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I haven't always seen eye to eye with President Barack Obama. We disagree on abortion, the troop build-up in Afghanistan and a recent tendency to ignore those who have his best interests at heart.
That said, I have no basis to question or doubt the importance of faith in president's life or his unswerving commitment to ensure religious freedom for all. In a new book, Lift Up Your Hearts, I elaborate why it is that the president is so impressively well-informed on this sensitive topic, but suffice it to say that the president's integrity in these matters is well summarized by the nightly prayer he has revealed to many that "we can live with one another in a way that reconciles the beliefs of each with the good of all."
Recently, people who should know better, as well as some who seemingly never do, have assailed the president's faith commitment. In a televised interview, Dr. Franklin Graham openly questioned the president's faith, stating, "Under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as Muslim." In response to the justifiable concern of the NAACP and preachers around the country that Graham had become an accomplice to those who see faith only as an occasion to divide us, Graham has now apologized, admitting his objections to the president's re-election are "policy stances," not the president's faith beliefs.
Graham, the son of an extraordinary man of faith and a gifted teacher in his own right, should indeed have known better. I was in the room during the 2008 primaries when he asked then-Senator Obama whether he believed that "Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life." This was the middle of a business meeting, and the question silenced the room. The senator paused and began to answer that he believed.
"No," Graham said, obviously looking for perfect orthodoxy. "Do you believe Christ is the way?"
This is an important question for individual believers for the fullness of the understanding of the New Testament, but in context, it had all the appearance of some kind of opposition trap. Obviously, a person running for national office has to keep in mind that everyone in the country does not share his Christian understanding. After all, as the Catholic bishops have been quick to remind, the Constitution guarantees that government will neither prescribe (the protection of "free exercise") nor proscribe (the limitations upon "establishing" religious belief under law).
So how did the senator respond? Impressively, the Obama respected the American constitutional framework, but did not rely on legalism. Instead, after a significant pause conveying the sincerity of his response, Obama gave the following home-run answer: "Dr. Graham," he said, "faith is very important to me, but my mother was not blessed with faith, but I know her to be the most caring, loving, empathetic person in my life. I cannot subscribe to an understanding of faith that suggests I will not have any opportunity to share eternity with her. Dr. Graham, Jesus is my way."
No one in the room had anything more important to say, or, as far as I was concerned, could have any doubt about the bona fides of the faith of Barack Obama. Certainly, it was reaffirmation for me that my choice, notwithstanding having held high post in the conservative Reagan administration, to endorse and work for Obama's election as president was correct. I still believe that, even as it has cost me dearly in position and opportunity and personal peace.
And those who never seem to know better or to learn? Well, here I speak of Fox News, the antithesis of fairness and balance in journalism. I used to find Fox a healthy counterpoint. If there was a time when Fox constituted the loyal, reasoned opposition, today the network is the fellow traveler of Rush Limbaugh, promoting heat over light, meanness over understanding, and, most recently, lie over truth. Responding to newly published claims that Obama criticized Fox for promoting the idea that Obama "is a Muslim," Fox anchor Bret Baier stated this week what has to be the falsehood extraordinaire: "For the record," Baier proclaimed, "we found no examples of a host saying the president is a Muslim."
The only way that statement could have any truth would be if Fox didn't bother to look.
June 2009: Fox's "Special Report" quotes an Obama advisor as saying Obama has "experienced Islam on three continents" and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia with his Muslim father.
Aug. 30, 2010: Fox co-host Brian Kilmeade on "Fox & Friends" states, "Wouldn't [Obama] have kept his name as Barry, and not Barack," if he were worried about the "24 percent of this country [that] thinks he is a Muslim."
Aug. 20, 2010: Chris Wallace on Fox's "Special Report" poses a question to Fox reporter Steve Hayes about how the Obama people will do "damage control" on the issue of "the growing number of people [who] think Obama is a Muslim, not a Christian." Cynically, Hayes responds, "We're likely to see him going to church a lot more."
And on and on, including a Bill O'Reilly interview with Donald Trump suggesting Obama's birth certificate may identify him as a Muslim and Fox highlighting conservative pundit Ann Coulter's column in September 2010 claiming Obama to be an atheist. Fox has even featured a guest priest questioning Obama's reasons for believing in the "precepts of the faith," suggesting that most believers fall in love with Christ, not the Ten Commandments.
In Lift Up Your Hearts, I introduce readers to a theology of kindness lived by the late Monsignor John Sheridan, who tragically died as a result of a canyon accident in which I was driving. John did not want to see the significance of Christ in our lives reduced to a trivial political cliché or talking point. Nor did he want our pursuit of an open, honest embrace of Christ in the public square to drive believers of other faiths from the community. In short, John believed it was possible and necessary to honor a Catholic understanding of Christ alive in our community, with ample room left for other faiths to inform and shape society as well.
This is what President Obama affirms, and it is wrong for those who should know better or those who never seem to know much at all to suggest otherwise.
[Douglas W. Kmiec is the former ambassador of the U.S. to Malta and is a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University.] | <urn:uuid:f6fb0aef-5301-447a-8b6b-eba028aecb9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/news/politics/franklin-graham-fox-news-and-faiths-distortion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976541 | 1,340 | 1.8125 | 2 |
United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group
|Naval Special Warfare Development Group|
|Active||November 1980 – present|
|Country||United States of America|
|Branch||United States Navy|
|Type||Tier One Special Operations Force|
|Part of|| United States Special Operations Command
Joint Special Operations Command
United States Naval Special Warfare Command
|Garrison/HQ||Dam Neck Annex, Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia|
|Nickname||DEVGRU, SEAL Team Six|
|Engagements||SEAL Team Six|
The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG), or DEVGRU, is one of the United States' four secretive tier-one counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. It is often referred to as SEAL Team Six, the name of its predecessor which was officially disbanded in 1987. DEVGRU is administratively supported by Naval Special Warfare Command and operationally commanded by the Joint Special Operations Command. Most information concerning DEVGRU is classified and details of its activities are not usually commented on by either the White House or the Department of Defense. In 2010 it was reported DEVGRU's designation was changed by the Defense Department. Despite the official name changes, "SEAL Team Six" remains the unit's widely recognized moniker.
DEVGRU and its Army counterpart, Delta Force, are the United States military's primary counter-terrorism units. Although DEVGRU was created as a maritime counter-terrorism unit, it has become a multi-functional special operations unit with multiple roles that include high-risk personnel/hostage extractions.
The Central Intelligence Agency's highly secretive Special Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) often works with – and recruits – operators from DEVGRU.
The origins of DEVGRU are in SEAL Team Six, a unit created in the aftermath of Operation Eagle Claw. During the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, Richard Marcinko was one of two U.S. Navy representatives for a Joint Chiefs of Staff task force known as the TAT (Terrorist Action Team). The purpose of the TAT was to develop a plan to free the American hostages held in Iran. In the wake of the disaster at the Desert One base in Iran, the Navy saw the need for a full-time counter-terrorist unit, and tasked Marcinko with its design and development.
Marcinko was the first commanding officer of this new unit, which was first called MOB 6 (Mobility 6) and Sixth Platoon. Eventually the unit was dubbed SEAL Team Six. At the time there were only two SEAL teams. Marcinko named the unit SEAL Team Six in order to confuse Soviet intelligence as to the number of actual SEAL teams in existence. The unit's plankowners were hand-picked by Marcinko from throughout the UDT/SEAL community. SEAL Team Six became the U.S. Navy's premier counter-terrorist unit. It has been compared to the U.S. Army's Delta Force. Marcinko held the command of SEAL Team Six for three years, from 1980 to 1983, instead of the typical two-year command in the Navy at the time. SEAL Team Six was formally created in October 1980, and an intense, progressive work-up training program made the unit mission-ready just six months later. SEAL Team Six started with 75 shooters. According to Dick Marcinko, the annual training allowance for the command was larger than that of the entire U.S. Marine Corps. The unit has virtually unlimited resources at its disposal.
In 1987 SEAL Team Six was dissolved. A new unit named the "Naval Special Warfare Development Group" was formed, essentially as SEAL Team Six's successor. Reasons for the disbanding are varied, but the name SEAL Team Six is often used in reference to DEVGRU.
Recruitment, selection and training
In the early stages of creating SEAL Team Six, Marcinko was given only six months to get ST6 up and running or the whole project would come to an end. This meant that there was a timing issue and Marcinko had little time to create a proper selection course, similar to that of Delta Force, and as a result hand-picked the first plankowners of the unit after assessing their Navy records and interviewing each man. It has been said that Marcinko regretted not having enough time to set up a proper selection process and course. All applicants came from the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) and East and West Coast SEAL teams. Marcinko's criteria for recruiting applicants was combat experience so he would know they could perform under fire; language skills were vital, as the unit would have a worldwide mandate to communicate with the local population if needed; union skills, to be able to blend in as civilians during an operation; and finally SEAL skills. Members of SEAL Team Six were selected in part because of the different specialist skills of each man.
The training schedule was intense. A former Team member claims that in one year SEAL Team Six fired more rounds of ammunition than the entire U.S. Marine Corps ammunition allowance. The emphasis was on shooting skills, range firing, close-quarters battle (CQB), and stress shooting in a variety of conditions.
Information about the unit is mostly highly classified, so little information is available about recruitment and selection. What is known is that the selection and training for the unit has not changed dramatically since its creation. All applicants come from the "regular" SEAL teams, unless applying for support positions (there have been open advertisements on the web for support personnel).
It can be inferred from the quality of their pool of applicants that those considered are in peak physical condition, maintain an excellent reputation as operators within the Naval Special Warfare community, and have done multiple operational deployments with a SEAL Team. As a result, the candidate will usually be in his 30s. As ST6 was recruiting the best and brightest SEALs/UDTs from the regular teams, this created animosity between the unit and the "regular" teams, who considered that their best SEALs were being poached for the unit.
Candidates are interviewed by a review board to deem whether the candidate is suitable to undertake the selection phase. Those who pass the stringent recruitment and selection process will be selected to attend a six- to eight-month Operators Training Course. Candidates will screen with the unit's training wing known as "Green Team." The training course attrition rate is high; during one selection course, out of the original 20 candidates, 12 completed the course. All candidates are watched closely by DEVGRU instructors and evaluated on whether they are suitable to join the individual squadrons. Howard E. Wasdin, a former member of SEAL Team Six said in a recent interview that 16 applied for SEAL Team Six selection course and only two were accepted. Those who do not pass the selection phase are returned to their previous assignments and unlikely to be able to try again in the future.
Like all Special Operations Forces units that have an extremely intensive and high-risk training schedule, there can be serious injuries and deaths. SEAL Team Six/DEVGRU has lost several operators during training, including parachute accidents and close-quarters battle training accidents. It is presumed that the unit's assessment process for potential new recruits is different from what a SEAL operator experienced in his previous career, and much of the training tests the candidate's mental capacity rather than his physical condition, as he will have already completed Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL or the Navy EOD training pipeline.
Candidates are put through a variety of advanced training courses led by civilian or military instructors. These can include free-climbing, advanced unarmed combat techniques, defensive and offensive driving, advanced diving, and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. All candidates must perform at the top level during selection, and the unit instructors evaluate the candidate during the training process. Selected candidates are assigned to one of the Tactical Development and Evaluation Squadrons; the others are returned to their previous units. Unlike the other regular SEAL Teams, SEAL Team Six operators were able to go to almost any of the best schools anywhere and train in whatever they wanted depending on the unit's requirements.
DEVGRU is divided into color-coded line squadrons, which are commanded by senior officers:
- Red Squadron (Assault Team)
- Blue Squadron (Assault Team)
- Silver Squadron (Assault Team)
- Gold Squadron (Premier Assault Team)
- Black Squadron (Reconnaissance & Surveillance Team)
- Gray Squadron (Boat Crews)
Each squadron is divided into three troops (commanded by Lieutenant commanders) and troops are divided into smaller teams. Each line squadron has a specific nickname. Examples being Gold-Knights, Red-Indians, Black-Pirates.
Commanding officers
Command of DEVGRU is a Captain's billet:
- Commander Richard Marcinko – Nov 1980 to July 1983
- Captain Robert A. Gormly – 1983 to 1986
- Captain Thomas E. Murphy – 1986 to 1987
- Captain Richard T.P. Woolard – 1987 to 1990
- Captain Ronald E. Yeaw – 1990 to 1992
- Captain Thomas G. Moser – 1992 to 1994
- Admiral Eric T. Olson – 1994 to 1997
- Vice Admiral Albert M. Calland III – June 1997 to June 1999
- Vice Admiral Joseph D. Kernan – 1999 to 2002
- Rear Admiral Edward G. Winters, III – 2002 to 2004
- Captain Scott P. Moore – 2004 to 2008
- Rear Admiral Brian L. Losey – 2008 to 2010
Roles and responsibilities
When SEAL Team Six was first created it was devoted exclusively to counter-terrorism with a worldwide maritime responsibility; its objectives typically included targets such as ships, oil rigs, naval bases, coastal embassies, and other civilian or military bases that were accessible from the sea or inland waterways.
On certain operations small teams from SEAL Team Six were tasked with covertly infiltrating international hot spots in order to carry out reconnaissance or security assessments of U.S. military facilities and embassies; and to give advice on improvements in order to prevent casualties in an event of a terrorist attack.
Although the unit was created as a maritime counter-terrorism unit, it has become a multi-functional special operations unit with multiple roles that include high-risk personnel/hostage extractions. Such operations include the successful rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, the attempted rescue of Linda Norgrove, the successful rescue of American doctor Dilip Joseph and in 1991 the successful recovery of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family during a coup that deposed him.
After SEAL Team Six was disbanded and renamed, the official mission of the currently operating Naval Special Warfare Development Group is to test, evaluate, and develop technology and maritime, ground, and airborne tactics applicable to Naval Special Warfare forces such as Navy SEALs; however, it is presumed this is only a small part of the group's work assignment and more of a cover.
DEVGRU's full mission is classified but is thought to include pre-emptive, pro-active counter-terrorist operations, counter-proliferation (efforts to prevent the spread of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction), as well as the elimination or recovery of high-value targets (HVTs) from unfriendly nations. DEVGRU is one of only a handful of U.S. Special Mission Units authorized to use pre-emptive actions against terrorists and their facilities.
Operations and covert actions
The majority of the operations assigned to DEVGRU are classified and may never be known to the public. However, there are some operations in which the unit has been involved where certain details have been made public.
Operation Urgent Fury
On 13 March 1979 the People's Revolutionary Army, led by Maurice Bishop, overthrew the newly-independent government of the small island of Grenada and established a new regime based on socialist principles. This brought it into continuing conflict with the United States, as the administration of U.S. President Reagan considered the leftist government to be too closely allied to Cuba and the Soviet Union.
On 12 October 1983 a hard-line faction of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Government of Grenada, controlled by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, took control of the government from Bishop and placed him under house arrest. Within days, Bishop and many of his supporters were dead, and the nation had been placed under martial law. The severity of the violence, coupled with Coard's hard-line Marxism, caused deep concern among neighboring Caribbean nations, as well as in Washington, D.C. Adding to the U.S.' concern was the presence of nearly 1,000 American medical students in Grenada. On 25 October, the United States invaded Grenada, an operation codenamed Operation Urgent Fury.
SEAL Team Six's Assault Group Three was to conduct a static line drop with boats a few miles away from the Grenadian coast. One of two C-130 cargo planes transporting the SEALs to their drop point veered far off course. A rain squall accompanied by high winds broke out just before the SEALs conducted the drop. Four out of the eight SEALs that made the drop drowned and were never seen again. After the disastrous insertion, Assault Group Three was told to stand-by and began preparing for the next mission. The next mission was to go to the governor's mansion and secure Governor-General Paul Scoon, protect him and his family and move them out of the combat area. A second mission was to capture and secure Grenada's only radio station so that it couldn't be used by the local military to incite the population or coordinate military actions. There was almost no intelligence for either of these operations.
Governor-General's mansion
To reach the governor-general's mansion, the SEALs were flown in on Black Hawk helicopters that morning, and fast-roped to the ground while under fire. As they approached from the back of the mansion, the team found Scoon hiding. The SEALs then continued to clear the rest of the house and began to set up a perimeter to ensure security. Soon the mansion started to take fire from men armed with AK-47s and RPGs. As the incoming fire started to increase, Governor-General Scoon and his family were moved to a safer location in the house. After the incoming fire had decreased, three men wearing Cuban uniforms approached the mansion, all of them carrying AK-47s. The SEALs shouted for the three men to stop where they were. When the three men heard the yells, they raised their weapons. The SEALs opened fire on the Cubans and killed them almost instantly.
Soon afterward, two BTR-60PBs rolled up to the mansion's gates. One of the BTRs at the mansion's front gate opened fire. Just as the SEALs were about to fire a LAW anti-tank rocket, the BTR backed off and left with the other BTR. When the SEALs had been inserted into the compound, they left behind their long-range SATCOM radio on a helicopter; the only communications the team had were through MX-360 radios. The team used the radios to communicate with a SEAL command post on the island to call in air strikes. As the radios' batteries started to fade, communications with the SEAL command post became weak. Once all the radios had died, when the SEALs urgently needed air support, they used a regular house phone to call JSOC, which was able to get an AC-130 Spectre gunship to hold station over the SEALs' position to provide air support.
Radio station
Assault Group Three and another squad from SEAL Team Six flew to the radio station on a Black Hawk helicopter. The helicopter took small-arms fire on the insertion. Once the team unloaded, it overran the radio station compound. The SEALs were told to hold the station until Governor Scoon and a broadcast team could be brought in. After the team took control of the compound, it was not able to make radio contact with the SEAL command post. The SEALs set up a perimeter while they continued to try to make radio contact. As this was happening, a BTR-60 armored personnel carrier arrived, and 20 Grenadian soldiers disguised as station workers got out. The soldiers carried weapons even in disguise. The SEALs ordered the soldiers to drop the weapons. The soldiers opened fire but were shot down almost instantly.
The SEALs continued trying to make radio contact, then another BTR and three trucks, carrying a dozen soldiers each, were spotted coming towards the station; the soldiers flanked the building and the BTR covered the front entrance with its 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun. The incoming fire on the SEALs' position was becoming devastatingly heavy, and they were running out of ammunition: the team knew that their only option was to change their original plan of holding the radio station, and instead destroy the radio transmitter, then head to the water following their pre-planned escape route out behind the station across a broad meadow that led to a path that cut between cliffs and a beach. The meadow was very exposed to Grenadian fire. The team leapfrogged across the exposed ground and took heavy fire, finally reaching the end of the field, cut through a chain-link fence, ran into dense brush, and followed the path to the beach. One SEAL had been wounded in the arm. The Grenadians were still in pursuit, so the SEALs waded into the water and began swimming parallel to the shore until they found cliff ledges in which to hide; once the Grenadians had given up the search they swam out to sea, where they were in the water for nearly six hours until a rescue plane spotted them and vectored a US Navy ship to pick them up.
Operation Gothic Serpent
During Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia, DEVGRU was a part of Task Force Ranger. TF Ranger was made up of operators from Delta Force, the 75th Ranger Regiment, the 160th SOAR, the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and SEALs from DEVGRU. Eric T. Olson, John Gay, Howard Wasdin, Homer Nearpass, and Richard Kaiser were the five SEALs that fought in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu during the last mission of Operation Gothic Serpent to capture the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Olson would receive the Silver Star for his actions which were cited as "... during combat actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993. While under withering enemy fire during actions in support of UNOSOM II operations, Captain Olson demonstrated a complete disregard for his own personal safety in the accomplishment of his mission". Olson became commander of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group one year later.
NATO intervention in Bosnia, 1992–95
During NATO's intervention in the Bosnian War, the NSWDG operated alongside other members of NATO's Implementation Force, such as its Army counterpart Delta Force and the British SAS. These units were tasked with finding and apprehending persons indicted for war crimes (PIFWC) and returning them to The Hague to stand trial. Some of DEVGRU's PIFWC operations included apprehending Goran Jelisić, Simo Zaric, Milan Simic, Miroslav Tadic, and Radislav Krstić.
Operation Enduring Freedom
In Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), U.S. Special Operations forces played a central role in the fighting. It was also here they began to specialize in counter-terrorist tactics and information.
During the crucial Battle of Takur Ghar part of Operation Anaconda a small team of DEVGRU assigned to an Advanced Force Operations task force were tasked with establishing observation positions (OPs) on the high ground above the proposed landing zones of U.S. conventional forces. It was one of the most violent battles of Operation Anaconda. Late at night on 2 March 2002 a MH-47 Chinook helicopter piloted by the 160th SOAR was carrying a team from DEVGRU. The original plan was that DEVGRU would be inserted at a point 4,300 feet (1,300 m) east of the peak, but circumstances led the SEALs to choose the summit of Takur Ghar itself as the insertion point. As the helicopter was nearing its landing zone both the pilots and the men in the back observed fresh tracks in the snow, goatskins, and other signs of recent human activity. As the pilots and team discussed a mission abort, an RPG struck the side of the aircraft, wounding one crewman as machine gun bullets ripped through the fuselage, cutting hydraulic and oil lines. Fluid spewed about the ramp area of the helicopter. As the pilot struggled to get the helicopter away Neil C. Roberts, a DEVGRU SEAL in the ramp area of the aircraft, was hit and slipped on the oil as the helicopter took off. He fell approximately 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3.0 m) to the snowy ground below. Roberts immediately engaged enemy forces with his weapons including an M249 light machine gun, SIG Sauer 9mm pistol and grenades. He survived at least 30 minutes before he was shot and killed at close range.
Death of Linda Norgrove, 8 October 2010
Linda Norgrove, a Scottish aid worker, and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan, on 26 September 2010. The three Afghan aid workers were released on 3 October 2010 while negotiations over Norgrove's release were ongoing. As a result of concerns that Norgrove might be killed or moved by her captors, 20 operators from NSWDG and 24 Rangers conducted a pre-dawn rescue attempt on a Taliban mountain hideout on 8 October 2010 during which she was killed.
A joint official investigation by United Kingdom and United States concluded that Norgrove had died from a grenade thrown by one of the SEAL rescuers. A coroner's narrative verdict was recorded in February 2011 that stated Norgrove had died during a failed rescue attempt.
Operation Neptune Spear
On 1–2 May 2011 DEVGRU's Red Squadron undertook the covert operation codenamed Operation Neptune Spear, under the CIA's authority, and killed Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, at his compound in the city of Abbottabad, 113 kilometers from Islamabad, the Federal capital of Pakistan. The attack itself lasted 38 minutes. Bin Laden's adult son, a woman, and two couriers were also killed. There were no casualties to the team. They had practiced the mission "on both American coasts" and in a segregated section of Camp Alpha at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan in early April 2011, using a one-acre replica of bin Laden's compound. Modified MH-60 helicopters from the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment carried DEVGRU operators and paramilitary operatives from the CIA's Special Activities Division. Other personnel supported with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers from Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan.
Because of its covert nature, the raid was a CIA operation with DEVGRU being transferred under CIA authority for its duration. A 1 May memo from CIA Director Leon Panetta thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, whose mapping and pattern-recognition software was likely used to determine that there was "high probability" that Bin Laden lived in the compound. Members of these agencies were paired with JSOC units in forward-deployed fusion cells to "exploit and analyze" battlefield data instantly using biometrics, facial recognition systems, voice print databases, and predictive models of insurgent behavior based on surveillance and computer-based pattern analysis. The operation was a result of years of intelligence work that included the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the tracking of the courier to the Abbottabad compound by CIA paramilitary operatives, and the establishing of a CIA safe house that provided critical ground intelligence. To celebrate the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden the Combatting Terrorism Center released documents seized from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad home. The Associated Press reported that the troops had been trained to search for documents, computer files and "pocket litter" "that might produce leads to other terrorists".
In popular culture, several books have tried to capture the events of the mission. The first of which was the 2011 graphic novel published by IDW Publishing, Code Word: Geronimo, written by retired Marine Corps Captain Dale Dye and Julia Dye, and illustrated by former U.S. Army combat medic Gerry Kissell. Later, the controversial book Seal Target Geronimo, by Chuck Pfarrer, a former Navy SEAL, that disputed the accounts by the DoD of how the events occurred the night of the raid on the compound. Finally, in 2012, the book No Easy Day was released. The book was written by DEVGRU Red Squadron operator Matt Bissonnette (writing under the pseudonym "Mark Owen"), who was part of Operation Neptune Spear and claimed to be one of the two operators who engaged Bin Laden. Then, in 2012, a film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal was released called Zero Dark Thirty. The film portrayed the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the raid performed by DEVGRU.
Afghanistan helicopter crash, 6 August 2011
Fifteen members of DEVGRU's Gold Squadron were among the 38 killed on Saturday, 6 August 2011 in Maidan Wardak province, Afghanistan, when a Chinook helicopter flown by B Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, was shot down by a Taliban-fired rocket-propelled grenade; the crash wiped out an entire troop. The personnel killed in the helicopter crash are said to have belonged to an "immediate reaction force" that were en route to intercept a group of Taliban who were escaping the area following an operation by United States Army Rangers. It was the largest single loss of U.S. life since the beginning of the 2001 Afghan War, and is the largest single loss ever suffered by the SEALs.
Rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted
In a mission codenamed Octave Fusion, on 24 January 2012, DEVGRU operators successfully rescued American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, who had been detained by Somali bandits in north-central Somalia. The pair had been abducted around the area of Galkayo three months earlier while working as aid workers helping to remove land mines. Officials stated plans for a rescue operation had been under development for weeks, but acted after discovering that Buchanan's health was deteriorating due to an undisclosed illness. DEVGRU was prepared to capture the hostage takers but this proved unfeasible and nine "heavily armed" kidnappers were killed. The SEALs were parachuted in at night before advancing two miles to the enemy compound on foot. After securing the safety of Buchanan and Thisted, the team, who suffered no injuries, were extracted by helicopter.
Rescue of British-Afghan Aid Workers, 28 May 2012
On Tuesday 28 May 2012, a joint British SAS and DEVGRU operation rescued British aid worker Helen Johnston and three colleagues held captive by the Taliban in Badakhshan, Eastern Afghanistan. The hostages had been held in separate caves in a forest in a mountainous valley in Badakhshan, north-east Afghanistan. After concern for the aid worker's safety intelligence assets managed to locate the hostages and a rescue operation was initiated. The Joint Special Operations team flew to a pre-arranged rendezvous about two miles from where the hostages were being held and patrolled two miles through thick forest, moving into assault positions around the caves. The SAS team and SEALs assaulted the locations simultaneously rescuing all hostages successfully and killed a number of Taliban insurgents. There were no casualties amongst the rescue team.
Rescue of Dr. Dilip Joseph, 8 December 2012
On 8 December 2012, DEVGRU rescued Dilip Joseph, an American Doctor held captive by the Taliban in Eastern Afghanistan. Dr. Joseph, who was working for an aid organization, was kidnapped along with two Afghan colleagues at a road block by armed men and were moved to a compound in Laghma Province. The two Afghans were later released after negotiations. When intelligence indicated Dr. Joseph was in imminent danger a rescue operation was mounted. During the operation at least six of his Taliban captors were killed and two Taliban captured. A DEVGRU member involved in the rescue, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque, was also killed.
See also
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group|
- "Spec ops raids into Pakistan halted". Navy Times. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
- "Special ops ‘surge’ sparks debate". Army Times. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
- Emerson, Steven (13 November 1988). "Stymied Warriors". The New York Times.
- Marc Ambinder (12 October 2010). "Delta Force Gets a Name Change". The Atlantic.
- Waller, Douglas (3 February 2003). "The CIA's Secret Army". TIME (Time Inc). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1004145-1,00.html
- Fallows, James (13 December 1981). "Iran from five American viewpoints". The New York Times.
- Halloran, Richard (26 November 1986). "U.S. moving to expand unconventional forces". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- Marcinko, Richard (1992). Rogue Warrior. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-79593-7.
- Pfarrer, Chuck (2011). SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden. Macmillan. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-4299-6025-0.
- Gerth, Jeff; Philip Taubman (8 June 1984). "U.S. military creates secret units for use in sensitive tasks abroad". The New York Times.
- Wasdin, Howard (9 May 2011). "'SEAL Team Six' And Other Elite Squads Expanding". NPR. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- Abhan, Courtney Messman. "Special Warfare Development Group seeks Sailors". Naval Station Everett Public Affairs. Northwest Navigator. p. 3. Archived from the original
|url=(help) on 30 July 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2012. "NSWDG is located in Virginia Beach, and is a type two sea duty cno priority one major command. The command is an elite counter terrorism unit that conducts research, and develops, tests, and evaluates current and emerging technology. This technology is related to special operations tactics and joint warfare to improve Special Forces war fighting capabilities. ... While at NSWDG, support personnel could have opportunities to earn many special qualifications, their expeditionary warfare specialist (EXW) pin, and Combat Service Support and Combat Support Naval Education Codes (NEC). Special qualifications include parachuting and fast roping, among many others. NSWDG support personnel receive special duty pay, and have some of the highest promotion rates in the Navy."
- Pfarrer, Chuck. Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal. New York: Random House. pp. 325–326. ISBN 0-89141-863-6. "In one year, the operators of SEAL Six fire more bullets than entire USMC."
- Anderson Cooper (3 May 2011). "'This is their type of op,' ex-SEAL says".
- "The iron will of Seal Team 6 – CBS News Video". Cbsnews.com. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- "LCV Cities Tour: Interview with Howard Wasdin "Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper" – Global-Report.org TV". Global-report.org. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
- Owen, Mark (2012). No Easy Day. Dutton Adult. p. 37. ISBN 9780525953722.
- Combs, Cindy C; Slann, Martin W. (2008). Encyclopedia of terrorism. Infobase Publishing. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-8160-6277-5.
- Mann, Don (2011). Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life and Missions with America's Elite Warriors. Little, Brown and Company. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-316-20431-6.
- Arostegui, Martin C. (1997). "Get Noriega". Twilight Warriors: Inside the World's Special Forces. Macmillan. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-312-30471-3.
- Marquis, Susan Lynn (1997). Unconventional warfare: rebuilding U.S. special operations forces. Brookings Institution Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8157-5476-3.
- Committee on Risk-Based Approaches for Securing the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex, National Research Council (2011). Understanding and Managing Risk in Security Systems for the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex. National Academies Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-309-20884-0.
- Butler, Frank K.; John H. Hagmann, David T. Richards (2009). Tactical Management of Urban Warfare Casualties in Special Operations. Parabellum Concepts. p. 6.
- Naylor, Sean (2006). Not a good day to die: the untold story of Operation Anaconda. Penguin. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-425-20787-1.
- "Rear Admiral Edward G. Winters, III". United States Navy. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
- Associated Press (15 September 2008). "2 SEALs killed in Afghanistan fighting". Navy Times. Retrieved 5/2/2012. ""The deaths of SOCS Marcum and SOC Freiwald are tremendous losses for Naval Special Warfare and the United States," Capt. Scott Moore, commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare Development Group, said in a statement."
- "Rear Admiral Brian L. Losey". United States Navy. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2912.
- Qadir Sediqi,"U.S. Navy SEAL killed in operation to rescue American doctor in Afghanistan" CNN 10 December 2012
- Shanker, Thom; Risen, James (12 August 2002). "Rumsfeld weighs new covert acts by military units". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- "Frequently Asked Questions". LT Michael P. Murphy USN. United States Navy. Retrieved 20 May 2008.
- U.S. Special Ops: America's elite forces in the 21st century, Fred J. Pushies, MBI Publishing Company, 2003.
- Couch, Dick (2005). The Finishing School: Earning the Navy SEAL Trident. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-81046-4.
- Bowden, Mark (2001). Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War. Signet. ISBN 0-451-20393-3.
- Smith, Michael (2007). Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-36272-2.
- Chalker, Dennis; Dockery, Kevin (2002). One Perfect Op: Navy Seal Special Warfare Teams. New York: Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-80920-6.
- Pfarrer, Chuck. Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-89141-863-6.
- Couch, Dick (October 2001). The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228. Crown. ISBN 0-609-60710-3.
- "SOF Transformer" ( – Scholar search), Special Operations Technology 2 (4), 13 July 2004[dead link]
- "Valor Awards for Eric Thor Olson". Military Times. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
- Smith, Michael (2008). Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team. Macmillan. pp. 201–202. ISBN 978-0-312-37826-4.
- MacPherson, Malcolm (2006). Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan. Random House. ISBN 978-0-553-58680-0.
- Jake Tapper (2 May 2011). "Osama Bin Laden Operation Ended With Coded Message 'Geronimo-E KIA'". ABC News. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- Harnden, Toby (2 May 2011). "Osama bin Laden killed: how the deadly U.S. raid unfolded". The Daily Telegraph (London).
- "Osama bin Laden killed in CIA operation". The Washington Post. 8 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- "Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden dead – Barack Obama". BBC News. 2 May 2011. "On Sunday, U.S. forces said to be from the elite Navy SEAL Team Six undertook the operation in Abbottabad, 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Islamabad."
- Oliver Tree (17 May 2011). "Osama Bin Laden dead: Who are Obama's Navy SEALS Team 6?". Daily Mail (UK). Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- "Some White Knuckle Moments for Elite Navy SEALs Team – ABC News". Blogs.abcnews.com. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
- "The Secret Team That Killed Osama bin Laden – Marc Ambinder – Politics". The Atlantic. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
- Mazzetti, Mark; Cooper, Helene; Baker, Peter (2 May 2011). "Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Osama bin Laden". The New York Times.
- "US forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan". MSNBC. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- Dilanian, Ken (2 May 2011). "CIA led U.S. special forces mission against Osama bin Laden". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- [dead link]
- Marc Ambinder (2 May 2011). "The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden". National Journal.
- By Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst (20 May 2011). "Debate rages about role of torture". CNN. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- Mazzetti, Mark; Cooper, Helene; Baker, Peter (2 May 2011). "Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Osama bin Laden". The New York Times.
- Greenberg, Joel (11 September 2001). "CIA spied on bin Laden from safe house". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- "Bin Laden troubled by crumbling Muslim trust: Al-Qaeda leader's final letters from Pakistan compound are released by U.S.". CBC News. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2012. ""The end of the raid in Abbottabad was the beginning of a massive analytical effort," it said."
- SEAL Team 6 members among 38 killed in Afghanistan. Los Angeles Times 6 August 2011.
- Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Reportedly Kills Members of SEAL Team 6. Fox News, 6 August 2011.
- NATO Crash: Communities Mourn Loss of Troops Killed in Afghanistan. ABC News, 6 August 2011.
- "US special forces killed in Afghanistan crash". Al Jazeera English. 6 August 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
- "NSW source: Crash ‘worst day in our history’". Military Times. 6 August 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
- "U.S. forces rescue kidnapped aid workers Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted in Somalia" The Washington Post Retrieved 25 January 2012
- Abdi Sheikh, "U.S. commandos free two hostages in daring Somalia raid" Reuters 25 January 2012
- Greg Jaffe, "SEAL Team Six parachuted into Somalia on raid" The Washington Post 25 January 2012
- Sean Rayment,"How the British hostages were rescued in Afghanistan" The Telegraph 03 June 2012
- Marcinko, Richard (1993). Rogue Warrior. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-79593-7.
- Gormly, Robert A. (1999). Combat Swimmer: Memoirs of a Navy SEAL. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-451-19302-4.
- MacPherson, Malcolm (2006). Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan. New York: Bantam Dell. ISBN 0-553-58680-7.
- Shipler, David K.; Halloran, Richard (26 November 1985). "Terror: Americans as targets". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- Navy Seal Team
- ShadowSpear.com Special Operations
- Naval Special Warfare Development Group at GlobalSecurity.org | <urn:uuid:86c962ed-7cbb-4fae-a517-8e66c79418b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Naval_Special_Warfare_Development_Group | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944704 | 8,585 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Why trying to be the best … competing like crazy … makes you mediocre
Every few years a book—through a combination of the author’s unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight—simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson’s A Walk inthe Woods is one example. Richard Feynman’s “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” is another.
Now comes Youngme Moon’s Different, a bookfor “people who don’t read business books.” Actually, it’s more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works … and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.
If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it’s the absolute importance of “competing like crazy.” Youngme Moon’s message is simply “Get off this treadmill that’s taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else.” Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different—different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.
Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts—the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even “hostile,” almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: “Worried that this car is too small? Look here. It’s even smaller than you think.”
These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with “extras.”
Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reigns…but exceptions rule.
Youngme Moon is the Donald K. David Professor at Harvard Business School. One of HBS’s most popular teachers, Dr. Moon has received the Student Association Faculty Award for teaching excellence on multiple occasions. Dr. Moon’s research focuses on innovative consumer-marketing strategies and her work has been published widely, including in Harvard Business Review.
From the Hardcover edition.
“...to give a bullet-point summation of takeaways is to deny the real value of this lovely book.”--Harvard Business Review | <urn:uuid:e3e98a0a-1df3-439d-b420-28fe71a1e7c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randomhouse.com/book/200292/different-by-youngme-moon/9780307460851/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934743 | 585 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Google Continues to Invest in Wind Power With New Deal in Texas
Google has invested about $200 million in a wind farm in western Texas near Amarillo, as the company continues to expand its involvement in the renewable energy marketplace.
Google's latest investment is at the Spinning Spur Wind Project in Oldham County in the Texas Panhandle, according to a Jan. 9 post by Kojo Ako-Asare, Google's senior manager of corporate finance, in the Official Google Blog.
The 161-megawatt facility was built by EDF Renewable Energy, a company that's built more than 50 other clean energy projects, according to Google. The facility has 70 Siemens wind turbines, each producing 2.3 megawatts of power, which is sent along transmission lines to SPS, a utility serving Texas and New Mexico.
"We look for projects like Spinning Spur because, in addition to creating more renewable energy and strengthening the local economy, they also make for smart investments: they offer attractive returns relative to the risks and allow us to invest in a broad range of assets," wrote Ako-Asare. "We're also proud to be the first investor in an EDF Renewable Energy project that is not a financial institution, as we believe that corporations can be an important new source of capital for the renewable energy sector."
The Spinning Spur wind farm's turbines generate enough energy to power more than 60,000 average U.S. homes, according to Google.
The project is the 11th investment in renewable energy facilities that Google has made since 2010, wrote Ako-Asare. Google so far has invested in wind and solar power facilities that produce more than 2 gigawatts of power combined.
Other Google renewable energy investments include the Atlantic Wind Connection project, which will span 350 miles of the coast from New Jersey to Virginia to connect 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines; and the Shepherds Flat project in Arlington, Ore., which is one of the world's largest wind farms with a capacity of 845 megawatts. Shepherds Flat began operating in October 2012.
Google also has invested in the Brightsource Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California's Mojave Desert, which is more than 75 percent complete and employs more than 2,000 workers, according to Ako-Asare's post.
In September 2012, Google announced a separate deal that provides green wind power for its expanding data center in Mayes County, Okla., as part of the company's commitment to becoming carbon-neutral.
In Oklahoma, Google signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to provide its Oklahoma data center with 48 megawatts of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma.
Google is already using renewable energy at the Oklahoma data center through other electricity supplied by the GRDA. The wind project was the local authority's first such project. The Google Oklahoma data center went live in 2011, and in February 2012, GRDA approached Google about buying power from the then-developing wind project.
Under the deal, the additional wind power available was scheduled to increase the total amount of renewable energy Google buys from the authority to more than 260 megawatts.
By buying the power directly from the authority, Google says it will allow it to get the renewable energy it needs for its operations from a vendor who can provide it using multiple green paths, including hydroelectric, wind and more in a scalable way. Some 30 percent of the total power Google uses in all its facilities presently comes from renewable sources, according to the company. | <urn:uuid:5cc914f5-2446-437e-810a-343df3cdd208> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/cloud/google-continues-to-invest-in-wind-power-with-new-deal-in-texas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951941 | 732 | 1.65625 | 2 |
nn, written by Kim F. Storm, claims to be a newsreader whose ultimate goal is not to read news. Its name stands for “No News,” and its motto is “No news is good news. nn is better.”
To achieve this ambitious goal, nn comes with a large assortment of maintenance tools that not only allow thread generation, but also extensive database consistency checks, accounting, gathering of usage statistics, and access restrictions. There is also an administration program called nnadmin, which allows you to perform these tasks interactively. It is very intuitive, so we will not dwell on these aspects, but deal only with the generation of the index files.
The nn threads database manager is called nnmaster. It is usually run as a daemon, started from an rc file at boot time. It is invoked as:
/usr/local/lib/nn/nnmaster -l -r -C
This enables threading for all newsgroups present in your active file.
Equivalently, you may invoke nnmaster periodically from cron, giving it a list of groups to act upon. This list is very similar to the subscription list in the sys file, except that it uses blanks instead of commas. Instead of the fake group name all, an empty argument of "" should be used to denote all groups. A sample invocation looks like this:
# /usr/local/lib/nn/nnmaster !rec.games.go rec comp
Note that the order is significant. The leftmost group specification that matches always wins. Thus, if we had put !rec.games.go after rec, all articles from this group would have been threaded nevertheless.
nn offers several methods to remove expired articles from its databases. The first is to update the database by scanning the newsgroup directories and discarding the entries whose corresponding article has exceeded its expiration date. This is the default operation obtained by invoking nnmaster with the –E option. It is reasonably quick, unless you're doing this via NNTP.
The second method behaves exactly like a default expiration run of mthreads; it removes only those entries that refer to articles with numbers below the low-water mark in the active file. It may be enabled using the –e option.
Finally, the third strategy discards the entire database and recollects all articles. It may be enabled using the –E3 option.
The list of groups to be expired is given by the –F option in the same fashion as above. However, if you have nnmaster running as daemon, you must kill it (using –k) before expiration can take place, and restart it with the original options afterward. Thus the proper command to run expiration on all groups using the first method is:
# nnmaster -kF "" # nnmaster -lrC
There are many more flags that fine-tune the nn's behavior. If you are concerned about removing bad articles or assembling article digests, read the nnmaster manual page.
nnmaster relies on a file named GROUPS, which is located in /var/lib/nn. If it does not exist when nnmaster is first run, it is created. For each newsgroup, it contains a line that begins with the group's name, optionally followed by a time stamp and flags. You may edit these flags to enable certain behavior for the group in question, but you may not change the order in which the groups appear. The flags allowed and their effects are detailed in the nnmaster manual page, too.
Their order has to agree with that of the entries in the (binary) MASTER file. | <urn:uuid:ec570a1c-1460-491a-9374-6076f11fa803> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/LDP/LDP/nag2/x-087-2-newsreaders.nn.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934193 | 764 | 1.804688 | 2 |
In June, the President and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano announced that effective immediately, certain young people who were brought to the United States as young children, and who meet several criteria will be considered for deferred action and could be eligible to apply for employment authorization.
First, deferred action does not lead to a green card or citizenship, and it is when DHS agrees not to place an individual in removal or deportation proceedings or will not execute an order of removal. The administration stated the status would be given for a period of 2 years subject to renewal on a case by case basis. Those who can prove economic necessity can also obtain a work permit. The requirements to be eligible to apply for this status are:
The applicant entered the United States under the age of 16,
- The applicant has continuously resided in the U.S. for at least 5 years preceding June 15, 2012 and are in the U.S. on June 15, 2012,
- The applicant is currently in school, has graduated from high school, has a GED, or has been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or U.S. Armed Forces,
- The applicant has not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise poses a threat to national security or public safety, and
- The applicant is not above the age of 30 on June 15, 2012
Only those who can prove through verifiable documentation that they meet all 5 criteria above will be eligible to apply. Each case will be decided on a case by case basis and the status will be given on a discretionary basis. The forms will be released along with more information (fees, deadlines, etc.) within 60 days. However, anyone who needs more information on this policy should call our office at 281-340-2074. If after consultation with a qualified attorney, you decide to file for this status, you can begin to collect the documentation and when the window opens to file, you should be one of the first to file since there are estimates of over 1 million people who may qualify for this status.
Note, this status is not for everyone and family members who do not qualify on their own get no benefit from this policy. And, if you do not meet all 5 requirements, fraudulent documentation should not be used as you may put yourself in a high priority category with a risk of deportation.
Applications will be sent to a lockbox facility in Chicago or Phonenix and the regional service centers will process the applications. The case will forwarded to local offices if an interview is necessary (probably if there is criminal issues).
The fee for the work permit and fingerprints is $465. The deferred action application and the work permit application can be filed together and the work permit will be approved right after the deferred action application is approved. As of the writing of this article, the window to file and the application release date is August 15th.
If you have never been in removal proceedings, or your proceedings have been terminated before your request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals, you must be at least 15 years of age or older at the time of filing and meet the other guidelines.
If you are in removal proceedings, have a final removal order, or have a voluntary departure order, and are not in immigration detention, you can request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals even if you are under the age of 15 at the time of filing and meet the other guidelines.
In all instances, you cannot be the age of 31 or older as of June 15, 2012 to be considered for deferred action for childhood arrivals.
If USCIS has decided to defer action in your case and you want to travel outside the United States, you must apply for advance parole by filing a Form I-131, Application for Travel Document and paying the applicable fee. USCIS will determine whether your purpose for international travel is justifiable based on the circumstances you describe in your request. Generally, USCIS will only grant advance parole if you are traveling for humanitarian purposes, educational purposes, or employment purposes. You may not apply for advance parole unless and until USCIS defers action in your case pursuant to the consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals process. You cannot apply for advance parole at the same time as you submit your request for consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals. All advance parole requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If a person is eligible they should visit with an attorney to discuss the benefits and the risk involved and if wanting to apply, there is some documentation that should be collected as soon as possible.
For more information on this policy, please schedule an appointment at 281-340-2074. | <urn:uuid:1abd9d8e-38a7-43c0-b906-9fef0610ce97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aandzlegal.com/update-on-new-deferred-action-policy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949778 | 962 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Mortgage rates again fell record low levels this week, as the Federal Reserve's decision to buy billions in home loans for the foreseeable future continued to lower costs for would-be home buyers.
Mortgage finance backer Freddie Mac's weekly survey showed the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.40 percent from 3.49 percent the previous week, which had matched the previous record low set in July.
The fixed-rate 15-year mortgage also hit a record low of 2.73 percent, down from the previous record of 2.77 percent a week earlier.
The Fed announced Sept. 13 that it would be buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month for the foreseeable future. The idea of the purchases, popularly known as QE3, is to spur economic activity by pumping more cash into the economy and driving down rates. Those taking out new home loans, either to purchase or refinance, will be among the first beneficiaries of the Fed's policy.
"This is what the Fed wanted to see. So far, so good," said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a provider of mortgage information and analysis. He estimates that rates could continue to fall another 0.1 percentage point or so in the coming weeks as the full effect of the Fed action is felt by the market.
The low rates can help the economy even beyond the effect it has on the housing market, by putting more money in the pockets of homeowners who refinance. Someone who bought a house a year ago by borrowing $200,000 at the 4.09 percent 30-year rate can still reduce their payments by more than $1,000 a year by refinancing at the current rates. Savings are larger if they borrowed more money or paid higher rates.
But the lower rates also allow home buyers to pay more for a home, which many believe has been a factor in the recent turnaround in home prices. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said the lower rates "should support an already improving housing market."
Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported a 7.8 percent gain in sales of previously owned homes compared to a year earlier, while the Census Bureau reported that housing starts and building permits rose substantially in August. This week, the Census Bureau reported a jump in the price of new homes sold in August.
But while the housing market is showing signs of improvement, prices and sales are still hurt by an excess inventory of foreclosed homes and continued jobs market weakness. The pace of sales and home construction is still well below levels that were typical even before the housing bubble.
While the lower rates are a positive for the housing market, Gumbinger said they are only part of the solution.
"Mortgage rates haven't been the impediment to home sales for quite some time," he said.
Gumbinger said many potential buyers can't qualify for the low rates due to recent foreclosures ruining their credit. And other buyers who might qualify still are reluctant to buy after watching the damage done by falling prices in recent years.
"There's a sizable part of the market that can't be served, or won't be served, by low rates," he said. "There's still a lot of people who don't have jobs, don't have equity or have bad credit." | <urn:uuid:476b3ffb-f6be-4a1d-97d6-6e8bf6e0c40d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/Mortgage-rates-hit-record-low-again/-/1719116/16761422/-/ibhdejz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976978 | 689 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Question: "Is it right for a Christian to be involved in martial arts?"
Answer: It is stated by one of the founders of martial arts, Gichin Funakoshi, “The mind and technique become one in true karate.” By polishing our karate practice, he believes, we are polishing our own spirit or our own mentality. Karate is a system that can be considered a “way of life,” merging the spiritual and physical sides of our human existence. A Christian involved in martial arts should have a difficult time finding comfort in the roots of the martial arts. As seen above, they focus much attention on the physical development (which is not a bad thing), but also combine the training with Buddhist or Zen philosophy.
What does the Bible say about the mind? First of all, the heart is “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). In the Scriptures, the heart and mind are often considered to be the same thing. Since our hearts and our minds are wicked, we are not able to think clearly about our spiritual situation, and therefore unable to “polish” our own spirits as karate claims it is able to do. We are in need of a Savior to clean our hearts, and develop within us a new spirit. Titus 1:15 gives us insight into the mind of the unbeliever: “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” The philosophies contained in Buddhism, as well as most all of the religions of the world, are developed by flawed men with defiled minds. They do not offer advice suitable for Christians to follow.
The Scriptures teach us what we are to do with our minds. We are not to conform our thinking to the world’s way of thinking but “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). The picture in Romans 12:2 is like that of a mold we use for making cakes. The batter is placed inside the cake mold, and when the baking is complete, out comes the cake in the same shape as the mold. Our minds are not to be shaped by the world’s mold. We are to set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2). We should train our minds in how to serve the Lord and please Him in all that we do.
While the physical side of martial arts is probably a good form of exercise, and many Christians do participate in martial arts, it may be a dangerous activity to allow the mind to become influenced by the philosophies associated with karate and all other forms of the martial arts. The false religious overtones of Buddhism are there whether they are expressed verbally or not. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to separate the philosophies from the activity, and therefore it would be wise for the Christian to use much caution before participating in this kind of activity.
© Copyright 2002-2013 Got Questions Ministries. | <urn:uuid:837dda68-26d3-4f48-a3f7-79296765bcfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gotquestions.org/Printer/martial-arts-PF.html | 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 | 0.957209 | 652 | 1.53125 | 2 |
East Coast residents, some of whom have suffered without power for 12 days, waited Saturday for officials to come through on big promises to end the blackouts.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he expects power to be almost fully restored by the end of the day to the approximately 57,000 customers in his state living in the dark.
"Life will be back -- for most of New Jersey -- to normal come Sunday," he said Friday.
One week ago, more than 2.4 million customers were without power in 10 states and the District of Columbia following Superstorm Sandy. This week's nor'easter hampered some of the repairs.
By Saturday, about 225,000 customers remained without power in the region.
The majority of New Jersey's outages are the responsibility of Jersey Central Power & Light. The company's website backed Christie's prediction, with a map showing that most areas will have electricity restored by Saturday night.
Relief was not as certain next door on Long Island, where a majority -- 127,000 -- of customers remained in the dark.
Those homes are served by the Long Island Power Authority, a utility that has come under fire from residents and politicians alike.
Angry customers flooded the company's Facebook page with insults and stories of suffering a cold winter without power. One man redesigned the utility's logo to read "Lie-pa," as opposed to its usual acronym, LIPA.
LIPA officials stressed Saturday that getting people back online is the utility's top priority. | <urn:uuid:a6416073-ea7b-487c-b613-a0a815ba09e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koat.com/news/national/Promises-made-as-power-outages-persist/-/9153826/17356262/-/11gfk1d/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964687 | 309 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Luther Sloan was a Human operative of the clandestine intelligence agency Section 31. In his eyes, to protect what the Federation had worked hard to build, the ends justified the means and he was willing to do almost anything, even cutting ties to his family and friends and violating the Prime Directive.
In 2374, Sloan attempted to recruit Julian Bashir into Section 31's ranks, staging an elaborate deception using a holodeck in an attempt to test Bashir's loyalties. Soon after, Sloan gave Bashir his first "assignment" – observations of various members of the Romulan government during an upcoming Federation-Romulan conference on Romulus, and in particular Koval, the chairman of the Tal Shiar.
Sloan revisited Deep Space 9 when Bashir convinced Section 31 that he had devised a cure to the morphogenic virus infecting the Founders. Bashir and Miles O'Brien attempted to use Romulan mind probes to extract the information regarding the cure from Sloan's mind. Sloan triggered a lethal implant in his brain, committing suicide, but Bashir and O'Brien were able to prolong his life long enough to get the secret of the cure. Unfortunately, Sloan took the rest of his secrets about Section 31 to the grave with him. | <urn:uuid:40373f7a-7948-4be8-b50c-4b20a0a24733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Template:FA/Luther_Sloan | 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 | 0.972296 | 259 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A curious little website has popped up announcing a new documentary produced by Keanu Reeves that tackles one of the foremost issues facing filmmakers today: the advent of digital filmmaking. Entitled Side by Side, the documentary takes an in-depth look at the issue of film vs. digital, and “examines all aspects of filmmaking – from capture, to edit, to visual effects, to color correction, to distribution to archive.” Through interviews with numerous well-respected masters of the medium, Side by Side “explores what has been gained, what is lost and what the future might bring.” Take this sample quote from Christopher Nolan:
“No credible source really has been claiming to have invented something that is aesthetically superior to film at this point.”
The documentary will feature Reeves interviewing filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Lana and Andy Wachowski, George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Soderbergh, and many more. Hit the jump for more details.
While the website is currently only one page, it includes a few interesting pull quotes from some of the filmmakers Reeves has spoken with. The Matrix co-director Lana Wachowski says:
“Digital cameras are the new aesthetic…and at the same time we are going to mourn in the loss of film.”
Predictably, George Lucas also has some pro-digital thoughts to share:
“It’s magic now. It’s just, whatever you can think of, you can do, and that’s the whole idea.”
The list of interviewees also includes David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Boyle, Lena Dunham, Greta Gerwig, and director of photography Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight, Inception). Needless to say, I’m incredibly interested to check this thing out. With the increasing frequency of 3D and the fact that most multiplexes are converting to digital projectors, the “film vs. digital” debate is more relevant now than ever. The future of filmmaking is at a turning point, and Reeves has rounded up a stellar group of filmmakers to discuss the issue at hand. No official release date is given, but the website claims that Side by Side is “Coming in 2012”, so hopefully we’ll get to see it sometime this year. | <urn:uuid:996541d7-23a9-4c81-a272-e83ab46c9c57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://collider.com/keanu-reeves-side-by-side/136409/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942109 | 491 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Steve Royal, the Republican candidate for state treasurer, says North Carolina and neighboring states should band together and form a centralized, regional currency.
In coordination, if possible, with adjoining states, it could be possible to create an auxiliary currency to help stimulate the regional economy, a centralized currency using state-owned real estate as equity in other words real money, said Royal, in a handwritten response to a candidate questionnaire distributed by the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation earlier this year.
Democrats have taken notice of the comment, which was one of three approaches Royal described as his vision for economic growth and job creation.
Janet Cowell, the incumbent treasurer and Royals Democratic opponent, said that ideas like Steve Royals which are so far out of the mainstream threaten everything we have worked so hard to build.
Royal said in an interview that he stands by the idea. He believes a state or regional currency backed by real assets, or one that is at least more hesitant to print extra currency, would hold up better than the U.S. dollar under current conditions.
Its like a fire department or a police station, Royal said. You build it even though you dont want to use it.
Royal said he is upset with efforts by the Federal Reserve to stimulate economic recovery, especially through quantitative easing.
Latino voter registration surges
Latino voter registration in North Carolina has increased tenfold since 2004, but Latinos make up only 1.2 percent of the states registered voters, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center report.
Latinos make up 11 percent of eligible voters nationwide, up from 9.5 percent in 2008. North Carolina has 196,000 Hispanic eligible voters; 24 percent of Hispanics in the state are eligible to vote.
The states percentage of white registered voters has dipped to 72 percent from 78 percent in 2004. About 22 percent of the states registered voters are black.
Rove vs. Gibbs at Duke
Heres an election season cant-miss: Presidential advisers Robert Gibbs and Karl Rove will debate foreign policy at Duke Universitys Page Auditorium on Oct. 22.
Their debate, the same day as the televised presidential candidates debate on foreign policy, is entitled: Whats at Stake for Americas Global Role in the 2012 Election.
The 5 p.m. debate at Duke will be moderated by Duke professor Peter Feaver, who was a special adviser on the National Security Council staff in President George W. Bushs administration.
The Duke event is free, but tickets are required. Tickets are available after Oct. 10 through the Duke Box Office in the Bryan Center, or for a $6 processing fee at www.tickets.duke.edu.
Rove was a senior adviser to Bush from 2000-07 and deputy chief of staff from 2004-07. Gibbs, an N.C. State graduate, is a former press secretary for President Barack Obama. Hes now a senior adviser in Obamas re-election campaign.
Staff writers Austin Baird, Lynn Bonner and Jane Stancill
Send tips to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:4d2f8554-e0eb-4fc0-b6f7-6ad855a5fa2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/10/01/2384034/steve-royal-says-regional-currency.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94528 | 623 | 1.648438 | 2 |
When most of us experience tough times, it becomes difficult to see past our own circumstances. We may shut down and feel sorry for ourselves or even angry at others. I think this is a “normal” and human response to our experience of particular circumstances.
Trying circumstances can create tunnel vision where we see so narrowly that our whole focus is only on what we are going through. When our whole mental focus is on what is going so wrong for us, then we begin to feel this experience emotionally as well. Once we are seeing, thinking, and feeling what is going so wrong for us, then our actions follow suit. This is that powerful mind/body connection that I believe is always in operation in our lives.
From this restricted seeing, thinking, and feeling place, our actions might be to “hold onto” the things that are going wrong by speaking about them negatively or blaming others. We might withdraw from our usual activities and immerse ourselves in self-pity and hopelessness.
Have you ever considered though, what might happen if we were to reach beyond ourselves and touch the life of someone else? It takes courage to give past our losses and to show kindness past the cruelty others may have shown us. It takes courage to reach out and lend a hand, when both our hands are full.
How can we have our territories enlarged with our arms folded and our hands gripping tightly only our own wounds, defeats, shame, and hardship? We must be willing to reach beyond ourselves releasing not only our own cares, but also releasing the power of inspiration through giving.
This is such an awesome illustration of the power of giving of ourselves despite what we may be going through. When we lend a “hand” to help somebody else, something amazing happens. Some of our “stuff” falls from our “grip” because we now have only “one hand” left.
Worries about that job and paying the bills; they fall. Worries about that failed relationship and the friends who walked away; they fall. Worries about losing a home and the things in it; they fall, too. When you lend a hand, you are distracted from your own hardship which allows some “stuff” to fall from your grip. Giving of yourself changes you and your experience of your circumstance is changed in the process.
That is the reason, I believe, we feel free and empowered when we give and I believe that it is all divinely worked out that way. Giving of ourselves creates space.
All we have to do is give-our time, our know-how, our energy, our words of encouragement, and our prayers. Suddenly, there isn’t any room to hold onto those worries that weigh us down. Suddenly, we have to climb out of that pool of self-pity and change our tune from the “why me” blues. Suddenly, however, we have the “space” to receive and the opportunity to grow.
Loosen your grip and change your “experience of your experience”. Be encouraged.
Contact columnist LaTonya Dunn at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:5b877fde-385b-4a5c-b760-24525a72482c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2011/dec/12/give-yourself-during-tough-times/?opinion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965656 | 659 | 1.703125 | 2 |
What do women really want? Many of them want to go to work, and therefore also want houses that are easier to keep clean. A New Jersey housing developer asked women what conveniences they'd install in a house of their own design.
Their wish list became ''the working woman's dream home'' with built-in ceiling lights (requiring less dusting) and revolving clothes racks that zip the day's outfit to the front of the closet with push-button ease. A communications-equipped office replaces what blueprints previously deemed a sewing room, and ''centralized vacuuming'' promises to reduce housecleaning time.
The women queried might have added a few embellishments: not only plenty of closets ''to stuff things in,'' as one respondent candidly put it, but a trap door into which the stuff would simply vanish whenever the doorbell rings. And perhaps a self-cleaning bathtub.
The most desirable improvement, however, would have nothing to do with home design. It would be changing the attitude that suggests housecleaning is women's work. | <urn:uuid:b02af9fc-183a-4b5a-aa7e-d9a1cbfef84c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/13/opinion/topics-of-the-times-the-working-woman-s-dream.html?src=pm | 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 | 0.979677 | 221 | 1.570313 | 2 |
On the next Your Call, we’ll talk about the recent mass shooting in Colorado and how we should be responding. There have been 60 mass shootings in the United States since January 2011. President Obama believes the solution is in better enforcement of existing gun laws. How have leaders of other nations responded to similar incidents of gun violence? Join us at 10am PST or post a comment here. What could we do, as a society, to prevent gun violence? It’s Your Call with Rose Aguilar, and you. | <urn:uuid:9d3bc51d-ca86-400e-a5b3-88c5606337bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kalw.org/term/aurora | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965336 | 107 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Paying Their Fair Share
August 30, 2005 - 11:15am ET
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What's painful about the KPMG indictment is that it reminds us Congress recently passed up a chance to reign in one of the most blatant forms of corporate tax evasion: offshore headquarters. Through tax shelters and moving revenues offshore, corporations are shirking their share of the tax burden. I'll leave it to CitizenWorks' Lee Drutman to put the KPMG misdeed in context. Drutman described the tax evasion problem---and how to fix it: <!--StartFragment --> <!--StartFragment -->
In the larger context, tax shelters are one part of a massive effort by corporations to lower their tax bills, an effort that has been quite successful in recent years. In 2003, for example, corporate tax revenues fell to only 7.4 percent of federal tax receipts, the second-lowest level on record. (In the 1940s, corporations contributed almost half of federal taxes.) And though corporations are technically taxed at 35 percent, large corporations on average pay about half that. All this while the federal deficit sinks deeper into the red and government dollars dry up for education, health care and other essential social programs. Because abusive tax shelters are pursued so brazenly, and as a form of tax evasion they are among the most egregious, they're a good place to start cracking down. Still, righting the tax shelter ship is not going to be easy. The federal government needs to make a serious effort to give the IRS the tools and resources it needs. One obvious place to start, however, would be to hike the fines for tax shelter promoters. The government also needs to devote more resources to detecting tax shelters, working with federal bank regulators and the Department of Justice. Meanwhile, accounting regulators need to start cracking down on accounting firms, who earn billions each year by selling tax products. These firms are supposed to guarantee honest financial statements, not abet tax shelter abuse.
Finally, the rules on what counts as an illegal tax shelter need to be tightened. Many of the tax schemes peddled these days skirt the boundaries of legality by exploiting loopholes for purposes never intended. Though they are sometimes technically legal, the IRS can crack down using what is known as the "economic substance" doctrine, which basically disallows transactions that are done purely for tax purposes and have no legitimate economic substance. Strengthening this "economic substance" doctrine is an important way to battle tax shelter abuse.
At stake are basic issues of economic justice and tax fairness. There is simply no justification why honest, working-class taxpayers should have to shoulder more of the burden while greedy corporations and their avaricious accountants, lawyers and financial professionals are FLIPing and BLIPing their way to new heights of tax trickery.
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Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future | <urn:uuid:746a040e-5f7c-4b3a-a6f8-8a887720348a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/paying-their-fair-share | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954224 | 620 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Kaur: Millennials to candidates: Talk to us
As a politically active Millennial invested in this year's election, I was surprised by my own response to the first presidential debate: I was bored.
But not for all the reasons the pundits are talking about. To be sure, President Barack Obama's lackluster performance and Mitt Romney's free rein over the moderator led us into the weeds of policy without a compass. But that wasn't the only reason the candidates didn't speak to me.
The debate was supposed to be about domestic issues, but focused exclusively on economic policies and health care plans. As a Millennial, or a member of the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, I care deeply about the economy and health care. My generation faces crushing educational debt of $904 billion in 2012, up from $241 billion a decade ago; many of us don't have health insurance; and we face an unemployment rate that, at 12%, is 50% above the national average.
But we also want our leaders to connect the dots.
Among my own Millennial friends, we don't debate economic reform without addressing the immigrant labor force. We never discuss health care without also grappling with women's rights. And yet, the candidates Wednesday night managed to debate fine points of policy while missing the big picture. We can't build a moral economy or health care system without considering the major social challenges of our time: civil liberties, immigration, women's rights, domestic extremism and climate change. None of these issues was even mentioned in the debate.
The failure to speak clearly and consistently to our generation's concerns about the world we will inherit has consequences in this election. In the 2008 election, Millennials made up 17% of the electorate and voted 66% for Obama, compared with 32% for John McCain. We were responsible for Obama's decisive seven-point victory, accounting for 80% of Obama's national popular vote margin over McCain.
Our generation now makes up 24% of the electorate and could make up the deciding vote again, but only if we make it to the polls. We are not nearly as engaged this election season as the last time around. We lag behind older voters in interest in the election and intention to vote. Only 18 percent of us under 30 are following this election closely, down from 35% four years ago. Just 63% of those of us registered say we will vote, down from 72% last time around. While these numbers hold for both young Democrats and Republicans, a dip in voter turnout is most consequential for Obama, who leads among our peers.
Why are we losing interest? Let's put this election in context. For the majority of us who voted for Barack Obama, electing the president in 2008 felt like changing the course of history.
Our generation came of age in the shadow of catastrophe -- the aftermath of 9/11, the genocide in Darfur, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and a faltering economy. We had hoped that the historic election of our first African-American president, a candidate who embodied our diversity in being and breath, would initiate a new era that broke from Bush-era politics.
Instead, the president inherited a punishing economic recession and GOP obstructionism that made even modest reforms challenging. Even worse, his administration continued some Bush-era national security policies he promised to end, from indefinite detention at home to drone warfare abroad.
As a result, Millennials I know have become disillusioned about national political change, turned to local politics and community engagement instead and focused on getting through tough times.
Still, many, like me, are not giving up.
This election year, I've sobered up about the meaning of hope. Hope requires action beyond casting a vote; it requires holding our elected leaders to task. The president repealed Don't Ask Don't Tell, came out for marriage equality and created a program that allows undocumented youth to live and work legally in the U.S.
I believe that Millennials can be critical of the political process and still have faith that incremental change is possible if we organize before and after Election Day.
Of course, it's difficult to organize if our candidates are not even discussing our concerns. No matter who we support, let's ask that our candidates debate all the issues that determine the future of our nation. No one has more at stake than the generation who will inherit it.
Imran Siddiqui, a South Florida-based attorney, Muslim American activist and community organizer with Emerge USA, contributed to this essay.
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Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:4aa66fb5-d404-4291-9623-9711d4f52600> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpbf.com/news/nationalnews/Kaur-Millennials-to-candidates-Talk-to-us/-/8788944/16868698/-/format/rsss_2.0/view/print/-/12bfdp0z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96326 | 970 | 1.515625 | 2 |
[Tyler] has been using Google Voice extensively for some time now, but he hasn’t quite found a microphone/speaker setup he is happy with. He tried a headset, but that just didn’t do it for him.
While browsing around at his local thrift store, he came across an old Model 500 rotary phone for just a few dollars and decided it just might do the trick. Once disassembled, he mapped out the circuitry and got busy wiring up the handset to a pair of 3.5 mm stereo plugs – one each for the earpiece and microphone.
Once everything was reassembled, he hooked it up to his computer and gave it a spin – success!
While he is happy with how the phone works at the moment, he already has plans for improving it. He is currently looking for a way to use the handset hook to disconnect calls as well as a way to implement the rotary dial for number entry. We think that hacking a Bluetooth headset would easily take care of the first part, as well as eliminate the need for any sort of wired interface to his PC. It would also make it dead simple to use with any other Bluetooth-enabled device such as a cell phone.
We’re pretty sure he is open to implementation suggestions, so let us know what you think. | <urn:uuid:522ce970-a03e-43d8-83b1-63ccac740b73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hackaday.com/2011/04/23/hacking-analog-phones-for-voip/ | 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 | 0.981172 | 271 | 1.828125 | 2 |
University careers services are not currently well equipped to provide advice on jobs in digital. In fact, given the lack of internal digital knowledge in most institutions and scarcity of up-to-date courses, meaningful advice from any quarter is thin on the ground.
Even graduates from relevant degrees such as marketing, advertising or media are largely unaware of the vast array of opportunities available.
So when we ran our inaugural Graduate Bootcamp earlier this summer, we weren’t sure what to expect from a group primarily made up of candidates from non-vocational academic backgrounds with little or no digital knowledge. Armed with 20 bright young things from degrees as varied as law, economics, biology, sociology and, of course, marketing, we embarked on a week of intensive and challenging activities (read Charles Oben's Graduate Diary to find out what they got up to) designed to give real insight into the world of digital work and broaden horizons beyond fluffy career aspirations involving social media and copywriting.
We needn’t have worried – our candidates aced it. The group was attentive, committed, excited, and inspirational. They whipped up some astounding projects, coming together in rapidly formed groups to deliver thorough research and presentations that wouldn’t have been out of place at an agency pitch.
They took everything they could from the experience, some radically changing their idea of a digital career (search, mobile and analytics all being previously unexplored areas which became hot topics) and all leaving the experience significantly more confident in their knowledge of the industry and ability to decide on a suitable career path.
Econsultancy’s Graduate Bootcamp has already resulted in successful placements for more than half of the candidates. And it’s highlighted the wealth of latent talent in graduates from a wide range of disciplines which lies waiting to be discovered.
So what can business learn from our experience?
- The skills that made our candidates outstanding were not the skills from the week. They were the skills they brought with them initially, applied in the context of new knowledge. Teamwork, tenacity, creativity, autonomy and intelligence are what you should be hiring for. The rest you can teach.
- These were not necessarily passionate digital wannabes. They were interested in the increased opportunity to find work. But the bootcamp was an incentive for them to consider digital more fully and they left the experience with incredible enthusiasm for the sector not only because they knew more, but because someone had bothered to teach them.
- The skills the industry values are available in bucket loads amongst the class of 2012, but it’s not enough to expect them to find their way to you. If organisations are looking for the best and brightest emerging talent they need to invest in raising awareness of the industry to students at all levels, and creatively facilitate entry into work through training, internships and recruiting with an eye on potential.
There is plenty of raw digital talent available amongst graduates. Someone just needs to tell them.
We still have a number of candidates available for work – check out their video CVs. If you’re keen on attending the Bootcamp or you’d like to find out more about how it can help you train new starters or recruit, . | <urn:uuid:9e3cba6d-ef28-4795-aeac-6fe168f64e02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10562-the-class-of-2012-are-businesses-doing-enough-to-find-digital-talent | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962058 | 659 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Letter: Prioritize saving lives
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Many people are against cameras at red lights, and yet intersections with cameras have almost 25 percent fewer fatalities than intersections without cameras, reported in the Aug. 30 story “Eyman pushes for red-light camera bans.”
One of the biggest objections to the cameras is that the cameras make money for the city. What is wrong with these critics of red-light cameras? The cameras make money and save lives. And yet we want to be able to run red lights and endanger other people. I, for one, am losing faith and hope in our fellow man. | <urn:uuid:c3fddfc1-347d-41a9-b715-a4dd8736fe0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/sep/01/letter-prioritize-saving-lives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950149 | 131 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Of course we’ve all heard of the saying “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” And really, to some degree, that saying holds true.
When it comes to technology, though, reality favors the opposite. You might have hardware right now that’s a bit old by industry standards but is still working, so there seems to be no need to upgrade or replace it. Sooner or later though, it’s going to cause you a lot more trouble than it’s worth.
For instance, what if you are in a middle of a major project your hardware breaks down? Hardware manufacturers constantly upgrade their technology, leaving past models behind. This means that the older your hardware is, the harder it will be for you to find support or spare parts when things go wrong. Unless you have a backup plan, this scenario can turn into a big nightmare. And IF (that’s a big “if”) you can find the replacement parts you need, you’ll probably wait for weeks for them to arrive and for the repairs to get done, making you lose precious time and profit.
The advantage of upgrading your equipment is that the more advanced it is, the higher the quality of your output. Your workflow can be made much easier and more efficient with better performing hardware specs and added features that come in newer models. And with the right support from manufacturers, any glitch or problem can be fixed within a reasonable period of time since parts and other replacement components are in stock and readily available.
Of course, you don’t need to upgrade each time a new model is released. The key is to know when give your hardware a boost. If your upgrades are properly planned, you can change systems and replace equipment without compromising your productivity or output.
So if you want to assess your current hardware, we’d be happy to sit down with you to create a roadmap for your future upgrades. | <urn:uuid:1f97892e-9825-4e1f-97c8-8b9bb695eb0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evolveit.com.au/2010/06/23/debunking-the-%E2%80%9Cif-it-ain%E2%80%99t-broke-why-fix-it%E2%80%9D-myth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948065 | 404 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Teacher and champion of piping and Scottish country dancing;
Born: March 25, 1923; Died: June 17, 2012.
Bill Clement, who has died aged 89 of pancreatic cancer, was a virtuoso of piping and Scottish country dancing. He was an inspirational figure who spent his adult life educating young people in the finer points of these pursuits. In his spare time he was a full-time teacher of technical education.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article. | <urn:uuid:84084b1d-29f0-440b-bf3b-353eda9bd02f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/comment/obituaries/bill-clement.18051144?_=fcd8b5b9ecb89e65d56504f6f6cfe82eed26887e | 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 | 0.987265 | 103 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Numerical Simulation of a Human Body Subjected to Electrostatic Fields for Study of the Turin Shroud Body Image
G. Fanti1 L. Matordes1 V. Amoruso2 M. Bullo1 F. Lattarulo2 G. Pesavento1
1Dip. di Ingegneria Industriale, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy
2Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy
The TS (Turin Shroud) [1,2] is a fine linen fabric showing a not yet explainable double body image of a scourged and crucified man stabbed on the side. Many hypotheses have been formulated without success and perhaps the most reliable is one correlated to the Corona Discharge that supposes the presence of an intense electric field, amplified by the presence of ionization induced by radon. Before to formulate specific hypotheses regarding the environmental conditions, that will be studied in the future, the analysis focalizes the interest on the verification of the effects of such an electric model on a linen sheet. Therefore the first steps is to simulate the electrostatic field distribution along a two-dimensional sheet enveloping a numerical manikin of a human body having his position coherent with that detected on the TS . Two of the authors have already performed a preliminary analysis using a rough numerical manikin composed of 11 ellipsoids. The results of a more detailed numerical manikin, in which there are also reproduced the hair, the hands’ fingers and some detail of face, like nose and eyes (Figure 1), are here presented and discussed. This improvement seems necessary because the interest on the TS image is also addressed to these details. The numerical manikin with its boundary conditions was implemented in the COMSOL Multiphysics 4.2a software. During the preprocessing phase it has been chosen a second order interpolation in the element (tetrahedrons) composing the mesh that was built in a domain given by the volume difference between a parallelepiped and a manikin; the elements sizes ranges from 0,0001 to 0, 01 m. Starting from the hypothesis that the superficial intensity of the electrostatic field is proportional to the image intensity codified on the linen sheet, the aim of this study is to show which is the best environmental condition, if any, from an electric point of view, that produces an image as similar as possible to that of the TS. Different electrical ambiences were considered and simulated. For example the results reported in Figure 2 and Figure 3 are relative to a floating conductive manikin posed in a parallelepiped having isolated lateral walls, whose roof is an equipotential surface of 1 V and whose floor is grounded. Parallelepiped’s sizes are of 0.5, 0.2, and 0.2 m and the manikin is in the middle of it. The electric field on the manikin‘s surface has been evidenced with a maximum value, relative to the present simulation, of about 49 V/m. The peaks of the electric field are mainly due to the manikin’s jags such as the nose, but there are also some angularities of the mesh, for example in correspondence of the hands, that produce not real peaks in electric field and this limit of the numerical model must be considered. The supposed proportionality between the electric field intensity and the luminance levels of the codified image on the TS linen sheet, allows to compare the results showing a general similitude but still evidencing some incongruence of details like the fingers. | <urn:uuid:2b5462f5-a717-4d9a-b868-0c9c240ce920> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.comsol.com/offers/conference2012papers/papers/presentation/area/acdc/id/13362/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93713 | 749 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Use or threat to use a deadly weapon by employees in contravention of state law is forbidden at all County job sites, County owned, leased or rented property and in County vehicles.
For the purposes of this policy, a “deadly weapon” is defined to include all firearms, such as handguns, rifles and shotguns. The term also includes any explosive devices. Other objects or tools such as knives or other cutting utensils, bows and arrows, bats, brass knuckles, mace, pepper spray, tear gas, or tools such as axes, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. may be considered deadly weapons when, in the County’s judgment, these objects are brandished or used in a violent, threatening, aggressive or offensive manner in relation to the facts of a given situation.
In an effort to enforce state laws regarding firearms and ammunition and County ordinances and policies related to other deadly weapons, the County may request the cooperation of an employee in agreeing to the conduct of a search of personal property such as packages, briefcases, purses and similar containers on County property if the County has reasonable grounds, such as credible reports of witnesses, to believe that an employee may be in violation of this policy. Searches of private vehicles parked on County property may only be conducted by on duty law enforcement and must comport with state law and constitutional protections. Unattended packages and containers such as those described above are subject to removal by law enforcement personnel when they are felt to be suspicious in nature and possibly dangerous. To the extent permissible by state law, employees may be asked or directed to remove personal property from County property should the employee be unwilling to agree to a search. Refusal to comply with such an order to remove the personal property from County property may result in disciplinary action.
It is the County’s policy to strongly enforce this ban on deadly weapons at work. Possession of a deadly weapon in contravention of state law and enabling County ordinances and policies, even without its actual use, is a violation of County policy. Severe disciplinary action, including termination, is a possible consequence of violating this policy, even following a first offense.
The Wellness Program is designed to enhance the physical, financial and emotional well-being of Broward County employees by providing services that motivate employees and help them reach their wellness goal. Wellness services are designed to empower employees with the information, tools and support they need to take charge and move toward overall optimal health. Wellness programs, events and health fairs are scheduled around the County and all employees are encouraged to participate. Wellness resources can be found on the Wellness website at broward.org/MyWellness and broward.org/HealthyCounty website.
Wellness Resource Centers
The Wellness Resource Centers are designed to provide central, dedicated locations where employees can attend wellness events and classes, pickup educational information on wellness, fitness, financial, emotional and disease management, participate in screenings and watch wellness-themed videos. Centers are currently located at the Governmental Center, Government Center West, Aviation, Water and Waste Water Services, Transportation Services Copans Facility and Port Everglades.
Employees are encouraged to bring allegations of wrongdoing or malfeasance on the part of Broward County, its officers, employees and independent contractors, to the attention of County government. Employees will be free from retaliation as a result of bringing forward such allegations or participating in investigations of such allegations. No employee will be discharged, suspended, demoted or subjected to other adverse personnel action because they acted in good faith to bring allegations of wrongdoing to the attention of the County pursuant to this policy. Retaliation based on opposition to unlawful discrimination in employment or promotion, or based upon participation in any proceeding of inquiry into allegations of such discrimination, is expressly prohibited and should be reported in writing to the County Administrator or the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Professional Standards (OIAPS) – the office designated by the County Administrator to investigate whistleblower complaints.
The work schedule of most County agencies is either:
- Five days a week, eight hours per day, with an unpaid meal break daily.
- Four days a week, 10 hours a day, with an unpaid meal break daily.
Some agencies have a different length workday and workweek. Meal periods are not considered time worked. Schedules for operations staffed around the clock vary according to the services provided by the unit. Questions about work schedules should be directed to the appropriate supervisor.
If an injury requires medical attention, emergency assistance should be called, if necessary. Less urgent care and care after the emergency will be coordinated through the Medical Care Management Provider as outlined by the Worker’s Compensation Section of Risk Management.
Employees are required to report all work-related injuries to their supervisor as soon as possible no matter how minor the injury. The Division should report the injury to Risk Management within 24 hours after the employee notifies them of their injury.
Benefit-eligible employees on extended worker’s compensation leave should contact the Human Resources Division-Employee Benefit Services Section at 954-357-6700 or email@example.com for information on continuation of benefits.
It is the County’s policy to maintain a workplace free from violence or the threat of violence by any employee, customer, vendor or members of the general public. It is the goal of the County to provide a workplace which is safe and free from attacks, harassment, property crimes, threats or acts of violence. Nothing is more important to Broward County than the safety and security of its employees and residents. Opposing workplace incidents involving violence or the threat of violence is a top organizational priority for Broward County.
The County is committed to taking reasonable steps to reduce the risks of workplace violence and to provide a coordinated, prompt and effective response to such incidents. These incidents are among the most serious faced by managers. Reported threats, threatening behavior, or acts of violence against employees, residents, or other individuals by anyone on County property or work sites is not tolerated or ignored. All employees, and especially managers, law enforcement personnel and employee organization representatives are obligated to act individually and collectively to prevent, defuse, or mitigate actual or threatened violent behavior at work. Violations of this policy by County employees lead to serious disciplinary action which may include dismissal, even following a first offense. The County is also committed to full cooperation with law enforcement agencies to support criminal prosecution of anyone within or outside of the organization who commits violent or threatening acts against County employees.
Enforcing and supporting this policy is a shared responsibility between the County and every County employee. Every employee is expected to understand this policy and cooperate with County officials in policy enforcement. Every employee is also expected to report acts or threats of violence to their supervisor or to the Director of Human Resources who is the County’s designated Critical Incident Coordinator and is responsible for the coordination of the County’s response under this policy. | <urn:uuid:dbc4b226-2ccd-4905-ab41-3d51c3975e03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://co.broward.fl.us/Benefits/ABCs/Pages/W.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947229 | 1,413 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Say Cheese: Cinderella Story & Strong Stuff
Notes from the cheese world: A Canadian goat’s-milk cheese named Cinderella (Le Cendrillon), was named best cheese in the world at the 21st annual World Cheese Awards.
The log-shaped, ash-covered cheese from Quebec beat out 2,440 other entries from 34 countries to claim the coveted Grand Champion title in the world’s largest cheese competition. It was the first time ever that a Canadian cheese won the top spot.
Le Cendrillon is produced by La Maison Alexis de Portneuf (which is owned by Saputo, one of the world’s largest milk processors) in St. Raymond de Portneuf, about 30 miles northwest of Quebec City on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. It is described by the producer as a “vegetable ash-covered, soft surface-ripened soft goat cheese with a semi-strong, slightly sour taste that becomes stronger with age.” I’ve never had it, but I’m certainly going to be on the lookout for it — along with every other cheese lover on the planet, no doubt.
The awards are staged by the Guild of Fine Foods, a British organization that promotes specialty foods. The group’s Web site mentioned that a full list of winners won’t be available until Wednesday. I’ll follow up with more on the winning cheeses in next week’s blog.
In the meantime, this past weekend I found myself with a drawer full of leftover cheeses: chunks of Gouda and cheddar, a tiny piece of baby Swiss and assorted other varieties. What to do? Make fromage fort, of course.
Fromage fort ("strong cheese") is a wonderfully resourceful way to go. True fromage fort is made by blending a variety of cheeses together with herbs, garlic, wine and vegetable broth, and then leaving the concoction to marinate and age in a cool spot. The resulting runny cheese, typically strong in aroma and flavor, is what gives fromage fort its name.
But short-cut fromage fort, which is what I did with my leftover cheeses, is much faster, somewhat milder and just as delicious. The nice thing about fromage fort is that you can mix together just about any kind of cheese. Be careful of adding too much blue, though, as it can overwhelm the mixture. And be sure to trim any dry rind or unwanted mold that might have formed on any of the cheeses; it goes without saying that if a cheese is past the edible stage, you should toss it.
Refrigerate your fromage fort in a covered jar or crock. Bring it to room temperature and spread it on crackers or slices of baguette. I like it best on baguette slices and then broiled till the cheese is golden brown.
Enough for 1 1/2 baguettes (10 to 12 servings)
1 pound cheese pieces, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at a cool room temperature
1 medium clove garlic, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons minced flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/3 cup white wine
Baguette slices, for serving
Combine the cheese pieces and butter in the bowl of a food processor; pulse to incorporate. Add the garlic, parsley and a generous grinding of pepper. With the motor running, slowly add the wine; process until the cheese mixture is a creamy and spreadable consistency (you may not need all the wine, depending on the consistency of your cheese pieces).
Use a spatula to scrape the mixture into a crock, jar or small bowl. Use immediately, or cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
VARIATION: To make broiled fromage fort, position the top oven rack 4 inches from the (top) broiler element. Preheat the broiler.
Spread 1 to 2 tablespoons of fromage fort on baguette slices. Arrange the slices on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil for 1 minute, or just until the cheese is melted and golden brown in spots. Transfer to a platter and serve immediately.
The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:39b1c56f-ad77-42b4-bb1b-bcfd126cbdb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/recipes/say-cheese-cinderella-story-st.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936013 | 899 | 1.546875 | 2 |
One of Clean Sky's aims is to increase the number of small and medium-sized enterprises involved in the aviation industry, and so more than one-third of the topics - which are meant to contribute to the elaboration of the demonstrators - were won by SMEs.
"It has been beyond my expectations so far," says Clean Sky chief executive Eric Dautriat. Many of these SMEs are newcomers to the field of European research, and Dautriat adds: "These results show the ability of this Joint Technology Initiative to widen the basis of research and innovation. For SMEs, it can be a kind of stepping stone, allowing them to gain exposure to the European research framework."
One SME that has grabbed the opportunity to expand its reach in the sector is Cenaero, a Brussels-based research company that works on advanced simulation techniques. Its general manager, Michel Delanaye, says: "The interesting thing for us is the fact that we can expose our technology to companies and research centres that we would otherwise not be working with. It gives us access to new customers, broadens our network, and gives us the opportunity to offer our technology to major aerospace companies. It is a very good opportunity for networking and business development. It will help our business outside Clean Sky."
The process is relatively straightforward to get involved in, but is very competitive, he adds. "It is good because the major players get to work with new partners. I am sure they would like to work with their usual suppliers, but I think Clean Sky would lack something if that was the case. The European Commission is putting half the money in, so they have to demand some openness."
But Delanaye warns of the danger to the industry of focusing only on existing technologies rather than on future developments. "There is less money available for funding upstream research that will pay off in the future because so much money is going into Clean Sky," he says. "There is a danger that less progress is made in new developments in aerospace. It could injure the European industry's long-term competitiveness." | <urn:uuid:d5d4c413-f14d-417c-a6c3-826d7960e99e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/eus-clean-sky-project-looks-to-smes-for-research-351556/ | 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 | 0.970493 | 423 | 1.8125 | 2 |
'The War in Syria /Iran and the Lessons to be learned from war in Iraq' [Henry Kissinger © Bloomberg]
- uploaded: Aug 15, 2012
- Hits: 1224
7 Aug 2012 Bloomberg
[Aren't there lessons to be learnt from Iraq? There was chaos!]
We absolutely must not have breakup of the existing governmental structure. And the breakup of the Army. Ideally one creates a new government, has an international conference bringing all the parties together. But they've just been killing each other for years. So the probable outcome is a civil war. The danger of that....is that terrorist cells form in regions without real governmental control so there is no international responsibility. And in order to overcome it there is a combination of Nationalism and Islamism. Even countries like Turkey will be very uneasy about an autonomous Kurdish unit in Syria, maybe formed in Iraq. This is a very difficult problem. It can't be solved by democrats on one side and a dictator on the other.
[What countries should be involved?]
Russia, US, Turkey, China no China....Jordan is not strong enough to guarantee anything. Ultimately if we could come to an understanding with Iran on the nuclear issue one could include Iran.......but what is that agreement supposed to do? It is supposed to make Syria uninvolved in all the quarels going on around its borders, not attempt to dominate Lebanon. So the dilemma that arises is you can do it with a strong Syrian government. But with a weak government there is a danger that the various constituent elements will reach across the borders and cannot be controlled by the central government. | <urn:uuid:90f8dc7e-e971-423f-8b95-a4b9861d4ee9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/110041/The_War_in_Syria_Iran_and_the_Lessons_to_be_learned_from_war_in_Iraq_Henry_Kissinger__Bloomberg/?aid=12984 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957681 | 328 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Unit 244 honors its founder
Submitted by Susan Duke
Dan Duke of Vilas NC has been a large influence on bridge in northwestern North Carolina for 40 years. Friends met at a surprise party recently to celebrate and honor him — 125 people attended.
There was good food, and the bluegrass band, Sweet Water, played great music during and after dinner. But our main entertainment was roasting and toasting from many of Dan’s partners and others who have been touched by him.
Bill Buttle, cartoonist for the Bridge Bulletin, and his wife, Linda, came from Canada to honor Dan. They took several of his courses, and have remained friends. Bill did a cartoon for the party and I had it enlarged to poster size and framed – Dan loved it.
How did this come about? About a year ago, Louis Jones came to Lois Wegendt and me, and said he thought we needed to honor Dan for all of his bridge contributions. He offered to contribute the money. So, Lois and I began planning the party. Many of our bridge friends also contributed to the event.
Dan is a Diamond Life Master who learned bridge playing with relatives during high school in Raleigh NC. While in the U.S. Army, he found a book by Charles Goren. After reading it, he attended his first duplicate game, and was hooked.
After military service, Dan earned a PhD in Psychology. He’s retired now, but he loved teaching at the university level. That love of teaching spilled over to teaching bridge.
Dan taught at Montana State University in Bozeman MT. He decided to move back to North Carolina in 1968 to teach at Appalachian State University in Boone. Before moving, he checked to be sure that Boone had a bridge club. It did!
In Boone, Dan pressed for bridge growth. His efforts led to the founding of ACBL Unit 244 (14 counties in northwest North Carolina). Besides directing at four duplicate bridge clubs, he has chaired more than 30 sectional tournaments.
Around 1985, Dan noticed that bridge cruises were popular. He created summer programs he dubbed “Land Cruise Bridge Festivals.” Students had bidding or play instruction, followed by duplicate sessions. Dan used his own curriculum and lesson plans. Students came from nearly every U.S. state as well as from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and England.
Dan and I enjoy playing in local clubs around the country, and we also enjoy directing one ocean cruise a year. We have no plans to slow down traveling or playing bridge. | <urn:uuid:fe6e373a-1fc5-450b-b72a-c99c546477c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acbl.org/news_archive.php?id=528 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98418 | 523 | 1.601563 | 2 |
January 13, 2008 10:01 AM PST
GM invests in 'trash to ethanol' start-up
At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Sunday, GM is scheduled to announce a partnership with Coskata, a year-and-a-half-old company with technology for turning wood chips, grasses, or municipal waste into ethanol.
It's one of several biofuels partnerships GM plans to forge to promote E85, a blend of ethanol and gasoline that powers flex-fuel cars.
GM said it invested in Coskata, initially backed by high-profile venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, because its technology promises to deliver ethanol from non-food sources faster than others.
Coskata claims it can deliver ethanol at under $1 per gallon--cheaper than current prices. It intends to construct a 40,000-gallon-per-year facility near a GM test track by the end of the year and to have a full-scale 100 million-gallon-per-year plant by 2011.
"We are not going into the fuel business," said Mary Beth Stanek, GM's director of environment, energy policy, and commercialization. "But let's be clear: we want consumers to have access to biofuels that are affordable and (that) lower greenhouse gases. That is in our interest." GM did not disclose the amount of the investment.
The auto giant has committed to doubling its flex-fuel vehicle output to 80,000 cars by 2010, and to making half of its new cars flex-fuel-capable by 2012.
But the limited availability of E85 poses a problem. There are only about 1,400 ethanol filling stations in the U.S., mainly in the Midwest, which is far too few for GM's flex-fuel ambitions.
During a press briefing at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, GM CEO Rick Wagoner called for a tenfold increase in the number of ethanol pumps.
"It has been remarkably difficult" to get E85 pumps installed, he said, adding that GM is "doing more work than I thought we would need to."
"Greener" forms of transportation are expected to be one of the main themes of the auto show, a response to higher gas prices and growing environmental concerns.
Ford plans to show off a concept car with the EcoBoost, an energy-efficient turbo-charged engine that the company will start putting into sedans in 2009. Global Electric Motorcars, a Chrysler company, will showcase its latest low-speed electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, Fisker Automotive has chosen the conference to officially launch its high-end plug-in hybrid sports sedan, which will be able to go 50 miles on its battery and 620 miles on fuel. It hopes to bring its $80,000 sedan out in 2009.
GM is investing in several technologies. At the show, it is expected to show the hybrid Saturn Vue and its hybrid Cadillac concept, Provoq, which can run on hydrogen.
But flex-fuel cars are one area where GM, along with Ford and Chrysler, has staked out an early lead, even though the technical barriers are relatively low.
"GM has a competitive advantage in this sector. They've been pushing harder, faster, and longer internally," said Nathanael Greene, a biofuels policy analyst at environmental advocacy group National Resources Defense Council.
Greene said the investment in Coskata appears to be a stepped-up commitment to biofuels, whereas the company's previous efforts, publicized in its "Live Green, Go Yellow" advertising campaign, had an air of greenwashing.
5 commentsJoin the conversation! Add your comment | <urn:uuid:f25fab2a-f9e2-487b-b481-9419600ab096> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/GM-invests-in-trash-to-ethanol-start-up/2100-13833_3-6225783.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95484 | 760 | 1.8125 | 2 |
One afternoon, in the aftermath of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, I was sitting in the lounge room of my house in the North West Frontier Province. I shared it with half a dozen Pakistani friends. After a perfunctory knock on the front door, the room was suddenly filled with four well dressed Americans, identifying themselves as 'from the embassy" and smilingly asking us about 'the terrain'. What did we know, who did we know, and how did we know it? The female American showed particular interest in me - the lone westerner seemingly out of place in a house full of Pakistanis. She asked me about 'activities' I had witnessed. After distributing their name cards and entreaties to call if we had any interesting information ("anything at all"), they piled into their SUV and were gone.
We concluded, of course, they were CIA. The earthquake had created open routes in and out of Kashmir and previously off-limits areas, and thousands of people were daily trekking in and out, over rubble and ruins and suffering. It seemed that not only aid workers but those in the battle for hearts and minds were swarming in and assessing the lie of the land.
Late one afternoon in Kashmir, we clambered up a hill to visit a makeshift radio station. In a flimsy one-person tent a bloke transmitted religious sermons and songs and barked out a bit of ideology. We had tea. My local colleagues cracked up laughing when he asked me to teach him interviewing skills. "He's Taliban," they said as we slid down the hill in the dark.
Poor old Pakistan is again in torment. Floods have destroyed the homes, livelihoods and health of millions of its most vulnerable citizens. The majority of Pakistanis are helpless in the face of their self absorbed and corrupt government, an army and secret service that have their own agenda, and their country's western allies who can be ham fisted in their attempts to negotiate the landscape of South Asian politics and culture, and are often thwarted by the treachery of the government they are trying to assist.
There is now great concern about jihadi groups moving in to fill in humanitarian holes left by apathetic countries unwilling to stump up dollars and resources for flood aid. They will take over the hearts and minds, goes the reasoning, as their hand out medication and clean water. This may be a good fear tactic to motivate the tardy, but the Taliban, it's splinter groups and unrelated Islamist groups have been active throughout Pakistan for decades, and the flood while giving them an opportunity to assist their fellow citizens (instead of just brow beating them) is not actually creating jihad groups.
The hard line Islamist groups were some of the most efficient during the 2005/2006 earthquake crisis. All over north Pakistan, camps and workers funded by jihadi organisations provided shelter, food and health care. It was not unusual to hear loud speakers blasting out anti-western rhetoric in the crisis areas urging people to refuse "western aid". But in reality, the UN co operated with many of those groups, who were far more efficient than the hide bound UN, which fussed over distribution lists and created complicated vehicle rosters. In an interview with Australian TV, UNICEF's chief of mission at the time said he wasn't aware that that such groups were 'political' while at the same time UNICEF HQ was voicing concern about madrassa schools popping up everywhere.
The International Crisis Group analysed the situation in 2006 and reported the same issues that are causing deep concern now.
Jihadi groups are moving into the flood areas with a ruthless efficiency, providing basic needs for the population. Is this new? No. Is it cause for concern? Absolutely. But it is neither a flood nor an earthquake that is giving the groups opportunities for their own brand of psy-ops. The problem is far greater than that, and right in front of our noses, all of the time. Until Pakistan's government destroys the treachery within its own ranks, delivers on its endless broken promises to its allies and makes educating and feeding its citizens a priority, the ruthlessly efficient ideologues will continue to recruit successfully, come hell or high water.
Follow Virginia M. Moncrieff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vmmoncrieff | <urn:uuid:0253acd1-c4a2-49b1-9b35-0340670d740f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/virginia-moncrieff/pakistan-are-we-facing-a_b_682425.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975159 | 874 | 1.804688 | 2 |
“The substance of the book is the evolution of the museum through several different missions, beginning in 1935 up to the present,” says Director Peter Blume, author of the historical essay in the publication. “It’s also the story of the people who were transformative in the development of the collection.”
While the Ball name is a significant thread that runs through the history of the museum, other historical moments are also considered, from the 1991 change in name from the Art Gallery to the Museum of Art, as well as the changes in leadership over the years and how that would impact the formation of the collection.
“This is the first time we have taken the collection and really tried to capture its character,” says Associate Director Carl Schafer. “This book is lavishly illustrated with gorgeous photographs that do just that.”
Copyright © 2013 Ball State University 2000 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306
800-382-8540 and 765-289-1241 | <urn:uuid:48b3a634-0cef-4a89-a48a-78d3c401877e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.bsu.edu/web/museumofart/bookstore/museum75book | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959977 | 212 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Blind brothers refuse to quit
By JAMIE PATTERSON
While many people are waking up to the sound of their alarm clocks, the Gainwell brothers are already on a bus headed from Yazoo City to their jobs in Jackson.
They never complain, and they’re never late. They understand how important it is to have a job during such hard economic times.
But for them, having a job is not only a blessing. It is an opportunity to show the world they can work just like anybody else.
All three brothers are legally blind. And they have shattered all misconceptions that they can’t put in a hard day’s work and make meaningful contributions.
David, Jessie and Walter Gainwell have held successful jobs with Mississippi Industries for the Blind for the past several years. When many doors began to close for them as they struggled with macular degeneration, MIB provided an opportunity for them to prove their worth in the work force.
“I don’t have to sit at home everyday,” Jessie said. “I can come here and go to work, and I’m responsible for myself. Nobody has to wait on me. It just feels good getting up every morning and coming to work here.”
-------for the rest of the story see The Yazoo Herald printed edition or subscribe to the Digital Edition.----------
Last Updated (Tuesday, 20 March 2012 22:37) | <urn:uuid:d6730c7e-09c6-44f9-bd06-369a71d8c919> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yazooherald.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2227:blind-brothers-refuse-to-quit&Itemid=41&el_mcal_month=2&el_mcal_year=2013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964857 | 298 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Booster Shot for E-Health
How federal stimulus spending will impact the rollout of electronic medical records.
Wed, September 23, 2009
CIO — Health care is suddenly an information technology hotbed, thanks to the $787 billion federal stimulus package. President Obama wants hospitals and doctors' offices to computerize medical information to cut waste and curtail the mistakes that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives every year.
In return, those healthcare entities that use IT to fix ingrained problems can reach into a $50 billion pot over the next five years, starting with $19 billion available in 2011. Laggards who don't install effective IT will face daunting financial penalties come 2015, in the form of a 1 percent cut in Medicare payouts. That escalates to a 3 percent cut by 2017. While they spend, hire and try to anticipate what standards Obama will devise to qualify for stimulus funds, healthcare CIOs must also fend off vendors with dollar signs flashing in their eyes.
"We're getting cold calls from every electronic medical record vendor out there," says Paul Contino, vice president of IT at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Among vendors and consultants, he adds, "it's a feeding frenzy." Even Wal-Mart is in the fray, offering a $25,000 bundle of eClinicalWorks software on Dell hardware at Sam's Club warehouses.
We're willing to bet most CIOs don't procure their IT at Sam's Club, but there's plenty else to make you wary. Many products are immature, and the intended users of these new systems range from eager to inexperienced to entrenched in the way they've nursed and doctored for decades.
To read more on this topic, see: Microsoft Buys Software for Amalga E-Health Platform and The Long Road to E-Health Records.
Yet healthcare CIOs are busy growing strong C-level partnerships for their digital efforts, even amid these conditions of pressing deadlines, uncharted financial risks and rabid vendors angling for a piece of the action. The rest of the CIO community can steal some good ideas from their healthcare colleagues as they obtain project buy-in from business executives and set the kind of aggressive goals a whole company can rally behind.
The Ghost of ERP Failures Past
Final, precise criteria for what healthcare CIOs have to do to obtain stimulus money won't be out until the end of this year. But if they hope to make Obama's deadlines, CIOs must push ahead with core systems such as electronic medical records (EMRs). As a result, healthcare IT operating budgets are up 4.7 percent this year compared with those of 2008, according to a survey of 200 IT executives by research firm Computer Economics. In comparison, across other industries, the numbers are flat. Healthcare hiring has jumped, too. While 46 percent of IT organizations overall have cut staff this year, 27 percent of healthcare organizations are adding technology positions. | <urn:uuid:aeb657f5-7142-4344-b65d-c079cd75c2dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cio.com/article/503023/Booster_Shot_for_E_Health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942959 | 598 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Published in Women's Health Law Weekly, November 23rd, 2008
"Retrospective cohort design with patients attending a breastfeeding education class at an Army medical center," wrote I.M. Rosen and colleagues, Army.
The researchers concluded: "Controls were matched for sponsor rank, marital status, and smoking status."
Rosen and colleagues published their study in Mcn - the American Journal of Maternal - Child Nursing (Prenatal breastfeeding education and breastfeeding...
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Learn more about a six-week, no-risk free trial of Women's Health Law Weekly
NewsRx also is available at LexisNexis, Gale, ProQuest, Factiva, Dialog, Thomson Reuters, NewsEdge, and Dow Jones. | <urn:uuid:ce07ba21-d679-4d22-9626-0b3ad8dde7eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Womens-Health-Law-Weekly/2008-11-23/4811232008728WH.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938473 | 165 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Indigo is Microsoft’s code name for the technology that will bring together the functionality in today’s .NET Remoting, Enterprise Services, Web services (including WSE) and MSMQ. Of course knowing what it is doesn’t necessarily tell us whether it is cool, compelling and exciting … or rather boring.
Ultimately beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly the Indigo team feels a great deal of pride in their work and they paint this as a very big and compelling technology.
Many technology experts I’ve talked to outside of Microsoft are less convinced that it is worth getting all excited.
Personally, I must confess that I find Indigo to be a bit frustrating. While it should provide some absolutely critical benefits, in my view it is merely laying the groundwork for the potential of something actually exciting to follow a few years later.
Why do I say this?
Well, consider what Indigo is again. It is a technology that brings together a set of existing technologies. It provides a unified API model on top of a bunch of concepts and tools we already have. To put it another way, it lets us do what we can already do, but in a slightly more standardized manner.
If you are a WSE user, Indigo will save you tons of code. But that’s because WSE is experimental stuff and isn’t refined to the degree Remoting, Enterprise Services or Web services are. If you are using any of those technologies, Indigo won’t save you much (if any) code – it will just subtly alter the way you do the things you already do.
Looking at it this way, it doesn’t sound all that compelling really does it?
But consider this. Today’s technologies are a mess. We have at least five different technologies for distributed communication (Remoting, ES, Web services, MSMQ and WSE). Each technology shines in different ways, so each is appropriate in different scenarios. This means that to be a competent .NET architect/designer you must know all five reasonably well. You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each, and you must know how easy or hard they are to use and to potentially extend.
Worse, you can’t expect to easily switch between them. Several of these options are mutually exclusive.
But the final straw (in my mind) is this: the technology you pick locks you into a single architectural world-view. If you pick Web services or WSE you are accepting the SOA world view. Sure you can hack around that to do n-tier or client/server, but it is ugly and dangerous. Similarly, if you pick Enterprise Services you get a nice set of client/server functionality, but you lose a lot of flexibility. And so forth.
Since the architectural decisions are so directly and irrevocably tied to the technology, we can’t actually discuss architecture. We are limited to discussing our systems in terms of the technology itself, rather than the architectural concepts and goals we’re trying to achieve. And that is very sad.
By merging these technologies into a single API, Indigo may allow us to elevate the level of dialog. Rather than having inane debates between Web services and Remoting, we can have intelligent discussions about the pros and cons of n-tier vs SOA. We can apply rational thought as to how each distributed architecture concept applies to the various parts of our application.
We might even find that some parts of our application are n-tier, while others require SOA concepts. Due to the unified API, Indigo should allow us to actually do both where appropriate. Without irrational debates over protocol, since Indigo natively supports concepts for both n-tier and SOA.
Now this is compelling!
As compelling as it is to think that we can start having more intelligent and productive architectural discussions, that isn’t the whole of it. I am hopeful that Indigo represents the groundwork for greater things.
There are a lot of very hard problems to solve in distributed computing. Unfortunately our underlying communications protocols never seem to stay in place long enough for anyone to really address the more interesting problems. Instead, for many years now we’ve just watched as vendors reinvent the concept of remote procedure calls over and over again: RPC, IIOP, DCOM, RMI, Remoting, Web services, Indigo.
That is frustrating. It is frustrating because we never really move beyond RPC. While there’s no doubt that Indigo is much easier to use and more clear than any previous RPC scheme, it is also quite true that Indigo merely lets us do what we could already do.
What I’m hoping (perhaps foolishly) is that Indigo will be the end. That we’ll finally have an RPC technology that is stable and flexible enough that it won’t need to be replaced so rapidly. And being stable and flexible, it will allow the pursuit of solutions to the harder problems.
What are those problems? They are many, and they include semantic meaning of messages and data. They include distributed synchronization primitives and concepts. They include standardization and simplification of background processing – making it as easy and natural as synchronous processing is today. They include identity and security issues, management of long-running processes, simplification of compensating transactions and many other issues.
Maybe Indigo represents the platform on which solutions to these and other problems can finally be built. Perhaps in another 5 years we can look back and say that Indigo was the turning point that finally allowed us to really make distributed computing a first-class concept. | <urn:uuid:975d8d70-50d5-4e78-be5a-9114d8e17b97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lhotka.net/weblog/default,date,2005-04-21.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95083 | 1,156 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Amateur video shot over the weekend captured the dramatic overrun of a Cessna CJ3 trying to land on Runway 35R at Sao Paulo-Congonhas Airport in Brazil.
As shown in the footage, the Citation bounced upon reaching the end of the runway before coming to a crashing halt on the perimeter wall that encircles the airport. The captain, copilot and single passenger aboard the airplane survived the accident, although the captain sustained serious injuries.
An initial accident report cites changing winds that shifted 140 degrees in the course of an hour around the time of the attempted landing, as well as approaching towering cumulous clouds.
The flight – operated by Tropic Air Taxi Aereo – had originated from Florianopolis, Brazil, located approximately 300 miles to the south.
Sao Paulo-Congonhas Airport was the site of a high-profile overrun in July 2007, when a TAM Airlines Airbus A320 overran Runway 35L and crashed into a nearby warehouse, killing all 187 people aboard as well as 12 people on the ground. The crash was the deadliest air disaster in Brazilian territory, as well as the worst accident ever involving an Airbus A320. | <urn:uuid:63cf66a6-f48e-4cda-9731-4cd904101de3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/accidents/dramatic-citation-overrun-caught-tape?quicktabs_most_popular=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956492 | 238 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney seems to be a likely candidate for the Republican party in the 2012 presidential elections. That is, however, if he can shake off the aftertaste of Romneycare.
Romneycare — Massachusetts' take on healthcare reform under the former governor — has been said to set precedent for Obamacare, the universal healthcare initiative signed by President Obama. Romney has tried to separate his name from the bill but has yet to find the appropriate means.
A Slate column, posted on the CBS News website, suggest three options for Romney: embrace, explain or evade. So far, it seems Romney has chosen to evade and explain.
He evaded talking about the plan at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference last month. While many of his fellow Republicans were denouncing Obamacare from various podiums, “Romney was evading his own plan so thoroughly he wouldn’t even talk about the Obama plan to which it had been compared,” writes Slate.
On Saturday, Romney appeared in New Hampshire, a vital primary state, where he tried to explain that he would have done some things differently during the passage of the law.
“The Massachusetts health-care law works for Massachusetts,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said in a statement printed in the Boston Herald. “Other states should be free to come up with their own solutions. A national plan that raises taxes is the wrong way to go.”
Romney’s indecisive support of a measure largely credited to him has raised questions about his authenticity, which according to a 2008 report by Slate, is his biggest liability.
What may add to Romney’s authenticity problem is a recent endorsement of his bill by former Obama economic advisor Larry Summers.
“Governor Romney, in some of his iterations, has been correct,” Summers said in a speech yesterday at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce lunch, as reported by the Boston Herald. “States have a vital role to play as — in Justice Brandeis’ famous phrase — laboratories of democracy. And Massachusetts has played a crucial role in the debate with its innovative health-care plan.”
“What Governor Romney did was the right thing,’’ Summers told the Herald after the event. “What Governor Romney has subsequently said about what he did is, in my view, not the right thing.” | <urn:uuid:1e894e19-4918-4505-ac02-4044c37baaf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.masslive.com/thefray/2011/03/former_gov_romney_struggles_to.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 | 0.984413 | 491 | 1.609375 | 2 |
From the 'Lectric Law Library's Stacks
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[I-L Note: This bill's number was obviously assigned by an undercover civil libertarian on the House staff. A consistently unreliable source has informed lectlaw that by coincidence this person's body was found the next day in a suburban Virginia park surrounded by various obscure symbols scratched in the dirt. It had been sodomized and burned, the numbers 666 carved in it's forehead, and appearently partially eaten. In it's clenched fist was a ripped piece of cloth with a House Leadership Conference pin attached. After an exhaustive investigation the death was ruled a suicide.]
104th CONGRESS 1st Session
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 25, 1995 Mr. McCollum introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the 'Exclusionary Rule Reform Act of 1995'.
SEC. 2. ADMISSIBILITY OF CERTAIN EVIDENCE. (a) In General. - Chapter 223 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 'Sec. 3510. Admissibility of evidence obtained by search or seizure '(a) Evidence Obtained by Objectively Reasonable Search or Seizure. - Evidence which is obtained as a result of a search or seizure shall not be excluded in a proceeding in a court of the United States on the ground that the search or seizure was in violation of the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, if the search or seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the fourth amendment. The fact that evidence was obtained pursuant to and within the scope of a warrant constitutes prima facie evidence of the existence of such circumstances. '(b) Evidence Not Excludable by Statute or Rule. - '(1) Generally. - Evidence shall not be excluded in a proceeding in a court of the United States on the ground that it was obtained in violation of a statute, an administrative rule or regulation, or a rule of procedure unless exclusion is expressly authorized by statute or by a rule prescribed by the Supreme Court pursuant to statutory authority. '(2) Special rule relating to objectively reasonable searches and seizures. - Evidence which is otherwise excludable under paragraph (1) shall not be excluded if the search or seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that the search or seizure was in conformity with the statute, administrative rule or regulation, or rule of procedure, the violation of which occasioned its being excludable. '(c) Rule of Construction. - This section shall not be construed to require or authorize the exclusion of evidence in any proceeding.'. (b) Clerical Amendment. - The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 223 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: '3510. Admissibility of evidence obtained by search or seizure.'.
Brought to you by - The 'Lectric Law Library
The Net's Finest Legal Resource For Legal Pros & Laypeople Alike. | <urn:uuid:a22a3f73-f6fd-438d-a631-b3d36739ca77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lectlaw.com/files/leg13.htm | 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 | 0.944841 | 673 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In my counseling office, I see a lot of damage done because people don't know how to ask for what they want, or don't think it's OK. Not asking for what you want means you'll eventually resent somebody, and that leads to a lot of strife. So today, I thought I'd give some hints about how to ask for what you want. To really be successful, you need to understand the difference between asking and demanding, and how to approach different people.
The Importance of Wanting
If you don't know what you want, you'll have trouble getting it and experience a life-long feeling of deprivation, disappointment, scarcity, and resentment. When you aren't able to express what you want clearly you'll have difficulty feeling generous about your partner's wants and needs.
More from YourTango: Did Your Parents' Marriage Affect Your Intelligence?
In your relationship, asking for what you want in a helpful, non-threatening way helps both you and your partner understand each other. If you don't know what you want, you won't realize if you achieve it. If you don't know what your partner wants, you can wind up with a false or one-sided solution, that will leave one or both of you feeling unsatisfied, overpowered, or manipulated. In couple counseling, when I ask partners to state their wants they often discover to their amazement that their wants are quite similar, and the problem disappears. The conflict between them was only their lack of understanding and communication.
Being clear about what you want is like putting all the true facts on the table, just as you lay all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle out, so you can see them better, and more easily solve your puzzle.
Difference between Wanting and Demanding
Much of the confusion about expressing wants occurs because no distinction is made between wanting and demanding. Stating what you want is an effort to communicate clearly, so you and your partner can both be satisfied, while demanding is insisting that your partner give you what you want, without regard for his or her wants and feelings. You can tell the difference because when you are asking, you can handle getting a no answer; when you are demanding, you get upset if what you're asking for is denied. When you ask for what you want, you need to have a back-up plan in case the other person doesn't agree.
More from YourTango: It's Been A While? 7 Songs That Perfectly Describe Your Love Life
Women need to know how to ask men for what they want directly, and in a rational, not emotional manner. Men respond much better to "Honey, will you take out the garbage?" than to a whiney "The garbage can is overflowing, and it smells bad." or "I have to do everything around here." The indirect request is a female style of communication that works well with other women, but doesn't work well on men, because our thought processes are different.
Men need to learn to listen to women's feelings when they want something. Women do not always respond to a direct request, they do better when feelings are talked about. Saying "Wait till the game is over, honey." will be received by a woman as disregarding her feelings. "I'm sorry it's bothering you, sweetheart, I'll take it out as soon as there's a commercial break." will let her know you care about her feelings, and she'll be happier with it, even though the result is the same. | <urn:uuid:090820e9-bd30-4cdb-a1d1-65db5a03624f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourtango.com/2012145107/asking-what-you-want | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977708 | 720 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Keeping our energy balanced is often very tricky to do as we go about our daily lives. So often we are thinking about everyone else and not ourselves so our bodies get a little neglected.
When our energy is low we tend to get tired, stressed more easily, overeat, mood swings, feel pain, get sick.
When our bodies are energy balanced we are energetic and focused.
We all know the simple things in life to keep our body’s healthy right?
- Drink plenty of water
- Get the right amount of sleep
- Regular exercise
- Quiet time to focus on ourselves
- Balanced nutrition
Often we see the above as daunting, and wonder ‘how can I fit all that into my already busy life’?
Well my advice is to take it one day at a time, one bite at a time. Focus on changing one thing in your life for a week, and then add another one. Don’t change everything all at once. This is when it becomes overwhelming.
Reiki can help give you the Energy boost that you need by unblocking and releasing trapped energy in your body causing you pain and discomfort. Reiki re-balances your energy centres called Chakras.
You will be left with a sense of calm, and deep relaxation – often described “I feel like I am floating” | <urn:uuid:ce3fd0df-ecce-477a-a4f0-89f0b8c7e579> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tranquilityhealing.co.nz/energy-boost/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954819 | 278 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Tokyo — Toshiba said, here, that it has developed a mass production process for write-once discs to be used in the first HD-DVD recorders and PC drives.
The technology for manufacturing so-called HD-DVD-R discs was jointly developed by Toshiba, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media and Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories.
TDK Announces Four-Layer Blu-ray Disc
Garden City, N.Y. — Looking to trump the HD DVD format’s triple-layer disc format, TDK formally announced this week development of a prototype quadruple-layer Blu-ray Disc format capable of storing up to 100GBs, or four high-definition movies.
The single-sided HD-DVD-R discs will store up to 15GBs of capacity, Toshiba said. Disc manufacturers currently producing recordable DVD discs will only have to make minor modifications to produce the new write-once high-definition media, Toshiba said.
Optical disc manufacturers Hitachi Maxell Ltd. and Mitsubishi Kagaku said they will market the new HD-DVD-R discs next spring, when Toshiba plans to launch the first HD-DVD recorders. Estimated disc pricing for decks and media was not available.
Meanwhile, Toshiba plans to market the first HD-DVD players in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The announcement was the next in a series of claimed technology breakthroughs coming from both the HD-DVD camp and the rival Blu-ray Disc (BD) camp. The BD group recently announced the development of four-layer disc that will store up to 100GB of capacity. But that technology has not yet been accepted as part of the BD standard.
Earlier, Toshiba had announced development of a triple-layer HD-DVD-ROM disc with 45GBs of capacity. Those discs could be used for a variety of packaging possibilities, including storage of both high-definition and standard-definition versions of movies, in addition to interactive extras.
The company has also developed flipper discs that would store both standard- and high-definition movies on one disc.
The BD format claims technological superiority to HD DVD, because that format offers greater storage capacity, but HD DVD backers have said their discs have more than enough capacity for typic
al use, and the format can be produced with less trouble and at a lower cost to start than Blu-ray Discs. | <urn:uuid:8682bd0d-7ba3-4fdf-984c-ac071cd38e6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twice.com/news/hd-dvd-r-media-production-arrives-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936459 | 500 | 1.75 | 2 |
I currently have 2 Hermann's Tortoises (Testudo hermanni) named Cocoa & Sarge and a Redfoot Tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) named Rocky.
Cocoa & SargeI have had Cocoa since March of 1996 when we went down to Florida for Bike Week. We picked up little Cocoa as a 4 month old hatchling at The Central Florida Reptile Farm in Cocoa Beach while we were there. The Abbotts are great tortoise keepers and I recommend them heartily as breeders. The picture on the left was taken soon after we got her.
This is a picture of Cocoa (right) with her new boyfriend "Sarge" in Sept. 2000 right after they first met. Sarge was in quarantine for 6 months after being purchased from the Abbotts in Florida in March 2000. They get along very well. To see more pictures of Cocoa and Sarge click here. Surprise of surprises; in November of 2000 there was some breeding activity happening in the kiddie pool. This is kind of funny because I was not expecting the breeding to be so "noisy". We have since relocated them to a larger indoor enclosure that measures about 6 x 4 feet on the floor. They seem to be enjoying it. And what became of the kiddie pool? Read on to find out!In early January 2000 I bought a hatchling Redfoot Tortoise from another great breeder closer to home in Rhode Island. They have since moved on to Tennessee. Rocky hatched on December 28, 1999. He was only 2 weeks old and still had his yolk sac attached when we brought him home. Right away he started eating like a little pig on various greens & fruit dusted with calcium powder. Redfoots eat a lot of fruit in the wild unlike other species of tortoises. If their diet doesn't include fruit in captivity they can get constipated very easily. A totally different animal so to speak than the Hermanns Tortoises.
Tortoises of different species should not live in the same enclosure because they can transmit diseases to one another. Cocoa and Sarge live in a plastic kiddie pool filled with cypress mulch rather than water. Rocky lives on a "Tortoise table" of sorts in another room. They all have heat lights and uvb lights (Zoo-Med Reptisun 5.0 to be exact).
Recommended Reading ListThe Tortoise Trust (Turtles Too!) | Hatchling Haven | Slowcoach Tortoises | Melissa Kaplan's Tortoise Page | Turtle Homes Adoption Page | The Turtle Times | Turtle Cafe
© 2005, www.reptilecare.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:b21a2002-d54f-4df1-b259-4c78a02f7ada> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reptilecare.com/tortoise3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972285 | 564 | 1.75 | 2 |
STAPLES HUGHES, a North Carolina lawyer, was on the witness stand and about to disclose a secret he believed would free an innocent man from prison. But the judge told Mr. Hughes to stop.
“If you testify,” Judge Jack A. Thompson said at a hearing last year on the prisoner’s request for a new trial, “I will be compelled to report you to the state bar. Do you understand that?”
But Mr. Hughes continued. Twenty-two years before, he said, a client, now dead, confessed that he had acted alone in committing a double murder for which another man was also serving life. After his own imprisoned client died, Mr. Hughes recalled last week, “it seemed to me at that point ethically permissible and morally imperative that I spill the beans.”
Judge Thompson, of the Cumberland County Superior Court in Fayetteville, did not see it that way, and some experts in legal ethics agree with him. The obligation to keep a client’s secrets is so important, they say, that it survives death and may not be violated even to cure a grave injustice — for example, the imprisonment for 26 years of another man, in Illinois, who was freed just last month." (source)
Though I am a supporter of life sentences and the death penalty...I am also adamant in my belief that we must KNOW the accused is guilty. When lawyers and judges suppress information germane to proving guilt or innocence (yes, you found the bloody knife under his pillow, but your search warrant was only for UNDER the bed not ON it)...it just makes the pubic lose faith in what we are told is the best system in the world.
I feel bad for this lawyer. Imagine the burden of knowing someone serving life was innocent...seeing their family suffer...and being able to do nothing for fear of losing your own livelihood and means of paying back your outrageous student loans...?! | <urn:uuid:b36d8288-d0c7-4468-a1fa-e2ebf53ded8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobyrebuttal.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-american-justice-is-anything-but.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970308 | 405 | 1.585938 | 2 |
As insults thundered down from the podium in front of him, Zoran Djindjic sat impassively in the front row of the City Council chamber, waiting for the storm to blow over.
The first non-Communist Mayor of Belgrade since 1945 and now in the catbird seat in his campaign to oust President Slobodan Milosevic, Mr. Djindjic appeared unfazed Friday that his inauguration session was going awry as allies of Mr. Milosevic taunted him.
Few were surprised at his calm. The 44-year-old Mr. Djindjic (pronounced JINjich) is widely seen as the most pragmatic of the three opposition leaders that led demonstrations to recognize opposition election victories. He has traveled through the turmoil of Serbia's political spectrum from anarchism to liberalism to nationalism and back to liberalism.
In the early 1970's, he was jailed briefly by the Communist Yugoslav Government for forming an independent student organization. He then left Serbia as a rising young philosopher to study in what was then West Germany.
Three years ago, in a scene that his foes will not let him forget, he savored roasted oxen on a snowy mountain top above the shelled city of Sarajevo with his ally of the moment, Radovan Karadzic, the Serbian political leader of the Bosnian war. Last year, he was traveling around Serb-held Bosnia campaigning for Mr. Karadzic, choosing to overlook the fact Mr. Karadzic has been indicted by the United Nations tribunal in The Hague on charges of war crimes.
Earlier this month, attired in an elegant suit, he was in Paris garnering support for the anti-Milosevic cause among French leaders and espousing the need for a market economy and freedom of the press in Serbia.
Mr. Djindjic makes few apologies for his series of political about-faces.
''If you want honesty, go to church,'' he says.
In contrast to Vuk Draskovic, the emotional opposition leader who sometimes seems to be a modern embodiment of the ancient myths of the Serbian countryside, Mr. Djindjic grew up in the relative sophistication of Belgrade. The son of a Yugoslav Army officer, he studied philosophy at Belgrade University and won a scholarship to study at Constance University in West Germany.
Mr. Djindic returned to Yugoslavia in 1979 to teach at the University of Novi Sad and to write for The Literary Review, an influential dissident magazine. His articles stood out as the only nonnationalistic contributions.
As Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, he joined in 1990 with 11 other Belgrade intellectuals to write the liberal platform of their new political organization, the Democratic Party.
But then in 1991, as nationalism swept Serbia, Mr. Djindjic says he decided he either had to ride the tide or to be drowned by it.
''I personally couldn't be more remote from Serbian nationalism,'' he told a session of the Democratic Party leadership. ''But it is on the agenda and it will not go away if we choose to ignore it. We cannot allow our party to disappear because of our personal intellectual preferences.''
Mr. Djindjic then maneuvered his mentor, Prof. Dragoljub Micunovic, out of the chairmanship of the party and rewrote the platform to incorporate Serbian nationalism, including a call for the unity of all Serbs in one state.
When Mr. Milosevic, under pressure from the West and with Serbia beginning to feel the pinch of United Nations sanctions, started to distance himself from the Bosnian Serbs, Mr. Djindjic continued to fraternize with them. Support of the Bosnian Serbs, he argued, was a way of opposing Mr. Milosevic. | <urn:uuid:9de643df-0215-4160-9307-12ff4b7a1cfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/23/world/new-mayor-of-belgrade-a-serbian-chameleon.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96647 | 782 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Fish & Wildlife has issued its 2013-2014 Freshwater Sports Fishing regulation pamphlet, including changes on sturgeon, salmon and steelhead retention.
The DFW regulations also include new areas where hatchery trout or steelhead may be retained, and a black bass slot limit removal on five waters.
The new sturgeon fishing regulations establish a new method of measuring sturgeon and a new size limit of 40-60 inches. Barbless hooks are required when fishing for sturgeon and snares are prohibited. Fish longer than 68 inches fork length may not be removed from the water, according to DFW.
For more information: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=58288&inline=1
Other DFW regulations emphasize that salmon and steelhead anglers in inland valley waters can not fillet steelhead or salmon until the fish reach their permanent residence.
However, anglers will be allowed to harvest hatchery trout and hatchery steelhead in most catch and release areas under new regulations.
There will be no slot limit regulation for black bass in McClure, Millerton, Oroville, Orr and Siskiyou lakes. The statewide standard daily bag limit and 12-inch minimum total length regulations will apply on these waters, according to the DFW.
Fish & Wildlife has issued its 2013-2014 Freshwater Sports Fishing regulation pamphlet, including changes on sturgeon, salmon and steelhead retention.
Marine biologist Carrie Wilson of the state Department of Fish and Game produced this Question and Answer feature. She can be contacted at CalOutdoors@dfg.ca.gov.
Q: Do you have a phone number for someone from Fish and Game to come get a rattlesnake out of my yard? I don’t want it killed.
A: Sorry, but DFG staff members will not come out to your house to remove or relocate rattlesnakes residing in your yard. However, if you can muster up the courage to deal with it yourself, you will not need a license to kill or trap it. If not, and you have no neighbors, friends or family members willing to help you move the rattlesnake, your best option will be to contact a professional pest control service to do it.
For the future, here are some helpful hints from DFG Associate Wildlife Biologist Nicole Carion on how to discourage rattlesnakes from taking up residence near your home.
1. Don’t let feed from bird feeders overflow and build up on the ground to attract rodents.
2. Don’t allow high rodent populations to occur near your house.
Rattle-snakes are great population managers for ground squirrels and other rodents, so try to keep their numbers down.
3. Always be mindful when working in or around wood or rock piles. Don’t stack these materials near your house.
Also, for the safety of your pets, remember to keep them indoors, especially at night.
Q: I live on the California/Oregon border. I have both California and Oregon fishing licenses. My primary fishing is in the surf for redtail perch. California’s limit for perch is 10 per day. Oregon’s limit is 15 per day. If I legally take my Oregon limit in the Gold Beach area, is it legal for me to bring them home to California? Can I certify the catch as being caught in Oregon at the agriculture check station upon re-entry into California?
A: It is legal to import the redtail surfperch taken in Oregon in excess of California’s limit of 10, but you cannot take any redtail in California until you have fewer than 10 in your possession (that means either consume them or give away the extra). Prior to bringing them into California you will need to fill out a Declaration for Entry form. They are available online at www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement/docs/declaration_form.pdf or in the 2011 Ocean Sport Fishing Regulations booklet on page 79.
Q: Someone recently asked what can be done with a nuisance bear that has been vandalizing garbage cans, threatening animals and making everyone nervous. You said they could only shoot the bear if the bear hunting season was open and they had a hunting license and bear tag, or if they had already qualified for a Depredation Permit. Well, what about if the bear gets more aggressive and wants more than a garbage can, and it actually breaks into someone’s house? What if it actually goes after their pets or their livestock? What should the owner do, call the DFG or the local Sheriff’s Department for help?
A: The bear problem in the previous Q&A concerned a “nuisance bear” that was essentially looking for an easy meal by raiding unsecured garbage cans for discarded human food. The problem you describe, though, is more serious.
According to DFG Bear Program Manager Marc Kenyon, if the bear is immediately threatening human safety by chasing someone, attacking someone or even entering an occupied dwelling – essentially a “nuisance bear” that has elevated itself to a “public safety animal” – then the bear can be killed immediately without a tag or permit. Also, if a bear is discovered while in the act of injuring, harassing or killing livestock (including honeybees, oddly enough) or a pet, then the owner or tenant of the land or property may legally shoot the bear immediately without a tag or permit (Fish and Game Code, section 4181.1). They will then need to report the killing within 24 hours to DFG.
However, in any situation where you believe a wild animal is threatening human life or safety, immediately call 911 or your local law enforcement agency. They are equipped to respond to such situations and in many instances can provide a much faster response time.
Q: I saw a man fishing with a remote-controlled helicopter and he caught a fish with it. Is this legal or not?
A: It is legal as long as the remote-controlled vehicle is used only to move an angler’s line around while the angler maintains control of the line attached to the terminal tackle.
Marine biologist Carrie Wilson of the state Department of Fish and Game produces this Question & Answer feature. Contact her at CalOutdoors@dfg.ca.gov.
Q: Is it legal to use noise suppressors (mistakenly called silencers) on rifles and handguns? I know that porting, venting, flash collars and muzzle brakes are okay to use at target ranges and while legally hunting in California. Can a noise suppressor that is attached to the front end of the barrel, or that slides over the front end of the barrel, be lawfully used at a target range or while legally hunting anywhere in California?
A: No, stay completely away from silencers. It is a felony for any person, firm or corporation within the state to possess a silencer (California Penal Code, section 12520). Upon conviction, punishment includes imprisonment in the state prison or a fine not to exceed $10,000, or both. A silencer is defined as “… any device or attachment of any kind designed, used or intended for use in silencing, diminishing or muffling the report of a firearm.” This definition and law also applies to any combination of parts, designed or redesigned, and intended for use in assembling or fabricating a silencer (California Penal Code, section 12500).
Q: Why do most, if not all, boats for hire ban taking beer or liquor aboard? I have worked as a deckhand and fully understand the safety concerns, as well as what large amounts of space coolers full of beer for up to 70 people on a half-day trip might take up. What I am wondering though is whether there are any U.S. Coast Guard or DFG laws against it that I can quote for people who ask. Many of the anglers I’ve spoken with over the years get angry because they think the boat is just trying to make a buck.
A: There is no DFG law prohibiting alcohol aboard a boat. However, there is a Harbors and Navigation Code law (section 655) that prohibits a person from operating a vessel while intoxicated, similar to the prohibitions for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.
Q: Some say if you are duck hunting on a refuge and you have some lead quail loads in the truck (because you’re going quail hunting on the way home in the afternoon), a game warden could ticket you for having lead shot in possession. Other friends say that as long as the lead shot is secured in the truck and not in your actual possession while hunting, then you’re not in violation. It seems to me this situation would be like the 25 shell limit in the field. As far as I know you can have additional shells in your truck as long as you only have 25 or less in your possession while hunting. If you run out then you can return to the truck for more. Who’s right?
A: You are. As long as the lead stays in your truck, you should have no problem.
Q: Earlier this season I was diving a low tide looking for big abs. I happened to find a nine-incher. He was really clamped down and a lot stronger than the clickers I’m used to. In the process of popping him off, the shell broke into pieces. Since I did not know the legality of keeping an ab with a broken shell, I had to leave it there. It haunts me every day. Did I do the right thing?
Ar: First of all (as you probably now know), before trying to pop any abalone off their substrate, be sure to first insert the abalone iron correctly under the animal to be sure you have the appropriate leverage to pop the animal off without injuring it. If the animal is clamped down too tightly to where you can’t get the ab iron under the animal correctly without harming the animal, then you should leave it alone and come back later once the animal has relaxed and you can remove it properly. A better idea would be to pursue another abalone that is not locked down to the rocks.
Regarding your situation, you did the right thing as the law requires that abalone are in a whole condition and attached to the shell. It is impossible to measure an abalone with a fractured shell and often the abalone is no longer attached to the shell once you fracture it. Next time try to leave a clamped down abalone alone and choose another that may be more easily harvested.
The Department of Fish and Game asks anglers to use special techniques and extra vigilance to help conserve California’s green and white sturgeon.
Both species are caught by anglers in a popular sport fishery centered in the San Francisco Estuary, but anglers need to be aware of special regulations in place to protect the long-term health and growth of the species.
White sturgeon are a substantial management concern and green sturgeon are a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to DFG officials.
“The state’s anglers are on the front line of saving the ancient green sturgeon in our waters,” Marty Gingras, DFG supervising biologist, said in a prepared statement. “Together we can grow their populations, save a threatened species and continue year-round sturgeon fishing in California.”
Sturgeon can be caught year-round and must be carefully measured, DFG officials said. White sturgeon need to be between 44 and 66 inches. Smaller or larger sturgeon must be released immediately.
Green sturgeon may not be kept.
Strict regulations are designed to conserve older sturgeon and ensure that they survive catch-and-release as well. The effectiveness of catch-and-release depends in large part on angler technique.
It is common practice for anglers to remove sturgeon, including those that are oversized, from the water for measurement. This stresses the fish, particularly females, and may lead to ovarian follicular atresia, which means they absorb their eggs rather than spawn them. Egg-laden females are routinely caught and egg loss can take several years to recover from.
In 2010 California anglers reported catching 5,446 white sturgeon (most were undersized) and 151 green sturgeon.
Another 73 sturgeon were reported as caught but not identified by species, officials said.
DFG officials encourage anglers to use high-strength fishing line to reduce duration of the fight, in-water techniques for measuring fish size and single-barbless hooks to facilitate quick release.
Anglers should leave oversize sturgeon in the water at all times and know how to identify an endangered green sturgeon.
Data on the sturgeon fishery can be found at ftp://ftp.delta.dfg.ca.gov/Adult_Sturgeon_and_Striped_Bass/2010%20Sturgeon%20Card%20Complete%20Draft%20Version%201.pdf.
A flyer on identifying green sturgeon is at ftp://ftp.delta.dfg.ca.gov/Adult_Sturgeon_and_Striped_Bass/Green%20Sturgeon%20flyer%202-3-11.pdf.
For complete fishing regulations see http://dfg.ca.gov/Fishing.
Applications are now being accepted for the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Warden Academy at Butte College in Oroville.
The academy will begin in January 2013 and is scheduled to end in September 2013. The application deadline is Nov. 4.
Game wardens are charged with ensuring public safety, investigating illegal sales of wildlife, protecting the state from pollution, enforcing habitat protection laws, fighting illegal drug trafficking, keeping the homeland secure and responding during natural disasters.
Successful lateral academy applicants will enter a 30-week program, followed by at least three three-week long training assignments where they will work with a seasoned field training officer.
DFG’s academy at Butte College is Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certified. Cadets are trained to be police officers with specific emphasis on working as wardens.
For more details and applications, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/enforcement. Applications are now being accepted online and must be postmarked by the due date.
Marine biologist Carrie Wilson produces this Q&A feature for the state Department of Fish and Game. If you have a question, contact her at CalOutdoors@dfg.ca.gov.
Q: Whenever I pull up one of the rockfish species that is not legal to keep, its swim bladder is usually so full of air that even if I throw it back it will still die. What’s the point in throwing them back if they’re just going to die anyway?
I’ve heard that pulling the fish slowly up to the surface minimizes the pressure change damage and gives the fish the best chance of survival when thrown back. If the fish is too inflated, we poke it with a needle in its side to relieve the gas pressure and the fish always goes right down again. Is this the best way to get an over-inflated fish back down so it will survive to be caught another day?
A: Rockfishes brought up from depth often arrive at the surface with an inflated swim bladder. When released, they are too buoyant and cannot freely swim back down. Even slowing the speed of the retrieve will not increase the likelihood of survival of a released rockfish.
According to DFG associate marine biologists Ed Roberts and John Budrick, rockfish take a considerable amount of time to transfer gases from the swim bladder (buoyancy compensating organ) through their blood stream and out through their gills. The rate at which a fish would have to be brought up from depth to alleviate the effects of barotrauma (pressure-related injuries) would be far slower than any angler would be willing to reel. Instead, the best solution is to bring them up as fast as possible to minimize stress on the fish. Then, using a descending device, get the fish back down to the bottom or a minimum of 100 feet within two minutes of arriving at the surface. Mortality rates double for every 10 minutes beyond the first two minutes according the research conducted at Long Beach State (Jarvis and Lowe, 2008).
A simple release tool consisting of a heavy weight, line and barbless hook can be used to send a fish suffering from barotrauma back down to a depth where the increased pressure will compress the bladder gases that expanded at the surface, and thus allow the fish to swim away. This is a handy piece of tackle that all conservation-minded anglers should consider adding to their tackle boxes. You can make your own release device or purchase a commercially made device at many tackle stores.
Another option is an inverted milk-type crate, with a rope attached to the top (what was previously the bottom) and weights at each corner. This creates a bottomless cage-type contraption which allows the fish to equalize and swim out of the bottom, which happens nearly as soon as the cage reaches the depth where the fish was caught. Research conducted at Long Beach State indicates that rockfish from the Southern California Bight returned from a depth of 200 feet to a depth of 350 feet using a cage had an 83 percent survival rate after five days (Jarvis and Lowe, 2008). Similarly, research by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on yelloweye rockfish caught in waters as deep as 600 feet showed more than 95 percent survival of the fish returned to depth (Hochhalter et al, 2010). The significant decrease in mortality rates from nearly 100 percent of fish released at the surface in depths greater than 180 feet to the vast majority of fish surviving when a descending device is employed is very encouraging.
Anglers can contribute greatly to the recovery of overfished prohibited species and small fishes that would otherwise die by using a descending device. Don’t just let them go, let them grow!
One important note: Please do not attempt to vent the expanded gases by puncturing the fish. Many anglers will take a knife or other sharp object and poke a hole in the organ protruding from the mouth. This is the stomach, not the swim bladder! Puncturing the stomach decreases the fish’s odds of survival, and may introduce infection-causing microorganisms. Some anglers attempt to deflate the swim bladder by inserting a hypodermic needle into the side of the fish to vent the gas. This is not recommended. Even if you insert the needle in the correct location, you may end up puncturing an organ like the liver, heart or other structures that will kill the fish. Also, unless you are using a sterile technique, your efforts may result in an infection that kills the fish. If no descending device is available, rockfish may be better off floating at the surface rather than suffering a mortal injury or infection from a well-meaning but untrained angler. Just because a punctured fish swims off does not necessarily mean it will survive – it may die later of injuries or infection.
As to why specific fish must be released, harvest quotas for overfished species are so small that there is no allowance for directed take. Allowing anglers to keep fish that are caught incidentally while fishing for other species may result in unethical anglers intentionally targeting these species, thus jeopardizing the plans to rebuild these populations.
Bottom line … To increase survival, use descending devices to return the fish to the bottom or a minimum depth of 100 feet within two minutes of being brought to the surface. This method does not carry the risk of infection or injury and greatly reduces mortality relative to leaving fish at the surface to perish due to sun exposure or predation.
For more on how to help fish survive barotrauma, go to www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/groundfishcentral/barotrauma.asp.
Carrie Wilson is a marine biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. She produced this Q & A feature, and she can be contacted at CalOutdoors@dfg.ca.gov.
Q: I fish out of Morro Bay for halibut but there’s no live bait available this year. Because of that, I’d like to try ball bouncing for halibut and am thinking about trolling a Rapalla fishing lure as bait. I have two Rapalla lures with three galvanized treble hooks attached to them. I know the limit is only two hooks for most ocean fishes. Can I use these lures as they are designed or do I have to cut a set of hooks off them to be legal?
A: There are no hook restrictions for halibut, so the lure you have described would be legal to use. However, according to our halibut program expert, Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Associate Marine Biologist Travis Tanaka, you should remove one of the treble hooks. There are two reasons for this. First, a hooked fish would be safer to handle because you wouldn’t have the additional hooks (not hooked in the fish) possibly hooking your clothing or skin. Second, short fish would be easier to release because again you wouldn’t have to worry about the additional hooks catching where you don’t want them to.
Tanaka says many anglers will also use a rig similar to that used for salmon, basically a hoochie/flasher trolled on the bottom. He’s also caught halibut drifting frozen anchovies.
We recommend a soft, knotless landing net. Sublegal-sized halibut landed with this type of net don’t fin split (damage their fins) and they will have a greater chance of survival when you release.
Q: Can you direct me to a legitimate site to book a hunting trip? How can we hunt on government land? What are the costs?
A: DFG makes no recommendations in support of any particular guide or hunting service. Hence, your best bet is to contact other hunters to ask about their experiences in order to help you decide which guide service to go with.
According to DFG’s Bear, Mountain Lion and Wild Pig Programs Statewide Coordinator Marc Kenyon, you can hunt on certain government-owned (public) lands in California. Public lands in Californiaare primarily owned, operated and maintained by DFG, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Department of Defense or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Each of these agencies has developed rules and regulations for the lands they administer. They provide details of which lands are open to public access for outdoor recreational activities (including hunting), and the time of year they are open. Some of these lands are open year-round with no access fees, but some lands are open only certain times of the year with an access fee. Moreover, some public lands are entirely closed to all public use, mostly for protection of certain plant and animal species.
Generally speaking, most big game mammal hunting occurs on DFG, BLM, military or Forest Service lands. Small mammal and varmint hunting occurs on BLM and Forest Service lands. Waterfowl and upland game bird hunting occurs on DFG and USFWS lands.
For the regulations governing the use of DFG lands, please go to www.dfg.ca.gov/lands. Please contact the other land management agencies for rules or regulations concerning their lands.
Q: Is it legal to gaff a keeper salmon in the ocean instead of using a net?
A: In ocean waters it would be legal to gaff a legal size salmon pursuant to the California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 28.65(d), but you must still have a landing net that is at least 18 inches in diameter on board to land any undersize fish. In inland waters, CCR Title 14, section 2.06 makes it illegal to use or possess a gaff throughout California with one exception, which is a section of the Sacramento River below the Deschutes Road Bridge where gaffs three feet or less in length may be used to land legal sized fish. This exception only applies to anglers fishing from a boat.
LONG BEACH — Health officials Friday warned that the West Nile Virus has been detected in two dead crows in the city for the first time this summer.
No human cases have been reported in Long Beach this year, but the virus has been detected in 12 counties in California, including positive birds and mosquitoes in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The California Department of Public Health saod this is the first sign of the virus in Long Beach this year.
The virus is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Signs and symptoms of the virus may include fever, body aches, rash, nausea, vomiting and headache.
Most people infected have no symptoms, health officials said, adding that about one in 150 may develop more serious disease, such as brain inflammation or paralysis. Persons with these symptoms should seek immediate care.
The onset of summer weather results in an ideal environment for mosquito breeding.
Long Beach Health Officer Dr. Helene Calvet encourages all residents to take the following precautions:
– Avoid mosquito-infested areas, especially at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.
– Mosquitoes breed in standing water. Eliminate standing water on your property by draining water from neglected ponds, birdbaths, fountains, buckets, old tires.
– Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.
– Use mosquito repellant containing N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), Picaridin, or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus. Residents should follow repellant instructions on the label. Consult with your child’s pediatrician for appropriate concentrations of DEET to be used on children under the age of 2.
– Keep tight-fitting screens on doors and windows to prevent mosquitoes from entering homes and check window screens.
– Maintain all swimming pools in a clean and sanitary manner, with all circulation and filtration equipment operational and chemical levels within recommended guidelines; drain water from pool covers.
– Limit the watering of lawns and outdoor plants to twice a week to avoid run off to gutters and around sprinklers. Do not over water plants or lawns to avoid creating pools of standing water.
– Report dead birds and dead tree squirrels to the California Department of Health Services by calling 1-877-WNV-BIRD or online at http://www.longbeach.gov/www.westnile.ca.gov.
For more details, contact the Long Beach Health Department’s Vector Control Program at 562.570-4132 or visit online at http://www.longbeach.gov/health/wnv_info/resource.asp.
Friends of Colorado Lagoon has opened the Wetlands and Marine Science Education Center at the Colorado Lagoon to the public for the weekends this summer.
The center will be Open 2-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the ‘Science Shack’ is staffed by FOCL naturalists exhibiting the marine life found within the wetland habitat of the Lagoon, including amazing fish species, sea snails, sea slugs, crabs and shrimp.
Learn about the diversity found in Alamitos Bay.
Science Shack Hours are free.
The Colorado Lagoon is at the corner of Appian Way and Colorado Street. For more information, visit http://coloradolagoon.org, coloradolagoon.org, or email firstname.lastname@example.org, email@example.com.
The staff of the state Coastal Commission is recommending a thumbs-down decision on an appeal by community activist Laurence B. Goodhue.
The commission is scheduled to vote on Goodhue’s appeal July 14 during a meeting in San Rafael.
Goodhue challenged Long Beach’s application for a Local Coastal Development Permit, allowing for the expansion of a fence enclosure and the replacement of an electrical switchboard and feeders that service public restrooms and lighting in Marina Vista Park, 5350 Colorado Street .
The staff determined that the local coastal development permit approving the upgrades to the park’s electrical system does not raise a substantial issue with respect to the provisions of Long Beach’s certified Local Coastal Program (LCP) or the public access policies of the Coastal Act.
Goodhue filed the appeal May 31, contending that the facility consumes public park space and should be relocated out of the city park. The appeal also asserts that the facility should be relocated out of the tsunami flood zone.
The City-approved project constitutes an upgrade to an existing facility that provides electricity for the restroom and lighting in a public park. It is a minor project that does not conflict with the policies of the certified LCP or the public access policies of the Coastal Act, the staff asserts.
“In this case, the city-approved project does not conflict with any … public access policies or LCP provisions as the City-approved project will not adversely affect public access, public safety, or the public’s use of Marina Vista Park.
“The proposed project is necessary to provide amenities in the public park. In response to the appellant’s local appeal, the city considered relocating the facility and determined that relocation is not a feasible alternative at this time because of the significant cost.
“The city states that the current condition of the state of the electrical facility is a public safety issue and its repair should not be further delayed. In regards to the tsunami threat, the existing facility is a minor uninhabited structure similar to existing structures in Marina Vista Park and Marine Stadium such as restrooms,” the staff report declares. | <urn:uuid:1e9c9ae3-411f-49ed-b673-5cd5b0d0a910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.presstelegram.com/greennotes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938192 | 6,284 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The case of Massachusetts David Parker who was arrested because he refused to leave a meeting where they had turned down his request for allowing him to opt-out his child from class when being taught about homosexuality. This went to the Supreme court and the court refused to intervene and allowed the schools to teach homosexuality without parents’ permission.
All I can say to this is WOW! I am very angry that a parent isn’t even given the option of NOT allowing their child to be indoctrinated with the “it’s okay to be gay” teachings! The parents involved in this case took their children out and are homeschooling, while still paying taxes for this school!
Here’s the rest of the story from WorldnetDaily.com:
LAW OF THE LAND
Decision to teach kids to be ‘gay’ allowed to stand
This despicable ruling not of the people, nor for the people, but against the people’
Posted: October 08, 2008
11:20 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A federal court decision approving mandatory public school instruction for children as young as in how to be homosexual is being allowed to stand, drawing a description of “despicable” from the parent who unsuccessfully challenged his school district’s “gay” advocacy agenda.
The U.S. Supreme Court without comment has refused to intervene in a case prompted by the actions of officials at Estabrook Elementary school in Lexington, Mass., who not only were teaching homosexuality to young children, but specifically refused to allow Christian parents to opt their children out of the indoctrination.
The case on which WND has reported previously involves Massachusetts father David Parker, who with his wife now have withdrawn their children from public schools, for which they continue to pay taxes, and are homeschooling.
The decision by the Supreme Court leaves standing the ruling from the appeals court for Massachusetts, where Judge Sandra Lynch said those who are concerned over such civil rights violations “may seek recourse to the normal political processes for change in the town and state.”
Earlier District Judge Mark Wolf had ordered that school officials’ work to undermine Christian beliefs and teach homosexuality is needed to prepare children for citizenship, and if parents don’t like it they can elect a different school committee or homeschool their children.
According to a new report from MassResistance, a pro-family organization following the case, the dispute was over the “Lexington Schools’ aggressive policy of normalizing homosexual behavior to elementary school children and not allowing parents to be notified before or after, or being able to opt-out their kids from it.”
The dispute grabbed headlines when Parker, on April 27, 2005, “was arrested and thrown in jail by school officials over his insistence on being notified regarding his son in kindergarten being taught about homosexual relationships by adults,” Mass Resistance reported.
Another family was alarmed by a similar situation a short time later as the school not only continued its indoctrination, but “became more hostile to the Parkers, and local liberals and homosexual activists did their best to harass the family,” Mass Resistance reported.
In fact, the school, led by Supt. Paul Ash, then stated in school publications they would not “compromise” on any points regarding the homosexual agenda.
“The [Supreme] court did not even bother to notify the Parkers or their attorneys,” said Mass Resistance, which said what now will be enforced in the judicial district will be the lower bench rulings that the state has not only the right but “even the obligation … to promote homosexual relationships to young children.”
“The unrelenting action of the Lexington schools to push homosexuality in the lower grades, as well as the ugly hostility of local liberals toward the Parkers and their children over this incident has taken its toll,” Mass Resistance said. “This year the Parkers removed both of their children from the Estabrook Elementary School and have been homeschooling.”
Parker gave no indication, however, he was quitting the overall battle against rampant normalization of homosexuality.
“The federal Supreme Court of the United States has tragically decided to deny our case from moving forward,” Parker said in a statement. “We have exhausted all our legal options in the federal system for the protection of young children in the public schools. The Supreme Court has cowardly turned their backs on a parental rights issue that clearly has national significance with profound consequences.
“We believe that parents have the right and sacred responsibility to defend the psyches of their young impressionable children against such child predation. This includes more forceful measures to defend against, the inculcation and penetration, of perversion into their minds, behind the parent’s back and against their will,” Parker said.
“This despicable ruling is not of the people, nor for the people, and nor by the people – but against them. We, the people, must take back our government for the sake of our children and the sake of this nation,” he said.
When Parker asked the Supreme Court for a review he noted the questions raised in the case have not been answered in previous cases. Those include: “Whether objecting parents have a constitutional right to opt their public school children out of, or even to receive notice of, undisputed government efforts to indoctrinate kindergarten, first and second grade school children into the propriety, indeed desirability, of same gender marriage.”
Also at issue is whether those schools’ “open and specific intention to indoctrinate … children into disbelieving core tenets of their families’ deeply held religious faith constitutes a burden on the families’ free exercise of religion.”
The high court previously found, the request argued, the “primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition. Aspects of child rearing protected from unnecessary intrusion by the government include the inculcation of moral standards, religious beliefs, and elements of good citizenship.”
In an earlier interview with WND, Parker warned allowing the appeals ruling to stand would “allow teachers in elementary schools to influence children into any views they wanted to, behind the backs of parents, to a captive audience, and against the will of the parents if need be.
“Teachers are being postured to have a constitutional right to coercively indoctrinate little children [into whatever they choose to teach,]” he noted.
© 2008, Carlotta Morrow. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:e9ec276c-b8b7-4a0c-8981-eb2d46f0514c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://christocentric.com/main/?p=968&cpage=1 | 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 | 0.971411 | 1,382 | 1.5 | 2 |
East Range Sec. Technical Center is located in Virginia, MN and is in East Range Sec. Technical Center School District. It is a voc/tech school that serves students in grades 7-12.
Vocational schools are public schools that offer instruction in skilled trades such as mechanics, carpentry, plumbing, and construction in order to provide practical experience and job training. Vocational schools are usually at the secondary, or high school, level. See East Range Sec. Technical Center's test results to learn more about school performance.more | <urn:uuid:5cf762f1-69fb-44e1-9c5a-8309291533d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/minnesota/virginia/east-range-sec-technical-center/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974604 | 108 | 1.6875 | 2 |
What? You haven't heard what's coming down next month?
It starts with a polar reversal — the sun will rise in the west — spurring cataclysmic earthquakes, giant tsunami and volcanic eruptions.
Then things really start to go south: ferocious fires, melting nuclear reactors, crashing buildings, howling winds, collapsing bridges, choking dust...
It's all true! Not according to some crackpot preacher who wants you to send him money, or a bed sheet-garbed doomsday prophet shouting on street corners, or to some other crazed lunatic such as Karl Rove, but according to the Mayan calendar — and after all, who has more credibility than an ancient Mexican-Central American civilization that collapsed 3,000 years ago?
Acolytes regard Dec. 21, 2012 as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar devised by the Mayans. Evidently the Mayans didn't bother continuing the calendar past then because the world is going to end that day. What's the point?
I, for one, am mighty p.o.'d about this, mainly because now it's clear I wasted hours and hours and hours — not to mention all that wear-and-tear on my back — building two woodsheds and stocking them with more than 10 cords of wood.
I won't even have gone through half a cord by Dec. 21.
I also wasted weeks building deer-proof enclosures around my vegetable garden, blueberry bushes and a mini-vineyard I planned to plant next spring — except there won't be a next spring, let alone another harvest. Damn!
I could have been kicking back with a few brewskis and a barrel full of Doritos instead of digging post holes, lugging rocks and assembling metal fences.
Speaking of Doritos, I've spent decades turning up my nose at Big Macs, pepperoni pizzas and the entire KFC menu, choosing instead to gnaw on granola, raw veggies and tofu, in the mistaken belief that it would prolong my longevity. Had I known earlier on about the impending doom I might have indulged in a few more treats.
Imagine: I'll be checking out the same day as Rush Limbaugh! Arrrgh!
Here are a few other things, in no particular order, that I wish I hadn't done:
-- Run all those stupid marathons.
-- Climbed all those stupid mountains.
-- Kayaked all those stupid rivers.
-- Swum in all those stupid lakes.
-- Skiied all those stupid trails.
-- Sailed, skated, sledded, hang-glided and otherwise moved around in the stupid great outdoors without the use of an engine.
Instead, I could have been learning how to drive a snowmobile, ATV or Jet-Ski, or how to shoot a rifle — in other words, becoming a REAL outdoorsman.
Oh well, with only a month to go there's no point in changing horses in midstream — or more accurately, now that I've almost almost reached the other side.
I might as well go back to my dish of yogurt with a side order of bean sprouts. If I finish in time there may still enough light to split a few more logs. | <urn:uuid:7d3905f2-4ec9-4508-b2b3-947888660767> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theday.com/article/20121117/INTERACT010102/121119876/0/SPORTpro | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951051 | 690 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Ok, it’s officially the holiday season—time to go out and buy “stuff”. The economy is in the pooper, people are struggling and unemployed, but they still buy “stuff”. They brave crowds in the middle of the night to buy stuff they don’t need and can’t afford.
While I am disgusted on a personal level by the commercialism, I understand it. It all started with the original Christmas when the Three Wise Men brought “stuff” to Jesus for his birthday (which happens to fall on Christmas). On a side note, as a kid, did Jesus feel ripped off every year by having his birthday on Christmas? Other kids got two special days a year and didn’t have to worry about the old “combined Christmas/birthday gift” thing.
So these wise men show up bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. According to Wikipedia, frankincense is “an aromatic resin obtained from trees…used in incense and perfumes.” Myrrh is pretty much the same thing. So one guy shows up with gold, and the other two bring stinky tree sap. Yet they all get equal billing despite the obvious disparity in the “stuff” they brought to the party. Based on that, there were actually just two wise men, and a third guy for whom the saying “a fool and his money are soon parted” was created. But if it’s the thought that counts, they all did fine. Not like it is today…
Today, people literally die in the pursuit of “stuff”. They get crushed to death, pepper sprayed, stabbed and shot. Some even get sore bunions, but that hasn’t been scientifically attributed to shopping. I actually don’t know what a bunion is, even though I could Google it in 2 seconds. I just hear that it’s something that you get on your foot that is exacerbated by standing in line for three days to save $50 on a Wii.
The cultural obsession with “stuff’ is getting worse every year, and here is my un-scientific proof: the existence of 47 storage unit businesses in every town, including ours. When I was growing up, many families had 15 kids living in a 900 square foot house, and there was no such thing as a self-storage unit to rent. Now, many people have 1-2 kids, live in a 4,000 (or more) square foot house, yet they need an off-site self-storage unit. Less people, more space, but the need for storage. Why? The proliferation of “stuff”. We have so much freaking “stuff” that we have to hoard it into extra rental space. But if it was so important we’d probably have it with us and not in storage, doncha think?
Side note to my family: don’t buy me any Christmas presents this year…I have enough stuff.
Several years ago, my wife and I decided not to exchange presents for Christmas. We thought it would be weird at first, but it wasn’t. It is one of the best things we’ve done. We still enjoy buying gifts for our kids, because it’s way more about the kids to us. About three years ago, I asked my entire extended family to stop giving me presents for Christmas, too, and most have been re-trained. I really enjoy not getting presents for Christmas. I tell them that they can go find a hungry or needy family and give the stuff—or the money—to them. That would make me happy and is a much better use of their resources.
To me, the day is not about stuff. Christmas Day is a great day of getting together with family and enjoying great food and drink with a fire and hopefully some snow on the ground. It’s about remembering that God gave us His most important “stuff”, His only son, and celebrating that. Happy Holiday Season, everyone…and try to take it easy on the “stuff”. Unless it’s myrrh. | <urn:uuid:015fd7bf-3ba6-420b-a7f3-50093fa5fe24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/eastgreenbush/date/2011/page/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974262 | 876 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Was just wondering about how shaders know which cbuffer maps to what I send in to the shader from the C++ code.
Say I have three equally sized cbuffers in a shader. Then I obviously make three calls to V/PSSetConstantBuffers. How does it know which cbuffer to put what in?
Basic question about Shader resources
No replies to this topic | <urn:uuid:558275a1-2038-4a8e-9478-76cdc0a07b94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamedev.net/topic/635387-basic-question-about-shader-resources/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956331 | 81 | 1.742188 | 2 |
BEIJING - Agence France-Presse
A Sudanese engineer points at the damage to an oil pipeline in a largely damaged oilfield in Heglig April 23, 2012. REUTERS photo
South Sudan's leader kicks off a visit to Beijing on Tuesday with the hosts keen to defuse a raging dispute between the fledgling nation and neighbouring Sudan that threatens Chinese oil supplies.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir will meet his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao later in the day for talks likely to focus on simmering tensions that saw an outbreak of open hostilities between South Sudan and the nation it split from.
China has been a key ally and the largest economic partner of diplomatically isolated Sudan, helping it become a major oil exporter and opening a new supply line for China's voracious energy needs.
But the south's split from Sudan in July 2011 and recent clashes have forced a Chinese juggling act to maintain support for Khartoum while not alienating the south, the world's newest nation and source of most of former Sudan's oil.
Beijing has called for an end to weeks of border hostilities that saw the South seize Sudan's most important oil field in the Heglig area on April 10 for 10 days, triggering widespread international criticism.
The two countries have engaged in sporadic fighting along their common oil-rich border in recent months, prompting international concerns about the possibility of all-out war.
Juba says Khartoum had been launching attacks on southern areas from Heglig, whose oil production was being run by Petrodar, a Chinese-Malaysian joint venture with Khartoum.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has threatened to crush the "insect" government of South Sudan, which provided some five percent of China's oil until it shut down production in January.
Landlocked South Sudan had been using a Sudan pipeline and port to export its crude, but imposed the shutdown in a dispute over fees for the trans-shipments.
On Tuesday Beijing expressed concern over the recent escalation of tensions, which have seen Sudan launch fresh air raids against the South, drawing condemnation from the United Nations, United States and France.
"We hope the two countries can solve their dispute through dialogue and consultation and do not take actions that may escalate the tensions," said foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin "Oil is the common economic lifeline of the two countries. Ensuring sustainable oil production serves the common interests of the two countries as well as the interests of Chinese oil companies and their partners." Li Guangyi, a professor at the Institute of African Studies at central China's University of Xiangtan, said oil will be the "main topic" of Kiir's visit, noting China
is the biggest buyer of Sudanese oil.
Kiir will plead his nation's case to Beijing, Li said, but added China
was unlikely to take sides and will continue pushing for dialogue.
"Fighting is not beneficial to (Sudan and South Sudan), but neither is it beneficial for China," Li said.
The current fighting is the worst since South Sudan won independence after a 1983-2005 civil war in which about two million people died.
Sudan accuses the South of supporting anti-government rebels from its conflict-hit western region of Darfur as well as those fighting in South Kordofan state and Blue Nile.
Clashes have continued in recent days and Jonathan Holslag, of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China
Studies, said the situation showed "the limitation of China's traditional fence-sitting".
"With most of the oil in South Sudan and the best political partnership in the north, Beijing is in a hugely difficult situation and has not much leverage over Juba," he said.
Kiir, who arrived late Monday, was due to meet Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday. He is due to leave China | <urn:uuid:099fb0cc-3b17-43f3-b773-a208bdd0f169> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/china-hosts-south-sudan-president-as-oil-dispute-rages.aspx?pageID=238&nID=19137&NewsCatID=359 | 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 | 0.965459 | 798 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Show opens Thursday, July 14 5:30 – 9:00 and tuns through September 18.
TGAS Director Matt Moffett, a nationally recognized and highly sought-after painter of pet portraits, will guide the students to create an array of dog and cat portraits in various mediums that will literally transform the Circle Cinema Gallery.
Tulsa Girls Art School Project, Inc. (Tulsa GAS) is a new grassroots nonprofit art studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our Mission Statement is “Empowering underserved girls through visual arts training.” Our goal is to provide specialized art training to talented and motivated elementary school-aged girls living in the inner city of Tulsa. Tulsa GAS is different from other local charitable organizations providing professional level art instruction by local art teachers and artists. Tulsa GAS provides a small class environment so students will have a lot of individual instruction and encouragement. Tulsa GAS wants to increase student understanding and appreciation of art and the life of an artist. We encourage the children to see themselves as artists and life-long participants in the arts and museums.
Tulsa GAS is a real life working art studio where students create art and will have the opportunity to sell their paintings during an actual evening art opening. Funds from the sales are allocated between the artist and Tulsa GAS. The young artists may use their portion of the sales proceeds to purchase personal art supplies for home use, pay competition fees or gallery entry fees, or buy college savings bonds for their future studies. This helps each student learn the process of planning, creating and executing their artwork, and goes a step further by teaching basic business skills. | <urn:uuid:099d899e-0afa-4ee8-b1fa-8d72ec7bbee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.circlecinema.com/gallery/tgas-raining-cats-and-dogs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939072 | 335 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Distance between Caracas and Balata is 754.46 km.
This distance is equal to 468.8 miles, and 407.11 nautical miles.
The distance line on map shows distance from Caracas to Balata between two cities.
If you travel with an airplane (which has average speed of 560 miles) between Caracas to Balata,
It takes 0.84 hours to arrive. | <urn:uuid:04e0474e-92b6-4e45-b8fe-7286691ca3e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.distancefromto.net/between/Caracas/Balata | 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 | 0.937656 | 85 | 1.640625 | 2 |
By Fareed Zakaria
Over the past sixteen months of bloody conflict in Syria, observers have been waiting for one key development: top-level defections from within President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle. Suddenly, it seems a pressure valve has gone off. Pilots, ambassadors, and even one general have defected. What does it mean?
The general is Manaf Tlas, a childhood friend of Assad, and an officer in the elite Republican Guard.
Tlas’s father was chief of staff and then minister of defense, for 30 years, under Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad. This is as close to the top of the Syrian regime as you might get. That’s why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took special note of Tlas.
“If people like him, and like the generals and colonels and others who have recently defected to Turkey are any indication, regime insiders and the military establishment are starting to vote with their feet,” she said.
But there are some crucial caveats. Tlas hadn’t been a member of al-Assad’s inner circle for a while – he had actually been under house arrest for more than a year.
Also, he was high ranking, but he wasn’t an Alawite. While Alawites make up only 12% of Syria’s population, they hold more than 80% of the positions in the powerful Republican Guard. They are the inner circle. According to some reports, when Sunnis are put on guard duty, there’s always an Alawite soldier assigned to monitor the Sunni soldiers.
But if the increasing number of top-level defections is a signal that the Sunni elite, which is comprised of generals, businessmen, bureaucrats and which has so far stuck with al-Assad, is now moving away from him, that’s a huge shift – and one that will ultimately bring down the regime.
There’s mounting evidence that the Sunnis are weakening in their support for the al-Assad regime. We’ve spoken with a former U.S. Marine Austin Tice. He’s now a law student and spending the summer reporting from Syria. On a recent embed with a rebel group, he said he found that the government’s helicopters flew so high that they couldn’t really aim their missiles; he also said he saw first-hand how hostile fire from al-Assad’s tanks and troops were poorly aimed and seemingly random. The suspicion among many rebels at the time, Tice says, was that the predominantly Sunni pilots and soldiers were deliberately missing their targets.
Another telling indicator of dissent is the number of silent objectors in the army. According to the New York Times, a growing number of Syrian soldiers – many of whom lack the means to flee – are staying home. But to ensure their continued silence and neutrality, these officers continue to draw salaries and pensions.
Money is the main reason to believe that al-Assad's regime cannot last. Inflation is said to be as high as 30%. According to some reports, al-Assad and his cronies are freely printing money; the Syrian pound has depreciated against the dollar by more than half on the black market. Meanwhile, the regime is running out of cash. Ninety percent of Syria’s oil used to go to the European Union, but sanctions have put a stop to that. Tourism and trade have of course plummeted. And monetary support from Iran cannot be counted on indefinitely – Tehran itself is buckling under unprecedented sanctions.
And there was a report last week that Iran is weakening in its support for al-Assad. An Iranian ambassador gave an interview in a Tehran paper criticizing his government’s support for the Syrian regime and saying that al-Assad’s days were obviously numbered.
But there's one more piece to the puzzle – the growing strength of Syria’s opposition. The Free Syria Army is getting stronger. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now openly arming the rebels, channeling through routes from Turkey, Lebanon, and now even Iraq. Rebel attacks have become more focused, running deeper into the two main cities Damascus and Aleppo. The various opposition groups are coming together to plan for a post-Assad Syria.
The question then is, what would such a Syria look like?
Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET | <urn:uuid:f010b8c6-44de-4ac6-b441-dfeb3916400f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/13/pressure-valve-off-in-assads-syria/?hpt=hp_tvbx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975905 | 919 | 1.804688 | 2 |
For Shannon Bennett and Maggie Wertz, the opportunity to continue the Montessori tradition has been a driving factor in their careers and the lives of their children. As parents of Montessori students, Bennett and Wertz graduated from the American Montessori Society to teach alongside their children before embarking on a new journey last year.
In January 2012, Bennett and Wertz took ownership of LifeSong Montessori, 324 W. Cherokee Ave., formerly Montessori Children’s World. Since starting their own Montessori school in Cartersville, the duo already has expanded through fourth grade and beginning next year will offer classes through fifth with plans to advance with the addition of a new grade each year.
“It was completely a God thing,” Bennett said. “All the teachers that are here currently all taught together at a school in Smyrna and we had a lot of change there we weren’t happy with. So we got together one day and said, ‘We can do this.’ We started that night trying to find opportunities and this school was for sale. The owners were ready to retire and were looking to move on.
“We all have children, so we would like to keep them in it as long as we can, but we also just want to serve the community and we will keep growing to do so if we can. ... We want to add a grade every year up through eighth, but we have had parents asking about high school.”
Under the direction of Larry and Carol Milam, the Cartersville Montessori school taught students through kindergarten for nearly 30 years, but Wertz and Bennett have children of their own coming up through the ranks and both have a passion for the Montessori mission.
Developed by Maria Montessori after the success of her first school, the Montessori method of teaching is, according to the AMS website, www.amshq.org, “a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. Dr. Montessori’s Method has been time tested, with over 100 years of success in diverse cultures throughout the world.”
Instructional techniques are based on whole-child development, including physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills. Montessori schools share the characteristics set forth by Maria Montessori with multi-age groupings to foster peer learning, increased independence and freedom with an emphasis on individual choice, and specifically created teaching materials designed by Maria Montessori, including puzzles, models and maps.
“The children do a lot of peer teaching, they work with each other. The older children kind of teach the younger ones,” Wertz said. “It’s very child-oriented. Instead of the teacher being the center of attention and the focus being on the teacher and all the students doing the same thing at the same time, it’s very individualized. We do present lessons to the children, but we kind of follow their lead, see what they’re interested in and see what level they’re on.
“We’re teaching academics at age 3 and 4 — letter sounds, numbers, reading and writing — but in addition to academics, we’re also teaching grace and courtesy. Children have responsibilities in the classroom, they have jobs. We teach them how to dress themselves and make their own snack, things Maria Montessori called practical life. They learn to sweep, clean up after themselves, pour water — anything you do in day-to-day life. ... You can walk into any Montessori school anywhere in the world and it won’t be exactly the same, but you’ll see a lot of the same materials and the teachers have gone through the same training no matter if they’re in the United States or India or Italy.”
For Wertz, the decision to raise her daughter in a Montessori school came from observing other students. She sees a shared love of learning in her daughter’s classmates, a trait she looks forward to sharing with the students at LifeSong.
“The thing that impressed me is that the Montessori classroom instills such a love of learning in the children. The children are passionate and I’ve seen other schools that are wonderful, but I think it’s unique to Montessori in how individualized it is,” Wertz said. “For the most part, you see very happy children who enjoy learning. My daughter is very much into art and nature. She loves botany and zoology and here, we have classroom pets, the children are responsible for taking care of them. We have gardening, the children learn how to grow plants and take care of them.”
LifeSong Montessori is open to children 2 1/2 or potty trained and includes instruction areas of Spanish and art, in addition to academics. Enrollment is open now for the fall as well as June summer camps. Parents interested in finishing out the current school year also may contact LifeSong. Open house opportunities are available throughout the spring or contact the school for private tours.
For more information, visit www.lifesongmontessori.com or call 770-382-0109. LifeSong also can be found on Facebook by searching for LifeSong Montessori School. | <urn:uuid:69c914a2-09be-4f87-9b24-7d6280ab785a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://daily-tribune.com/view/full_story/21926624/article-LifeSong-Montessori-expands-offerings--adds-vision-for-future?instance=main_article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970654 | 1,125 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Counterclockwise from top: Oldsmobile Aerotech, Buick Questor, Corvette Indy, Oldsmobile Expression, Honda Pilot. (Top photo shared under GFDL license, originally posted here. Bottom row photos courtesy of their respective manufacturers).
NEW YORK Concept cars at American auto shows were once pure flights of fancyshowcases of "What if?" and experiments in "What's that?" While our foreign friends still get to see their fancy fly higher than an Amsterdam coffeehouse, car companies have moved our shows away from the dangers of creative expression and taken a step toward the cold comfort of creamy vanilla.
Designer concept cars have fueled the imaginations of auto-show gawkers since the 1930s-era world's fairtaking a short break to build green Jeeps with stars on the side in the '40s, then starting again with the flying concept car of the 1950s, through concepts fueled on flights of a different kind in the '60s and '70s and even into the cash-strapped Japanese invasion of the 1980s. Even into the late '80s, I remember each January when I would take a breather from the horrors of the cola wars and walk through the floor of the Detroit auto show to see concepts that seemingly had sprung from designers' dreams.
There were strange concepts like the Plymouth Slingshot and Speedsterand highly advanced ones like the Buick Questor and Oldsmobile Expression. One of my favorites was the swoop-lined midengine 1986 Corvette Indy; it had a beautifully organic-looking shell and bubble top that would have been at home in any sci-fi movie set in the early 31st century. I also remember the beautiful 1987 Oldsmobile Aerotech, a car that looked more like the University of Michigan-built solar racer than any production car I've ever seen. Both were the works of talented design teams seeking to fill a show-goer's mind with thoughts to induce an adrenalin-fueled cold sweat.
What's that you saysomething about concepts being showcases of future technologies? Sorry, I can't hear youI'm a little lightheaded from all the fanciful flights my mind's taking on this journey through the stratosphere of memory lane. But sure, you're right: Neither of GM's concepts were entirely flights of fancythey served a purpose. Beneath that beautiful shell, the Corvette concept showcased all sorts of advanced "magic" technology like an in-dash screen linked to a rear-end camera, ABS brakes, electronic traction control and an active suspension system. All happen to be features now found in the current Corvette. Except that fancy-schmancy camera thing. That's way too far out there for a 'merican brute like the Vette. But it is an option in the Silverado.
Similarly, the Oldsmobile Aerotech was designed to have one of the most aerodynamic shells ever built. The one I remember seeing was really just the first of a series of experimental vehicles built between 1987 and 1992, all designed to do nothing but break auto speed records. That first one did just that with A.J. Foyt at the wheel during the summer of 1987 (world closed-course speed record of 257.123 mph; thanks, Wikipedia!). GM was so thrilled with the creative aerodynamic successes of the Aerotech they immediately used none of the designs and shuttered Oldsmobile. I'm assuming it was just to make sure none of those creative juices escaped.
But while both concepts did showcase advanced technologies and features, they looked nothing like the malaise-era cars we remember seeing on the road at that time. That swoopy styling was exactly what made them special. But at some point between yesterday and today, something began to change. It may have been in 1989 with the reveal of the Dodge Viper, a concept so close to reality we still can't tell the difference between it and the first generation of the snake-bitten supercar. Perhaps it was the Chevy Highlander concept in 1994, distinguishable from the upcoming S-10 extended cab only by the two-tone chartreuse-and-purple paint job and the sliding driver-side second door. Regardless of when the actual date was, at some point, something moved our shows from a showcase of the spectacular to a showcase of the sleep-inducing.
And what a snooze fest. In recent years we've been treated to such yawngasms as the "concept" Pontiac G8, the "concept" Dodge Challenger and the "concept" Ford Flex. The most creative change of the three from concept to production was the Flex's original name, "Fairlane." Yep, they changed the name. Now that's creative. Most recently we were treated to the "concept" Honda Pilot in Detroit; this "concept," I'm told, is indistinguishable from the "production" version for 2009. I'm sorry, but none of these vehicles are or have ever been what I'd call a "concept." Automakers should call 'em what they really arepreproduction models. Because if automakers are calling these vehicles "concepts," then I'm calling them lame. In fact I'm calling shenanigans on the whole process. Shenanigans. There, I said it.
Popular Mechanics contributor Ray Wert is the editor-in-chief of Jalopnik.com. | <urn:uuid:8f1086e8-ee8f-4253-ba19-2a2ad2f44bc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/shows/4255003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959897 | 1,098 | 1.601563 | 2 |
SAN RAMON -- Chevron's Richmond refinery, hobbled since early August by a disastrous fire, is expected to resume full production sometime during the first three months of next year, Chevron executives said Friday, which could spell relief from high gasoline prices for California drivers.
"The crude unit remains offline. We have an expected startup during the first quarter of 2013," Mike Wirth, executive vice president for downstream and chemicals operations for Chevron, told analysts during a conference call to discuss the company's weaker-than-expected earnings for the third quarter.
An investigation continues into what caused a crucial pipe to corrode, contributing to an equipment failure that triggered the fire at the crude unit, which is central to the vast East Bay refinery's operations.
"This is the most definitive statement we've made about a startup of the unit," said Kurt Glaubitz, a Chevron spokesman.
The company has estimated that production is at 60 percent of capacity at the 245,000-barrel-a-day plant, one of the largest on the West Coast.
"Chevron wants to get that back up and running as soon as possible, not only for the company's sake, but for the sake of California motorists," said Brian Youngberg, an analyst with investment firm Edward Jones. "The fire has made gasoline supplies in California pretty tight."
Three months after the fire, gasoline prices in the Bay Area on Friday averaged $4.03 a gallon,
The company intends to continue operating its Richmond and Southern California refinery in El Segundo despite what is generally considered a rough regulatory environment in the Golden State, Wirth said.
"The West Coast refinery business is a core business," he said. "These refineries are big, and they are more profitable than the competition. We have weathered the cycles here. We can make a go of it in California if anybody can."
Chevron executives warned that Assembly Bill 32, officially known as The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, will cause gasoline prices to spike in California.
"It will raise costs for operating in California initially by hundreds of millions of dollars a year and then by billions of dollars a year," Wirth said. "All of those higher costs have to go through to the gasoline market. We can't absorb those higher costs. We won't absorb those higher costs."
San Ramon-based Chevron earned $5.25 billion during the third quarter that ended in September, down 32.9 percent from the year-ago July-September quarter. Per-share profits totaled $2.69 a share. Wall Street had expected a profit of $2.83 a share.
"Crude oil prices were down, and we had a heavy period of planned oil field maintenance, which temporarily reduced oil and gas production," Chevron CEO John Watson said in a prepared release.
Chevron expects production to improve in final months of this year.
"The company is getting into the final phases to get these projects online," said Robbert van Batenburg, head of equity research at Louis Capital Markets.
New oil and natural gas fields are also making considerable progress in Australia, Sierra Leone, the Gulf of Mexico and New Mexico.
"Chevron has a lot of long-term growth potential," Youngberg said. "They have a lot of projects. That growth will really kick in during 2014. Australia is the cornerstone for all that."
Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at Twitter.com/george_avalos. | <urn:uuid:87b2d90f-9535-48cb-b460-c3b214efee29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidebayarea.com/my-town/ci_21913254/chevron-profits-slump-because-falling-oil-and-gasoline | 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 | 0.968563 | 725 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In 1985, after being captured following the murder of a Spanish businessman, Sebastián Rodríguez was sentenced to 84 years in prison for his part in the killing and other leftwing terrorist attacks.
On Thursday night, however, the Spaniard will line up on the blocks for the final of the men's 50m freestyle S5 at the Aquatics Centre, in a bid to add a 13th Paralympic medal to what must be one of the most extraordinary CVs of any London 2012 athlete.
Rodríguez, now 55, prefers not to talk about his time as a member of Grapo, an ultra-leftwing armed group listed by the EU as a terrorist organisation. "I only want to talk about sport now," he said in 2000, when his violent past emerged after the Sydney Games, in which he won five gold medals and broke four world records.
The Spaniard lost the use of both legs while in prison after going on hunger strike for 432 days, but had told Paralympic officials he had been injured in a road accident. Despite calls for him to be stripped of the medals, the International Paralympic Committee ruled that he had not broken any Games rules and would be allowed to keep his awards.
"If we start knocking back athletes because of their political or personal or moral or religious persuasions, we get into very deep water," a spokeswoman from the Sydney Paralympic organising committee said at the time.
He went on to win further medals at Athens and Beijing.
Rodríguez was 26 in September 1984 when he was a member of a gang which assassinated Rafael Padura, a Seville business leader. In 1990, he refused food in a bid to have jailed Grapo members brought together in one prison, coming close to death at points and ultimately losing the use of his legs.
In 1994 Rodríguez was paroled under a Spanish law which says the seriously ill should not be kept in prison and in 2007 he received a government pardon despite protests from Padura's family, who said he had never expressed remorse.
"The past cannot be erased," Rodríguez has been reported as saying. "There is no use in beating me in the chest and demanding that I repent."
The Maoist group, which never had widespread support, has never formally dissolved but has not been active since 2007, according to Spanish police.
Earlier on Thursday, Rodríguez won his heat in the S5 50m freestyle – in which he holds the world record – qualifying second fastest for the final. He will also compete in the men's 100m and 200m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Speaking after his heat, Rodríguez described the atmosphere at the Games as amazing. "You are making us feel like what we aim to be, like what we are, like what we hope in future will be increasingly accepted that we are, like 100% sportspeople." | <urn:uuid:0684f4f8-dbb4-4553-b6fb-6a153eb01262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/30/paralympics-spanish-swimmer-violent-past | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986538 | 617 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The opening of the new T-Third streetcar line in San Francisco was supposed to be a crowning accomplishment for the Municipal Railway, an ambitious project that promised to accelerate economic revitalization and community pride in the city's struggling southeastern neighborhoods.
Instead, the 5.1-mile rail service expansion revealed profound flaws in the city's heavily used public transit system, unleashing a torrent of pent-up public scorn.
The problems run deep and have been years in the making. Severe staffing and funding shortages, inadequate and outdated communications equipment and maintenance facilities, and political inertia have created an operation damned by unreliability.
For riders, that means service delays -- the bane of any mass transit system. The Muni-was-late excuse wears thin for riders who regularly show up tardy to work, school, jury duty and child care.
So while Muni is the busiest transit operation in the Bay Area, arguably making it the region's most successful, it also is one of the most reviled.
"Our customers feel that on any given day, they don't know what kind of Muni they're going to see. The status quo is not acceptable. We have to do better, and we will," said Nathaniel Ford, who assumed the top job at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency last year.
Muni's success is essential not just for riders but for the city as a whole. The better the transit system, the more likely people will get out of their cars, and that means less traffic congestion and air pollution.
Muni provides nearly 700,000 trips a day -- almost double the number of BART -- and operates 80 routes, covering every neighborhood in San Francisco, from the Sunset to the Mission, from the Bayview to Pacific Heights.
The system is designed so no one should live more than a quarter-mile from a transit stop. Except for the $5 cost to ride a cable car, which caters primarily to tourists, the most pricey Muni trip is $1.50 -- cheaper than a bus or subway ride in most U.S. cities.
"When Muni's great, it's great. It gets me anywhere I need to go in the city," said Susan Goldman, a 34-year-old produce manager who lives in the Castro. "But when it's bad, it's really bad. A trip that should take a half-hour can take more than an hour. You just never know. And that's what's so frustrating."
Nothing demonstrates that problem more clearly than the $648 million T-Third project.
The new route came in more than $120 million over budget and more than a year behind schedule.
Even before the line's official April start, Muni had been scrambling to find enough working streetcars and drivers to serve the rest of the city. Then the bare-bones agency had to make do with existing staffing and equipment on the T-Third, which runs from Visitacion Valley at the Daly City border to the Market Street subway tunnel downtown.
Not only has the line been hampered by delays, many of them caused by technical glitches, but the problems also reverberated throughout the entire Muni Metro rail system, causing backups and overcrowding that affected commutes from one side of the city to the other. Related changes to bus service, including the elimination of the popular 15-Third line, also angered riders.
In response to those concerns and after conducting its own assessment, Ford announced Tuesday that route adjustments would be made at month's end with the goal of resolving some of the problems.
The addition of the T-Third "showed us just how precarious the situation is," said Daniel Murphy, a longtime riders advocate involved in the group Rescue Muni and the chairman of a citizens committee that advises the Municipal Transportation Agency. "There just aren't enough operators or maintenance staff to do the job."
Chronic money problems
So how can an agency with nearly 5,000 employees and a budget of more than two-thirds of a billion dollars teeter on the verge of meltdown?
The answer can be found in a combination of factors, key among them financial.
"Want to know what's wrong with the agency? The resources don't match the expectations," Murphy said.
Muni's proposed $670 million budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 is skeletal. The proposal includes money to step up hiring of drivers, maintenance workers and street supervisors. But any other upgrades are minimal.
"There is no question that Muni needs more money. We will not fix Muni without it," said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR, a civic think tank that has called for a much bigger investment in the transit system.
SPUR estimates that Muni is chronically underfunded and would need as much as $1 billion more through 2015 to make the needed improvements and meet the public's demand for a reliable system. That squares with an assessment by city officials, who found that Muni is short between $100 million and $150 million a year.
To put that in perspective, the city now spends $78 million annually to run the entire public library system, around $100 million to operate the whole recreation and park department and $107 million to operate the jails, which house more than 2,000 inmates a day.
Muni's budget has followed San Francisco's roller-coaster economy.
In the early 1990s, during Frank Jordan's tenure as mayor, City Hall grappled with year after year of $100 million-plus budget deficits.
"The economy just tanked," City Controller Ed Harrington said. Deep cuts were made throughout city government, including Muni.
That led to a revolt at the ballot box, with voters stripping away much control of the budget from the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. Voters mandated dedicated funding for police staffing, libraries, open space projects and children's services.
Muni's turn came in 1999, a year after the infamous "Muni Meltdown," when the subway system neared collapse due to the malfunction of a new train-control system, human error and poor management decisions. At one point, during the summer of 1998, a train full of passengers traveled for four stops without a driver. Other times, passengers scrambled on foot from the tunnels when their trains got stuck for extended periods and no one from Muni could tell them when they might start up again.
Proposition E -- which passed with a City Hall-better-pay-attention 61 percent -- stabilized the amount of funding Muni gets directly from the city.
But the fiscal problems were not solved.
Now Mayor Gavin Newsom has a task force looking at everything from fare hikes and tax increases to plastering more advertising on Muni property to pumping extra money into the system. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, meanwhile, wants to place a measure on the November ballot that would funnel Muni more revenue from parking meters, parking fines and city-owned parking garages.
But it won't be easy to convince voters that the agency is managing its money well and deserves more of it.
An audit earlier this year by the City Controller's Office found Muni failed to collect 4 in 10 cable car fares. Muni officials later acknowledged a problem with people also sneaking on buses and streetcars or boarding with bogus passes and promised to crack down on fare cheats.
And Newsom responded by suggesting that the city consider eliminating fares altogether, possibly saving on collection costs. Fares account for 22 percent of the annual Municipal Railway budget -- below the national average of 34.2 percent. The controller is analyzing the idea of free Muni. No major transit agency in the nation has a systemwide fare-free policy.
Demand for better service
Prop. E didn't just stop the money drain at Muni. It also imposed service standards and deadlines to improve problems with crowding, timeliness, customer satisfaction, and fleet and operator availability.
Buses, streetcars and cable cars are supposed to be on schedule at least 85 percent of the time. The goal has yet to be reached, although it has improved from a decade ago when the fleet showed up as promised about half the time.
On-time performance has hovered around 70 percent during the past few years. It started to climb higher earlier this year, but the launch of the T-Third erased what progress had been made.
The link between improved reliability and money can be found in the results of a three-month pilot project Muni recently conpleted on the 1-California bus line. The project boosted on-time performance to 88 percent, up from 81 percent.
The added cost for that brief period to improve just one line was $168,000. The money paid for more street supervisors to keep the buses on schedule, overtime pay to make sure no runs were missed if a driver didn't show up to work and a crew of parking control officers assigned to the route to keep traffic lanes clear of double-parkers to move buses through more quickly.
The 1-California is a component of the Transit Effectiveness Project, a top-to-bottom assessment of Muni operations set to be completed around the end of the year.
The project is an in-depth analysis of Muni's schedules, routes and ridership patterns. It is supposed to provide the data needed to overhaul the system and make it run more efficiently and build ridership. The challenge will be implementation. Redundant lines may be eliminated, bus stops taken away and routes changed -- any and all of which can generate opposition even if the end result creates a better Muni.
The last major restructuring was 25 years ago, when San Francisco was a different city in terms of traffic congestion, job centers and travel patterns.
Not only are about 65,000 more people now living in the city, but more of the people who are living here commute to other cities for work. The past two decades also have seen a surge of new development in the South of Market and the southeast sector, and new neighborhoods have taken root in the Presidio, in Mission Bay and on Treasure Island.
In addition to the financial demands, the 1-California pilot project revealed that adequate staffing is crucial.
Muni needs 2,178 drivers to make sure all runs are covered, said Ken McDonald, the agency's chief operating officer. But there are roughly 150 vacancies, and training is barely keeping pace with attrition. On top of that, about 240 drivers are out on long-term leave.
On any given day, an average of 16.5 percent of the remaining force is absent for illness, vacation or other reasons. While that's better than six months ago, it's still worse than the industry average, McDonald said. The shortage of drivers means that runs are missed.
In the most recent report issued by Muni, 3 percent of the bus runs and 3.5 percent of the train runs were missed during the first three months of this year. That's a 50 percent improvement from six months ago, but every missed run means that riders have to wait longer at their stops.
"And when someone's bus is late, that's all that matters," Newsom said.
Muni also is down street supervisors -- the people directing the fleet. They keep buses from bunching and prevent bottlenecks from forming in the subway stations.
At one time there were 100; now there are 48.
There also are more than 200 vacancies in the maintenance division.
Budget cuts over the years also targeted analysts, schedulers, planners and other back-office support staff -- the people who make sure that the resources Muni does have are being put to the best use.
In 2005, the city, pressed for money, imposed a hiring freeze at Muni for more than a year. The system has yet to recover.
"We didn't get ourselves in this situation overnight, and we're not going to fix the problems overnight," said Ford, a seasoned transit administrator who last worked in Atlanta. "We are digging out, and once we get there we want to make sure we never end up in this situation again."
Newsom, who is running for re-election this year, said his proposed budget for the new fiscal year includes money for Muni to help replenish the ranks. But it still won't be enough.
Harrington, the city controller, cautioned against an overnight miracle: "It takes a long time to dig yourself out."
Labor and politics
How Muni workers do their jobs is just as important as how many are on the payroll.
In San Francisco, a strong labor town, Muni workers and management have fought for years over pay, work rules, discipline, absenteeism and scheduling.
The ballot measure proposed by Peskin, the Board of Supervisors president, would give Muni management new leverage at the bargaining table. Now, salaries for Muni drivers are set by formula, making them the second-best paid in the nation, behind the Valley Transportation Authority in Santa Clara County. Muni operators make $27.08 an hour.
Under the Peskin plan, if the drivers want a pay hike they may have to give a little somewhere else, such as rules governing absences and termination. It also would give management more flexibility to hire and fire more mid-level managers.
The unions oppose the plan.
"We see (the proposed ballot measure) as making the operators the scapegoat for Muni's problems," said Irwin Lum, president of Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, which represents the drivers. "The problem is that we don't have enough resources."
The proposal, now pending before the Board of Supervisors, is politically tricky. Muni needs employee cooperation to improve the system. If the workers feel they're under attack, they could easily cause a service slowdown.
Muni workers don't cop to having used that tactic, but in 2003, when then-Muni boss Michael Burns was trying to reduce the use of overtime and apply other cost-cutting measures, drivers in large numbers called in sick over a three-day period. That resulted in dozens of missed runs.
Today, with Ford and Lum at the helm, both sides credit the other for working in partnership to make improvements.
Peskin's proposal has strong political underpinnings. In a joint editorial Peskin penned with Supervisor Chris Daly in the left-leaning weekly Bay Guardian, the pair hammered Newsom for allowing Muni service to deteriorate.
The "system has broken down on his watch," said the two supervisors, who oppose Newsom's re-election. "Apologies are not enough. It's clear that significant additional Muni reform is necessary."
Newsom said this past week that he does not support the current version of Peskin's proposal but may sign on to an amended version. The mayor did not specify what changes he would like to see.
When Newsom was running for re-election on the Board of Supervisors nine years ago, around the time of the Muni Meltdown, a handwritten sign in his office said, "It's the Muni stupid." He took the lead at City Hall to work with Rescue Muni and SPUR on winning voter approval of the Proposition E ballot measure.
One of the underlying principles of the ballot measure was to reduce political meddling by elected officials at City Hall by putting Muni under control of a semi-autonomous agency.
But Newsom knew then, as he knows now as he's running for a second mayoral term, that Muni is a bread-and-butter issue for a San Francisco politician and that his performance will be judged, in part, on Muni's.
Willie Brown, Newsom's predecessor in the mayor's office, learned the hard way.
"When I sought the office of mayor, I said in 100 days I would fix Muni. Well, unfortunately, someone recorded me," Brown said in 1998 near the end of his first term. "I meant it when I said it, because I believed Muni needed some tinkering here and there. I had no clue that for more than 25 years, Muni had been virtually starved."
Fast-forward to 2007, and this is what Newsom says: "When it comes to fixing Muni, who wants to do that more than me? Perhaps, literally, no human being more than me. I'd love to be able to go, 'Snap. Twinkle, twinkle. Everything's perfect.' But that's not going to happen. It will take time, but we're headed in the right direction."
He points to two things in particular: The new administration team now running Muni, which includes not just Ford but new managers in charge of finances, construction, information technology, operations and public relations, and the Transit Effectiveness Project, which one day may lead to a major overhaul of schedules and routes.
All Meredith Serra can do is hope.
She has experienced Muni's ups and downs over the past 30 years as a rider. She gets a ride to the Glen Park BART station in the morning, where she takes a train to her insurance company job near Civic Center. At night, she relies on Muni to get her home in the city's West of Twin Peaks area.
She's suffered through packed trains and breakdowns that extend her commute time when all she wants to do is get home.
"It's aggravating. Not always, but enough of the time," said Serra, 50. She said she doesn't doubt that Newsom and Ford and other city officials want to make Muni better, "but I have yet to see the evidence and my patience is running out."
Who runs Muni?
The Municipal Transportation Agency, which includes the city's public transit system and the parking and traffic operations, is governed by a 7-member board appointed by the mayor. The Board of Supervisors has the power to reject the appointments.
Source: San Francisco City Charter
A Muni reform measure, Proposition E, approved by San Francisco voters in 1999, stipulated: Reliable, safe, timely, frequent and convenient service to all neighbor-
-- A reduction in breakdowns, delays, over-crowding, preventable accidents;
-- Clean and comfortable vehicles and stations, operated by competent, courteous and well-trained employees;
-- Support and accommodation of the special transportation needs of the elderly and the disabled;
-- Protection from crime and inappropriate passenger behavior on the Municipal Railway; and
-- Responsive, efficient and accountable management.
Source: San Francisco City Charter
Muni service standards
-- The longest wait for a bus should be no more than 20 minutes.
-- All homes in San Francisco should be located within a quarter mile of a Muni route that operates at least 19 hours a day.
-- At least 85 percent of the vehicles must run on time, defined as no more than one minute early or four minutes late.
"I am not saying that the Muni system, after years of neglect, will be fixed in a few weeks. I maintain that our riders should be able to notice a marked improvement in the service that we provide in the near future. I want the Muni to be the preferred way for people to get around the city and make connections to the greater Bay Area. The challenges for (the agency) are many and long-standing. However, we are striving to overcome these obstacles. I am taking the necessary steps to implement best business practices that will keep the agency moving forward."
Nathaniel Ford, 45
Executive director, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
"I missed the original Muni Meltdown, as I moved to the area shortly thereafter, but it's really hard for me to imagine that it could have been worse than it is now. I've walked home on two occasions (since May), having grown weary and frustrated waiting for N-Judahs. My commute used to take 35 to 50 minutes; it's consistently over an hour now with several two- and three-hour commutes."
Ray Birmingham, 35
Lives in the Outer Sunset, works near South Beach
"I'm motivated to be on time. At the end of my run, if there's available time in the schedule, I want to eat, I want to go to the bathroom, I want to call my wife, my kid, maybe read a book or take a walk. As a driver, I'm on schedule probably 90 percent of the time. The problem with Muni isn't the drivers. It's the lack of resources. This is a major transit system and it needs hundreds of millions of dollars more. The money should come from a downtown transit assessment district."
David Reardon, 60
Muni driver for five years
Routes: 1-California, 5-Fulton, 45-Union/Stockton
"This morning, at 7:35 a.m., I boarded the M-Balboa Park streetcar at 19th and Holloway, hoping to ride to the Balboa Park BART Station. When we arrived at San Jose and Broad streets, a strange sequence of events occurred: After allowing a large number of adults and children to board, the driver announced that this was the end of the line, and everyone had to get off. I noticed, as I disembarked, that the outside signs were changing from 'M-Balboa Park' to 'M-San Jose & Broad.' I would not have gotten on in the first place without having been misled by the original destination sign. Fortunately, another streetcar arrived in a few minutes, which did take us to Balboa Park. Although I lost my seat, and barely got on the second (overcrowded) streetcar, at least I wasn't late to work today; but I was late to work when this scenario took place in late April, except that another streetcar never showed up."
Larry Oppenheim, 57
Lives in Ingleside Terrace, works South of Market
Average speed of buses San Francisco 8.1 mph East Bay (AC Transit) 11.7 mph New York City 7.9 mph Boston 11.1 mph Chicago 9.8 mph Los Angeles 12.5 mph Philadelphia 10.4 mph Washington, DC 11.2 mph Seattle 15.4 mph Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency The Chronicle
Number of Muni vehicles Diesel buses 495 Electric buses 333 Metro streetcars 151 Historic streetcars 26 Cable cars 40 Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
How San Franciscans get to work Drive alone 41% Ride public transit 31% Carpool 11% Walk 9% Other 8% Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Municipal Railway budget over 10 years Muni's proposed $670 million budget for the fiscal year that $668 starts July 1 includes money to step up hiring of drivers, maintenance workers and street supervisors. But any other upgrades are minimal. 1997-98 $307 million 1998-99 $334 1999-2000 $375 2000-01 $411 2001-02 $463 2002-03 $444 2003-04 $465 2004-05 $487 2005-06 $581 2006-07 $668 Source: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency | <urn:uuid:a05bffba-ed3a-4365-a193-3c02528e9cc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/WHEN-IT-S-BAD-IT-S-REALLY-BAD-Unreliability-2588195.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967099 | 4,780 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course - the distance between your ears.
I'm about five inches from being an outstanding golfer. That's the distance my left ear is from my right.
They throw their clubs backwards, and that's wrong. You should always throw a club ahead of you so that you don't have to walk any extra distance to get it.
A heart truly in love never loses hope but always believes in the
promise of love, no matter how long the time and how far the distance.
The number of medals on an officer's breast varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of his duties from the front line.
The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.
Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars.
In true love the smallest distance is too great, and the greatest distance can be bridged.
A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.
Age, like distance lends a double charm.
Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations.
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.
Distance is a great promoter of admiration!.
Distance lends enchantment to the view.
From a distance it is something; and nearby it is nothing.
Old people see best in the distance.
Respect is greater from a distance.
The distance is nothing it is only the first step that costs.
The shortest distance between two jokes makes a perfect speech.
There is no greater distance than that between a man in prayer and God.
Sorrows are like thunderclouds - in the distance they look black, over our heads scarcely gray.
Distance is a great promoter of admiration!
Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence
There is growing awareness of the beauty of country ... a sincere desire to keep some of it for all time. People are beginning to value highly the fact that a river runs unimpeded for a distance... They are beginning to obtain deep satisfaction from the fact that a herd of elk may be observed in back country, on ancestral ranges, where the Indians once hunted them. They are beginning to seek the healing relaxation that is possible in wild country. In short, they want it.
Beauty is composed of many things and never stands alone. It is part of horizons, blue in the distance, great primeval silences, knowledge of all things of the earth... It is so fragile it can be destroyed by a sound or thought. It may be infinitesimally small or encompass the universe itself. It comes in a swift conception wherever nature has not been disturbed. | <urn:uuid:4bae70d1-28bc-4ce6-8572-f57cae8e599e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.finestquotes.com/quotes/on/Distance/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955662 | 596 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Mississippi Queen Scrapped By Minnesota Doucheby Brad Warbiany
I’m not overly sentimental for relics from the past. When it comes to the history of a place, my view is less sentimental and more “what have you done for me lately?”
But the last thing I want to do is use the force of government to stop other people from enjoying such experiences. Which makes this just seem ridiculous:
Barring a last minute reprieve, America’s last proper paddle-wheeled steamboat may disappear by the end of the year. For decades the Delta Queen has been one of the most magnificent sights on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, forging through the water as her calliope steam organ blasts merrily away.
But it looks as though the federal Coast Guard, applying the same regulations to riverboats as to ocean-going ships, will no longer allow the Delta Queen to carry passengers on overnight excursions. The problem is the wooden superstructure, the white wedding-cake of decks above the boat’s mighty hull. In 1966 federal regulations banned any vessel with wooden superstructures from carrying more than 50 passengers on anything longer than day-trips. Congress granted the Delta Queen an exemption because she is never more than a few hundred yards from the safety of the river bank should a fire occur. Since then, the exemption has been extended nine times. But probably not for a tenth.
The Delta Queen, based in Ohio, may not be the safest boat on the sea. But given some of the safety features incorporated (advanced sprinkler system, etc), and rigorous regular Coast Guard inspections, I see no reason why a National Historic Landmark such as this should be barred from operation in this manner. So who’s standing in its way? Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar, whose Wikipedia page describes him as something of a safety czar and nanny extraordinaire:
An avid cyclist, Oberstar has been a champion of creating trails for cycling and hiking to promote healthy living and more active lifestyles. In 2005 he authored and had passed the Safe Routes to Schools act, a $200 million program that helps school districts address the growing problem of childhood obesity by building biking and walking paths to schools, hiring crossing guards and promoting safety programs.
Yep, it’s all about safety. After all, 104 years ago, a wooden boat caught fire in a tragic accident.
In opposing any exemption Mr Oberstar cites the example of the General Slocum, which caught fire in New York harbour in 1904. More than 1,000 people were killed, making it the worst man-made tragedy in the city until September 11th 2001.
1904?! Saying that we shouldn’t allow boats with wooden structures today, based on an accident from 104 years ago, is like saying we should tear down the Golden Gate bridge as a result of the Tacoma Narrows failure.
Of course, there are more nefarious explanations, such as the fact that a Congressman from Minnesota’s “Democratic-Farmer-Labor” party just happens to be blocking the exemption of a boat that recently ceased it’s contract with the Seafarers International Union, a group which has donated to “Friends of Jim Oberstar”. But hey, I’m sure it’s all about safety. | <urn:uuid:be90880c-614c-405f-890c-4bb5c853e839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2008/07/28/mississippi-queen-scrapped-by-minnesota-douche/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947601 | 690 | 1.617188 | 2 |
“The works…have an air of fragility, they are temporal but at the same time question something bigger than the here and now” – Michelina Docimo
~~ Delighted to share the art review in CULTURE CATCH on my series Stop Holding Your Breath - “small threaded text based works on paper, is my exploration on slowing down in our culture of speed and often chaos, to connect and communicate, responding vs. reacting… ” http://culturecatch.com/art/ula-einstein
“Drawing Revealed” Exhibition at the Garrison Art Center, which includes the film “Artists in Conversation” – White Hall Productions
“Opening a Window on the Creative Mind”—Benjamin Genocchio
“Ula Einsteindraws with thread, fire, and fine wire, weaving delicate, minimal patterns of her own devising onto sheets of drawing paper.”
…Closer inspection reveals a greater formal diversity, with the practice of drawing explored from many points of view…
The modern enthusiasm for drawing is not entirely new, for in the 16th century there was a lively trade in drawings, not only among artists, who collected drawings by other artists, but also among wealthy patrons. Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo sold for tremendous sums — those of the Sistine Chapel were especially prized…
We tend to value drawings for their immediacy and freshness, perceiving them to be a more authentic, unadulterated impression of the artist’s original creative vision. In them, we believe we can discern the purest manifestation of the mysteries of artistic inspiration and apprehend a creative idea in its essential traits.
I met the vibrant Italian women ( producer, and photographer) in NYC, from labiennale tv in 2010 where they first saw my work at an exhibition in NYC.
Returning to NYC in 2011, they called to feature my work in their documentation about culture in NYC. | <urn:uuid:a53a01c4-3641-4e95-8d3c-ce6acb8d39ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ulaeinstein.com/category/press/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935312 | 413 | 1.515625 | 2 |
German officials signal Berlusconi isnt their man
By MELISSA EDDY
The New York Times | February 21,2013
Media mogul and former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi gestures during a political rally in Rome, Italy, on Wednesday.
BERLIN — Asked in September if she feared a comeback by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany appeared at pains to hold back a smile as the room erupted in laughter.
“I am, as you know, a democratic politician and respect the outcome of elections in every country,” she told reporters in Berlin.
Five months later, the possibility that Berlusconi could return to play a role in the next Italian government is no longer a laughing matter for Merkel’s government. As Italy’s elections approach Sunday, German officials have begun, in not-so-subtle ways, to signal to Italians not to vote for him.
“Silvio Berlusconi may be an effective campaign strategist,” Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso quoted German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as saying in an interview last week. “But my advice to the Italians is not to make the same mistake again by voting for him.”
A spokesman for the Finance Ministry later disavowed the comment. But any German warning runs the danger of creating the opposite effect, by elevating Berlusconi’s stature as he runs a populist campaign aimed at appealing to Italians weary of the austerity measures that Merkel has pushed as the prescription for the euro crisis.
The bad blood runs both ways. Signs of the dislike between Merkel and Berlusconi have swirled for years. Last fall, media reports surfaced that the former Italian leader had made unflattering remarks about Merkel’s appearance in telephone calls wiretapped by investigators. He denies having said them.
Nonetheless, attacking Merkel is part of Berlusconi’s campaign. Tuesday, he told Italian radio that he was the victim of a “half coup” when he resigned in November 2011, blaming Merkel for rattling markets by ordering German banks to sell their Italian bonds.
He has accused Germany of strangling European growth by trying to impose its economic views across Europe, which he attributed to Merkel’s upbringing in Communist East Germany.
“That’s like imposing on all European citizens that men should wear size 42 shoes and women size 40,” he told a cheering crowd of business leaders in northern Italy on Monday.
Berlusconi has also been critical of the fiscal compact between European countries, which calls on nations to balance their budgets, as an example of the steely discipline that earned Merkel the nickname of her 19th-century predecessor Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor.
German investors, meanwhile, blame Berlusconi and his center-right People of Freedom party for dragging Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy, into the crisis.
They worry that any government involving the former prime minister could reverse changes set by Mario Monti, the economist who replaced Berlusconi.
“Italy needs politicians in leadership that can be associated with the future,” Ruprecht Polenz, a leading member of Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, said in the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “Mr. Berlusconi certainly does not stand for that.”
Although the chancellor is unlikely to comment on the outcome of the Italian election, members of her cabinet and party made clear her government’s position in comments published Tuesday.
Merkel’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that “whoever forms the new government, we think it is important that the pro-European course and the necessary reforms be continued.”
Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s spokesman, underlined in comments to reporters later Tuesday that the foreign minister’s view was shared by the whole government in Berlin.
The likelihood of Berlusconi’s getting into office is regarded as slim in Italy, although most recent polls show his coalition narrowing the gap between itself and the center-left coalition to single digits.
But the fears of a Berlusconi revival extend even beyond Berlin.
“The future of the eurozone is at stake,” the French newspaper Le Monde wrote in an editorial published Tuesday. | <urn:uuid:b5d1676b-58e0-4f84-9343-5a89fb730f83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rutlandherald.com/article/20130221/NEWS04/702219848/0/sports | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965473 | 922 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In the first test of resilience after January's payroll tax hike, consumers achieved a passing score as they went shopping and bought more than economists had expected.
The results showed up Wednesday in the Commerce Department's January retail sales numbers, and they were a relief to investors who have been fond of companies that depend on consumers' discretionary spending. The stocks have climbed almost 7 percent this year.
Economists liked the numbers too. They had predicted that a 2 percentage-point jump in the payroll tax would cause people to hold on more tightly to their cash and would take a toll on the economy's recovery.
Then came the Michigan consumer sentiment survey Friday, and the second resiliency test was positive too. Consumers had shaken off the gloom that overtook them in December as Congress bickered about the "fiscal cliff" and the nation's debt ceiling. The latest numbers showed Americans feeling more optimistic about the future.
But the tests are not over. And Bloomberg on Friday suggested a different type of score. It referred to an internal Wal-Mart report in which a vice president said sales at the start of February were the worst in seven years and referred to them as "a total disaster."
That made investors second-guess discounters and other retailers that cater to moderate-income customers. Wal-Mart stock fell about 2 percent, and companies such as Target and J.C. Penney followed.
Still, the tests are inconclusive because some companies haven't finished the process of taking higher payroll taxes out of paychecks on a routine basis.
Economists had expected the largest impact of the payroll tax hike to be on lower-income shoppers, or those who tend to buy at stores such as Wal-Mart. But they have been surprised up to now that there seemingly has been little impact from the tax increase.
In a note Thursday, Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius said that although he had estimated the higher tax would shave 1 percent off personal consumption expenditure growth for the first half of 2013, there has been little evidence in hard data.
And he noted that although taxes have climbed, individuals have also had the advantage of 3 percent real wage and salary income growth since summer.
Chris Christopher, an economist with IHS Global Insight, also noted that consumers might be feeling more optimistic than expected because the stock market and home prices have been rising and providing people with an increasing sense of wealth.
The good news from the stock market continued last week, with the Standard & Poor's 500 completing its seventh week of gains. It closed at 1,519.79, with investors clearly waiting for evidence from the economy that there remains enough strength in the economy to propel stocks higher.
Gold investors should not be feeling as comfortable as stock investors. The SPDR gold trust exchange traded fund has declined 5.26 percent in the last three months, and gold on Friday hit a six-month low of $1,596 before settling at $1,609 a troy ounce. The precious metal was struggling after reports that prominent hedge fund managers such as George Soros have been selling gold holdings. | <urn:uuid:f0fa6617-861c-48f6-805a-1ec08a161c9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/community/educationsource/ct-biz-0217-gail--20130217,0,2888094.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980226 | 627 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Training and Safety
Video contest offers English Channel flight prize
A video contest promises to send one American woman to the United Kingdom for a general aviation flight across the English Channel in celebration of an aviatrix’s historic flight 100 years earlier.
The organizers of Women of Aviation Worldwide Week events, which celebrate milestones of women in aviation and aim to get more women flying, are holding the “Across the Channel: Women Unifying Nations” video contest to mark the 100th anniversary of Harriet Quimby’s flight across the channel. The winner will be flown from England’s Headcorn Airport to France’s Le Touquet Airport in 2012, in a general aviation aircraft to celebrate Quimby becoming the first woman pilot to make the flight, on April 16, 1912. The winner also will receive an airline ticket to Europe, local transportation, food, and accommodations for the trip.
“Who is this American woman who will be the guest of honor in two countries: England and France?” the Women of Aviation Worldwide Week website reads. “She is old enough to travel to Europe alone, she dreams of flying, she is curious about other cultures, she respects traditions, and most of all, she is highly enthusiastic about life.”
No pilots, please: Women of Aviation Worldwide Week events focus on reaching out to nonpilot women, and the video contest is open to American women who do not hold a pilot certificate of any kind. Contestants must submit a video up to three minutes long with their application package explaining why they want to be there for the re-creation of Quimby’s flight. The winner will use social media to report on the event, scheduled for March 10, 2012. Videos will be accepted between Dec. 19 and Jan. 29. After the top three contestants are announced on Feb. 3, public voting will select the winner.
AOPA is a sponsor of Women of Aviation Worldwide Week and the video contest. Find more information, contest rules, and instructions for submitting entries online.
Two runner-ups will receive a free flight in the United States during Women of Aviation Worldwide Week. The week of women-focused events is held annually during the week including March 8, which marks International Women’s Day and the anniversary of the issuance of the first female pilot license worldwide; it is designed to celebrate women’s history, raise awareness of aviation opportunities among women, and introduce girls and women to aviation through collaboration in the industry.
December 14, 2011 | <urn:uuid:b8d0df3f-2555-4299-b4c0-0a9fa884a522> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aopa.org/training/articles/2011/111214video-offers-english-channel-flight-prize.html?WT.mc_id=&wtmcid;&WT.mc_sect=stf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940165 | 518 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Franz SCHREKER (1878-1934)
Der ferne Klang(1901-1910) [144:23]
Grete: Sally Du Randt (soprano)
Fritz: Mathias Schulz (tenor)
Dr. Vigelius: Stephen Owen (bass-baritone)
Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Choir of the Augsburg Theatre/Dirk Kaftan
rec. live, 3 March, 6-7 April, 5 May 2010, Augsburg Opera House, Germany
ARS PRODUKTION ARS 38 080 SACD [70:05 + 74:17]
A victim of the Nazi purge on “degenerate art”, Franz Schreker can be categorised as a late-romantic composer whose expressionism put him beyond acceptability in later life. In fact his operas are hardly radical and Der Ferne Klang need have no fears for anyone who admires Richard Strauss’s works in the genre. This opera was first performed in Frankfurt in 1912, and was the event which catapulted Schreker into the front rank of composers in his time, and he was almost immediately was appointed as a teacher at the Vienna Academy of Music. Summed up all too simply, the plot of Der ferne Klang or, ‘the distant sound’ is one which involves an artist, Fritz, who abandons his fiancé to go in search this phenomenon, which he believes will allow him to produce the perfect work of art. Each of the three acts takes us many years into Fritz’s life of gradually increasing desolation, and he eventually dies, finally hearing “Der ferne Klang” while on his deathbed.
This recording has been put together from live performances given in the Augsburg Opera House in the spring of 2010, and as far as I can tell is the only recording available in SACD format. I seem to remember reading about some drama about the production itself, with director Nicholas Broadhurst having to withdraw just after the commencement of rehearsals, his place being taken by Renate Ackermann. There are in fact very few complete recordings of Der ferne Klang around but all seem excellent. Mathias Schulz has already appeared in the role of Fritz in a recording with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra as an Amazon.com download which I haven’t heard. The Naxos recording conducted by Michael Halász (see review) has a very strong cast and is very fine indeed. The Capriccio label also had an excellent recording under Gerd Albrecht, 60 024-2, but this now appears to be out of print, though is worth tracking down for its dramatic production, glossy orchestra and intriguingly managed off-stage effects in the first act. Neither of these is last two is ‘live’, but while this Ars recording is subject to one or two stage bumps and the characters moving about on stage, this is actually an aspect of the production which is quite appealing, especially in surround-sound. The 5.1 recording really gives the feeling of being in amongst the action, almost like being a prompt at the front of the stage but in a good spot to hear the orchestra properly at the same time. There are a few moments where the solo voices drift ‘off’ a little, but this is a small price to pay for such vivacity. The photos give a fair impression of the sets and action, but any proper judgement on that kind of thing has to be reserved for any DVD release which may be in the pipeline. The booklet provides the entire libretto but only in German, and has very full commentary on Schreker and his opera, including some subjective but well researched ‘sketches’ by Ulrike Kienzle.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this opera, and can imagine myself coming back to it in the same way I frequently dip into the operas of Janáček. The story goes against much of what makes romantic opera tick: there is no wicked enemy or much in the way of passionate rivalries, but the shimmering, at times almost luminous aural picture carries everything into a world of atmosphere and personal strife. Schreker’s romantic idiom is easy to appreciate and, while he doesn’t go in for impressive set pieces or big tunes you can take out with you onto the street, his colorful orchestration and frequent moment of luxurious harmony means there is never a dull moment, and the pacing and content of the story is believable, the characters and their foibles almost credible. Mathias Schulz is very strong as the central Fritz, as is Sally du Randt as his love interest Grete. The off-stage choral effects are well presented; the orchestra very full sounding even in the relatively confined opera house environment, and there are some lovely touches, such as the prominent cimbalom part for the ‘Zigeuner’ music early on. The effect of the final climax is pretty overwhelming, the subsequent apotheosis very moving indeed.
Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang may not be performed all that often, but it makes an impression when it is: my mate Graham of Leeds still raves about an Opera North production from about 20 years ago. All in all this can be counted as a very welcome, indeed significant addition to the operatic record catalogue. Yes, Gerd Albrecht’s Capriccio recording with the distinctive voice of Thomas Moser with Gabriele Schnaut is more emphatically acted and ultimately perhaps makes a more dramatic impact, but since this is unavailable it can’t be counted as competition. The refinement of Michael Halász’s Naxos recording, originally on the Marco Polo label, is very good, but the central character played by Thomas Harper has less oomph than Mathias Schulz, though Elena Grigorescu makes for a fine if rather high-maintenance Grete. This recording from Dirk Kaftan can be purchased fearlessly, and enjoyed with the confidence that it’s one of the best available, and the best and only on SACD.
One of the best available. | <urn:uuid:87cb1904-d176-4796-afef-00f1dc1008ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Schreker_FerneKlang_ARS38080p.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960737 | 1,303 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Moment of the Year, 1996? Ali, of course. Ali emerging from the darkness, from the past, from the recesses of our imagination. Ali, a ghost in white, materializing after midnight to accept the flaming torch high on a ledge in Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies of the Atlanta Games. The massive crowd rising, straining to see who would have the honor of lighting the cauldron, and then crying "Whooooaaa" in astonishment, the "Whooooaaa" washing into a "Whoop," a hands-to-the-sky celebration.
How much finer than the other fine moments? As much as Michael Johnson finished ahead of the field in the 200-meter final—that's how much finer. First because of the surprise, the most known face on the planet showing up at the most unexpected instant. But more so because it was loaded, this simple moment, loaded with so much more meaning than anything a man could do in any game or any race.
For here was the perfect counterpoint to all the power and youth and majesty assembled on the field below. Everything around Ali, everything that would unfold in the following 2½ weeks, would sell and smell of limitlessness, of dreaming the dream. And there stood Ali, saying, Yes, it can be that, but, no, it's never just that...by saying nothing. By simply standing there, alone, the torch shaking in his hands, the former gold medalist and heavyweight champion struggling to accomplish a moment's stillness.
As he strained to light the world's largest wick with the world's largest matchstick, it became clear: Every grand human event, every instance of pomp and ceremony, should have its aging man with Parkinson's syndrome, its reminder of change and frailty—not to file the sharp and shiny edges off of the spectacle but to permit the experience to achieve its truest roundness.
Moment of the Year, 1996? You take the sudden and the swift, the whooshes and the swooshes. I'll take the trembling still life. | <urn:uuid:d011da62-8834-47b8-a048-251138714242> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://quicktime.cnnsi.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1009299/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963256 | 426 | 1.539063 | 2 |
some of my goals in life:
(1) go to graduate school
(2) visit all the Groms in NYC
(3) teach an adult beginner in piano
I have no idea why I just thought of it, but I imagine it would be fun. I have taught little kids before, so I have dealt with the one side of the spectrum. I am an adult advanced, so I have a little insight into the adult side of things. (Sort of. Sometimes I feel like I am torturing my professor because try as she might to be subtle, her signs of displeasure are incredibly obvious. Maybe I’m not the best adult student.)
I think part of the allure of teaching an adult beginner is that they ‘understand’ a whole lot more right off the bat and do not need the teacher to be particularly ‘fun.’ I do not need to be smiling and “good job!” all the time and give out stickers. Stickers are always nice, though.
What would I do in the first lesson? It would have to be rather long one, perhaps one to two hours. The rest of the lessons can be as short as the adult wants them, but the first lesson’s length must be longer than usual. I would start with a regular kid’s beginner book and read through it with them, getting the reading basics down– this is a note, this a staff, this is a time signature. Along the way, I would just teach them basic hand positions. Afterwards, I would assign them the entire book to practice (around 20 to 30 little songs) for the upcoming week. I would also assign scales– C and D major.
At the second lesson, I would ask if they had any problems or any questions, and would randomly ask them to play some songs from the book that I had assigned. We would go over the scales. If everything is satisfactory, based on their musical preferences, I would then start them on a ‘real’ piano piece but easy, probably something jazzy and contemporary, since there really is no end of them these days. I think as adults we already have a strong preconception of what we like, so it is better to play songs that we want to play. Playing pieces you like is a stronger motivator than a scary teacher.
After these first few lessons of settling in, I would boil down lessons into a formula. First, the student would play one or two scales, and a bit of finger exercises like the cute ones in A Dozen A Day. Afterwards, I would help them on the two or three pieces that they picked themselves to practice. At the end of the lesson, they would hand in some written music theory homework. I will not be demanding them to write counterpoint, but just some basic music theory that everyone should know once they have progressed to a certain level.
Of course, this is all very broad, because not all students are alike and may have difficulties in different areas and may be interested in different things (god forbid I get a student who likes playing arpeggios). The other reason about the vagueness is, well, I am not a professional piano teacher-person.
Have you ever taught anyone anything seriously? What did you think of the experience? Or if you have never taught anyone, what was it like being on the receiving end? Did your piano teacher scare the willies out of you, like mine? | <urn:uuid:23518cf2-dc30-4d66-8628-f990dcae977f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theinnocentlam.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/musings-id-love-to-teach-an-adult-beginner-in-piano/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980756 | 717 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Hollister, the US developer and producer of medical care products launched its European distribution center in Etten-Leur in 2008. It currently employs 45 staff and has a five year growth plan that includes expansion of the logistics department, employment of an additional 15 personnel and potential concentration of the company’s labeling process in Brabant.
Hollister is world-renowned in the field of medical products for ostomy care, continence care and wound treatment. Their mission is to help medical professionals provide better products and services, improving patient quality of life.
The company started developing and manufacturing innovative medical products in 1948 and now services more than ninety countries worldwide. Medical products are manufactured in Ireland, Denmark and US and distributed by a worldwide network of offices and distribution centers. Hollister’s activities place great demands on logistical operations.
Hollister started formulating new logistics plans in 2005, at which time the company was managing European distribution from centers in Germany and the UK. When the German center could no longer meet demand and fire destroyed the UK distribution center, plans were fast-tracked and the company started looking for a new location.
Many potential sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and northwest France were put under the microscope. Hollister “quickly discovered that Brabant is a logistical dream. The location between the major ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp is ideal. We have two international airports within close proximity, in Schiphol and Brussels, and we are relatively close to both England and Germany, where our main clients are established.”
Labor costs, work ethics, workforce flexibility and building costs strengthened Brabant’s position. For an international company like Hollister, communication in English is very important. The high degree of proficient English spoken in the Netherlands and Brabant was a key factors ensuring that “the locations in other countries disappeared from Hollister’s radar.”
The new site in Etten-Leur will supply Hollister’s customers throughout Europe. The company has invested approximately € 10 million in the new distribution center, but predicts that concentrating distribution on one center will produce long-term cost savings. Immediate advantages have already been seen as the 11,000 m² in Etten-Leur costs the same amount as the 6000 m² that the company had in Munich and has been constructed to the latest standards, optimizing fire and theft protection.
The support and services that Hollister received from regional development associations, the government and other service providers have contributed to the successful opening of their new European distribution center.
The role played by the BOM was invaluable, as Hugh Berry, Hollister’s Logistics Services Manager for Europe explains: “You would not believe the amount of knowledge that BOM has, and the networks that they have access to. BOM pointed us towards a number of engineers, of which we eventually chose Groenewout. They supervised the entire organization of the construction. The municipal government was also extremely cooperative regarding the land transaction and the permits. They all did an excellent job.” | <urn:uuid:7049d079-4331-485c-bb63-0da1bcf46d96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foreigninvestments.eu/testimonials/smart-solutions/logistics/hollister.html | 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 | 0.96378 | 634 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Press contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-2905
Public contact: Center for the Book, (202) 707-5221
Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362
February 1, 2005
"The Maltese Falcon At 75" Is Topic of Center For The Book Program On Feb. 15
To mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of Dashiell Hammett’s "The Maltese Falcon," literary scholar and Hammett specialist Richard Layman will present an informal talk, "The Maltese Falcon at 75," at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15, in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the Library’s Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. Organized by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the program is cosponsored by the Mystery Writers of America, one of the center’s national reading promotion partners. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.
Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County, Md., in 1894 and grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. After many kinds of jobs, he went to work for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. His career as a detective was interrupted by service as a sergeant in World War I. In 1922 his stories began appearing regularly in pulp magazines, notably "Black Mask." By the late 1920s, he was the unquestioned master of detective story fiction in America.
"The Maltese Falcon," published in 1930, featured detective Sam Spade. The reviewer for the "Times Literary Supplement" said that "The Maltese Falcon" was "not only probably the best detective story we have ever read, it is an exceedingly well-written novel." In "The Thin Man," Hammett’s fifth and last novel, published in 1934, Hammett introduced Nick and Nora Charles, perhaps his best known characters.
During World War II, Hammett again served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. He died in 1961 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Richard Layman, vice president of Bruccoli Clark Layman and Manly Inc., publishers of reference works in literary and social history, is a leading authority on Hammett. He is the author of "Dashiell Hammett: A Bibliography" (1979), "Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett" (1981) and editor of "Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon: A Documentary Volume" (2003). He is the guest editor of a forthcoming issue of "Clues: A Journal of Detection," which is devoted to Hammett.
In the introduction to his documentary volume, Layman states: "‘The Maltese Falcon’ has endured because it rewards so many types of readers. It can be read and enjoyed as an entertaining story, or it can be reread to reveal its many complexities. It is a sophisticated detective story, a drama, a morality tale, a history lesson and a study in cultural geography. It is a novel about honor, duty, professionalism, the philosophy of perception, the nature of authority, the power of lust, greed, betrayal and the falsity of the American dream."
Established in 1977 as a public-private partnership, the Center for the Book uses the resources of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books and reading. For information about its activities and those of its affiliates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, visit its Web site at www.loc.gov/cfbook.
# # # | <urn:uuid:21d08b55-4582-494d-ac59-dc821e44f27c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-012.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 | 0.953594 | 764 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Betsey Vernizzi, an orthopedic nurse at St. Anthony Medical Center here, recalled a course she took nearly 20 years ago in nursing school. ''It was called ethics,'' she said. ''I was taught to say 'Yes, sir, no sir.' If a doctor walked into the nurse's station, you gave him your chair. I called them 'Doctor.' They called me Betsey.' '' At St. Anthony now, there is a doctor whose first name is Louis. ''We call him 'Louie,' '' she said.
Nurses have also complained forever of menial chores that take them from their real business of caring for patients. But Margaret Taylor, a nurse-manager in the intensive care unit of one of Humana Inc.'s four hospitals here, can now turn to the ''green people,'' student aides in green smocks. ''They run specimens to the labs,'' she said. ''They run and Xerox things. They get prescriptions from the pharmacy. We pick up the phone, dial H-E-L-P and they're there.''
With many employers' new willingness to accommodate nurses in these and other ways, the worst of the great nursing shortage that arose in the last half of the 1980's may finally be over. The employers' accommodations of nurses, moreover, are likely to presage accommodations they will have to make to people in many other occupations as the 1990's unfold, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
Demand for Special Skills
For years economists have been warning that the decline of the birth rate since the mid-1960's means the working-age population in the 1990's will grow at half the rate at which it grew in the 70's and 80's. Barring a long recession or a surge in immigration, businesses will be hard put to find all the people they will need.
Worse, workers with special skills will be much harder to find because of a mismatch between employers' expected needs and the ability of school systems to meet them. Those workers, especially, will have the upper hand in bargaining for pay and working conditions.
''Employers are going to market jobs the way you might market a car,'' said Audrey Freedman, a labor economist at the Conference Board, a business research organization in New York. '' 'Come to us. We'll give you what we think you want.' ''
Gene Remoff, vice president for human resources at ARA Services Inc. in Philadelphia, which operates 250 nursing homes, said, ''If you want somebody to take that job, you have to sell it.''
An Economic Harbinger
The expected crunch in the national labor market struck nursing hard and early for two reasons: One was the booming demand for health care, and the other was the fact that nursing combines the worst of many occupations: bad hours, difficult conditions, the emotional toll of helping the sick, low wage growth, high stress and the stigma of women's work.
But many people find great personal reward in being a nurse. ''A doctor's not there day by day,'' said Miriam Gravatte, 44, assistant manager in the pediatric intensive care unit at a Humana Hospital. ''He's in and out. We have a relationship with the patient. He has a relationship with a chart.''
Kathi Zanni, a 29-year-old colleague of Ms. Gravatte's, said: ''Nursing is taking care of people. It's a back rub.''
Maid Service as Incentive
To recruit such people today, hospitals and employment agencies are packing the help-wanted columns of newspapers with advertisements promising nurses high pay, more of a say in their jobs and in hospital management, bonuses of $3,000 and $4,000 for coming aboard, bonuses for staying, bounties for finding recruits, freedom to set their own schedules and free tuition for advanced courses. Some employers even offer maid service and free housing for those who are willing to shuttle from city to city to relieve demand for medical care. | <urn:uuid:d8a82b83-97e1-4a6e-b60b-f2ff11efbd18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/06/us/nurses-get-vip-treatment-easing-shortage.html?src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970301 | 822 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Some of the countrys best-known multinational corporations closely guard a number they dont want anyone to know: the difference between the number of their employees here and abroad.
So secretive are these companies that they hand the figure over to government statisticians on the condition that officials will release only an aggregate number. The latest data show that multinationals cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.
Some of the same companies that do not report their jobs breakdown, including Apple and Pfizer, are pushing lawmakers to cut their tax bills in the name of job creation in the United States.
But experts say that without details on which companies are contributing to job growth and which are not, policymakers risk flying blind as they try to jump-start the hiring of American workers.
Its an important piece of information that the American people should have, said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Should you listen to the kind of advice these companies have about how to grow the economy when their record and their model indicates theyve cut jobs? Or should we talk to people who actually do create jobs in the United States?
As the country faces an unemployment crisis, President Obama, lawmakers and business lobbyists have all touted the countrys biggest companies as critical to creating jobs.
The head of Obamas jobs council, General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt, said during a tour of a company plant in Greensboro, N.C., that firms should be ready to answer questions from the public.
If you want to be an admired company, you better know, you better have accountability, and you better think through where the jobs are, he said.
GE breaks out its employment numbers in company filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2010, about 46 percent of GEs 287,000 employees worked in the United States, compared with 54 percent in 2000.
But many firms, including some whose executives have counseled Obama on the economy, do not put their number of U.S. workers in their annual reports.
IBMs chief executive, Sam Palmisano, has met a number of times with the president, most recently in July at a lunch with other executives to talk about jobs and the economy. IBM stopped giving its U.S. head count in 2009.
We just made a policy that we would only break out global head count, spokesman Doug Shelton said.
Data from before 2009 showed IBM rapidly shifting workers to India. Dave Finegold, dean of the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, estimates that 2009, when the company stopped sharing its U.S. employment figure, also marked the first time the company had more employees in India than the United States.
Finegold based his number on reports from the media, third-party groups and former employees who have tried to track the number.
IBM can do as it wishes, and the rest of us have to guess, said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for AllianceIBM, a group trying to unionize IBM workers.
You wont find Procter & Gambles U.S. head count in its filings, either. When initially asked for the number, company spokesman Paul Fox wrote in an email: We do not track nor report U.S.-specific jobs numbers vs. jobs overseas.
After it was pointed out that P&G chief executive Bob McDonald cited such figures in a Cincinnati Enquirer op-ed piece, Fox acknowledged the company did track that data. The number of U.S. employees is 35,000 out of 127,000 total, or 28 percent.
Other companies that do not reveal their job breakdowns include Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Apple and Pfizer, which stopped reporting the number in its SEC filings in 2000.
The latter two are part of a coalition of companies pushing for Congress to give them a tax break on money they have parked overseas, saying that any money brought back to this country would spur hiring.
There is no law requiring companies to reveal publicly where their employees are based. Companies can choose to include the breakdown of jobs here and abroad in their SEC filings for the benefit of shareholders. But they are required by law to report the numbers to the Commerce Department, which compiles a yearly report on total employment by U.S. multinationals.
Ray Mataloni, a staff researcher at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, said the government gets the numbers only with the agreement that it will not disclose firm-level data.
I dont think its a question of companies feeling like theyre hiding dirty laundry by not giving this information out, Mataloni said. I dont think they really have anything to hide, but I dont really know the logic of why thats something they dont just put in their annual report. | <urn:uuid:6814c4c1-5ab1-4346-9bae-32e2f7590c69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110828/BIZ13/308289982/1031/BIZ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968729 | 991 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The father of a child has a legal responsibility to provide for the support, medical and other needs of his child. In South Dakota, that responsibility includes child support payments to the child's mother or legal guardian. Children have rights of inheritance from their father and may be eligible through him for benefits such as life insurance, Social Security, pension, veteran's or disability benefits. Additionally, children benefit from knowing their father's medical history and any potential health problems that can be passed genetically.
The South Dakota Department of Social Services, Office of Child Support Enforcement helps parents establish a financial partnership. Staff at eight field offices help locate non-custodial parents, establish paternity, establish or modify child support and medical support orders, enforce support orders, and collect and process support payments.
For more information contact the Office of Child Support Enforcement at 605-773-3641 or visit its web site at http://dss.sd.gov/childsupport/. The following links to the Department of Social Services provide additional information:
For more information contact the Office of Child Support Enforcement at 605-773-3641 or visit its web site at http://dss.sd.gov/childsupport/.
Statutory child support guidelines can be found at SDCL 25-7-6.1 through 25-7-6.17. | <urn:uuid:561cbcc8-a632-463d-b085-825084b8a3fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://doh.sd.gov/abortion/father/ | 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 | 0.940132 | 271 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Now that retailers have made the peace with credit card companies, allowing them for the first time to pass along processing fees to consumers, can we expect higher prices at the cash register?
In California, at least, the answer is no.
State law prohibits retailers from tacking on an extra fee for using plastic (although discounts for paying in cash are hunky-dory).
"Credit card companies can change their rules, but they cannot change California law," said Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.
That said, consumers may be hard-pressed to know whether processing fees are nevertheless being slipped into store-shelf prices.
"A lot of merchants will consider it a cost of doing business and will raise all their prices," said Linda Sherry, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Consumer Action. "Consumers won't know if this is for the processing fees or not."
At issue is a settlement last week between millions of merchants and Visa and MasterCard, plus a handful of leading banks. The card industry agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle a lawsuit alleging that processing fees were deliberately kept at high levels.
Merchants pay an average of 2% of each credit card transaction to Visa or MasterCard to process the sale, regardless of whether the customer bought a BMW or a piece of Bazooka bubble gum. But their past contracts with card companies prevented them from passing along these costs to consumers.
Under the terms of the settlement, retailers will now be free to charge higher prices to reflect those costs — if state law allows. About 10 states have no-surcharge laws similar to California's.
And, of course, merchants will also have billions of dollars in settlement cash to split among them.
"The money is significant, but money is only temporary — it's here today and spent tomorrow," said Mallory Duncan, vice president and general counsel for the National Retail Federation, an industry group. "What we need are changes in the rules that bring about transparency and competition that would be here for years to come."
By that, he means charging 2% per sale is too darn much, especially considering that card companies process millions of card transactions daily and thus enjoy huge economies of scale. He'd also like to see processing fees printed on people's receipts, a practice now blocked by Visa and MasterCard.
Consumers have long been the odd man out when it comes to so-called swipe fees. Visa's and MasterCard's rules for merchants have prevented us from knowing how much is being charged, and have forced retailers to swallow such costs.
On the debit-card side of the fence, the Federal Reserve last year capped the base fee that can be charged to process a sale at 21 cents, well below the previous average of 44 cents. The Fed determined that a 21-cent fee (plus a little extra for fraud protection) is a "reasonable and proportional" price for moving money in the digital age.
If 21 cents is a reasonable amount to process a debit-card sale, how is it, retailers wondered, that they can be charged $2 in fees when someone buys a $100 pair of shoes using a credit card?
The card companies have yet to come up with a good answer to that question, and it appears they're hoping merchants will stop asking if their pockets are bulging with settlement greenbacks. But merchants should keep pressing, on behalf of their customers, for greater transparency.
For too long, an oligopoly of card companies and banks has called all the shots for use of plastic and has steadfastly refused to disclose actual costs of doing business. This has left virtually everyone — merchants, consumers, lawmakers and regulators — to make their best guesses as to fair prices.
"More price disclosure and choice is a good thing," said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "Right now, consumers don't know how much the different types of payments cost. Consumers can make better choices with more information about cost."
So last week's settlement was a step in the right direction but not the end of the story.
California consumers are still protected by the state's law against surcharges for using plastic, but it will be up to us to ensure that we're getting a fair deal.
As Consumer Action's Sherry observed, this may be tough. You'll need to do some serious comparison shopping to get a sense of whether a particular merchant may be trying to do an end run around the law with higher prices.
Don't be shy about asking whether a discount is available if you pay with cash or a debit card. Merchants don't always advertise the fact that two prices might exist.
And if you think you're getting penalized for using plastic, don't hesitate to take your business elsewhere. "That's the only way merchants will know that they've gone too far," Sherry said.
Dropping a line to the attorney general's office probably wouldn't hurt either.
David Lazarus' column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5. Send your tips or feedback to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:cc9a0b41-b3d2-4654-ba30-3b1470b04108> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/17/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120717 | 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 | 0.963739 | 1,074 | 1.625 | 2 |
An investigation into a BBC "Newsnight" program that proved flawed has concluded that its production was marked by a series of "unacceptable" failures, the BBC said Monday.
It vowed to move quickly to strengthen the editorial process and restore public trust in the venerable British broadcasting organization.
The "Newsnight" program, which aired on November 2, focused on allegations of child abuse from the 1970s and 1980s at children's homes in Wales. It said that two victims had alleged that a Conservative, Thatcher-era politician -- whom it did not identify by name -- had been among their abusers.
The report was prepared in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which had worked in the past with the BBC and other media outlets on investigative stories.
After Internet speculation identified Lord McAlpine, a senior political figure of the 1980s, as the abuser, the victim admitted he had identified the wrong man.
The BBC aired an apology the day after the program was broadcast, but it did little to contain the fallout from the false accusation.
The investigation into the program was carried out by BBC Scotland Director, Ken MacQuarrie, who noted that the complex story had moved from commission to transmission in six days, an unusually short period for the BBC.
In addition, the program's editorial management structure "had been seriously weakened since the editor stood aside and one of the deputy editors left the organization," it said.
At the time, the BBC had established a separate chain of command for all stories related to Jimmy Savile, its late TV presenter who has been accused of sex abuse.
But it was not clear whether the Wales story was regarded as Savile-related, McAlpine's report said. "As a consequence there was ambiguity around who was taking the ultimate editorial responsibility for the Newsnight report, particularly in the days leading up to the day of transmission," it said. | <urn:uuid:89dfea7b-3d94-4502-aa18-7c91248256a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/national/BBC-report-contained-unacceptable-failings/-/11797450/17367584/-/item/0/-/gupau3/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983962 | 385 | 1.679688 | 2 |
We want to dedicate ourselves more to the disabled children of Ethiopia. It is a sector of the child population, which is incredibly vulnerable, children who have virtually no present or future.
Sami, the education delegate of the Akaki kebele (neighbourhood), who as you know is blind, is bringing blind children, who are normally shut in their homes, to school. He also brings children with mental disability. These are children who are permanently locked up and many times tied up in their homes because their families have to go to work and don’t have any other way of avoiding that they endanger themselves.
At the Akaki Mengist school there are only two classes for these children. So we need to build more classrooms. To begin with we had thought that one day we could construct a completely new school, but Akaki Mengist has offered us land to construct more classrooms for the blind and deaf children. This option is cheaper and has the advantage that the classrooms will be in a school that is already up and running. The physically disabled will be able to work in the vegetable garden, which will be made bigger.
We also want to fulfil another dream: the creation of a kindergarten for blind babies. This will be at Abugida, at the entrance to the school.
We have achieved much in the four years that we have been in Ethiopia. The challenges have been big but so have the achievements. We want to continue doing things in Ethiopia. The people need us and there is much more work that needs doing. The sub city of Akaki continue proposing us more pre and infant schools but we cannot take on any of these projects if we don’t increase our number of members. We proposed to the head of the sub city that he too becomes a member of Mediterranea… a little humour never comes over badly.
In summary, followers of Mediterranea, we start 2011 with much motivation, and don’t want to forget to say thank you for being there and thank you all for allowing us to do what are doing. Hopefully the family of Mediterranea will continue growing and allow us to do even more. | <urn:uuid:37938a1b-7b79-4398-a99c-23cc7c69ff69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.directhelpngo.blogspot.com/2011_01_02_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978013 | 443 | 1.757813 | 2 |
If you’re not yet familiar with IFTTT, you might want to check it out. It’s a ridiculously simple site that allows you to write basic protocol tasks. Want all the photos you take on Instagram to be automatically uploaded to Dropbox? IFTTT allows you to write a “recipe” of triggers and actions to do just that.
If only the world were that simple.
The irony is, many of us have been educated and act as if we live in a world that runs on IFTTT-based principles. Seth Godin tells the perfect story about an IFTTT industry that was destroyed in the span of three years. Even science, which defines the conditions under which life can exist through a human lens, gets thrown a loop when some newly discovered bacteria thrives in arsenic.
The world we live in ignores protocol in favor unpredictability. We need to design our behaviors and thinking to deal with what I call IFTTW—If This Then What?
As much as I like a well-conceived strategy, I’m becoming more enamored with the guile of adaptability and resourcefulness. It’s becoming less about the plan, and more about the makeup of your team. This scene from Apollo 13 epitomizes IFTTW thinking.
Certainly you’ve worked with IFTTT personalities—people who need rigid structure in order to function at a high level. The engineer or developer who tells you it can’t be done that way. The teacher who says follow the instructions I’ve laid out. The CEO who insists “This is the way we do things here.” Then there’s another group of thinkers who are able to assess an unseen situation and improvise a solution. I would argue that in today’s digital world—where new technology regularly turns things upside down—the latter group is far more valuable.
In addition to a plan, learn new thinking patterns and create new habits that make you more agile and better able to deal with uncertainty. A team of IFTTW thinkers will be ready for anything.
Has your business or organization encountered an IFTTW situation? (I know we’ve experienced several here at Translator). If so, how did you deal with it? | <urn:uuid:dcbf1bab-3e1d-4334-8f3e-81e568960f82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.translatormke.com/tag/apollo-13/ | 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 | 0.952139 | 475 | 1.5625 | 2 |
When Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke announced a new round of unconventional monetary stimulus last month, he couched it in the language of grim necessity, saying:
The employment situation…remains a grave concern…Fewer than half of the 8 million jobs lost in the recession have been restored…5 million Americans have been unemployed for more than six months, and millions more have left the labor force—many of them doubtless because they have given up on finding suitable work.
That was the rationale for an aggressive new effort to buy $40 billion worth of long–term mortgage–backed securities per month until…well, who knows? And the chairman said the Fed would keep the federal funds rate—now at 0.25%—at “exceptionally low levels” through mid–2015, six months longer than previously planned.
In a speech in Indianapolis Monday that’s well worth reading, Bernanke claimed that
although monetary policy cannot cure the economy's ills,…we do think it can provide meaningful help. So we…are going to do what we can do and trust that others, in both the public and private sectors, will do what they can as well.
Trust whom? Congress? The Obama administration?
Bernanke’s new policy was an implicit admission that despite everything his agency—and Congress, and two presidents, with TARP, various stimulus programs, and tax cuts—had done, the economy and employment were still in a rut.
In other words—mine, not his—the Fed had failed to accomplish its goals. (I’m sure the chairman would disagree, although Fed spokespeople didn’t respond to my request for comment by deadline.)
Bernanke went to great lengths to defend his actions. In his speech at the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August, he actually tried to quantify how successful his various rounds of “quantitative easing” were—in academic lingo that made the wonkiness of Wednesday’s presidential debate sound like a series of clever ad jingles.
He said simulations done by the Fed showed the policies “have provided significant help for the economy…As of 2012, the first two rounds of [quantitative easing] may have raised the level of output by almost 3% and increased private payroll employment by more than 2 million jobs, relative to what otherwise would have occurred.”
This is pretty striking—I’ve never heard a Fed chairman pound the table for his actions like this.
The studies he cited were primarily by Fed economists. One, by Hess Chung and several others, was published in an external peer–reviewed journal—and please stay with me for a couple of paragraphs here.
That study said the Fed’s first round of quantitative easing in 2009 probably lowered long–term bond yields by 50 basis points, or half a percentage point, suggesting that “private payroll employment is currently 1.8 million higher, and the unemployment rate three–quarters of a percentage point lower, than would otherwise be the case,” the authors wrote.
Two economists at the Boston Fed, Jeffrey Fuhrer and Giovanni Olivei, said that QE2, which ran from late 2010 through mid–2011, could “be expected to raise real GDP by 60–90 basis points.” That “implies a decline in the unemployment rate of 30–45 basis points” or “an increase of about 700,000 jobs,” they concluded.
So there you have it: A $2 trillion increase in the Fed’s balance sheet may have gotten you roughly 2.5 million jobs, about what several outside economists say the Obama administration’s stimulus plan saved or created.
It also was close to the 2 million jobs I estimated the Bush tax cuts may have helped create in the mid–2000s.
Who can claim any of these was a big success?
And that’s the problem. Three big policy initiatives based on three different economic philosophies all have failed to spur employment in the past decade.
- President Obama’s various Keynesian stimulus initiatives, which without tax cuts amounted to about $600 billion, have yielded modest results.
- Supply–side tax cuts, which Republicans still trumpet as the cure for whatever ails the economy, demonstrably did not produce many jobs during the Bush years. And by the way, did you know that President Obama’s own economic plans from 2009 through 2011 included over $500 billion in tax cuts,not including the two–year extension of the Bush tax cuts?
- And now, the unconventional monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, based on the theories of the great Milton Friedman, have fallen short as well.
“I don’t think what the Fed has done has had a huge impact,” said James Hamilton, an economics professor at UC San Diego. “I think the steps they took have helped prevent the situation from getting much worse.”
I’m among those who think the Fed should be a little cautious and humble about what they can do. I don’t think the Fed can solve all the problems.
Ben Bernanke might agree. In his Indianapolis speech this week, he said: “Monetary policy is no panacea.” That’s true for supply–side tax cuts and Keynesian stimulus as well. These policies may have prevented the very worst—another Great Depression—but they still haven’t produced a good recovery.
Keep that in mind when you listen to presidential candidates push ideas that in recent years just haven’t delivered the goods. | <urn:uuid:b3e48e8e-f8a7-42a4-9ae7-58bb8d060254> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/905771-qe3-was-a-clear-sign-of-failure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969776 | 1,172 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Rotorcraft Update: Pilot punctures space shuttle no-fly zone
It’s on the sectional. It’s been the subject of notams dating back decades. And yet it always seems that when NASA is about to launch yet another space shuttle, somebody blunders into the no-fly area extending for miles around the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in east central Florida. On December 4, it was a Bell 214 that strayed into the no-no zone a few hours before the 5:45 p.m. (EST) liftoff time of the space shuttle Endeavor. Piloted by a lone 67-year-old man, the helicopter was quickly intercepted by a U.S. Air Force F-16 and escorted to a landing in a field near Christmas, Fla., located about 25 mi west of KSC. The intercept was part of an extensively beefed-up security program instituted by NASA since September 11, a new plan that includes a larger 35-mi no-fly zone surrounding the shuttle’s pair of beachfront launch pads during liftoff operations. According to local authorities, the pilot had recently purchased the helicopter in Florida and was ferrying it back to his home in Washington state. He maintained he was unaware of the flight restriction. Authorities declined to identify the aviator, who was detained until after the dusk launch, then allowed to proceed on his journey. | <urn:uuid:b538c929-b3ac-4df8-8793-da468a8cc799> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aviation-international-news/2008-05-29/rotorcraft-update-pilot-punctures-space-shuttle-no-fly-zone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972256 | 290 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Bicyclists now have a new reason to love Downtown Lansing
. Twenty five new bike racks were installed along the 100-400 blocks of Washington Square at the end of March.
“Additional bike parking is important because it encourages other modes of transportation in the city,” says Downtown Lansing Inc. (DLI) Executive Director Mindy Biladeau. “It encourages people to bike to downtown, encourages bikers to park and patronize businesses.”
The staff and volunteers of DLI have been working on the bike rack project for about nine months. The $6,500 investment was made utilizing $500 grants from the Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council
and Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, as well as funds raised from DLI’s special events, such as Taste of Downtown and FrostFest.
“We have been receiving very positive feedback through our office and our social media networks,” says Biladeau. “We see less bikes chained to lamp poles, parking meters, trees and fencing.” | <urn:uuid:67690572-ef28-45b6-9be8-3fad8aaade5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capitalgainsmedia.com/innovationnews/Bike0614.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957154 | 216 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Podcasts & RSS Feeds
Thu August 23, 2012
Reporting in war torn Syria
The trick to a war photographer’s success is being in the right place at the right time -- and, of course, not getting wounded, captured or killed.
Jonathan Alpeyrie believes the right place, right now is Syria. He’s heading there next week for the second time since the rebellion began.
Jonathan Alpeyrie, our guest on Global Journalist today, has risked his life repeatedly to bring home photographs from nearly a dozen conflict zones, beginning in the South Caucuses as a freelancer in 2004. More recently, he documented the violence in Libya and Afghanistan. He’s worked for Polaris Images and Getty for the last four years.
More recently, at least 16 journalists have been killed since November while covering Syria, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That makes Syria the most dangerous place in the world for reporters and photographers. The assignment is particularly dodgy because the government of Bashar al-Assad has banned western journalists and allows its soldiers to kill them.
Alpeyrie spoke to Global Journalist about his previous trip to Syria, and his plans to return in the coming days. | <urn:uuid:e60302c5-16d1-4ce7-ad3f-dd4d9f455be6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kbia.org/post/reporting-war-torn-syria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939707 | 252 | 1.5 | 2 |
A U.S. delegation arrived at Islahiye Refugee Camp in Turkey on Thursday to inspect the temporary town, population 8,825.
"Our expectation from the United States, from the U.S. delegation, is to enable these people to go home as soon as possible," said Islahiye District Governor Osman Beyazyildiz.
So far, the camp established in March 2012 has cost more than $17.8 million, Beyazyildiz said.
Many Turks are being gracious hosts.
The Anadolu news agency said Turkey delivered new toys Thursday to 4,500 children living in a tent city in Nizip. And the state-run news agency TRT reported that, in addition to public and private groups sending food to displaced Syrians, some secondary school students have been donating "part of their allowances."
U.S. delegation member Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, migration and refugees, thanked the Turks for providing refuge.
"We are very, very grateful to the governor and the people of Turkey for their incredible generosity to their neighbors who are fleeing Syria," Richard said, pointing out the United States "has been" and "will continue" providing assistance.
Overall, the United States has contributed $210 million of "humanitarian assistance" to the "heartbreaking" cause, delegation member Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said.
Syrian state television said Thursday the Assad regime was trying to help the refugees as well. The TV station flashed an "urgent" banner, which translates as, "Based on the political program to resolve the crisis in Syria, the Interior Ministry is calling on the Syrian citizens who crossed the border illegally or legally to come back to the country, and all the necessary measures to resolve their situation will be available to them."
Al-Assad and other top officials, including Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, celebrated the birth of the Prophet Mohammed on Thursday inside a Damascus mosque, as shown live on state television. | <urn:uuid:6e62a48e-3bd5-4a00-ae28-fc251c024e34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbaltv.com/news/national/U-S-ambassador-Regime-insiders-flee-Syria/-/9379440/18268030/-/item/1/-/cnpwetz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96082 | 422 | 1.765625 | 2 |
From today onwards, businesses around the world can pay a fee to access all of the tweets written on Twitter going back to January 2010.
It is the first time that anyone will be able to access tweets going back more than 30 days. Until now, other companies which Twitter has allowed access to their tweet archive, have only been able to surface tweets going back 30 days.
However, the partnership with the British start-up, founded by Tweetmeme creator Nick Halstead, is offering companies looking to improve their relationships with their customers, access to all tweets posted during the last 24 months.
Twitter users are only able to access their own tweets from seven days ago.
Tim Barker, Datasift’s marketing manager, told The Telegraph that the service, which costs £635 a month for an entry level package, will help businesses “understand their customers better”.
“We now live in an era where brands are shaped by what customers say and by accessing these tweets, companies can listen to their customers at scale,” he said.
Datasift pays Twitter a syndication fee each time it licenses a tweet to a company. The relationship is not exclusive however, and other companies are expected to follow suit and offer increased access to users’ tweets.
Barker said that Datasift had decided to go back two years as that was when Twitter “really became mainstream”. The site processes around 250 million tweets a day.
He thinks the insights will help brands understand consumers better – but any company which then aggressively markets or targets its customers on social media, will not be received warmly as that is not how to treat users of such sites at Twitter.
Twitter is a public social network, as there is no privacy option. Barker said he had no idea whether the company will allow consumers to access their own tweets going back more than seven days anytime soon.
“It is incredibly difficult to store and serve that amount of data over long periods of time,” he explained.
Justin Basini, chief executive of Allow,a personal data and privacy rights company, said: "Marketers will stop at nothing to get hold of your data. This move shows that all those throwaway tweets have suddenly become a rich new revenue stream for twitter, much in the same way that Facebook has monetised it's offering. It has taken a stream of consciousness, analysed it, bottled it and sold it for a profit. And the worst thing is, you never knew it was going to happen. It just goes to show that online privacy is a rare thing indeed. We think that people should be allowed to have a greater say in who has access to their data and get a share of that data's value." | <urn:uuid:b989ac9c-7033-4a50-9f1a-936d1fd78d1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9110943/Twitter-sells-tweet-archive-to-marketers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972418 | 562 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The number of cyclists in Dublin has doubled in just eight years, a survey has revealed.
Nearly one in every 10 (8.8%) journeys taken in the capital now is on a bike, the latest figures show.
Andrew Montague, a councillor who chairs the transport and traffic committee on Dublin City Council (DCC), said the findings show initiatives to get more people cycling are working.
"I'm pleased to see more people getting around the city the easiest and quickest way - on their bikes," he said. "Dublin City Council's efforts to promote cycling are paying off and we have to encourage even more people to get on their bikes in 2013."
The figures were revealed in the DCC's Canal Cordon Count, which tallies the number of vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians entering the city between the Grand Canal on the southside and the Royal Canal on the northside.
The survey was carried out at 32 locations between 7am and 10am in November.
It found that there was an almost 16% rise in the number of cyclists last year alone, with the total having doubled between 2004 and 2012. Meanwhile, more people are choosing to walk into the city, with pedestrian figures up more than 17% last year.
People driving their own car into the city still account for more than two thirds (67.5%) of all commuter trips.
The study also showed bus journeys increased by 2.5% over the 10-year period between 2002 and 2012. However Dublin Bus services were down more than 10%, with the overall rise made up by a near-18% jump in private buses operating in the city.
Dublin City Council described how the results demonstrate the success of many transport schemes introduced in recent years. A spokesman said: "These include Dublin Port Tunnel, the HGV management strategy, more Quality Bus Corridors, the dublinbikes scheme, the Grand Canal Cycle route and the 30kph (18mph) zone in the city centre." | <urn:uuid:003d52da-de5e-4157-9133-4fbf165638a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cyclist-numbers-soar-in-capital-29053132.html | 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 | 0.973963 | 405 | 1.773438 | 2 |
MIAMI -- They're some of the most powerful pictures of war, taken not by professional cameramen, but by soldiers themselves. There's no way to track the number of video and still cameras attached to helmets, rifles, inside Humvees or on Stryker turrets. What is clear: storytelling is no longer just a journalist's domain. Soldiers and Marines are telling their stories to a worldwide audience. Some of the videos on YouTube have been viewed by more than 200,000 people. On Doonesbury's "The Sandbox," a popular blog among members of the military, videos from those fighting in Afghanistan are now drawing an audience.
Some of the pictures are raw, ugly, and hard to stomach. Other videos are silly diversions from war: a look at the comic relief from so much intensity. Interestingly, while there are complaints that the media doesn't tell enough of the "good news" from Iraq, I found few soldiers or marines telling that story themselves. These videos appear to be the ongoing evolution of journalism in the Internet age. Military home videos are a subset of the growing so-called "citizen journalism."A captain I spoke with at U.S. Central Command in Tampa called these "the new social fabric."
Some of the posted clips are simple, like "A Sniper's Story." It's still photos taken by a sniper, set to music from the movie "The Gladiator." The sniper asked we not reveal his name, but he wants us to see the war he's seen: positions often miles from insurgents, a lonely existence behind walls or hidden by rubble.
Film producer Chuck Lacy told me, "the genie is out of the bottle." He looked at hundreds of hours of videotape taken by more than a dozen members of the New Hampshire National Guard during their one-year deployment. The tape was turned into an award winning film "The War Tapes."
I've personally been in and out of Iraq for a total of about six months over the last four years. My first trip was as an embedded journalist with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. I remember meeting a Marine back then, Lance Cpl. Johnny Zonnefeld, who was going to put a camera on his helmet and record the war. It never quite worked out in those early days of war. It was too complicated to roll a camera and fight. But as Marines and soldiers have gotten into the routine of battle, so too have many gotten into the routine of recording their experiences and then uploading them for all to see.
Tonight on the broadcast we'll take a look at this unique perspective of the war, as told by those fighting it. | <urn:uuid:e4f5f3ea-ead9-4b3d-96c3-670595a35f11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2007/03/26/6536156-videos-from-the-front | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977754 | 542 | 1.75 | 2 |
If you like the sound of wolves howling, turn up the volume on your computer and watch a rare, three-minute video of an Oregon wolf pup howling with adults that was shot three weeks ago by a state wildlife biologist.
The video has generated close to 30,000 hits in its first two weeks on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's gray wolves page.
To watch the video of wolves howling, see http://tinyurl.com/c6r77qk
"It's very rare to get this kind of video," says Michelle Dennehy, ODFW's wolf program spokeswoman. "It's pretty amazing and definitely a cool thing to watch. "It's probably going to be one of our top videos, even though it's only been out two weeks."
The video can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/c6r77qk.
The video was shot July 25 by ODFW assistant wolf biologist Roblyn Brown in the Summit Ridge area of the Snake River wildlife management unit, Dennehy says.
The pup is one of at least three born this year in the Snake River pack, and the video came during a survey of the pups. Photos taken by a remote camera also show at least three adults in the pack.
Wolves are considered to be highly social animals and howling is a common behavior that helps members of packs communicate and stay together, according to the ODFW page. In the video, wolf howls can be heard coming from several miles away.
An 11th-hour request by Lemolo Lake Resort owners to lengthen the fishing season there has been accepted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.
The commission will debate the matter when members make final decisions on a new slate of angling regulations set to go into effect Jan. 1. The new rules will remain in effect for the next four years.
The proposal, from resort owner Scott Lamb, calls for adding November and December to the fishing season that now closes Oct. 31. He also asked that the lake be opened to angling April 1 instead of the traditional fourth Saturday in April.
During the period from the fourth Saturday in April through Oct. 31, the limit would remain five trout per day with an 8-inch minimum size and only one trout over 20 inches long. During the new early April, November and December fishing times, the limit would remain the same except that it would be catch-and-release only for brown trout.
Lamb asked the commission to consider the idea after it recommended adoption of a public proposal to open nearby Diamond Lake to year-round fishing, which would leave Lemolo as Douglas County's only lake not open year-round.
The commission will consider it as one of its Class B, or open for debate, proposals when it meets Sept. 7 in Hermiston.
The public can offer comments on the proposal by writing to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Angling Regulations, 3406 Cherry Ave. NE, Salem, OR 97303, or sending an email to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:58536de2-b658-47f1-ab9b-6ff878323ffa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120817/LIFE/208170311/-1/OREGONOUTDOORS02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963182 | 665 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Planning proposal welcomed
THE Ulster Farmers’ Union has welcomed Environment Minister Alex Attwood’s proposals to ease planning rules for farmers. These proposals will be discussed at the next Legislation Policy Committee meeting and a full response will be made.
The proposals would allow a farmer to build an agricultural building or extension up to 500 square metres in ground area, in any two year period, without having to apply for planning permission. This would be an increase from the current limit of 300 square metres in ground area. All other existing limitations of permitted development will continue to apply including proximity constraints from neighbouring dwelling houses, distance to roads etc.
These proposals would bring Northern Ireland more in line with permitted agricultural development limits applied in the rest of the UK.
This is something the UFU has been pressing for since 2009. In response to the Department of the Environment’s 2009 consultation on permitted development, the UFU pushed for an increase to the current 300 square metre permitted agricultural development. It was felt this limit was outdated and did not reflect modern, fit for purpose farm buildings. Agricultural development is necessary to allow farms to evolve to become more efficient and continue to produce goods to a high standard. The agricultural industry needs to be able to expand without being unnecessarily restricted by planning rules and fees. This type of agricultural development tends to be less contentious than other types of development so raising the permitted development limit would help take some applications out of the planning system. This in turn would help reduce red tape, expense and delay.
Also recommend in the proposals is limiting permitted development rights for anaerobic digestion plants to those that only use material generated on the agricultural unit where the plant is located.
The UFU has always been of the opinion that permitted development rights should not differ for a farm situated within a sensitive area than one situated outside a sensitive area. Farms within a sensitive area still have the same requirements and having to apply for planning permission would be overbureaucratic, unfair and a costly process.
On the whole, these proposals appear to be a good example of government working in response to industry needs.
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Weather for Belfast
Saturday 25 May 2013
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South | <urn:uuid:608b3c29-7e3f-47be-82af-fe7b67ee4d33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farminglife.com/ufu-watch/planning-proposal-welcomed-1-4520135 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937909 | 486 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Ok, so this is a more tricky problem.
Knowing how the gun works will help you understand what's going on.
So you have two regulators in the gun right? The HPR and the LPR. The HPR is responsible for the air which actually propels the ball from the barrel. The LPR's only job is to provide air to the solenoid, which switches it back and forward to move the rammer.
So, when you marker is at rest, your solenoid has the air from the LPR pushing back against your rammer. When you pull the trigger, the solenoid switches that so that the air from the LPR pushes your rammer forward, hits the exhaust valve pin (the poppet) which lets the air from the HPR flow up through the bolt and shoot the ball.
So, obviously the rammer needs enough pressure to overcome both the spring and the high pressure air in the poppet. If there isn't enough pressure, the rammer won't hit the pin all the way.
The first thing I would do, is reset everything. Reset your board and reset your regulators. Your board is easy enough to do: Click through the menu until you come to "preset". Select "Load" then "factory". This will restore all factory settings and put the gun in semi-auto mode.
Next, your regulators. For your LPR, turn the screw until it is flush (level) with the end of your LPR cap. For the HPR, turn the adjustment screw all the way out until it stops, then turn it back in 3 turns.
Test the gun now and see if it's working for you. If this doesn't work, post back below and I'll take you through the next step | <urn:uuid:0c765d1d-a836-4a4a-95ed-b2207fa97263> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techpb.com/forum/index.php?s=b3764c7c2a611ff037972fbee3e4b503&showtopic=210817&st=0&p=3131546 | 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 | 0.947279 | 370 | 1.5625 | 2 |
MELBOURNE, Australia, August 1, 2000 — Our high noon began on an ordinary morning at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. As the day progressed, professors of medicine, senior clinicians, and hospital administrative brass joined their legal team in the battle field.
They were the top rung of Australia’s biggest and most influential health care provider, the $640 million-a-year Inner & Eastern Health Care Network. They had gathered to fight the release of documents which, if made public, would draw back slightly the veil of secrecy under which hospitals had operated for decades.
I was a member of The Age’s Insight team, which brought the action, and which was now represented in the hearing room by the newspaper’s barrister, a solicitor, an editorial executive and myself. Presiding over the battle was the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) deputy president, Michael Macnamara. Within minutes of the hearing opening, he noted that The Age’s Freedom of Information request had had a “fairly tortuous history”.
Indeed. Thirteen months earlier, on June 29, 1998, a colleague from Insight, Julie-Ann Davies, and I had lodged FoI requests with five health care networks, seeking documents on adverse medical events, that is, mishaps in hospital care that actually injured patients.
It was now July 1999. We had been in and out of VCAT meetings, had attended conferences with network officials, had briefed lawyers and had honed our request. The Inner & Eastern group was the test case if we won our appeal against its refusal to release the documents, presumably the other networks would follow; but if we lost …
Our experience over almost two years with this request provides insights into what journalists can expect when undertaking complex, fishing-type Freedom of Information requests. Was it worth it? Below, I outline the frustrations and costs as well as the rewards.
How the investigation started
My interest in this type of data was sparked in the early 1990s when I read that a newspaper in the United States of America had published comparative hospital mortality rates. In 1993 I lodged a Freedom of Information request for similar information and the state Health Department provided me outside of the FoI process – with death rates for Victoria’s hospitals. Publication of these caused a storm of protest from hospitals and doctors, and the data has never been released since.
Then a 1995 study found that 16.6 per cent of hospital admissions suffered an adverse event, and that of those, 13.7 per cent resulted in permanent disability and 4.9 per cent in death.
Australia-wide this meant that 470,000 hospital admissions involved adverse outcomes for patients: 18,000 died, 50,000 suffered permanent disability and an extra 3.3 million bed days were required to care for those hurt by the very system designed to care for them.
And yet, 51 per cent of adverse events were judged to be highly preventable.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Adelaide and the University of Newcastle as part of a professional indemnity review.
Doctors’ lobby groups were upset when the key findings were tabled in Parliament by the then Health Minister, Dr Carmen Lawrence, in June, 1995 – months before they were due to be published in the Medical Journal of Australia. But Dr Lawrence said the findings were “sufficiently stark” to warrant immediate action and formed a taskforce to report on how to reduce preventable adverse events. It was given six months to report.
However, action on the findings was excruciatingly slow. Several committees produced reports but it was not until earlier this year that a national body formed to develop a system of hospital data collection met for the first time.
It was partly my earlier interest, and partly the delays and lack of action by governments and the staggering death and injury figures, that persuaded us to try to bring things to a head. We lodged FoI requests with Victoria’s six health care networks.
We were not interested in the names of doctors or patients and specifically excluded them from our request. And while the network’s eminent witnesses were at pains to describe the destructive effects that release of the information would have on doctor peer review and incident and death audits, we hadn’t sought these either.
We wanted aggregated, anonymous figures normally compiled by administrative staff and clerks – that would enable us to compare hospitals for things like infection rates, falls by patients, medication errors, needle stick injuries and so on.
Further, by seeking the minutes of infection control and quality committee meetings, we wanted to know how hospitals dealt with mistakes, and the steps they took to ensure they did not happen again.
We knew the request would ruffle feathers such information had never been released and hospitals and the medical profession were notoriously secretive about such issues. More than anything, we were challenging a culture.
We also sought information on hospital budgets and the outsourcing of services to the private sector, and these were dealt with separately to the adverse events issue.
The reaction to our FOI request
At the time, the Inner & Eastern Health Care Network had both power and influence. Its hospitals included the Alfred, Box Hill, Maroondah, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute and the Eye and Ear Hospital which with others admitted more than 150,000 patients a year. The group’s annual operating budget was about $640 million and it employed more than 15,000 staff.
Its board was chaired by Melbourne powerbroker Graeme Samuel and some of its senior executives were strong supporters of the Kennett Government’s policies.
Leaked memorandums soon acquainted us with the realities of FoI. Two weeks after the request was sent to the networks, an adviser to the then Health Minister, Rob Knowles, emailed network public relations staff about the matter.
“I expect that all networks would have received an FoI from The Age,” wrote the adviser, Andrew Goodsall. “For consistency of approach, I have asked the FoI people here to take a look at it, and there appears to be a range of concerns.”
Goodsall then listed the concerns, suggesting the request was actually three separate requests and should be returned and asked to be resubmitted “with 3 payments due”. He also suggested that section 139 of the Health Services Act “may be a good starting point”, adding that “it may be necessary to protect names”.
In a second email five days later, Goodsall again suggested that the FoI officers ask The Age to resubmit the request as three separate ones, and advised them to clarify “which documents precisely are sought and that it is likely given the current scope of each request that it will be necessary to levy a charge.”
Not surprisingly, the networks initially cited section 139 of the Health Services Act in their refusals to release any information. A typical response was: “These meetings (about adverse events) are covered by section 139 of the Health Services Act and, as such, confidential information is not available under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Lawyers for several of the networks declared: “S. 139 prevails over any other act or law if there is any inconsistency.”
End of story, or so it seemed back in late 1998. This section of the Health Services Act prohibits information generated in a specified committee such as a hospital quality committee – from being communicated to anyone not involved in the committee’s work.
Our lawyers countered that the section provided immunity only to the names and identities of those mentioned in the reports not the data itself.
The networks also used two exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act to deny release of the data. Section 35(1)(b) exempted material obtained in confidence, and section 30 (1) protected material involved in deliberative processes, and under another subsection, would be contrary to the public interest.
The courtroom battle
High noon turned out to be an at times nasty battle between the nimble and eloquent Mark Dreyfus, QC, for The Age, and the aggressive questioning of Trevor McLean, barrister for the Inner & Eastern Health Care Network.
Over three days the network called a dozen witnesses. We had two: the dean of health sciences at La Trobe University, Professor Stephen Duckett, and myself.
One of the network’s first witnesses was Dr Michael Coglin, a former director of medical services at the Alfred. He estimated that 26,770 adverse events occurred at the hospital over the period covered in the request, July 1995 to January 1999.
In a taste of things to come, Coglin estimated it would take 26,875 hours to process the request and that staff would have to be specially trained. It would take 16 people working on it full time a year to process. The cost would be about $840,000.
Asked about the response of clinicians to the release of any information provided by them, Coglin referred to the regular death audits conducted by the division of medicine at the Alfred.
“...(At) the last of my meetings before leaving the Alfred I briefed the meeting and its members on … the application by The Age for documents and the desire by The Age to seek access to records such as the proceedings of this committee and the possibility at least that at the hands of the tribunal those documents may be disclosed.
“The instant response from the first person to speak sitting on my left, a professor of medicine, was to say that until such time as this matter was resolved to his satisfaction, his unit would not be filling out these (death audit) forms any more and not contributing to the review process. His sentiments were subsequently echoed by others at the meeting and in general debate and dialogue around the hospital in the ensuing weeks regarding this matter. This was the widespread reaction.”
Further, Dr Coglin argued the lay public would have difficulty understanding the information, there were statistical problems with it, release would be contrary to public interest and it would damage the reputation of hospitals.
And that as well as attacks on Professor Duckett was pretty much the basis of the evidence that would be provided by the network’s witnesses, the cream of Melbourne’s medical profession. In essence they said the system of reviewing mistakes made by doctors might collapse if exposed to public scrutiny.
The Age’s case relied on public interest arguments that public scrutiny was crucial to holding hospitals to account, that they were taxpayer-funded bodies that should be open, and that consumers’ rights would be advanced by knowing more about what occurred in hospitals.
Macnamara’s finding did the near-impossible and more or less satisfied both groups. In summary, he found that public interest required the information to be released. However, he determined that the public interest in retaining quality assurance programs in hospitals overrode the public interest of disclosure.
In effect, this meant that documents generated by administrators, clerks and non-medical staff could be released, with deletions of names, but material directly from doctors should remain secret. The Age would get the minutes of committees dealing with infection control, adverse drug events, quality, patient safety, as well as performance indicators for things like infections after surgery, falls, waiting times, cancellation of operations and lots more – some obscure, some valuable.
Macnamara noted that all “of the large number of distinguished clinicians and administrators” from the network believed that section 139 of the Health Care Services Act provided statutory immunity to quality deliberations. However he determined the section protected only information that identified individuals.
He also said “members of the medical establishment are given to excessively pessimistic views” about the effect of releasing hospital performance indicators:
“There seems to be very good reason to accept that clinicians whether they be medical practitioners, nurses or allied professionals would not be forthcoming with information which would show them as individuals in a bad light. I cannot accept however that release of aggregated data, no matter how far divorced from disclosure by individual clinicians of individual incidents relative to individual patients will have the alleged adverse effect.”
He was sceptical that apprehension about the data being misunderstood or misused would go beyond mere annoyance to the withdrawal of data collection.
His decision, delivered in August 1999, opened the door to a trickle of documents that became a torrent. The Southern Health Care Network, which had relied solely on section 139 provided boxes of documents. Eventually the Austin which initially said it had only seven documents and operated under a vague verbal system handed over a small pile. No-one has counted the pages there are thousands of them but the material takes up a significant part of my study at home. The last lot arrived in May 2000 almost two years after the initial request.
What the FOI documents showed
It soon became apparent that meaningful comparisons of hospitals would be impossible. Gaps and inconsistency in performance indicator data showed that some hospitals did much better than others in compiling the information. It appeared they pretty much did their own thing, with quality assurance sometimes low on their list of priorities. The budget cuts of the Kennett era, made survival the top priority. Little room then for resources devoted to collecting and compiling figures on mishaps.
The best material was in the minutes of hospital committee meetings and reports to those committees. By tracking the monthly reports, I could see how, say, an infection control committee dealt with an outbreak of golden staph or some other crisis.
Of course, the documents were only a starting point: the data had to be followed up with interviews and further research. The FOI material formed the basis of Insight’s “Fatal Care” series, run in The Sunday Age. The series produced five front-page stories and numerous features between November and June, and put Victoria’s public hospital system under the most intense public scrutiny it has experienced.
Outcomes of The Sunday Age coverage
Our series sparked two government inquiries.
The first was ordered by the State Government after we revealed that at least 33 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Monash Medical Centre had become infected with golden staph. As well, three heart surgery patients had died from infections in the sternum and the hospital’s cardiothoracic unit had one of the highest infection rates in the state.
Confronted with this information, the hospital’s director of infectious disease, Professor Lindsay Grayson, conceded, “There is no avoiding the fact the rates here were completely unacceptable”.
The Health Minister, John Thwaites, immediately asked the Health Services Commissioner to inquire and a report is expected later this year.
The second inquiry was ordered by the Commonwealth Health Department two months ago after we reported that Australian hospitals were ignoring so-called safety syringes despite them being made mandatory in an increasing number of states in the United States. Our investigation found that more than 1000 Victorian nurses and doctors risked HIV or hepatitis through pricks with syringes each year, but hospitals were not using retractable needles due to their cost. The inquiry was asked to examine the effectiveness and cost of safety needles.
The first page one lead in the series was based partly on the frustration we experienced in trying to get the documents and the experiences of relatives trying to access patient files.
It began: “Medical blunders resulting in death and permanent injury are being covered up by a culture of secrecy that is deeply embedded in many of Victoria’s leading public hospitals.
“Some hospitals, fearing costly litigation, put protection of their reputations ahead of their duty to inform patients or their families of mistakes.”
Inside, over two pages, we documented the long and difficult battles that families who had suffered from adverse events and hospital deaths faced in trying to find out what had gone wrong. Almost every case and others since showed that the culture of secrecy was, to use medical jargon, endemic in hospitals.
This prompted a number of calls from patients and relatives with more horror stories. One call that proved particularly helpful resulted in our receiving a new batch of documents which showed that the Alfred Hospital had continued using potentially dangerous medical equipment despite a patient dying and others suffering complications during cardiac procedures.
While the old equipment finally was replaced, the documents showed how tight budgets impacted directly on patient care. A memo from the head of the unit involved said: “Today we had a patient death in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory. The attempt to resuscitate the patient was severely compromised by the antiquated nature of our equipment, which interferes with patient access and manoeuvrability.”
We further highlighted the issue of old or faulty equipment with two case studies, including one from the Coroner’s files.
Questions about hospital deaths prompted the State Government to announce the establishment of a quality council to ensure that Coroner’s findings were implemented.
The series also set the climate in which the new Labor Government could announce in July this year that public hospitals would be forced to make public their infection rates, and that annual ‘report cards’ showing a range of performance indicators would be published. This followed a report by Professor Duckett, our witness at the VCAT battle field.
The series, I believe, had two important impacts that made the introduction of Professor Duckett’s recommendations politically feasible. First it highlighted the secrecy, lack of accountability and arrogance of some hospitals and the frustration of patients trying to access information.
Secondly, our FoI and the ongoing stories so dismayed hospital executives and doctors that I think many of them decided it was better to be inside the tent, and, to some extent, control the information streaming out.
Our FoI case was the first judicial test of section 139 and resulted in the opening of access to hospital documents to consumers.
The high cost of investigative reporting
On the flip side, the FoI applications cost The Age about $80,000 in legal fees. It took us many hours of negotiation, legal proceedings and sorting through the documents. The costs can and should be questioned. Over the same period, I could have been working for the news desk, producing daily or weekly stories.
My view is that organisations like The Age should continue with this type of journalism, difficult and time-consuming though it is.
Freedom of Information laws, battered and watered down as they are, provided a key bent and rusty and ill-fitting, but nevertheless still a key to documents that were not accessible any other way. In pursuing the hospital documents, The Age gave us time and discretion and money. We dealt directly with our lawyers, Minter Ellison, in deciding how to tackle the many legal obstacles the networks threw up.
The resources required mean that only a handful of media organisations undertake such investigative projects. Yet they serve to differentiate serious newspapers from other media, provide a public benefit through intense scrutiny, and produce enduring journalism which in today’s 24-hour news cycle has become something of an oxymoron.
Finally, having reporters who are dedicated to longer-term investigations says something about a newspaper or radio or TV station. Investigative reporting, I think, is one antidote to what Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel have labelled the journalism of assertion, which they see as replacing the journalism of verification.
In their book, Warp Speed, they describe the culture of assertion as one which is less interested in substantiating whether something is true and more interested in getting it into the public discussion. The press then becomes a conduit of politics as cultural civil war.
“Those who fare best in this new culture, at least in classic journalistic terms, are those who do their own research,” they say. “These news outlets are governed by their own internal standards because they are having to make their own judgments about when a story is verified, what is true, and what is relevant. They are less susceptible to repeating others’ mistakes, and they are most careful about accuracy because they bear sole and original responsibility.
“In a world with growing choices, and one where the depth of information is potentially infinite for every user, the highest value may be given to the source whose information is most accurate, most dependable, and most efficient to use.” | <urn:uuid:2c730593-3c2a-43b8-b0c4-57e186137cfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.publicintegrity.org/2000/08/01/3280/story-behind-fatal-care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972655 | 4,164 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Students raise funds for animal shelterNew Richmond High School students in the business management and marketing class operated a small business this spring and raised money for the Home for Life Animal Sanctuary.
New Richmond High School students in the business management and marketing class operated a small business this spring and raised money for the Home for Life Animal Sanctuary.
Students in the class researched a business venture that they could offer to students at NRHS. They called the venture Flavor Floats. Each Friday for 10 weeks students sold ice cream floats flavored with different types of soda. The class raised $204 with the project.
As part of the Flavor Floats project business students not only researched business ideas about what other students would want, but also had to come up with a name, logo design, advertising, location, price and promotions.
Students followed the basic Ps of marketing: product, place, price and promotion. Once the details were figured out Flavor Floats began with a television commercial taped by the video production class and featured students as actors. The commercial ran on the school-wide television station during homeroom.
Students were also involved as managers of teams. Two-student teams were each responsible for a sales day with Flavor Floats. Student managers ordered product materials, supplies, developed advertising and promotions and scheduled employees.
One common comment was, “it is harder than you think to make those decisions and make sure everything is running smoothly.”
Home for Life Animal Sanctuary is located in the St. Croix Valley and cares for animals that are in distressed situations or have special needs. Find out more about Home For Life by visiting their Web site at www.homeforlife.org or by calling 1-800-252-5918. | <urn:uuid:f43d23ed-91b6-4d81-8a3f-e081c5d48687> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrichmond-news.com/event/article/id/21282/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97467 | 351 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Beef/Cattle Extension Program
Producer Profile: Cross Four Ranch—Miles City
by Kent Williams, Extension
Agent for Custer County
Fred and Gwen Wacker moved to Miles City in 1974 with
a milk cow, her calf, a saddle horse and a crate of
chickens. This start led to a ranching and backgrounding
operation in Custer and Rosebud Counties that keeps
them and their family very busy. They are both third
generation ranchers from the Roundup country. When Fred
was a kid, he started with 4-H animals and during high
school he began buying light calves and backgrounding
The home ranch consists of about 42,000 acres and
they have long-term leases on two other ranches. They
also run on BLM and state leases. The cow herd consists
of home raised one iron cows that are roughly one-quarter
Limousin and three-quarter Black Angus. The cows are
fed 1,000 pounds of hay and 400 pounds of cake in the
average winter with the remaining feed coming from grass.
Fred feeds free-choice mineral at all times and believes
this is critical to good breed up for his cows and good
health for his calves as they enter the lot. Calving
is done in April. All raised calves are sent to the
backgrounding lot on the ranch and the lighter ones
are kept over and run as yearlings the following summer.
Fred believes this gives him great flexibility dealing
with drought, as he can send yearlings early in a dry
year and not have to cull very deep into the cows. All
livestock work on the ranch is done horseback.
The ranch has a backgrounding lot with most of the
hay and silage produced on the place and grains purchased.
All of the ranch raised and purchased calves are source
and process veri- fied with an EID tag in their ear.
The feedyard is not operated year round with the heavy
calves going to a finishing lot and the lighter ones
going back to grass the beginning of May. The people
that work in the lot during the winter help with the
farming and ranching enterprises during the summer.
The ranch and lot are now producing natural beef having
received no antibiotics, implants, ionophers or animal
by-product feeds. Any cattle that do not fit this system
are fed in a different pen and marketed separately.
Over the years, the ranch has been a major supplier
of Ranch Fresh cattle to the ConAgra feedlots and now
is one of the largest suppliers of cattle to the Coleman
Natural Beef program.
Fred is proud of the fact that the ranch and business
are able to give his family the opportunity to work
and be a part of the operation. Fred manages the cow
side of the ranch and his wife Gwen is the bookkeeper
and, according to Fred, the overall boss of the outfit.
Son Mike and his wife Nicole are in charge of growing
the corn silage for the feedyard and also operate a
string of trucks to haul the cattle to the finishing
yards. Daughter Sara is in charge of budgeting and records
and her husband Shane Rehm operates the feedyard and
grows the irrigated hay. Daughter Julie is in charge
of human resources and employee benefits and her husband
Brian Nowicki is in charge of marketing and risk management.
Opportunities in the Beef Industry Fred believes the
industry needs to move forward at all times and to continue
to work on healthiness, taste and quality for the consumer.
He also believes that we need to maintain the highest
quality and safest product or we will not be able to
trade and that producers need to be proactive instead
of reactive to future problems. Along these lines, Fred
supports being proud of your cattle and individually
identifying them. Fred also believes that Country of
Origin Labeling is needed and it is the number one issue
facing the industry today. He feels that Montana beef
is the highest quality beef in the nation and we need
to market them as such – they should not be commodity
Fred’s biggest issue of concern is that it seems
to him that agriculture is usually used as the first
trade concession to allow more imports into the country.
Fred also believes that, in many cases, we fail to produce
what the consumer wants. For example, we would be trading
with Europe today if we would simply listen to what
they want and produce cattle for their market raised | <urn:uuid:5c8c258a-de56-48e3-999d-b71d1289396a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/articles/beef/profile/crossfour.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965738 | 954 | 1.539063 | 2 |
If American business—and the metals sector especially—presented a Word of the Year award, 2010's winner would be an easy and probably unanimous choice uncertainty.
Throughout the year at conferences and roundtables, at corporate meetings and in countless interviews, metal executives and analysts exclaimed the word repeatedly as an explanation for why there wasn't more growth and also as a sort of talisman to ward off becoming over-optimistic about intermittent economic upswings.
The uncertainty, they said, was brought on by President Obama and Democratic control of Congress, exemplified by legislation dealing with taxes, energy, jobs, health care, trade policy, global warming, unions and a host of other issues. The line of reasoning had it that business could not, or would not, move forward until it became clear what the new rules were going to look like. Metal processing and manufacturing were particularly susceptible to government overreach and misguided policy, the story went.
So November's mid-term election results should have all but eliminated uncertainty from a repeat performance in 2011, right? Maybe not. An AMM survey of what to expect in the coming year found that less than half of respondents in the metals industry believe the new year will bring more certainty with it.
The theory underpinning the concern over uncertainty is that Democrats are bad for the interests of business—or at least this President and this particular set of Democrats—not just because they may be left of center, but also because their particular policies would be unhealthy for the economy and, ultimately, profits. Not knowing what they might do or when they might do it was too much—or maybe not enough—for metals industry business leaders to take into account when making decisions.
Yet if uncertainty truly is a fear unto itself, it wasn't just Democrats to blame. Much uncertainty was created over the past two years by a recalcitrant Republican opposition to anything the President proposed, especially in the Senate. By not allowing a large number of key bills to even come up for a vote, the climate became volatile. No one, not even members of Congress or the President let alone business leaders, could possibly have certainty under such circumstances.
And this is why the elections have not definitively resolved the issue. Republicans already have made it clear they will continue to use their minority position in the Senate to stop anything and everything Democratic. The House, on the other hand, is pledging to take up and pass a host of bills unlikely to survive a Senate fight or, if it comes to it, a presidential veto.
In other words, gridlock is not just for your morning commute anymore.
It is possible there will be some movement on the expiring set of Bush tax cuts, and there has been some early discussion about common ground on infrastructure investment, but don't count on it. Beyond these two issues, the signs are not encouraging. On the other hand, cap-and-trade legislation is probably dead, as are a host of workplace regulation issues—both topics that worried metals executives this past year.
But something bigger is at play The next two years threaten to become a fight not just over what government policies might pass, but whether the government has any business adopting policies at all. That would not be good for the economy or business. No individual, no single business, no particular industry and no general economy works and succeeds in a vacuum. The market requires a structured society, a common culture in which to grow and thrive. It requires investment and workers and resources and clients and credit and a court system and diplomacy and, yes, even safeguards.
In other words, government—which is not a dirty word—provides general and overall certainty, even when you disagree with the details of how to get there. Whichever side of the political spectrum you are on, the truth is that if one party or another denies this historical and experiential truth, then the uncertainty of the past two years is going to look like a golden age.
JOHN P. AMBROSIA | <urn:uuid:b1adfb2c-1a8f-4575-8a5a-f2734bb90ded> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amm.com/Magazine/2766795/Article/3126053/Quote.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968001 | 811 | 1.78125 | 2 |
On April 12, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced a five-year global cultural exchange program, titled “Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative,” that will culminate in three traveling exhibitions. Showcasing what the press release describes as the “most salient cultural practices and intellectual discourses” from three vastly defined regions—South and Southeast Asia as a single area, Latin America, and the Middle East together with North Africa)—it is a pointed, ambitious gesture away from the insitution’s Euro-American focus.
Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong stated in the release: “To a great degree, our view of art history remains Western-centric. Through this collaboration with UBS, we hope to challenge that view, and extend the art world to the real world’s horizons.” In addition to expanding on its previous transnational initiatives, such as the Asia Art Program, begun in 2006, and the building of the controversial Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (See AAP76 The Point), a big step in challenging a “Western” view of art history held by many—particularly in a modernist hub such as New York—will be to reevaluate the Guggenheim’s collection, which is heavily composed of American and European modernist art.
Although the Guggenheim has recently engaged with South and Southeast Asian art, notably in the current exhibition of Indian video- and sound-based art, titled “Being Singular Plural,” which was first organized in 2010 (See AAP71 Reviews), these regions remain underrepresented in the museum’s permanent collection.
Hence one of the driving motivations behind the Global Art Initiative is to invite curators from such underrepresented regions to advise the Guggenheim how to expand its programming in a meaningfully transnational direction, as well as to suggest new acquisitions. The first to do so will be independent curator June Yap, from Singapore, who is overseeing the South and Southeast Asia stretch of the project. Yap has previously worked in the curatorial departments of Singapore’s Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Singapore Art Museum. Most recently, she organized the Singapore Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Yap, with the assistance of an advisory committee (consisting of specialists from the region, including Patrick Flores of the University of the Philippines, Kwok Kian Chow of the National Art Gallery, Singapore, and Kavita Singh of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, along with Guggenheim’s senior curator of Asian art, Alexandra Munroe and associate curator, Sandhini Poddar) will select new works by South and Southeast Asian artists to be showcased in New York in 2013. Artists from the following countries are being considered for inclusion: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
The exhibition will later travel to institutions in Singapore and Hong Kong large enough to accommodate the selected works, which will fill one of the Guggenheim’s annex galleries. Still, this is a comparatively small space for a show of such breadth and for the amount of money being pledged for the program by its main sponsor, the Union Bank of Switzerland (up to USD 40 million by some estimates). One difficult task will be to contextualize 15 countries’ artistic production in the space of approximately 700 square meters. According to Yap, “Time, and the diversity of practices having a relationship or ties to the region, are the main challenges.” Moreover, given the vastness and heterogeneity of South and Southeast Asia, neither she nor her colleagues at the Guggenheim, expect the show to be a “conclusive thesis of representation of the practices of the region,” she says.
Ultimately, the success of the Global Art Initiative will be seen in future transnational exchanges, curatorial residencies and the direction of the Guggenheim’s public programming, beyond the Initiative’s five-year lifespan. | <urn:uuid:790d354d-8e84-458e-bd94-01fc40c45aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artasiapacific.com/News/GuggenheimUBSMAPGlobalArtInitiative | 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 | 0.939942 | 854 | 1.796875 | 2 |
In December 2011, CEF began discussions with local commercial and non-profit energy users about hosting a community-owned solar array that would open up access to clean energy ownership. In 2012, we built experience with the process of working with major host sites and investors, and have three projects ranging from 15kW to 25kW awaiting rebate awards from Xcel Energy that are financed independently so that the sites hosting the panels do not have to pay for the system up front. These projects are a pilot for launching true community solar in 2013, and are allowing us to work through the steps of securing an investor, creating a legal structure, working with installers, coordinating local sites and more.
Community Solar opens up a huge realm of opportunities for residents who cannot currently participate in solar. Currently, only about 5% of households have all the factors needed to participate in a roof-top, owner-financed approach to solar that has so far been common:
- Owning their own building and rooftop
- Having a south-facing roof that is structurally okay for solar
- Not having substantial shading of that roof
- Having the financial resources/ ability to access private financing to afford it.
Through a community solar model, renters, people with homes that are poor solar sites, and people able to invest as little as $500-$1,000 can participate in owning clean energy. It also creates an economy of scale that can provide a greater rate of return.
In April 2013, Cooperative Energy Futures is launching a Community Solar working group of interested community members and solar and legal experts to develop a pilot series of community solar projects across the Twin Cities, with a goal of initial installs either in late Fall 2013 or Spring 2014. Please contact General Manager Timothy DenHerder-Thomas at firstname.lastname@example.org, (612) 250-1621 if you are interested in attending of April 30th kick-off meeting or future planning meetings.
Currently pending state legislation would open up a new channel for community solar in Minnesota, so given that this is not yet available, there are two different options for how community solar could work:
- Currently allowed: A group of community members gets together (via an LLC) and finances and owns a solar array located on a local business, place of worship, school, non-profit, or other local institution. The LLC sells electricity to the site on which the panels are located and distributes profits to community members.
- Possible in the future pending legislation currently under discussion: A group of community members gets together and owns and finances a solar array located on a local business, place of worship, school, non-profit, or other local institution. They get direct bill credits to their bill for their share of the electricity produced by the array, as if it was on their own home. The site on which the panels were located could get some portion of the energy too.
Specific sites, legal models to allow investment, and direct opportunities to participate are not yet available, but we are ready to start building a list of people interested in learning more and joining in community solar arrays. If you are interested in this mdoel and might want to join in as a community solar owner, please sign up below! | <urn:uuid:6159e377-648f-4928-8909-8c21b47ebb41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooperativeenergyfutures.com/communitysolar/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964684 | 664 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013 - Thursday, April 11, 2013
Location: Online Webinar
Powders have been used in very harsh industrial applications for decades. "Super Durables" were developed to enhance the color and gloss retention of standard powder coatings to extend their life and compete with alternative liquid coating options. Today super durable powders are being used in markets like; Architectural, Agricultural, Automotive and many more. However, all super durables are not created equal. This session will give you the tools to understand how to make sure you are getting a true super durable powder coating that will work for your application. | <urn:uuid:32256c56-11c4-48cd-a309-3deccfb10fae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pfonline.com/events/details/353318b9-e81a-44ee-9270-b52496261fe6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959172 | 131 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Listening to the U.S. Presidential debate last Friday, one could be forgiven for thinking it was only the lower and middle-classes who are concerned about the welfare of the economy. But a survey of affluent investors reports a new all-time low in the economic outlook for those with more than $500k to spare, according to the Chicago-based consulting firm Spectrem Group.
The Spectrem Affluent Investor Index, which measures the investment outlook of households with at least $500k in investable assets, fell 9 points to a new all-time low of -22 in September. The previous low was a -20 reading in March.
"Affluent concerns about the economy doubled from June as the nation's wealthiest investors worked to understand that impact of this financial turmoil," said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group.
Meanwhile, the Spectrem Millionaire Investor Index, which looks at those with more than $1 million in investable assets, also hit a new low at -18 after falling 9 points over the month.
"Affluent Americans and millionaires alike saw their investment outlook fall to record lows in September, a tumultuous month that saw the government take control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a U.S. bailout of AIG and the fall of Lehman Brothers," Walper added.
Interestingly, nearly 40% of affluent investors cited the economy as the most serious threat to their financial goals, which doesn't bode well for those hoping the financial turmoil will be contained to Wall Street. Only 13% said market conditions were a graver threat, while 11% said results from the presidential election constituted the most important factor, 5% said rising unemployment was a top concern, and 4% cited housing and real estate.
When the same question was asked in June, just 19% cited the economy as the most serious threat to investments.
By Patrick McGee and edited by Sarah Sussman
©CEP News Ltd. 2008 | <urn:uuid:6eed7c1f-027f-46cc-8676-ef78d848ae93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/10012008_affluent_investors.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965562 | 399 | 1.65625 | 2 |
What is the study of MS in Systems Engineering and Management (SEM) about?
The MS-SEM program provides a broad-based, formalized education in engineering and management of increasingly complex “macro” systems with a large number of interdependent parts that have a significant organizational or societal impact. These areas are at the intersection of the traditionally separate disciplines of systems engineering and systems management.The current business environment requires that engineers in industry and government be trained to be good managers and leaders, and to be good stewards of corporate or government resources. Conversely, managers in industry need a better appreciation and understanding of technology and how to manage large and complex engineering projects. They are all also expected to be cognizant of the broader impact of their management and engineering activities on their companies and the society at large. The MS-SEM program provides this training.
What are the admissions requirements, and how do I apply for the MS-SEM program?
For admissions requirements and the application process for the MS-SEM program please click here.
What undergraduate degree do I need to have to apply to the MS-SEM program?
If you have an undergraduate degree in engineering, physics, chemistry, math, economics or finance, you probably have an adquate background in math to enter the program. If your undergraduate degree is in another field, you may need to strengthen your math skills.
Where can I find more details on the tracks and courses?
How long does it usually take to complete the MS-SEM program?
The MS-SEM is a 36-credit-hour program, excluding prerequisites. It usually takes three semesters to complete the program at 12 hours per semester. (Most students who work take two courses per semester and finish in six semesters.) Rarely, a student carrying heavy loads can complete the program in one calendar year if desired courses are available in the summer. Some international students take nine hours in the fall and spring, go home for the summer, and return for nine hours in the fall and nine hours in the spring. Other students enroll on a part-time basis and take longer to complete the program.
Do I need to have work experience to apply to the MS-SEM program?
The MS-SEM is an academic degree. Work experiences is not required for students in the traditional MS-SEM program. Hosever, in the Executive Education-based MS-SEM program, a minimum of three to five years of relevant work experience is preferred.
I am from a foreign country. Can I be accepted into the MS-SEM program?
Yes, we have many international students from many countries, and our faculty is very international also. However, international students must have student visas, are required to carry a minimum course load of nine credit hours in the fall and in the spring semesters, and must follow international student guidelines, as outlined by UT Dallas International Student Services.
What quantitative skills are required?
Students are expected to have taken calculus, statistics and linear algebra. Many MS-SEM engineering courses are quantitatively oriented, and students with less aptitude and education in quantitative methods are at a disadvantage.
Is financial aid available?
For students in the traditional MS-SEM program, a limited number of Dean’s Scholarships are available, offering $1,000 and qualification for in-state tuition. For a list of available scholarships, see the JSOM Graduate Scholarships page.
For students in the Executive Education MS-SEM program, there are no scholarships.
All students can find more information at Financial Aid for the SEM Program.
Are there any areas of concentration in the MS-SEM program?
Students can concentrate in any of the 12 areas indicated on the SEM Concentrations page.
What is the purpose of having a concentration?
Concentrations are designed to provide the optimal set of courses to prepare for specific careers in SEM, in specific industries or industry sectors.
Do I have to declare a concentration to receive my degree?
No. You must complete a minimum of 12 courses (36 credit hours) to earn an MS-SEM degree. All can be core courses,or you can take a minimum of four courses (12 credit hours) in a concentration while still satisfying your core-course requirements. Your concentration will not appear on your diploma.
What are the course requirements for each concentration?
Typical courses appropriate for each concentration are listed at SEM Concentrations. You can discuss alternatives with your adviser.
What kind of careers can I look forward to, and what employers hire MS-SEM graduates?
There are many career paths in SEM. See Career Path in SEM for examples.
Are there any online classes for the MS-SEM degree?
Not at this time, but we will be looking into that in the future.
I am a transfer student. Can I transfer some of my graduate courses from my previous university?
Transfer credits may be granted for equivalent graduate course work completed at other accredited universities with a grade of B or better within the past six years. Up to 9 credit hours of course work from other universities may be transferred to the degree program, but they must fit into the MS-SEM program, and must be approved first by the Advising Office, then by the relevant faculty member for the course for which equivalence is being sought, and then by the director of the MS-SEM program. Applications are available in the Advising Office.
Can I receive transfer credit for undergraduate courses that cover the same material as your graduate courses?
No. The 36-hour requirement will not be reduced based on undergraduate coursework. However, you may apply for a waiver of one or more of the core courses.
What is a waiver?
A waiver allows the student to skip a core course and enroll in a more advanced course in its place. Waivers of up to three courses may be granted in recognition of previous coursework completed with a grade of B or better within the past six years. Applications are available in the Advising Office, and they must be approved by the director of the MS-SEM program. Waivers are usually discouraged because graduate courses are typically deeper and broader in coverage than their undergraduate counterparts. Further, expectations are higher and competition is much stronger. Typically, the student is expected to have completed two undergraduate courses with similar content to receive a waiver of a graduate course.
Can courses be taken at other institutions after enrolling in the UT Dallas SEM graduate program?
Students officially admitted to the UT Dallas – SEM graduate program must obtain prior approval before taking any courses at another university. The resultant transfer hours may be denied if prior approval is not obtained. See the Advising Office for details on applying for pre-approvals.
Can I get credit for an internship?
There is no formal internship within the MS-SEM program. However, the Career Center can help traditional students craft an internship for credit. Internships are not available for Executive Education students.
Are joint degrees available?
Yes. Students can enroll in the MS-SEM and MBA programs concurrently and can complete the dual MS-SEM/MBA program with as few as 63 credit hours. Find more information at Joint MS/MBA. Careful planning is required, and we recommend you first consult your MS-SEM adviser.
What are the faculty’s credentials?
Most faculty members have doctorates from top-tier graduate schools and have published research in leading academic and practitioner journals. Several faculty members also have had extensive work experience in industry and consulting. | <urn:uuid:5fd894a2-8b8a-42bc-9d87-3357043859e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utdallas.edu/sem/executive-masters/faq/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944308 | 1,560 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Björk says she is 100% Icelandic. Both of her parents are Icelandic. Icelandics are a mix between Nordics and Gaelics. Those are both North European, pure Caucasian groups. OK, so how come she looks Asiatic?
That’s not the only photo of her. Lapps are the most ancient Caucasians of Europe. They do have a bit of Asian in them, but not much (7%). Surely some Scandinavians have some Lapp in them, but probably not much.
I much better guess is that Björk is part Inuit from Greenland. Iceland is very close to the Inuit-populated land of Greenland, with close ties to other Inuit regions in Canada. She’s obviously got some Inuit genes somewhere in her background.
I have heard some say that some far north Scandinavians have Asiatic eyes though they are fully Caucasian due to protective effects eyefolds have on the eyes from the glare of the sun shining on the snow. I think that’s dubious until proven otherwise. Most Norwegians and Swedes don’t look very Asiatic.
Best guess is she has an Inuit ancestor back there somewhere.
Anyway, as far as I am concerned she’s White. | <urn:uuid:e2b617d5-c018-47be-90e3-b87f88c801c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/the-strange-case-of-bjork/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974233 | 266 | 1.710938 | 2 |
“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:7, New International Version, © 1984)
I read that Bible verse early in what I call my “therapy years”. I was 27, working as an Art Director for an industry publishing company, and deeply involved in my church (in fact I would soon be off on my church-supported stint as a “smuggler for Jesus” in Europe).
The immediate impact of that verse was to make me feel better about paying for my ongoing therapy sessions (with a Christian psychologist) after I had used up my annual insurance benefit for outpatient therapy. I was facing about three months, I think, of paying full-fare for my “wisdom”, and it seemed like an awful lot of money.
I don’t regret paying that money. I don’t miss it. I think I made the right choice. But I have been wondering a bit about how to quantify the effects of the years of self-examination, therapy, counseling, reading, journaling and psychic-visiting that followed.
I find I must seriously consider the possibility that much of the calm and happiness that now mark my life are as much the product of natural processes that influenced my physiology, (in most particular my brain) as they are the earned result of all of my navel-gazing.
It could be argued that the single most remarkable thing about us humans is the capacity we have to use our minds to “step outside of ourselves” and observe our own behavior. We can act instinctively, react quickly, and yet at the same time (or shortly thereafter) notice what we are doing and analyze it. It is a rather amazing ability, and one that we point to as a large part of what defines us as “humans”. But at every level beneath this one (both cognitive and physiological), we are still such animals, really. I know that we give this idea a nod in many ways, and yet I don’t know how much we really give it its due.
As a young man, it was probably obvious to everyone but me how driven my behavior was by the testosterone pulsing in my system. I would sometimes find myself in a sexual situation that a part of my mind — had it the courage to speak up — would have asked of the rest of me: “But, do you really want to be here?”. (The answer would, at times, have been “No”).
(Is this the dilemma that Paul talks about in the Bible as well? “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15, New International Version, © 1984)? Such questions troubled me as a young, enthusiastic Christian).
We know now — thanks to science — that the human brain doesn’t fully mature until about age 27. So in that sense it’s not surprising that the late-mid-twenties marked the beginning of my “therapy years”. I was a young professional out in the world, with enough experience to begin to question whether the way I engaged that world was really optimal.
We read about the “mid life crisis” that hits forty-year-old men, but I was a bit early for that. And yet, when I hit thirty, I found myself in another period of re-examination. I did a bit more therapy, and read a lot of self-help literature (which was coming out like a flood in the popular press then). “New Age” ideas had also become popular enough to be considered “mainstream”, and so I found an easy substitute for my my abandoned Christian belief system (as well as a whole new set of “enlightened” ideas and techniques to try out in order to achieve emotional stability and “happiness”).
I worked that New Age angle for about as long as I’d worked my Christianity (roughly 15 years), eventually finding a psychic who had a technique of deeply affirming me as an individual that set me on a quest for my new Holy Grail of total self-acceptance (a quest that eventually led me to abandon the “spell of belief” altogether).
But I can remember many years made up of long, painful days trying to find a way out of depression or anxiety into a brighter world, using any tool, tip or technique that presented itself.
Eventually, the clouds began to lift. And over a rather long period of time, I found myself feeling more and more like a complete and coherent being, a process that took a long time to get rolling but, once it did, created a sort of momentum that was its own positive feedback loop. And then, one day, I realized that I was actually happy and getting happier, becoming increasingly content with the way I saw the world and the person I was in that world. And one night the familiar catalog of past events that I had mulled, autopsied, and replayed in endless mental loops for years and years suddenly lost their psychic punch. The past, it would seem, had finally slipped into irrelevance.
The story I would have told you then would have been one of pride in all of the “self work” I had done. I was proud that I had consistently made the choice to “buy wisdom”, to look inward and face my demons and — most importantly — have the courage to be willing to be completely accepting of whoever it was “Bob” turned out to be. It was, indeed, a point of pride, and of no small comfort when I compared my humble external accomplishments to my peers who had families and houses and such. Others may have gained the world, but I had gained my soul!
But now I’m not so sure. Not about my current persistent happiness or the man I’ve turned out to be, but about just what the major factors in that process really were.
For it turns out that there is science to be considered here: for not long after my young male brain had matured, it began its cognitive decline into the decay of the thirties and forties. But with a twist: for it seems that the aging brain works to compensate for the “Swiss cheese-like” holes forming in our gray matter by creating new synaptic connections between the hemispheres of the brain. So what I thought was the product of my deep introspection and analysis — namely my new-found ability to synthesize thought and emotion — was more likely the result of this natural patch-work happening inside my skull. And then, of course, there is the seemingly inevitable age-related drop in male testosterone levels (that goes a long, long way to mellowing out a man).
After a few years of those lower testosterone levels, I found myself much less the jittery lone-wolf I had been before, and was more like a cat that didn’t mind curling up and purring with people now and again. People I had known for years almost overnight became beloved friends whom I treasured. I became a loving man.
Then came the years when I was seeing people I knew in the obituaries every week (most in the year leading up to the death of my father at age 91). When my dad died, I was just about exactly half his age. Suddenly I was thrust into another period of reflection, only now I was looking back on a life of learning my professional, artistic skills from the perspective of the master pondering his path to that mastery. And after a couple rough years of transition into “middle age” that followed, I finally decided that my primary job would no longer be my own self-discovery and growth, but that the remaining years (at least until the next phase hit) would be to get on with doing all that I could with all that I had for as long as I could.
And then finally, after all of that, I hit a time in my life where I began to feel that I had, after all, gained a good bit of wisdom. I wasn’t ready to be a yogi on a mountaintop – - I had to much yet to do with the remnant of youth still in my physical body and brain — but I did have that sense that if it all ended tomorrow, I had, at least, achieved that much with my life.
But now I wonder just how much of that wisdom came from all of my questing and questioning, anguish and acquiring, and how much was mostly the result of having simply stayed alive long enough for my brain to move through the phases of the first fifty years of my life? It’s impossible to know.
(In fairness to my introspective self, I think that what I am really looking at here is the issue of emotional equilibrium and emotional intelligence — the sort of self-knowing that allows us to make decisions based on a certain clarity about what we feel, desire and need, not our storehouse of general knowledge or acquired technical skills, though the former helps in the application and appreciation of the latter, perhaps more than the acquisition of the latter inevitably brings about the former).
In short, it is not impossible to believe that a good deal of what I would like to take “credit” for (in terms of my general “happiness” or “contentment”) is pretty much pure biology that I have dressed up in a contemporary “personal growth” narrative.
This viewpoint has the appeal of injecting a bit of humility into the way I view the “wisdom” I have acquired in my lifetime. And that, to me, is a fairly good indicator of the amount of “truth” in the idea. It’s something I like about science: it puts us in our place in a particular way. Meaning that it doesn’t degrade us (as another person might for their own gain), but neither does it give us license to think of ourselves as more clever than we actually are. Science is, I think, the single best mirror we have in which to behold our true selves. Everything else is wishing and fear.
Does this mean, then, that all the reading, counseling, praying, thinking and wondering I did in my teens, twenties, thirties and forties was a waste of time, energy and money? No, I don’t think I can say that. After all, I had to fill those difficult years with something, and I did, at least, choose to occupy myself some useful actives (I went to art school, for example, and worked a series of professional jobs, continuing to seize opportunities to develop my natural artistic talents into professional abilities). But when it comes to all of the “self-help” work, I think it will remain an open question whether it was anywhere near as effective as I needed to believe it was at the time!
And so I’m left with this: not knowing, completely, from whence I — as the individual I now am — sprang.
My DNA, of course, was there from the start, and I was lucky enough to have a family that saw to it that I didn’t starve or get eaten by hyenas. I was educated and socialized by my parents and siblings so that I could make my own way in the world. I had opportunities for counseling when my melancholic and anxious personality was more than I could handle. I had time alone to think…and think…and think (perhaps a bit too much of that). And I had a talent for art and expression that gave me a place to invest time and education that eventually became a deeply satisfying career. But in so many ways I am simply a male animal that has had the good fortune to live long enough to mature through the sequential phases of childhood into a mature adult who is now able to enjoy his life free from many of the uncomfortable by-products of DNA’s insistent urge to procreate.
After eons of the biological evolution that led to my own human parents, I have navigated the tumbling whitewater of my individual evolutionary path and lived to pop out the other side — onto calmer waters where evolution doesn’t give a rip about what happens to me next. It is a fluke of history that I am alive in a time where so many of us get to live as long as we do in this post-evolutionary land of (potentially) enjoyable existence. And though I can’t completely credit my own wisdom for getting me here, maybe I can borrow back just a bit of that satisfaction — suspect though it is — in recognizing that I do have the wisdom to recognize who and what I am. | <urn:uuid:95ffc3e0-1d42-4f63-a0db-d14b2e5da90c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thechurchofbob.com/boblog/?tag=bible | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982187 | 2,687 | 1.5 | 2 |
For the past few years, Dan Redmond has been on a mission to change the way his household uses energy.
As concerns about global warming and rising energy costs grow, many families like the Redmonds are looking for ways to change the way they use energy.
Three years ago Redmond began embracing solar energy to power his suburban Washington home. Read full article »
All About Alternative Energy Technology | <urn:uuid:8670c01e-fa9c-4aec-aaff-159aa53a3e54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/20/solar.house/other1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954358 | 78 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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