises clients at a strategic level on all facets of the electricity sector including generation, transmission, distribution and retail
To download a brochure and registration form please click here | <urn:uuid:aeb1e3c1-b58f-472a-a468-f64532c18fb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eesa.asn.au/events/nswact/seminar-projected-effects-pricing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-australian-energy-markets | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930094 | 409 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Summer schools > The Oxford Experience
During your course, you will stay in typical Oxford student accommodation at Christ Church in buildings which range from the 18th to the 20th century. Bedrooms are modestly-furnished, do not have air-conditioning and are arranged in a staircase of four or five floors.
All standard bedrooms are singles. In a few buildings the bedrooms are arranged in ‘twin sets’ (two single bedrooms opening off a sitting room) and all have their own washbasin and shaver point. The bath and/or toilet facilities on each staircase are shared.
A very limited number of rooms have private bathroom facilities (shower, washbasin and toilet) and these are available for an additional fee. Most are single rooms, but a few are twin-bedded. Early application for these rooms is essential.
Please indicate your accommodation preferences (either online or on your application form) together with a note of any mobility problems.
We regret that we are unable to offer you accommodation at Christ Church immediately prior to or following your course. Additionally, family or friends who are not enrolled in the programme cannot be accommodated in college.
NoticeDue to exceedingly high demand, we no longer have any accommodation available. We can still accept a small number of non-resident applications.
Disabled Participants (including those with mobility difficulties)We aim to treat all participants equally and welcome applications from people with disabilities. Individuals’ needs are taken into account as far as possible, providing reasonable adaptations and assistance within the resources available. We ask you to inform us of any disability or special need (confidentially, if required) so that we can help you participate as fully as possible.
If you are considering applying for a place on the Oxford Experience and have mobility difficulties or visual/hearing impairments, you may wish to contact the Programme Administrator to discuss your needs as the age and layout of Christ Church College could prove user unfriendly in some cases.
Oxford, as an ancient city, tends to be difficult to navigate for people with disabilities. The number of very old buildings, designed in an age less sensitive to issues of disability, makes access to the city centre difficult. That said, we aim to do as much as we can to make your study with us possible.
Please contact us if you require a ground-floor bedroom, or if you feel you may have difficulty accessing teaching rooms located on upper floors. | <urn:uuid:c7137fe2-e9f6-4c61-b024-79347d35d6c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/summerschools/oxex/index.php?content=acc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959925 | 502 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Have you ever feel that it is not that easy to be more organized person. Sometimes we come out with the fact that the things are not as they have to be. Below are some hints to be come a more organized person.
1. Accept the fact that we cannot rely too much on our memories.
The human mind is exposed to a hurricane of information every day. As a result the mind does a very nice filtering process and very little of what we see and hear is retained in our minds. So instead of depending on our very selective memory why not depend on a piece of paper.
2. Carry a tiny scribbling pad and a pen with you all the time.
The moment you fix an appointment or are asked to attend a meeting, jot it down in the scribbling pad. Do not bother about others laughing at you. You will have the last laugh in the end.
3. It is a good idea to write it down orders in your book.
Each time you tell somebody to do something or when somebody like your boss asks you to do something write it down in your book along with the date and the time. Do not be afraid of being thought about as a person with a very poor memory. It wont be long before people start thinking of you as a highly organized person.
4. If you have an electronic pocket organizer be sure to use it.
Each time someone gives you his or her telephone number, immediately enter it into your pocket organizer, along with the person name of course.
5. Use the backside of business cards to help your memory.
Usually we get a lot of business cards as we go about our daily business of life. The business card of course contains the name of the person, his or her telephone number and probably the name of the firm for which the person works. But the problem is, the next time we meet the person, the face may seem familiar but we wont have the foggiest idea as to where we met the person. The best thing to do would be to jot down a few points about the person and probably the reason for meeting him or her and the place as well. This will certainly lessen the load on your memory centre. But take never to do it in front of the person.
6. Keep away the business cards properly
As soon as you get back to your office take care to keep away the business cards you collected properly.
Dont just stuff them into your card folder. Take care to read them properly and perhaps keep the cards of important clients separately. If you do not find much use for a person card, toss it.
7. Prepare a to-do list everyday.
I cannot over emphasize the importance of to-do lists in getting yourself organized. It is probably the most sensible thing that a busy person should do. In fact I thought of devoting an entire chapter for to-do lists and I think that is just what I will do.
8. Plan what you have to do well in advance.
It is a good idea to have daily, weekly and monthly plans. No this is not about expanding your business and things like that. I am not referring to a strategy plan that involves takeovers and mergers. Those things are beyond the scope of this book. I was referring to having plans about the daily, weekly and monthly activities of your business and yourself as well.
9. Have a fixed timetable.
It may seem kind of mechanical but it would be wonderful if you could have a fixed time for everything and try to stick religiously to the time table. Believe me it really helps because in that way you will have time for everything and everything can be done in the time for it.
And so you are now moving towards becoming a more organized person. But there are still miles to go before mastering the art of time management. And that brings us to our next chapter.
With the above articles, we know that we can be a more organized person if we want to have some effort.
About The Author:
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.kitchen-plans-n-designs.com/ | <urn:uuid:ae11dba9-ebe9-4020-b9f4-89028567e35b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourmodernliving.com/nine-hints-to-become-a-more-organized-person/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971884 | 852 | 1.71875 | 2 |
PEPFAR, Private Partner Launch 5-Year "Labs for Life" Initiative
July 27, 2012
At the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) on Thursday, PEPFAR and Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), "announced Labs for Life, a new collaboration to help strengthen health care and laboratory systems in the developing world along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)," a State Department fact sheet states (7/26). "The new five-year initiative builds on a previous five-year partnership between the U.S. government and [BD]" that "improved lab services in sub-Saharan African countries affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, according to U.S. officials who had been briefed on an audit that will be released in a few weeks," CQ HealthBeat reports (Adams, 7/26).
"The new collaboration, valued at $20 million ... will include Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Mozambique and also expand outside of Africa to India," the fact sheet notes (7/26). "'The collaboration between PEPFAR and BD exemplifies the unique impact that public-private partnerships can have on addressing health challenges in the developing world,' said Thomas Frieden, the director of the [CDC]," CQ HealthBeat writes, adding, "The goals of the new program include improving labs so that they can be accredited by outside organizations and training personnel in how to use and take care of equipment" (7/26).
This article was provided by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. It is a part of the publication Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report. Visit the Kaiser Family Foundation's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.) | <urn:uuid:e9e517c7-c340-4434-8e16-ede84a7daa22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/content/68276/pepfar-private-partner-launch-5-year-labs-for-life.html?ap=1200 | 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 | 0.946094 | 417 | 1.625 | 2 |
- Published on Saturday, 27 June 2009
- Written by Huffington Post
Brigham Young University, the Mormon church school where students agree to live a chaste and virtuous life, has lifted its almost three-year policy of blocking access to YouTube.
Administrators lifted the ban on Friday, citing an increasing amount of educational material on the popular video-sharing site, university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.
YouTube has its own filters for porn, but BYU added it to the list of Web sites blocked by campus online filters in 2006 because administrators felt there was too much content that could violate the school's strict, conservative standards.
The university's software also blocks pornography, adult content and violence from other sites.
BYU cited limited bandwidth as another factor when explaining the decision. But some professors have since complained that they couldn't access relevant YouTube content in the classroom.
"I think there's no other way but to provide all of it," Jenkins said.
Students and faculty at the university agree to follow the school's honor code, a list of standards in line with the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The code includes provisions against alcohol, tobacco and caffeine use, among other things. It also specifically labels pornography as taboo.
Also on Friday, BYU launched its own new Web site -- besafe.byu.edu -- which explains the school's Internet guidelines and advises readers how to avoid online threats like phishing and viruses.
The site notes that students and faculty at BYU agree to avoid Internet content and activities that are not "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy." | <urn:uuid:28575e3c-334c-4154-8436-2106f4cd76ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knowmyrights.org/blog/civil-liberties/byu-lifts-youtube-ban | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956843 | 333 | 1.710938 | 2 |
» Discovery -- UTSA Research
» Innovations -- College of Engineering
» Ovations -- College of Liberal and Fine Arts
» Spectrum -- College of Education
UTSA community supports fundraiser by Japanese Club to aid quake relief
(April 15, 2011)--After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, UTSA Japanese Club members and friends began fundraising efforts on the UTSA Main and Downtown campuses. After six days of collecting donations, the Japanese Club surpassed the initial goal of $3,000 and raised more than $4,000 to be donated to the Japanese Red Cross.
Because the disaster occurred when many students and staff were away during the spring break, the UTSA community could not do much at the time. But, immediately after the break, the Japanese Club teamed with the East Asia Institute, students from Japan and Japanese studies students to organize the fundraiser for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief.
Lasting approximately six minutes, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake affected much of Japan. It is the most powerful earthquake to ever hit the country and triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves that struck the northeast coast minutes after the quake. More than 11,000 people were killed, 2,800 injured and more than 16,000 went missing. Countless buildings were damaged or destroyed including roads, railways and a dam.
"My friends and I could not enjoy our spring break as we were constantly checking with friends and family members to see if they were all safe back in Japan," said Mao Yamada, a UTSA communications student from Japan. "I am very glad that our campus organized a fundraiser to help the Japanese victims in the affected areas in Tohoku."
The Japanese Club received various Japanese cultural items, snacks and drinks from several members and volunteers including wristbands engraved with "We are with you, Japan." Money was collected and the club members gave out the gifts as tokens of their appreciation.
The volunteer group started off small. Gradually, more and more people offered their time and effort including Japanese Club members, the East Asia Institute student workers and administrator, students from Japan, the organization Anime Kurabu, domestic students and kind strangers not affiliated with any group. The atmosphere was lively.
"I was excited to see the number of people who came to assist at the event," said Angelica Gonzales, a UTSA student minoring in Japanese studies. "I was also impressed by the generosity of the UTSA community that shows their support for Japan in this very difficult time."
Special thanks go to all UTSA faculty, staff, students and administrators who stopped by the booths to bring their donations. Kudos also go to those who volunteered their time and efforts in the fundraiser.
"It has been an honor for the Japanese Club at UTSA to sponsor this donation drive," said Alice Duong, president of the club. "It shows the international communities should come together and support each other in this type of humanitarian relief. The Japanese Club was glad to host this event for a good cause." | <urn:uuid:94511f38-2721-45b5-8b98-b172d9a8ebf6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://utsa.edu/today/2011/04/japanrelief.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979518 | 611 | 1.742188 | 2 |
TERENCE SMITH: As campaigns get down to the final wire...
SPOKESMAN: Democratic voters, may I help you?
TERENCE SMITH: ...And the candidates make their last appeals to voters...
ELIZABETH DOLE: Well, I need your help to get there now.
TERENCE SMITH: Newspapers across the country are increasingly using computers to get the story, and sometimes the story behind the story. It's called computer-assisted reporting, and it's changing the way that news organizations -- especially medium and smaller size newspapers -- are covering government and campaign 2002.
MARGARET SULLIVAN, Editor, The Buffalo News: It leads you to different kinds of stories. Politics can be reduced to a horse race, or it can be about the systems that underlie politics; lifting up a rock and showing us what's really underneath it.
TERENCE SMITH: Margaret Sullivan is editor of The Buffalo News in upstate New York. She says computer-assisted reporting enables her staff to verify their hunches.
MARGARET SULLIVAN: They might have had to in the past rely on anecdotal evidence, or, "well, we think this is true," but it allows them to nail it down, and to document it and to say without any doubt that something is the case.
TERENCE SMITH: One example this year involved judicial elections; not often the stuff of front page news, despite the power and influence of judges.
ROBERT MCCARTHY: These are the people who decide everything from, as our story said, noise ordinance violations to capital murder cases.
TERENCE SMITH: Using state campaign finance reports, reporters Robert McCarthy and Michael Beebe found that local party officials were asking judicial candidates to raise party funds to ensure an endorsement.
MICHAEL BEEBE: We got a database of every lawyer in New York State, and we merged that with the database that we had of our contributions. And that way we were able to come up with lawyers who were contributing to judges. And these are lawyers who appear before these judges. It's sort of a tawdry thing where you've got a lawyer that is directly giving money to a judicial campaign, and then appearing before the same judge.
TERENCE SMITH: Until they broke the story, reporters say, readers had been unaware of the fund- raising process. There is now a new county Democratic Party chairman...
SPOKESMAN: A resurgence is under way.
TERENCE SMITH: ...And a number of judicial candidates have pledged to do business differently. In spite of having a smaller staff and budget than a large metro daily, for The Buffalo News, computerized data made the difference.
ROBERT MCCARTHY: In the old days-- and I remember having to do this-- you get in the car and drive 280 miles down to Albany, and then I'd spend a whole day in the board of elections, copying records, and then you'd have to come back and put them all together. You could never justify the time and expense.
TERENCE SMITH: In Raleigh, North Carolina, The News and Observer has compiled more than 3,000 databases, which it continually updates looking for news.
DAVID RAYNOR, Database Manager, The News and Observer: There's a lot out there, and we try to get our hands on as much as we can.
TERENCE SMITH: David Raynor is the newspaper's database manager.
DAVID RAYNOR: We collect crime incident reports from local police agencies, education data. We get state salaries from state government. We've gotten databases from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, overloaded truck data.
TERENCE SMITH: Raynor says just conducting searches with the new data helps reporters find stories, and the state and local governments, he says, are becoming more accustomed to newspapers demanding access.
DAVID RAYNOR: A lot of things were, for many years, under the radar. We didn't... we didn't know about them, and if we did, it was very difficult to get at them. And I think everything is more out in the open now.
TERENCE SMITH: For the paper's political writer, Rob Christensen, computers are essential to his coverage.
ROB CHRISTENSEN, Political Reporter, The News and Observer: The two main functions of campaigns these days seems to be raising money and getting on TV, and raising more money and getting on TV.
ELIZABETH DOLE: I was raised to face a problem and fix it.
COMMERCIAL SPOKESMAN: Erskine Bowles for U.S. Senate.
ROB CHRISTENSEN: We have to track the money. How did they raise the money? Who is bankrolling their campaign, and who is paying for all those ads that show up in people's living rooms?
TERENCE SMITH: The paper's research confirmed what most North Carolinians suspected about their hotly contested Senate race. Much of the money for Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Erskine Bowles has come from out of state.
ROB CHRISTENSEN: We found out, for example, that Erskine Bowles was raising hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street, which is an important issue in this campaign because there's so much controversy about Wall Street and all the corporate scandals.
Things we found out about Elizabeth Dole, we found out that she was getting lots of Texas oil money, for example; that she was getting lots of money from a lot of the old friends of her husband, Bob Dole.
TERENCE SMITH: Beyond the numbers, new computerized graphics are making it easier for readers to digest complicated information.
TERENCE SMITH: The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison has been breaking down census data for its readers.
One of the paper's early findings: Predominantly Republican state legislative districts were gaining population faster than those that lean Democratic, a key element for this election's redistricting.
ANDY HALL, Investigative Reporter, Wisconsin State Journal: There were more options for redrawing the boundaries to continue to favor Republicans.
TERENCE SMITH: Investigative reporter Andy Hall says computer-assisted reporting has become part of the daily rhythm of newsgathering at the Journal.
Using telephone records, for example, the paper was able to document that four state agencies were being used as illegal campaign machines by both Republican and Democratic elected officials.
ANDY HALL: We were able to feed that data, then, into a computer to help us sort out the phone numbers, figure out which phone numbers were being called when, and how often they were being called. We could match that up with a list of phone numbers that belonged to political operatives and political consultants, and that helped... helped us figure out what the pattern was.
TERENCE SMITH: Investigations followed, and within the past few weeks, the state Senate majority leader, the assembly speaker and others have been charged with felony misconduct.
It's one of the biggest political scandals in Wisconsin's history.
ANDY HALL: The availability of computerized information undoubtedly levels the playing field more than any other single factor that I am familiar with. It gives you, as a journalist, the power to go out and investigate, which is what we really ought to be doing.
TERENCE SMITH: In effect, computers have enabled Hall's paper and others like it not only to see beneath the political radar, but to build a radar system of their own. | <urn:uuid:c1a34b10-faab-4450-8322-2b3feb628ce8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec02/computers_10-29.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965781 | 1,569 | 1.703125 | 2 |
FAR SIDE OF FIFTY Old Bowls
I used to have a set of bowls just like this one. I loved to use the yellow one for serving a huge amount of mashed potatoes at family gatherings where I couldn't just leave them in the pot that they ... Posted on 10/17/09 at 4:50 AM
The 4-H Project bowl allows youth to study a chosen project more in depth to learn as much as they can about nutrition, breeds, care, genetics, body and conditioning and more.
The Minnesota 4-H Project bowl is the second largest 4-H event after the Minnesota State Fair. Patterned after the golden oldies television show “College Bowl,” it challenges teams of three to six youth in their knowledge of certain 4-H project areas.
View your ad here! Cost effective targeted advertising. Contextual advertising starting as low as $79/month. This includes targeted ad delivery and search results! Add your business to the Marketplace » | <urn:uuid:2202a8c8-faad-4419-9d40-b2a9c86ab3d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.echopress.com/event/tag/tag/bowls/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96403 | 203 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Countdown to our 50th anniversary 1966 to 1967
20 July 2012
Mention 1966 and, for many people, it immediately evokes memories of one of the crowning achievements in recent national history. Of course, 1966 saw the children's television series Camberwick Green aired on the BBC for the first time... In our ongoing look through the archives, our fourth Annual Report covering 1 April 1966 – 31 March 1967, we discover that our complaints levels had tripled to 205 and covered an eclectic range of issues:
• The ASA’s main rulings related to comparative pricing, the use of the word "free", testimonials, and ads for betting tipsters, pregnancy testing, TV and radio rental, and correspondence courses and instruction manuals for judo, ju-jitsu, karate and Kung-fu
Indeed, on that last point, there was clearly a public safety concern at hand:
• The adverse publicity which was given to an incident in which a man was killed by the misuse of karate caused the Authority to investigate this field of activity. The investigation resulted in the recommendation that advertisements for correspondence courses and instruction manuals for judo, jiu-jitsu, karate and Kung-fu should not be accepted
‘Free’ is still one of the ad industry’s favourite words and an updated Help Note
has just been issued to help advertisers avoid using it in a misleading way.
While some of the issues we dealt with closely mirror our work today, there were also distinct differences in how we went about our work. For instance, the report reveals that we didn’t ‘name and shame’ advertisers who fell foul of the rules:
“It is sometimes suggested that the Advertising Standards Authority should make a practice of publishing the names of advertisers who break the rules and of the agencies concerned”
However, back then we took the view that:
“to publish the names of the advertisers would involve a loss of goodwill quite disproportionate to the offence”
This is in marked contrast to today where one of our key sanctions is the negative publicity for an advertiser that can result from our published adjudications
Surprisingly, perhaps, we appeared quite happy to disparage our cousins across the pond. Comparative advertising was on the increase and we blamed it on the Americans!
“We viewed with some anxiety a recent tendency to rely increasingly on the negative rather than the positive approach, a tendency which seems to have started in the U.S.A. and infected both press and television advertising here.”
But we commended those advertisers who restrained themselves in the face of such provocation:
“We noted with approval that some advertisers (including one trade association), although provoked by disparaging references to their wares by manufacturers of competing products, showed commendable restraint in refraining from descending to the same level”
And, finally, our self-regulatory system was attracting admiring glances from abroad, which prompted this rather self-satisfied summation:
• We received many requests for information from abroad about the way in which the system works in this country. It is gratifying to note that in some respects our methods are being adopted in other countries.
Read the 1966 – 1967 Annual report here | <urn:uuid:325573d1-24ac-45ae-9d4a-55e7f3c0c360> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asa.org.uk/News-resources/Media-Centre/2012/Countdown-to-our-50th-anniversary-1966-to-1967.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964205 | 669 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Amid confusion about what exactly had set off the panic, the Uttar Pradesh government ordered an inquiry into a the stampede, IBN said.
Some eye witnesses blamed police for the crush, saying they had charged at the heaving crowds in the station. Authorities, however, denied police used force to try to control the mass of people.
At one point on Sunday, Sandeep Mathur, a spokesman for North-Central Railway, suggested that the mayhem had been prompted by a person falling from a platform bridge.
But on Monday, Railway Minister P.K. Bansal said straightforward overcrowding was the cause.
"There was a lot of chaos," he said, adding that the station remained very crowded Monday.
Authorities said they would give 500,000 rupees ($9,300) compensation to the families of victims and 100,000 rupees to those who were injured.
Tens of millions of pilgrims
An estimated 40 million people came to Allahabad, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday to bathe at the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganges rivers and the mythical Saraswati River. It's the most significant Hindu pilgrimage, occurring every 12 years, Indian cultural and political observer K.G. Suresh said.
"The Hindus believe that a dip in the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the Saraswati on this occasion helps get rid of all worldly sins," Suresh said.
Sunday was the main day for bathing of the 55-day Kumbh Mela. In Hindu mythology, Allahabad is one of the four places where drops of the "nectar of immortality" contained in a pitcher fell to earth as gods and demons fought for it. | <urn:uuid:48bdcaf9-c0f1-4e05-92b0-72ff42fbeff3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wesh.com/news/national-news/36-killed-in-India-festival-stampede/-/11788232/18492322/-/item/1/-/f4qgrx/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96912 | 355 | 1.820313 | 2 |
BY EVAN ELLIS
Father Chris Riley’s decision to back Clubs Australia’s campaign against the Federal Government’s proposed poker machine reforms has surprised many. The smiling face of the Youth off the Streets founder will now adorn the signature green, gold and white flyers of the Clubs and Pubs campaign.
After the shock wore off, I found the candour refreshing. Here was a man disagreeing with the proposed changes and nailing his colours to the mast – a healthy starting point for debate if ever there was.
Also, in terms of speaking with credibility about the darker realities of our communities, few can match his experience. His name has become a byword for hope in often hopeless situations; someone who saves lives by transforming them.
Nonetheless, I can’t bring myself to agree with him on this.
On the flyer he is quoted as saying “I’ve witnessed problem gambling in the community and I believe the only way to treat it is through counselling and education.”
It’s a fair point. In Western Sydney the Church, through its social service agency CatholicCare, provides problem gambling counselling and outreach services to the entire community. Their counsellors have countless stories of lives transformed and freedom regained – all without pre-commitment technology.
The clincher in the statement is “the only way”. I suspect it’s a turn of phrase more than anything else but prioritising counselling and education shouldn’t close us off from seeking structural change.
Pokies are big business. Indeed the surest bet in the murky world of pokies is that governments will continue to do well off them- whatever happens.
However, the community does not. There are an estimated 115,000 problem gamblers. Not a massive figure in a country of 22 million you might think. Yet of the $12 billion lost each year on gaming machines a massive 40 percent comes out of the pockets of problem gamblers. Problem gamblers are givers.
And they’re giving till it hurts. The social cost of problem gambling – relationship breakdown, mental health issues, unemployment, debt and financial hardship, theft and social isolation – is estimated to be at least $4.7 billion a year.
As if this wasn’t bad enough a recent Government study in Victoria suggested that poker machines are the second highest cause of crime in the community after drugs. The authors argue:
“That higher expenditure on gaming machines in a local area leads to an increase in crime ... problem gamblers tend to gamble in areas close to their home or workplace and that criminal behaviour as a result of problem gambling is based on opportunity rather than being planned, and is thus more likely to occur in the same area as the gambling took place.”
Sadly, clubs and pubs are benefitting from this setup, whether deliberately or not. The tremendous good they do is intertwined in a business model that exploits a vulnerable minority.
While Father Chris is right to be worried that changes might threaten jobs or cut funding to charities (although a leaked industry estimate put the projected drop in gaming revenues at 10-20%, half the figures publicly cited by Clubs Australia) the harm caused by pokies, including unemployment, is happening now).
Faced with an addiction, your average problem gambler is in political quicksand. With every punt, they boost the government’s taxation revenue, fund self interested lobby groups and pay their club for more gaming machines.
Arrayed against this trinity, treating individuals in isolation isn’t enough. We, not just problem gamblers, have a problem. We, as a society, need a response.
Pre-commitment technology is just one such example. In a world obsessed with making a buck it tells any gambler, even if through the mild inconvenience of setting it all up, that we don’t just want their money but their welfare (and by extension their family and community’s welfare) as well.
Perhaps that’s why Clubs Australia changed the ‘Its Un-Australian’ slogan to ‘Won’t work. Will hurt.’ Pre-commitment exemplifies the Aussie ideal of mateship; it’s the policy equivalent of telling someone not to overdo it, a technology that would reveal us to be a society more concerned with our mates than their money.
Father Chris is right to point to education and counselling but pre-commitment technology, notwithstanding the challenges in implementing in, should not be readily discarded.
Evan Ellis is Social Justice Coordinator for the Diocese of Parramatta.
Don’t forget to enter our CathBlog competition. Tell us which of our most popular Blogs for 2011 you enjoyed, and why, and you could win a mixed dozen from Sevenhill Wines. Click here to find the Blog which announced the competition, and you will be able to read our Top Ten for the year, and the conditions for entry. Good luck!
Disclaimer: CathBlog is an extension of CathNews story feedback. It is intended to promote discussion and debate among the subscribers to CathNews and the readers of the website. The opinions expressed in CathBlog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference or of Church Resources. | <urn:uuid:3745ac3b-6d32-4460-8088-e04d8fc2aff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29379 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952212 | 1,104 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Wilmington, NC (PRWEB) December 07, 2012
Dr. Jonny Bowden, aka “The Rogue Nutritionist”, recently published an article on naturalhealthsherpa.com about how to prevent weight gain during the holiday season. Dr. Bowden argues that losing weight is difficult and that preventing weight gain is easier.
“The point is that preventing holiday weight gain—or getting rid of those extra holiday pounds—takes a lot more than mere calorie counting,” says Dr. Bowden. The first of the six tips is to write a “proactive food diary. Instead of recording everything you eat after you ate it, try doing a food diary 'in reverse.' Start the day with a clear image of what it’s going to be like. What food will be there? How will you feel? What will you eat," Jonny Bowden explains.
Tip #2 is about curbing the appetite naturally. “The easiest time to resist food is when you’re not hungry . . . Eat before you leave. Don’t—repeat do not—skip breakfast,” Dr. Bowden admonishes.
The rest of the tips can be found here:
Natural Health Sherpa provides in-depth, science-based, independent reviews of natural health therapies and remedies that have been proven to be both safe and effective and are backed by good science -- multiple double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized studies. Unfortunately, there are many charlatans making bogus, unfounded claims in the natural health area, so our goal is to separate fact from fiction to pinpoint what actually works. | <urn:uuid:4eff57f2-6c4b-4adf-8af2-9138ad8fa019> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/12/prweb10214407.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935789 | 341 | 1.820313 | 2 |
From a pure safety standpoint is there a functional difference between a climbing helmet, cycling helmet, etc? Is a cycling helmet actually the safest solution for a cyclist, or would the greater coverage of a climbing helmet be better for safety?
I would argue that there is a wide functional gap in safety helmets for various sports. The design tradeoffs are easily summarized:
Each of these design criteria have very inherent safety tradeoffs. In general, the type of cycling helmet that has a cosmetic and purely "hold the styrofoam together" type shell would not be appropriate for climbing where you might expect to have tens of rocks fall on your head during one climb. Similarly, the padding on a cycling helmet might be more than is needed for climbing. Looking at the spectrum from a full face racing motorcycle helmet to a winter skiing helmet, to a rock climbing helmet, to a skateboarding helmet, to a mountain biking helmet and finally to a typical road cycling helmet - you can see a progression to less and less armor as well as various amounts of styrofoam like insulation depending on the speed at which your body might hit the ground or an object if you fall from your vehicle.
I don't know how to precisely answer which is best, but hopefully this discussion helps frame your decision when picking a helmet if you can't get help from a subject matter expert that has experience in the activity you will use your helmet.
Safety equipment for each sport is designed, tested and certified specifically for that sport. Different sports have different and often competing priorities for the type of protection and comfort required.
An example of competing priorities might be that climbing helmets need to provide extra protection at the top of the head to defend against falling rock, whereas, cycling helmets are designed to provide additional ventilation for comfort.
In short, climbing helmets are not suitable for cycling and cycling helmets are not suitable for climbing. Wear the correct safety equipment for the activity you are taking part in. | <urn:uuid:d55dbea2-874c-4823-b35d-2cef7bd7d12c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/939/is-there-a-functional-safety-difference-in-types-of-helmets/940 | 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 | 0.954134 | 394 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The latest corn crop conditions are at 76% good to excellent and the market is busy making reference to 2007’s 78% as only better by 2%. Needless to say the 2010 corn crop looks very healthy as viewed via this graph
. This year’s corn crop is rated 6% better than last year and 7% better than the five year average. It may be important to realize last year’s crop ratings dropped 1%
with the five year average unchanged at 69% from this report to next week..
Identical to the 2010 corn crop rating of 76% is 1999 and 1998’s 76% good to excellent. In 1999 the crop rating dropped 1% by the following week with 1998 down 2%.
Do not forget we have a June World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report due out on June 10th and one question you may have is could USDA raise yield on such a good looking crop? If history is a good teacher then the answer is no. In 2007 when crop conditions dropped 1% the corn yield from the May WASDE to June was left unchanged at 150.3 bushels per acre. Of the most recent five years, three (2007, 2006, and 2005) had yield left unchanged with 2009 yield down 1.3% and 2008 down 3.2%. In 1999 and 1998 when conditions were identical to the present 76% good to excellent, yield was left unchanged from the May to June WASDE. It is highly unlikely USDA will increase yield from the May to June WASDE.
USDA has decreased crop condition ratings from now until harvest time whether its last year by 1%, five year average by 8%, 2007’s 15% 1999’s 18% and 1998’s 11%. Make note of it, each year indicated this great looking crop becomes more rough around the edges as we enter harvest
What happens to yield per acre from now by the time we enter harvest? You would think with declining crop conditions, yield would also decline, not so. In 2009, yield per acre actually increased 7%, 2008 up 3.4%, 2007 up 2.9%, 2006 up 3.2%, 2005 down 2%, 1999 up 1.3% and 1998 1.8%. Incredible, even though crop conditions drop, yield per acre overwhelmingly goes higher from the June WASDE to October WASDE.
We know as conditions drop from now until harvest, but yield increases but what happens to price? From June into harvest in 2009, the futures price increased 5%, 2008 price per bushel dropped 45%, 2007 price increased 13.9%, 2006 price increased 36.6%, 2005 price dropped 7.6%, 1999 price dropped 5.7% and in 1998 price dropped 11%. So other than tight stock years, prices normally drop as conditions drop and yield per acre increases from now into harvest.
The question at hand is do you have a market plan, futures and or options in place for 2010? Can you comfortably say you maintain complete control of your crop(s)?
We welcome your questions.........Joe Victor
Allendale Inc welcomes any questions you may have by calling 800-551-4626 or
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It was announced Friday that the Postal Service lost $3.1 billion in the April through June period and could be forced to default on payments due to the federal government when the fiscal year ends in September.
Several bills designed to change the law governing the post office, an independent government agency, are pending in the House and Senate.
Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents the private sector mailing industry, commented that "within the past year, the Postal Service's financial situation has gone from bad to worse to worst. If Congress does not enact bold reforms soon, the tailspin the Postal Service will pass the point of recovery, and many of the 8 million private sector workers who depend on it will lose their jobs. This would be terrible not only for them and their families, but for our economy."
USPS' total mailing volume has dropped 2.6 percent since last year and even with significant cost reductions and revenue growth initiatives, current financial projections indicate the agency is facing serious cash shortfall.
Absent substantial legislative change, it will be forced to default on payments to the federal government when the fiscal year ends in September, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe wrote to Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., in
USPS has been asking the Congress to alter the payment schedule of a mandate in a 2006 law that, unlike any other federal agency, requires the Postal Service to prefund retiree health benefits by $5.5 billion.
In addition, the Postal Service has asked to gain access to $50 to $75 billion in overpayments it has made to the Civil Service Retirement System and a $6.9 billion it has overpaid to the Federal Employees Retirement System, according to USPS.
Local impact could be soon felt
It also wants permission to reduce mail delivery from six days a week to five as part of a series of cost-cutting measures, which include shutting down slower post office locations, such as Downtown Station Ontario Post Office, just west of Euclid Avenue at 123 W. Holt Blvd., and the retail unit at the San Bernardino Processing & Distribution Center, at 1900 W. Redlands Blvd. in Redlands.
"Nobody wants to see their local post office close, but USPS must respond to business conditions," said Richard Maher, a USPS spokesman for the Inland Empire.
If you walk into the post office off Holt Boulevard in Ontario to buy a stamp and Yu Taw is manning the counter, chances are he'll try to sell you the shop.
The 30-year veteran has no qualms about up-selling his customers, because the front counter, he says, is the moneymaking side of a post office.
"Moreno Valley, for $13 it will get there tomorrow, guaranteed," Taw suggested on a recent afternoon while helping a customer mail a package.
A smirk on the woman's face prompted him to offer other choices.
"No? How about $5 priority mail, maybe tomorrow?" he asked.
"It's not that important," she answers.
"We have $2.15 parcel post, maybe tomorrow too, yeah?" he said as she nodded in approval. "Buy some insurance? No? Confirmation? Nothing, huh? Hey, now you got more money to buy stamps!"
"Yes, I'll buy stamps," the woman relents. "One book."
"Want to buy a P.O. Box too?" Taw laughed.
But with United States Postal Service counting $5.7 billion in losses since beginning of the year, his marketing efforts may not make much of a difference.
Federal lawmakers hope to implement change
Several bills designed to change the law governing the post office are pending in the House and Senate.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the postal office and author of a reform bill, added that "the U.S. Postal Service is sinking quickly, and if we do nothing, we face a future without the valuable services the Postal Service provides. We have the opportunity to keep it afloat, but we must act now. I urge Congress and the administration to join me in pushing for this much-needed reform so we can prevent the Postal Service from going broke by the end of the year."
Republicans have shown support for cutting down mail delivery as well as negotiating down labor costs but are not in favor of refunds of pension funds.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, chairman of the House committee that supervises postal operations and the sponsor of one of those bills, said Friday's announcement underscores the need to enact meaningful reforms.
"The increasing use of electronic, paper-free technology has caused a permanent decline in mail usage and the Postal Service must adapt its outdated brick-and-mortar model to meet current customer needs," Issa said.
Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, received a letter last month from Issa, a chairman of the House committee that supervises postal operations, asking him to strike a requirement to maintain six-day mail delivery from H.R. 2434, a fiscal 2012 financial services appropriations legislation.
"The 6-day delivery provision imposes a $3 billion annual unfunded mandate on the USPS, according to the USPS," Issa wrote. "As you know, the USPS is widely expected to lose more than $8 billion this year and even greater amounts in future years. Just last month, the USPS announced that it would no longer make required retirement payments for its employees placing their pensions at risk. ... If the status quo continues, the USPS will be insolvent before the end of fiscal year 2012 - placing all USPS operations at risk not just Saturday delivery."
Democrats want overpayments addressed
Democrats in turn seem to favor keeping the mail delivery as it is, and allowing the agency to dip into the money it now forks over to employee retirement accounts.
"The Postal Service is an important aspect of our American culture and provides critical services that benefit businesses and families across the nation," said Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino. "To help ensure a sound future for the Postal Service, I have cosponsored H.R. 1351, legislation designed to correct the years of overpayment the agency has made to the federal government for both its Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employee Retirement System obligations.
"These overpayments are collectively estimated to be somewhere in the $60 to $80 billion range. An incremental return of this funding would provide the Postal Service with the flexibility needed to find long-term solutions to lower costs while avoiding any defaults on current payments."
Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, who represents cities of Pomona and Diamond Bar, said she is also in favor of H.R. 1351.
"I would support it if it helps USPS stay afloat, and not drain future employees' benefits," Napolitano said. It does not make sense to keep ($5.5 billion) if it's their money."
Decision to cut back on six-day delivery should be up to the people, Napolitano said. "We all have to work on debt reduction but there must be another way to cut back."
Cutting Saturdays will affect the economy, and make it worse, said Jose Gutierrez of San Bernardino.
He also said he doesn't mind Taw's selling tactic, and drives to Ontario just to be serviced by him.
"I used to see him when I lived here," Gutierrez said. "You don't want to have a long-faced customer service, he wakes you up, makes you smile. He definitely he makes a huge difference."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:5c0e106f-4ab3-4d2a-9827-16575a0d70f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18634950 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961948 | 1,585 | 1.765625 | 2 |
When designing a dress out of chocolate, there are certain things to keep in mind, says Joelle Mahoney, who created a ruffled dark- and white-chocolate mini-dress worn by a model strutting down the runway at a fall trade show in New York.
"Try to keep the chocolate away from the armpit area," advises Ms. Mahoney, a self-described "chocolate artist."
Such esoteric insight is useful for image-makers riding a wave of interest in clothing made out of food. Lady Gaga's "meat dress," concocted from strips of flank steak, is but the highest-profile example. The Barneys New York holiday catalog featured models in kale collars, necklaces of cherries and a hat, perhaps best likened to a ski cap, consisting of a droopy octopus. The Bravo television show "Top Chefs: Just Desserts" featured a challenge in which contestants made clothing from leeks and cookies. A Los Angeles costume designer created a floor-length gown for Cloris Leachman made of cabbage.
Clothing made of food has taken off in culinary artistic circles with the growth of Le Salon du Chocolat, a trade show that takes place in eight countries and includes a fashion show, in which outfits must be made of chocolate. Designs have included a Xena Warrior Princess get up, gowns with enormous chocolate hoop skirts and carnival-style headdresses.
"Food can be very surreal if you take it out of context," says Barneys New York creative ambassador Simon Doonan, citing paintings of eggs and sculptures of bread by Salvador Dali. "Food is something we have very preconceived notions of what it should be and what function it should be serving."
On the Runway or the Menu?
Take a look at some of the creations.
Still, designers face difficulties in keeping these looks fresh, as do models who wear these tasteful outfits.
Lady Gaga turned heads—and perhaps a few stomachs—after showing up at the MTV Video Music Awards last fall wearing a dress and shoes made of raw steak. But the carnivorous costume was hardly groundbreaking. For a photography series entitled "Hunger Pains" commissioned by photographer Ted Sabarese in 2009, costume maker Ami Goodheart designed a skirt made of rump-roast slices cut into flower-petal shapes.
Ms. Goodheart also designed a pasta body suit, waffle trousers and a cocktail dress, with matching hat and handbag, from bread and chocolate. She spent a week learning how to make challah for the shoulder pads and baguettes for the skirt.
One hazard of posing for a food-clothing photo shoot, says model Bridget Ploof, who donned the bread outfit: "I was getting hungry." She recalls, "the studio smelled like waffles and pasta and bacon."
Though her dress included fresh croissants, Ms. Ploof resisting nibbling on them, but she did pilfer some chocolate from the sewing table before it was stitched on her. Ms. Goodheart, who trimmed 72 waffles into a pair of pants, says she indulged in the scraps.
For a painting unveiled at a Los Angeles gallery this month, artist Will Cotton dressed a model in candy. He bought 20 pounds of rock candy and hired a fashion student to help him make it into an outfit. Mr. Cotton, who recently exhibited works featuring people wearing cakes as hats, also painted a portrait of singer Katy Perry, partially draped in cotton candy, for her most recent album.
Each food poses unique challenges. To stave off melting, Ms. Mahoney stitches together thermal-shopping bags she buys at the supermarket to create an inner lining for chocolate clothes. Her most-complicated designs are sculpted over a wire-mesh frame to keep garments from drooping and breaking. To create the ruffled mini-dress, she blended one part corn syrup to three parts chocolate to make a pliable substance she says tastes like a Tootsie Roll.
Artichokes are prickly in more ways than one, fashion designer Wesley Nault learned when assembling an artichoke dress for the Hunger Pains photo shoot. He knew the moment artichokes are cut, they start to blacken. Using an old kitchen trick, he doused the leaves of about 30 artichokes in lemon juice before the six-hour process of gluing them to an undergarment.
Halfway through, the team ran out of artichokes, so an assistant ran to Whole Foods to get more. As sections of the dress began to oxidize, the team raced to pin and staple on leaves so a portrait could be taken.
The dress helped raise his profile in the fashion business, Mr. Nault says, but "I didn't want to see artichokes for quite some time."
Los Angeles costume designer Mia Gyzander discovered different hurdles while creating a purple-and-green cabbage gown for Ms. Leachman, who wore it in an ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"I thought the deep burgundy was really pretty with her skin tone," Ms. Gyzander says. However, she soon realized that "the outside leaves are bigger and more flexible, but the inside ones are smaller and crumbly." It took three people 10 hours to select the biggest leaves off 70 heads of cabbage and sew them on.
Le Salon du Chocolat, launched in Paris in 1995, now also takes place in Spain, the U.S., Japan, China, Egypt, Italy and Russia. It always kicks off with a chocolate fashion show. Russian designers have taken to it enthusiastically, says co-founder Sylvie Douce: In Moscow, one model wore a dress with a sleeve of chocolate roses and a headdress of six lit candles. A designer in Egypt created a dress that looked like the robes of ancient rulers.
Some designers say they've had to abandon hopes of preserving their oeuvres after the food began to go bad. Ms. Gyzander and Mr. Nault watched their vegetable dresses wilt within an hour or so of photo shoots. Ms. Mahoney tried to preserve her first chocolate outfit, a pirate costume, with lemon-flavored lacquer—an edible spray used by bakers. Still, the chocolate eventually disintegrated and she had to toss it.
Ms. Goodheart, who made the meat skirt, says she was never tempted to try to turn it into beef jerky. "I like making things out of paper and food and things that can't live on, so the clothing is kind of an extension of performance art," she says. All that was left after the photo shoot, she says, was a few bags of groceries.
Write to Katy McLaughlin at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:d500562e-3a74-4112-ae4f-12f8d6433456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704405704576064340019008056.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965908 | 1,416 | 1.648438 | 2 |
NACUW, Community Finance Solutions at the University of Salford and NEF are now working in a number of regions in England and Wales on this partnership approach towards financial inclusion. Extensive feasibility research has been completed in each of these areas which include:
Elsewhere other projects are also delivering new services and economies of scale through this joined-up approach such as in Sheffield through FISY, Blackpool, and Newcastle with FIN.
By winter 2005/6, up to eight ‘CBP pathfinders’ should be participating in a national pilot demonstration project. These will have received investment support from charitable foundations, banks and government bodies including DTI and DWP Financial inclusion Funds.
The goal that the National CBP Demonstration Project sets itself is to demonstrate how to tackle financial exclusion and provide affordable financial services to low-income households in a sustainable manner. Our five main objectives are to:
During the course of the next three-year period the main areas of activity will be:
We believe that this approach will lead to stronger growth across community-based credit unions. It will increase access to affordable financial services by poorer households and provide a robust methodology for minimising the social injustices linked with financial exclusion.
We are really pleased that other sections of the credit union movement such as ABCUL are now following our lead in advocating partnership approaches. | <urn:uuid:46fc0e5d-4cd6-45f3-a7e6-4af301c91465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nacuw.org.uk/printable/node/16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961677 | 277 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Microsoft has begun moving Hotmail users to its Outlook.com domain, displacing Live@edu users' primary log-in and sending administrators scrambling.
Until now, users of Live@edu -- provided free to school students, teachers and staff -- accessed their email accounts via the Outlook.com address.
But those attempting to do so today were served advertisements asking them to instead sign up to the new free email service, "Outlook.com".
"The new Outlook.com email is not Outlook Live email offered to Live@edu customers – it is a completely different service that Microsoft is offering to consumers and has no impact to the Live@edu service," Microsoft said in a blog post.
Microsoft provided little advance warning of the change to Live@edu administrators. Most received an email this morning, an example of which has been sighted by iTnews.
It advised administrators to "update" their Live@edu sign-in URL from Outlook.com to an "Outlook.com/" format.
Live@edu users who logged in through an Outlook.com subdomain would not be subjected to advertisements asking them to sign up for a new, free email account.
A short community notification issued last week advised administrators to make the URL changes but did not mention that the Outlook.com domain would be co-opted for the seperate, Hotmail service.
A Microsoft Australia spokesperson said the company had been "encouraging [customers] to create a CNAME or to redirect sign in to outlook.com/" since July 10.
"Yesterday's [email] communication with our customers was a follow up to our initial outreach," the spokesperson said.
"We take customer communication and education very seriously and have always provided good guidance for Live@edu around configuring the domain namespace."
However, the spokesperson did not address whether Microsoft had specifically communicated why it wanted administrators to make the change - such as a warning that their users would be served advertisements for the new free email service.
Microsoft conceded in a blog post that the situation "might cause some confusion for [Live@edu] users".
Live@edu is used by educational institutions including University of Wollongong, University of Western Sydney and the Redlands Grammar School. The service is to be replaced progressively with Office 365 for education from this month.
Microsoft's Outlook.com free consumer email service is available now under preview. It's the first major change Microsoft has made to its free webmail products in over eight years.
Apart from a new interface and social media integration - including eventually Skype - Microsoft said it wouldn't be scanning email content or attachments to serve targeted advertisements, nor would it "show ads in personal conversations".
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
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Risk aversion seen to mute GIR growth
BSP sees dollar reserves plateauing this yearBy Michelle V. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
The country’s foreign exchange reserves, after posting double-digit annual growth rates since 2004, are seen to stay nearly flat this year due to heightened global risk aversion that is tempering investments in portfolio assets from emerging markets like the Philippines.
According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the gross international reserves (GIR) may not significantly change this year because stronger inflows of remittances, investments in business process outsourcing and tourism revenues, among others, may be offset by outflows resulting from reduced appetite for portfolio investments.
The GIR—the amount of foreign exchange reserves that determine the country’s ability to purchase imports, pay debts to foreigners and engage in other financial transactions with the rest of the world—stood at $75.1 billion at the end of 2011, up 20 percent from the previous year’s $62.4 billion.
The foreign exchange reserves had consistently been growing at double-digit rates and registering record highs since 2004, when these stood at only P16.2 billion.
This year, however, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said that should the foreign exchange reserves grow, the increase may be minimal and far slower than the growth rates registered the previous years.
“Given the global market volatility, it would be prudent to expect a generally stable GIR level this year,” BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo told the Inquirer.
According to latest central bank report on the country’s external liquidity, the GIR amounted to $76 billion at the end of April. The amount was equivalent to about 11 months’ worth of imports—a level considered comfortable by monetary officials.
The country’s GIR had been growing in past years due to strong inflows led by remittances and investments in business process outsourcing sector.
The BSP still expects remittances to grow this year, but by only 5 percent from last year’s $20.1 billion, which is slower than the rates of previous years.
Short URL: http://business.inquirer.net/?p=60977 | <urn:uuid:f6ee5a94-c773-468d-b0fc-66bc35bbc8e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business.inquirer.net/60977/risk-aversion-seen-to-mute-gir-growth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939995 | 472 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The noble idea of studying seminal works to ‘see what we can learn’ has turned in the 1990s into ‘let’s see what we can take’ and in the last decade a more toxic derivative ‘what else can’t we take’. That is my observation as a student of architecture in the 1990s, and as a practitioner in the 2000s. In 2010, the sense that something is ending is clear. The next generation is rising and their gaze has shifted.
The idea of classification (as a means of separation) was previously rejected by a generation of Postmodernists; the usefulness of difference declined. It’s there in the presence of plurality in the resulting architecture, a decision to mine history and seize in a willful manner. This is a process of looking back but never forward. It has been a mono-culture of absorption. The mono-culture rejected the pursuit of the realistic. It is a blanket suffocating all practice of architecture in this country from the mercantile to the intellectual. Independent reviews of Australia’s recent contributions to the Venice Architecture Biennales confirm the malaise.
The next generation is beginning to reconsider classification as a means of unification. By acknowledging the characteristics of competing forces it is possible to bring them into a state of tension. Seeking a beautiful contrast is a means to a new end. In the political setting, this is described by Noel Pearson as the radical centre. The concept transcends the political and in its most essential form is a cultural phenomenon. It resists the compromised position and suggests that we can look back while looking forward. The radical centre is the only demonstrated opportunity where it is possible to pursue a realistic architecture.
A realistic architecture in Australia may be partially resolved by addressing our anxiety of permanence. Farrelly’s built desires and Markham’s ritual demonstrations are two ways into understanding the broader spectrum of permanence. But I think they are downstream of our core problem. Our problem, as architects, is that we are yet to come to terms with this place. Some call it landscape others call it country. Australian cities were laid out on what was mistaken for a blank canvas. On some occasions there was the consideration of the landscape when it presented insurmountable physical obstacles. The architecture since has continued to work on its piece of a constantly blank canvas. Even more ironic is the commercial awards programs that represent a claim within this framework but at best can only establish a dialogue within itself. This is a closed system unable to look forward. It is said that Melbourne is the most European city in the southern hemisphere but what is really being described there is the limitation of a senseless grid.
After all, if Dutch landscape informs Dutch architecture why can’t the Australian landscape inform Australian architecture? To do that, we would have to acknowledge our moribund grasp of the meaning of the Australian landscape. Or more precisely what Indigenes call Country. This is a complex notion and there are different ways into it. Country is experienced and understood through the senses and seared into memory. If one begins design at that starting point it is not unreasonable to think we can arrive at an end point that is a counter trajectory to where we have taken ourselves. A recent studio with Masters students confirmed this. Start by finding Country and it would be impossible to end up with a building looking like an Aboriginal man’s face.
To date architecture in Australia has overwhelmingly ignored Country on the back of terra nullius. It can’t seem to get past the picturesque. Why is it so hard? The art world came to terms with this challenge, so too did the legal establishment, even the political scene headed into new waters. It would be easy to blame the budgets of commerce or the constraints of program or even the pressure of success. But that is too easy. Those factors are in fact the kind of limitations that opportunities grow out of.
The past decade of economic plenty has, for the most part, smothered the idea that our capitals might enable civic settings or an architecture that is able to looks past lot line boundaries in a dignified manner. The denied opportunities of these settings to be prompted by the Country they occupy is criminal. The public realm is arrested in its development because we refuse to accept Country as a spatial condition. What we seem to be able to embrace is literal and symbolic gestures usually taking the form of a trumped up art installations. All talk – no action.
To continue to leave the public realm to the stewardship of mercantile interests is like embracing derivative lending after the global financial crisis.Herein rests an argument for why we need a resourced Government Architect’s office operating not as an isolated lobbyist for business but as a steward of the public realm for both the past and the future. New South Wales is the leading model with Queensland close behind. That is not to say both do not have flaws but current calls for their cessation on the grounds of design parity poorly mask commercial self interest. In Queensland, lobbyists are heavily regulated now with an aim to ensure integrity and accountability.
In essence, what I am speaking of will not be found in Reconciliation Action Plans that double as business plans, or the mining of Aboriginal culture for the next marketing gimmick, or even discussions around how to make buildings more ‘Aboriginal’. It will come from the next generation who reject the noxious mono-culture of absorption and embrace a counter trajectory to pursue an architecture of realism.
N. Pearson, ‘Hunt for the Radical Centre’ in The Australian, April 21, 2007, viewed on 1 October 2010,
E. Farrelly, ‘Why is contemporary architecture so crap?’ in Monument,Issue 96, April/May 2010, p33-36.
M.Markham, ‘The problem with remaining disinterested’ in Monument,Issue 97, June/July 2010, p38-40.
K. O’Brien, ‘Foreword’ in Colliding Islands, Exhibition Catalogue, L. Rollman (curator), February 2009, p3. | <urn:uuid:086989f4-d89e-436b-96c8-f86cb8c87c47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://koarchitects.com.au/papers/id/43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952379 | 1,257 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Warm Body Recruitment
When you need a large number of volunteers for a short period time and the qualifications of the task are minimal, you might engage in "warm body recruitment." This involves a broad dissemination of information, including:
- Distribution of brochures
- Speaking to groups
- Notices in appropriate media
- Word of Mouth
The targeted campaign requires a carefully planned approach to a small audience. Use this method when you are trying to recruit volunteers that need to have specific skills or not commonly found characteristics.
A targeted campaign requires, at the outset, that you answer several questions:
- What do we need?
- Who could provide this?
- How can we communicate with them?
- What would motivate them?
Working through such questions will help you identify and locate the volunteers that you need. Once you locate a source of such volunteers, simply take your recruitment message directly to them.
Concentric Circles Recruitment
This type of recruitment requires you to identify populations who are already in direct or indirect contact with your organization and then to contact them with your recruiting message. Such populations include:
- Your clients, their families and relatives.
- Alumni of your program/s.
- Friends of your current volunteers and staff.
- People in your organization's neighborhood.
- People who have been affected by the problem you are attempting to solve.
Concentric Circles recruitment involves people who are already familiar with your agency or the problem you address, or who are connected through friends or staff members. It is more likely that you will succeed in persuading them to volunteer than complete strangers. In sales terms, there is a big difference between a "cold" call to a stranger than a "warm" call to an acquaintance or a friend.
Time and the Volunteer
- Revisit volunteer position descriptions from a time perspective. Ask why volunteer work is structured the way it is now.
- Identify time wasters and do something about them. Every meeting requires commute time, so perhaps it would make sense to hold fewer but longer meetings, focusing time spent on what’s important (group discussion).
- Meet multiple needs. Busy people make choices and gravitate to activities that accomplish more than one thing on their to-do list.
- Meeting new friends (possibly single new friends!) – especially important for prospective volunteers new to a community or recently divorced or widowed.
- Learning something new while volunteering that, in turn, will be helpful in the person’s paying job or look good on a resume for future job hunting.
- Being able to volunteer with one’s children as a family activity, rather than having to make the choice of spending even less time parenting than now.
- Simply having fun – time-deprived folks need a recreational outlet (by the way, it’s possible to do hard work and still have fun!).
4. Stop rewarding hours contributed and start honoring service provided. One way we imply that we value loads of time is to give recognition for 100 hours, 2 years, or other intensive service or longevity. By all means continue to thank such devotion. But understand the message this sends to new volunteers: give us more, more, more! Instead, focus appreciation on tasks completed (reorganized the center’s library, ran 10 holiday parties, mentored 178 teenagers). Create awards such as “Did the Most in the Least Amount of Time Medal” or “Most Effect Short-term Project Award” to celebrate those who accomplished something on your behalf even if episodically.
- Feel good about yourself and others
- Receive work experience
- Connect with others who will help amplify your impact
- Develop priorities
- Develop personal growth & spiritual fulfillment
- The individual needs of volunteers often need to be met with immediacy, and often in the midst of a myriad of other activities.
- Effective time management is the key to not only finding the successful blend between the needs of the volunteers and the volunteer program, but more importantly to avoiding burn out of volunteer program managers.
- The first thing we all need to do is ask ourselves questions about where our priorities lie in relation to the effective management of our time. For example, do you drop everything every time a volunteer knocks on your door with a problem, or do you have no time for volunteers and their concerns at all?
- Secondly we need to develop ways in which we can manage our time effectively to achieve our organizational goals while at the same time meeting our own personal goals and the intrinsic needs of our volunteer workforce. A simple analysis of our work practices to determine what we spend the majority of our time doing, coupled with the question "Is this the best use of my time?", will help create a starting point for time management reform in your workplace.
Liability and Risk Management
Volunteer Protection Act
The new law (42 USCA Sec. 14501 et seq.) generally provides that volunteers will not be personally liable for their acts or omissions if they are acting within the scope of their responsibility for the organization and the harm is "not caused by willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the individual harmed."
How does the new Act work?
A volunteer is not personally liable for harm that he or she caused if the volunteer was (1) acting within the scope of his or her responsibilities, (2) was "properly licensed, certified, or authorized by the appropriate authorities" to act in such manner "if appropriate or required," (3) did not fall below the minimum standard of conduct described above, and (4) was not operating "a motor vehicle, vessel, aircraft or other vehicle" for which the state requires an operators license or insurance.
The protection does not apply to misconduct that constitutes a crime of violence or terrorism (for which the volunteer is criminally convicted) or a hate crime (whether or not convicted). In addition, there is no protection for sexual offenses (for which the volunteer is criminally convicted), for civil rights violations, or for acts that occurred when the volunteer was under the influence of "intoxicating alcohol" or drugs.
Responsibility of Agency
It does not matter if the senior manager is called a CEO, an ED, or something else. The primary responsibilities are the same.
- Develop the workplan that will frame the implementation of the strategic plan. This includes the tasks to be done, lead staff person or unit, resources needed, timeline, and expected outcomes.
- Recruit, train, and supervise senior management staff, supporting them all as a functioning leadership team.
- Make sure that the organizational structure and staffing model is appropriate for the work to be done. For example, in a large community drop-in with many programs for low-income people, there might need to be a branch that oversees the direct client service and another branch that provides the administrative and property support services.
- Oversee the development and delivery of client services to ensure that service outcomes are consistent with the mission and the strategic plan.
- Oversee all human resources management to ensure that qualified staff are hired and supervised to provide both the client services and the administrative and property support services.
- Oversee financial management, including budget preparation, ensuring all reports are submitted to government and funders, and accessing funding grants.
- Liaise with, and support the board administration, providing it with regular progress reports on the strategic plan, emerging issues, and proposals for new initiatives.
These responsibilities are carried out using the four basic management functions of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.
Responsibility of Volunteer
- Be prompt and reliable in reporting for scheduled work. Keep accurate records of your hours worked.
- Attend orientation and training sessions scheduled.
- Be considerate, respect the ability of the staff, and work as a member of the team.
- Notify your supervisor as early as possible if you are unable to work as scheduled.
- Carry out assignments in good spirit and seek the assistance of your supervisor in any situation requiring special guidance.
- Have the ability to work with a culturally diverse population of clients.
- Accept the right of the agency to dismiss any volunteer for poor performance, including poor attendance.
- If you have criticism about another person, convey it to your supervisor.
- Decline work that is not acceptable to you and maintain an open mind with regard to other people's standards and values.
- Communicate personal limitations — acceptable out-of-pocket costs, transportation needs, time constraints, etc.
- Provide feedback, suggestions, and recommendations to your supervisor and staff if these might increase the effectiveness of the program.
- Give written notice if you cannot continue in your volunteer position or if you are requesting a leave of absence from the program.
- Respect current agency policies (i.e. Affirmative Action, Sexual Harassment, etc.) | <urn:uuid:4da0f0bb-f3b2-492d-a587-e8ddb2342f93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bvu.edu/bv/community-service/non-profit-resources.dot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938354 | 1,845 | 1.625 | 2 |
Author: Jennifer Fosberry
Illustrator: Mike Litwin
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Release Date: February 1, 2012
Number of Pages: 32
Source of Book: Hardcover from publisher at ALA
The precocious, purple-haired traveler spends the day playing with her dad as she pretends everyday things (like the sandbox) are extraordinary places (like the desert and the pyramids of Egypt). Isabella ends the day in her own home-sweet-home, the most wonderful place to be.I have not read MY NAME IS NOT ISABELLA, but I've heard good things about this purple-haired girl, so when I saw that Jennifer Fosberry would be signing copies of this sequel, ISABELLA: GIRL ON THE GO, at the Sourcebooks booth at ALA, I knew I had to go check it out. I'm so glad that I did. Isabella is a fun, sassy, and smart young girl. As her father keeps asking her to help with the various chores on their list for the day, Isabella continually says she's not in the place he thinks, but in some special place around the globe that is somehow related to the ordinary place she's standing in her backyard.
Jennifer Fosberry has created picture books which have stories kids can laugh about, but also include social studies related terms and ideas that are incorporated throughout-this time with significant global locations. Even better, especially for use with older kids, is the glossary at the back that includes extensive detailed explanation of each of the places that is mentioned in the story. The illustrations are endearingly adorable as well, and further highlight the strength of the relationship between Isabella and her father in this story. He has unending patience for her imagination and plays along each time she switches to a different place she claims to be. I appreciated that the father is willing to let her be creative and helps show how important creativity can be to learning.
I will share this with my nieces and nephews, but can also see using it in the classroom as a jumping off point for students to create their own stories modeled after Isabella highlighting important places around the world that they've learned about in social studies class. | <urn:uuid:2c6d0ec1-8dfd-4c6a-be55-133906c92eca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heisereads.com/2012/07/picture-book-praise-isabella-girl-on-go.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964811 | 465 | 1.828125 | 2 |
On June 29, 1999, at 1717 central daylight time, a Boeing 767- 323, N384AA, operated by American Airlines as Flight 80 collided with an American Airlines B-767-223, N328AA, which was stopped on the International Ramp at the O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. There were no injuries to the 3 cockpit crew, 10 cabin crew, and 173 passengers on board Flight 80. In addition, there were no injuries to the two mechanics on board N328AA. N384AA received minor damage to its right wingtip and N328AA received minor damage to its left wing. The 14 CFR Part 121 flight was operating in visual meteorological conditions. Flight 80 was preparing to depart the O'Hare International Airport, for Stockholm, Sweden, when the incident occurred. Use your browsers 'back' function to return to synopsisReturn to Query Page
N328AA was being repositioned by two mechanics from gate M-3 at the International Terminal to the gate K-15 on the domestic side of the airport. They received their push back clearance from the O'Hare Inbound Ground Controller and were instructed to "...push it back facing north." American Airlines ramp personnel pushed N328AA back from the gate and positioned the airplane on the ramp facing north. The mechanics reported they were going to taxi north on taxiway Bravo, cross over on Alpha 20, and taxi south on taxiway Alpha to the gate area. They reported that once positioned on the ramp they set the parking brake and were waiting for traffic to clear the "alley" and taxiway Alpha when their left wing was struck by Flight 80.
Flight 80 had been parked at gate K-19 and was given clearance by the Ground Metering Controller to taxi to Runway 32R via the Bravo Taxiway. Flight 80 turned left out of the terminal area onto the Bravo Taxiway. As flight 80 was taxing north on Bravo, its right wing contacted the left wing of N328AA. The flight crew reported that they saw the 767 (N328AA) parked on the International Ramp; however, they did not think it was a factor. The left main gear on N328AA was jacked up and the right main gear tires on Flight 80 were deflated in order to dislodge the airplanes from each other.
A review of photographs taken by American Airlines revealed the left wing of N328AA and the right wing of Flight 80 were both over hanging a green painted "grass" area on the ramp when the collision occurred. N328AA was positioned facing north on the International Ramp just southwest of the M-3 gate. The fuselage of the airplane was on the movement side of the "nonmovement area" and its left main gear was on the taxiway centerline. Flight 80 was facing north on the Bravo Taxiway with its nose gear approximately 3-feet left of the taxiway centerline.
Damage on N384AA consisted of the right wing tip. Damage on N328AA consisted of the left wing tip and minor damage to the left aileron.
A letter from CICA, the contracting ramp control company, dated October 13, 1993, entitled T-5 [International Terminal] Ramp Control Guidelines addresses procedures for pushing back from the International Terminal. This document states, "Due to the close proximity of the International gate positions M1-M3 to the Outer Taxiway [Bravo], only O'Hare ATCT [Air Traffic Control Tower] will issue clearance to and from these gate positions. Aircraft in gate position M4 will be directed by International Gate Coordinator and must be pushed back to the south in a nose north configuration." O'Hare ATCT personnel were interviewed and were questioned regarding the above procedure. They reported that when an airplane is pushed back from gates M-1 and M-2, the airplane cannot remain clear of taxiway Bravo due to the amount of ramp space. In this case they stop additional traffic from using Bravo until the airplane is moved. They reported that even though they are giving pushback clearances from gate M-3, they do not prevent other traffic from using taxiway Bravo when a pushback is in progress. They reported that it is the responsibility of the ramp personnel and cockpit crew to maintain clearance from taxiway Bravo when pushed back from gate M-3.
The International Terminal gate/ramp area was inspected by the NTSB, the Federal Aviation Administration Airport and Air Traffic Control Personnel, O'Hare International Operations Personnel, and American Airlines Personnel. The ramp area used when an airplane is pushed back from gate M-3 consists of a space bordered by two vehicle traffic lanes, a cross taxiway (Alpha 20), and the nonmovement area line. Several ramp personnel, including those who pushed back N328AA, were interviewed during the course of this investigation. All of them said that it would be very difficult if not impossible to push back an airplane from gate M-3, keep it on the nonmovement side of the ramp, and not block a vehicle traffic lane or cross taxiway. Therefore, they try and position the airplane in an area to keep the traffic lanes and cross taxiways clear; however, this puts the airplane on the movement side of the ramp. In addition, they reported that the turn radius is too sharp for them to position an airplane on the nonmovement side of the ramp. They reported that it was routine for a portion of the airplane to extend over the nonmovement line. A pushback was observed by the NTSB and what the ramp personnel said was found to be true.
A Letter of Agreement between the O'Hare ATCT and the City of Chicago effective April 6, 1993 addresses Designated Airport Movement Areas. The diagram attached to the agreement depicts the taxiways and runways as movement areas on the airport. The agreement also states, "The Southwest Cargo ramp, Signature/General Aviation ramp, International ramp taxi lane, and the terminal gate areas are all nonmovement areas once the aircraft clears the adjacent taxiway and has entered the ramp area."
Taxiway Bravo is 75 feet wide. The nonmovement line is 160 feet from the center of taxiway Bravo placing it 122.5 feet into the International ramp area near gate M-3. The placement of the nonmovement line is contradictory to the letter of agreement regarding Designated Airport Movement Areas which shows all ramp areas as nonmovement areas.
According to Boeing Aircraft the wingspan of a 767-200 is 156 feet 1 inch. Given the width of the taxiway, a Boeing 767-200 taxing on the centerline of Bravo would have 41 feet of its wing extending over each side of the taxiway. | <urn:uuid:2198c995-68be-4ae1-8b6f-4ea7b36a31fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20001212X18933&ntsbno=CHI99IA204&akey=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963176 | 1,372 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Fredericktown Critical Care Practitioners
Top Critical Care Practitioners in Fredericktown, OH
Also sometimes referred to as intensivists, critical care specialists are physicians with specialized training in the diagnosis and management of life-threatening conditions, such as those that affect vital organs like the heart and lungs, those that make breathing difficult or impossible, and those that affect entire organ systems, like the renal system.
Critical care specialists are typically found in a hospital's intensive care unit where they monitor patients with life-threatening conditions and make determinations as to the best course of treatment.
The area of Fredericktown, OH has a population of approximately 8,700 people. There is 1 critical care practitioner near Fredericktown, which gives it a ratio of 1 critical care practitioner per 8,700 residents or a ratio of 1 critical care practitioner per 3,202 households. There are 3,202 households in Fredericktown. | <urn:uuid:0720adca-50a8-43f6-a0fb-49c6d46d822a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vitals.com/specialists/critical-care-practitioners/ohio/fredericktown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948325 | 185 | 1.648438 | 2 |
DCS Commissioner Kate O'Day told The Tennessean editorial board in October that there are multiple layers of independent review of the state agency. / Steven S. Harman / File / The Tennessean
31 child deaths in 6 months
DCS has provided summaries about the deaths but won’t allow access to the case files. One child was first listed as dying Feb. 23 of “positional asphyxia.” Later, DCS said she died Feb. 10 of “unsafe sleeping.”
There is little known about the 31 Tennessee children who died in the first six months of this year after the Department of Children’s Services got involved in their cases.
The dead included 23 babies, four toddlers, one 5-year-old and three teenagers.
They died after suffering broken bones, drug exposure, asphyxia and drowning. One 2-year-old boy died in a Lincoln County home fire. A Lauderdale County newborn was drowned in a toilet. Some deaths remain unexplained.
The Department of Children’s Services continues to withhold details about the children’s lives and deaths and what steps the state’s $650 million child protection agency took — or did not take — to protect them.
DCS’ unwillingness to open the agency’s work to public scrutiny stands in contrast to a growing movement across the nation to increase accountability and transparency in child welfare agencies. It’s a movement that child welfare experts have pushed in recent years to prevent future tragedies.
“The goal should be to get sufficient information to be able to evaluate whether appropriate actions were taken to protect children,” said Noy Davis, a legal consultant for Washington, D.C.-based First Star, which advocates for abused and neglected children.
“The public needs to know what prior involvement the agency had with the family and was it handled properly and can anything be fixed so this doesn’t happen again.”
The state has denied multiple requests from The Tennessean to review the files involving child fatalities. The department said it had to weigh competing interests.
“The disclosure process for fatalities and near fatalities requires sensitivity and balance,” DCS General Counsel Douglas Dimond wrote in response to the newspaper’s request. “A child and family’s right to privacy must be balanced against the public’s right to know.”
The Tennessean and its counsel sent a letter to DCS last week calling its disclosures “woefully inadequate” and asking the agency to make records public by Dec. 18.
States grant access
Dimond, the DCS attorney, cited federal policy and said agencies that receive federal funding to prevent child abuse are not authorized to release records involving children — even if they’re dead.
But a review of other states shows multiple examples of officials routinely granting public access to case files and detailed timelines of case manager calls, visits and investigations relating to child deaths.
In Arkansas, officials cited the same federal policy as the reason it would increase public access to information about child deaths. That state began putting detailed information about child deaths online in a searchable public database.
In Colorado, the public can access routine fatality reviews that discuss whether department policies or state laws were violated by caseworkers.
In Oklahoma, child welfare officials release detailed information about their investigations that include a chronology of each previous report made to the agency about the child and steps the agency took to respond to those reports.
In Kentucky, where child welfare officials were reluctant to make public such information despite four court orders, a state attorney general’s opinion in October noted that “full disclosure is often necessary to prevent such tragedies from occurring,” criticizing the agency for “obfuscation.”
In some states, the availability of records led to reforms in the state’s child welfare system.
To date, DCS has provided limited details. Instead of providing the actual case files, the state has provided brief summaries to the newspaper.
The deaths occurred in 25 counties across the state.
Twenty of the children had been reported to the agency within the past three years.
In at least 13 cases, DCS had been alerted to concerns about children within the last six months of their lives.
In some instances, however, the information provided to the newspaper by DCS changed from month to month.
In September, a DCS summary of deaths listed an Anderson County infant who died Feb. 23 of “positional asphyxia.”
By October, the summary had changed. DCS listed an Anderson County infant who died Feb. 10. There was no mention of the infant who died on Feb. 23.
On Friday, DCS spokesman Brandon Gee said the two notations were actually for one child, a baby he said died from “unsafe sleeping” in Anderson County on Feb. 10.
The department has conceded in the past that it has made a string of errors in releasing data about child deaths.
When DCS first released information on Sept. 18, it reported that 40 children had died in the first six months of 2012. Two days later, the agency revised that number downward to 31.
At the time, agency attorney Dimond admitted that DCS had been violating a disclosure law requiring the agency to inform lawmakers of each fatality and near fatality.
In November, the Tennessean requested a smaller sample of child deaths or near deaths.
DCS again declined to make public any portion of the children’s files or any record of the agency’s interaction with the child. DCS said any of its prior involvement with the children in the sample was “not pertinent.”
Tennessean Executive Editor Maria De Varenne called the response “woefully inadequate.”
“The State has provided no investigative reports, fatality reviews, or task force reports, among other materials which are covered by The Tennessean’s requests,” noted a letter to DCS from the newspaper and Tennessean attorney Robb Harvey last week.
The newspaper’s letter to DCS asked, “Where is the oversight for DCS’ actions, and who is responsible for providing that oversight?”
DCS chief Kate O’Day and Gov. Bill Haslam told The Tennessean editorial board in October that there are multiple layers of independent review of the state agency.
“There’s sometimes a sense where you think they have incredibly important work and they’re out there operating on their own,” Haslam said. “Nothing could be further from the truth if you look at all of the people who are overseeing us in one way or another.”
DCS spokeswoman Molly Sudderth said last week that such oversight includes a Child Protective Investigative Team that operates in each county and investigates allegations of child sex abuse and severe child abuse. The team includes law enforcement, DCS and child welfare officials who evaluate whether a case can be prosecuted.
But Brian Holmgren, a Davidson County assistant district attorney who is on Nashville’s Child Protective Investigative Team, said the group does not function as an independent assessor of the work of DCS.
He said its focus is on determining whether a child was a victim of abuse or neglect and whether there is enough evidence to prosecute the alleged perpetrator.
In addition, Holmgren said, the team relies solely on the information DCS presents to it and does not have access to a child’s complete DCS file.
Holmgren said the team’s findings are not public.
Sudderth also said oversight of the agency’s work was provided by Child Fatality Review Teams overseen by the state Department of Health.
The teams of local law enforcement, health and child welfare officials operate in each of Tennessee’s 31 judicial districts to review each child fatality in their region.
But those reviews do not examine complete DCS files or examine reports made to DCS before a child’s death.
That is not their role, said Dr. Michael Warren, director for Family Health and Wellness at the Tennessee Department of Health.
Sudderth cited a last layer of oversight — an internal review by the DCS Office of Child Safety. That review is not made public either.
DCS has not yet responded to The Tennessean’s Nov. 28 letter.
A spokesman for Haslam said: “The policy has been reviewed, and the governor and the Attorney General’s Office are comfortable with DCS’s position.” | <urn:uuid:a6dc9b45-60c9-481a-abdb-596c78905bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121202/NEWS21/312020057 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960306 | 1,793 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- "Hazardous" air, murky skies in Singapore from Indonesian fires
- Rupee at record low as India seen lacking options to brake fall
- Rupee slumps to record low; bonds, stocks slump
- UPDATE 1-U.S. states, greens delay lawsuit, await Obama climate plan
- Finance minister holds meeting with officials over rupee fall
UPDATE 3-White House lowers growth forecasts, brightens jobs picture
* Obama team cites continued serious headwinds for economy
* Jobless rate seen lower, medium-term deficits slimmer
* Review assumes Congress will enact White House proposals
By Laura MacInnis
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - The White House cut its outlook for U.S. growth in 2012 and 2013 on Friday, hours after data showed the economy grew at a tepid pace in the second quarter, raising concerns about a slowdown that could mar President Barack Obama's re-election chances.
In its semi-annual budget review, the White House said it expected gross domestic product to rise 2.3 percent this year and 2.7 percent next year - less than the 2.7 percent and 3.0 percent growth projections it made in February.
"The economy still faces significant headwinds that have held down growth and limited gains in employment," Jeffrey Zients, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement accompanying the review.
But the White House brightened its forecast for unemployment - one of the key barometers of Obama's economic leadership - to a 8.0 percent rate this year and 7.7 percent next year, from its first estimate of 8.9 percent in 2012 and 8.6 percent in 2013.
It also said the deficit would be slimmer this fiscal year - from October through September - than first anticipated, at $1.211 trillion instead of $1.327 trillion, and be slightly wider than first projected in fiscal 2013. Over the next decade, the White House said cumulative deficits would be $240 billion lower than it forecast in February.
The mid-session review, like the original White House budget proposal released in February, assumes Obama's economic and job growth proposals will be enacted despite the stark partisan divisions in election-year Washington.
Zients said it also "reflects the administration's belief that Congress can and must enact a comprehensive and balanced deficit reduction package" to avoid mandatory spending cuts that are due to take effect in January.
Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut, said the deadlock in Congress had kept many White House economic plans from being passed, and raised questions about the basis of Friday's figures.
"These numbers can be a bit deceptive," he said.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Washington think tank, said the lower growth forecast was a major reason deficits were seen decreasing in the review, averaging 3.2 percent of gross domestic product over the next decade, compared to a 3.3 percent average projected in February.
But it warned: "these estimates may turn out to be overly optimistic ... and still fall short of putting the debt on a clear and unequivocal downward path over the medium- and long-term."
Obama's 2013 budget proposal was not passed by Congress, where Republicans controlling the House of Representatives oppose raising taxes and Obama's fellow Democrats who control the Senate want to collect more revenue alongside spending cuts.
An agreement struck last August to avert a sovereign default set spending levels for this year. Another fight is brewing over tax hikes and spending cuts slated for the end of 2012, a convergence of timing referred to as the "fiscal cliff."
Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said after the mid-session budget review was released that lawmakers needed to be ready to compromise to avoid damaging the economic outlook.
"The solution must include a comprehensive and balanced long-term deficit reduction plan. That can only happen if both sides agree to move off their fixed positions," he said.
But Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who chairs the House Budget Committee, seized on the mid-session review as showing strained growth with budget deficits remaining above $1 trillion for a fourth consecutive year.
"The administration's lack of seriousness when it comes to responsibly prioritizing taxpayer dollars is unconscionable," Ryan said. "Instead of taking more from hardworking Americans and small businesses, policymakers must advance principled pro-growth solutions that spur job creation, lift the crushing burden of debt and expand opportunity for generations to come."
Earlier on Friday, the Commerce Department said gross domestic product expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate between April and June, the weakest pace of growth since the third quarter of 2011.
The budget was a searing political issue last summer, when a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over deficits and taxes brought the country to the edge of sovereign default and led to a credit rating downgrade.
Friday's weak second-quarter growth figure and continued concerns about unemployment are major political worries for Obama ahead of the Nov. 6 presidential election. His presumed Republican opponent Mitt Romney has criticized the Democrat as lacking the experience needed to straighten out the economy.
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"Obama Administration Plans $53 Billion High-Speed Rail Investment"
"PHILADELPHIA -- To accelerate construction of a national high-speed intercity passenger rail network, the Obama administration plans to invest $53 billion over six years, Vice President Joe Biden announced Tuesday.
The vice president made the announcement with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood during a visit to Philadelphia's historic 30th Street Station, where passengers traveling from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg on Amtrak's Keystone Corridor connect to high-speed Acela service to Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC.
Biden said the investment will help the nation reach President Barack Obama's goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years, as outlined in his State of the Union address on January 25."Source: ENS, 02/11/2011 | <urn:uuid:19c0f6da-385f-430a-9692-d778a754d2f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sej.org/headlines/obama-administration-plans-53-billion-high-speed-rail-investment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947553 | 171 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Android operating system for tablets as well as smartphones might be an open platform, and along with it comes its own set of pros and cons – where the latter would include malware. Just under a week saw Google remove more than a couple of dozen applications from the Android Market simply because they were infected with the malware known as “DroidDreamLight“. It seems that that bad dream is not over just yet, with the North Carolina State University triggering the latest alarm.
It seems that a new malware known as “DroidKungFu” cannot be detected by mobile anti-virus software solutions at the moment, where the malware will go about installing a backdoor that will offer hackers full control of your handset. This means that all of your data will be exposed – and your handset can actually be transformed into a bot so that they can manipulate your handset to do as the hackers please.
It has been confirmed that those running on Android 2.2 Froyo and earlier versions have been infected by two known DroidKungFu infected applications, where they are mostly spread on Chinese forums and third party software markets. If you’re running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, fret not, since said version has more or less patched up the vulnerabilities exploited.
Temple Run Franchise Surpasses 300M Downloads; Temple Run 2 Update Incoming
iOS Devices Now Approved For Military Use By Department Of Defense
Samsung Releases TecTiles 2 NFC Tags With Galaxy S4 Support For $15
LG Optimus GJ Headed For Taiwan | <urn:uuid:e9c69189-021a-4c56-ad32-663dd92fd2b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/06/google-android-malware-alarm-bells-go-a-ringing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953095 | 316 | 1.726563 | 2 |
24 May, 12 | by BMJ Group
Parliamentary Select Committees are only as good as the evidence they receive. Evidence is taken in the form of written submissions, then MPs of various political persuasions gather— along with their civil servant advisers —to hear a handpicked group of people give oral presentations. But, as frequently reported in the BMJ, evidence on devices is hard to come by in Europe for a variety of reasons.
Through the course of over two years of investigation into medical implant regulation, the BMJ has been confronted with a host of issues—a lack of trial data; publication bias; conflicts of interest; underreporting of side effects; regulatory inertia; hostility towards surgeons and doctors raising concerns; payments and bribes paid to doctors. The list runs the gamut of what’s wrong in medicine.
With clinicians risking the wrath of fellow doctors and being pursued for libel by companies, what incentive is there to come forward to present evidence? (They are supported by privilege in Parliament). There is little support in the UK offered to those who speak out and —unlike the US— the UK doesn’t offer the incentive of large sums of money to whistleblowers.
And so it was that the Science and Technology committee took evidence on the regulation of implants in the grand rooms inside the Palace of Westminster. The MHRA gave its perspective in private first followed by doctors and professors in medicine, surgery, and engineering, talking in front of the public and TV.
Professor Stephen Westaby, a cardiothoracic surgeon, at John Radcliffe Hospital—who has recently developed a heart pump— told the committee that devices can go through any one of about 80 notified bodies. These are located in different countries and are overseen by the national health regulators there.
Westaby said that the MHRA supervises the UK carefully and the system was far better than in the US or Japan, where they have to wait longer for sophisticated devices—although it’s unclear if people in America or Japan are unduly suffering as a result. However, this begs the question of whether speed of decision making compromises safety or not. Under the current system it’s near enough impossible to find out.
He told the committee he had the privilege of testing devices in Europe for the American market. Westaby’s only experience with a faulty device was a heart valve—made by Brazilian company Labcor— that needed to be washed in a certain way preoperatively. He put the failures down to the complex instruction manual and an inability of nurses with poor language skills to follow the correct procedure.
It was his view that most implants worked well —although how he knows this for sure is unclear as the MHRA doesn’t even know what implants are being used by doctors. The MHRA had acted quickly when there were problems with the heart valve, he said. “The MHRA do post-market surveillance very well,” Westaby added. His main concern was not that the NHS is slow to remove faulty devices, but that it rations lifesaving technology.
But Carl Heneghan, from the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine, pointed out clinicians don’t necessarily know where to report problems. There’s the yellow card system for drugs, but there’s no equivalent system for devices, he said. Much vaunted registries are only as good as the people who run them and only work properly if they are independent.
By way of example, Heneghan said that the Australian National Joint Replacement Registry flagged up problems with DePuy’s ASR three years before the National Joint Registry of England and Wales. Registries are also a blunt tool—they don’t actually tell you what is going wrong quickly enough.
Both Heneghan and Westaby agreed more clinical trials were needed. Animal tests do not necessarily translate. Some doctors will look for an evidence base before they use a product, but most devices are sold by enthusiasts. Clinicians often make a subjective decision depending on which company they like the best, Westaby added.
“But what’s the incentive to do clinical trials?” Dr Heneghan said. He pointed out that there was a total lack of transparency so it was near enough impossible to say which implants had undergone any premarket studies.
Westaby essentially agreed. He is on NICE’s medical technology committee. They only look at devices that companies submit to them to appraise—they don’t have to be assessed by NICE to be used across the NHS in the way that drugs are. “There’s a lack of devices submitted by US companies,” Westaby said. “The most important devices don’t go near NICE,” he said.
Heneghan had concerns over the constitution of the Committee on Safety of Devices at the MHRA. It lacked independent statisticians and epidemiologists who could really demonstrate benefit and risk. It’s also not rigorous enough in chasing up conflicts of interest.
What the select committee will eventually decide about the best way for implants to be regulated remains to be seen. A civil servant admitted that this inquiry is a quick turnaround job that aims to input into the European Commission’s review on regulation that is due to report in a few months.
Will this snapshot be enough to get a sense of how well the system works? And will there be enough evidence generated to improve part of the health care system plagued by poor evidence?
If anything, it is abundantly clear how important it is for the press to provide the evidence to hold the health system to account. They’re also needed to act as the voice for people who have genuine concerns about failures in the system.
Deborah Cohen is investigations editor, BMJ | <urn:uuid:5bdfba11-0dea-4c00-a785-a5a5106defe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2012/05/24/deborah-cohen-parliamentary-select-committee-on-the-regulation-of-implants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972391 | 1,192 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Public Papers - 1989
Address to the Nation on the National Drug Control Strategy
Good evening. This is the first time since taking the oath of office that I felt an issue was so important, so threatening, that it warranted talking directly with you, the American people. All of us agree that the gravest domestic threat facing our nation today is drugs. Drugs have strained our faith in our system of justice. Our courts, our prisons, our legal system, are stretched to the breaking point. The social costs of drugs are mounting. In short, drugs are sapping our strength as a nation. Turn on the evening news or pick up the morning paper and you'll see what some Americans know just by stepping out their front door: Our most serious problem today is cocaine, and in particular, crack.
Who's responsible? Let me tell you straight out -- everyone who uses drugs, everyone who sells drugs, and everyone who looks the other way.
Tonight, I'll tell you how many Americans are using illegal drugs. I will present to you our national strategy to deal with every aspect of this threat. And I will ask you to get involved in what promises to be a very difficult fight.
This is crack cocaine seized a few days ago by Drug Enforcement agents in a park just across the street from the White House. It could easily have been heroin or PCP. It's as innocent-looking as candy, but it's turning our cities into battle zones, and it's murdering our children. Let there be no mistake: This stuff is poison. Some used to call drugs harmless recreation; they're not. Drugs are a real and terribly dangerous threat to our neighborhoods, our friends, and our families.
No one among us is out of harm's way. When 4-year-olds play in playgrounds strewn with discarded hypodermic needles and crack vials, it breaks my heart. When cocaine, one of the most deadly and addictive illegal drugs, is available to school kids -- school kids -- it's an outrage. And when hundreds of thousands of babies are born each year to mothers who use drugs -- premature babies born desperately sick -- then even the most defenseless among us are at risk.
These are the tragedies behind the statistics, but the numbers also have quite a story to tell. Let me share with you the results of the recently completed household survey of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It compares recent drug use to 3 years ago. It tells us some good news and some very bad news. First, the good. As you can see in the chart, in 1985 the Government estimated that 23 million Americans were using drugs on a ``current'' basis; that is, at least once in the preceding month. Last year that number fell by more than a third. That means almost 9 million fewer Americans are casual drug users. Good news.
Because we changed our national attitude toward drugs, casual drug use has declined. We have many to thank: our brave law enforcement officers, religious leaders, teachers, community activists, and leaders of business and labor. We should also thank the media for their exhaustive news and editorial coverage and for their air time and space for antidrug messages. And finally, I want to thank President and Mrs. Reagan for their leadership. All of these good people told the truth: that drug use is wrong and dangerous.
But as much comfort as we can draw from these dramatic reductions, there is also bad news, very bad news. Roughly 8 million people have used cocaine in the past year. Almost 1 million of them used it frequently -- once a week or more. What this means is that, in spite of the fact that overall cocaine use is down, frequent use has almost doubled in the last few years. And that's why habitual cocaine users, especially crack users, are the most pressing, immediate drug problem.
What, then, is our plan? To begin with, I trust the lesson of experience: No single policy will cut it, no matter how glamorous or magical it may sound. To win the war against addictive drugs like crack will take more than just a Federal strategy: It will take a national strategy, one that reaches into every school, every workplace, involving every family.
Earlier today, I sent this document, our first such national strategy, to the Congress. It was developed with the hard work of our nation's first Drug Policy Director, Bill Bennett. In preparing this plan, we talked with State, local, and community leaders, law enforcement officials, and experts in education, drug prevention, and rehabilitation. We talked with parents and kids. We took a long, hard look at all that the Federal Government has done about drugs in the past -- what's worked and, let's be honest, what hasn't. Too often, people in government acted as if their part of the problem -- whether fighting drug production or drug smuggling or drug demand -- was the only problem. But turf battles won't win this war; teamwork will.
Tonight, I'm announcing a strategy that reflects the coordinated, cooperative commitment of all our Federal agencies. In short, this plan is as comprehensive as the problem. With this strategy, we now finally have a plan that coordinates our resources, our programs, and the people who run them. Our weapons in this strategy are the law and criminal justice system, our foreign policy, our treatment systems, and our schools and drug prevention programs. So, the basic weapons we need are the ones we already have. What's been lacking is a strategy to effectively use them.
Let me address four of the major elements of our strategy. First, we are determined to enforce the law, to make our streets and neighborhoods safe. So, to start, I'm proposing that we more than double Federal assistance to State and local law enforcement. Americans have a right to safety in and around their homes. And we won't have safe neighborhoods unless we're tough on drug criminals -- much tougher than we are now. Sometimes that means tougher penalties, but more often it just means punishment that is swift and certain. We've all heard stories about drug dealers who are caught and arrested again and again but never punished. Well, here the rules have changed: If you sell drugs, you will be caught. And when you're caught, you will be prosecuted. And once you're convicted, you will do time. Caught -- prosecuted -- punished.
I'm also proposing that we enlarge our criminal justice system across the board -- at the local, State, and Federal levels alike. We need more prisons, more jails, more courts, more prosecutors. So, tonight I'm requesting -- all together -- an almost .5 billion increase in drug-related Federal spending on law enforcement.
And while illegal drug use is found in every community, nowhere is it worse than in our public housing projects. You know, the poor have never had it easy in this world. But in the past, they weren't mugged on the way home from work by crack gangs. And their children didn't have to dodge bullets on the way to school. And that's why I'm targeting million to fight crime in public housing projects -- to help restore order and to kick out the dealers for good.
The second element of our strategy looks beyond our borders, where the cocaine and crack bought on America's streets is grown and processed. In Colombia alone, cocaine killers have gunned down a leading statesman, murdered almost 200 judges and 7 members of their supreme court. The besieged governments of the drug-producing countries are fighting back, fighting to break the international drug rings. But you and I agree with the courageous President of Colombia, Virgilio Barco, who said that if Americans use cocaine, then Americans are paying for murder. American cocaine users need to understand that our nation has zero tolerance for casual drug use. We have a responsibility not to leave our brave friends in Colombia to fight alone.
The million emergency assistance announced 2 weeks ago was just our first step in assisting the Andean nations in their fight against the cocaine cartels. Colombia has already arrested suppliers, seized tons of cocaine, and confiscated palatial homes of drug lords. But Colombia faces a long, uphill battle, so we must be ready to do more. Our strategy allocates more than a quarter of a billion dollars for next year in military and law enforcement assistance for the three Andean nations of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. This will be the first part of a 5-year, billion program to counter the producers, the traffickers, and the smugglers.
I spoke with President Barco just last week, and we hope to meet with the leaders of affected countries in an unprecedented drug summit, all to coordinate an inter-American strategy against the cartels. We will work with our allies and friends, especially our economic summit partners, to do more in the fight against drugs. I'm also asking the Senate to ratify the United Nations antidrug convention concluded last December.
To stop those drugs on the way to America, I propose that we spend more than a billion and a half dollars on interdiction. Greater interagency cooperation, combined with sophisticated intelligence-gathering and Defense Department technology, can help stop drugs at our borders.
And our message to the drug cartels is this: The rules have changed. We will help any government that wants our help. When requested, we will for the first time make available the appropriate resources of America's Armed Forces. We will intensify our efforts against drug smugglers on the high seas, in international airspace, and at our borders. We will stop the flow of chemicals from the United States used to process drugs. We will pursue and enforce international agreements to track drug money to the front men and financiers. And then we will handcuff these money launderers and jail them, just like any street dealer. And for the drug kingpins: the death penalty.
The third part of our strategy concerns drug treatment. Experts believe that there are 2 million American drug users who may be able to get off drugs with proper treatment, but right now only 40 percent of them are actually getting help. This is simply not good enough. Many people who need treatment won't seek it on their own, and some who do seek it are put on a waiting list. Most programs were set up to deal with heroin addicts, but today the major problem is cocaine users. It's time we expand our treatment systems and do a better job of providing services to those who need them.
And so, tonight I'm proposing an increase of 1 million in Federal spending on drug treatment. With this strategy, we will do more. We will work with the States. We will encourage employers to establish employee assistance programs to cope with drug use; and because addiction is such a cruel inheritance, we will intensify our search for ways to help expectant mothers who use drugs.
Fourth, we must stop illegal drug use before it starts. Unfortunately, it begins early -- for many kids, before their teens. But it doesn't start the way you might think, from a dealer or an addict hanging around a school playground. More often, our kids first get their drugs free, from friends or even from older brothers or sisters. Peer pressure spreads drug use; peer pressure can help stop it. I am proposing a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar increase in Federal funds for school and community prevention programs that help young people and adults reject enticements to try drugs. And I'm proposing something else. Every school, college, and university, and every workplace must adopt tough but fair policies about drug use by students and employees. And those that will not adopt such policies will not get Federal funds -- period!
The private sector also has an important role to play. I spoke with a businessman named Jim Burke who said he was haunted by the thought -- a nightmare, really -- that somewhere in America, at any given moment, there is a teenage girl who should be in school instead of giving birth to a child addicted to cocaine. So, Jim did something. He led an antidrug partnership, financed by private funds, to work with advertisers and media firms. Their partnership is now determined to work with our strategy by generating educational messages worth a million dollars a day every day for the next 3 years -- a billion dollars worth of advertising, all to promote the antidrug message.
As President, one of my first missions is to keep the national focus on our offensive against drugs. And so, next week I will take the antidrug message to the classrooms of America in a special television address, one that I hope will reach every school, every young American. But drug education doesn't begin in class or on TV. It must begin at home and in the neighborhood. Parents and families must set the first example of a drug-free life. And when families are broken, caring friends and neighbors must step in.
These are the most important elements in our strategy to fight drugs. They are all designed to reinforce one another, to mesh into a powerful whole, to mount an aggressive attack on the problem from every angle. This is the first time in the history of our country that we truly have a comprehensive strategy. As you can tell, such an approach will not come cheaply. Last February I asked for a 0 million increase in the drug budget for the coming year.
And now, over the past 6 months of careful study, we have found an immediate need for another billion and a half dollars. With this added .2 billion, our 1990 drug budget totals almost billion, the largest increase in history. We need this program fully implemented -- right away. The next fiscal year begins just 26 days from now. So, tonight I'm asking the Congress, which has helped us formulate this strategy, to help us move it forward immediately. We can pay for this fight against drugs without raising taxes or adding to the budget deficit. We have submitted our plan to Congress that shows just how to fund it within the limits of our bipartisan budget agreement.
Now, I know some will still say that we're not spending enough money, but those who judge our strategy only by its pricetag simply don't understand the problem. Let's face it, we've all seen in the past that money alone won't solve our toughest problems. To be strong and efficient, our strategy needs these funds. But there is no match for a united America, a determined America, an angry America. Our outrage against drugs unites us, brings us together behind this one plan of action -- an assault on every front.
This is the toughest domestic challenge we've faced in decades. And it's a challenge we must face not as Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, but as Americans. The key is a coordinated, united effort. We've responded faithfully to the request of the Congress to produce our nation's first national drug strategy. I'll be looking to the Democratic majority and our Republicans in Congress for leadership and bipartisan support. And our citizens deserve cooperation, not competition; a national effort, not a partisan bidding war. To start, Congress needs not only to act on this national drug strategy but also to act on our crime package announced last May, a package to toughen sentences, beef up law enforcement, and build new prison space for 24,000 inmates.
You and I both know the Federal Government can't do it alone. The States need to match tougher Federal laws with tougher laws of their own: stiffer bail, probation, parole, and sentencing. And we need your help. If people you know are users, help them -- help them get off drugs. If you're a parent, talk to your kids about drugs -- tonight. Call your local drug prevention program; be a Big Brother or Sister to a child in need; pitch in with your local Neighborhood Watch program. Whether you give your time or talent, everyone counts: every employer who bans drugs from the workplace; every school that's tough on drug use; every neighborhood in which drugs are not welcome; and most important, every one of you who refuses to look the other way. Every one of you counts. Of course, victory will take hard work and time, but together we will win. Too many young lives are at stake.
Not long ago, I read a newspaper story about a little boy named Dooney who, until recently, lived in a crack house in a suburb of Washington, DC. In Dooney's neighborhood, children don't flinch at the sound of gunfire. And when they play, they pretend to sell to each other small white rocks that they call crack. Life at home was so cruel that Dooney begged his teachers to let him sleep on the floor at school. And when asked about his future, 6-year-old Dooney answers, ``I don't want to sell drugs, but I'll probably have to.''
Well, Dooney does not have to sell drugs. No child in America should have to live like this. Together as a people we can save these kids. We've already transformed a national attitude of tolerance into one of condemnation. But the war on drugs will be hard-won, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, child by child.
If we fight this war as a divided nation, then the war is lost. But if we face this evil as a nation united, this will be nothing but a handful of useless chemicals. Victory -- victory over drugs -- is our cause, a just cause. And with your help, we are going to win.
Thank you, God bless you, and good night.
Note: The President spoke at 9 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. The address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television. | <urn:uuid:636fb411-e2c4-4559-94a3-717f78d50f7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=863&year=1989&month=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961321 | 3,600 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Adrian Fenty (Adrian M. Fenty) was born on Monday, December 7, 1970 in Washington and he is a famous politician from United States.He is the sixth and current mayor of the District of Columbia, having begun his term of office on January 2, 2007.Fenty is the youngest person ever to hold the office of District of Columbia Mayor, winning election at age 35 and entering office at 36.
In 2000, Fenty ran against Charlene Drew Jarvis. Jarvis was well-known and a heavy favorite, but Fenty campaigned relentlessly and pursued an aggressive door-to-door strategy that put up countless green yard signs. It workedas Fenty was elected by a 57-43 percent margin. Unopposed in both the primary and general elections in 2004, Fenty was reelected for the 2nd term.
Life in Brief:
- Being born on Dec 07, Adrian is a Sagittarius. - his ethnicity: Multiracial.
He attended the BA English and Economics, Oberlin College. | <urn:uuid:70642c49-2bc9-44f2-93a3-d06ae4e776fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://people.famouswhy.com/adrian_fenty/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982706 | 212 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Here is a great anti-procrastination trick that I use very successfully—as long as I’m aware enough to implement it in the first place.
I found this on 43Folders from Merlin Mann. The idea is to commit to a dash of work, say 10 minutes only. This is easier to commit to than thinking, “Man, I need to work on this for several hours at least.”
What happens is that after you’ve started, it’s often much easier to just keep going. In Mann’s words:
My favorite tonic for procrastination—which I have mentioned in passing previously—is what I call a dash, which is simply a short burst of focused activity during which you force yourself to do nothing but work on the procrastinated item for a very short period of time—perhaps as little as just one minute. By breaking a few tiny pebbles off of your perceived monolith, you end up psyching yourself out of your stupor, as well as making much-needed progress on your overdue project. Neat, huh?
I think the key here is that you have to be ready to stop after your set commitment.
If you ‘know’ the whole time that this is just a ‘trick’ to get yourself started, it won’t work. You’ll never get the benefits of the ease of committing to only x minutes if you’re not actually planning on stopping.
I just use the basic clock that comes with my iPhone to do this.
There are also fancier ways, such as:
Has anyone else tried this? Does it work for you?
Header image by casey.marshall. | <urn:uuid:afe7025a-fae0-4100-8faa-2f4431f088a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alexvermeer.com/run-a-dash-to-beat-procrastination/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969382 | 365 | 1.742188 | 2 |
University of Miami details plans for massive life science park
By April M. Havens
The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine has a 1.4 million-square-foot Life Science Park in the works and is looking for private investors and grants to help pay for it, the school announced last week.
The vast complex would rise on 7.2 acres on Northwest Seventh Avenue between Northwest 17th and 20th streets. School officials say they are completing acquisition of the land from the State of Florida.
The complex could house the University of Miami's sensory research institutes such as the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and the University of Miami Ear Institute, private biotechnology and life sciences companies from both the US and Latin America, and many or all of the university's 10 start-up biotech companies, according to medical school officials who spoke at a Beacon Council community breakfast at the UM Wellness Center.
Bart Chernow, vice president of special programs and resource strategy at the medical school, said the park would be a bridge for private life science companies and university researchers. The goal is to "translate discoveries into products that can help people," he said.
The university does that through its Center for Translational Research by both licensing its doctors' and researchers' discoveries to companies that can commercialize them and by creating its own start-up companies for inventions and findings.
For example, start-up Pique Therapeutics has patents pending for a lung tumor vaccine developed by Dr. Eckhard Podack. The vaccine has success in phase one clinical trials, Dr. Chernow said.
A rapid tissue processor, a machine that analyzes samples extracted during patient surgeries or biopsies, has been licensed to a Japanese company and is now on the market, Dr. Chernow said. The machine, which cut processing time from 12 hours to one hour, was developed by Dr. Azorides Morales.
Another discovery by Drs. Sung Hsia, Niven Narain and Indu Persaud, which has three patents pending, may lead to a topical treatment for melanoma skin cancer and muscle pain, Dr. Chernow said.
The university is working with architects on the Life Science Park, and Dr. Chernow predicts work to be underway in two to three years. It is to be built in thirds based on demand, he said.
Dr. Pascal Goldschmidt, dean of the Miller School of Medicine, said when he took his position at UM he "wanted to prove Miami could be become a beacon of medicine" and believes "nothing is impossible in Miami."
He envisions a year 2020 "Pan-American" economy, where Latin America becomes a vibrant partner in the life sciences and biotechnology industry and UM establishes research centers in countries such as Argentina.
Life science companies such as Schering-Plough, Boston Scientific, Beckman Coulter, Cordis, Noven Pharmaceuticals and others contribute to the biotech economy in the county, said Beacon Council President and CEO Frank Nero.
About 17,000 people are employed by more than 1,400 life sciences companies in the county, which contributes about $2.3 billion in total annual revenue, according to the Beacon Council.
Said Mr. Nero, "We ain't just tourism anymore." | <urn:uuid:ae98143c-4eb3-44bb-8e80-2bce9aa11f3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://miamitodaynews.com/news/080131/story2.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96038 | 672 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Hilda L. Solis
As the nation's Secretary of Labor, I have a unique opportunity to meet many of the men and women who truly make America run. I am, of course, referring to our workers.
In small towns and large cities alike, I've heard the concerns of many of these remarkable people — the electrician who was laid off when the housing market collapsed; the seamstress who is making half as much as she used to although she now works twice as hard; the recent college graduate who can't find a job and is running up against student loan payments; the senior who thought she would be retired by now, but just can't afford it on what's left of her pension; and the veteran returning from service and wondering how he will make a living to support his wife and baby girl. I know that on this Labor Day holiday, many Americans are feeling more anxiety than festivity.
The big question: Are things getting better? To answer that, we need to look back more than a year ago, when the economy was losing a staggering 800,000 jobs a month. Our actions, most notably the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, stopped those losses.
The Recovery Act saved millions of American jobs — keeping health care providers in hospitals, teachers in classrooms, and police and firefighters on the beat. But the benefits weren't just in the public sector. During the past eight months, the economy has averaged 95,000 new private sector jobs.
Still, at 9.6%, the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high. So as we stem jobs losses, we must also accelerate growth in every sector of the economy — from health care and renewable energy to advanced technology and manufacturing.
One of the ways this administration is accomplishing that goal is through smart investments in the American workforce. We are ensuring industries that we know are growing have workers prepared through high-quality training programs that we know are working.
For instance, during a recent trip to Nevada, I met a plumber who spent half of his life mastering his craft at a company from which he hoped to retire. Then, the recession hit — hard. Despite having a job that people of my father's generation thought was recession-proof, he found himself unemployed.
He didn't want to tell me his problems. Instead, he talked to me about how he was leveraging opportunity — specifically a training program made available by my department — into a new career. Although it had been years since he was in a classroom, this seasoned tradesman was learning a new trade. Soon, the classes had opened the door for him to the high-growth renewable energy industry. Today, he is a solar panel installer. He loves his job, and his family's finances are back on track.
This story is not unique. I have heard them from countless people across the country — the former auto worker turned medical assistant and the recently single mother who went back to school to become a heating and air conditioning technician. They remind me that America's spirit of "can do" is unstoppable, and that our nation's workers are the best in the world.
So, then ... what's next?
It's up to you
I am not an economist. I believe that numbers only tell you part of the story. I deal with real people, and I know that the only true replacement for a job lost, is a new job that pays good wages. I'm committed to making that a reality for anyone who wants a job.
That's why I'm so excited to announce www.myskillsmyfuture.org— a new online tool to connect workers with high quality training and local employment.
By visiting the site and adding information about your most recent work experience, you can see exactly what skills you need to qualify for a broad range of careers. You can also find local training and education providers and, yes — you can see local job postings.
In other words, what's next ... is up to you.
There are jobs out there. And, this Labor Day — and every day — I'm going to continue helping people find them and employers fill them. If you're ready to embrace a 21st century career, I want you to know your Department of Labor is here to help you. And, if you're an employer looking to fill positions, we've got a list of great candidates for you.
Helping the nation is our job, and we are committed to doing it very well. After all, it's exactly what our economy needs and the least Americans deserve.
Hilda L. Solis is the U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. | <urn:uuid:1ed71e1c-5993-4911-8699-85416f828d56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-09-04-solis04_ST_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980067 | 995 | 1.78125 | 2 |
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