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Priscilla Jane Owens, 1829-1907
Born: July 21, 1829, Baltimore, Maryland.
Died: December 5, 1907, Baltimore, Maryland.
Owens taught in Baltimore for almost half a century, including Sunday school at the Union Square Methodist Episcopal Church. Most of her hymns were written for her Sunday school students. Much of her poetry appeared in the Methodist Protestant and the Christian Standard.
Give Me the Bible
--hymntime.com/tch… Go to person page > | <urn:uuid:f0c1e36a-2876-4c2d-8fb3-ba3473dc0c19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hymnary.org/text/theres_a_lovely_harbor_of_peace?sort=meter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942938 | 110 | 1.59375 | 2 |
At Rollins the emphasis is always on the student. In keeping with this emphasis, the Physics Department encourages all of its students to participate in the Rollins College Student-Faculty Summer Scholarship Program. This program is supported by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for the sole purpose of involving students in a close collaboration with faculty. Students in this program are given a room on campus and a stipend while working with a faculty mentor during the summer months. Students become eligible to participate after their freshman year, and all students interested in majoring in physics or pre-engineering are eligible.
We are now in our eighth year of summer research. This year we have four physics majors in the group working on the physics of electric guitars, banjos, trumpets, and cymbals. We also have a visiting graduate student from LeMans, France and the physics teacher from Haggerty High School working in the lab. It is crowded, but a lot of exciting things are happening. Follow this link to see pictures of our ongoing research 2007 Summer Research Scholars.
We finished our seventh year of summer research in 2006 with three physics majors working in the group along with one incoming first-year student. Follow this link to see pictures of the 2006 Summer Research Scholars.
This year we have four physics majors in the group and one incoming first-year student. Follow this link to see pictures of our ongoing research 2005 Summer Research Scholars.
We have just finished our fifth year of summer research. This year we had six physics majors in the group and one post-graduate researcher. We will update the page soon to describe our most recent work, but for now click here to see pictures of the 2004 Summer Research Scholars.
Eight students were involved in research during the summer of 2003. Seven students worked on three different projects involving musical acoustics and one worked with the Department of Psychology on a project involving temperature effects on rats. Several students presented their work at the National Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in January 2004. One of the students, Brad Deutsch, won the National Outstanding Student Research Award from the Society of Physics Students and presented his work at the International Conference of Physics Students in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro. Click here to see pictures of our 2003 Summer Research Scholars.
Five students participated in departmental research during the Summer of 2002. Two students continued to work on the physics of trumpet bells while three students performed electronic speckle pattern interferometry and acoustic spectral analysis on elephant bells as part of a collaboration with the University of Loughborough in England. Their work was presented at the Stockholm Musical Acoustics Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Click here to see pictures of our 2002 Summer Research Scholars.
During the Summer of 2001 seven students and a local high school teacher participated in the program. The students presented their work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which was held at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater in April 2002. Click here to see some pictures of our 2001 Summer Research Scholars.
In 2000 the Physics Department started its student research effort with six students participating. The students designed, built and performed experiments in musical acoustics, and during the academic year they participated in writing articles for publication in professional scientific journals. The students also presented their work at the Annual Meeting of the South Eastern Section of the American Physical Society in Starkville, Mississippi. Click here to see some pictures of our 2000 Summer Research Scholars. | <urn:uuid:fcc872b4-b520-4db9-aea8-f1e6cb9fe9c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vanadium.rollins.edu/research/students.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952257 | 700 | 1.5 | 2 |
Birch grove Park features miles of out-of-the-way, thickly wooded paths and trails. Surprisingly, as you negotiate the narrow earthen causeways, held together by the roots of stunted pine trees, oak, larch, blueberry and laurel separating the many man-made ponds, or walk the more wide open dirt service road which begins in the campground area, and then winds around the entire park, bringing you into the less trafficked, heavily wooded areas of Birch Grove where you will be able to convince yourself you are in some remote wilderness far from civilisation, when in fact, you are surrounded by one of the most densely populated and highly developed areas of Southern New Jersey. Northfield City, Atlantic County.
After waiting out the opening of the 2010 Birch Grove Park fishing season Saturday April 10th, when the park is always overrun by hordes of frenzied trout seekers, at 10 AM Monday 12th the webmaster dipped his hook into a Birch Grove Park pond for the first time since the closing of the 2009 Park season, and landed a nice Chain Pickerel within 10 minutes. Did I mention your webmaster is the greatest fisherman in the History of Birch Grove Park?
The April 10th opening of the 2010 Birch Grove park fishing season began at 8 AM with the annual Trout tournament which was open to children ages 2-15. Personally I think the 16 and 17 year-olds were gipped, and I’m sure they’d agree. Insert appropriate emoticon here. Prizes were given in various age groups for the largest weigh-in or for fish tagged with a specific ID number (*not sure if this was true for the current season). Some fairly nice prizes were offered including: trophies, pole and reel combos, and fishing tackle. | <urn:uuid:f141a3d1-dfeb-4f54-aa02-b483f6980d24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://birchgrovepark.com/page/2 | 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 | 0.967577 | 368 | 1.5 | 2 |
Can Indie Films Make Money on YouTube?
I recently heard a report on NPR’s “Marketplace” about amateur videographers making a killing on YouTube, most famously the father behind “David After Dentist,” and Nebraska teenager Lucas Cruikshank, the creator and star of “Hey, It’s Fred.”
“David After the Dentist” seen by about 60 million people, has resulted in direct sales of merchandise, along with licensing of David’s catch-phrase, “Is This Real Life?”
“Fred” has more than 400 million views and, as the New York Times recently reported, in a first-of-its-kind deal for children’s entertainment, “Fred: the Movie” will debut on Nickelodeon this summer. Execs are hoping to create a franchise and may follow up with a Fred Christmas movie.
These are happy accidents, but should indie filmmakers be using YouTube as a component of their finance plan?
No, they should not.
Licensing a zeitgeist like “David After Dentist” is merely capitalizing on the here and now, right now; maintaining this enthusiasm for two years while a the film version is produced is far cry from from trying to convert right now. In addition, the Fred audience are tweens that move from fad to fad quickly and never look back. Will Fred be as cool to tweens in two years? The next generation of tweens will seek out the own Fred phenomenon. Trying to recapture lightening in a bottle after a two year lag time is foolish enough, let along trying to do it with the shortest attention span demographic.
Massify, Lionsgate, and YouTube are sponsoring a program called LINC, the Lionsgate Incubator, to make and distribute short comedy films online. In January, YouTube announced it would collaborate with Sundance to rent the top films from the 2009 and 2010 festivals.
Participation in these filmmaker opportunities is not unlike earlier opportunities offered by AFI, Fox Searchlight, Sundance, and other festivals. Now there’s a digital component, but whether or not a career can be launched through such an opportunity depends on what an individual wants out of their profession.
There are also YouTube partnerships: allowing YouTube to place ads on your content and share in the rewards.
One of the successes within this paradigm is Demand Media, which “brings together writers, editors, experts and filmmakers to create informative content and develop online communities around a wide range of topics that run the gamut from healthy lifestyles to adventure travel to learning how to manage your personal finances.” Demand Media has launched more than 20 different YouTube channels, some of which are among the top-most-viewed on the site.
The cornerstone of Demand Media’s success is that they embrace the fact they’re in the search-engine-optimization business: “While many see YouTube as a destination site, we know that YouTube is also a top search engine. In fact, the largest percentage of our channel views comes from searches on YouTube. So we take that into account and utilize many of YouTube’s services for increasing discoverability of long-tail content so that we do not have to rely on hits from general search engines to be successful,” says EVP Stephen Kydd.
I was looking for an indie film use of YouTube and came across Example of 3 Lads, An American Fool, One Night – indie gay film – first posted YouTube segment four years ago – now over 165,000 views. Buy the DVD for 1.99 on Amazon. How significant is this to the filmmaker’s success?
Based on the internet hype of festival-darling, “Kick-ass”, Lionsgate (which paid $15m for US rights) was rumored to have tried to shake down exhibitors for a nearly 100% take of its opening weekend box office. After a relatively disappointing $20m opening weekend, the the ability to quantify and parlay YouTube hits and online chatter into actual dollars, a negotiation position, or even a financing pitch is limited at best. If the film ends up having legs and can get carried by word of mouth, then it could be a precedent in the making.
Some indie films have claimed success in raising funds online by posting spec trailers, but the most successful example I’ve found only raised $60k over four years. Four years is too long to wait.
Instead of layering the “old school” indie on top of a new platform, the smart approach is to follow Demands’ lead and recognize this is a new medium, with different requirements; it’s actually more a search engine than a content delivery system or distributor. | <urn:uuid:7c4873fb-1705-414f-a449-5cceceaf4d88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://filmclosings.com/2010/04/indie-films-youtube/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942389 | 995 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Events will be held across the world, including the UK, to mark the 1,000th day spent in prison by the United States soldier arrested over the leaking of classified documents to whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
Private Bradley Manning was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to WikiLeaks, whose founder Julian Assange has sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
A court martial is set to be held in June at Ford Meade in Maryland, with supporters treating him as a hero, but opponents describing him as a traitor.
A series of protests and demonstrations will be held across the United States and Europe, including London, Yorkshire and Cardiff.
"There has never been a more important time to broadcast our message of support for exposing war crimes, international justice, and people's right to know what the government does in our name," said a spokesman for a Bradley Manning campaign group in the United States.
Mr Assange has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy since last June, after suddenly arriving there as part of his campaign to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex offences - which he denies. He fears being sent to the United States if he travels to Sweden.
New York civil rights attorney Chase Madar has written a book about Bradley Manning, raising a number of issues including the soldier's solitary confinement for 11 months after his arrest.
Mr Madar told the Press Association that he believed that Manning was a "tragic hero". He has written to the soldier, and sent him a copy of the book, but has never received any replies, possibly on the advice of Manning's lawyer.
The author said most people in the United States did not know who Bradley Manning was, and only a minority would regard him as a national hero.
"There is still a perception that the US is at risk from military leaks - but I believe what he did was a good thing, both for the United States and for the rest of the world. The documents leaked represented less than 1% of what Washington classified in the whole of 2011." | <urn:uuid:48abf923-2828-4302-9ba7-969cc6a69596> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/southport-news/southport-breaking-news/2013/02/23/manning-supporters-stage-protests-101022-32864688/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980124 | 418 | 1.632813 | 2 |
How can loving those I teach make a difference in their lives?
If you want to influence learners for good, you should not only love to teach; you should love each person you teach. As you show your love for those you teach, they become more open to learning from you and more aware of their eternal worth.
Seek to understand those you teach. As you do, you will be better able to teach lessons that meet individual needs. Reach out to each individual in your class, remembering that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10).
Search for ways to help new members and those who have been less active feel welcome in your class. Invite them to come, and introduce them to other class members. Invite them to participate by asking them questions you know they can answer and otherwise helping them feel comfortable in class. | <urn:uuid:5a82bf2b-0be8-4bca-9c26-d71707fb9b7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/service/teaching-the-gospel/principles-and-methods-of-teaching/love-those-you-teach?lang=eng&country=nz | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971292 | 183 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A person that is extremely ugly or low on the social ladder
Auston Scutt is a Mutt
1) A person of mixed racial descent.
2) A dog of many mixed breeds.
Thomas is white, Hispanic, and Italian, therefore he is a mutt.
I have a dog who is of so many different breeds that he is considered a mutt.
term used to identify someone as multiracial; pretty derogatory word for a multiracial person, at least in the eyes of someone who is multiracial him/herself (because of the word's use in labeling a dog as inferior as a result of impure breeding)
i think it is obnoxious of you to call me a mutt; i'm not inferior to you because my parents are two different races.
A mutt is a person of a multi-racial background, depending on who you are talking to it can be considered offensive and/or derogatory. In a lot of cases people don't take offense to it(I personally call myself a mutt all the time) Just be careful who you call a mutt, some people won't take it very well.
Anthony: what are you, you look Hispanic?
Me: I'm a mutt...
Anthony: Me too!
person1: what is she, I can't tell?
person2: I'm not sure, she's some crazy mix.
person1: Oh, so she's a mutt.
person3: Who are you calling a mutt, you're no better than me just cause I'm multiracial!
Guy: Wow you're gorgeous, what are you?
Girl: I'm Guyanese, Irish, Indian, and German.
Guy: So you're a mutt.
Girl: yup and damn proud of it too!
A Mutt is a person who is a real lowlife, degenerate piece of shit who just never does anything right... The common Mutt can be found in OTB and the local bagel store buying lotto tickets every day of their lives and losing every dollar they have... Another type of Mutt will be high or drunk 247 and try to operate and have a normal life but wind up doing "Mutt" things... A Mutt can easily be spotted... Another type of "Mutt" is a person who is very ugly and has a really dirty bum status appearance to him...
- That Mutt buys a lotto ticket every day and has never won a dollar... You might as well give him the ticket already ripped up!
- This Mutt over here looks like his mother and father were brother and sister... What a fuckin sick mutt!
- This fuckin Mutt parked and took up both spots!... Fuckin mutt cock sucker!!!
Someone who sleeps with a lot of people. Basically a whore.
Jack- Yo you see Cindy today? She was looking good man.
Tom- Don't even think about it bro unless you want your dick to fall off, she's the queen of all mutts.
Lucy. R - home wrecker, druggie, drug dealer, slut, lives in the gutter, all around bitch, disloyal, friend user, social climber, attention/drama seeker, has a list of people she has hooked up/slept with.
Holly "Oi it's the neighborhood mutt going for a run"
Jerry "Who's that?"
Mary "The queen mutt, the filthy bitch that is Lucy. R"
Jerry "Oh yeah man she's rank scum"
A diarrhea colored person.
A Mutt is a person who plays modernwarfare 3 and argues with the white people, or a person who play Skyrim while jacking off at the tities. Also they have been known to drink their own cum. | <urn:uuid:a9337092-4fce-438b-8fb5-4ffd821b321f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mutt&defid=4027952 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956285 | 800 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Mike Ozanian of Forbes had a report today that a source told him the Stars are losing $1 million a week because of high debt and interest payments.
A Stars insider said the story is “unequivocally untrue.”
Knowing the genius of creative accounting, my guess is both sides have a point.
The key, I guess, is what does it all mean.
When Hicks Sports Group in March of 2009 defaulted on the loans it procured to purchase and run the Stars and the Rangers, it basically handed the keys of both organizations to the lenders. Those lenders, led by Monarch Investments, have been paying the bills since. When the Rangers were sold last summer, the lenders received a nice boost, and also received some tricky accounting challenges in separating the Stars and the Rangers.
So, how much of the Stars’ debt is left over from the original deal? How much was attached to the Rangers? Hicks Sports Groups often used money from one team to fund the other during down times, so how is it all split up?
You see where I’m going with all of this?
I have no doubt that a smart accountant can show you a sheet of paper that says the Stars are losing $1 million a week, but who are they losing it to? To the lenders, who are paying the bills and charging the interest? That just seems like a paper loss to me.
From all I can tell, the Stars are paying their bills on time and aren’t bouncing any checks. They received approval from the lenders and the NHL to up their payroll by $5 million for next season. They don’t seem in jeopardy of shutting down.
So what does “losing $1 million a week” mean? Probably something on paper, and no place else.
Would the lenders benefit from a report that says the team is losing $1 million a week? Maybe. It could possibly allow them to increase the amount of money paid to certain lenders in the “A” group, or the first group paid once the money comes in. Not every lender will be paid, so if you can prove you deserve to be paid first you can significantly improve your chances at getting more cash. Could the NHL benefit from the report? Maybe, if it increases the sale price on paper, and thus the perceived value of the team. Could one of the buyers benefit? Possibly, if the perceived money panic either drove away other buyers, drove down the actual price or created more urgency.
So, there are possible reasons why someone felt the information needed to come out. Will it change how the sale unfolds? Maybe slightly, but only in the way an accountant would notice.
Sources are saying that Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi still is trying to get his bid in, that other buyers are doing due diligence and awaiting Gaglardi’s bid to see if they want to go over it, and that the process is crawling along. The next big deadline is Oct. 15 when the first player paychecks are due, and the guess here is that the lenders don’t want to be writing those checks, so something should get done before then.
The necessary steps should be taken in July and August to move the sale along _ at least that’s what everyone is hoping. | <urn:uuid:ad02f46d-7b46-4584-9b9b-c92b99ddd79c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://starsblog.dallasnews.com/2011/07/stars-losing-1-million-a-week-probably-o.html/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973516 | 685 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Postsecondary Access and Success
Texas students should graduate with the tools they need to begin pursuing their dreams for the future. At Educate Texas, we know that postsecondary education will jumpstart their progress. That’s why we work closely with our partners to ensure that all Texas high school students — regardless of income, geographic location or family background— have the opportunities and resources necessary to apply to, enter and succeed in college. Educate Texas also promotes the proven practices that will increase the number of students who complete a technical, two-year or four-year degree at any Texas college or university.
To generate long-term, positive impact for Texas students, Educate Texas proudly connects a diverse group of organizations dedicated to quality education and links them in a powerful and unprecedented way. Working together, we champion the policies and programs that will help students succeed in their postsecondary endeavors, in their career goals, and throughout their lives. | <urn:uuid:0ec7ec3e-bcde-4035-98c5-426fbd648d74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edtx.org/college-ready-school-network/pinnacle-early-college-high-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950227 | 189 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Graduates Encouraged to Connect Their Life to Their Passion and Help Make the World a Better Place
Graduates heard messages about innovation in the face of adversity and the value of making the most out of life's unscripted moments during Old Dominion University's 117th commencement exercises on Saturday, Dec. 15.
More than 1,200 students received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from ODU in the two ceremonies, at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
President John Broderick held a silent remembrance of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut at the beginning of the two commencement programs.
Christine Mann Darden, retired director of the Aero Performing Center Program Management Office at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, gave the commencement address to graduates of the Darden College of Education, Batten College of Engineering and Technology and College of Sciences at the morning ceremony.
"We need great STEM teachers that will stay in the classroom," Darden told the graduates. "We need engineers and scientists who will make the next discoveries or innovations, or who will solve many of the pressing problems that we face as a country and as a world."
During her 40-year career at NASA Langley, Darden made contributions ranging from research into supersonic aerodynamics to recruiting and instructing the next generation of NASA engineers.
In closing, Darden offered the following words of encouragement to the graduates: "You are prepared to go out and meet the world where it is and make it a better place. ... Go set this world on the right path!"
Kenneth A. Samet, president and chief executive officer of MedStar Health, spoke to graduates of the College of Business and Public Administration, College of Health Sciences and College of Arts and Letters at the afternoon ceremony.
Samet, who graduated from ODU 1980, said he came to the university intending to study pre-med, but confessed that the prospect of dissecting frogs and earning a grade of no better than a C in Organic Chemistry convinced him to change his major to business. It was, he said, his own "unscripted moment." He told the graduates that their life ahead will consist of many unscripted moments, and that they should be prepared to make the most of them.
"You'll make decisions every day that will shape the final person you become," he said.
In more than 25 years in health care administration, Samet has risen to be responsible for all operational aspects of the more than 25 companies that make up the largest, not-for-profit, health care delivery system in the greater Washington, D.C.-metropolitan Maryland region, with annual revenues of $4 billion. Prior to that, he had served as COO since the system's inception in 1998.
Samet offered the following words of advice to the graduates: "It is a long race, and in the end, it is only with yourself. Take the time to find out what matters most to you. Do everything you can to connect your life to your passion."
He added: "Have the courage to live up to your own potential. Don't let others tell you that you can't do something."
Rev. Joseph N. Green Jr., former Norfolk vice mayor and a long-time civil rights pioneer, received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the 9 a.m. ceremony.
Green was a member of the Norfolk School Board before his election to the Norfolk City Council, where he served for 20 years, including 12 years as vice mayor. He advocated for civil rights for African Americans and fair play for all as he worked for the betterment of Norfolk.
Samet also received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters before his address; Darden received an honorary Doctorate of Science. | <urn:uuid:6e7c2eef-1968-4e9f-a0a8-3f8459d93024> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://odu.edu/news/2012/12/graduates_encouraged | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96799 | 787 | 1.578125 | 2 |
ISRI 2013 Special Edition
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries held its annual Convention & Expo in April at the Orange County Convention Center, the second largest convention center in the United States. Iron Horse Logistics Services and sister companies WT&L Corp and CE International offered its solutions at booth #1148. For more details see below .
DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWERS?
In our April 2, 2013 Newsletter 3 questions were posed. Here are the answers.
1. What happened to rail rates in 2004?
Since 1985 inflation- adjusted rail rates declined every year. In
2004, something changed. As the economy expanded and grew,
so did rail rates!
2. How many trucks can one train take off the busy highways? 100?
Would you believe one train can replace as many as 500 trucks!
3. Today there are 7 Class I rail carriers in North America. When the
Staggers Act to deregulate the rail industry was enacted in 1980
there were how many?
There were as many as 40 Class I railroads in 1980! | <urn:uuid:580c7daf-87db-4250-812c-2c3d0f35703f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ihlogistics.com/barge-rail-shipping-resources.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97109 | 225 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Bush administration defenders of the deal to let a Dubai-based company operate six major US ports have cast critics of the deal as racists and xenophobes.
This from an administration that ordered wholesale roundups of Arabs in the US after 9/11, arbitrarily deported thousands of them and continues to hold hundreds of Arabs and other Muslims without charges or documentation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo, Cuba.
You won't find any billionaires in that crowd. Rich Arabs are the sort who were allowed to leave the country on Sept. 13, 2001, without suffering the indignity of an FBI interview.
So when George W. Bush heard that Dubai Ports World (DP World) was buying the British company that operates ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia, he saw no problem. The Bush family has business dealings with the United Arab Emirates (Dubai is one of seven emirates) and Dubya's trade representative is finishing up a trade agreement with them. He viewed questions about the Dubai ports deal as a threat not only to his authority, but also to globalized commerce that free-trade fundamentalists revere.
We don't think it's racist to note that the chairman of DP World is a sultan who works for the crown prince of Dubai. The UAE was one of the few governments that recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which harbored al Qaeda. Some of the UAE's sheiks reportedly went hunting with Osama bin Laden in the late 1990s. It's notable that Dubai was a major transit and money transfer center for al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks and Qaeda operatives are still believed to use Dubai as a logistical base, even though the UAE has made high-profile arrests, passed an anti-money laundering law, and imposed monitoring procedures on charity organizations within its borders.
So yes, we're concerned that national security takes a back seat to "free trade," which demands surrender of the nation's critical infrastructure to unaccountable foreign corporations.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said of the Emirates deal, "We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust global trading system."
We don't understand why ports should be operated by foreign corporations from Britain, much less the United Arab Emirates. But we are troubled by the Bush administration's casual approach to investigating the security implications of the deal, as we doubt the wisdom of privatizing our nation's critical infrastructure.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, an interagency group overseen by the Treasury Department, appears to have greenlighted the deal with little attention, Joe Conason noted. Last year the Government Accountability Office pointed out that Treasury officials tend to value "free trade" above all other considerations, including national security.
The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 27 that business lobbyists were pushing for a resolution of the Dubai deal without reopening the legislation that governs foreign takeovers at a time when the issue is so hot politically. Some lawmakers, among them Senate Banking Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., have called for the Committee on Foreign Investment to operate with more transparency, and some have urged that the law be changed to allow Congress to override any deal. The US Chamber of Commerce and other business interests, backed by the administration, oppose such changes, arguing they could harm the climate for foreign investment in the US and disrupt US companies' ability to invest overseas."
Among those who have concerns are Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, who confessed his doubts on the op-ed page of the New York Times; Joseph King, the former Customs Service special agent in charge of counterterrorism for that agency until 2003; and the Coast Guard officers who warned the Committee on Foreign Investment of the "intelligence gap" in the Dubai deal after examining classified information.
At first Bush rejected any Congressional role in reviewing the Dubai port takeover and threatened to veto any bill that attempted to butt into the deal. He backed down only after the company volunteered to face the full security review that the Bush administration tried to waive.
Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has outlined legislation that would force national security concerns to take precedent in trade and commerce negotiations. That goes too far for the White House, whose national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying, "What the Congress and the companies are able to work out, we'll support and cooperate with so long as it does not involve a summary decision by the Congress that blocks this transaction." That's the attitude we're against.
The supposedly liberal media are playing down Democrats' chances of regaining control of Congress this year. The New York Times on March 6 front-paged "For Democrats, Many Voices, but No Theme Song," airing complaints that Democratic candidates from Congress are reading from their own scripts, frustrating the D.C. Democrats' efforts to forge a national message.
The next day, the Washington Post splashed on page A1, "Democrats Struggle to Seize Opportunity: Amid GOP Troubles, No Unified Message."
That sounds like a real problem for the Dems, until you notice, as Chris Bowers of MyDD.com did, that on March 7 the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll reported that voters favor generic Democrats for Congress by a 14-point spread, with independent voters favoring Democrats by 22 points.
There is a popular misconception that the Republican "Contract with America" was the reason Democrats were swept out of power in Congress in 1994. In reality, relatively few voters were aware of the "contract," which promised all manner of reforms that were promptly abandoned when the GOP took power. Most voters just wanted to take Bill Clinton down a peg.
Democrats should run against the crooks and incompetents that are in charge of Congress and the White House. They should run against the Medicare drug debacle and the arrogance and cronyism of the GOP congressional leadership that has reversed the Clinton-era budget surpluses and failed to exert oversight of the Bush administration.
If they really want something to stand for, Democrats should promise to pass a bill that expands Medicare to cover every resident of the US, or at least know the reason why such a bill cannot go forward.
Nothing would give working people as well as small business owners a better reason to vote for Democrats. Every day sees another headline of corporations trying to shed their health care costs, usually leaving retirees and low-income workers out in the cold and forcing them to rely on the charity of state and local governments.
A Democratic majority in the House could pass a Medicare expansion bill in the first week after the new majority takes over. The Senate is another matter, as Republicans probably would filibuster the bill, but at least then the GOP would be on the hook for explaining why a national health care plan would not be a good thing for working people as well as businesses.
The main reason Democratic congressmen stutter on universal health care is the fear that they'll lose funding from insurance companies and HMOs. But according to the Center for Responsive Politics, insurance companies have favored Republicans with campaign contributions by more than a 2 to 1 margin ever since the Dems lost Congress in 1994. Dems should give the insurance companies back their 50 cents and tell them to go to Hell. -- JMC | <urn:uuid:a2dade9e-1c1d-49d8-a4c0-7c02d4fcfb33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://populist.com/06.6.edit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965835 | 1,491 | 1.695313 | 2 |
President Obama opposes an immigration reform bill backed by companies including Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe that would let U.S.-educated computer programmers and engineers remain in the country, the White House said today.
The surprise announcement comes in advance of a House of Representatives vote scheduled for Friday on the Republican-backed STEM Jobs Act of 2012, which would make up to 55,000 visas available to foreigners who earned a master's or doctoral degree in certain science or technology area from a U.S. university. Those visas would only be available if immigration authorities certify that no American workers are available to fill the post.
[. . .]
The White House's announcement said the administration doesn't necessarily oppose the concepts behind the bill, but the STEM Jobs Act is a "narrowly tailored proposal" that does not "meet the president's long-term objectives with respect to comprehensive immigration reform." One reason it's controversial among Democrats is that the bill would eliminate the 55,000 diversity visas available to citizens of countries with low immigration rates to the United States.
Actually, I don't. Opposing efforts to keep skilled and talented people here because it might frustrate the handing out of "diversity visas" is exactly the kind of insanity sure to be on the progressive agenda. Oh, and we all know what "comprehensive immigration reform" means, don't we?
A sane immigration policy would be to aggressively fight illegal immigration, which tends to favor the unskilled and poorly educated who might be more of a drain than an asset, and to make legal immigration a lot easier for people who have the skills and pro-Western values we need more of. Official policy seems to be exactly the opposite. | <urn:uuid:89c39f3e-e9ba-4cc3-976c-e9c114232ee0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nscontent.news-sentinel.com/?q=blog/post/201211/stemming-tide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958293 | 346 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Born and raised in Ferndale, Michigan, Lois fell in love with flying at age five after riding with her family in a Ford Tri Motor. It wasn't until years later, when she signed up for the CPT program at Michigan State Teachers College (now Eastern Michigan University), that she was given an opportunity to learn how to fly.
Attending college and working as a teacher, Lois continued to acquire flying hours. In 1943, she finished school in June and in July, she was accepted into the Army Air Forces experimental flight training program for women and headed to Texas. Lois and 94 other young women pilots paid their way to Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas to become WASP class 43-8. Less than half that number eventually graduated.
After Lois completed the training and earned her silver WASP wings, she was sent to Hondo, Texas (C-45 navigational flying to train cadet navigators); Dodge City AAB, Kansas (B-26 transition training); Pueblo, Colorado (B-26 tow target missions) and finally to Walker AAB, Victoria Kansas (engineering, ferrying, copilot B-17's).
During the eighteen months Lois flew for the Army Air Forces, her husband, Albert E. Nash, was serving in North Africa and Italy. As a WASP, Lois flew fifteen different types of aircraft for her country, but the B-26 Martin Marauder remained her all time favorite. When the WASP were disbanded on Dec. 20, 1944, Lois returned home and, eventually, she and Albert began raising their 2 sons.
|WASP Lois Nash plus Congressional Gold Medal |
in front of the podium, Emancipation Hall, US Capitol
March 10, 2010
Lois had been living in S. Carolina since the retirement of her late husband Albert E. Nash. She is survived by her two sons and their wives, Bill & Susan Nash of Ft Wayne Indiana, and Thomas & Donna Nash of Roswell, GA.
respectfully posted and photos added by Nancy Parrish
Other information on Lois:
Lois Nash photos on her son, Thomas's page
Video Interview WSPA --March, 2010 | <urn:uuid:5f8f0781-9c63-4ab7-aae2-d0ce4a0fb058> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://waspfinalflight.blogspot.com/2011_09_04_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964118 | 447 | 1.789063 | 2 |
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who skipped an overseas trip this past week because of a stomach virus, sustained a concussion after fainting, the State Department said Saturday.
The 65-year-old Clinton, who's expected to leave her job soon after serving as America's top diplomat during President Barack Obama's first term, is recovering at home after the incident last week and is being monitored by doctors, according to a statement by aide Philippe Reines.
No further details were immediately available.
The statement said Clinton was dehydrated because of the virus and that she fainted and sustained a concussion. She will continue to work from home in the week ahead and looks forward to being
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee said it won't hear from Clinton as planned at a Thursday morning hearing into the Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. She also was scheduled to testify that afternoon before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Clinton's aides on Saturday informed the Senate committee chairman, Sen. John Kerry, about her health, and the Massachusetts Democrat "insisted that given her condition, she could not and should not appear" as planned, said Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth. Senior department officials are expected to testify instead.
Clinton backed out of a
She's known for her grueling travel schedule and is the most traveled secretary of state, having visited 112 countries while in the job. | <urn:uuid:d14ed7b1-d433-4e6d-b453-bee7b7ce1112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_22199536/secretary-state-hillary-rodham-clinton-faints-sustains-concussion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978424 | 302 | 1.695313 | 2 |
....The comment about warblers is often thought to allude to the trilled reprise of the B major Nocturne, op. 62 no. 1....
Absolutely works for me!
BTW, even though I sort of hate saying what's my "favorite" of any group of Chopin's works, this is my favorite Nocturne.
Ahh, what the hey......
Favorite Waltz: E minor, Op. posth. Ballade: 4 Scherzo: changes a lot, but now, 4 Etude: golly that's tough....F major (Op. 10 #8) Prelude: ditto....A-flat major (#17) Mazurka: mucho ditto.....B major, Op. 56 #1 Polonaise: F# minor Impromptu: 3 (even though it's the only one I haven't really played) Sonata: 3 Barcarolle: Barcarolle
Jeff: Is there anything you don't know about Chopin or (at least) can't get your hands on really quickly? You have a phenomenal memory.
I am listening to that nocturne as I write this. One can almost float on this lovely melody as EdwardianPiano suggested. But those runs and trills are about the most beautiful, I think, I've heard in any of his music. A very special nocturne because of this.
MaryRose and I both agreed that when we were teenagers, we thought the nocturnes too sticky sweet, but now...WOW! So many have such turbulance in the middle sections. Since Chopin got his idea for the nocturnes from Field, do you know if Field's music followed (more or less) the same pattern?
So happy you are still with us. It's been quite a journey and far from over.
PS EdwardianPiano: No, thank goodness, Katie doesn't howl. But that whining and gruff little barks are more than enough to let me know she is NOT happy.
You're very kind, as always!
On Chopin and Field: while Chopin certainly knew Field's nocturnes, his ideas for the genre derived as much from other composers' piano nocturnes (and related pieces) from the 1820s (including examples by Kalkbrenner and Herz) and (this is very important) from the vocal nocturnes that were still very popular. (Field derived his idea of the piano nocturne from the vocal nocturnes. And if you said "nocturne" in the early 1830s in Paris, the first association that would have come into most listeners' minds would have been the vocal genre rather than the piano genre.)
Field's nocturnes mostly lack the turbulent middle sections that we hear in many of Chopin's. His contemporaries (especially Schumann) associated the turbulent middle sections with Chopin, though he didn't actually invent the idea. And some of his contemporaries were disturbed at the intrusion of agitated music into the otherwise graceful realm of the nocturne.
....while Chopin certainly knew Field's nocturnes, his ideas for the genre derived as much from other composers' piano nocturnes (and related pieces) from the 1820s (including examples by Kalkbrenner and Herz) and (this is very important) from the vocal nocturnes that were still very popular..... Field's nocturnes mostly lack the turbulent middle sections that we hear in many of Chopin's. His contemporaries (especially Schumann) associated the turbulent middle sections with Chopin, though he didn't actually invent the idea....
That immediately made me think of a piece by another composer, written just shortly before Chopin started publishing nocturnes -- and it certainly fits with "vocal": Schubert's "Piano Piece" (Klavierstuck) in E-flat major:
Like, the part at 2:28.
I'm not saying that this aspect of Chopin was directly inspired by Schubert or this piece, but we do know (I think?) that Schubert was one of the few composers that Chopin could stomach.
I have a question about Chopins posthumous nocturne in c# minor...The ending section with the scale runs, the very first run(in my edition) has the RH notes grouped in alignment with the LH eighth notes as follows; 4 notes for first beat(3rd beat in the measure actually), 3 for 2nd,6 for 3rd and 4 for 4th beat. That leads me to believe I should play the first beat counting, 1-e-a-e and then on the second use a triplet. Then for the 3rd beat I would count 1 and 2 and 3 and for 6 notes which would lead smoothly into the 4th beat which has 4 notes, instead of playing the 3rd beta as triplets...Is this a correct assumption/interpretation?
I have the same question for the next scale run that comes, the largest one in the piece; First beat has 8 notes so count evenly(1-e-a-a2-e-a-a) 2nd beat has 9 notes so count 3 of the notes as triplets and the rest evenly, 3rd beat has 10 notes so do a triplet then 2 notes then a triplet and 2 notes and those final 2 notes would transition into the finale 8 notes of the 4th beat....Is this a correct interpretation of those scale runs? To me I get the idea that they runs are written to be played evenly on some beats and then add triplets to give it an interesting effect...Is this the way I should study these runs? Thanks...
....the very first run(in my edition) has the RH notes grouped in alignment with the LH eighth notes as follows; 4 notes for first beat(3rd beat in the measure actually), 3 for 2nd,6 for 3rd and 4 for 4th beat. That leads me to believe I should play.... Is this a correct assumption/interpretation?....
No! It doesn't mean you can't do it that way. I'm just saying it doesn't mean that you're supposed to.
While I'm saying it flat out, in fact many people would say "yes." I hold to the flat-out 'no,' as would many people.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean about how it is in your edition. What I'm familiar with about the notation of those runs is that they're indicated totally ungrouped, and what I said above is with regard to Chopin runs that are totally ungrouped.
Assuming that all you meant was how the notes appear to align with the left hand notes, rather than that they're truly grouped as you said, I would say that we are totally free to 'group' them as we wish. Group them in whatever way makes the most musical sense to you. Maybe that will wind up being how you said they appear, maybe it won't; and maybe you'll do it differently at different times.
P.S. Expect contrary opinions to be expressed.
BTW, when I played the piece, I grouped the notes fairly evenly -- i.e. pretty exactly the same number of R.H. notes for each L.H. note in a given measure.
Mark_C, Do you have any hints on speeding up that 35-note scale run in the right hand to 4 notes in the bass (measure 56)?
I'm working on this piece,too, and I always have to slow it down a bit there because I am not speedy enough with long runs like that.
I'm trying to play it even more delicately because then I can get it a little faster. I realize it's marked "p" and my edition says sempre piu p underneath the bass notes, but there's a hairpin crescendo/decrescendo there also.
If I play it too fast, it sounds too uneven. My teacher at one point said that long runs don't have to be in strict time, but since it has the left hand rhythm to match, I would guess that it should be in strict time or as close as possible.
When I slow down there, I have to keep that tempo, so I've already slowed down before the "rall." marking.
Do you have any hints on speeding up that 35-note scale run in the right hand to 4 notes in the bass (measure 56)?
"Practice, practice, practice."
I don't have much of a better answer than that. That question very often is asked about various passages and pieces, and I think that many of the answers that are given are way too specific. Different specific things will be useful for different people, and I think it's impossible to know what specific things to suggest for someone we don't know and whose playing we don't see.
I think the only things we can reliably offer are very general things that might seem like nothing at all because they're pretty obvious, but anyway....
-- Make sure you really really know the passage -- I mean, what the notes are and "how it goes" -- so that you can play it at some speed (even a very slow speed) without worrying about the notes, and even without thinking of them very much.
-- Try to speed it up gradually with a metronome, starting at a very slow speed and turning it up a notch when you're comfortable playing it at each speed. That's a general method for almost any fast passage, followed by many people, and maybe you already know it. With this method, you might get it to a desired speed in just a few minutes, or maybe it will take days or weeks, or (unfortunately) maybe never, depending on the passage and on your technique.
-- Practice, practice, practice.
But IMO more importantly, see this next thing....
I'm trying to play it even more delicately because then I can get it a little faster.
It's kind of unusual to see it put that way, but GREAT, because it means that for whatever reason, your technical work on the passage is hand-in-hand with the musicality. I think that when people have trouble with such passages, they usually play more intensely when they try to speed them up, even though that takes them away from the musicality. I think the fact that it's this way for you means that you're well on your way to playing it well, and before long that the speed will take care of itself.
If I play it too fast, it sounds too uneven.
Maybe take a speed at which you can play it evenly, practice it a few times at that speed (with a metronome), then work on very gradually speeding it up (as said above), and listen carefully for unevenness. Wherever you hear it, try to take care of it at that speed before going any higher; don't tolerate even the slightest unevenness before going up. If you hit a wall where you can't get it faster without being uneven, so be it; you'll probably be able to go higher at your next sitting. Also maybe try breaking through the wall by playing even more delicately.
My teacher at one point said that long runs don't have to be in strict time....
Sure, but make sure that the unstrictness represents musical choices, rather than technical unevenness.
....but since it has the left hand rhythm to match, I would guess that it should be in strict time or as close as possible.
I wouldn't say so at all. The R.H. notes can go at different speeds in different parts of the measure, provided that it reflects good musical choices -- and the left hand can do a little rubato too.
BTW I think I totally violated what I said at the top.
Thanks so much, Mark_C! You are a wealth of information! This is great advice!
Yes, I need to practice, practice, practice, and I think I was kind of practicing without thinking enough about how.
I like your suggestion about using the metronome and ticking it faster. I haven't tried that. I do think that will push me, and I might break it into sections (8 or 9 notes) to work on each section to get each one faster and then overlap them. I will try it as you said, evenly and without allowing any unevenness before going faster.
You're right--I need to make sure I really, really know it.
Playing delicately--when I do that quickly, I'm really playing without really hitting the key bottom so much--more quickly on the keys--at least that's what I've been experimenting with.
My old teacher used her arm to fly through passages like that; she'd kind of use her arm/wrist movement to gain momentum as she went up the scale. She was helping me with arm movements before she moved, so I'm experimenting with that, too.
It's good the left hand can do a little rubato, too. I guess you have to play it convincingly and musically if you slow it down. But, I'm going to keep working on it so I won't have to slow it down!
Thanks so much for all your very helpful advice! I really appreciate it, and I'll put it to good use! Kathy
Sure, but, a couple of things: The first is, "I should talk." I mean sarcastically, because I'm hardly a great player myself. Plus, in view of that, I'd really be insulting others if I say too much about what I think a lot of people do wrong. Anyway, here goes.
First of all, about the left hand thing: Yes, I think it's a key thing about not-so-good Chopin playing, and, as I think I said in that other thread (which was a little while ago, so I'm not sure), IMO it applies to the playing of many other composers too, especially Mozart. It's one of the main things that enables us to tell very quickly (if we listen for it) the difference between someone who's advanced and real good, and someone who isn't.
To a large extent, this is because of what we might even call a defect of piano design. I think that on almost all pianos, the bass produces a loud sound easier than the treble does, and so unless we're 'really trying,' the bass will drown out the treble. It is said that when Chopin played 4-hand music he insisted on playing the bass part, "because he wasn't going to let anyone drown him out" (and presumably he was going to make sure he didn't drown out the other player). I've wondered, why do they make pianos like that? I imagine that a big part of it is just that longer fatter strings (i.e. the lower strings on the piano) tend to be louder than shorter thinner strings (the upper strings), and either it's impossible to make them differently or (astonishingly) they've never tried.
So, with pianos being as they are, if the music is of the type that really requires subduing the bass but the player isn't aware of all this, or isn't trained well enough or innately sensitive enough to adjust for it (and few people are), the bass will generally be too loud. The music won't sound sensitive or delicate, and nuances of the melody will be almost impossible. And after all, isn't sensitivity, delicacy, and nuances of melody a lot of what Chopin is about?
I think that most beginner and intermediate players will make their Chopin playing immediately twice as good just by subduing the left hand (except perhaps for the bottom bass line, which usually is a melody in itself and needs to ring out a bit, but still not so much that it overwhelms the melody.....golly, this is hard, isn't it? And that's just how it is with Chopin -- it's real hard, even harder than most people realize, and this left hand stuff is a big part of it.....but I digress) ....immediately twice as good by just subduing the left hand, PLUS, it then gives them the opportunity to do better things with the right hand, because now, they can really hear nuances of the melody, and therefore develop them further.
Here's an exercise, perhaps: Take some Chopin piece where the melody is mostly in the right hand, and play the left hand (except the lowest bass line) absolutely as softly as possible, not being afraid to let some of the notes not sound at all.
For most people, IMO they would then be playing the left hand almost as soft as it needs to be. It usually still wouldn't be soft enough. But it would be a great step toward much more beautiful playing, and toward having Chopin sound like we want it to. It will probably feel strange and even "nothing-ish" at first, but I think for most people interested enough to try it, it will soon feel like a revelation because of how much more masterly it sounds and because of what else it enables.
Having said all that, I better add that this is all an oversimplification, and that there are pieces and passages where it doesn't apply. But even there, it sort of does. Like, the Polonaises are probably the main exception among Chopin's pieces, yet IMO it's still true that except when played by the very best players, most of the left hand tends to be too loud.
That's more than long enough for a post, so I'll mostly leave it at that, except to say that another huge aspect, deserving of at least as much space, is rhythm. The trick is to be flexible yet steady -- not rigid, but not wayward either. And similarly about "phrasing," which involves the dynamics within a phrase as well as rhythmic things: we want an ebb-and-flow, rather than all the notes being equally loud, but it has to be "musical," and it has to make sense. These things apply to some extent in all music; I think they apply most 'severely' to Chopin.
....any tips, thoughts, philosophies, cavates re playing nocturne 9/3? That's my current obsession.
An excellent obsession!
All I'd say is, don't lose sight of how in the first and last sections (i.e. the 'main' sections of the piece), the whole feel of the music often shifts suddenly and drastically within a phrase, sometimes from note to note -- there are just so many surprises -- and those surprises should be given their due in some way, yet without overdoing it; how is up to you.
When working on a piece and playing it repeatedly, it's easy to get inured (good word!) to those things and to stop feeling them for the extraordinary things that they are. This is another thing we might include in the general considerations in playing Chopin: making sure not to just slide past wonderful and unusual moments as though nothing special were happening. IMO this piece is among the very best examples of this challenge among all of Chopin's works.
....which is (I suppose) the hardest part -- and I didn't even get to that because of all the stuff about the "easy" part!
I'm just a glutton for punishment I guess. But I'm in no hurry and have no one to please but myself. It's not as bad as I've expected it to be. So far the hardest thing I've ever learned is 62/2. This one is at least a lot easier to "read."
Slow down and do it right.
I have a question on the proper playing of Chopin's Prelude no.4 in e minor; which I just started working on in my last lesson. This my first attempt at one of his preludes quite a thrill for me as I admire his music a great deal. I can not seem to achieve the correct sound in Measure 10, the sheet music seems to indicate that the melody in the right hand should be played in the same tempo as the left hand chords, but when I play it sounds discordant, which I know it should not. I know they should fit seemlessly together, but I am at a lost to understand how to achieve it. Do I need to change the pedal more that with the new chord in the left hand? Thanks!
....I can not seem to achieve the correct sound in Measure 10, the sheet music seems to indicate that the melody in the right hand should be played in the same tempo as the left hand chords, but when I play it sounds discordant, which I know it should not. I know they should fit seemlessly together, but I am at a lost to understand how to achieve it. Do I need to change the pedal more that with the new chord in the left hand? Thanks!
I hope my answer won't keep other people from answering, because there could be different ways to see this. Here are a few thoughts....
BTW I'm pretty sure you mean measure 9; the counting of measures generally starts with the first complete measure.
Yes, you probably ought to change the pedal more than what you're doing -- but what makes you think you shouldn't? It sounds like you're implying that your edition shows a pedal marking through the whole measure? If it does, I think that's an editor's addition; I don't think Chopin indicated any pedal marking. But even if he had, a 'continuous' pedal marking doesn't necessarily mean you don't change the pedal in the middle of it, sometimes even more than once. It's easy to fall into unmusical traps by assuming it means you 'can't' change the pedal, and in fact for years I committed that sin in the mazurka middle section of Chopin's F# minor Polonaise. Most of the measures seem to show a continuous pedal throughout the measure, but that's AWFUL, and in fact few top pianists follow it literally. I learned the piece before I realized that the marking doesn't necessarily mean that you hold the pedal continuously, and it took years for me to rethink it.
Actually in this case, maybe it might be possible indeed to hold the pedal the whole time and maybe could be very effective if you play the left hand very softly and do some nuanced things with the dynamics of the right hand; I'm not sure that could work and I can't test it out because I'm not near a piano. Anyway, I think the main answer is, yes indeed -- change the pedal, according to what your ear tells you.
Loc: Land of the never-ending music
I guess you mean measure 9? Yes, the first chords in the LH will sound a bit discordant because of C and B played together, but discordance also has its meaning, like conveying angst. Or do you mean something else?
Mark C and ChopinAddict You are both right I did mean measure 9, this is what comes of hurriedly counting in Italian before posting one's question. My question about playing this particular measure is trying to find a way of playing it so that the two lines don't sound oppossed to each other. I will try changing the pedal more often in my practice tomorrow, but I know you need the sustain pedal to keep that wondrous singing aspect to the piece. I don't know quite how to describe the sound maybe muddled is a better word, as the notes before and after this measures sound clearer.
....I will try changing the pedal more often in my practice tomorrow, but I know you need the sustain pedal to keep that wondrous singing aspect to the piece....
OK, you're ready for the next clue!
I don't usually like getting into details like this unless they involve some major principle for piano playing in general -- and this does.
Wherever you do the extra pedal changes, play the next note softer -- softer than what preceded, and softer than what immediately follows. You don't have to do this; it's sort of "extra credit." Feel free to leave it for much later.
While of course there are exceptions to everything, this is a good and fairly uniform 'rule' for beautiful playing of passages that have any amount of lyricism. It's a good bet that any famous pianist whose playing we find particularly beautiful tends to do this. It's usually subtle, and barely perceptible unless you're looking for it, or (I suppose) if you put an oscilloscope to it.
The reason this works is that a pedal change inherently makes the next note sound louder. So, in order to not have a "bump," we have to play it softer. Plus, it allows us to have a clearer sound with the notes that follow, because the softness of that first note will prevent it from competing too much with the new notes. This is one of the main 'tricks' for playing beautiful lines and creating great pedal effects: having a feel for which notes to 'soften,' sometimes seeming to be illogical and especially involving the first note after a pedal change.
This is a collection of diary notes by Liszt's student August Göllerich, describing events he witnessed at master classes. It's somewhat like the anecdotes told about Chopin's teaching in the Eigeldinger book. My teacher has it, and today while we were working on the 48/1 nocturne, we looked to see if Liszt had made any comments about that. What we found was his takedown of a student who played it in an overly emotional manner: "Do not disturb yourself so much; it is by no means so bad!"
While practicing this piece, I've thought often of one of the points that Mark brought up, that there is so much going on in the LH and one must "subdue" it and make the few RH notes sing above it all. This piece has that challenge in spades, with huge handfuls of LH chords (later in the RH as well), so many of which must be played gently and kept in balance with the melody.
Regarding the too-loud left hand (several comments up) - could this be because the bass strings are boomier on our current pianos than they were on the old Pleyels? Or whatever Chopin played (assuming French piano) | <urn:uuid:f7663689-3689-4608-b883-8113f8c530cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1985168/Playagain.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 | 0.979431 | 5,524 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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Relationships Are Not Easy
Believe it or not, all relationships have hurdles that have to be jumped over or handled and hoops that you have to jump through. Even very good relationships have obstacles in the path of living a happy life together. Why? Well, because Relationships Are Not Easy. But if its worth having, its worth the work that goes into it. Now that prompts big questions. Is a particular relationship worth the effort of dealing with the hurdles and hoops? Is it a relationship that you have to be a participant in or can it just exist without any attention? If its a relationship you participate in by choice, is it worth having?
While I am primarily talking about relationships between two committed people who are a couple some of the same principles apply to other relationships as well. Obviously, we have all kinds of relationships of life that we deal with each and every day. We have relationships with parents, children, employers, friends, etc., etc. They also have hurdles and hoops.
If you are living your life alone or in a relationship you will have all kinds of experiences each and every day. Sometimes youíll have a day of coasting but some times youíll just have to jump over hurdles and through hoops all day long. The truth is even the most controlled person who tries to control all facets of their life, simply cannot control the behavior of everyone else that they interact with daily. Sometimes you may think you have all the bases covered and someone just throws you a curve ball. They may become a hurdle in your own life or perhaps in the life of your relationship.
How do you handle these situations? You have to do something to get past the hurdle. You can go around it, or go over it, alter your path to avoid it, but you have to do something besides pretending it doesnít exist. Relationships that thrive do so because people work together to handle any hurdle that anyone puts in the way of their happiness. Thatís what it takes - people who work together to handle the hurdles of their life because they have decided the relationship is worth working on even with all its hurdles and hoops. This usually works because to approach the hurdles in this manner honesty ends up being required in all areas of the relationship.
Now not all relationships can stand up to the test of asking others to go the extra mile, to jump over the extra hurdle, or through another hoop. If thatís the case then maybe the relationship will not withstand the work it takes to make and keep it special forever. Thatís something that can only be determined by all parties making the effort to be in the relationship, to test the love, to be open-minded and to have an open heart and to work on honesty.
All relationships in your life are important but generally as people become adults a relationship with another person as a couple seems to become the most important relationship in your life. Itís important to realize if you're dealing with a relationship between two people the relationship only exists when both parties are participating. A relationship is something that exists when two people sustain a common interest in each other over a sustained period of time, not a few days or a few weeks, over time, over hurdles and through hoops. Keep in mind if itís a relationship of a loving couple forever commitments start with one effort, one minute at a time and they get stronger every time you jump over a hurdle or through a hoop. If you think that maybe all the hurdles and hoops are too much work ask yourself a few questions. Ponder them. You may find out just how important someone else really is to you. Forever commitments start with one effort, one minute at a time.
If you thought you would never see or talk to the other person in a specific relationship again, for whatever reason, would you feel broken hearted?
If you lost the respect of the other person would you feel sad and ashamed?
If you knew tomorrow was going to be the last day of your life or their life would you cling to them until the last breath was gone?
If you knew that tomorrow the world was going to end would you run toward that person, over hurdles and through hoops or would you be running away from them toward someone else?
Hurdles and Hoops are part of all of lifeís relationships and even though relationships are not easy, they are what makes life more than a straight flat uninteresting walk! How you handle your relationships is of course another Matter of the Heart!
Of course, information presented on this site or found online in articles or forums should never be relied on in lieu of professional consultation for problem resolution.
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Content copyright © 2013 by Kate Woods. All rights reserved.
This content was written by Kate Woods. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Kate Woods for details.
Website copyright © 2013 Minerva WebWorks LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:151f004b-f616-4094-bdb5-9794c5234747> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art44298.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969172 | 1,044 | 1.554688 | 2 |
In this modern twist on the classic Monopoly game, monopolists and free market competitors try to get the better of each other.
The free market competitors do this by selling more of their goods at fair prices and the monopolists try to take over their competitors and therefore push prices up. The objective of the game is to get the most money by either taking over all the competitors (if you're a monopolist) or bankrupting the monopolies (if you're a competitor).
This is an easy to learn, fun game for 2-6 players.
Top of page - Anti-Monopoly | <urn:uuid:f59b25d1-b8b1-440d-8507-a846dfa42c2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mastersgames.com/cat/modclassic/monopoly-anti-monopoly.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948678 | 122 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Formative Cosmovisions: Representation, Transformation, and Centrality
I began searching for comparative material concerning the Mesoamerican Formative period as the topic was the subject of several events and publications at Dumbarton Oaks and the library holds an important collection of pertinent books and papers. This search and a paper I wrote for the most recent issue of the Boletín de Arqueología PCUP helped me to focus on a number of more direct problems such as the use of color in monumental architecture and its logic as background and motif markers. Another important problem was the use of metaphors and the nature of representations known as hybrids-including composite anthropomorphs- fundamental for the understanding of Formative-period representational systems. Still another problem was the interrelation of notions of centrality, its use in terms of territory, landscape, interaction spheres, and central places. The library again was of much use for me in all these aspects. I was able to write several chapters of the book I intend to publish and trace the outlines of the rest of it.
I gave several lectures, one at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum on my research on the Peruvian south coast (Pieced Together: A Dumbarton Oaks Textile's Provenance Revealed after Fifty Years, April 6) and on my research topic at the Peabody Museum at Harvard (April 22). On May 10 I presented a lecture at the Peruvian Embassy (Toward an Understanding of Early Worldviews) organized by the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, D.C. A more informal talk was held at the home of Jeffrey Splitstoser, president of the Pre-Columbian Society, with the members of the Huaca Club.
I also had the opportunity to look at important materials housed at the Pre-Columbian collections at Dumbarton Oaks, the Textile Museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of the American Indian. I also had the opportunity to see material in the Penn Museum, the Peabody Museum at Harvard, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I also had conversations with the researchers at these institutions as well as many others.
Therefore, I think my time at Dumbarton Oaks served me well in my proposed research project thanks to the offered facilities as well as to the efficient and gentle help of all the people attending us at Dumbarton Oaks. | <urn:uuid:51381c6a-85ca-4b99-bd4f-ffe02b4096c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://doaks.org/research/pre-columbian/pre-columbian-project-grant-reports/doaks-eid-2630 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961405 | 492 | 1.625 | 2 |
As a womanist/feminist I often advocate from an ally position on what I deem bodies that matter. I do this because ultimately I believe in justice and equality. It sickens me daily to see the way the cult of I (read: capitalism), patriarchy, racism, homophobia, ageism and abelism combine to construct people as less than in this world. These social constructions have real effects that often result in violence, and death for those bodies that are targeted. It is my hope that by daily writing about the "isms" and how they interact, that awareness can be raised.
Doing the work that I do is part of what I deem my human responsibility. If the woman across town from me does not have enough food to eat, it is my business. If an infant girl is being circumcised in Egypt, that is my business. If a child in France is banned from wearing a Burka to school, that is my business. Each one of these incidents though happening to an individual is a direct result of the ways in which we have chosen to privilege certain bodies and certain behaviours. These occurrences reflect the degree to which "isms" are a systemic cancer to humanity.
I am not alone in working towards ending the power that "isms" have to effect the lives others. Daily millions of people across the globe work to create change. We do this because we feel equally convicted in the belief that the cause of justice is not only worth while, but necessary to creating a better world. As allies we seek to form alliances for the greater good and unpack our own unearned privileges.
Ally work is often difficult work because it forces us to be cognizant of the way in which we benefit from the very same "isms" that we are fighting to destroy. It also makes us second hand victims of those that seek to maintain the current power structure. This can lead some to feel that have earned the right to a pat on the back simply because they have become personally aware of the potential power that they have the ability to wield in certain circumstances.
There is the tendency on the part of some to say, look how good I am. I can acknowledge that I have a class privilege, or a race privilege while the rest of the world remains wrapped in a myopic ignorance of what constitutes real value. Yes it is good that as an ally that you have begun to unpack some of your unearned privileges and work for justice but this does not entitle you to a pat on the back.
Not exploiting or oppressing is what each person should actively be engaged in, and to think that abstaining from using your available power for personal gain is worthy of special recognition is once again an exercise of privilege. A man that does the dishes does not deserve praise because he is a man doing the dishes. A person that eliminates racial slurs from their daily vocabulary does not deserve praise for recognizing that this language is hurtful.
Honouring each person despite the "isms" attached to their body is part of human responsibility, and part of owning personal privilege. To say that I deserve a reward or recognition is akin to belittling the people on whose behalf you labour. It keeps hierarchy in the relationship in that you are positioning yourself as good because you have lowered yourself to help and this undoes any progress that your personal labours have made.
To my fellow allies I say, continue to do the work that you do because it is important and necessary. Take time in your labour to always own your privileges and realize that it is the work that is important and not you. | <urn:uuid:914390f4-4f28-4a32-86f4-b815be5b1827> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/09/allies-privileges-and-pats-on-back.html?showComment=1220911260000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974093 | 727 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The history of the fall celebration of Autumnfest dates back to 1977. Despite the fact that the first festival featured some technical mishaps, it has succeeded in growing into a renowned fall celebration on Rhode Island for 28 years. Admission to the fall celebration is free. However some attractions do cost money, including the food court and the Midway, as well as the beverage stands.
The fall celebration of Autumnfest 2005 has surpassed all the previous celebrations of the festival. It opened at the Band Stand of the World War II Veteran's Memorial State Park on October 8. The three-day celebration featured continuous entertainment in the heart of the 13-acre park. A gigantic fireworks display took place on Sunday, while on Monday morning the spectators had the possibility to observe a 10 division parade, which took at least two hours to pass from the Diamond Hill Road to the main entrance of the park on Social Street. The massive parade was comprised of floats, clowns, musicians and nearly 5,000 participants. The Grand Marshal and Woonsocket resident Raymond Bacon were the leading element of the parade.
Broadcast commentators of the parade included CEO of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce John Gregory, and TV celebrity Linda Trudeau. New at Autumnfest 2005 was the airborne unit, which advertised the names of the sponsors, while flying over Autumnfest grounds. The entertainment ranged from pop and country to jazz and swing.
The sucess of this fall festival is associated with the volunteer committee and its co-chairs Suzanne Vadenais and Roger Bouchard, who bear responsibility for the planning and running of the main fall celebration.
Autumnfest is also prominent for its beer garden, where beer and wine are served to the visitors of the festival. The Autumnfest Talent Show has been an important part of the fall celebration since 1996. Contestants compete in amateur, junior and professional categories, with the five best in each category having the opportunity to perform on the Autumnfest Stage during the festival. This year Autumnfest was shown on Rode Island Interconnect Television - Channel 15.
The Kids Area, designed for the smallest visitors, featured pony and camel rides, a zoo, child identification program, a moonwalk, and exhibits by local musicians, dancers, karate studios and clowns. The beach area of the park is also rich in events, including tractor pull, a kids triathlon, cake demonstrations, and firemen's demonstrations.
"Iron Kid Challenge" also belongs to the latest innovations for children. It takes place on Saturday at noon. The triathlon is designed for kids only and includes a 250 crab-foot race, ½ mile bike race and ½ mile road race. Rides operate during all three days of the festival, but feature a special Autumnfest offer on Friday night. Visitors are able to pay $20 and enjoy riding from 5 till 10 p.m.
Among the bands and groups performing on the fall celebration are "The Tokens", "Big Nazo Fun Band", "Reminisants", "Clave Logic", "Northeast Groove" and the professional vocalist Jean McKenna O'Donnell.
Autumnfest 2005 also served as the debut for the Cumberland-Lincoln Community Chorus. | <urn:uuid:e497a6f8-86c9-4277-9e52-57f4cda4c8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/travel/rhodeislandfallcelebrationfeaturestheculturaltraditionsofwoonsocket.html | 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 | 0.945996 | 649 | 1.65625 | 2 |
My eldest son and I entered a local hospital via the emergency room. We found that the staff at the hospital were excellent in every way imaginable, from the custodians and office staff to the nurses and surgeons.
Although our treatment while there was superb, both of us spent about three hours in the emergency room on the day of our admission before being seen by medical staff.
I have learned from others both here in Lake County and across the nation that such delays in emergency rooms are not unusual. The reasons for long delays are evident. Most hospitals are underfunded, and this results in the emergency rooms and some other departments being understaffed.
I recently learned that because of lack of funds this hospital recently laid off about 10 percent of its staff, including some nurses. In addition a clinic will soon be closed.
These problems pale in significance when compared to the evidence that our war veterans who have returned from service in Iraq or Afghanistan (and earlier wars) are receiving shoddy assistance and care.
The unemployment rate among these vets is considerably higher than that of civilians in many parts of our country, and many of them are homeless. When vets apply for financial aid, their applications often take months to process.
Some of them who need medical attention for conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder also have to wait for weeks or months to receive treatment.
As is the case with medical facilities that treat mainly non-vets, these deficiencies are due primarily to under-funding of the V.A. system, which results in understaffing, and other shortcomings.
Some of our politicians in Washington, D.C. are obsessed with the notion of reducing our national debt.
To achieve this goal, they propose to slash funding for social welfare programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.
However, I have not heard any one of these slashers propose that we reduce or even eliminate our very generous corporate welfare programs.
The Cato Institute estimated that our federal government spent $92 billion on corporate welfare during fiscal year 2006.
By now, the sum is likely to be well over $100 billion. Some economists estimate that in previous years, state and local governments provided an additional $50 billion in corporate welfare.
Most of the corporations that receive such federal largesse pay little or no taxes to any of our government entities, and many of them are raking in record high profits.
I think that it is time to eliminate all forms of corporate welfare, and to divert most or all of those funds to aiding our vets, who are much more deserving and needy than any of the corporations that are enjoying huge profits.
Charles S. Nicoll | <urn:uuid:3af118b4-637e-415d-ab62-283b75ab8e0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.record-bee.com/ci_20728012/medical-care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971127 | 539 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Bat for the Cure is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was created to raise awareness about prostate cancer and to educate the public about prevention, detection and treatment. With early detection prostate cancer is 97% curable, but there is not enough awareness to encourage effective prevention. Fans for the Cure was created by Ed Randall, after he went into remission from prostate cancer at the age of 47, and later expanded into the baseball affiliate Bat for the Cure.
Ed is a radio and TV broadcaster for minor league baseball, as well as a cancer survivor. He has taken his cause to the minor league ballparks, with 2011 being his fifth consecutive season of prostate cancer advocacy nationwide. Since the beginning of Bat for the Cure, Ed’s team has been welcomed into more than 500 minor league ballparks.
In 2009 Bat for the Cure joined Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the ALS Foundation and Special Olympics as an Official Charitable Partner of Minor League Baseball. This campaign is the most expansive health care initiative in the history of the minor league.
Minor League Ballparks nationwide have awareness days where they rely on local volunteers to supervise information tables and pass out fliers to fans. The program is especially interested in finding prostate cancer survivors to volunteer in order to provide the best insight into the organization’s message.
Come out and support Bat for the Cure to help give a new meaning to the term “save” in baseball! For more information about the organization and to volunteer visit www.fansforthecure.org. | <urn:uuid:668933e3-fd4a-475b-b554-2af7ae869d10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://imermanangels.org/blog/?p=1903 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967606 | 317 | 1.632813 | 2 |
South Carolina Future Business Leaders of America is an organization for secondary students participating in business education programs. FBLA provides opportunities for students to develop career competencies as well as civic and personal responsibility.
FBLA members participate in individual and group business enterprises; hold office and direct the affairs of the group; work with representatives of other student organizations; and compete with their colleagues on the local, district, state and national levels. FBLA provides opportunities to travel to leadership conferences; visit other chapters, businesses, and industrial enterprises; and interact with successful businessmen and businesswomen through shadowing. Members of FBLA develop self-confidence and leadership skills which contribute to effective participation in business and community life.
The SC FBLA is an organization for all secondary business education students. LDHS has a very active chapter that consistently places first and second in district competitions. | <urn:uuid:39fcf1a5-4e35-4ae0-8d00-d28f392a8e74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laurens55.k12.sc.us/Domain/314 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960351 | 175 | 1.617188 | 2 |
NEARLY TWO (37.9%) out of five hospitals surveyed provide, or help provide for, some kind of child care for their employees. And 38% of those that don't plan to establish such benefits before the end of this year.
That is the finding of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Chicago, Ill, and the American Association of Healthcare Consultants, Fairfax, Va. In contrast, the two organizations say, today only about 1 (11.1%) in 10 businesses provides such services for its employees.
Larger Hospitals Oversampled
The survey examined 965 hospitals throughout the United States. The hospitals were stratified by number of beds, and the two organizations concede that large hospitals were oversampled, since they seemed more likely to provide child-care services. Survey questions examined such aspects as types of child care benefits offered, types of hospitals involved, attitudes of hospital executives toward offering care, and financial contributions to child care.Currently, the | <urn:uuid:585f8e24-238a-46cd-a104-a30ace8ba751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=376820 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968417 | 200 | 1.765625 | 2 |
ESAREY MSS. III
ESAREY MSS. III
The Esarey mss. III, 1889-1918, consist largely of typed and handwritten drafts by Indiana University Professor of History Logan Esarey, 1873-1942, relating to an incomplete biography of Joseph Ewing McDonald, 1819-1891, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and active member of the Democratic Party in Indiana. The drafts appear to have been built around transcriptions of speeches taken from printed sources and from clippings in McDonald's own scrapbooks, with limited background context added. Four letters to and one from Esarey document his attempt to locate all of McDonald's speeches and papers in 1917-1918. Two letters from McDonald to William Allen Woods and one from McDonald to "Mr. Editor," all written in 1889, concern a case of alleged voter fraud and disagreement between McDonald and Woods over the appropriate judicial charge to the jury.
Logan Esarey, a native of rural Indiana, had completed his bachelor's and master's degrees and begun his doctoral work at Indiana University when he was appointed Research Fellow in the Department of History in September 1911. With that appointment he became the driving force in the newly formed Indiana Historical Survey, which was to gather as many as possible of the resources for writing Indiana history to support the 1916 centennial of statehood. One of the projects, never completed, was the biography of Joseph E. McDonald to which these papers relate.
The collection is arranged in the following series: I. Correspondence; II. Writings; III. Miscellaneous. An inventory is available.
Collection size: 51 items | <urn:uuid:de650f0e-9387-4364-a3e3-b85f945358aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/index.php?p=esarey3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960679 | 342 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Western New York's only nonsectarian, college preparatory school for girls, Buffalo Seminary, provides young women with a uniquely intimate environment in which they can thrive. Class size is small and students receive individual attention from faculty and staff. The curriculum is designed to develop students intellectually, widen their perspectives, and strengthen their confidence. Sem, as it's known, encourages its students to participate in a wide array of cultural, service, athletic, and academic clubs and activities. The school also offers a six-week summer camp program, Summer at Sem, for girls entering grades 5 through 8. Campers can sign up for one week or stay for all six and choose from a wide variety of sports, arts, crafts, and academic classes. The cost ranges from $200 per week to $1,050 for six weeks. A half-day program is also availble for $100 per week. | <urn:uuid:df2ff375-2a8f-44c0-ba3e-1178c85aabf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/attraction/buffalo-seminary-205-bidwell-parkway-buffalo-ny-14222-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970383 | 181 | 1.640625 | 2 |
MOORE TORNADO LATEST
The National Weather Service has given the twister that hit Moore, Oklahoma a rating of EF5 for wind speed and breadth, and severity of damage. EF5 tornadoes are the strongest tornadoes and have the most violent winds on Earth, more powerful than a hurricane. The Moore tornado's wind speeds were estimated at between 200 and 210 mph.
The death toll is not expected to rise any higher now than 24, including nine children.
YOUR TORNADO HELP MAY BE HURTING THE SURVIVORS
BEFORE YOU SEND ANYTHING to the tornado victims, remember, cash is king. On the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado Recovery Facebook page, they say they're being overwhelmed with household items like towels, blankets, and toys, but they have nowhere to store the stuff, so it's causing problems for them. Please, don't make life harder for the tornado victims than it already is. What they do need, most of all, is money. Officials can give people gift cards to buy clothes that fit them, and to buy exactly what they need to rebuild. You can also help the groups who are there, feeding, giving shelter and helping the victims right now: text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to Red Cross, or text STORM to 80888 to send $10 to the Salvation Army.
OKLAHOMA HEROES: "TEACHER THREW HERSELF OVER US TO PROTECT US."
Out of the Oklahoma devastation, we're hearing stories that remind us how good people can be. A fourth-grade teacher at Plaza Towers, a school that took a direct hit, threw herself over some of her students as they huddled in the bathroom, and is credited with saving their lives.
She's fine: just a few minor injuries, and the kids got out without a scratch.
ELDERLY WOMAN DISCOVERS MISSING DOG WHILE ON-CAMERA
And several videos of the survivors have gone viral including this one: the elderly woman being asked questions by a reporter, as her little dog -- who she thought had been killed -- was seen, struggling to get out of the rubble, and rescued. The little dog was later seen walking along beside the lady as they took her to get checked out. You can see it HERE.
JOPLIN TORNADO ANNIVERSARY
And while you're thinking of the people in Oklahoma, please remember Joplin, Missouri. It was two years ago today that a tornado hit there, killing 162 people and injuring 1000 more.
STORM SYSTEM HEADED TO TENNESSEE
By the way, that storm system that fueled the Oklahoma tornado is now weaker, but hitting the Tennessee Valley. What that could mean for you today is strong winds and maybe some hail for the places that get storms.
SCHOOLS GETTING OUT THIS WEEK:
Please drive especially carefully this week, there are a lot of kids SUPER-excited, running around and not paying attention to traffic this week, because school is out in Williamson County, Sumner county kids get out tomorrow, and Friday is the last day of school for Metro Nashville.
WHAT'S GOING ON THIS SUNNY WEEKEND? FUN THINGS TO DO
This is the first weekend in -- what, a month? -- where it's not supposed to rain! So here's what's going on, in case you want to make plans. This is a flea market weekend at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, there's the big music festival at Radnor Lake, Nashville Shores opens this weekend, and the Tennessee Renaissance festival should be mud-free! WOO HOO!
ARIAS SENTENCING DELIBERATIONS
A jury in Phoenix, Arizona continues deliberations today over whether to sentence convicted murderer Jodi Arias to death. Now she says her trial wasn't fair and she doesn't want to die.
STATE ROUTE 109 REOPENS IN GALLATIN
You may have wondered what on earth was going on yesterday morning on State Route 109 in Gallatin: there was a huge traffic backup. It was a construction crane that collapsed, falling onto the road, and onto the top of a passing car. The two people inside received mijor injuries.
MICROSOFT NEW XBOX
Uh-oh, the new Xbox One is not backwards-compatible with Xbox 360 discs. That means the old games won't work with the new box. Microsoft says it will make new games for the old Xbox. (Engadget)
PREDATORS FIRE ASSOCIATE COACH
Nashville Predators associate coach Peter Horachek got that, 'It's not you, it's me" letter. Team officials posted a message on their website thanking him for for his nine seasons with the Preds, saying they made the "difficult decision" to let Horachek, "pursue other opportunities."
GALIFIANAKIS TAKES FORMERLY HOMELESS WOMAN TO HANGOVER PREMIERE
Zach Galifianakis hasn't let fame go to his head. In fact, the 43-year-old actor invited his formerly homless friend, 87-year-old Elizabeth "Mimi" Haist, to be his date at The Hangover III premiere in L.A. this week.
The pair became friends in 1994 when Galifianakis was trying to launch his comedy career in L.A… and he frequented Fox Laundry, where Haist volunteered and survived off tips from customers.
The two stayed in touch... and two years ago, Galifianakis put Haist in a one-bedroom apartment. He now pays her rent and utilities.
Before Monday's Hangover III premiere, the 87 year old Haist said she was looking forward to catching up with her old friend. She said, "If he's in town, he takes me, if not, he lets me take a friend. I dress up nice and a friend helps me with my makeup. It's fun, not something I've ever dreamed I'd experience. The limo takes me home afterwards."
TOP IRS OFFICIAL WILL INVOKE THE FIRTH AMENDMENT IN CONGRESSIONAL HEARING
The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Lois Lerner, who heads up the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt division, plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a hearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs.
The Fifth Amendment provides that U.S. citizens may not be compelled to offer testimony if telling the truth would incriminate them. | <urn:uuid:a5c9d709-114c-4d65-bbfa-69ac312addc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mix929.com/news/anna?page=%2C52%2C56%2C64 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957215 | 1,385 | 1.757813 | 2 |
If you only ever buy one filter, make it a polarising filter. Nigel Atherton explains why, and presents the options for polarising filters
Want to boost your colour saturation at a stroke, without going near a computer? Buy a polarising filter.
Polarising filters work by suppressing reflections that occur on most surfaces. In the right conditions reflections on the surfaces of water and glass will vanish, allowing you to see more clearly through them.
But the contrast and colour saturation in your photos dramatically improves too. Blue skies become bluer, clouds stand out more, trees and grass look greener, and all the other colours in your scene seem richer. The transformation happens instantly, before your eyes, and cannot be replicated on a PC.
Polarising filters work best on sunny days with the sun at an angle of about 90° to the subject. On grey, overcast days they may have little or no effect.
Types of polarising filter
There are two types of polarising filter: linear and circular. This isn’t a reference to the shape of the filter itself – most are round – but to the way in which they polarise the light. For digital cameras you need the (sadly more expensive) circular type.
Make up of polarising filters
Most polarising filters are comprised of two connected rings that rotate independently of each other. Once you’ve screwed it onto the lens, the front part is rotated until you get the polarising effect you want.
You can also get polarisers that slot into filter holders such as those from Cokin and rotate within the holder. Whichever kind you get, they all reduce the light entering the lens by about 1.5 to 2 stops, so you’ll have to compensate accordingly.
Choosing a polarising filter
When choosing a polarising filter you’ll find a wide disparity of prices, even within the same brand. Hoya, for example, sells a 67mm polariser for under £50, and another for over £100.
What you’re paying for is superior optical glass, anti-reflective coatings, and perhaps superior engineering in the mount. Some boast a thinner profile so they’re less likely to cause vignetting when used with wideangle lenses.
Whether these things are worth the extra cost to you is a personal choice. If you use premium quality zoom or prime lenses (such as Canon’s L series optics) it’s probably worth investing in the best polarising filters to go with them; otherwise as long as you stick to one of the main brands listed here, you’re unlikely to be disappointed.
Polarising Filter – Top Brands
A guide to the main polarising filters to consider
The German flair for making top quality optical glass exceeds even their penalty-taking prowess. Made by Schneider, B+W filters aren’t cheap, but feel the weight of that Schott glass (made by Zeiss) and those hefty brass mounts and know you’re getting a quality product. Choose from its basic polariser, its MRC multi-coated filter or its premium Kasemann range, in which the filters are polished plane-parallel and sealed against moisture ingress.
The world’s largest filter manufacturer recommends its Pro 1 Digital series for DSLR users. They feature low-profile, matte black frames housing optical glass which is multi-coated to reduce flare and reflections. There’s also a more basic polariser for about half the price.
Beloved of pro landscape photographers everywhere, most Lee filters are hand-made from optical resin and are designed around Lee’s 100mm filter holder. Lee produces two polarisers to fit it: a square 100x100mm filter and a round 105mm diameter one. Lee also produces a clip-on polariser for its smaller 75mm system.
The Heliopan range is very similar to the B+W range: made in Germany using Schott glass, brass mounts and with a Kasemann variant. However, Heliopan filters, which have traditionally been aimed more at the movie industry, are somewhat cheaper.
Cokin’s circular polariser is actually circular. It fits into the rear slot of its holder and can be rotated within it. There are four sizes, to fit the A, P, X and Z series holders.
Better known in the US than the UK, Tiffen has been making filters for 60 years, and they are widely used in Hollywood. Tiffen’s patented ColorCore technology involves laminating the filter material between sheets of optical glass.
The biggest name in independent lenses also produces an EX DG circular polariser. It features a multi-layer coating and a low-profile mount to reduce vignetting. The range extends from 52mm to 105mm.
Other brands to consider:
There are no comments yet, add one below. | <urn:uuid:9263d41c-8c05-466f-9a0b-87442e0d793b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phototechnique.com/kit/polarising-filters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930261 | 1,019 | 1.75 | 2 |
You guys know I have polls on my website, right? Don’t go look right this very second, ’cause maybe they aren’t exactly updated right now, but still. Anyway, last month, one of the polls asked something along the lines of “What’s the most daunting task in the pastry kitchen?” Fully one third of you guys–maybe 10 of you–answered puff pastry. I wrote about puff pastry Long, Long Ago, but apparently the word isn’t out that puff isn’t that big a deal. So, because I am a Selfless Helper, I will now talk to you all about puff pastry–the ins and outs, the folds, the terminology: *all of it.
First, here’s a secret: it is more difficult to make a good pie crust than it is to make puff pastry. Honest. Most folks consider making puff pastry a daunting task because it is time consuming. That it is, but it is not difficult at all. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty mindless. You don’t even have to remember how many times you’ve turned the blasted thing–all the directions I’ve ever seen tell you to make marks in the dough after each turn to keep count!
I submit that, if you can use a rolling pin and you know how to Fold Things, you can successfully make puff pastry.
Puff pastry is a laminated dough. This means that the whole is comprised of layers that are all sandwiched together. In the case of plywood, you’ve got thin layers of wood sandwiched together with glue. In the case of puff, you’ve got thin layers of gluten-rich dough sandwiched together with butter.
To achieve the layering effect, you could just roll out ridiculously thin pieces of dough, brush some butter on them, and stack them up. That’s exactly what you’re doing when you use phyllo dough. Think of that process as sort of a deconstructed method of making puff pastry.
In order to make true puff (as opposed to rough puff), you take some lean dough (very little, if any, fat) and wrap it around a slab of butter. Then, you start rolling it carefully so it’s thin enough to fold. This first rolling starts you off with three layers–the bottom lean dough, the butter in the middle, and the top lean dough. If, once it’s large and thin enough to fold, you fold it into thirds like a business letter, you’ll have 7 layers: dough, butter, (dough, dough), butter, (dough, dough), butter, dough. The doughs are in parentheses because the two layers get mashed into one by rolling. If you fold both end into the middle and then fold at the middle, you’ll have 9 layers: dough, butter, (dough, dough), butter, (dough, dough), butter, (dough, dough), butter, dough. I’m starting to feel a bit like Homer Simpson with all the dohs, so I’m going to stop all of that now. Suffice to say that subsequent rolling and folding will give you a Very Ton of thin, thin layers of butter and doh.
Most pastry experts agree that classic French puff pastry is made by folding the dough into thirds and rolling it out again a total of six times. Keep in mind that you can make as few or as many folds and turns as you want, though. Fewer layers (although we’re still talking over 100) will rise higher but won’t be as flaky and ethereal. More layers will certainly puff, but not as high. The classic ideal is that the dough should rise 8x its initial height. So, if your dough is 1/4″ to begin with, you can expect the height after baking to be around 2″.
And look: I made a video to help you out!
Puff Pastry Minutiae That Must Be Addressed
Don’t let the minutiae scare you. They say that the devil is in the details, but why not be a glass-half-full kind of person and say that God is in the details?
- Rule number One for achieving Lovely Lamination is that the consistency of the butter should mimic as closely as possible the consistency of the dough (called detrempe, if you’re fancy). If the butter is too hard, it will just break up and poke holes in the detrempe. Rolling out will be Difficult At Best, and you won’t end up with a continuous sheet of butter. If the butter is too soft, it will just soak into the dough and guish out the sides, leaving you with an overly-rich dough with exactly one layer. Not good.
- Rule number Two: extra flour is mandatory. Make sure your rolling surface and the surface of the dough is lightly floured at all times. This means that you’ll have to keep adding more, a little at a time. Sticking can tear your delicate layers, allowing even right-consistency butter to guish out. Since the tough layers (lean-ish dough) are separate from the tender layers (butter), a little more flour isn’t going to hurt anything–you’ll still get an excellent rise.
- Rule number Two-A: brush off the excess flour before folding. See, that’s why this is rule 2A instead of rule 3. The time that you want the dough to stick is when the dough layers are being rolled together. ‘Member that (dough, dough) I talked about earlier. To make sure that those two layers become one, you need to make sure that the surface is as flour-free as you can make it before folding. They make a keen tool made especially for this purpose, but you can just as easily use a fairly stiff pastry brush or paint brush. Plus, bench brushes are expensive.
- Rule number Three: as you roll, flip your dough over fairly frequently. Because of friction, the top layer will always roll farther than the bottom layer. In order to keep the layers even, flip frequently.
- Rule number Four: Chill out. The refrigeration periods between folding and rolling (turns), allow for the butter to maintain Optimum Plasticity–not too cold; not too hot–and for the gluten formed by all the turning (which is really just a type of kneading) to relax enough to be able to roll out multiple times. Don’t think you can get away with making more than two turns at a time. Either your butter will start guishing out or the detrempe will become too sproingy, making it very hard to roll out. Thirty minutes to an hour under refrigeration will take care of Both Issues.
- Rule number Five: It’s hip to be square. As much as I love the rustic look of Free Form Baked Goods, puff pastry requires fairly strict adherence to the Ideal Rectangle. Roll with finesse, and when finesse fails pull gently with your hands, to square up the dough as much as possible before folding. Keeping the dough square with all the edges meeting up more or less perfectly gives you the maximum amount of dough containing all possible layers. If you don’t keep the dough square, there will be some areas around the edges that could lack as many as hundreds of layers, causing uneven rising. This is especially crucial if you want to bake a large sheet of puff, but for consistency’s sake it’s always good practice to Shoot for the Rectangle.
Helpful Tips from Your Friend Jenni
- If you can find it, use a high protein pastry flour. You want a lot of protein to develop a lot of gluten. You want pastry flour because it is finely ground and sifted.
- For the best puff in your puff, you’ll want to use a “European style” butter with relatively low moisture. Granted, water releases steam which causes the puff in the first place, but there’s already some water both in the detrempe and in Special Butter. Using plain old store brand or even name brand Amurkin Butter pushes you right over the edge to soggy. Plugra is an excellent US-made brand that is widely available and that I’ve had very good luck with. Regardless, look for a butter with a butterfat content of 82%. And, no, 80% butterfat isn’t close enough. That’s what “normal” butter contains.
- Once you’ve finished making all of your turns, trim off all the edges of your sheet of puff pastry. If you bake the folded portions, it’ll end up puffing like a book with a warped cover with leaves fanning out only in one direction instead of rising High and Even.
- If you’ll be using cutters to cut your puff pastry, or even if you’re cutting with a sharp knife, cut straight down rather than twisting or pulling the blade. You might also have heard of this in directions for making biscuits. In both cases, the rule exists to keep you from accidentally gluing your edges together and impeding the rise.
- If you egg wash your puff pastry, be very careful that none of it drips down the sides. This too can impede the rise. If you don’t believe me, egg wash a whole piece of puff, sides and all. It’ll bake up all dome-shaped and stupid. You really don’t want your efforts to be thwarted when Victory is Within Your Grasp.
- After you cut your pieces of puff, turn them over before baking. This will also help with even rise.
- Chilling the pieces before baking is a Good Idea. I usually let mine hang out in the fridge on parchment-lined baking sheets for half an hour or so.
- DO NOT USE a convection oven to bake small pieces of puff. You’ll end up with Slinkies as the air blows the layers over. I know; I’ve been there. Second practicum in one day? Sure, no problem…
- To make a classic Napoleon, or just to make a crisp layer of puff that doesn’t puff very much, place a few baking sheets on top of your sheet of puff. Every fifteen minutes or so, take all the baking sheets out of the oven and push down on the top ones to keep the sheet of puff from rising to Great Heights.
- If you need to cut puff pastry after baking, a serrated knife is an Excellent Tool.
*So Where’s the Recipe?
I’m not giving one. So there. There are tons and tons of recipes out there for puff pastry. Oh, fine. Go look at my other Puff Pastry Post. There’s a recipe there, as well as rules. The rules are the important part, though. Like so many other Pastry Items, puff pastry is all about technique. Pretty much the only ingredients are flour, salt, water and butter. The Magic of the Puff is in knowing how to combine them to achieve the Desired Results.
- Be Not Afraid.
- The refrigerator is your friend.
- Keep it nice and square. Puff pastry is the Anal Retentive Chef’s favorite thing to make.
- Do Not Stress. Repeat: Do Not Stress.
- Don’t forget to pick up your Puff Pastry Prowess Certification. | <urn:uuid:03ee4df0-9bb6-4014-b7c3-7751d845275d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pastrychefonline.com/2010/01/07/puff-pastry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941997 | 2,448 | 1.539063 | 2 |
HFH Update 2/2006
Update on the HomeBase Prevention Program
Homelessness prevention efforts in New York City have received renewed
emphasis since the beginning of the Bloomberg administration in
2002. HomeBase is a Department of Homeless Services (DHS) pilot
project to prevent new cases of homelessness by offering services,
referrals and financial assistance to families through partnerships
with community-based organizations in six high-need neighborhoods (see
the ICP Bulletin from May 25, 2005).
The first sixteen months of the HomeBase program show mixed results.
According to DHS, from September 2004 to the end of December 2005,
HomeBase centers have served 2,967 families and single adults, 68% of
which are families with children. Most clients have cited pending
eviction or overcrowding as the reason for utilizing prevention
services. More than one-third of clients are on public assistance
and 23% have a prior history of shelter use. Thirty-three percent (33%)
of clients are already employed when coming to HomeBase for the first
Results from the HomeBase centers themselves
report that one-third of all services administered or referrals given
by the program organizations have been employment-related, either for
training or job searching, while 22% of services have involved advocacy
to help clients access public assistance benefits. A majority of
financial assistance is used for rent arrears payments, with the
remaining funds used to purchase furniture or for deposits and broker
These evaluation results will
certainly allow DHS and the HomeBase organizations to adjust the
program to better fit the requirements of the population they are
trying to serve. However, they also raise many questions about
the structure and future of the program. These questions include:
- Are HomeBase services reaching the population most in need?
services to families most at risk is one of the main obstacles to any
prevention effort. The average age of the head-of-household client
accessing HomeBase services is almost 36 years, while the majority of
adults in the family shelter system are under 29 years old.
Therefore, prevention efforts have to focus on addressing the unique
needs of the younger population, mostly young mothers with small
children, in order to provide them with the services they need to avoid
entering the shelter system.
- Are the HomeBase offices located in areas where they can reach the largest number of at-risk families?
is undoubtedly a need for prevention services in the six community
districts where outreach offices are now located, but the impact could
be greater if efforts were expanded into more areas. Low-income
families living in gentrifying neighborhoods are particularly at risk
of facing a future bout of homelessness. In Washington Heights
alone, more than 15,000 families are facing eviction due to inability
to pay rising rents.
Smaller HomeBase centers in neighborhoods like this could reach those
at-risk families before they exhaust all their resources and have no
choice but to turn to the family shelter system.
- Should HomeBase centers be more involved in after-care services?
homelessness is a significant risk factor for becoming homeless
again. DHS reports that of the 5,600 families referred to
after-care services from March 2004 through December 2005, only 45%
utilized these services. For those families who did, only 1%
returned to the shelter system. Expanding the number of HomeBase
centers and allowing them to offer more after-care services would
increase the chance that more families would utilize those services and
remain in their homes.
- Are HomeBase program funds being used effectively, and furthermore, is the program effective?
the end of December 2005, the HomeBase program has served over 2,000
families with children at an estimated cost of $3.4 million. To
date, HomeBase has underspent a significant portion of its direct
assistance budget. Consequently, it remains to be seen how
financially and programmatically effective these efforts will be.
Nonetheless, prevention should be both cheaper and preferable to
sheltering a family and the first course of action in sustaining
Program administrators and service
providers alike should consider these questions in order to target the
families most in need of services and be able to expand prevention
efforts to neighborhoods across the city. Otherwise, the City
runs the risk of failing not only the families they do reach, but also
those families they don’t.
Back to Archive | <urn:uuid:87370f92-1d46-43b6-a600-97f078e44666> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hfhnyc.org/news/index.asp?id=107&archive=true | 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 | 0.947622 | 943 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Youngest recipient of an Oscar for her role in Children of a Lesser God, deaf actress Marlee Matlin teamed up with MEDL Mobile to release Marlee Signs. It’s an ASL tutorial app for iPhone that uses video starring Ms. Matlin herself to teach the basics of American Sign Language to newcomers. While there are other ASL apps available, they generally rely on static images and not interactive. While Ms. Matlin herself greets us with a caveat that her app can’t replace a proper ASL classroom, it’s the closest you’re going to get to one in the App Store.
Marlee Signs has six chapters. The first is called You, and it comes free with the download and uses high-quality video to teach you the alphabet, numbers and some elementary signs. The other five lesson packs: Around You, Home, Around Town, Around World, and Baby Signs are available as in-app purchases for $1.99 each.
Each lesson features a video where Ms. Matlin demonstrates a sign with a caption on the bottom of the screen. You can pause, rewind, and even slow down playback with gestures. A tap on the video toggles the control menu.
What’s really innovative in Marlee Signs is the Spell section. ASL, of course, has specific signs for words and phrases, but the language also uses spelling for proper nouns and unfamiliar words. Here you can type in a word or phrase and watch Marlee spell it out with fluent and fluid fingers.
Marlee Signs was just updated to address some early hiccups, one of which was that not all videos were scaled for the iPhone 5’s four-inch display. To remedy this the developers encased all the videos in very small panes. The app only works in portrait orientation and the result is that there is a lot of unused screen real estate, even on devices with 3.5-inch displays. On iPhone 5 the captions were just below my field of vision, which is awkward.
Also, if you chose to “play all” the videos in a lesson at once (i.e. if you want to see the entire alphabet rather than the letters one at a time), the app stitches individual videos together very poorly. Played at normal speed the screen appears to flicker, making it hard to watch for more than a few seconds without getting a headache.
Beyond that, Marlee Signs is inviting, easy to use, and powered by Ms. Matlin’s charm. If you want to learn ASL, this is a great way to start. | <urn:uuid:85b3c7df-af2f-4322-a3f4-cdfb02d6c692> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/12927-learn-asl-with-marlee-matlin-on-your-iphone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941763 | 543 | 1.625 | 2 |
BBC News Online disability affairs reporter
A patient has won his legal battle to ensure that doctors do not withdraw nutrition against his wishes when he is no longer able to communicate.
Leslie Burke wants the right to decide about being fed
Leslie Burke was effectively asking the court to rule that he, not a doctor, is best placed to decide whether his life should be prolonged by medical intervention.
He is now in his forties and has known since he was a teenager that he has a progressive condition which is very likely to mean that he will need artificial feeding and hydration.
What worried Mr Burke was the possibility that doctors could make a decision to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration - or ANH - on the assumption that his quality of life as a disabled person was too low to merit prolonging it.
Mr Burke argued that the existing guidance provided to doctors by the General Medical Council contravenes his rights under the Human Rights Act.
Following the High Court ruling, that guidance will have to be redrafted.
The Disability Rights Commission said the outcome would have repercussions for the rights of all disabled people who have degenerative conditions.
The DRC wants guidance about 'quality of life' to be removed from the guidelines.
It says that too much scope is allowed for a doctor's personal opinion to influence the outcome of a decision about providing ANH.
Mr Burke wants all decisions about withdrawing and withholding treatment to be referred to the courts.
But the DRC thinks that this is unnecessary: it wants the courts to intervene only when there is a disagreement between the patient and their doctor.
The organisation thinks that decisions about prolonging a person's life need to be considered according to four basic principles.
The DRC's four principles
If a person is able to make a decision and does not want ANH to be given their wish should be respected
When a patient and their doctor disagree, the dispute must be settled by a court
When there is full agreement on withdrawing the ANH, doctors must use the 'intolerability test' which determines whether giving treatment would make a person's life intolerable.
Crucially, this must be considered from the patient's perspective not the doctor's. The intolerability test is currently used by the courts and the DRC believes it is a much higher threshold for withdrawing treatment than the current guidelines used by doctors
In an emergency situation, the DRC says that a patient must receive treatment until their condition becomes stable
For its part, the General Medical Council say although in law a doctor makes the decision, they are expected to reach it based on a consensus of opinion.
The GMC advises doctors to try to reach a consensus, obtain a second opinion if necessary, and to apply for a court ruling when there is a significant disagreement about a patient's best interests.
"The issue about withdrawing life-prolonging treatments is fundamentally about one of two approaches," GMC policy adviser, Sharon Burton, told BBC News Online.
"For some people it means hastening or indeed causing death. For others, not providing treatments like ANH is an acceptance that someone is dying but the cause of death is the underlying medical condition not the decision to withhold treatment."
The GMC insists that the basis for decision making around life-prolonging treatments is the patient's right to decide.
And it explicitly instructs doctors not to be prejudiced in their decisions by a person's age or disability.
Problems have arisen, according to Sharon Burton, when doctors fail to follow GMC guidelines.
"The power of our guidance is that we're able to take away a doctor's right to practice if they don't follow it," she said.
The right to choose
Such reassurance does not convince Dr Jane Campbell - a Disability Rights Commissioner who takes a close interest in 'right to life' issues.
When she was in hospital last year doctors twice said that they assumed that she would not want to be resuscitated should the need arise.
Jane Campbell - passionate about life
Literally afraid for her life, she kept herself awake for 48 hours.
"Giving a doctor the power of life or death over me is terrifying," she told BBC News Online.
"Society is so negative about disability that it encourages the view that being disabled is a good enough reason to end someone's life".
Dr Campbell also strongly opposes the view that disabled people should be assisted to commit suicide if they are unable to do this for themselves.
"We can only start to have that discussion once we live in a society where disabled people have equal value," she said.
"Until then the choice is heavily weighted towards death - it's just too easy to kill people off." | <urn:uuid:025c8962-14ab-4f2d-bc90-103759f41b64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3682473.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9685 | 962 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Immigration Reform Is Lecture Topic at Susquehanna University
Published on March 8, 2011
SELINSGROVE—Harvard University professor and journalist Edward Schumacher-Matos will discuss “Immigration Reform: Truths, Myths, and Politics” on March 17 at 7:30 p.m. in Susquehanna University’s Stretansky Concert Hall, in the Cunningham Center for Music and Art.
Sponsored by Susquehanna’s Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society, his talk will be the keynote address for the 16th annual Susquehanna University Latino Symposium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
An immigrant himself, Schumacher-Matos is director of the Harvard Inter-Faculty Initiative on Immigration and Integration Policy and Studies. He is the Robert F. Kennedy visiting professor for Latin American studies at Harvard and a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he teaches a graduate seminar on immigration from Latin America into the United States. He is writing a book on the subject.
Born in Colombia, Schumacher-Matos lived in the United States illegally from age 14 until age 21, when he declared his citizenship and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in international economics and politics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was a Fulbright fellow in Japan and a Bi-national Commission fellow in Spain. He also served as the executive director of the Spanish Institute in New York, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultural, political and economic affairs between the United States and Spain.
Schumacher-Matos also boasts more than 25 years of journalism experience. A member of the Pulitzer Prize–winning team for public service at the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1979, he went on to found several newspapers of his own. He was the founding editor and publisher of The Wall Street Journal Americas, a section of The Wall Street Journal in Spanish and Portuguese that is distributed throughout Latin America. In 2003, he founded Rumbo Newspapers/Meximerica Media, a chain of four Spanish-language daily newspapers in Texas. He also draws from his own experiences to write a weekly column on national and international affairs in the journal Foreign Affairs.
Organized by Susquehanna’s Department of Modern Languages, the Latino Symposium is a multidisciplinary, multicultural event highlighting bicultural interaction on campus and in the surrounding community.
“The Adams Center Presents” series is a showcase for speakers of national and international stature confronting critical issues related to law and society. In addition to sponsoring high-profile speakers, the Adams Center provides a forum and research opportunities for examining issues that affect human rights and social responsibility, involve science and technology, or require constitutional interpretation.
Karen M. Jones | <urn:uuid:08f8ce35-e63d-41d5-ac3b-e012a3bc55c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.susqu.edu/news/37274.asp | 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 | 0.937255 | 618 | 1.507813 | 2 |
NAMPA, Idaho – Responding to Indonesia’s massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake, MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) has flown in an assessment team to the devastated city of Padang, in the coastal region of western Sumatra.
The quake hit Sept. 30, destroying hundreds of buildings and homes, triggering landslides, knocking out power and cutting off roads into the city of approximately 900,000 people. Amid the fires and flooding, thousands are expected to die. Relief agencies are relying on MAF and other groups in a desperate race against time.
MAF currently has three expatriate pilots and some 10 local staff on Sumatra, according to Ron Wismer, manager of research and operations support. The missions agency, which has worked in Indonesia since 1954, has two aircraft on Sumatra – a Cessna 206 and a Cessna Caravan – that are based in Medan, which is well north of the earthquake zone. Responding to the emergency, MAF is providing flights from nearby Pekan Baru to Padang, close to the epicenter. Easily accessible from Jakarta and other places, the plan is to stage the MAF emergency response operations from Pekan Baru.
Coordinating their efforts with the local government, MAF leaders quickly flew in a team of relief workers from Operation Blessing International (OBI) to the scene of devastation. Other groups are also requesting MAF’s assistance amid the chaos.
“‘We are working primarily with OBI,” said Stan Unruh, the MAF country director in Sumatra, “but the phone is ringing off the hook with requests from the Red Cross and others.”
Wismer said friends of MAF can help in two ways. First, they can pray that rescue workers can gain access to people who need food and medical care. Second, they can make financial gifts for the relief effort. To give to the MAF rescue work in Padang, go to www.maf.org.
MAF began flying in Sumatra in response to the 2004 tsunami that devastated the Aceh area of the island. MAF was one of the first to respond to that disaster. MAF also provided communications services to support relief efforts.
Founded in the United States in 1945, MAF (www.maf.org) missionary teams of aviation, communications, technology and education specialists overcome barriers in remote areas, transform lives and build God’s Kingdom by enabling the work of more than 1,000 organizations in isolated areas of the world. With its fleet of 130 bush aircraft, MAF serves in 55 countries, with an average of 242 flights daily across Africa, Asia, Eurasia and Latin America. MAF pilots transport missionaries, medical personnel, medicines and relief supplies, as well as conduct thousands of emergency medical evacuations in remote areas. MAF also provides telecommunications services, such as satellite Internet access, high frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.
The KODIAK, which can carry more cargo and passengers than the Cessna planes currently in use in Haiti, will support the MAF relief efforts.
The MAF KODIAK aircraft is a nine-seat, turbine plane.
Funded by gifts from supporters, the new plane will depart in May for Haiti, where it will support the work of churches, medical teams, and relief workers laboring to rebuild the island nation still... | <urn:uuid:db0b4907-5e3c-4ce2-a9a4-8084c78c4864> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/10397794/maf-responds-to-massive-earthquake-in-indonesia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946215 | 711 | 1.78125 | 2 |
High-tech swimsuits banned in prep events effective immediatelyThe Minnesota State High School Board of Directors Executive Committee approved a rule amendment Wednesday that bans high-tech swimsuits at the high school level. The high-tech suits have been linked to record performances at all levels of competition over the past couple of years.
The Minnesota State High School Board of Directors Executive Committee approved a rule amendment Wednesday that bans high-tech swimsuits at the high school level. The high-tech suits have been linked to record performances at all levels of competition over the past couple of years.
The new rule will be in effect for the upcoming 2009 swimming season for girls and for the 2009-2010 swimming season for boys in Minnesota.
Under the rule, swimmers shall be limited to one swimsuit that shall be constructed of a woven/knit textile material, permeable to water and air, constructed so as not to aid in buoyancy, and it shall not contain zippers or other fastening systems.
In addition, the suit shall be constructed so that the style/shape for males shall not extend above the waist or below the top of the kneecap and for females shall not extend beyond the shoulders or below the top of the kneecap, and it shall not cover the neck.
The Red Wing boys swimming program benefited from high-tech swimsuits at the 2009 state tournament. Wearing Speedo FS-PRO Bodyskin suits — which were made of the same fabric used to construct the Speedo LZR racing suits worn at the 2008 Summer Olympics — the Wingers finished third overall and first among the public schools.
“These high-tech suits had fundamentally altered the sport and had become more similar to equipment rather than a uniform,” said Becky Oakes, the National Federation of State High School Associations assistant director and liaison to the Swimming and Diving Rules Committee. “The rules of swimming have always prohibited the use or wearing of items that would aid in the swimmer’s speed and/or buoyancy. The technical suits and styles had evolved to a point where there was little, if any, compliance with these basic rules.”
The MSHSL adopted the policy set forth by the NFHS.
The NFHS Swimming and Diving Rules Committee approved changes to Rule 3-2-2 on Tuesday that will make the high-tech swimsuit illegal for swimmers at the high school level.
The NFHS Board of Directors subsequently approved the committee’s recommendations.
The NFHS decision comes after FINA, swimming’s international governing body, announced last month that it will ban the record-breaking bodysuits starting Jan. 1, 2010. | <urn:uuid:7bf489e1-6ffa-4f14-a087-7d381e741e85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.republican-eagle.com/event/article/id/61035/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951383 | 552 | 1.742188 | 2 |
I hope the day of rest and meditation on the full moon has earned much merit for all of you! I missed 2 weeks of upasathas or improperly observed them ( once I even forgot the day
)-- and I was feeling tired and drained...I observed yesterday -- next morning I was full of energy again! It just showed me how important these days are! For lay followers, it is a must as we become tired due to work, stress etc.!
Just a small note on the above quotes:
Asvaghosa's writing is from his Sutralamkara, "the Embellishment of the Sayings" of Buddha.
The Question of King Milinda comes from the Sutra of Nagasena (in Chinese: Nasien King), a Chinese version of the Milinda-panha ;
Now a few more statements of conviction from the seers of Mahayana!
Dhammapada: He who takes refuge in the Buddha will not depart to a bad destiny; when he gives up his body, he will go to the assembly of the gods
Ekottara Agama: He who has sinned in deed, word or thought, if at the hour of his death he thinks of the merits of the Tathagata, he will be preserved from the three bad destinies, and though most vile, will be reborn in heaven
Asvaghosa: Even if you possess no more than a grain of worthiness, you must look to Buddha for your salvation. A man of little merit appealing to Buddha receives ambrosia from him. hence, let us wholeheartedly take refuge in the Buddha
Mahaprajnaparamita-sastra: Plant your merits in the field of the Buddha, and the reward that you will reap from it will be like these lotuses which fill innumerable earths,
Dasabhumivibhasa- sastra,Among the ways of this world, there are easy ones and hard ones. To walk on the way of the land is arduous, to steer by the way of the water is pleasant. So it is with the ways of the Bodhisattvas: some jealously practice the spiritual energy; others, by the easy practice of the means of faith rapidly arrive at the avaivarti. 46
Nagarjuna writes, by getting into the boat of the Eightfold Way, one can cross the sea difficult to cross over, cross it oneself and cause others to cross it. The smallest roots of good related to Buddha spring up as great Trees of Blessing. I earn merit by virtue. I transfer this merit, and in so doing earn more merit, which I transfer and so on to infinity!
Mahakarmavibhanga: narrating the legend of the young and poor Malini, it says:She gave a garland of straw to the monument of Sugata, and she gained the best of garlands of gold and precious stones, the garland of the Members of the Illumination (the Holy Sangha) | <urn:uuid:e67777cd-20b3-4841-9c8d-34d873e7327c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=1973 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949332 | 628 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Political Leaders Honor Open Government
Around the State
Lawmakers and journalists came together Monday to celebrate citizen access to government against a backdrop of calls for greater transparency in state lawmaking.
The First Amendment Foundation's luncheon on Monday attracted a healthy turnout of political leaders, including most members of the House and Senate leadership, as well as journalists. But, notably absent were Gov. Charlie Crist, who is a two-time winner of the foundation's Pete Weitzel Friend of the First Amendment Award, and Attorney General Bill McCollum, a leading Republican candidate for governor.
Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp read a proclamation from Crist honoring National Freedom of Information Day and Sunshine Week, both of which celebrate the importance of open government.
“The job of the press has never been more important than it is today in holding government accountable,” Kottkamp said.
The keynote speakers were Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, both of whom are candidates for governor.
Sink said open government is an important issue for most Floridians and transparency is needed to ensure good government. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant and something we’re very much in need of in Tallahassee,” she said.
Saying that she entered government with "a citizen's mentality" because she'd never held elected office before, Sink talked about the importance of open government from that perspective. She expressed support for requiring the state's open meeting laws to be applied to state lawmakers, who at present are allowed to meet in private to discuss government business. In contrast, the state's Open Government Act prohibits two or more local government officials from ever meeting in private on public business.
Sink said, in her term as CFO, she has backed several actions to make government more open to citizens. She pointed to sites being run in her office, including Florida’s Checkbook, Sunshine Spending and Florida’s Financials, that inform citizens of what state government is doing with taxpayers’ money. Sink said that her department had an attorney on staff who worked on open government issues and hoped that other departments would follow her example.
Dockery outlined bils she is currently sponsoring in the Senate to promote open government. One would force a legislator to recuse himself from lobbying and voting on a bill if the lawmaker or a family member would somehow benefit.
Dockery said that voters are angry and feel government fails to pay attention to them. She said that open government is one way to address the problem. “We should all accept and embrace open government to its fullest,” she said.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said all of Dockery’s ideas are well-considered but that the measures may change in the legislative process.
The luncheon also quietly drew attention to changes in the news industry itself. Staff cutbacks and downsizing of state newspaper bureaus have caused a corresponding drop in financial support for the foundation, which is largely a stepchild of Florida newspapers and broadcast outlets.
On the upside, there has been an expansion of online journalism, giving readers the freedom of choice.
"More people are getting access to the news through the Internet," said Barbara Petersen, president of the foundation. "They're being exposed to a variety of different outlets.”
Petersen believes "open government is not a partisan issue” and the foundation has honored both Democrats and Republicans with awards over the years.
She pointed out that members of both parties work together in Florida for the cause of transparency. “Florida sets the tone for open government across the nation,” she said. | <urn:uuid:c774f5cb-9640-4665-9ec5-5d087aab4da7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/political-leaders-honor-open-government?quicktabs_1=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973938 | 769 | 1.554688 | 2 |
U.S. house prices rose 6.5% in the year through January, the biggest jump since 2006, as values surged on the West Coast and in the area including Nevada and Arizona, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.
Prices increased 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from December, the FHFA said in a report today from Washington. The average economist estimate was for a 0.7% gain, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Home prices are rising as low borrowing costs and improving employment bolster demand and the inventory of properties for sale shrinks. Prices haven’t declined on a monthly basis since January 2012, the FHFA said, indicating that the recovery has solidified.
“Pretty much across the board, prices are rising,” Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in a phone interview today. “That will be the trend in all 50 states by the end of the year. The forces that are driving up prices are national ones.”
Prices jumped 14.1% from a year earlier in the Mountain area, which includes Arizona, Nevada, Montana and New Mexico. In the Pacific region, including California and Washington, the gain was 13.7%, the FHFA said. The Middle Atlantic area -- New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- had the smallest increase, at 0.4%.
Morgan Stanley expects U.S. home prices to rise as much as 8% this year, up from previous estimates of 4% to 6%, analysts led by Vishwanath Tirupattur said in a note two days ago. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. have also raised their home-price forecasts this month.
Rising values are helping homeowners to regain equity. At the end of the fourth quarter, 10.4 million homes, or 21.5% of all residential properties with a mortgage, were underwater, with owners owing more than the property was worth, CoreLogic Inc. reported this week. That was down from 10.6 million homes, or 22%, at the end of September.
The FHFA report is based on changes in real estate values using purchases of properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It doesn’t provide a specific price for homes. | <urn:uuid:e94c0edf-eee0-47f5-b1bc-1cb98414bc41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.futuresmag.com/2013/03/21/house-prices-climbed-65-in-year-through-january-fh?t=forextcommodities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964113 | 479 | 1.5625 | 2 |
By Bill White
It is a truly momentous occasion in our history: the brave men and women who have served our nation so honorably in Iraq are finally coming home to a grateful nation -- however, just what are they returning to is an unsettlingly open question.
While it is great to see -- and a change from previous, similar situations -- a majority of Americans welcoming our veterans home with open arms, when it comes to providing necessary services that returning veterans require in order to thrive here at home, we are in severe danger of falling short. We must actively show veterans our gratitude in both word and deed: especially now, as tens of thousands of our veterans are poised to come home.
While the country's national employment rate is finally ticking up, our veterans lag far behind. Currently, there are more than one million unemployed veterans -- and the percentage of unemployed veterans far exceeds the national average and in some states it has doubled.
Beyond the bleak unemployment picture, over 300,000 veterans are returning home with traumatic brain injuries that require immediate medical attention. A large number on its own, it does not even take into account the number of men and women who will experience emotional difficulties such as post-traumatic stress, which can lead to depression, substance abuse, domestic violence and, yes, even suicide years after a soldier leaves from the battlefield. During many months over these last years at war, we lost more soldiers to suicide than to al-Qaeda.
This data is stark and scary. But it is important to know that each American has the tools to be able to pitch in and support the brave men and women facing the challenges of transitioning back into civilian life.
Already, there are many remarkable organizations dedicated to providing the support that these servicemen and women and their families need. These non-profit organizations can always use, and deserve, our unwavering and continued support.
The drastic transition for veterans from service overseas back to their families and civilian life can be more difficult than anticipated, both for them and for the friends and family waiting to welcome them home. This is not charity. It is our duty to provide the tools and resources necessary not just to help our veterans readjust to civilian life, but to ensure that these brave men and women are equipped to succeed. We owe them nothing short of our gratitude, love and respect.
"Holidays, birthdays & anniversaries have been celebrated with tears and smiles with people who truly understand what the other person is experiencing."
- Kamryn Jaroszewski | <urn:uuid:631df7d9-7753-46a8-92a4-9654df4cd81f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fisherhouse.org/news/2012/january/iraq-veterans-are-finally-coming-home-now-we-must-show-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955086 | 512 | 1.84375 | 2 |
NFP: Swirl, Inc helped me to connect with not only people in intercultural relationships, but also people who grew up in a multicultural family.
Issue: Many people in an intercultural marriage do not speak their partner’s native language. This can lead to loss of culture, language, or tradition.
Description of Design Solution: L3 provides people in intercultural marriages with a calendar, activity cards, bedtime story cards, and recipe cards designed to stimulate communication and interaction for enjoyable language-learning experience.
Intended benefits: L3 helps couples develop an interest and understanding for each other’s native language and culture. It also allows couples to communicate with people in similar situations through an online community.
Next step: The next step of this project would be to customize the content for a variety of languages including Spanish, Korean, Italian, and Chinese. | <urn:uuid:06337662-2f00-4e57-84b2-111d1a2d998f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.design21sdn.com/people/15157/posts/1759 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939402 | 179 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Monday, February 11, 2013
The last pope to step down was Gregory XII in 1415, who did so to end a civil war within the church.
Some Catholics reacted with shock Monday as Pope Benedict XVI announced his plans to resign on Feb. 28, 2013. The resignation comes during Lent, a time of penance and the liturgical season leading up to Christianity’s most important holiday, Easter. With his announcement, Benedict becomes the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. Immaculate Conception, Mary Queen of Heaven and Visitation Catholic churches in Elmhurst all belong to the Diocese of Joliet. On Monday, Diocese of Joliet Bishop Daniel Conlon expressed surprise at the pope’s decision. “Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign comes as a surprise to all of us. Yet, it is consistent with the humble disposition that I have come to recognize in him, both in my brief personal …
Friday, January 18, 2013
Syracuse came calling with an offer he couldn't refuse.
Friday, January 18
Elmhurst College head football Coach Tim Lester, who led the Bluejays to their most successful season in school history, has accepted a position as quarterbacks coach at Div. 1 Syracuse University in New York, according to the Syracuse University website. Lester completed five seasons with Elmhurst College, culminating in the Bluejays' first-ever trip to the NCAA playoffs. The Bluejays earned their first post-season win and their best school record at 10-2. Lester announced his resignation on Monday, Jan. 14. In an interview with D3football.com, Lester said: “This is a very bittersweet day for me and my family. I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time at Elmhurst but this is a tremendous opportunity that I could not pass up." Lester hails …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Elmhurst mayor, during public comment at Tuesday's School Board meeting, claims Rutter and many York coaches have been "pushed" out of their jobs.
York High School Athletic Director John Rutter submitted his resignation to the District 205 School Board on Tuesday, and a team of York coaches, along with Elmhurst's own mayor, are claiming Rutter was forced out of his job. Mayor Pete DiCianni spoke twice at the District 205 School Board meeting Tuesday. The first time he stood at the podium, he helped congratulate the York Boys Cross Country Team for another state championship. But the second time he got up to speak, during the public comment period, it was to say that the board needed to pay closer attention to coaching changes at York High School. He said he was speaking as "a father, an alum, a lover of District 205." DiCianni, who was joined at the podium by York coaches Jim Hedman…
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
DuPage County Election Commission Chairman Rick Carney resigns at the request of County Board Chairman Dan Cronin.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin has accepted the resignation of DuPage Election Commission Chairman J.P. “Rick” Carney. Carney resigned last weekend, according to a press release from DuPage County. Cronin, of Elmhurst, and a majority of the County Board members requested Carney step down after a report concluded the commission had poor procurement and ethics practices, according to the release. “I appreciate Rick stepping aside to allow us to start anew with fresh leadership at the Election Commission,” Cronin said in a statement. “We appreciate his service and wish him well in the future.” Carney has served as chairman of the commission since 2006; his term ends in January 2013. Through state statute, Cronin appoints members to … | <urn:uuid:9ed948d7-e381-4d6b-a575-1e3460e3fe31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elmhurst.patch.com/topics/Resignation | 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 | 0.97752 | 780 | 1.5 | 2 |
Ready to Sled? Protect More Than Your Head
Share This Story
You don’t have to be a fan of the Winter X Games to know that snowmobiling is cool again. Wherever snow is not just a four-letter word but a fact of life, you’ll find a growing number of hardcore sledders riding the trails and backcountry. According to the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA), more than 2.1 million sleds are registered in North America.
It’s easy to see why snowmobiling is so popular. It’s an invigorating sport that’s great exercise and brings people outdoors to interact with nature and each other. A perfect escape from your computer screen or smart phone.
Of course, there’s also the adrenaline. You can get a contact high just watching those X Games maniacs with all their jaw-dropping backward flip Supermans (as you might guess, a “Superman” is a trick where the snowmobile is launched and the rider’s body is in a horizontal position above the snowmobile hanging onto the handles. Don’t try this at home).
Sledders sure love the freedom of riding for miles through virgin powder. In fact, ISMA estimates that the average snowmobiler in North America rides 1,414 miles per year. But for whatever reason (mesmerized by all that pure white snow? Headgear too tight?), they can sometimes lose their bearings when it comes to making sure they’re protected. Not from physical harm or the elements, but from the unexpected that can instantly turn an exhilarating cruise into a “what was that?” crash.
You wouldn’t think of riding without a helmet. But sledders everywhere forget that they also need to protect their snowmobiles—and personal funds—from accidents. Some of the reasons given for not getting snowmobile insurance are as outrageous as a big-air heel-click:
“No one else is buying snowmobile insurance.” Remember what your mother said when you asked for her OK to do something and bolstered your argument by saying that all the other kids are doing it? Then she said, “If Tommy jumped off the bridge, would you follow him?” Maybe that’s not the right question to ask a snowmobiler, but you get the point.
“It’s too expensive.” For only $10 per month on average, snowmobile insurance can protect you, your passenger, your snowmobile and even someone else’s property.
“I’m a great driver.” No one doubts your skills. But an unseen tree stump or partially hidden fence can cause even a professional to lose control. You wouldn’t drive your car without insurance—why take that chance on your sled, especially when you consider that some high-powered snowmobiles can weigh more than 600 pounds and achieve speeds in excess of 150 mph!
“Snowmobile accidents aren’t that big of a deal.” According to a study in Clinical Orthopedics, snowmobile accidents in North America cause approximately 200 deaths and 14,000 injuries each year.
“My sled isn’t worth that much.” ISMA reports that the average suggested retail price of a new snowmobile is about $8,500, which isn’t exactly chump change. You also need to consider what it could cost you if you damaged someone else’s sled or property, or caused bodily harm.
If you’re a hardcore snowmobiler, you can’t wait to squeeze the throttle and churn up clouds of virgin powder. But before the first snowflake hits the ground, be sure to check with your insurance agent about protecting you, your sled and your money. Happy trails!For more information on snowmobile coverage and tiding safety tips, visit Allstate.com.
Head over to Allstate.com to find out what your stuff is worth! | <urn:uuid:38f42e33-7082-4eff-94aa-2aa20f8596da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.allstate.com/ready-to-sled-protect-more-than-your-head/ | 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 | 0.932448 | 842 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, an announcement came over the public address system in a Wal-Mart store in Washington Township, N.J.
“Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.”
The people of Wal-Mart are bent. Employees are baffled. The corporation is embarrassed.
Clearly, this is a tasteless prank. I should know. I grew up around them. Heck, I was behind some of them.
Harassment from above
I worked my way through high school and college at a small grocery store in my hometown. To say that the atmosphere was “casual” would be an understatement. To say that it was “dysfunctional” would be on the money.
Public address system hijinks were a daily occurrence.
When the checkout lines got long, the policy was to call for more checkers. One cashier, a teenage boy with a background in the Future Farmers of America, would use the P.A. to summon female checkers as if he were calling hogs.
“Suuuuusan!” he’d say in a clipped, high pitch yelp. “Suuuuuuuusan! Cheeeeck, please!“
Being city girls, they had no clue what he was doing. If someone tried that today, they’d be fired, beaten up, re-hired and fired again for good measure.
If there was a co-worker we didn’t like, we’d use the P.A. to verbally abuse him.
We’d call him for everything, even if we knew he was busy. We’d call him constantly during his 15-minute break: “Byron, put down your Dr Pepper and work please.”
After another co-worker injured his leg, he came back to work with a noticeable limp. We gave him the nickname “Wood,” which was short for “wooden leg.”
Whenever we called him over the P.A., we referred to him as “Wood.” Many new employees, who didn’t know the background, actually believed it was his real name and that he had a wooden leg.
Don’t fret. He was in on the joke, because he changed his name badge to read “Wooden L.”
Another employee had a large birthmark on his face. When we needed him, we called for “Spot” over the P.A. He always showed up.
When certain female customers caught the eye of young, male checkers, they would call for “Eleven” on the aisle where she was shopping: “We need an 11 on Aisle 3, please.“
Other male workers — managers included — would empty from the storeroom and onto the sales floor, speedwalking in a single file, to confirm the sighting.
Nope, nothing suspicious, juvenile or perverted about that.
Given all of that, I suspect Wal-Mart corporate sleuths will find that the culprit is a young employee who thought he was being funny. And when he is caught, the call will go out over that store’s P.A. system: “Pink slip on Aisle 13.” | <urn:uuid:39cf0fb7-020b-4a1a-b7fc-3a0af898d11c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mysanantonio.com/atlarge/2010/03/attention-shoppers-burning-cross-on-aisle-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984702 | 705 | 1.53125 | 2 |
2012/02/04 Leave a Comment
Week 10: The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL
After many weeks in the dark, this feature is back! The Random Hockey Book of the “Week” returns in all it’s splendor with a book that will make Brendan Shanahan rollover in his plush office chair in the League offices. Read all about fighting and the other dark arts in the NHL before they are banned.
The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL
“Ice hockey has always been a sport steeped in a culture of violence, and players universally calibrate the level of physical contact by adhering to unwritten rules known simply as “the code”. “The Code” picks up where the rule book leaves off and fills in the gaps, all in an effort to govern the game and its players – allowing them to complete in a manner deemed fair and respectable. To fully understand the significance and history behind “the code”, Bernstein interviewed more than 50 past and present players and coaches. Their insights and stories explain why fighting is allowed, and how players police themselves on and off the ice.” | <urn:uuid:df58991d-4aaa-4926-be51-7703b6f2092d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tomfulery.com/tag/hockey-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950866 | 253 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Looking through one of my terabyte hard drives full of photos, I found this image I snapped of a Datsun Bluebird 410 sitting in a carport near my friend Kenta’s home in Tokyo. Look at the cool vintage Datsun emblem on the grill! If I remember correctly, I snapped this photo really quickly from the back seat of a Toyota Chaser owned by Kenta’s father. (Luckily for me, his dad drives pretty slowly through city streets, so I was able to point the camera at the car really quickly as we passed!)
For me, finding photos like this in my hard drive is cool because it reminds me of why I love Japan so much – there’s something interesting on every corner, and you never know what you may find. This is a very typical scene in the suburban area of Tokyo that Kenta lives in, but you don’t normally find super clean cars this old just sitting outside in a carport! Most likely, this old Bluebird is a car that’s been in the family for decades, while the daily mode of transportation is more than likely the charinko (bicycle) that’s sitting right next to it.
This type of Datsun Bluebird 410 was made between 1963 and 1967, and was available with a 1200cc or 1300cc engine, depending on how fast the owner wanted to drive their Bluebird. It’s funny to think that you could stand in a Datsun dealership in 1964 or something, telling the salesman, “yeah, I don’t quite think the 1200cc engine is going to do it for me. I need more power, so I’ll take the additional 100cc.” (Haha!) To make the Bluebird sportier and more competitive in circuit racing, Datsun decided to launch a 1600cc sports model under the name Bluebird SSS in 1965.
Perhaps the coolest thing about this car (in my opinion, anyway) is the super old school original Japanese license plate, which only has one number on it. This top number (in this case, a 5) signifies the engine size and/or purpose of the car. In this case, “5″ on the license plate designates that the car is a compact car (wait, weren’t all Japanese cars during this time compacts?). Nowadays, the designation is three digits instead of one. For instance, if you were to register this type of car in the present time, the designation might be “530.” I photoshopped out the kanji characters that designate the area of Japan where this car is registered so that the owner can retain anonymity.
I also liked the vintage metal window visors attached to the top of the window channel. If Japanese window visors for 1980s Japanese cars are rare now, just imagine how ridiculously tough it would be to find clean visors for a 1960s vehicle!
Since I didn’t have the opportunity to get out and walk around the car, I wasn’t able to take any more detail photos of it. However, I found a cool link to interior and engine photos of a 1968 Bluebird on BringATrailer.com. Seeing photos like this in my hard drive make me excited for the upcoming Japanese Classic Car Show in Irvine CA next month – October 3 to be exact. If you like vintage Japanese cars like I do, make sure to show your support by going to the show and by getting a subscription to Japanese Nostalgic Car Magazine! | <urn:uuid:51276389-b254-480d-ad95-3cd706bf4b4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://motormavens.com/2009/08/carspotting-datsun-410-bluebird-in-tokyo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957563 | 732 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I noted today that WUWT just passed 6000 followers on Twitter, and 15,000 followers of the blog by email. About the same time, WUWT reached 5000 likes on Facebook. A few years ago, I never much thought social media was worth much, but seeing how Michael Mann and Bill McKibben have been using it to their advantage, my view on the importance of it has changed.
For them, social networking is glue for the cause, it keeps their base in line and comforted with missives they want to hear. A good example is this recent tweet from Bill McKibben to a follower due to this WUWT story where I call out McKibben for some nonfactual regurgitation, and mention the reaction of one his followers who is too mentally cocooned to look for herself. She gets comforting words from the leader of 350.org:
Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that you can waste a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter, but they have their value. The value for skeptics has been underutilized in the past, and I aim to change that in 2013.
Here is what you can do to help get the word out this year.
1. If you don’t have a Twitter account or Facebook account yet, get one. They are free, and you can turn them off at any time if you just get tired of them.
2. Follow some of the biggest climate mouthpieces on both Twitter and Facebook, such as Bill McKibben and Michael E. Mann. Here are the links:
McKibben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/billmckibben
McKIbben on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-McKibben/116439015075458
Mann on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann
Mann on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMannScientist
From these, you’ll pretty much get the entire spectrum of people in the ClimateMedia Complex they run with, making it easier to find and follow others.
4. When you see climate alarmism in action, Tweet or Facebook post something to counter it, or simply ask a question asking how such claims can be supported. Be polite, don’t start a flame war.
5. Watch Mike Mann immediately ban you, like this reader discovered:
Sent: Tue Jan 01 11:18:37 EST 2013
Subject: Michael Mann
Just had the weirdest thing happen.
I posted a very mild comment on Michael Mann”s FB page regarding his criticism of an article by Gil Spencer.
I merely pointed out that Spencer is saying that the Supreme Court upheld the right of people to criticize public figures.
I came back to edit the comment and I saw that I am blocked from his page.
He only wants people who agree with him to post.
Now there”s a true scientist for you.
Happy new year, Alice
Save those screencaps, rinse and repeat.
6. Learn how to use hashtags to your advantage
As Andrew Revkin recently observed, “blogs are important”, but so is social media, and skeptics have not taken advantage of this arena that much.
There’s no better time than the present #armyofdavids. | <urn:uuid:de11731c-0ff1-4cf6-8483-473324d2bfbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/02/why-social-media-is-important-in-the-climatewars/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937482 | 706 | 1.75 | 2 |
There's no longer a need to open the seed bag to check the size, treatment and overall high quality of the seed inside. Instead, getting a good look at the seed is as simple as looking through the window — in this case the window built right into the gusset of Golden Acres Genetics' ClearView seed bags.
“ClearView is the first innovation in seed bag packaging to hit the industry in a long time,” said Golden Acres President Lou Buice. “We're excited that this latest advance in technology was developed exclusively for Golden Acres brand seed.”
The ClearView bag is like any other high quality seed bag and is designed to protect the seed and open easily. What makes it unique, though, is the large, transparent window on the side of the bag, allowing a good look at the seed inside while the bag is stacked and sealed tight.
“The window doesn't replace good labeling,” Buice said. “Instead, it provides an easy way to check the seed quality and treatment while it's being delivered or picked up. The window also allows farmers to inspect their seed before opening the bag and dumping it into the planter. It's reassuring to know exactly what you're opening before pulling the string.”
The first Golden Acres ClearView bags will arrive in 2007 and will be phased into the product line over the next two years. | <urn:uuid:d26b8461-fd87-4347-b3d1-9d9c435a3c1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southwestfarmpress.com/see-your-seed-clearview-seed-bags-golden-acres-genetics | 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 | 0.959041 | 291 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We have a Harbor Freight welder at the lab. Digitalman2112 brought it in. It's nothing special, the wire generates shield gasses so you shouldn't need any, not that it has the capability to use any. It's loaded up with a spool that sits on top, has a high/low current switch, and an adjustable feedrate. It seems to work on the lab's janky wiring.
Caution! It should go without saying that welders are not to be taken lightly. There's plenty of electricity to mess you up really bad, not to mention balls of hot metal flying about, arc light that can burn your retinas and UV rays that will give you a sunburn. Better get training on this one before using it.
As stated above, do not use this without knowing what the hell you are doing, i.e. having spent time welding before, or getting trained on it by someone who does know.
People who can work the welder:
- Digitalman2112 - he also has a true MIG setup for both steel and aluminum as well as a handheld plasma cutter, but they don't live at the lab. If you need to do metalwork, just ask.
If you don't know how to work it, ask one of these guys. Welding is not easy and takes a bit to get the hang of, there's no instructions you can read and be good at it. | <urn:uuid:bc9ecc2f-9344-4a47-9bfb-20e0d22e155a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familab.org/wiki/index.php?title=Welder&oldid=174 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963443 | 298 | 1.5 | 2 |
To the editor:
At the time of this writing there is no pope.
Having no pope is like not having a toothache; I think it is a very good thing.
We need a new pope like we need a knight to rescue a fair maiden, like we need zeppelins to supplement air travel by commercial jet, like America needs a queen to remind us of our English origins. The figurehead of pope needs to fade into history like Hula-Hoops and Edsels.
It is questionable whether the pope and the Vatican have ever been of any use in human history and it is easy to see they no longer serve any purpose whatsoever. Humanity would be better served, and it would be cheaper, if we created a position — call it “Honorary Beatle,” — in which the appointee goes around saying: “Give peace a chance” in poetry and song and prose.
Do we need the pope for spiritual guidance? Jesus said: “But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The Holy Spirit guides Christ’s followers. So, who needs a pope?
Do we need the pope to secure forgiveness of our sins for us? In I John we read: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” God himself accepts our apologies and the shed blood of Jesus covers our sins and makes it as though they were never committed in the first place. So, who needs a pope?
Do we need the pope as a go-between, a mediator, or a lobbyist to approach God to present our case? It is written: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” So, who needs a pope?
People can either believe Scripture or believe popes, cardinals, and the Vatican hierarchy. I’ve got my chips on Scripture.
Junk the pope. He has always been an obstacle to authentic faith in Christ.
If Jesus were around today, he’d be downtown talking with fishermen, and magically filling their nets with cod, just like he did in Israel 2,000 years ago. The Rabbi would not be in Rome hanging with religious scallywags. | <urn:uuid:f5e29eda-4125-4a95-9bbb-08607aa89502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gloucestertimes.com/letters/x1874095399/Letter-Do-we-really-need-figurehead-of-pope | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965049 | 549 | 1.710938 | 2 |
One of the three main ingredients in Mel’s mix is compost. As I didn’t have any, I purchased some from the local garden centre but it would have been nicer to make my own. However, everything I’ve read seems to suggest that you have a 1 cubic metre compost heap at a minimum. My question is how do you start a compost heap? A lot of the documentation online seems to imagine that you already have the ingredients to fill the compost heap half way up – but where do you get this stuff from (or store it?). At the moment I have access to the lawn clippings from the grass and the few food scraps that we have left over and later in the year I will have LOADS of leaves. However, currently the volume of waste doesn’t seem to be sufficient to create a compost heap – so any ideas? | <urn:uuid:8705ff99-c614-4aa8-8a24-a8500c35b160> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://squarefoot.absoblogginlutely.net/2007/06/09/how-to-start-composting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976118 | 178 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Most of us have a kind of love/hate relationship with money! We know money is necessary for life in our culture, but we struggle to manage our financial resources in a manner that is balanced and healthy. This, by the way, is why we offer the “Financial Peace University” program to our church family!
But the same things are true for the church. While the church is not a business and must never become a business, the church must manage resources in a sound and responsible way.
For example: the leadership of FBCG must respect the annual budget approved every year by the congregation. Part of that respect is taking care not to spend more than we receive. When the national economy began to show signs of recession in 2008, and our leadership noticed a drop in giving to FBCG’s General Fund, we immediately took steps to cut our spending by 10%. This wise decision allowed us to continue our ministries without overspending our available funds.
Sound financial stewardship is especially important when it comes to facilities. FBCG now utilizes 2 campuses that include buildings and property worth nearly $13 million. We owe less than $1.38 million on our West Campus that was built in 2004 at a total cost of over $8 million.
When we were planning Phase 1 of the West Campus in about 2002, it was assumed that Phase 2 would include a worship center capable of seating some 2,000 people at one time. But much has happened in the years since to change that assumption.
First, a worship center of that size would cost in the neighborhood of $25 million to build. FBCG simply is not large enough to take on a project of that size and the debt that it would create.
Second, the growth of the Fox Valley has slowed dramatically. While FBCG is still growing, we are not growing at the rate we were growing a decade ago and therefore we do not believe we can or should attempt a building project of that size.
Third, fewer and fewer churches in North America are building very large worship centers. The primary reason seems to be because churches are unwilling to invest that much money in a room that is only used one day a week. Congregations are also much more hesitant to take on long-term debt than they were just 10-15 years ago. The economic climate today demands that churches build more flexible and multi-use space in order to maximize the stewardship of resources.
Over the past 8 years our leadership has gradually realized that it would not be good stewardship of our financial and material resources to attempt to build one campus big enough to handle all of our ministry needs. We now believe that God has given us two campuses that can both be used in a manner that allows us to fulfill the vision he has for FBCG and to do so in a fiscally responsible manner.
For example: market analysis shows that our East Campus is worth roughly $2 million to prospective buyers; but it would cost nearly $10 million to reproduce that square footage at the West Campus.
We have a beautiful sanctuary at the East Campus; it doesn’t make good fiscal sense to take on debt to rebuild a similar space at West Campus when we already have the space at East. The East Campus also has a nice chapel and a renovated Student Center. Rather than seek to rebuild that space somewhere else, it seems that the wiser thing is to seek to maximize the use of space that is both functional and paid for.
We envision FBCG using multiple campuses for the foreseeable future. We believe God would have us maximize our ministry while minimizing our debt by pursing both campuses as vital parts of our total ministry.
We are working with Aspen Group – our facility consultants for the past four years or so – on a plan to develop both East and West campuses as vital parts of our ministry vision. We will begin presenting these plans to the FBCG congregation early in 2013. When you see the plans several things will jump out at you!
- You will notice that the plans involve both east and west campuses
- You will notice that there is not a plan to build a worship center large enough to seat our entire congregation; instead you will see a continuation of “multiple venues” for worship
- You will notice that an effort has been made to balance space needs for adult worship, connecting and equipping; as well as for ministries as diverse as children’s, student and women’s ministries
- You will notice that the proposed cost is much less than previous concepts you may remember
We will be asking for your input, your questions, and, ultimately, for your support! As leaders we take very seriously Paul’s charge in Romans 12 as he taught about spiritual gifts:
“..if it is leadership let him govern diligently…”
We believe diligent leadership for FBCG will be planning to maximize facilities and ministry impact while minimizing debt. We look forward to sharing these plans in much more detail over the coming months!
Pastor Brian Coffey
Deep and Wide
One of my favorite songs as a child was, “Deep and Wide.” Maybe you remember it:
Deep and wide, deep and wide,
There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
Deep and wide, deep and wide,
There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
That’s all there was to it – but you could sing it all kinds of ways by dropping words out and just saying, “Deep and hmmmmmm, deep and hmmmmmm…” And I liked it because we always sang it with hand motions.
But, it occurs to me, “deep and wide” are also words that describe our vision for FBCG!
If you think of a meteor falling from the sky and striking the earth, you would assume that the size of the crater it leaves would be related to the size of the meteor; the deeper and wider the crater, the bigger the meteor.
I see the church as being kind of like God’s meteor – designed for maximum impact on the earth! But rather than its impact being measured by the size of a hole in the ground, it’s measured by its impact on people, and on the world.
The Book of Acts describes the growth of the early church this way:
“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47
That tells me Jesus wanted his church to grow wider! He loves to see more and more people drawn to himself through his church. He wants the crater made by his church to be ever expanding. Over this past year we baptized some 55 people, many of whom became followers of Jesus since connecting to FBCG! I dream of the day when we are baptizing 100 new believers every year, or more, because Jesus wants his church to grow wider!
But we also read in Ephesians,
“Then we will no longer be infants….blown here and there by every wind of teaching… Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ.”
That tells me Jesus wants his church to grow deeper! Once people come to faith in Christ and are connected to his body, the church, he wants them to grow up – spiritually speaking. And that means to grow deeper in his word, deeper in spiritual maturity, deeper in service.
When I look at FBCG, I see a church that is growing both deeper and wider at the same time! In the past couple of years we have had more people connecting to FBCG for the first time; and more people than ever digging deeper through Bible Study, small groups, service, and we have seen greater generosity than ever before. But I also see a church that must remain committed to doing the things that ensure we will continue to grow in both dimensions.
We all know that growing deeper is not easy! Growing deeper as a church means that we must be committed to not only teaching God’s word but encouraging the intentional development of the disciplines of spiritual growth in our church family: the study of God’s word, prayer, worship, generosity, fellowship and service.
But, then again, growing wider is not easy either! Growing wider as a church means constantly thinking beyond ourselves and about the wider community in which we live – and about the wider world we are called to reach and serve. Growing wider means figuring out how to both reach people and then make room for them in our programs, facilities and worship venues. Growing wider means arriving at a worship service and finding a newcomer sitting in “your seat”! Growing wider means stretching ourselves through initiatives like Serve the World in order to make greater and greater impact for Christ’s kingdom!
The last thing to say about “deep and wide” is that, when it comes to the church, we simply can’t settle for one without the other! To focus only on growing deeper is to be insulated from the world around us; to focus on only growing wider is to ignore whole dimensions of spiritual maturity.
May we, as individuals and as a church family, be committed to growing in both dimensions, deeper andwider, and all for the glory of Christ!
Pastor Brian Coffey
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Our home is full of baseball hats! All together our four sons have played on over 40 travel and school teams and have collected over 100 hats. So you might say I have become something of an expert on baseball hats!
You may or may not know that there are two primary kinds of baseball hats. There are “fitted hats” and “one-size-fits-all-hats.” Fitted hats are hats made to the exact circumference of a particular head – right down to an eighth of an inch. So when ordering a fitted hat you need to know your head size; whether that be 7 ¼ inches or 7 5/8 inches. But a “one-size-fits-all” hat has an adjustable plastic strap in the back that allows the hat to fit any size head.
It occurs to me that churches are kind of like baseball hats. When it comes to size, they aren’t all the same. There are small churches and there are large churches. There are things that smaller churches can do that big churches can’t do; and there are things that big churches can do that smaller churches can’t do.
For example: I grew up in churches that were generally around 200-300 people on any given Sunday morning. In those churches it was generally true that everyone knew everyone else and the pastor (my father) pretty much knew everyone personally. In smaller churches that is possible; in big churches it is not. In larger churches it’s important that everyone is known by someone, but no one can be known by everyone! Some people really like and respond to a church that is small enough where everyone can know everyone else. Other people prefer to be part of a church where they can be anonymous if they want to be.
On the other hand, the churches I grew up in didn’t have a full time staff member or pastor who led children’s ministries; or middle school ministries. We didn’t have student mission trips or even adult mission trips for that matter. Those smaller churches just didn’t have the financial or personnel resources to do that kind of thing. And some people really like being part of a bigger church that can provide ministry opportunities for children and students; and that can provide multiple worship options for their family.
So, when it comes to churches, one size does not fit all.
When I was preparing my year-end report for the Annual Meeting of our membership back in August, a several numbers jumped out at me.
First, I noticed that over the past year, our congregation gave over $200,000 away to individuals and families in need through our Benevolent Fund. That total would have been more than all our staff salaries in 1986.
Second, I noticed that over 200 of students and adults participated in short term mission trips in the past year. That number is equal to almost half of the average worship attendance of FBCG when I arrived as Youth Pastor in 1986.
Third, I saw that our Food Pantry ministry served an average of 225-250 families per month over the past year. In fact, our Food Pantry and Compassion in Action ministries are now making an impact that rivals the local Salvation Army!
By any measurement FBCG is now a large church. What started as 7 Swedish immigrants in 1894; and was a worship family of some 450 people in 1986 is now a church family of more than 4,000 people.
I am sometimes asked to explain how and why FBCG has grown over the past 20 years. My best answer includes the following:
- Our local community has also experienced significant growth over that time period
- FBCG has been blessed with wise spiritual leadership in both pastoral staff and lay leaders
- The FBCG congregation has consistently been willing to adapt and change in order to reach our community and world
- The Holy Spirit has empowered FBCG in ways that are impossible to quantify
- God has simply chosen to use FBCG in this local community and the world
I have also been asked, “How big should the church get?” or, “How big is too big?”
I usually answer this question by affirming that one size does not fit all when it comes to churches. Some people will thrive in smaller churches, some in larger churches. But it seems to me in the New Testament that Jesus wants his church to grow, both in numbers and in maturity, and that, ultimately, FBCG’s growth is up to him. The Book of Acts tells us:
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47)
Our job as leaders is to try to be faithful to his word and to identify and eliminate barriers that might keep his church from becoming what he wants it to be.
We believe God is calling FBCG to a unique season of kingdom impact; locally as well as globally. We believe God is calling us to make the gospel visible and tangible through “Serve the World.” We also believe that, in order to accomplish what he wants us to accomplish, we will also need to expand our hearts, our generosity and our facilities; in that order.
We’ll talk more about the relationship of facilities to ministry in the next entry!
Pastor Brian Coffey
What Makes Us One?
In 1909 car maker Henry Ford famously said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
Needless to say, our culture has moved from one choice in car colors to a seemingly endless variety of choices.
And, in a way, the same thing has happened to the church.
When I arrived at FBCG as Youth Pastor in 1986, we had one worship service, one style of worship music, one worship venue (sanctuary), one Sunday school hour, and one building.
Today, just over 26 years later, we worship in 6 services every weekend and those services take place over two days and in four different venues, using up to 4 different styles of music.
We operate two campuses and offer multiple equipping options at both campuses – not only on Sundays, but throughout the week. And if you miss a weekend – you can watch the sermon you missed on our website or keep up with our sermon series through the online devotional guide, “10 Minutes with God.”
Sometimes I miss the “old days!” It was simpler to understand, easier to lead, and it was comfortable. But our community has changed and our opportunities have grown, and God has called and enabled FBCG to adapt and change in order to more effectively reach both our community and the world.
As I look at and experience our church family these days, I think I can make two observations that are equally true.
- FBCG is not the same church it was when my wife and I arrived in 1986.
- FBCG is exactly the same church it was when we first began ministry here.
How can both be true?
It comes down to what truly makes us one.
In Ephesians 4:4-6 the Apostle Paul writes:
There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6
Paul is teaching the early believers, and us, that what makes the church one has nothing to do with buildings, campuses or worship venues. But our one-ness has everything to do with Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts by faith and shapes us into the body of Christ.
At our annual picnic/baptism in August (which this year included a food-pack event for the first time), I thought about Paul’s words. I saw hundreds and hundreds of people, representing multiple generations, multiple communities, and even multiple cultures, gathered from across two campuses and multiple worshiping communities, sharing both fellowship and service together, and unified in the Spirit and truth of Jesus Christ.
Week after week we affirm our commitment to reach, connect, equip and serve; and in recent days have launched our “Serve the World” initiative to make the gospel visible and tangible through local and global mission partners.
As I peer into the future God has for FBCG, I see us continuing to worship on different campuses and in different venues; I see us celebrating worship with different styles of music; I see us offering many different points of connection and many different opportunities for spiritual growth and service; but I see us as ONE.
We are one in the Spirit; we are one in purpose; we are one in Christ; we are one church! Thanks for being part of the FBCG family!
Pastor Brian Coffey | <urn:uuid:53a0fff7-b3cc-4b24-b375-f58ae105372e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fbcg.com/media/leadership-journal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975854 | 3,792 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Michael T. Klare »
…what we are now seeing is a whole cluster of oil-related clashes stretching across the globe, involving a dozen or so countries, with more popping up all the time. Consider these flash-points as signals that we are entering an era of intensified conflict over energy.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific, Argentina to the Philippines, here are the six areas of conflict — all tied to energy supplies — that have made news in just the first few months of 2012:
- A brewing war between Sudan and South Sudan
- Naval clash in the South China Sea
- Egypt cuts off the natural gas flow to Israel
- Argentina seizes YPF
- Argentina re-ignites the Falklands crisis
- U.S. forces mobilize for war with Iran
…The world has long been bifurcated between energy-surplus and energy-deficit states, with the former deriving enormous political and economic advantages from their privileged condition and the latter struggling mightily to escape their subordinate position. Now, that bifurcation is looking more like a chasm. In such a global environment, friction and conflict over oil and gas reserves — leading to energy conflicts of all sorts — is only likely to increase. >continue<
To be writing these words is, for me, to undergo the severest test of my core belief - that sentences can be more powerful than pictures. A writer can hope to do what a photographer cannot: convey how things smelled and sounded as well as how things looked. I seriously doubt my ability to perform this task on this occasion. Unless you see the landscape of ecocide, or meet the eyes of its victims, you will quite simply have no idea. >continue<
In the wake of 1989, with boundless confidence and insufficient reflection, we put the twentieth century behind us and strode boldly into its successor swaddled in self-serving half-truths: the triumph of the West, the end of History, the unipolar American moment, the ineluctable march of globalization and the free market.
The belief that that was then and this is now embraced much more than just the defunct dogmas andinstitutions of cold war–era communism. During the Nineties, and again in the wake of September 11, 2001, I was struck more than once by a perverse contemporary insistence on not understanding the context of our present dilemmas, at home and abroad; on not listening with greater care to some of the wiser heads of earlier decades; on seeking actively to forget rather than remember, to deny continuity and proclaim novelty on every possible occasion. We have become stridently insistent that the past has little of interest to teach us. Ours, we assert, is a new world; its risks and opportunities are without precedent. >continue<
An excellent long read, originally blogged by tetw. Even if we see the 21st century as posing novel challenges to any meaningful ideological comportment, and even a warrant for novelty, the task cannot be executed without tarrying and immersing ourselves in an honest appreciation of history. | <urn:uuid:b8d66376-f2c2-4f02-8436-64ab40e28ec8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zeitvox.tumblr.com/tagged/war | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953096 | 637 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Moe Davis was interviewed this week by Christiane Amanpour to discuss the prisoners still in Gitmo. Contrast the professional discussion with Christiane Amanpour and the rude way he was treated by Chris Matthews. What we can learn from Moe Davis, according to CNN.com:
Hearing Colonel Morris Davis speak, it’s easy to forget that he used to be the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay.
“We used to be the land of the free and the home of the brave; we’ve been the constrained and the cowardly,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
President Obama promised to close the Guantanamo detention facility when he took office in 2009; four years later, it’s still open.
A majority of the detainees, over 100, have been on hunger strike for more than three months to protest their detention; the military has resorted to force feeding them.
Eighty six of the detainees, Davis said, have never been charged with a crime. Many of those who were convicted of crimes were sent back to their home countries, and many are now free.
“It’s a bizarre, perverted system of justice,” he said, “where being convicted of a war crime is your ticket home, and if you’re never charged, much less convicted, you spend the rest of your life sitting at Guantanamo.”
A scant six years ago, as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo under President Bush, Colonel Davis sounded like a true believer.
On Friday the Gitmo hunger strike will be 100 days old.
Two Marines were shot and killed Thursday at the Officer Candidate School at the Marincs Corps Base Quantico and the suspected shooter fatally shot himself at the base, Marine Corps officials said.
The shootings happened at the school located on the Marines Corps base in Quantico at about 11 p.m., said 1st Lt. Agustin Solivan, a spokesman for the base.
Marines from the Provost Marshal’s office and officers from the Prince Williams Police Department responded and found two active-duty Marines dead at the scene. Officials declined to identify the victims until next of kin could be notified.
Military officials put the base on lockdown shortly after the initial reports and urged base personnel to remain indoors behind locked doors for nearly four hours.
Authorities said the suspected gunman had been barricaded inside a building on the base for several hours.
By 2:45 a.m. Friday, investigators had entered the building and found the shooter, also an active-duty Marine, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The incident has been described as isolated. This one is a little too close to home. Details are very sketchy.
Three new national parks are being proposed and might just inch their way through Congress in the near future. The three projected parks would be sites of former nuclear testing: Hanford, Washington, Oak Ridge Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, according to the Washington Post.
The Hanford site produced plutonium. The Oak Ridge site enriched uranium. And workers in Los Alamos used those materials to assemble the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs dropped on Japan, forcing the Japanese surrender and ending the war. About 200,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki perished.
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation called the creation and use of the atomic bomb “the single most significant event of the 20th century’’ in advocating the preservation of buildings once scheduled for demolition.
Last year the Defense Department confirmed that there were more than 19,000 incidences of sexual assault in the U.S. military. The assaults were on both men and women in equal numbers, according to the film makers. The men were less likely to report and much less inclined to be interviewed.
Leon Panetta has instituted new rules which is a place to start. Part of the problem has been that victims reported within the chain of command. Chain of command has led to more and more people simply not reporting crimes against them because of the reaction of some of the superior officers. Some trrops have even lost rank, suffered ridicule, or even more degrading responses.
Tim McGraw plans on giving back…to our veterans who are returning home from war. He just announced that he will give away 25 mortgage fromm homes to vets at each of his concerts this summer. Wow! That is really putting your money where your mouth is!
Tim McGraw is giving back to wounded warriors and service members by launching the nationwide HomeFront initiative, a goodwill effort that will award 25 deserving families with a mortgage-free home at each of his summer concert stops.
“My sister’s a veteran of the first Gulf War. My uncle was a Vietnam veteran and my grandfather was a World War II veteran. I’ve always felt a deep sense of respect and obligation to our troops,” says McGraw, speaking on his incentive to give houses to those in need (quote via Green Room PR). “Being able to reward them for their dedicated work with a new home will be even more rewarding for us. It feels so good to give back to them, and to have the opportunity to entertain them on Memorial Day is something I’m honored to do.”
McGraw has partnered was Chase Bank and Operations HomeFront to launch the new program. ACM Lifting Lives — the charitable arm of the Academy of Country Music — and the Premier Group (on behalf of the North Carolina Furniture Manufacturers) have also made substantial contributions to support the program throughout McGraw’s string of summer concert dates.
A U.S. soldier walked off base in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan and went on a shooting rampage, killing 16 people. It is unknown what pushed this soldier over the edge. U.S. officials vow to get to the bottom of the incident.
Is an act like this terrorism, even though it is in a war zone? Perhaps. I don’t know what else to call the killing of unarmed civilians.
President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called Karzai on Sunday to discuss the incident. Obama expressed “shock and sadness” and vowed to “hold fully accountable anyone responsible” for the killings, the White House said in a statement.
“This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan,” Obama said.
U.S. officials shed no light on the motive or state of mind of the alleged shooter. The Associated Press reported Sunday that the suspect was from Fort Lewis, in Washington state. He was taken into custody shortly after the shooting rampage.
“It appears he walked off post and later returned and turned himself in,” said Lt. Cmdr. James Williams, a military spokesman.
What causes this kind of fugue from reality? American troops will be on high alert across the region following the incident. Things were just calming down from the Koran burning incidents where locals rioted and fired on US troops for days. This rogue soldier’s behavior has endangered all of our troops.
This is just one of those things you never want to get out. Back in ‘olden days’ before everyone had a camera embedded in their cell phone, all this might have flown. Not in acceptable company, mind you, but amongst buddies, it might have. No more. The Brass has been embarrassed and has no option but to come down heavy on the offenders.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney got himself in a heap of trouble with animal rights group PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. How did the press secretary get in hot water?
According to the Code of Military Justice, the following regulations have been repealed:
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.
(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
During a White House press briefing, World Net Daily reporter Lester Kinsolving threw Jay Carney a real curve ball. Kinsolving is known for asking ridiculous, outlandish questions.
KINSOLVING: The Family Research Council and CNS News both reported a 93-to-7 U.S. Senate vote to approve a defense authorization bill that, quote, “includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, but also repeals the military ban on sex with animals, or bestiality.”
Does the commander-in-chief approve or disapprove of bestiality in our armed forces?
CARNEY: I don’t have any comment on–I don’t have any comment on that. Let me go to another question.
KINSOLVING: Does the President believe this will be approved by all animal support groups, such as –
The 11th hour on the 11th day of of the 11th month in the 11th year….This is a special Veterans Day just because of the date. Today there is a contest. Each year since 1978 the Department of Veterans Affairs has created a special poster for the year. Please chose your favorite poster from the list, by year. We will have an honorary poster winner at the end of the day. I already know my favorite.
For our contributor vets, thank you for your service.
Please don’t forget to chose a favorite Veterans Day Poster.
There are many Veterans Day posts today because Veterans are special.
It was the news the world breathlessly waited for immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks: a report of the first American troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
All at once the world’s attention focused on an iconic photo of those Special Operations Forces doing something no American military had done in nearly a century: They rode horses into combat.
Their secret mission: secure northern Afghanistan by advising the warring tribal factions that formed the Northern Alliance. During the 2011 Veterans Day Parade on November 11, a new monument to these men — and to all Americans in uniform — will make its way down New York City’s famed Fifth Avenue on the way to its final home, a stone’s throw from Ground Zero.
Military men and women, along with New York City firefighters, policemen, emergency responders and other marchers, 50,000 in all, will escort the monument on its televised journey. The spectacle will feature members of the three original Special Operations teams — some on horseback, others walking alongside surviving spouses of fallen heroes.
Retired Army general and current CIA director David Petraeus will be among the parade marshals. Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer is producing a future movie about America’s “Horse Soldiers.”
Sgt. Dakota Meyer is the first living marine to receive the Medal of Honor in 38 years. The ceremony was held in the White House. Meyer’s fellow marines and sailors were also honored. Yesterday Meyer had a beer with his Commander in Chief.
Prior to the ceremony, Meyer said he was no hero. America begs to differ. Semper Fi.
You would think that after all that they would have just all gone home. What a horrible war. We soon get to relive it. The Sesquicentennial is almost upon us and I feel a strong wave of depression coming over me.
This month’s issue (actually it might say August 2011) of Smithsonian Magazine features The Battle of Bull Run: The End of Illusions on the cover. The article, written by Ernest B. Furguson, begins:
Both North and South expected victory to be glorious and quick, but the first major battle signaled the long and deadly war to come.
To those of us who are local, the article was not particularly revealing but the fact that it was about our area and about an event we have been anticipating for several years makes the article a must-read. It provided an excellent in-depth coverage for a nation that also commemorates the most dreadful period in our nation’s history.
The longer I live the more horrible that war becomes to me. I fear too many people will celebrate. There is nothing to celebrate other than death and destruction of property, stock and human beings. So I will be a grouch and stay home.
Will anyone be going to most of the events? Will the county and City make profits on the events? Will we be overrun with visitors?
There has been a spike in Navy commanding officer firings this year, according to the Washington Post. The WaPo reports:
Navy has fired a dozen commanding officers this year, a near-record rate, with the bulk getting the ax for offenses related to sex, alcohol or other forms of personal misconduct.
The terminations, which follow a similar spike in firings last year, have shaken the upper ranks of the Navy, which has long invested enormous responsibility in its commanding officers and prides itself on a tradition of carefully cultivating captains and admirals.
Over the past 18 months, the Navy has sacked nine commanding officers for sexual harassment or inappropriate personal relationships. Three others were fired for alcohol-related offenses, and two on unspecified charges of personal misconduct. Combined, they account for roughly half of the 29 commanding officers relieved during that period.
Improvements in communication have been cited as the root cause of the increased firings. Read more… | <urn:uuid:3d5f21a4-21a9-4d3b-9b22-fca1a9f1cd8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moonhowlings.net/index.php/category/military/ | 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 | 0.962736 | 2,807 | 1.59375 | 2 |
If A Third Of Booze Sales Are Going To Underage Drinkers, Maybe Laws Against Underage Drinking Don’t Work
“In 2009 underage customers accounted for 30% of all alcohol consumed in this state totaling $69 million in sales,” said Rep. Joe Heilman on the floor of the North Dakota House today where he was arguing in favor of a bill to increase penalties for those who deliver booze to underage drinkers.
I’ll admit, I was a little surprised at that number. I can’t vouch for its validity – a lot of the numbers thrown around about underage drinking are based on less-than-scientific data from things like school surveys, and quantifying illicit booze sales is no easy task – but let’s suppose it’s true. With all the money spent on educating teens about underage drinking, with all the effort law enforcement puts into stings on bars and liquor stores aimed at stopping underage booze sales, if a third of all the booze sold in the state is going to underage drinkers anyway does anyone actually think that’s a problem we can solve with more laws?
The problem with prohibition policies – and the ban on under-21 drinking is just a watered down sort of prohibition – is that they don’t do anything to address demand. That was true when America, as a nation, tried to outlaw alcohol entirely at the dawn of the last century. It’s true now as we fight a “war on drugs” which really hasn’t done anything to slow drug use, or put a dent in drug availability. And it’s true with underage drinking, where tougher laws and more stringent enforcement measures aren’t getting kids to drink less.
A major problem with our attitude about drinking is that we seem focused on trying to stop drinking, instead of teaching responsible drinking habits. And a big contributing factor to that are prohibitionist policies which give parents little flexibility in introducing kids to alcohol.
Under HB1458, which Rep. Heilman was speaking in favor of and which passed the House today on a 61-33 vote, a dad who lets his son drink a beer while they’re out fishing or a mom who lets her daughter have a wine cooler with a movie is a criminal guilty of a Class A Misdemeanor, just one step down from a felony. A third offense is a Class C Felony.
Maybe part of North Dakota’s, and the nation’s, problem with underage drinking (not to mention college-age drinking) is that anyone who tries to introduce kids to alcohol in a responsible way is a criminal under the law.Tags: joe heilman, nanny statism, North Dakota News, underage drinking | <urn:uuid:1605fd1d-da16-4121-b146-0ba5569fa2d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/if-a-third-of-booze-sales-are-going-to-underage-drinkers-maybe-laws-against-underage-drinking-dont-work/ | 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 | 0.953854 | 569 | 1.539063 | 2 |
getServerInfo() returning Apache Tomcat/5.0.28 for JBOSS4.0.0 version, why is it returning Apache?
Joined: Nov 28, 2007
I have installed JBoss 4.0.0 version and was trying out some simple servlet programs using JBoss for the first time.
I have been more familiar to Tomcat and so JBoss is kind of new to me.
When I wrote a simple Servlet program for displaying the output of getServerInfo() I got "Apache Tomcat/5.0.28" when I was actually expecting "JBoss 4.0.0" Could someone please let me know why there is a connection between Apache and JBoss?
I was using the program example in LearnNowJava, ofourse the instructor used JBoss 5.x version she was getting Jboss as output and I was expecting something similar. | <urn:uuid:b6019f07-ac65-4c8f-b471-e46034eedc5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/536755/JBoss/getServerInfo-returning-Apache-Tomcat-JBOSS | 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 | 0.93711 | 187 | 1.570313 | 2 |
People served by Olympic Medical Center will learn a week from tonight whether the hospital will choose to participate in assisted suicides that voters legalized in Initiative 1000.
Hospital commissioners will vote at their next meeting, March 4, whether to "opt into" Death with Dignity procedures.
If approved - at the unanimous recommendation of OMC's Ethics Advisory Committee - the hospital's role would be minor.
Judging from Oregon's 11-
year Death with Dignity experience, few patients request the lethal dose of drugs that, once swallowed, ends life within a minute or two.
Even fewer take the suicide dose and almost all of those take it in their homes.
Furthermore, under Initiative 1000, OMC cannot prohibit its doctors, nurses and pharmacists from assisting a patient's suicide.
OMC merely can refuse to allow such aid in its flagship Port Angeles hospital or its clinics in Sequim and Port Angeles.
Whether on or off the medical center's property, providing a patient with a Death with Dignity dose is hedged about with stringent requirements for informed consent, the patient's mental health, repeated requests for the drugs and waiting periods.
Commissioners received a preliminary presentation on the issue at their Feb. 18 meeting, hearing from Donna Davison, OMC administrative director, and Dr. Sandra Tatro, chairwoman of the medical center's ethics panel.
Both women noted that Initiave 1000 passed with a 58-percent majority statewide but with a 61-percent edge in Clallam County.
People are afraid, Davison said, of a prolonged and painful death with no hope of accelerating the end.
They want at least the option of controlling the ends of their lives, she said.
Tatro added, "People want their health care providers to help them die with dignity.
"I really think this is what it's all about. It's about how do we take care of folks at the end of life."
Tatro and Davison listed six points the ethics group cited to allow Death with Dignity procedures at OMC:
The 61-percent approval of Initiative 1000.
OMC's role as the district's sole public hospital.
A call by the community for more information on pain management and comforts that are available during the end-of-life period.
The fact that no one will be forced or obligated to participate in implementing the Death with Dignity Act.
The need for OMC to implement policies, procedures and education for providers so they understand the requirements and guidelines of Initiative 10000.
Similar education for patients and their families related to end-of-life care.
"We all have probably underutilized" other alternatives to assisted suicide, said Dr. Mark Fischer, medical chief of staff.
He said a straw poll of OMC's doctors revealed "about an even split" over whether they would assist a patient's Death with Dignity.
Primary care physicians, however, mostly said they were disinclined to do so, Fischer said.
Tatro said, "It's an exciting opportunity to address this issue. Only good can come from it, really - any avenue we can use to help people understand what actions they have available at the end of their lives."
In other action at the Feb. 18 meeting, hospital commissioners:
• Learned that federal economic stimulus funding could support about half the $2.5 million cost of electronic medical records at OMC clinics.
Linda Brown, chief information technology officer, said installation of the system hardware would begin in April or May, with software installation scheduled from May to October and "going live" set for 2010.
Who: Hospital District 2 commissioners.
What: Decision whether or not to participate in assisted suicides known as Death with Dignity procedures.
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 4.
Where: Linkletter Hall in the basement of Olympic Medical Center, 939 Caroline St., Port Angeles.
How to learn more: A slide show by the Washington State Hospital Association can be viewed at www.wsha.org/page.cfm?id=webcasts and the state Department of Health's Death with Dignity rules can be seen at www.doh.wa.gov/Rules/0906010 DeathwithDignity.pdf.
Reach Jim Casey at firstname.lastname@example.org.
The Sequim Gazette is located at 147 W. Washington Street in Sequim.
Business hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Phone 360-683-3311, or toll free at 800-829-5810. FAX 360-683-6670.
For a complete company directory with contact information please click HERE. | <urn:uuid:b8d81966-2ec5-4d61-b53d-afb573996605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://classified@sequimgazette.com/news/article.exm/2009-02-25_omc_ponders_death_with_dignity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941118 | 976 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Cons; many government employees are going to lose 20% of their pay (1 day's pay per week and it doesn't effect the law makers pay), services will be cut, longer lines at government offices, funding to schools and law enforcement and some medical facilities will be cut.
Pros; the American public can't blame either side because they are both at fault.
Cons: It makes automatic cuts for programs that shouldn't be cut. It's a meat cleaver approach that doesn't discriminate between good and bad.
Pros: Even at $85 billion, it represents only 2.2% of our budget and LORD knows, we have more fat in the budget than that. If anything, it's only a start to the cuts we need to make. It just need to be done in a more sensible, reasonable fashion and go after budgets that truly need cutting. BTW...did you know that the Pentagon has programs that they want to cut and Congress won't let them? Go figure.
The whole premise of the sequester, that overall govt spending should be cut, is wrong. Spending should be increased, since the private sector still is not investing enough to bring down unemployment (and the US can borrow at an inflation adjusted interest rate of zero). So another con of the sequester is that it takes money out of the economy when it needs it most. | <urn:uuid:22b9a1cc-8f42-4271-95f7-f2a0a9a06785> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ask.com/answers/306956421/what-do-you-think-the-pros-and-cons-are-of-the-sequester?qsrc=14106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976241 | 278 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Introduction to Online Courses
The courses listed below are offered online through the Center for Mindful Inquiry. Each of these courses integrates the theory and practice of mindfulness and a variety of ways to apply them to daily life and professional contexts.
Using Moodle conferencing, students have 24/7 access to the course they have enrolled in for the duration of the course. Students have the ability to ask the teacher questions on a regular basis and to talk about mindfulness practice, readings and their applications to daily life and work contexts in small discussion groups. | <urn:uuid:026145f2-91c3-44ae-b3c1-a0ccec059d9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mindfulinquiry.org/courses/online/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945915 | 110 | 1.703125 | 2 |
By Aruna Viswanatha and Terry Baynes
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that President Barack Obama violated the U.S. Constitution when he used recess appointments to fill a labor board, in a sweeping decision that could limit presidential power to push through federal nominees.
The court found that the Senate was not truly in recess, for the purpose of a recess appointment, when Obama in January 2012 installed three nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.
The nominees were facing stiff Republican opposition, and the appointments caused an uproar at the time. Republicans argued that Obama undercut the Senate's power to confirm nominees because although most of its members were out of town, the Senate had not formally adjourned.
In a surprisingly broad ruling, the three-judge panel rejected not only the NLRB appointments but any made while the Senate is in session but on a break. That could limit recess appointments to only a few weeks a year.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also ruled that recess appointments could only be used for positions that become vacant while the Senate is in recess.
"If the decision stands, it would be a significant reduction of the president's recess power," said John Elwood, a Washington lawyer who was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel from 2005 through 2009.
"This is a big, big decision for executive power," Elwood said. "It is one of the most important decisions in decades."
More immediately, the ruling casts doubt on the ability of the NLRB, an independent agency that oversees labor disputes, to conduct its business if it does not have enough members. Its recent rulings may also be vulnerable to challenge.
The ruling also throws into question the legality of the appointment of Richard Cordray, the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama used the same type of recess appointment to install Cordray; his appointment was challenged in a separate lawsuit.
But the ruling's most profound impact may be its threat to the now-standard practice of presidents ramming through nominees that otherwise would get bogged down in the Senate, often because of unrelated political fights.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the ruling "novel and unprecedented" and said it contradicted 150 years of practice by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The Justice Department said it is considering its options to appeal. Legal experts expect the administration will challenge the ruling, and the case could go to the Supreme Court.
Republican lawmakers, who had joined the legal challenge to the NLRB appointments, jumped on the ruling as a vindication of their view that the administration had overreached.
"The D.C. Circuit Court today reaffirmed that the Constitution is not an inconvenience but the law of the land," Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said in a statement.
NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce said in a statement the board would continue to perform its statutory duties and issue decisions. CFPB spokeswoman Moira Vahey said the ruling had no direct effect on the bureau.
A TEST OF POWERS
The suit started as a routine dispute between soda bottling company Noel Canning and the labor board, but developed into a high-profile appeal with the help of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Senate Republicans.
The case was seen as a test of the president's ability to bypass a Senate vote on nominees. The Constitution allows the Senate to block nominees, and both Democratic and Republican presidents have used recess appointments as a way around this for decades.
When Obama made the NLRB appointments, the Senate was not officially in recess. It continued to meet every few days for minutes at a time with few senators present.
The court's decision, issued by a panel of judges who had been appointed by Republicans, hinged on what constitutes a "recess" and whether it includes short breaks while the Senate is still technically in session.
Presidents have often used these intra-session recess appointments. Ronald Reagan, for example, made 36 such appointments, and Bill Clinton made 39, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.
"Considering the text, history, and structure of the Constitution, these appointments were invalid from their inception," the ruling said about the NLRB appointments of Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn.
It said the president could not have "free rein to appoint his desired nominees at any time he pleases, whether that time be a weekend, lunch, or even when the Senate is in session and he is merely displeased with its inaction. This cannot be the law."
Jay Wexler, a law professor at Boston University School of Law, said the ruling includes "pretty big restrictions" but that he was most surprised that presidents would only be allowed to use such appointments when a vacancy popped up during a recess.
Once rare, recess appointments became more common in the late 1970s as a way to bypass the confirmation process, which senators have used increasingly to block nominees.
Recent presidents pushed the boundaries. George W. Bush took the unusual step of filling a judgeship during a recess.
For a graphic on recess appointments by past presidents, please see http://link.reuters.com/vyj55t.
Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy previously challenged the intra-session recess appointment of William Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 by George W. Bush. The 11th Circuit upheld the right of the president to make the recess appointment, finding the term "recess" in the Constitution ambiguous. That decision conflicts with the D.C. Circuit's decision on Friday.
NLRB, CORDRAY IN DOUBT
Pearce of the NLRB said the ruling would not deter the board from getting on with its work. However, the NLRB's recent and future decisions are now on legally shaky ground because without the three appointments, the board lacks a quorum.
The NLRB has been active this past year in expanding protections for employees who complain about their employer on social media like Facebook or Twitter.
It also issued a ruling requiring employers to continue collecting union dues even after a union contract expires.
Donna Ballman, an employment lawyer and author of "Stand Up For Yourself Without Getting Fired," said the appeals court decision would lead to delays in NLRB rulings.
Although Friday's decision did not touch on Cordray, his appointment to the CFPB was challenged in a separate lawsuit brought in June by the State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, and other institutions.
That suit presented a similar argument that the recess appointment was invalid because the Senate was technically still in session.
Cordray's appointment followed months of rancorous debate over the new consumer bureau, which was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law to police markets for products such as credit cards and home loans.
Obama on Thursday renominated Cordray to head the CFPB, but it is unclear how long the confirmation process will take.
Even though the new ruling doesn't deal with the consumer agency, it could call into question supervisory actions and regulations it has taken. "The CFPB world has been turned upside down," said financial services lawyer Richard Gottlieb of the Dykema law firm.
(Reporting By Aruna Viswanatha in Washington and Terry Baynes in New York, with additional reporting by Emily Stephenson, Joan Biskupic, and Diane Bartz; Editing by Karey Wutkowski and Doina Chiacu) | <urn:uuid:7f668aaf-3b8f-428b-9b3f-b8b22e7d3a1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://b93radio.com/news/articles/2013/jan/25/court-says-obama-recess-appointments-invalid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9725 | 1,534 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Ask even the most avid Twitter fan to explain the benefits of their obsession, and it will take them considerably more than 140 characters to come to no good answer.
For all the obvious popularity of social media, it's not always easy to see, well, why? ;-(
I recently attended an event that set out to explain how organisations should use Twitter. The beer was cold, the people beautiful and the information... flimsy, at best. I left with only two firm impressions:
- Twitter 'experts' are ironically verbose.
- Given the above, it's risky to allow tipsy people to live Tweet to a big screen. LOL!
Perhaps Twitter and other social apps are nothing more than a bit of fun. (As a scoop, this is no Watergate, I accept...) There may something more to the trend, however.
When scrambling to describe Twitter, Facebook et al to the uninitiated, most commentors focus only on the ability to broadcast. ‘How' you can post pictures and status updates, but never ‘why'. Which is dull.
(I work in ‘old' media - getting people to talk about themselves is far from hard.)
Social media gets interesting only when you stop shouting - and start to listen. Scout around and you can learn exactly what customers are saying about you, and your brand. More disruptive: you can quickly find and band together with like-minded people.
Take 'Gamers Voice'. A nascent Facebook group formed by MP Tom Watson to speak for video game fans in the wake of the latest Daily Hate-led moral outrage, within days it had 14,000 members.
Whether the group can achieve anything from such rapid-fire foundations is moot, but it's worth watching (IMHO). As was the reaction to Jan Moir's Daily Mail (them again) piece about Stephen Gately. Tens of thousands of people inspired and able, via Twitter, to complain. >:(
Is this a good thing? It's difficult to say. Quick consensus is rarely pretty. But it does give a platform to the unwashed hordes and that, at least, is interesting.
Disagree? Let me know at Twitter.com/MattJEgan.
Follow PC Advisor at Twitter.com/PCAdvisor. | <urn:uuid:50e9263a-4113-46b4-a82d-f93a1f97e8fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/opinion/internet/3271766/good-clean-fun-but-what-is-twitter-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958076 | 471 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Generally speaking, my criteria for epic:
- A running time that's longer than average. The starting point for me is typically the 150-160 minute mark. Some are shorter.
- Narrative criteria is more of a grey area; true epics span a larger frame of time, with more characters and interaction, and a broader focus. Or otherwise a tighter all-encompassing focus on a single character.
- Whether based on actual events or not, an epic should strive to set a convincing stage. If not historically accurate, an Epic should be immersive. If you spend 3 hours questioning the validity of an epic, you either shouldn't be watching it to begin with, or it isn't trying hard enough.
- Immersion is paramount - Proper epics have the uncanny ability to transport you to another time or place in ways most other genres can't. The very best of the genre make it so three hours or more feels like 10 minutes.
- Setpieces. Epics play with their action the same way they play with narrative. The very best epics have jaw-dropping scenes of spectacle. A 45 minute battle sequence means so much more when it follows 2 hours of buildup. Epics aren't necessarily action packed, but you know a setpiece when you see it.
It's tough to choose, as the "period epic" is by far my favorite genre of film, but a few of my favorite epics in no particular order:
- Kingdom of Heaven (Director's cut) - In its pure form, this one is a lavishly beautiful film. While hardly accurate, the film applies just the right balance of contemporary idealism to allow us as an audience to gather some idea of what the mindset of the time may have been like. The characters are given space to breathe, the sets, costumes, and performances are all pitch perfect, and by God the siege of Jerusalem is one hell of a spectacle. Just a beautiful film.
- Lawrence of Arabia - Put aside for a second, the fact that the film was made in 1962, and yet outside of the opening credits feels like it could have been filmed a year ago. This is quite simply a stunning portrait of an individual who had a huge impact on one particular corner of the globe. Beautifully shot, and brilliantly acted, this is practically the definition of "epic". For set pieces there's the siege of Aqaba, attacks on trains, and the road to Damascus. A near perfect film for which Peter O' Toole was royally robbed of Oscar gold.
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - Falls 10 minutes shy of the 150 mark, but an epic in every sense of the word. From the opening moments, the film sucks you into its world, and if you give yourself over to it, you won't want to leave, even after the credits start to roll. Crowe gives what I consider the best and most assured performance of his career, and the entirety of the supporting cast shines.
- The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly - Leone's masterpiece. Sure he made other, longer films later in his career, but this remains the only film in my opinion to really have the feel of an epic. From the crosses and double crosses early on to the Civil War backdrop later in the film, to the final, epic three-way standoff. This isn't just another western.
- Seven Samurai - Oft imitated, never duplicated. It's 207 minutes long, subtitled in Japanese, and black and white, and yet it is relentlessly entertaining. Kurosawa's masterpiece combines visual flair and memorable characters with a meaningful narrative and one hell of a fantastic action sequence. Like so many other classics, the plot is deceptively simple, but the ideas are something a little deeper. Just a great flick.
- Saving Private Ryan - From the harrowing opening sequence to the amazing final act, SPR is about the finest, most entertaining and most flatteringly imitated portrayal of the Second World War in Europe that's been laid to film. I'd also call it the single finest effort in Spielberg's illustrious career, and Hanks' best on screen performance. It's one of those flicks that just transports you completely. Some have problems with the bookends, but they're a decidedly Spielberg-ian touch, and it wouldn't be the same film without them in my opinion.
Some other notables that I love:
- Alexander - Screw the haters, I thought Stone did a bang up job (avoid the original theatrical cut though).
- Fall of the Roman Empire
- A Bridge Too Far
- Avatar (yes, i said it)
- Braveheart - Hasn't aged as well as i'd like, but still a great effort.
- The New World
- The Last Samurai
- El Cid
- Robin Hood
- The Thin Red Line
- The Lord of the Rings
As the ancient Tibetan philosophy states:"Don't start none... won't be none...". | <urn:uuid:aa4f786b-b715-46fa-80d9-d0e79b97b24f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvdverdict.com/juryroom/viewtopic.php?p=64268 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947747 | 1,032 | 1.609375 | 2 |
SOC noted by Committee: The Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde (People's Republic of China)
VII.61 The Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde (People's Republic of China)
The Secretariat informed the Bureau at its twentieth extraordinary session that a UNESCO mission visited the Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, in Chengde and noted remarkable achievements in the restoration of several of its buildings and of the landscape.
Major issues for the future are to bring development plans for the town of Chengde in line with World Heritage conservation needs, the improvement of buffer zone protection and the reduction of air pollution.
The Representative of ICOMOS stated that even at the time of the inscription of this site, the Chinese authorities had expressed concern over the development of the town of Chengde and how to control its impact on the site.
The Bureau took note of the report provided by the Secretariat and requested the authorities of China to inform the Committee of the management and conservation and restoration programme for this site, particularly regarding the development of the town of Chengde. | <urn:uuid:cd1c209c-11ba-4450-a953-2ca11e525d9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whc.unesco.org/pg_friendly_print.cfm?cid=305&id_decision=2954 | 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 | 0.941014 | 224 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A foreign journalist writing for the United Arab Emirates newspaper The National recently visited the Gaza Strip and discovered the reason many Gazans are still struggling despite the enormous influx of aid. That reason, as most already knew, is because Hamas is stealing the bulk of what your tax dollars are buying.
We have already noted that there is a huge gap between the haves and have-nots in Gaza, that the affluent neighborhoods and fancy attractions sit side-by-side with slums. Of course, that makes Gaza little different than many areas of South America, Asia or even the rest of the Middle East. The difference in Gaza is that billions of dollars worth of humanitarian aid is supposed to be closing that gap.
Speaking to the people on the street, including members of rival terrorist groups, journalist Mitchell Prothero found that instead of facilitating the distribution of that aid, Hamas is making a tidy profit off of it.
[Editor’s note: if you follow that link, be forewarned that the article begins by again trying to paint all of Gaza as a destitute wasteland, excusing the Palestinian public for voting Hamas into power, justifying terrorism, and ultimately blaming a heartless and arbitrarily cruel Israel for all the region’s troubles.]
“If you’re not in Hamas, you get nothing,” local businessman Abu Mohammed told Prothero.
Islamic Jihad commander Abu Musab told the reporter that his former comrades in Hamas “used to be mujahideen (Muslim resistance fighters), but today are fat millionaires with nice cars.”
Abu Musab revealed that the vast amount of medical aid sent by Europe is all stolen by Hamas and sold in Hamas pharmacies. He produced a packet of antibiotics stamped “A gift from the people of Norway. Not for resale,” and noted:
“I just bought this from a Hamas-run pharmacy…for my son. I had to go to a Hamas pharmacy to make sure the pills weren’t fake or made from poor materials in Egypt. If you want real medicine, you have to buy the aid Europe sends us.”
A Palestinian human rights activist who requested not to be named was asked by Prothero if perhaps life was better when Israel ruled the territory. His response: “Why do you think I ask you not use my name? Yes, 100 percent yes. At least the occupation [sic] had a positive effect of drawing the Palestinian people together instead of dividing them.”
The lesson learned, at least for those paying attention, is that the Palestinian Arabs at present are incapable of self-governance without becoming a welfare state relying on constant international intervention, or collapsing into chaos.
Political analyst Mkhaimer Abu Sada told Prothero that as the situation now stands, there is little that can be done. Hamas is “in total control of the situation in Gaza,” said Abu Sada, noting that the terror group can now field upwards of 35,000 armed gunmen, whereas in 2006 it only had 5,000-6,000 fighters in Gaza.
“The Americans, Israelis and [Mahmoud Abbas’] Fatah simply cannot accept this simple fact: that for now there is absolutely no way anyone can beat Hamas,” Abu Sada insisted.
There are Israelis who would dispute that conclusion and point out that were the Israeli army given a free hand by its own government and the international community, Hamas could be militarily destroyed, or at least weakened enough to let Abbas’ group retake power. | <urn:uuid:c46d319c-a8f3-4100-becf-bfa6d79db088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/21913/Default.aspx | 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 | 0.963888 | 734 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Why Buy New Car Speakers?
If you want your music to sound great, take a look at replacing your current car speakers. Dollar for dollar, it's one of the best ways to improve your car's sound. With good car speakers on board, you'll enjoy brighter highs and beefier lows. Plus, you'll probably hear details in your music that may have been missing before.
There are speakers available to match almost any car and system. If your existing factory stereo sounds muddy and muffled, a new set of 2-way or 3-way speakers will provide that extra crispness and detail you're looking for.
Maybe you're designing your ultimate car audio dream system. If so, component speakers should be a part of it. No matter what your plans, better speakers will bring out the full potential of the audio gear in your car.
Get Everything You Need
Bass Blockers will make your smaller speakers sound their best.
A Dynamat kit will reduce road noise and make your speakers sound better and louder.
A kick panel enclosure can give you "sweet-spot" stereo imaging with component speakers.
Foam speaker baffles repel dirt and moisture to protect your speakers.
You may need extra speaker wire, especially if you're installing component speakers.
Special tools make installing car speakers much easier.
What makes brand-name speakers better than factory-installed speakers? There are two main reasons — design and materials.
Better designs = better sound
Vehicle manufacturers don't always think about great sounding speakers when they're designing a new car model — they've got plenty of other issues to think about. But car audio manufacturers are always experimenting and pushing the envelope to make better sounding speakers. You'll hear the difference that commitment makes when you install brand-name speakers in place of the factory-installed originals.
Brand-name speakers are built from more sophisticated designs than the speakers that came with your car. Most sport multiple drivers — woofers and tweeters, midranges, or even supertweeters — for outstanding sound reproduction. Each of these is built to accurately reproduce a specific segment of your music's sound — the woofer for the lows, the tweeter for the highs, and so on. That's why you'll hear details that weren't audible with stock speakers. Brand-name speakers also have crossover circuits that are much more advanced than what you'll find in stock speakers. The crossover filters ensure that the right frequencies go to the correct driver, so the speaker operates efficiently and gives you great sound.
Better materials = long life and improved performance
Brand-name speakers are built from state-of-the-art materials that are resistant to the extremes in temperature and humidity that car speakers are exposed to. These materials are not only durable, but also have superior sonic performance. You'll enjoy deeper, tighter lows, cleaner, crisper highs, and the confidence to know that your speakers will hold up over time.
Brand-name speakers — the affordable option
There are a lot of ways to expand and improve your vehicle's audio system, but adding new car speakers is one of the most effective and affordable. Even a modest investment in new speakers will improve the entire range of sound that you listen to. So make sure speakers are part of your audio improvement plans. Whether your project is large or small, better speakers will make a difference you can hear. | <urn:uuid:8af382ac-47cf-4eed-be35-b334345c84a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crutchfield.com/S-KiLO98XDbvW/learn/learningcenter/car/speakers_why.html?g=51300 | 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 | 0.934976 | 694 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Theo nguồn tin trên mạng của irs.gov.
IRS Has $917 Million for People Who Have Not Filed a 2009 Income Tax Return
RS YouTube Videos:
Haven’t Filed a Tax Return in Years?: English | Spanish | ASL
IR-2013-29, March 14, 2013
WASHINGTON — Refunds totaling just over $917 million may be waiting for an estimated 984,400 taxpayers who did not file a federal income tax return for 2009, the Internal Revenue Service announced today. However, to collect the money, a return for 2009 must be filed with the IRS no later than Monday, April 15, 2013.
The IRS estimates that half the potential refunds for 2009 are more than $500.
Some people may not have filed because they had too little income to require filing a tax return even though they had taxes withheld from their wages or made quarterly estimated payments. In cases where a return was not filed, the law provides most taxpayers with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund. If no return is filed to claim a refund within three years, the money becomes property of the U.S. Treasury.
For 2009 returns, the window closes on April 15, 2013. The law requires that the return be properly addressed, mailed and postmarked by that date. There is no penalty for filing a late return qualifying for a refund.
The IRS reminds taxpayers seeking a 2009 refund that their checks may be held if they have not filed tax returns for 2010 and 2011. In addition, the refund will be applied to any amounts still owed to the IRS or their state tax agency, and may be used to offset unpaid child support or past due federal debts such as student loans.
By failing to file a return, people stand to lose more than refund of taxes withheld or paid during 2009. In addition, many low-and-moderate income workers may not have claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). For 2009, the credit is worth as much as $5,657. The EITC helps individuals and families whose incomes are below certain thresholds. The thresholds for 2009 were:
$43,279 ($48,279 if married filing jointly) for those with three or more qualifying children,
$40,295 ($45,295 if married filing jointly) for people with two qualifying children,
$35,463 ($40,463 if married filing jointly) for those with one qualifying child, and
$13,440 ($18,440 if married filing jointly) for people without qualifying children.
For more information, visit the EITC Home Page.
Current and prior year tax forms and instructions are available on the Forms and Publications page of IRS.gov or by calling toll-free 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676). Taxpayers who are missing Forms W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 for 2009, 2010 or 2011 should request copies from their employer, bank or other payer.
If these efforts are unsuccessful, taxpayers can get a free transcript showing information from these year-end documents by filing Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, with the IRS or by calling 800-829-1040.
Individuals Who Did Not File a 2009 Return with a Potential Refund
State or District
Potential Refunds* ($000)
District of Columbia
* Excluding the Earned Income Tax Credit and other credits.
Theo nguồn tin The Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants trên trang mạng PRNewswire
MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants (MNCPA) recently surveyed its CPA members about the most creative tax deductions proposed by their clients. Responses included everything from swimming pools and manicures to poodles and non-existent children.
“Creativity is rewarded in many parts of society, but not by the IRS,” said MNCPA Chair Barbara Steinhauser . “And many of the creative deductions our members identified in the survey would’ve resulted in intervention by the IRS had a CPA not interceded and encouraged the tax filers to remove them from their tax returns.”
With changing tax laws on both a state and national level, taxes have grown more complex, underscoring the value of CPAs to their clients.
“Claiming an error on your tax calculations because tax preparation software said it was ‘okay’ is not an acceptable defense with the IRS,” Steinhauser added. “CPAs are professionals who understand and monitor changing tax laws and serve as valuable counselors to their clients.”
Here is the MNCPA list of strange—and unacceptable—deductions for 2012:
Ab-solutely not: A ballerina was surprised to discover that she couldn’t deduct the cost of a tummy tuck.
A new wrinkle: One woman’s attempt to deduct BOTOX® expenses as an “image enhancement” expense? Not a smooth move.
Filing expenses: Sing us a song, you’re the piano man. Just don’t try to claim your manicures as a business expense, as one piano player proposed.
Beware of the very small dog: A farmer who tried to claim food and veterinary expenses for his toy poodle as a farm-building “guard dog” was barking up the wrong tree.
Not a deduction? Bingo!: One woman took a chance on deducting gambling losses as a charity donation. Mark that down as another gambling loss.
Off the deep end: Many reasons for deducting the cost of a swimming pool were offered, but they didn’t all float.
Children need to be seen: While children/dependents are considered an acceptable deduction, one filer failed to realize that he needed to actually have children/dependents in order to claim them.
Not a bright move: Try to deduct tanning-bed expenses, as one filer did, and you’ll get burned every time.
No sweat: One woman hoped to shed some pounds and add a deduction by writing off the cost of “Zumba” exercise classes. One out of two isn’t bad.
Questions about what you can and can’t deduct on your taxes? Contact a CPA. Don’t have one? Visit www.mncpa.org/referral, or call 800.331.4288.
SOURCE Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants
Theo nguồn tin trên trang mạng www.irs.gov
IR-2013-25, March 4, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it has finished updating its tax-processing systems allowing all remaining individual and business taxpayers to file their 2012 federal income tax returns.
Over the weekend, the IRS completed reprogramming and testing of its systems for tax-year 2012 including all remaining updates required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) enacted by Congress in January. This final step clears the way for those claiming residential energy credits on Form 5695 and various business tax credits and deductions to file their returns.
The IRS began accepting 2012 returns in phases as it worked quickly to update various forms and instructions and made critical adjustments to its processing systems to reflect the current law. As a result, the agency began accepting most returns filed by individual taxpayers on Jan. 30. Additional returns could be accepted in February. All remaining returns, affecting in relative terms the smallest group of taxpayers, can now be filed.
With just six weeks to go before this year’s April 15 deadline, the IRS reminds taxpayers that the best way to file an accurate return is to e-file, choose direct deposit if expecting a refund and take advantage of the wide variety of tax-filing and tax-help resources available on IRS.gov. People who need more time to finish their returns can easily get an automatic six-month tax-filing extension by going to the Free File link or filing Form 4868.
Theo nguồn tin của Capital One trên trang mạng PRNewswire
MCLEAN, Va., March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The April 15th tax filing deadline is approaching and according to the latest IRS statistics, the average federal tax refund this year will be $2,803. For the third year in a row, Capital One Bank’s annual Taxes and Savings Survey found that most Americans (85 percent) expect to get a refund and more than a third (35 percent) plan to spend all or part of it.
Navigating the Impact of the Payroll Tax
In gauging the response to the recent elimination of the payroll tax holiday by Congress—which will increase the amount of taxes taken from employees’ paychecks—42 percent of those surveyed were “very aware” that their take-home pay would decline in 2013, while nearly a third (30 percent) said they weren’t aware at all.
47 percent of men are very aware that their take-home pay will decline, compared to 38 percent of women
53 percent of men and 36 percent of women don’t plan on changing their spending habits despite the decline in take-home pay, and
Of all the respondents, 44 percent don’t plan on changing their spending habits.
“At a time when people are seeing smaller paychecks, now more than ever they should take a step back, evaluate their financial goals and consider saving their tax refund,” said Mickey Konson , Managing Vice President for Retail Banking at Capital One Bank . “People tend to think of their tax refund as free money or an annual bonus, which makes it very tempting to spend it right away, but remember, that refund is your own money – without added interest. Tax season is a great time to plan ahead, with an eye toward your financial goals.”
How Americans are Using Their Refund
Capital One’s survey found that the majority of Americans (65 percent) do not calculate their tax refund or tax payment into their annual budget. More than a third (35 percent) plan to spend all or part of their refund. Nearly a quarter (22 percent) of Americans plan to use their refund to pay down debt, while a relatively small percentage will save (16 percent) or invest (4 percent) their returns. Of those who plan to spend all or part of their refund this year:
30 percent plan to spend it on everyday expenses and necessities,
23 percent plan to spend it on a vacation,
16 percent plan to spend it on clothing and accessories,
15 percent plan to spend it on an iPad, TV, smartphone or other electronics, and
16 percent plan to spend it on other major purchases.
The survey findings also showed that most people have some anxiety when filing their tax returns:
19 percent worry about owing taxes,
18 percent worry about not getting as much money back as expected,
17 percent have anxiety about filing incorrectly, and
Eight percent are afraid of being audited.
Only 14 percent of Americans feel no anxiety in filing their taxes.
Capital One Bank Tax Season Tips
Capital One Bank offers the following tips for consumers considering how they can boost their savings, whether it’s making a savings plan for a tax refund or planning to set aside cash to pay taxes they might owe for next year:
Pay yourself first. If you’re eligible for a refund, start building your savings cushion for the year by depositing all or at least a portion of your refund into your savings.
Strong rate, nice return. When reviewing your savings options choose the product with the best rate of return that matches your lifestyle and needs. Some checking accounts are offering higher interest rates than even CD accounts, giving more flexibility and access to your funds than a CD would. Capital One Bank ‘s High Yield Checking account currently earns an interest rate that is five times the national average. The rate is guaranteed for one year.
Make saving automatic, easy and excuse-free. Don’t stop contributing to your savings after getting your refund. It’s always a good idea to get into a routine of putting aside money. One of the easiest ways is to have funds automatically moved to your account every month or paycheck. This is important if you need to set aside savings at the end of the year for taxes.
Make the safest deposit. Make sure any savings tool you use is FDIC-insured.
If you must spend, do it wisely. Reinvest refund money into your biggest piggy bank, your home. Some home repairs will help you financially in the long term, from more efficient windows that reduce monthly heating and cooling to taking advantage of the energy tax credit. Make your house a better home while saving on your next tax return.
The findings reported in this release are from a telephone survey conducted by the opinion research firm, Braun Research of Princeton NJ. The survey was sponsored by Capital One Financial. Braun Research completed 1,006 landline and cell phone interviews with US resident adults age 18 and over. All interviews were with one household member only selected at random. The interviews were conducted February 5, 2013 through February 10, 2013. The margin of error for the national sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Interviews were monitored at random. Sampling for this study was conducted using a national probability replicate sample. All interviews were conducted using a computer assisted telephone interviewing system while the cell phone completes were dialed manually to comply with federal laws. Statistical weights were designed from the United States Census Bureau statistics.
About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $212.5 billion in deposits and $312.9 billion in total assets outstanding as of December 31, 2012. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index.
Contact: Laura DiLello
SOURCE Capital One | <urn:uuid:c3c8275f-c773-4a43-ac8d-830ea93618cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://khaithue.info/?hg=0 | 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 | 0.938394 | 3,075 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A Federal Judge strikes down FDA’s graphic image requirement on packs of cigarettes until the lawsuit is resolved.
On Monday, Nov. 7, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled cigarette manufacturers will likely succeed in a lawsuit challenging the graphic label requirement, and stopped the requirement until the lawsuit is resolved—which could take years.
Judge Leon found the nine graphic images approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June go beyond conveying the facts about the health risks of smoking, and could even extend into advocacy. Judge Leon also noted the size of the labels suggests they are unconstitutional. The labels required by the FDA are supposed to cover the entire top half of cigarette packs—both front and back—and include a number for a stop-smoking hotline. The labels were to take up 20% of cigarette advertising and the images were to be rotated. According to Judge Leon, the labels would amount to a “mini-billboard” for the agency’s “obvious anti-smoking agenda.”
The Justice Department argued that the images and written warnings were designed intended to communicate the dangers of smoking.
Congress asked the FDA to require the labels, following in the footsteps of regulations passed in Canada that require graphic images on cigarette packs.
The five major tobacco manufacturers that brought the lawsuit against the FDA include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co., Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. Inc.
Cigarette manufacturers noted that cigarette packs have featured Surgeon General warnings for more than 45 years, but manufacturers have never sought a legal challenge against them until these images were approved.
What Does It Mean For Retailers?
“Judge Leon’s decision not only issued an injunction against the FDA’s cigarette text and graphic image warnings, but also imposed a stay on the implementation of the health warning regulations until 15 months after a final ruling from Judge Leon on the merits of the claims in the lawsuit. A lawsuit seeking an injunction has two parts. First, a motion for a preliminary injunction which is the ruling that Judge Leon issued yesterday. Second, a hearing needs to be held at some point in the future on the actual merits of the manufacturers’ claims and Judge Leon will then issue another decision on whether the preliminary injunction becomes a permanent injunction. This second decision by Judge Leon could then be appealed by either the manufacturers or the FDA to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, the FDA has the right to appeal Judge Leon’s decision granting the preliminary injunction to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,” the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) noted.
NATO added retailers, for now, are not required to comply with the regulation requiring the new text and graphic warning labels to be printed on cigarette advertisements that they produce in-house. | <urn:uuid:74258e51-7968-49da-9444-689f6b4e17f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csdecisions.com/2011/11/08/fda%E2%80%99s-requirement-for-graphic-images-on-cigarette-packs-blocked/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9595 | 592 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Guns were once again the focus at the Colorado Statehouse on Wednesday. A Democratic proposal to ban concealed carry weapons on college campuses got its first hearing in the house education committee. It highlights the longer battle that will take place this session on gun laws. Bente Birkeland has more.
A huge crowd turned out at the state capitol on Tuesday for a hearing on two key Democratic gun proposals. One measure would require universal background checks for gun purchases; the other would ban high capacity magazines. Both bills passed their first test, the house judiciary committee. Bente Birkeland has more from the state capitol.
Colorado’s oil and gas conservation commission has voted in favor of increasing the drilling setback distance between oil and gas wells and homes statewide. But the move doesn’t go far enough for the environmental community and goes too far for industry. Bente Birkeland has more from the state capitol.
The Conservation Center held an annual meeting yesterday, and chose a new name: Western Slope Conservation Center. The nonprofit was created by the marriage of two deep-rooted local organizations, the North Fork River Improvement Association, known as NFRIA, and the Western Slope Environmental Resource Council, known as WSERC.
State Democrats recently unveiled their much-anticipated package of bills aimed at curbing gun violence. As part of our capitol conversation series, Bente Birkeland takes a look at the chances of the bills passing, and the internal debate among state Democrats. | <urn:uuid:72d003ca-d144-4118-b104-cfb8c65c34b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvnf.org/news/news-archives/the-watch-report-91412?page=12 | 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 | 0.951849 | 306 | 1.5 | 2 |
BOULDER -- Sheriff's deputies will be on hand at a Thursday afternoon public hearing on oil and gas issues, in case the Boulder County commissioners need to call on them to help maintain order.
The commissioners and their staff have issued a written advisory to anyone intending to attend the hearing, warning against behavior such as yelling, singing, chanting, shouting at the board or other attendees, or other activities that disrupt the hearing.
Uniformed law enforcement officers also were stationed at the commissioners' Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 discussions of oil and gas regulations, after chanting anti-fracking protesters disrupted a Dec. 4 hearing and delayed its start for almost half an hour.
Some of those in that night's standing-room-only crowd later jeered at an oil company spokeswoman when she testified at that hearing. Several followed her out of that Dec. 4 meeting and heckled her as she -- accompanied by courthouse security personnel -- walked to her car.
The Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 oil and gas discussions were public meetings but didn't include public hearings. People wanting the county to ban hydraulic fracturing, the process of injecting a mixture of sand, gravel and chemicals to free up underground oil and gas deposits, were generally civil, although some at the Dec. 13 meeting taped their own mouths shut to signal that they thought the commissioners had imposed a gag order.
In a memo that's been attached to the county staff's online report for this coming Thursday's hearing -- and that's expected to be a handout at that meeting -- the commissioners and their staff state that "Boulder County has a long and storied tradition of protecting First Amendment rights and taking extensive public input on policy and legislative matters. However, we must balance the continued public input with our ability to conduct the business of the county."
The memo says individuals or groups who try to disrupt Thursday's meeting, "or who attempt to thwart the ability of specific speakers to address the board, will be asked to stop their disruption. If further disruption continues, those individuals will be removed from the hearing room and the Courthouse."
The memo adds that "if the disruption makes it impossible for the board to conduct its business, the hearing room will be cleared and the meeting continued."
If board chairwoman Cindy Domenico has to ask an individual or group to leave the room, the memo says, Boulder County officials are asking "that the disrupting party leave the room without incident. Failure to do so will result in legal action."
County officials said in the memo, though, that the Courthouse plaza on downtown Boulder's Pearl Street Mall "has been designated as the public forum for protest activities," and that any protests "should occur outside the Courthouse."
John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:c5fb3d7a-3490-45b2-a221-e59a9b6a11f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/2012election/cu-regents/ci_22406088/boulder-county-officials-warn-against-disrupting-thursdays-oil | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972581 | 578 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The recent outburst of gun violence in the 17th Police District underscores the urgent need for more police patrols in affected areas and the need to crackdown on drug gangs.
Gun violence last week in the 17th Police District included shootings that injured 13 people and killed two in the Grays Ferry and Point Breeze sections in South Philadelphia.
In one of the incidents in the 1200 block of South Bucknell Street, two children, ages 2 and 10 were among the victims of gun violence in the Point Breeze section. Among those wounded September 27 were Andrea Cooper, 59, and her two-year-old granddaughter, Aisha Cooper, who was wounded in the stomach and hand. At press time, Aisha remains in critical condition. A 10-year-old who was wounded in the incident was released from the hospital.
The incident started as a fight between young people and escalated.
The next night in the nearby Grays Ferry section, two shootings incidents led to gunfire killing two people and injuring two others. Investigators said they believe the two shooting incidents were related.
The shootings reveal the terror and sense of lawlessness that too many law-abiding citizens have to live with in some of Philadelphia’s worst neighborhoods.
Police said many of the incidents may be connected to drug gangs that are targeting rival groups as well as infighting among the gangs. Investigators also said gang members recently released from prison may be spurring the burst of gun violence.
Police said before the outburst of violence last week shootings were down from 59 last year, to 42 this year.
Community organizers said increased police patrols were effective in keeping violence down by helping to clear corners.
Officials said they would increase patrols in affected areas and will investigate gang activities in the affected areas. These efforts should help bring normalcy back. | <urn:uuid:7c8669d5-c1a5-4f94-88d4-0cbaa79cefac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phillytrib.com/commentaryarticles/item/876-reducing-violence-in-the-17th-district.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982562 | 364 | 1.625 | 2 |
One of the problems with successfully conveying the rationalist approach is that, when it comes to science, many people do not understand how to assess expertise and authority. There are various rabbis around the world, some quite prominent, who are often portrayed as being "experts in science." Some of them support my work to a greater or lesser extent, some of them oppose it to a greater or lesser extent. But do any of their opinions carry weight as being "experts in science"?
The reason why these great Torah scholars are presented as also being great experts in science is that they have all read much popular scientific literature. One of them was given the task of addressing the a conference of kiruv professionals on Torah-science issues a few years ago, due to his alleged expertise in this area; as one participant told me in awe, "He's read every issue of Scientific American for the last fifteen years!" But does this mean that he is an expert in science?
It should first be noted that it is pretty meaningless to talk about "knowing science." There is physics and biology and astronomy and archeology and paleontology and a host of other fields. And within each of these, there are a multitude of subdivisions. The body of scientific knowledge is so huge that nobody gains expertise in more than a small fraction of it.
The problem with claiming these people to be "experts in science" is (A) their lack of credibility, (B) their lack of systematic knowledge, and (C) the difference in epistemology and worldview. That may sound like a lot of meaningless jargon, so allow me to explain.
The first point is credibility. None of these people possess formal qualifications or a formal education in science. Now, that alone does not mean that they do not possess expertise. After all, I consider myself to possess a certain expertise in various zoological matters, and yet I too lack formal qualifications and training in this area. On the other hand, I would never expect that people would respect me as an authority whose opinion should be relied upon, since they have no way of knowing if I am truly an expert or just a crank.
I am not a scientist. I am, however, someone who accurately reports the state of scientific knowledge, as can easily be verified. The credibility of my scientific positions does not rest on my personal credibility as a scientist (of which I have none), but rather on the credibility of the global scientific establishment that I am quoting. But when a Posek who is not a scientist disputes the entire scientific establishment, his acceptance is based upon his own credibility (which I would also argue to be non-existent). Thus, when people say, as they often do, "So what that Rav X is not a scientist? Slifkin is not a scientist either!" - it completely misses the point. It is truly laughable when a certain popular rabbi from Jerusalem tells his audience that "people who know science" - by which he is referring to a Rosh Yeshivah with a PhD in mathematics (not one of the natural sciences) and a physician - have declared that my science (referring to my belief in the antiquity of the universe and evolution) is wrong! The mathematician and physician are not disputing me; they are disputing the entire scientific establishment. And they have zero credibility in doing so.
The second factor is systematic knowledge. Systematic knowledge means that one possesses knowledge about a topic that is not only extensive, but which also fits together to provide a thorough, cohesive understanding. As an example, I'd like to pick my own field of zoology, and the sub-field of taxonomy - classifying animals. A person may be able to name a multitude of species, from pangolins to pottos, but this is not systematic knowledge. Systematic knowledge would mean understanding the larger patterns, the difference between an order and a genus, between a rodent and an insectivore.
Systematic knowledge is particularly relevant in the case of evolution. Non-scientists, reputed to be "experts in science," can toss out a lot of scattered data in the form of objections to evolution. But they have no systematic knowledge of the animal kingdom, which is what evolution is based upon and addresses. Evolution (in terms of common ancestry) addresses - exceedingly well - the overall pattern of life; the nested hierarchy of the animal kingdom, the geographical distribution, the fossil record, the patterns of homologous versus analogous similarities in physiology. Not only do these people have no overall model to address any of these; they've never even addressed them at all. Their knowledge is scattered, not systematic.
The third factor is epistemology and worldview. Modern science rests upon a particular epistemology and worldview - the scientific method. Hypotheses are offered, which must make predictions that can be tested. Conclusions are drawn based upon evidence, not based upon the social/ religious status of people. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The stability of the natural order is taken as a given without evidence to the contrary. Etc., etc. It is these differences in epistemology and worldview which account for far-reaching differences between the conclusions of modern science and the conclusions of the aforementioned Torah scholars.
It's difficult for many people to grasp these points. So perhaps some parables would help. Imagine someone from an Eastern culture claiming expertise in Western medicine due to having watched and memorized every episode of House MD. To someone who knows nothing about medicine, their knowledge of facts would sound very impressive - but they are not an expert in Western understandings of physiology or medicine! Or imagine a non-Jew claiming expertise and authority in paskening halachah against all Jewish poskim due to having read every English halachic guidebook. To another non-Jew, they would sound very knowledgeable about Jewish law - but learned Jews would know that this person has no credibility in issuing halachic rulings that run contrary to all Jewish poskim!
This may provoke the following question: Okay, so these Rabbis are not "experts in science." But what about Torah? How can regular learned Jews possibly dispute Torah scholars who are vastly superior to them in Torah knowledge?
That will have to wait for another post. | <urn:uuid:e9c8ea15-1be3-40d3-8892-f0cfdda186ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2010/09/expert-in-science.html?showComment=1284473961439 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969989 | 1,285 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Several readers have taken President Barack Obama to task for suggesting that business successes are due in part to government investments ("Obama fails Business 101," July 19). As a business owner and engineer-scientist, I agree with President Obama.
Our business entrepreneurs thrive because of an environment protected and nurtured by government activities. Our legal system enforces contracts and protects patents, our military assures national security, firemen and policemen help create a safe environment, our transportation system assures timely delivery of goods and services, and most importantly our schools and public universities assure a steady supply of dedicated well trained workers.
Without these supportive measures, business in the U.S. could not survive.
Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore | <urn:uuid:4cb83062-c243-4217-badf-0330aae69c45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/news/bs-ed-obama-letter-20120720,0,6411960.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956738 | 142 | 1.835938 | 2 |
As states like Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, and New York are looking to raise the minimum wage, they are meeting opposition from well-funded political groups who seek to increase corporate profit. Despite the swath of misinformation painting the minimum wage is a “job killer,” John Stoher of The American Prospect points out that the...
The recession that allegedly ended in June of 2009 continues to plague the state of New Jersey. Now, Garden Staters are looking to Democrats in the legislature to fight for a minimum wage increase. Despite the fact that the federal minimum wage is already $2.60 below where it should be, the cost of living is ... | <urn:uuid:6305eeaf-cdcf-4f7a-b6a0-058089702006> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/tag/new-jersey-minimum-wage/ | 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 | 0.931782 | 133 | 1.5 | 2 |
On with the campaign
This presidential election is all about the "undecideds." Count Mother Nature among them.
Ten days after a passing hurricane delayed the first day of events at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., the threat of heavy thunderstorms forced Democrats to move their grand outdoor finale -- President Barack Obama's acceptance speech -- to a much smaller indoor venue.
Some 70,000 supporters planned to attend "the most open, accessible and inclusive convention in history" at Bank of America football stadium in Charlotte, N.C. But a week of daily downpours and a forecast for more, with lightning, led organizers to confine events to Time Warner Cable Arena, which holds roughly 20,000.
A cynical Republican might be tempted to observe that the Democrats had overpromised again. But there were no Republicans in sight this week, save the few brave picketers pacing the sidewalk between Charlotte's convention center and the arena.
The conventioneers were a proudly diverse lot. Firefighters for Obama, Retirees for Obama. Artists, architects, educators, actors, cat lovers, kids, moms, dads. Nuns for Obama!
(Notably not represented: Investment bankers, doctors, hedge fund managers or golfers. Hey, this party was for people who have made up their minds. That was true in Tampa, too.)
The conventions are over. Now it's all about the few people who haven't made up their minds. On with the campaign.
The sheen of "hope and change" has worn off the Democratic Party's brand. Few can argue persuasively that the lofty promise offered in 2008 by candidate Barack Obama has been fulfilled by President Obama. There are lots of plausible explanations for why the dream hasn't been fulfilled, but there's no escaping the simple truth that Americans from all political persuasions are genuinely concerned about this country's future.
An ironic twist of the convention was the key role played Wednesday by former President Bill Clinton in restoring an air of confidence to his party - and doing so at the GOP's expense. Partisan sniping will only prolong America's problems, not solve them.
Obama got it right when he stated, "No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise."
If either candidate can bring about that one change -- restoring a spirit of compromise -- that would be true cause for hope.
The Dallas Morning News
For all but a few years since 1922, Congress has taxed capital gains at a lower rate than wages in the hope of encouraging people to invest more of their income. The preferential rate has also encouraged some Wall Street executives to structure their pay so that the Internal Revenue Service treats it like capital gains, not salary. Now New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is exploring whether one of those maneuvers -- used typically by private-equity firms -- amounts to tax fraud. It's a gray area legally, but the dispute highlights one of the problems that lawmakers should try to fix as part of a badly needed overhaul of the tax code.
Private-equity firms typically collect money from big-dollar investors, such as public pension funds, and then use it to make bets on companies they think are capable of dramatic growth -- start-ups, for example, or companies in need of a turnaround. The bets are managed by a general partner, whose compensation typically consists of an annual fee and a 20 percent share of the investments' profits. The fee is subject to ordinary income tax rates of up to 35 percent. But the 20 percent share, called "carried interest," is considered a capital gain and taxed at a maximum rate of 15 percent.
The ultimate arbiter probably will be the federal courts, which may decide that the fee waivers -- which provide the general partner a deferred but all-but-guaranteed income stream -- meet the statutory definition of capital gains. Even so, the gamesmanship involved is deplorable.
Los Angeles Times | <urn:uuid:76a69b57-7799-4bbf-af53-36ec324ef1c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/editorials/ci_21492536/editorials-from-around-country | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957228 | 801 | 1.601563 | 2 |
CROWN POINT | Demolition of vacant buildings is set to start Sept. 12 on the site of a proposed library parking lot at East Street and Robinson Court, an IDEM official said.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is working with planners of the new library to ensure the buildings are torn down in compliance with environmental regulations, agency spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said.
IDEM received notification from library officials last week of plans to demolish the buildings after first removing materials containing asbestos, Hartsock said.
Razing the buildings had been halted until IDEM received proper notification, and the agency had ordered the site secured.
The plan submitted to IDEM by library officials calls for the stripping and removing asbestos starting Tuesday. The work will continue through Sept. 10, with demolition of the buildings scheduled from Sept. 12 to 21, Hartsock said.
"We'll continue to oversee the activities there," Hartsock said. "Our focus is making sure the project is done in compliance with environmental regulations."
The proposed off-site parking lot at East Street and Robinson Court is intended for patrons and employees of the $12 million new city library being built across the street, in the 100 block of North Main Street.
Occupants of a building neighboring the proposed off-site parking lot filed a lawsuit in July against the city and its Plan Commission, as well as the Crown Point Community Library, over their handling of the process for permitting the parking lot.
The law firm Austgen Kuiper & Associates, which occupies the Main Street Professional Center at Main Street and Robinson Court, filed the lawsuit after first raising concerns the parking lot would add to traffic congestion and lead to drainage problems, among other issues.
The new library is set to open in late October. Its main parking lot is under construction south of the main entrance in the middle of the 100 block of North Main Street. | <urn:uuid:037c1f26-b5ba-4a9b-a49b-e6ce7e35d896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/crown-point/building-demolition-to-start-sept-at-c-p-library-parking/article_80791a2c-2f11-542c-882d-451a0709c2db.html?mode=comments | 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 | 0.970633 | 385 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Legionnaires, student veterans and academic authorities met at the Washington Hilton on Feb. 26 to examine some of the issues facing veterans on campus, and how well the academic community is responding to ensure their success.
Karen Gross, a senior policy advisor in the Department of Education, was featured as a speaker. She mentioned the Veterans Upward Bound program in her opening remarks, "which is an important program to help vets transition to college, and provides them with certain information about their eligibility requirements, and helps prepare them for access to the collegiate arena. It is a program that you should know about and one that is there to support vets as they reflect on the possibility of higher education."
Gross underscored the value of GI Bill veterans education benefits by noting that college tuition and fees have increased by 135 percent in the past 20 years. As higher education grows more expensive, its influence on future earning power is also increasing. Gross said that, on average, for every dollar a college graduate earns, a non-graduate now earns only 55 cents.
Four panels, including one made up of student veterans, talked about successful programs and promising practices to support student veterans on campus. They also discussed barriers to the development of such services and what could be done further to help veterans graduate from college and go on to successful careers.
John Kamin, an Army veteran of the Iraq War, is now a student at American University. He and other veterans approached the administration with the idea of speaking to students about their military experiences and what it means to be a veteran; they ended up talking to more than 500 freshmen. "If you realize those experiences can be helpful, most of (the veterans) are willing and open to taking that opportunity. It was generally a positive experience. I'm happy we did that, because it engaged both our veterans and the community."
A student veteran at Georgetown University, Colby Howard said the campus wasn't very aware of its veteran population when he first showed up. To create some awareness, he and others created the Veterans Support Team, a working group that approached the administration with specific recommendations on how to provide support and services for those students who have served in uniform.
"You discuss the veterans' issues in the same room. That support team meeting creates a heightened level of awareness and actually puts you on the radar. Our goal, our number one priority as a student organization, was to create a full-time, salaried and with benefits, position at Georgetown for a veterans coordinator, to be that focal point, not only for current veterans but for prospective ones as well.
"I'm happy to say that we accomplished that, and we went from essentially one certifying official in the registrar - and certifying student veterans was his ‘fifth hat' - to having a full-time veterans coordinator."
Howard said it is better to "use honey" than to "throw hatchets" when asking for improved student veterans services. It is important to highlight the benefits that veterans bring to schools as active members of the student community, and to educate the student body, the media and alumni about the value of veterans on campus.
Another student veteran at Georgetown, T.M. Gibbons-Neff, said the first step in working toward more services is "making it known that veterans are actually on campus. A lot of veterans come to school and they don't want to be known, they don't want to come into a room and announce themselves as being someone with a diverse, professional background - combat deployments, what have you. Just make it known in your discussions, in your classes, that you are there and bringing something to the table."
Gibbons-Neff said there was some initial push-back from the university administration over the issue of providing a resource center for veterans. "But once we made it clear that we were there to work with them, to bring the university up to speed - let's face it, this is pretty standard that there's a support structure for veterans on campus - then the doors started to crack and we were allowed to come in and sit at the meetings.'
Three other panels at the symposium featured women veterans, higher-education administrators and representatives from veterans service organizations. The event was sponsored and organized by national staff of The American Legion's National Economic Commission. | <urn:uuid:f447d9e8-8112-4bf8-8859-d5a16b511b7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.legion.org/print/161926 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976307 | 879 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Greenwood v. United States - 350 U.S. 366 (1956)
U.S. Supreme Court
Greenwood v. United States, 350 U.S. 366 (1956)
Greenwood v. United States
Argued January 25, 1956
Decided March 5, 1956
350 U.S. 366
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
Acting under 18 U.S. C. §§ 4244-4248, a Federal District Court held a hearing on the sanity of petitioner, who had been indicted for robbery of a post office and felonious assault on a postal employee and had been found by authorities of a medical center for federal prisoners to be insane and unlikely to recover in the near future. After considering conflicting testimony and reports of psychiatrists, the Court found that petitioner was insane and so mentally incompetent that he could not stand trial; that, if released, he probably would endanger the safety of the officers, property, or other interests of the United States; and that no suitable arrangements for his custody and care, other than commitment to the custody of the Attorney General, were available. The Court therefore committed petitioner to the custody of the Attorney General until his sanity should be restored or his mental condition so improved that, if released, he would not endanger the safety of the officers, property, or other interests of the United States, or until suitable arrangements could be made for his custody and care by the State of his residence.
Held: the District Court's action is sustained. Pp. 350 U. S. 367-376.
(a) The statute deals not only with problems of temporary mental disorder, but also with mental disability which seems more than temporary. Pp. 350 U. S. 373-374.
(b) As here construed, the statute is within the power of Congress under the Necessary and Proper Clause, Art. I, § 8, cl. 18. Pp. 350 U. S. 375-376.
219 F.2d 376 affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case involves the construction and constitutional validity of the Act of September 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 686, now codified in 18 U.S.C. §§ 4244-4248,
"To provide for the care and custody of insane persons charged with or convicted of offenses against the United States, and for other purposes."
Section 4244 provides a procedure for determining mental incompetency during the period "after arrest and prior to the imposition of sentence or prior to the expiration of any period of probation." [Footnote 1] Section 4245 sets up a similar procedure for persons in prison believed to have been mentally incompetent at the time of their trial when the issue was not raised or determined before or during trial. Section 4246 states that, whenever the trial court shall determine, under §§ 4244 and 4245, that an accused
is or was mentally incompetent, the court may commit the accused to the custody of the Attorney General until the accused is mentally competent to stand trial or until the pending charges against him are disposed of according to law. Section 4246 further provides that, if the court, after hearing as provided in the preceding §§ 4244 and 4245, finds that the conditions specified in § 4247 exist, the commitment shall be governed by § 4248. [Footnote 2] Section 4247 states that, when a prisoner's sentence is about to expire and the prison board of examiners finds him insane and a probable danger to the officers, property, or other interests of the United States, then the court shall hold a hearing, and, if it determines that those conditions exist, it may commit the prisoner to the custody of the Attorney General. [Footnote 3] Under § 4248, the
commitment shall run until sanity is restored, or until the prisoner's condition is so improved that he will not endanger the officers, property, or other interests of the United States, or until suitable arrangements are made for the care of the prisoner by his State of residence -- reserving to the prisoner his right to establish his eligibility to release by writ of habeas corpus. [Footnote 4]
Petitioner, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, was indicted on November 20, 1952, by a grand jury of the Western District of Missouri on two counts, for robbery from a United States Post Office in Kansas City, Missouri, and for felonious assault there on a postal employee. Under Rule 20 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, petitioner signed a waiver of trial in the Western District of Missouri and was transferred to the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Ohio. Acting on the suggestion of appointed counsel, the district judge ordered petitioner examined by a psychiatrist. After a hearing in which the examining psychiatrist testified that it was doubtful that petitioner, because of his mental condition, could have fully understood the significance of the waiver he signed, the District Court, on February 2, 1953, remanded
the case to the District Court for the Western District of Missouri for disposition.
That court ordered the accused delivered to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, for the purpose of ascertaining his mental condition. On April 15, 1953, the Chief of the Psychiatric Service at the Medical Center filed his report concluding that the accused was legally insane in that he was unable to choose between right and wrong and could not, by reason of his mental condition, adequately cooperate with counsel in his own defense.
Petitioner was then transferred to jail, but, on November 16, 1953, the District Court entered an order returning him to the Medical Center for determination whether he was acutely or chronically insane. The report of the Neuropsychiatric Staff of the Medical Center, filed February 1, 1954, indicated that petitioner was "psychotic and incompetent," that "it is unlikely that this subject will regain his sanity in the near future," and recommended that "consideration be given to transferring this subject to a state hospital in his state of residence." The District Court, on the following day, ordered a further hearing under § 4246 to "resolve the power to commit defendant as mentally defective under the conditions specified in Section 4247. . . ," and, for that purpose, requested the Director and Board of Examiners of the Medical Center to certify whether, in their judgment, the defendant, if released, would
"probably endanger the safety of the officers, the property, or other interests of the United States, and that suitable arrangements for the custody and care of the [defendant] are not otherwise available."
The report of the Board, dated February 4, 1954, concluded that the accused remained "psychotic and incompetent," and stated that,
"at the present time, there appears to be little likelihood of his recovering to the extent that he might be considered competent in the
In reply to the request of the District Court,
"[t]he Board agreed that this subject might be considered potentially dangerous to the extent that if released he might conceivably persist in criminal activities of the type with which he is presently charged. In considering this man's mental illness, the Board finds that he does not hold any fixed delusions concerning wanting to harm any person or group of persons, either officials of the government or otherwise, so that, in this respect, he probably would not constitute a danger to the safety of officers, property, or other interests of the United States. . . . The Board further recommends that this subject be considered a suitable candidate for state hospital care if suitable arrangements can be made."
In May, 1954, petitioner was transferred to the custody of the State of Ohio, where he was again examined by the psychiatrist who had made the examination when petitioner was transferred to the District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1952. This time, the psychiatrist found that petitioner "is now in a state of remission equivalent to a recovery. He is not now insane in the legal sense." Petitioner was then released by the Ohio authorities.
Petitioner was rearrested in Ohio under the original indictment, which was still pending, and, on June 16, 1954, removed to the Western District of Missouri. On June 18, counsel appointed for petitioner moved the court to appoint at least one qualified psychiatrist to inquire into petitioner's mental competency and to hold a hearing for that purpose. Two psychiatrists were appointed, and were directed to report to the court. Petitioner was also recommitted to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, for further examination.
The hearing on petitioner's sanity was held on July 15. The two psychiatrists appointed by the court testified
that, in their belief, petitioner was sane. The first three reports of the Medical Center were received in evidence, along with a fourth, a report of the Neuropsychiatric Staff of the Medical Center at Springfield, dated July 8, 1954. This latest report concluded
"that the subject remains legally insane by reason of a major mental disorder which would prevent him from having a proper understanding of the proceeding pending against him and which also impairs his ability to properly assist in his own defense."
The staff further concluded
"that this subject's prognosis for recovery appears to be poor, and that he will probably require indefinite hospitalization to insure his own safety and that of society. The staff does not consider the subject to be potentially dangerous except to the extent that, if released, he might persist in engaging in criminal activities similar to those with which he is presently charged."
The Chief of the Psychiatric Service at the Medical Center testified at this hearing to the same effect.
The District Court, in its order of July 30, found that the accused was insane and so mentally incompetent that he could not stand trial; that, if released, he would probably endanger the safety of the officers, property, or other interests of the United States; and that no suitable arrangements for custody and care, other than commitment to the custody of the Attorney General, were available. Petitioner was therefore committed to the custody of the Attorney General until his sanity should be restored or his mental condition so improved that, if released, he would not endanger the safety of the officers, property, or other interests of the United States or until suitable arrangements could be made for the custody and care of defendant by Ohio, the State of his residence. 125 F.Supp. 777, 778. Petitioner appealed from this judgment, and the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, its seven circuit judges sitting en banc, affirmed, one judge dissenting.
219 F.2d 376. Because of the important issue of federal power raised by the case, and because of conflicting views in the Courts of Appeals, compare Higgins v. United States, 205 F.2d 650, and Wells v. Attorney General, 201 F.2d 556, with the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in this case, we granted certiorari. 350 U.S. 821.
A detailed history of the legislation is set forth in the opinion of the Court of Appeals. 219 F.2d at 380-384. It is sufficient to note here that the bill was proposed by the Judicial Conference of the United States after long study by a conspicuously able committee, followed by consultation with federal district and circuit judges.
The statute deals comprehensively with those persons charged with federal crime who are insane or mentally incompetent to stand trial. It provides a procedure for determination of such insanity or mental incompetence, and further provides for commitment of those found to be insane or mentally incompetent. Petitioner's assertion that the statute deals only with the problem of temporary mental disorder is not supported by the language of the statute, and the report of the Committee of the Judicial Conference clearly indicates that the statute was designed to deal with mental disability which seems more than temporary:
"If the accused's mental disability appears not to be a transitory condition, but in all likelihood he will, because of his insanity, never be brought to trial, it would seem that as a general rule the federal government should not assume responsibility for his hospitalization merely because he has been accused (but not convicted) of a federal crime. Normally such a person should be turned over to the state of his domicile to be confined in a state mental hospital if hospitalization is called for. "
"But there may be cases where the accused's domicile cannot be satisfactorily established, and where no state will assume responsibility for his care. The federal government may then be faced with the practical situation that it has lawful custody of a person whom it is not safe to let at large. In a recent case in the District of Massachusetts, United States v. Torrez [unreported], a Filipino was brought into the district and indicted for murder on the high seas. After notice of hearing at which alienists for the government and for the defendant testified, the judge found that the defendant was at present insane, and unable rationally to aid in the conduct of his defense. Obviously, in such case, there should be authority in the court to cause the confinement of the accused in a mental hospital."
The District Court pursued the appropriate procedure in holding a hearing to determine the existence of the conditions specified in § 4247 once it determined that the accused's mental incompetence seemed more than temporary. Although the language of the statute and the report of the Committee of the Judicial Conference demonstrate that the statute deals generally with the situations both of temporary and more than temporary insanity, one could infer from the reports on the bill by the Committee, by the Judicial Conference itself, and by the committees of both Houses of Congress that the specific commitment under § 4248 was designed only for prisoners whose sentences are about to expire. But this is a case for applying the canon of construction of the wag who said, when the legislative history is doubtful, go to the statute. The second sentence of § 4246 clearly makes commitment under § 4248 applicable to persons found mentally incompetent under § 4244 who meet the conditions specified in § 4247.
We reach then the narrow constitutional issue raised by the order of commitment in the circumstances of this case. The petitioner came legally into the custody of the United States. The power that put him into such custody -- the power to prosecute for federal offenses -- is not exhausted. Its assertion in the form of the pending indictment persists. The District Court has found that the accused is mentally incompetent to stand trial at the present time, and that, if released, he would probably endanger the officers, property, or other interests of the United States -- and these findings are adequately supported. In these circumstances, the District Court has entered an order retaining and restraining petitioner, while in his present condition, with habeas corpus always available when circumstances warrant. This commitment, and therefore the legislation authorizing commitment in the context of this case, involve an assertion of authority, duly guarded, auxiliary to incontestable national power. As such, it is plainly within congressional power under the Necessary and Proper Clause. Art. I, § 8, cl. 18.
The fact that, at present, there may be little likelihood of recovery does not defeat federal power to make this initial commitment of the petitioner. We cannot say that federal authority to prosecute has now been irretrievably frustrated. The record shows that two court-appointed psychiatrists found petitioner sane and competent for trial. While the District Court did not accept their conclusion, their testimony illustrates the uncertainty of diagnosis in this field and the tentativeness of professional judgment. The only certain thing that can be said about the present state of knowledge and therapy regarding mental disease is that science has not reached finality of judgment, even about a situation as unpromising as petitioner's, at least as indicated by the report of the United States Medical Center at Springfield.
Certainly, denial of constitutional power of commitment to Congress in dealing with a situation like this ought not to rest on dogmatic adherence to one view or another on controversial psychiatric issues.
We decide no more than the situation before us presents, and equally do not imply an opinion on situations not now before us. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
"Whenever, after arrest and prior to the imposition of sentence or prior to the expiration of any period of probation, the United States Attorney has reasonable cause to believe that a person charged with an offense against the United States may be presently insane or otherwise so mentally incompetent as to be unable to understand the proceedings against him or properly to assist in his own defense, he shall file a motion for a judicial determination of such mental competency of the accused, setting forth the ground for such belief with the trial court in which proceedings are pending. Upon such a motion or upon a similar motion in behalf of the accused, or upon its own motion, the court shall cause the accused . . . to be examined as to his mental condition by at least one qualified psychiatrist, who shall report to the court. For the purpose of the examination, the court may order the accused committed for such reasonable period as the court may determine to a suitable hospital or other facility to be designated by the court. If the report of the psychiatrist indicates a state of present insanity or such mental incompetency in the accused, the court shall hold a hearing, upon due notice, at which evidence as to the mental condition of the accused may be submitted, including that of the reporting psychiatrist, and make a finding with respect thereto. . . ."
"Whenever the trial court shall determine, in accordance with sections 4244 and 4245, . . . that an accused is or was mentally incompetent, the court may commit the accused to the custody of the Attorney General or his authorized representative until the accused shall be mentally competent to stand trial or until the pending charges against him are disposed of according to law. And if the court, after hearing as provided in the preceding sections 4244 and 4245, shall determine that the conditions specified in the following section 4247 exist, the commitment shall be governed by section 4248, as herein provided."
"Whenever the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall certify that a prisoner whose sentence is about to expire has been examined by the board of examiners referred to in . . . section 4241, and that, in the judgment of the Director and the board of examiners, the prisoner is insane or mentally incompetent, and that, if released, he will probably endanger the safety of the officers, the property, or other interests of the United States, and that suitable arrangements for the custody and care of the prisoner are not otherwise available, the Attorney General shall transmit the certificate to the clerk of the court for the district in which the prisoner is confined. . . . If, upon such hearing, the court shall determine that the conditions specified above exist, the court may commit the prisoner to the custody of the Attorney General or his authorized representative."
"Whenever a person shall be committed pursuant to section 4247 . . . , his commitment shall run until the sanity or mental competency of the person shall be restored or until the mental condition of the person is so improved that, if he be released, he will not endanger the safety of the officers, the property, or other interests of the United States, or until suitable arrangements have been made for the custody and care of the prisoner by the State of his residence, whichever event shall first occur. . . . Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall preclude a prisoner committed under the authority of section 4247 hereof from establishing his eligibility for release under the provisions of this section by a writ of habeas corpus. The Attorney General or his authorized representative shall have authority at any time to transfer a prisoner committed to his custody under the authority of section 4246 or section 4247 hereof to the proper authorities of the State of his residence." | <urn:uuid:fe51d207-3a61-46bd-9601-c11977447fa2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/350/366/case.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 | 0.967286 | 4,075 | 1.6875 | 2 |
- My Account
- Sell Art
After Pablo Picasso’s death in 1973, Marina Picasso authorized the printing of these original lithographs, which have come to be known as the PICASSO ESTATE COLLECTION. The lithographs were meticulously created after the original works (Oil Paintings, Watercolors, Pastels, Drawings, etc.) by Master Chromist MARCEL SALINAS, who worked closely with Picasso in his lifetime. They are printed in an edition of 500 on first-quality Arches paper. To ensure authenticity, each print is signed and numbered in pencil by Marina Picasso and embossed with the estate and chromist’s seals, along with the legend on the reverse “Approved by the heirs of Pablo Picasso”.
Ref #: 13-B Year of Publication: 1979-1982 | <urn:uuid:75a0fec3-35a6-400d-b6d4-f661c9fefb27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://picassomio.com/picasso-estate-collection/6827.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941875 | 180 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Modernizing Consumer Protection in the Financial Regulatory System; Strengthening Credit Card Protections: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, 111th Cong., Feb. 12, 2009 (Statement of Associate Professor Adam J. Levitin, Geo. U. L. Center)
Transparent pricing is a prerequisite for an efficient, competitive market and responsible consumer behavior. If the card industry were required to price its products in a straightforward manner, and it were less costly for consumers to switch cards, deceptive practices would be harder to maintain, Truth-in-Lending disclosures would be more effective, as consumers would be able to easily compare cards and make informed decisions about card usage, and competitive pressures would push down total card, prices, forcing the card industry to operate more efficiently, benefiting all consumers.
I strongly urge Congress to pass legislation that creates transparency in credit card pricing and that creates an on-going regulatory system that is capable of quickly evaluating and responding to innovations in the consumer financial products marketplace. | <urn:uuid:594a0d8a-832d-4b1c-ab30-5fff24de1f86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cong/48/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930699 | 209 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Naomi Klein said it well: "The greatest blessing of all -- is indigenous sovereignty itself. It is the huge stretches of this country that have never been ceded by war or treaty. It is the treaties signed and still recognized by our courts. If Canadians have a chance of stopping Mr. Harper's planet-trashing plans, it will be because these legally binding rights -- backed up by mass movements, court challenges, and direct action -- will stand in his way. All Canadians should offer our deepest thanks that our indigenous brothers and sisters have protected their land rights for all these generations, refusing to turn them into one-off payments, no matter how badly they were needed."
I live less than a half hour drive from the Tyendinaga Reserve. In my environmental work I have had a lot to do with native people. As individuals they are the same mix of good and bad as any people are, but there is a concern for the environment that's almost always there. The native guy I work for at an Alaskan environmental NGO lives in a city of 300,000, but expresses his environmentalism in his work. A native woman I know is assistant postmaster in an isolated subsistence village of less than 200, and lives "on the edge of the bush". A doctor I met in a bar in Vancouver grew up in the Mackenzie Valley, married an Alaskan woman and now works in her village.
When I lived in Manitoba, there was a time when several of us, after a day of field work in the Delta Marsh, went to relax in the Portage La Prairie pub. We were enjoying our beer when we noticed two native guys sitting at a table, quite definitely not being served. Not being harassed, but being ignored. They were sitting quietly, stubbornly and with dignity. After watching for about 15 minutes, to be sure what we were seeing, we left. This was way back in the mid 1970s. Hopefully that wouldn't happen now. But I don't know.
I still haven't recovered from reading some of the blatantly racist comments that were posted after some of the Toronto Star's articles on the native protests. I was pretty horrified by the number of people agreeing with the flood of racist comments, ignorance of the facts, pro-development anti-environmentalism, and saying natives were lazy and should be cut off from government money and forced to go out into white society and work by the clock just like us.
What kind of society we want makes for fair political debate, but here we are talking about sovereign nations who made treaties with the Crown. Whatever the majority of Canadians think, we are dealing with something different from a minority that can be outvoted or ignored. As Tom Mulcair said, the Conservative majority "cannot stop how the courts interpret the duty to consult with First Nations". That duty is enshrined in treaties with the Crown (not with the government of the day), and it was those treaties that created Canada as a nation. The issue here, legally, is "the honour of the Crown". It isn't political. There was a reason why Chief Spence demanded to meet with the prime minister and the governor general. The governor general represents the Crown. Native peoples can choose to live as the non-native majority think they should, or they can choose not to. Either way the government is obliged to honour treaties made by the Crown.
Two "omnibus budget bills" stripped environmental protection from most Canadian waters. They were passed without consultation. And yet the treaties say that the Crown is legally accountable to aboriginal peoples, and has a duty to consult and accommodate. The government bears the burden of justifying any legislation which has some negative effect on any aboriginal right. Land as well as water resources are covered. This was reaffirmed in 1982.
--Roger Green is a Brighton resident | <urn:uuid:01e1bdf4-61b1-4d69-8cef-164cb5f3ab6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northumberlandnews.com/opinion/article/1582939--native-protests-and-canada-s-environment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981318 | 780 | 1.8125 | 2 |
UJA-Fed of NY Does JSAM III
Posted September 20, 2007
UJA-Federation of NY does JSAM! (from cheshvan.org)
The COJP Task Force on Strengthening Jewish Peoplehood inhas made its grant decisions for Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM) 2007, for social action projects taking place wholly or in part during the Jewish month of Cheshvan, which corresponds to October 12 - November 10, 2007.
A total of 17 grants have been approved, at an average funding level of approximately $3,000 each.
- Four grants are to synagogues;
- Three grants are to college campus-based Jewish organizations;
- Five grants are to JCCs and YM-YWHAs;
- Four grants are to other UJA-Federation network agencies;
- One grant is to an Israeli organization whose project will invlove Jewish schools in and .
The nature of service/social action includes assistance to the elderly, refugee and immigrant populations, orphans inand local poor, programming for the developmentally challenged, environmental issues, support for emergency medical services, cultural preservation, and outreach to Hurricane Katrina victims in . Several projects offer participants a variety of options for their volunteer placement.
All projects include a meaningful Jewish service learning component, which teaches volunteers about the Jewish values of community service and social justice, and in some cases explores Jewish source material on the particular focus of the service, such as caring for the elderly.
With regard to the goal of building community by encouraging diversity among volunteers, some of the projects bring together distinct groups such as Ashkenazi and Sephardi teens or Reform and Persian Jewish professionals, while others seek to attract volunteers from a broad range of backgrounds. | <urn:uuid:e74e829e-77c1-4c05-a375-3e4049fca2d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peoplehood.org/?p=904 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935386 | 360 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Despite the agreement that saved the nation from plunging off the fiscal cliff, most Americans are worried about the country's future.
A new survey from Gallup and USA Today found that 50 percent believe the country's best years are behind us.
More than three out of four say politics in Washington is causing serious harm to the country.
Americans also still have serious reservations about Obamacare. Four in 10 say it will make things worse while three in 10 say it will make things better.
Only 12 percent expect the fiscal deal to make things "a lot better" for them, while 21 percent say it will make things "a lot worse." | <urn:uuid:860aa862-1f31-4498-b059-0730e9520d36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2013/January/Most-Say-Americas-Best-Days-are-Over/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941859 | 129 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Fri March 1, 2013
David Bowie, Rock's Shape Shifter, Returns
Originally published on Fri March 1, 2013 7:41 am
Hear Ann Powers talk about David Bowie's career, and his new album, with Morning Edition's Renee Montagne by clicking the audio link above.
My musical world does not exist without David Bowie's influence. This is certainly hyperbole; and yet when I think of the past 10 years, during which Bowie did not make music, I think of so many things I've loved that ride on an undercurrent he created. Lady Gaga and Kanye West; Adam Lambert on American Idol; late-era U2 and early Radiohead; M.I.A. and TV on the Radio and Janelle Monae and Frank Ocean — everybody took a little something from the trick bag of the Goblin King. So Bowie was with us even when he wasn't. And now, despite nasty rumors of persistent heart problems or worse, we know that David Bowie is not rapidly dying or strung out in heavens high — he walks among us, right there on iTunes, where his 24th studio album, The Next Day, is now streaming.
During his retreat, Bowie was just doing what serious artists sometimes have the luxury and discipline to do — gathering material and letting it gestate, waiting for the right moment to re-emerge. Bowie is obsessed with timing: it's a major theme in his work, from the five years he imagined Ziggy Stardust having on Earth to the signal line from his Berlin Trilogy — we can be heroes, just for one day. It must have been almost a game for him to lay back and let this coherent though not uniformly conceptual album take shape, and then take stock of his environment, waiting for the perfect moment to release it: dead of winter, when we're all a little itchy, when the air is cold and often clear enough to carry forward complicated messages.
The Next Day is not an easy album to absorb, though it's an endlessly enjoyable listen, especially for fans eager to tease out its hidden meanings. The lyrics offer clues and plenty of red herrings. Some songs have a strong autobiographical tinge, while others read like chapters in the middle of a book you've stumbled across in a curiosity shop. The two tracks most people have heard fall on the personal side of Bowie's cosmology. "Where Are We Now" is an elegiac ballad that connects his own nostalgia for Berlin with reflections on that city's refugee dislocations, while "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," with its wonderful Todd-Haynes-on-acid video (directed by Floria Sigismondi), is about fame, one of the Thin White Duke's lifelong obsessions.
Beyond these intimate excursions, however, Bowie wanders wide, into medieval history, spy-movie scenarios, tales of exile and paranoia and men and women selling out their worlds. The album's lighter moments — there's a dance song and a love song, and one wham-bam rocker celebrating the musical pretenders to Bowie's throne — still tease the brain with obscure references and narrative left turns. The music is similarly eclectic, and feels free, with Bowie's long-trusted collaborators (guitarist Earl Slick, sax player Steve Elson, the rhythm section of Gail Ann Dorsey and Sterling Campbell) slyly connecting each riff and rhythmic shift to earlier points in his career, without fetishizing any one period. The skillful juxtapositions of elements from his many musical guises -- Big Beat Bowie, Melodramatic Ballad Bowie, No Wave Bowie, Pop Magpie Bowie and even the Weary Elder Bowie who emerged on the very fine 2003 album Reality — satisfies the hungry ear without privileging any one costume in the actor's closet.
That overflowing closet, and the very fact that it's so full, makes The Next Day more than just a nostalgic exercise. Instead of re-creating any one moment his fans may wish they could revisit, Bowie, producer Tony Visconti and the many experienced Bowie pals playing on The Next Day judiciously sample from one of rock's richest discographies to shape songs that feel immediate. Bowie changes his vocal style throughout the album, putting on different familiar voices and encouraging the musicians to follow him into corners of his sound that they haven't visited in a while. (I hear "Cat People" here, you might hear "Look Back in Anger" there; we'll all have fun chasing the figures that emerge in this memory-mist.) The music doesn't sound dated because it's always moving, and also because Bowie's sonic innovations still inspire so many younger artists, from second-generation New Wavers like Pulp and Blur to the kids currently playing with the glam glitter crayon box, like fun. and Foxygen.
More important than his musical influence, however, is the startlingly fresh currency of Bowie's primary obsession: make-believe. I use that childish term in its most serious sense, representing the central human activity of self-creation through speech and act, disguise and daydreams and lies. People often speak of Bowie as a chameleon, a master of artifice, but that's just his surface; so much of his work is actually about artifice.
His greatest hits have made vivid the processes of art-making and star-making. They've considered how rock music deified his friends and threatened his own sense of self. They've confronted the power of desire to shatter sexual self-conception, confound or reinforce racial stereotypes. They've tackled big themes like the impact of technology and the limits of nationalism within stories of radical displacement and alienation, often with a supernatural tinge. Bowie himself has certainly adopted many guises throughout his career, but his own transformations are only part of his larger project: exposing the constructed nature of our most treasured, "true" experiences, whether that's love, religion, national pride or even the solidity of the self.
In past decades, these interests have made Bowie relevant to students of philosophical systems like post-modernism. Today, constructedness is more clearly part of everyone's life. The online world obviously runs on it, as we build our avatars and live through so many virtual realities. That was Bowie's subject on Reality; on The Next Day, he's exploring more widely, touching on how the stories we tell ourselves collectively create tyrants and motivate wars, and confronting what happens when someone is thrown out of her own life story through exile, criminal activity, mental illness or spiritual doubt.
That's what I hear, anyway, in the knotty lyrics of The Next Day, brought to life in music that moves in many different directions at once. Fundamental to Bowie's belief in the power of artifice is his refusal to believe in a primary source for rock 'n' roll itself; unlike many classic rockers, from The Rolling Stones to Neil Young, he's not invested in an ideal of the blues or any other form of roots music. When Bowie mines older musical forms, they're the shiniest, sometimes the schlockiest and often most pop, from sentimental balladry to 1950s novelty songs to the Shadows' "Apache," the instrumental twangfest that every reviewer's noting as a source on The Next Day. As I hear it, Bowie never settles on an origin point for what he does, and that has allowed him to go through his changes without ever coming off as insincere. Now, as a graying eminence, he's building labyrinths, and it's our delight to enter them and recognize how closely they correspond to the (questionably) real world.
If The Next Day is inspired by anything beyond Bowie's own deep mine of a catalog, I like to imagine that it's the music of women rockers like PJ Harvey (who also considered war on 2011's amazing Let England Shake), St. Vincent, and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs. Women in rock have always struggled to prove their own authenticity; these artists have found their own truths by exploring different roles, donning masks, experimenting with odd sounds and song shapes. They are Bowie's other daughters, his musical ones; maybe he has learned something from them, too. However he's arrived in the comfortable state of profundity represented on The Next Day, it's our luck he's letting us in. Where is David Bowie now? As usual, the answer to that question is always changing. But as long as there's him, as long as there's us, we'll be interested. | <urn:uuid:104c7443-82fd-44e4-bb33-6b781d3dcd11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ksut.org/post/david-bowie-rocks-shape-shifter-returns | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966594 | 1,771 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Recent activity at two British biotechs is illustrative of the issues being encountered by the wider European biotech sector.
The problems at neurology specialist Vernalis stem from last year's not-approvable letter from FDA for a new indication for
its menstrual-migraine treatment Frova (frovatriptan). Vernalis Chief Executive Simon Sturge is leaving and won't be replaced,
and the company is cutting its workforce by more than half—including closing its US commercial operations and its research
site west of London. And reproductive-health specialist Ardana has put itself up for sale, indicating that it also will scale
back its operations to save money.
The biotech industry in Europe has never produced an Amgen-size company. "I turn round to investors and say, 'That's your
fault!'" says Sam Fazelli, analyst at Piper Jaffray. "If [the science] is working, why don't you let it happen?"
Part of the problem is that biotechs are now being set up for a trade sale at the outset, with the exit route for the early-stage
funders and venture capitalists being envisaged as selling the company to Big Pharma, rather than the more traditional route
of an IPO and floating on the stock market. While some companies will always fail, those whose technology succeeds (or looks
like it's going to) are swallowed up and vanish from the market, leaving no stand-alone companies to build up the biotech
sector in its own right.
Consultant Martyn Postle, director and founder of Cambridge Healthcare and Biotech, agrees that, at the moment, Europe is
building acquisition fodder rather than sustainable biotech businesses. "They don't have the chance of seeing big returns
as these go to whichever company buys them—[local companies like] GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca claim their piece, but a
lot goes overseas," he says. And the acquisition is proof that the business has promise. "The money from the trade sale would
not be there if the company didn't think it could make a return," he adds.
Glyn Edwards, chief executive of London-listed company Antisoma, believes that this makes it more difficult for companies
to gain funding in the future. "There aren't big enough investors," he claims. "And the only way we will get them is for a
flagship company to be a success in the public markets. If all the successful ones are acquired, it may make a nice return
but, ultimately, the industry will disappear."
He adds that there is a select group of well-funded small companies for which the outlook should be good—as long as they have
enough cash to tide them over until the IPO window reopens. "But where is the net cohort of big private companies?" he says.
"There are some, but investment has dropped off."
Bruno Montanari, principal in the life sciences group at investor Atlas Ventures, believes that there are fewer and fewer
funds of sufficient size to finance companies through those difficult first few years. "It's important to have a deep-pocketed
venture capitalist to sustain the company through to the next IPO window," he says. But he adds that a "quick and dirty" trade
sale isn't what he is always looking for. "If I can wait a year or two more, I may get two, three, four times more than by
selling it quickly."
The key issue in Europe is that the funding situation is different than in the United States. In the United States, much of
the funding comes from specialist healthcare funds; in Europe, there is a fairly diverse shareholder base and the funding
comes more from generalist mid-cap investors who are less well acquainted with the vagaries of the pharma business. "These
can't possibly have the same level of expertise as the US funds have," Antisoma's Edwards claims.
There is now a sign that private-equity investors are beginning to move down the value chain, notably the specialist PE fund
Celtic Pharma, which was set up in 2005 and is now in active acquisition mode. "It's just a drop in the ocean," says Edwards.
"But it shows that there are people out there who think there are some seriously underrated companies. There are some companies
that can be sustainable. They don't necessarily have to sell their own products, but they will have to have some form of revenue
stream, such as a copromotion deal. And if we have more companies, we would have a virtuous circle where investors begin to
see the potential returns again, and more money will come into the sector."
Sarah Houlton is Pharmaceutical Executive's global correspondent. She can be reached at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:766f51a2-5ab6-4261-bbb9-2d632341849b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pharmexec.com/pharmexec/Global+Report/British-Biotech-Blues/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/507982 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968533 | 1,000 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Samuel Peploe painting could fetch £1.2m
A still life by Scottish Colourist Samuel Peploe could fetch a record price for a Scottish painting when it goes under the hammer later this year.
Auction house Christie’s estimates that the 1905 canvas, entitled The Coffee Pot, could sell for up to £1.2 million.
If the painting hits that price, it would smash the Scottish record currently held by Jack Vettriano’s The Singing Butler, which sold at auction in 2004 for £744,800.
The painting, described by Christie’s as the most important work by Peploe ever to come to auction, will be sold at its 20th Century British Art sale in London on May 26.
The artwork, which has come from a private collection, was recently on public display at a National Gallery of Scotland exhibition.
Christie’s estimates it will fetch between £800,000 and £1.2 million.
Experts said the classic early work illustrates the impact of fellow artist Edouard Manet on Peploe during his time in Paris.
Andre Zlattinger, the auction house’s senior director for 20th century British and Irish art, said: “Christie’s is thrilled to be offering The Coffee Pot, an incredibly large, evocative and sensual painting by Peploe, which is his most important work to come to auction.
“Illustrating the influence of Edouard Manet during his time in Paris, it marks a significant point of mastery and accomplishment in Peploe’s early career, revealing a wonderful new painting technique and sophisticated handling of colour, light, form and texture.
“Having recently been exhibited in the National Gallery of Scotland’s exhibition Impressionists In Scotland, it is offered from a private collection and is a key Scottish work for any true connoisseur.”
Peploe is arguably the most well-known of the Scottish Colourists. His works, and those of the other three in the group – Leslie Hunter, John Fergusson and Francis Cadell – have soared in popularity among buyers in recent years.
Several other Scottish Colourist paintings will also be sold at the forthcoming auction.
A further early Peploe – A Wine Decanter, Glasses And Fruit - is estimated to fetch up to £300,000 at the sale, as is his work Roses In A Vase With Oranges And White Tablecloth.
Still Life With Oranges And Roses, by the same artist, could go for £500,000, according to auctioneers.
Cadell’s Roses, thought to date back to the 1920s, is estimated at £80,000 to £120,000. | <urn:uuid:d8f3e012-a6b8-4203-b1e9-2338ea8291f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110128/world/samuel-peploe-painting-could-fetch-1-2m.347488 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961324 | 583 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Monday, September 07, 2009
....mark the end of summer in most of the USA. At Chez Indian, the kitties are back from their 'far south' vacation, but left a note that says they're taking the day off because it's Labor Day which, contrary to common belief, wasn't originally intended to reward laborers. The original day was intended to mark the end of the idleness of summer & signal it was time to get back down to business, but that's another post.
In most places I've been during Labor Day around the USA, it wasn't celebrated by much more than a cookout or picnic. But, in the little place I was raised, the Fourth of July wasn't really more than a cookout or picnic, Labor Day was the biggie. This was likely as the folks living in town generally worked at the paper mill, which in those days was still owned mainly by those employed there. In most families, the parents were from Europe or Canada and part of their pay when the mill started in the early 20th Century was given in shares of the company. These immigrants, mostly poorly educated, might not have known the way it worked, but they certainly understood when told the shares were important and to keep them safe.
That they did, as did their children when they went to work there and when those called to WWII returned they saved the shares that had been accumulating since the beginning of the mill to pay for their kids education. Shortly after I left the area to seek my fortune, the mill was sold to an International Company based in the USA & was greatly expanded. Today, many years and many owners later, it's struggling to stay alive with sporadic closings & openings. I understand that Labor Day is still a big day there, although on a greatly reduced scale. But, as it's those long gone days I remember, it's those days I write about.
Summer in Maine is notoriously short and, on a farm of any type, very busy. For the town kids, days of summer were filled with Boy's or Girl's Club, Little League, Pony League, part-time jobs, and a slower pace. For farm kids, it was filled with long days and evenings of dusty toil, an evening swim if possible, and early bed followed by an equally early rise. For us, the days we had free were few in number and thus very precious and were spent packing in the most we could while the day lasted.
One big event made us all rejoice and moan in anticipation, Labor Day. Even farm kids got a final reprieve for a few days of fun and, for older kids, a chance to pick up some quick money. That was the rejoice part, the moan part was that school ALWAYS started the Wednesday following Labor Day, which is ALWAYS the 1st Monday in September. In those days you didn't get 'snow days' as often as now. Perhaps if the plows were unable to clear a path in the stuff, but that was rare. So school years were more fixed. Because of the impending days sitting in classes, we likely held on to Labor Day festivities as long as possible.
The 1st signs Labor Day was nigh upon us was the appearance of 'Carnival Coming' posters being posted on every available surface & pole in town. Why they were ever needed was always a mystery to me, as EVERYBODY for many miles around KNEW that on the Wednesday before Labor Day the little traveling carnival rides on trailer trucks would arrive and congregate on the open rail-yard space opposite the Little League Field at the north end of Main Street. The Paper Company would ensure the lot was clear of logs & coal well in advance to allow the ground to 'settle' a bit for the rides. Usually there were two outfits working together to provide rides and numerous traveling & local vendors & games to round things out. They almost always had a 'Girlie Show' which most of the women opposed and almost all the men would go to see at least once. Set-up started shortly after arrival and opening was always noon Thursday, just like clockwork every year. Occasionally there was talk at Town Meeting of switching to a circus for a change, but this was usually strongly opposed by those folks who sold snacks & ran games every Labor Day. Thus, the wonderful 'sameness' stayed the same.
Uncle R would, from when I was 11 or so, always allow me to go try to earn some hard cash spending money over the few days I could. When picking kids to hire, the Carney's weren't very discreet about it. The kids would cluster around the van marked 'Boss' as soon as the wheels stopped moving. After a few minutes, out would come the fella in charge who would tell all of us to back up, he'd make a line in the dirt, and tell all over 10 years old to step into one side of the line. The rest, being too young for any job, were sent away disappointed. Then the current 'Boss' would invariably yell out for all farm kids with loads of chores to move to the other side. For some reason, the 'Townies' always fell for it and us farm hicks stepped over the line without them. Then the 'Townies' were sent packing with a promise that if they came back every day any extra jobs would be doled out first come, first served. All the farm kids were always hired with the same old line about no time for auditions, I want boys that can work and work hard. Girls in those days might get on serving snacks, but much care needed to be taken to protect their 'reputations'.
After 'set-up', most kids were let go until 'tear-down' the following Tuesday. Some of us always seemed to end up being included in the 15-20 'lucky' few who were hired on to help with almost everything requiring a strong back and weak mind. When not doing something we were free to wander the grounds, which to us meant checking out the members of the 'fairer gender' wandering the stands and rides.
That we were 'employed' by the carnivals was a plus as we would get paid every night and thus, starting on opening day, we had money to lavish on them trying to gain their favor. We ALWAYS fell for THAT as easily as the Townie boys fell for the 'choosing help' ruse. If we were wanted, the ticket seller at one of the 2-3 ride ticket sales stands would call us by name over the speaker system and tell us where to go.
Very heady stuff indeed for a buncha farm kids who spent most days doing nothing more exciting than shoveling dung, milking cows, delivering farm goods, baling hay, etc. Occasionally a real lasting friendship would spring up among the local girls & guys that was beyond the school kind winter allowed for. A couple friends are still married to 'Town Girls' they met while working the carnival. Both gals decided they liked farm boys & now they both have farm boy grand kids as they became farmer's wives, and happily so from all accounts.
I was a bit different, not that I didn't chase girls, but I always spent a fair amount of time hanging quietly around with the men & women who spent most of their time moving from city to city around the country east of the Mississippi River. It may have even instilled a bit of curiosity in my young mind, one that moving in at 16 or so with a friend who had just finished his Navy enlistment converted into more of a quest. Topped off by all the tales I heard from veterans of WWII & Korea who had been all over the place, my remaining in that town wasn't even an option when I left for the Navy at age 17 after graduating early due to skipping ahead grades a few times.
On Friday it was 'Veterans' night, Saturday had day-long contests and events ranging from tricycle parades to egg tossing and similar contests. Saturday night was 'teen' night. Sunday, the midway opened at 2PM and there were more games, greased pig chase, greased pole climb, and dance contests.
Monday, the big day, started at 11AM with a pretty long parade. There'd be several school bands, floats, baton twirlers, and every other thing anybody wanted to enter. Go-karts, square dancers, etc, followed by the perennial parade ending horses. I'd go to my Dad's house as the parade always passed by it because the marshaling area was the Elementary School ball field on the next block down, so we got to see it when the folks in it were fresh & at their best.
The day ended shortly after 9:30PM with fireworks for 45 minutes or so. In my latter years in the area we'd speed to Milltown, New Brunswick, Canada, about ten miles away to watch their Labor Day fireworks, a neat trick allowed by them being in a different time zone and the display starting at midnight there, 11 PM our time. Then I'd spend the night at Dad's and go down early the next morning to help finish up tear down and packing. This was an easy time for the regular Carney folks as the next show was always about two weeks later, allowing them a bit of a breather for the first time in months.
Even today, when I see the trucks going by in mid-September to set up for the county fair, I get a deep sense of the old wanderlust that settled deep in my very soul all those years ago listening to all those adventurous tales that sounded so unimaginable back then. Today, having been fortunate to do what I love as a part of my career, I know that those 'unimaginable' places and events only scratched the surface of what the world has to offer those willing to take a leap of faith & step beyond familiar boundaries.
Until next time, which will be shorter than the last idle period, take care & be well. | <urn:uuid:da779ccb-ef07-4d5a-adf5-81296faa9f44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jmainewoods.blogspot.com/2009/09/labor-day-celebrations.html?showComment=1253164672566 | 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 | 0.986978 | 2,063 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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St Andrew, Blofield
the captions by hovering over the images, and click on them to
see them enlarged.
We came here towards the end of the day of the Norfolk Historic Churches bike ride 2007. We had seen this great tower all afternoon from a distance, and as we approached the church unfolded itself beyond it. The windows give a clue of the extent of the Victorianisation, and once you get inside the first impression is of a fairly anonymous, urban church of the period. And yet, the building contains features of great interest, almost entirely from centuries before and since.
Finally, the Ascension of Christ into heaven, which follows the medieval convention of having the disciples gathered on their knees on both sides looking up to see Christ's feet disappearing into a cloud.
Rosary sequences of contemplative scenes are more usually found in wall paintings and glass, but are not completely unknown on fonts. Elsewhere in East Anglia there is a sequence of Joyful and Glorious Mysteries on the font at Ipswich St Matthew.
If the font is the most historically significant feature of Blofield church, the most striking is certainly the sequence of late 19th and 20th century windows. The best, and most famous of these, are the two Harker memorial windows of 1936 by Reginald Bell in the south aisle. Even at the time they were thought splendid, and there was a feature about them in the Illustrated London News. They remember Margaret Gordon Harker, of Blofield Hall, County Director and Controller of the Norfolk Branch, British Red Cross Society. The main lights are filled with two stunning Biblical scenes, one depicting Christ washing the feet of Peter, and the other of Christ bidding the little children to come to him. These themes of service resonate further in the six lower lights, where there are scenes of a war nurse, a school nurse, St John's Ambulance men, a midwife and a Red Cross nurse. Best of all, perhaps, is the charming depiction of Scottish herring girls gutting fish at Yarmouth. Taken together, the two windows form what is probably the best work of its decade in any East Anglian church. Click on the small images below to view them large.
Much of the other glass is by Hardman & Co, but there is also an excellent window depicting one of the Works of Mercy by J & J King of Norwich. They illuminate and beautify what might otherwise be rather a dour nave, although even here there are some features of interest. The box pews at the west end are banked up, probably for use by schoolchildren. 18th and 19th century banked seats may be seen in a number of East Anglian churches, but these were the first boxed ones that I had come across. The medieval pews nearer the chancel are lovely, although a little ill-fitting. I think they must have been brought here from the ruined church at Burlingham St Peter. One of the carved figures is holding a rosary, and you can imagine him contemplating the font.
Simon Knott, December 2007
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Death challenges the strength of any family. A suicide can tear a family apart. Art dealer Carl David, fourth in a line of a four-generation family owned art gallery, recounts the death of his father Sam and the suicide of his brother Bruce in Bader Field, a touching memoir of life and art. Art plays a major part in the story of the David family, but the love and strength of that family shows how living life itself can be an art. Carl David writes of his family’s lows and highs as his way of “paying it forward” and helping others strive and thrive through the adversity of suicide.
Many of the highs in the David family came in the form of the love of small engine piloting that Sam David shared with his sons. Until its closing in 2006, Bader Field stood as one of the oldest airfields in the United States. Sam flew his Aztec out of Bader Field for years. When Carl returned to the ghostly remnant of that field, it was as if the spirit of his father hovered above it, still circling joyfully.
Carl begins his memoir with the death of his father by heart attack. “As I stood in the kitchen that day,” Carl remembers, “I felt my soul agonizing for any children I might have because they would never know their grandfather, except through me and the lessons I would transfer to them. I made a commitment then and there to etch into their young minds every single shred of goodness and wisdom I could furnish, and paint them an everlasting mental portrait of the man.” Bader Field gives us all an “everlasting” portrait of Sam while simultaneously giving us a portrait of the author himself, a man as good and wise as his father in his desire to keep his family together and honor the memory of his father by continuing his business.
The trauma of his father’s death came years after the even more shocking death of his brother Bruce. When Bruce took his own life in the family’s gallery, the silence surrounding that topic was deafening. “Bruce’s battle was over,” Carl realizes, “but ours had just begun.” The rawness of this psychic wound drove Carl to begin the process of writing Bader Field in hopes of helping some family avoid the same struggles his family faced.
Bader Field talks of airplanes and fallen loved ones, but it also talks of the world of art and how engaging with that world can enhance your life. You never feel that the David family ever sees art as purely a commodity to be bought and sold. The Old Masters mean more than dollar signs to them. They internalize the sensitivity and emotion of the great works and graft those qualities onto their lives. “If his eye contact didn’t attract you,” Carl writes of his father, “then it would be the tenor of his voice, the music of his speech, or his positive energy. One would be losing something incredible if they missed an opportunity to be around him. Every day was an experience which could only be countered by the next.” One would also be losing something incredible if they missed the opportunity to read Bader Field. If art teaches us anything, it is that every day is an experience that can only be topped by tomorrow, yet we must live each day as if tomorrow will never come. Bader Field reminds us of the truths of art while teaching us how to live them.
[Many thanks to Carl David for providing me with the image above and a review copy of Bader Field.] | <urn:uuid:2efad59d-730e-4977-9572-72dc9565bdb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://authorsden.com/visit/viewnews.asp?AuthorID=94124&id=32053 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985879 | 739 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Proposed Canon
See the Battle of Chocula for details on the fighting that took place there.
Architecture and Appearance
The wall enclosing the city is a speckled brown sandstone. The buildings within the city are composed of clay brick and timber with a thatch roof overhead. As a level two city, Chocula had a modest garrison with a tower and courtyard.
Battle to Retake Chocula
Carpool realized that with Transylvito stuck in a growing war, they did not have the resources to push them around anymore. Vinny had worried earlier that Carpool would eventually put something nasty into the city and take Transylvito by surprise when they came to reconquer it.
This is exactly what they did in Carport about 40 turns after TBfGK, when they attacked the city by water and then followed that with a massive air defense buildup of archers, spell defenses and air heads. The Transylvito flying units attacked and lost two warlords. Carpool decided to try the same tactic in Chocula. They built up a significant force of archers and the Carpool Shockmancer spelled up the tower to make sure any flying unit that attacked would be croaked.
Transylvito lacked sufficient resources for an attack in force on Chocula, but Don King ordered it to be retaken anyway. Caesar Borgata was sent with Broadway Tony and a small force of bats, birds, two Battle Bears, and some goyles. Caesar suspected the [[Carpudlian]s] had a nasty trap waitng for them like they did in Carport. He broke with the usual Transylvito battle plan of attacking by air and instead focused on what little ground siege he had and used the rest of his air forces to provide him cover while he attacked the gates. With Caesar's strategy of avoiding an attack on the tower and the sacrifice of Broadway Tony and most of their force, Transylvito was narrowly able to retake the city. Caesar was badly wounded in the attack but he was able to take 200 prisoners.
Real World References
Count Chocula was the first in a series of monster-themed cereals released by General Mills, beginning in 1971. However, the "snap! crackle! pop!" sound it made as it burnt are characteristic of Kellogg's Rice Crispies. Count Chocula is a pun on the vampire Count Dracula. | <urn:uuid:29a9fe59-fa85-4d85-83db-c3711efddc03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://erfworld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chocula&oldid=45088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97305 | 501 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Erskine education program prepares future teachers for the classroom with early and plentiful teaching experience, careful instruction in methods, and focused individual attention to develop the strengths and shore up the weaknesses of each student.
Freshman Education majors spend their first January term experiencing an active classroom to find out if teaching is really their calling. From the sophomore year onward, students spend two or three days a week in classrooms under the supervision of both professional teachers and the Erskine faculty.
By the time they enter their semester of student teaching, Erskine education majors are already familiar with the policies and procedures of professional teaching. Erskine graduates are truly prepared for their first year of teaching, having more experience than the graduates of most other programs.
Erskine College maintains close ties to top-tier public schools, such as Hodges Elementary School and the Greenwood School of Inquiry. Erskine education professors are involved in local school boards and cultivate good relations with local and state education officials.
Students completing the elementary education, early childhood, or special education programs are eligible for South Carolina certification. Graduates in secondary education are prepared for middle or high school certification in their subject field.
Our Teacher Education Program is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and approved by the State Board of Education. Erskine teacher candidates who obtain South Carolina certification are usually eligible for reciprocity in other states, and Erskine alumni are certified teachers in Texas and California as well as all nearby states.
Education Degree Programs
Erskine offers certification programs in five areas of secondary education. Each requires a major in the subject field with a minor in Education and student teaching experience. Students must work closely with faculty in both departments to ensure they meet certification requirements. | <urn:uuid:773c9834-cc51-4be6-a0b0-d994c86b3f9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.erskine.edu/academics/majors/education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958247 | 367 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The pre-publication hyperbole on S.J.
One of the most buzzed-about books of the summer, Before I Go to Sleep is a psychological thriller about murder, memory, trust and love. What would you do if you lost your memory?
SIBLINGS FOR HIRE
Before I Go To Sleep is the first novel by British author S.J.Watson. Christine Lucas has the sort of amnesia that prevents her from storing new memories. This means that she wakes each day in an unfamiliar bedroom, next to a man she doesn’t know. The face she sees in the mirror is that of a woman much older than she knows herself to be. Each morning the man in her bed reassures her that he is Ben, her husband of 22 years, and that he loves her and will take care of her. So everything will be OK, won’t it? Watson has created a novel with an original plot and some delicious twists, a novel full of suspense with a heart-stopping climax and a perfect ending. Watson skilfully conveys Christine’s confusion, her doubts about her own memories, her fear of paranoia and ultimately her mistrust of what she is told. This debut novel is a brilliantly conceived psychological thriller that is hard to put down and will keep the reader guessing to the end. S.J.Watson is an author to watch. | <urn:uuid:8f3eb53b-a467-4441-981e-c05c5b74a0f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bookpage.com/book/s.j.-watson/before-i-go-to-sleep | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971204 | 287 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Since February 2011, Daphna has led Reut's Tikkun Olam team, which focuses on the potential for world Jewry and the State of Israel working together to help solve pressing global issues, and to make a significant, global, and distinctly Jewish and Israeli contribution to the world. In April 2012, the team published its framework of strategic principles to guide a 21st century Tikkun Olam and is working to effectuate the vision it set forth.
Daphna joined Reut in September 2010 as a Legacy Heritage Fellow and an analyst on the team focused on combating a global campaign to delegitimize Israel. She contributed to the team's conceptual framework, several additional publications, and a global impact campaign.
Prior to joining Reut, Daphna served as the Communications and Research Director for AIPAC's leadership development program. In this capacity, she produced content for AIPAC publications as well as political leadership and advocacy training materials. Daphna has worked for The Israel Project in media communications, engaging journalists on matters relating to Israel's security and utilizing research-based strategic communications in producing and disseminating information on the Middle East to journalists and the public.
Daphna earned her M.A. in Media and Public Affairs (with highest honors) from The George Washington University. Combining her academic program with an international relations curriculum, Daphna completed an inter-disciplinary thesis, titles "Applying Complexity Theory to Communications Research: A Conceptual Framework," with both departments.
Daphna was born in Israel and spent most of her life in the U.S. She returned to Israel in 2010.
Daphna Kaufman, The Turkel Commission is fighting yesterday's war, The Jerusalem Post, 01/24/2011
The Delegitimization Challenge: Creating a Political Firewall
The Assault on Israel's Legitimacy: London as a Case Study
The Gaza Flotilla: The Collapse of Israel's Political Firewall | <urn:uuid:e582a89e-e0fe-44ff-a1fc-1cf2eede462b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reut-institute.org/en/Content.aspx?Page=Team&MemberId=73 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948822 | 403 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Editor's note: Since 2005, Blake Snow has covered video games and other male-interest topics for some of the biggest names in journalism. He lives in Utah with his family and is currently writing a book about finding offline balance in an online world.
(CNN) -- If console gaming were a first-person shooter, it would be taking heavy fire right now. A red hue would envelop the viewable screen from all sides, an ominous sign of spilled blood.
Or worse, near-death.
Despite this, Nintendo will release its new Wii U console on November 18, ushering in the eighth and possibly last generation of traditional home consoles as we know them.
Consider this: Dedicated gaming sales — including living-room consoles and handhelds — are in the midst of a four-year tailspin. You might say that's because of a bad economy, but then you'd have to explain why movie revenue and cable TV subscriptions have largely stayed the same.
Or why music sales, gutted by online streaming and piracy, have held up better than slumping sales of console games. Or why the popularity of social, mobile and PC games have skyrocketed to unthinkable heights.
The problem seems to be isolated to dedicated video games. Video game industry sales in the United States, including game discs, consoles and accessories, were down 24% in September when compared with the same period last year. Many experts believe these decreases in profits, the rise of casual and social gaming and waning consumer interest are affecting makers of the three big living-room consoles: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii.
So is this it then? Is the death of dedicated gaming upon us? In a word, no.
"I bristle when people suggest as much," says Adrian Crook, a game design consultant. "Consoles will grow again and will never go away."
But today's dedicated gaming business is arguably in its most tumultuous period since the 1983 gaming collapse. It's nowhere near ruin yet, thanks to big franchises like "Call of Duty," "Madden," and a select few mainstream console games. But the console's influence is waning, and there's uncertainty about its future.
Here's where the shots at console gaming are coming from, and how the industry might dodge and counter them.
Since the '80s, console makers have dreamed of using their "dedicated gaming machines" as Trojan horses to further control the living room with a single, proprietary device.
That time has come. Gaming consoles have transformed into entertainment hubs for people to stream movies or YouTube videos. So much, in fact, that gaming consoles no longer are being used primarily for gaming. In fact, "40% of all Xbox activity now is non-game," Microsoft boasts. Amazon and Netflix streaming accounts for most of that, as they do for Wii and PS3.
Combined, game consoles account for half of all Netflix users. This is great news for the movie industry. Not so great for console gaming's bottom line, especially since the industry largely subsidizes consoles now.
In other words, a console isn't helping the gaming industry if it's mainly being used to stream Netflix movies.
Not only that, but gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket.
"Most people who liked console games in the past still do today," says Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Ubisoft, "but they're also looking for a wider spread of experiences. I want some games I can play quickly after work or while the kids are asleep and have a short satisfying experience."
As the number of gaming scenarios has increased, so, too, has the number of diehard gamers, says market researcher DFC Intelligence.
"Gamers have not only increased in number, but they are playing on multiple platforms now," says analyst David Cole. "Fewer enthusiasts describe themselves in a single camp such as 'I love Nintendo and hate Sony and Microsoft' or vice versa."
If enthusiasm for a single dedicated machine has waned, however — or at least has been spread thin — then the machine that demands the most attention will invariably suffer. That machine is the console — the one you hold dear to your heart, but probably reach for less than you used to, whether you like to admit it or not.
When it's not taking a backseat to more convenient app gaming, some say the console has stagnated creatively.
"You would think that XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade), PSN (PlayStation Network), and the rise of 'free to play' would have opened a door to smaller games that can take more risks creatively, but right now they're just cut-down versions of box-product games, or retreads of games I played on the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)," says Hutchinson, referring to the online gaming networks offered by Microsoft and Sony.
"I don't honestly think that someone who didn't want a 2-D platformer 20 years ago is going to wake up today and buy it on XBLA."
In addition, even big-box games have lost some of their visual allure in recent years. What were once graphical leaps in previous generations have now become bunny hops, at least to the average eye.
"People aren't as motivated by cutting-edge graphics as they once were," says Paul Neurath, creative director at Zynga, makers of "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and other social games on Facebook.
"Gamers that care intensely about graphics will continue to do so, but I think there are fewer now than there were in the past," he says. "Big leaps in graphics no longer exist. Unless there's some futuristic holographic display or direct brain implement we don't know about, it's hard to get a lot better."
Cole, the gaming analyst, agrees.
"Cutting-edge graphics in the past amounted to nothing more than killer CGI videos that added nothing to gameplay," he said. "That's a problem for an industry that up until recently prided itself on "buy this console because the games look a lot better than the ones you currently own.'"
In that sense, next-generation is no longer "next." We've arrived. Looking back, NES was certainly a step above Atari and imprecise joysticks. SNES and Genesis offered a huge leap in affordable home graphics. PlayStation and N64 immersed players into 3-D worlds replete with camera control. PlayStation 2 and Xbox overcame polygons in favor of rounded and non-jaggy looks. All of these were improvements upon previous generations of gaming systems.
But this current generation of consoles? With the exception of the early Wii years, they've largely offered better-looking versions of games we've already played. There have been a lot of great games to be sure, but fewer must-haves — the kind that truly take the medium into uncharted territory.
Rise of cheap, social gaming
On the other hand, cheap, bite-size games such as "Angry Birds" and "Plants vs. Zombies" have thrived in recent years, ensnaring new players with novel gameplay.
"Virtually all of my clients are in social and mobile sectors, which have totally exploded in the last few years and continue unabated today," says Crook, who previously worked as a console designer.
As such, the demand for games has grown. "It's not so much that gamer interests have changed since the last generation, but that a whole group of new players have started playing games," says Zynga's Neurath. "These people would never have played last-generation console games. They're more into it for the social aspect."
Console makers so far have been ill-equipped to meet this demand, given their lucrative, 30-year-old model of selling games for $50-$60.
This partly explains why Nintendo, after five years of phenomenal Wii growth, is slumping. Industry experts say they're not in a position to meet the demands of most new social gamers.
We'll soon find out whether the Wii U can revive Nintendo's fortunes. The console's big new feature is a 6.2-inch touchscreen GamePad controller that interacts in creative new ways with the gamers' TV. Wii U players can play together, with one person using a TV screen and the other using the GamePad. A single player also can access additional content on the GamePad that enhances the game on the big screen.
Nintendo declined to comment for this story.
In a struggling economy, consoles also have fallen victim to the cut-rate pricing of games -- something consumers are exceedingly demanding but consoles have yet to offer.
In what has become a successful business model, many developers give away their games for free, then charge players later for status upgrades or gameplay perks.
"Say what you want about freemium, 'nickel and diming' of players, but I'd sooner pay nothing up front and $5 to $10 later than plunk down $60 on a game and hope I like it," says Crook.
Ubisoft's Hutchinson refers to it as a rising "fear" among console gamers. With so many deals to be had elsewhere, a lot of console gamers are making fewer full-price purchases than before.
"The free-to-play model has certainly impacted the industry," agrees Zynga's Neurath.
On top of that, 99¢ iPhone and iPad games are also taking a toll on the perceived value of dedicated gaming systems. Even PC games go on sale for as little as $5-$20 on occasion, a trend that has breathed new life into PC gaming and changed how some of the most ardent gamers value games.
"The business model for a five-year life cycle isn't working for Sony and Microsoft," says Cole. "They spend billions to R&D and market these new systems, they sell them at a loss for the first few years and then they don't really have the software business to make up the cost. They are better getting out of the business entirely rather than go after a five-year life cycle."
How console makers can fight back
In wake of all these changes, what's a console maker to do? What might reinvigorate interest in living-room and dedicated handheld gaming?
A first step would be fresher consoles themselves. The Xbox 360 is 7 years old, while the Wii and the PlayStation 3 are both 6.
Newer motion-controlled gaming systems such as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move, which let players control in-game avatars by moving their arms and legs, have helped sustain interest. But experts say more upgrades are needed.
"New consoles would help, and the rumblings have already started at Microsoft and Sony," Hutchinson says. As if reminded by the lackluster sales of the handheld 3DS and PS Vita gaming systems, he adds, "But I don't know that we really need a new hardware cycle at this point from a creative standpoint."
Zynga's Neurath, who's worked with consoles and PCs since the 8-bit days, says console makers would do well to act more like nontraditional platforms. A new console dubbed Ouya will launch next year with free-to-play games and a $99 launch price, but keep the focus on what its manufacturer calls "TV gaming."
Crook believes there is still plenty of time for traditional console makers to correct their downward trend.
"There will always be a big market for core game systems," he says. "It all comes down to how consoles can get back to taking creative risks again, and what the platforms can do to broaden their markets and offer innovative means of interaction."
Ubisoft's Hutchinson wants console games to deliver more meaningful experiences.
"Games need to explain to players why they made certain artistic decisions, what mood they're setting with their lighting and color choices, and less about the technical features," he says. "We need to offer more experiences that are understandable to people's real lives, either in terms of mechanics or narrative, and attract people who don't read fantasy novels or watch the SyFy channel. Our mechanics are often not the barrier, but our content sometimes is."
The good news for the industry, and for gamers, is that video games in their broadest sense are most definitely here to stay. It's just that the way we access, control and define them has rapidly evolved. Despite the weakening sales of consoles and console games, the growth of mobile, social and PC-based games means that total spending on gaming is actually on the rise.
"Inviting more people to the fun and wonderment of games isn't just good for social games, it's good for the entire industry," says Neurath.
It will likely take at least one more console cycle to gauge the long-term sustainability of dedicated gaming devices, experts say. Their ultimate survival all depends on how well console makers adapt to evolving business models and changing consumer tastes. | <urn:uuid:d7356cff-cfdb-4227-af1c-ae83f1e1e7cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/console-gaming-dead/index.html?hpt=hp_bn5&imw=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969966 | 2,744 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Grafton Lakes State Park, on the forested mountain ridge between the Taconic and Hudson Valleys, includes five ponds and 2,357 acres. Long Pond has a large, sandy beach, which is a popular summer attraction. Anglers can go after rainbow and brown trout in Long, Second and Shaver Pond. Pickerel, perch, and bass are abundant in all ponds including Mill Pond and walleye are found at the Martin-Durham Reservoir. All ponds have launch facilities for canoes, sailboats and rowboats, electric boat are allowed. Visitors also picnic, walk the nature trails, and hike, bike or ride horses along the 25 miles of park trails.
In winter, the trails are groomed for snowmobilers, and visitors may also snowshoe, cross-country ski, ice skate or ice fish when conditions permit, call for details.
Shaver Pond Nature Center is not regularly open to the public, but occasionally hosts nature programs and quarterly meetings for the Friends of Grafton Lakes State Park. It is located at: 194 Shaver Pond Rd. Grafton NY 12082
*The Second Annual Geocache Challenge will begin on Saturday, May 25 and continue through November 11, with prizes at all 16 parks and historic sites within the Saratoga-Capital District Region. Please see the flyer for details. Download the 2013 Geocache Challenge Passport here. | <urn:uuid:da348aed-c88f-476e-af59-a5d9940e9d94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nysparks.com/parks/53/details.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937624 | 293 | 1.75 | 2 |
How much crime is drug or alcohol related? Self-reported attributions of police detainees
For the criminal justice system in particular, drug crime estimates, such as those presented in this paper, help to direct more effective targeting of diversion and treatment policies. The present study used new data collected by the AIC’s DUMA program. It examined the self-reported alcohol and drug attributions of 1,884 police detainees from nine separate data collection locations across Australia.
The study is the first of its kind to examine attribution estimates for specific drugs and by specific attribution types. Nearly half of all police detainees attributed their current offending to alcohol or drugs—alcohol being more frequently attributed to by detainees than all other drugs combined. Of the illicit drugs, heroin users were the most likely to attribute their offending to drug use, while cannabis users were among the least likely.
Surprisingly, of those who attributed their offending to drug use, only 25 percent attributed their crimes to economic factors, such as the need to fund drug addictions, whereas being intoxicated or under the influence of drugs or alcohol were reported as the cause by as many as 40 percent. | <urn:uuid:603e44e8-adfb-4442-bf35-283968dcd080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apo.org.au/research/how-much-crime-drug-or-alcohol-related-self-reported-attributions-police-detainees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971501 | 230 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprise) sector is growing fast all over the world. It is both acting as an engine
of accelerated growth and serving as a nursery for entrepreneurial development. Therefore, many countries have
established SME support agencies to coordinate government interventions in this sector.
With the view to foster the growth of the SME sector in India, the Central Government has put in charge the Office
of the Development Commissioner (MSME), as the respective nodal support agency. DC(MSME)is part of the Ministry of Small Scale Industries (MSSI).
Office of DC(MSME) has seen its role evolve into an agency for advocacy, support, and
facilitation for the SME sector. It operates over 60 offices and 21 autonomous bodies. They provide a wide spectrum
of services to SME.
These services include facilities for testing, training for entrepreneurship development, preparation
of project and product profiles, technical and managerial consultancy, assistance for exports as well as energy audits.
Moreover, office of DC(MSME) offers economic information services and advises the government in policy formulation for the promotion
and development of SME. The field offices of MSME work as effective links between the Central Government and the State
Office of the DC(MSME) responsibility for the tool rooms comprises strategic orientation and leadership, guidance in the operational planning
of the individual tool rooms, supervision of their operations and performance, and assessment of the impact of the production
and training services on the industry and the labor market at large. | <urn:uuid:bbe53b19-d7b5-4ce4-9cd5-6154a33a0876> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.igtrahd.com/msme.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941202 | 316 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Religion & Beliefs
Save Your Community From the Flu and Other Scary Possibilities
The Washington Post has an article online about how various religious groups are working to make sure that they’re properly networked and everything in case of a flu epidemic. More than 125 leaders from churches, synagogues, temples and mosques met … Read More
The Washington Post has an article online about how various religious groups are working to make sure that they’re properly networked and everything in case of a flu epidemic.
More than 125 leaders from churches, synagogues, temples and mosques met recently at the Fairfax County Government Center to grapple with questions ranging from the practical to the theological as they began preparing their communities for the possibility of a flu outbreak.
Houses of worship could play a crucial role in managing such an epidemic, say religious leaders and health officials, because they have such large constituencies and are intimately involved in the daily life of the community. Not only are they gathering places for hundreds of thousands of parishioners and groups such as Scouts and senior citizens, but they also minister to the disadvantaged.
It is "a substantial religious network that, if properly organized with the right kind of spirit, can have a tremendous positive impact on helping to do our part to ensure domestic tranquility," said Lewis Saylor, a member of Faith Communities in Action, a coalition of diverse religious organizations that organized the meeting last month with the Fairfax County Health Department and the county's Community Interfaith Office.
Full story I mentioned before that when I read Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago I learned all about how effective churches were at getting senior citizens out of potentially lethal heat. Clearly synagogues and mosques can and do provide similar services, but only to people they know about. If you know of someone who lives alone, and has trouble getting around on his or her own, make sure someone at your shul knows about them, too. Firstly, because it’s nice to visit the ill, and secondly because you want to be able to help in case of an emergency. | <urn:uuid:bcc49a4a-d4cb-4e79-9393-54b518ffc32e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewcy.com/religion-and-beliefs/save_your_community_from_the_flu_and_other_scary_possibilities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96847 | 426 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The Eco Partnership Ltd., based in the UK, announced an exclusive agreement with the Canadian company Entech Coatings Inc, a private label of Prima Developments, to distribute in Europe wall and roof coatings carrying the brand name Ceramic Insulcoat with Cerylium™.
Entech Coatings, based in Surrey, British Columbia, is a manufacturer of high-performance coatings for wall and roof applications.
Originally developed by a German chemist in the 1960s, the Ceramic Insulcoat product line is the result of advanced manufacturing processes and formulations involving the proprietary formula known as Cerylium™. The manufacturer says the ingredient is the key to the creation of a year-round thermal barrier responsible for maintaining building temperatures in the winter and lowering them in summer, reducing energy costs and environmental impacts. The 100% acrylic water-borne coatings do not include formaldehyde or other chemicals harmful to the environment, the company says.
The coatings are described as weatherproof and permeable; resistant to fade, cracking, or color change; and highly durable. A companion product, Sealbond, is used to protect stonework or brickwork, and is recommended for use on historic buildings where surface or mortar erosion is a concern.
The Eco Partnership says it is made up of a team of “ecolutionaries” drawn from the property and building industries, and focuses on environmentally friendly technologies in seeking to identify and market pioneering and sustainable products specifically for the built environment. The company says the Ceramic Insulcoat product line fit its criteria due to performance and composition characteristics and an “unparalleled green report card.”
Roland Langset, president of Prima Developments, said the joint venture of Entech and The Eco Partnership “comes at a crucial point in the sales growth of the InsulCoat product.” He added, “As the world moves to a low-carbon economy there will be a competitive advantage for those who embrace these technologies.”
More information: www.envirocoatings.com. | <urn:uuid:3e99621b-22f6-4576-8a09-20a4168c069b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paintsquare.com/news/?fuseaction=view&id=3193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93696 | 423 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Vilsack: Looming cuts could hurt USDAMeat inspectors, FSA agents could be furloughed, ag secretary warns.
By: Jerry Hagstrom, Forum News Service
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has no choice but to furlough meat inspectors if sequestration of government funds goes into effect on March 1, but the date on which the furloughs would begin for inspectors and other government employees would depend on labor agreements, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said last week.
Employees ranging from meat inspectors to Farm Service Agency county employees would be furloughed under the cutback in government spending that is scheduled to go into effect Friday, but it is still possible that Congress will write a bill by April 1 that would soften the effects.
“This is a direct prescription from Congress to reduce every line item by the same percentage,” Vilsack told the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum. Within the Food Safety and Inspection Service, he said, there are “very few lines” and the only way to come up with required savings is to furlough workers.
But Vilsack later told reporters that USDA has a number of labor contracts with varying provisions on furloughs. Some contracts call for a 30-day notice, others for 60 days and still others for 120 days, and under some contracts, furloughs are subject to collective bargaining, Vilsack said.
Meat that has not been inspected cannot be sold. The Obama administration has said the furloughs would cause meat processing plants to close and USDA shutdowns would cost more than $10 billion in production losses and $400 million in lost wages. USDA has also noted that the meat supply would be reduced.
Meat industry groups have said that the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Production Inspection Act require meat inspectors to be on the job, and have suggested that Vilsack declare them “essential” federal employees, which would mean that they would be paid even if other federal workers are not.
But Vilsack said the “essential” worker declaration had been made in the context of government shutdowns when there was a guarantee that Congress would reimburse the agencies for the salaries that had been paid. The sequestration measure would be different, Vilsack said, because the agency would simply get less money.
Vilsack said Congress should give flexibility to USDA on how to conduct the sequestration or pass a larger package that would resolve all the issues surrounding the sequestration.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, DMich., have proposed a deal to avoid sequestration under which Defense Department spending would be reduced and the USDA direct payments program would be eliminated. The American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union and a dozen commodity groups have opposed the use of the direct payments budget authority for deficit reduction without the writing of a new farm bill.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which represents small, environmentally minded farmers, supported the Reid-Stabenow proposal on the grounds that the direct payments program should be eliminated and that the bill would fund vital programs. Wholesome Wave, a group that tries to make it cheaper for food stamp beneficiaries to buy fruits and vegetables, also backed it.
Republicans in the House have rejected the Reid-Stabenow proposal and conservative House members want the sequestration cuts to go through. But Vilsack has said he will give all USDA employees 30 days notice before starting furloughs. That would mean sequestration would not really be felt until April 1. | <urn:uuid:6a74fa93-ac20-414a-a788-fdd687f3809c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/76667/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965677 | 740 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Qigong is an energy therapy, gaining importance in helping cancer patients. It is often said that Qigong has the power to heal. We have another article which explains more about the actual exercises and qigong and cancer. For that article please click here.
Qigong - the Power to Heal
A Report by Ginny Fraser
In September 2006, a four day International Conference on cancer therapies was held in Seattle. Whilst the NCI and other top cancer bodies were represented from the USA, to France, Germany and even China, there was no such representation from the orthodox profession in the UK, and certainly no groundbreaking papers presented by our cancer institutions. What also caught our eye was the normality in the conference of mainstream orthodox speakers presenting alongside more supposedly alternative speakers like the Gerson Institute, and the amount of time devoted to presentations (including clinical trial research) on one particular therapy, Qigong. We decided to investigate this as clearly few, if any, UK orthodox practitioners are able to advise on the use of energy to heal.
According to Chinese hieroglyphics, qigong has been around for as long as 7000 years, and it is becoming increasingly popular in the West as an effective practice, both for people dealing with illness and those who want to prevent it.
Described as a philosophical, meditative, and postural discipline, it is a method of moving the internal energy we all have through our bodies in a positive way. The idea that we have an energetic life force that exists inside us is an accepted fact in many cultures. The Japanese call it ki, the Indians call it prana. Even for us Westerners the idea is hardly new. Acupuncture is based on this premise, as is shiatsu, reflexology and many other alternative approaches to healing.
One of the elements of this hidden energy system is the existence of the chakras (most simply described as spinning vortices of energy that have different frequencies) and the twelve meridian lines that are conduits for the life force or qi. One of the simplest ways to be aware of the meridians for yourself is to experiment with pressing firmly on different parts of your foot or inside lower leg. Often you will feel twinges in other, seemingly disconnected parts of the body because although, for instance, your big toe and your head are far apart, there is an energy line - a meridian - that connects them. For more detail on this see Chris Woollams article The Fourth Pillar of Cancer Can your mind heal your body? in Issue 2 2006 of icon magazine.
In qigong the energy is moved around the body by doing various exercises, some of which can look slightly tai-chi-ish. Generally though, the postures are not physically demanding and are very good for people who are ill as they do not force you to stretch or exhaust yourself in any way. It is claimed that sustained practice has enormous effect on health and inner strength, calming the mind, developing inner perception, reducing emotionality and creating strength and flexibility.
Breathing, posture and focus are the key elements and, through these, the energy can be moved around. The intention is to move positive energy and clear negative energy or energy blocks. Generally this is taught by a qigong Master who, in addition to teaching the techniques, can also send qi the positive energy that is inside us and in every part of the universe into the body of the student.
This emitted qi is so powerful that one experiment showed it to effectively destroy Staphylococcus bacteria more efficiently than carbolic acid in tests over eight minutes. Powerful stuff that is available to all of us if we can learn to connect and work with it.
A form of qigong which has great relevance for cancer patients is that developed in China by Dr Pang Ming during the time of the revolution in China. At that time there was a great deal of poverty and Dr Pang Ming wanted to help those who couldnt afford medicines. He created zhineng qigong and set up the largest medicine-less hospital in the world; the Huaxia Zhineng Qigong Centre, where between 4000 6000 people would practice qigong at any one time. Whilst the older methods of qigong relied heavily on the passing on of knowledge through family members, zhineng qigong is openly discussed and taught in China, partly to allow more rigorous examination of the results obtained. Zhineng is an open form of qigong, working not just with the energy in the body, but the energy of the universe that is all around us all the time.
Many seemingly miraculous healings took place at the clinic and Chinese statistics showed a 95% improvement ratio on over 450 diseases including cancer, MS, ME and diabetes. Although these statistics are unverified by Western scientists, the practice is gaining popularity around the world, especially with cancer patients.
Dr Pang Ming had an exceptional student named Luke Chan who, with his brother Frank, was tasked with taking zhineng qigong to the West. Luke Chan is the author of 101 Miracles of Natural Healing, which contains the stories of people who were cured of so-called incurable illness through the practice of qigong.
One fan of the technique is Miami-based acupuncturist Dashi Chu Tocica, a qigong teacher who also teaches in the UK and comes recommended by integrated cancer doctor Etienne Callebout. Dashi traveled to China, to the Huaxia Centre, to train in qigong, but also to get some healing for herself, I went to find out if qigong could cure the 50% hearing loss in my left ear that I had developed over 3 years. I practiced qigong from 5:30 am until 9:00 pm every day for three and a half weeks, and then, just two days before I was due to leave the Centre, my ear "popped," and my hearing was suddenly, and completely, restored!
Unlike Western hospitals where patients are told to "get plenty of rest" and are treated with drugs, special diets or surgery, here the prescription for health was eight hours a day of qigong exercise. Patients take an active role in their recovery by becoming students of self-healing methods, and through "sweat, love, and plenty of qi," they fight their disease with the help of fellow students, family members and instructors.
Although based in the US, Dashi teaches courses in the UK from time to time, having personally benefited from qigong and in a desire to share the practice with others. She has experienced its many applications from strengthening the immune system to creating inner peace.
The practice of qigong seems to be a practical method of working with what we know but only half-understand that all healing begins internally. Jeremy Leach a UK-based practitioner says It changes peoples mentality from looking for an external source to cure them to being the source of their own healing.
It does take time and practice; but if you are dealing with cancer all this is relative. When Jeremy pointed out to a client he was teaching that hard work was required, she retorted that he should try chemotherapy!
Dashi and Jeremy are both teachers in the line of Dr Pang Ming and the medicine-less hospital in China. In the US the term used for this type of qigong is chi-lel, and in Europe it is called chi-neng. Donatus Roobeek is another UK teacher of chi-neng, who teaches in Ringwood, Hampshire. He has a number of clients with cancer. The system used is generic for all types of cancer, he says, And a certain amount of inner resolve is required. If someone has been pronounced terminally ill they need to practice up to six hours a day. The way he works is that after an initial session clients would go away with a DVD and a book to practice at home. They would return a few weeks later to ensure they were on track with the movements.
Jan Lively is a testament to the power of the practice. She was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in the liver in 2001, with a very high tumour marker count of 4500. Her oncologist told her to forget about a full recovery. Encouraged by a friend she read the Luke Chan 101 Miracles of Healing book and began to practice chi-lel for just 20 minutes each day. Six weeks later her tumour marker was down to 2500 and her baked potato-sized tumour had shrunk to the size of a golf ball. She gradually increased the time she spent practicing to an hour a day and began to experience many positive emotional / spiritual benefits such as a really clear intuition and sense of knowing.
She continued to have chemotherapy on and off over the years in conjunction with the chi-lel and believes that the two work well together, with the chi-lel helping bolster the immune system and detox the chemotherapy. She says, Chi-lel has given me new life, and most importantly, a deep inner peace. Whereas I used to feel unhappy and unsatisfied most of the time, I am now a happy person. Breast cancer no longer scares me. Today she jogs daily and has great energy, teaching chi-lel to a group of women with breast cancer who come together with the aim of empowering women with cancer to help themselves.
Qigong is clearly not for those who would like to take a pill and wait for the next instruction from the oncologist. But for anyone who has found their diagnosis has led them to a deeper enquiry into the subtler energetic levels of health and healing, this practice has a proven track record and can provide excellent results for those with the discipline for daily practice.
Donatus Roobeeks website, www.the-natural-life.co.uk contains information about classes and links to other sites.
Details of Dashis UK courses are available on www.asianhealingarts.org
Information on another type of qigong hua gong (not discussed in this article) can be obtained from firstname.lastname@example.org
101 Miracles of Natural Healing by Luke Chan is available on Amazon | <urn:uuid:5b99109f-83b5-4eda-8960-660c91de4c97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=3004&Title=Qigong%20-%20the%20Power%20to%20Heal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971219 | 2,108 | 1.75 | 2 |
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