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New York Times names 31 places to go in 2010
Rather than just naming the destinations, the NYT gives reasons behind each choice. For instance, Sri Lanka, where nearly 25 years of fighting has recently ended, seems poised to become a much more popular beach destination in the region. It also makes sense that Seoul, which has been named the World Design Capital of 2010 and is set to host hundreds of related events throughout the year, will see more visitors in 2010. The Times also makes the case for visiting Antarctica this year, as new rules governing cruise ship visits may make it more difficult and more expensive in the future.
Other destinations on the list include such destinations as Los Angeles Shanghai, Costa Rica, Istanbul, Colombia, and Nepal. On the list or not, where are you planning on traveling in 2010? | <urn:uuid:372c0158-d096-4405-9dbc-c1f55e02a0aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/12/new-york-times-names-31-places-to-go-in-2010/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96082 | 178 | 1.523438 | 2 |
LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM
RELEASES ANNUAL STATISTICS FOR FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – Elder advocates personally ensured the rights and welfare of nearly 184,000 Florida seniors in long-term care facilities last year, according to a report issued today by the Florida Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.
The only organization of its kind advocating for long-term care residents throughout the state, the volunteer-based Ombudsman program today released its 2007-2008 annual report with recommendations for improving Florida’s long-term care system. The program, a unit of the Department of Elder Affairs, publishes yearly statistics regarding complaints investigated by each of its 17 district councils and details the program’s activities for the year. The report is submitted to state and federal decision-makers and is available to the public online at http://ombudsman.myflorida.com.
Floridians who move into licensed long-term care facilities are granted special residents’ rights by state and federal law. When the residents, their loved ones or other concerned citizens believe those rights have been ignored or violated by a facility, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is the agency called in to investigate.
Statewide in 2008, the program’s volunteer ombudsmen conducted 3,932 administrative assessments of long-term care facilities. They also responded to more than 7, 758 complaints from residents, families and concerned citizens, and gave effective representation to approximately 184,000 long-term care residents. Ombudsmen investigated complaints ranging from improper medication administration, poor menu quality and questionable billing practices to unattended symptoms, improper evictions and matters of dignity and respect. The issue most frequently investigated overall last year involved medication administration.
“This report documents the vital advocacy services we provided last year,” said Farrell Groves, the program’s state council chairman and a volunteer ombudsman in the Lakeland area. “However, the fact that so many seniors in long-term care facilities are in need of assistance reflects a situation that deserves more attention. We can make Florida a better place to live for our frail elders if we create greater awareness of their rights. It is our hope that the findings and recommendations found in this report will do just that.”
“What our volunteer ombudsmen do is truly amazing,” said State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Brian Lee, the program’s director. “For over 30 years, this program has been working to assess and resolve issues faced by seniors in long-term care settings, and as this report demonstrates, none of it would be possible without the dedication and commitment of our volunteers.”
The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program trains and certifies its more than 400 volunteers to protect the health, safety, welfare and human and civil rights of elders residing in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and adult family care homes. All program services, including personalized responses to residents’ concerns, are provided at no charge, and all complaints are confidential.
Many district councils are currently seeking more volunteers. To learn more about the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program's services and volunteer opportunities or to view the annual report, call toll-free 1-888-831-0404 or visit http://ombudsman.myflorida.com. | <urn:uuid:60f09cb2-203c-4bd8-a379-4bfc709986f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ombudsman.myflorida.com/press_02122009.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939529 | 693 | 1.5625 | 2 |
You've been such a great help so far!
What is the skill level of the students you expect to take this class? Can they program ANYTHING?
The class will be ranging from noobs to advanced students with some skill with C++ and java.How will the class be setup? Is it a presentation or hands-on for everyone?
The classroom is a computer lab. Each student will have a computer with the programs present. Giving them their own creativity and ability to grow. I would like to present a hands on "trial by error" setting. Showing a demonstration and letting them learn by exploration. Otherwise its just mindless repetitive tasks, and lets face it.. My cat with no whiskers can do better than that.Do you want to develop in the Cloud or on a local machine?
I personally would like it to be on a cloud. Its easily accessible, and this allows kids to work from home, but either works.Do you have any apps, specifically, that you want to start out with?
Not specifically. I would like some suggestions in this area.. A LOT! (For me as well so i can get my feet wet.)How long is the course?
12 weeks.How much homework?
Honestly, none unless they dont get it done in class. Or there is a huge assignment.
No Text book needed. :P Books are for amateurs(implying).
Originally Posted by FergatROn
I'll have to look into xda devs. And do you guys really want however many students on here? :P
BEFORE I'm able to get other kids started in the SDK, I need to be able to use Eclipse, unless you have a different program I should be using. | <urn:uuid:fbc2b9d0-f826-41dd-9ecb-f4d53d1ab42f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.droidforums.net/forum/android-app-developers/124093-help-getting-started.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965746 | 359 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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Month of May, 2009
Here's an extract from their press release:
Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has celebrated the legacy and vision of union pioneer and New Deal architect Sidney Hillman. As founder and president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and a founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Hillman is considered one of America's greatest labor leaders. His tireless efforts to bring dignity and respect to working people left a lasting legacy for the American public.
These awards give recognition to journalists and public figures demonstrating a similar sense of social responsibility, investigating and telling the difficult stories that need to be told. In an era when serious journalism is being threatened and newspapers are folding, these writers and photographers seek out stories that change lives. The awards go to practitioners in traditional and new media. Past winners include prominent figures in their field, as well as young journalists or publications that have yet to receive adequate recognition. Murray Kempton was the first recipient in 1950....
This year's distinguished panel of judges consists of Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker; Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large, The American Prospect and columnist for the Washington Post; Katrina vanden Heuvel, executive editor, The Nation magazine; Susan Meiselas, Magnum photographer and author; and Rose Marie Arce, senior producer, CNN.
"The Hillman Foundation is dedicated to promoting the role that journalism and the world of ideas play in making a difference in the lives of ordinary people. These awards are proof that journalism, at its best and most professional, can change the world," said Bruce Raynor, president of the foundation.
The award ceremony will be held May 27, 2009, 5:30-8:00 PM, at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City.
For more info about the Hillman awards and the winners click here.
We just returned from a beautiful screening of Made in L.A. that was held at NCLR, the National Council of La Raza, in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by NCLR, Amnesty International and Sojourners, it was a rare opportunity to link civil rights work, human rights work, and faith-based organizing. And it was as moving as the best Made in L.A. screenings can be, as both the audience and the panel were able to connect on a deep personal level with the experiences of the women in the film.
|Robert and I with NCLR's President and CEO Janet Murguía|
We were honored that NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía introduced the event. As she said, "This truly inspiring film beautifully depicts the courage and dignity with which immigrants face the consequences of our broken immigration system. By delving deeply into the struggles of Latina garment workers in Los Angeles, the filmmakers speak volumes to the powerful human stories behind the immigration debate".
The screening was followed by a panel on immigration reform featuring me; Made in L.A.‘s producer Robert Bahar; Adam Taylor, Senior Political Director at Sojourners; Folabi Olagbaju, Director of Amnesty International's Mid Atlantic Office; and Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Director of Immigration at NCLR.
|Robert, me, Folabi, Adam and Clarissa during the panel|
As Folabi Olagbaju explained, Amnesty International is increasingly looking at immigration issues through its human rights framework, and recently launched a report entitled "Jailed Without Justice" which explores problems that exist throughout the U.S. immigrant detention system. In connecting AI's work to the film screening, Folabi said, "It is critical to raise awareness about the plight and courage of millions of undocumented immigrants in our workforce, many of whom are discriminated against and unable to affirm their basic human rights. The story captured in Made in L.A. makes a poignant and compelling case for more just and humane immigration policies in the US."
Adam Taylor talked about the amazing work that Sojourners and other faith communities are doing towards immigration reform. He also cited scripture and outlined some of the fundamental Christian principles that relate to immigration, including the deep-rooted idea of "welcoming the stranger". In addition to his work at Sojourners, Taylor is an Associate Minister at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington D.C., and he emphasized, "In order to transform hearts and minds we must highlight the personal and moral consequences of our broken immigration system in America. This film helps remind us of the human face and real stories of our immigrant brothers and sisters and the urgent need to unite organizations, churches and leaders from across the theological and political spectrum to bring about comprehensive immigration reform."
Clarissa Martinez de Castro spoke with passion about NCLR's long history and leadership around issues of Latino civil rights, and about the need for immigration reform. Audience members shed more than a few tears as she explained her personal connection to the issues, bringing the stories from the film off the screen and into the hearts of all those present... And as Folabi pointed out, the issues of immigration reform and immigrants' rights are not issues of race or background. Rather, they are core issues of basic human dignity.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the panelists, to the sponsoring organizations, and to everyone who was involved in making this happen. We want to extend a special thank you to NCLR's Patricia Foxen, whom I had met at a conference in Chicago, and who spearheaded this event with the conviction that it could be something very special. We're grateful to all of the collaborators and humbly feel that it achieved that vision!
The room, which was packed with parents, teachers and students of all ages, was full of energy and, when I introduced Maria, everyone rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation as she approached the stage. On the drive home, Maria confided "I truly felt like a star...!" The Q&A was emotional and powerful, with parents and their children sharing their thoughts about each other and the journey towards accomplishing their dreams. Afterwards, with our hands full of presents and flowers, the Bright Prospect students asked us to sign the very T-shirts they were wearing! Here are some of the comments they just sent me:
"The experience of watching the movie with my parents changed my relationship with them. It got me even closer to them and it helped me appreciate them more for all their efforts and sacrifices." -Ana Soto
"Made in LA was very emotional. Watching the film meant a lot because after watching it, my life changed in certain ways. The film reminded me of the many family members I have that are immigrants. It changed my point of view by helping me decide to be more determined and focused on my education and most of all to work hard and to be the best I can be in this beautiful life that was given to us." -Christopher Elguea
"...It proves that minorities should never be underestimated and that united, we can conquer! I came to appreciate my parents' efforts to a greater extent. It was an enlightening experience." -Elizabeth Zamudio
"Made in LA was an awesome documentary. It was inspiring because it shows the importance of humbleness and hard work in order to achieve a dream." -Juana Rodriguez
Lara Colvin, Program Coordinator for the Community Tutoring Program, shared her thoughts as well: "It was so incredible to see the turnout of people... I felt the unity that formed that night in the room, a deep sense of appreciation for the struggles people go through and recognition of the injustice of the conditions of immigrants and women and the working class... The Q&A and people's comments were really revealing and powerful. Is it always like that? Amazing." Don't miss these other thoughts from a Scripps College student blog.
Since then, the Women's Union and Centro Latino Student Affairs have shown the film again on campus and it continues to reach new audiences. And we've heard that some of the Bright Prospect students and parents are organizing to show it to community members... "It really does create a snowball effect," exclaimed Lara.
This event was sponsored by: Community Tutoring Program, Bright Prospect, Scripps Communities of Resources and Empowerment, Motley Coffeehouse, Scripps Investment Fund, Center for California Cultural and Social Issues at Pitzer, Scripps Department of History, Scripps Department of American Studies, CMC Modern Languages Department, Chicano/Latino Student Affairs Center, Asian American Student Union, Scripps Associated Students.
|With Chancellor Rosa Perez, wearing her T-shirt with a quote from Made in L.A.|
"It'd be awesome if you could come next time!", she said. And so next time came, and I attended what I though would be a traditional screening of the film, organized in collaboration with the Chancellors Office, multiple departments and the Reel Work Film Festival. When I arrived, people were again wearing T-shirts with quotes extracted from Made in LA ("When people start to organize they stop being victims" or " I armed myself with courage") and students had created the most beautiful poster and panels inspired by Made in LA. to showcase their school papers. Word had gotten out, and I was bombarded by an army of photographers, posing for pictures with President Michael Burke, Chancellor Rosa Perez, and all the teachers who had brought their classes to the screening including History, Ethnic Studies, Labor Studies, ESL, Psychology and Math. (I remember thinking, "this must be one of the best math classes they'll ever have!")
As part of the opening remarks, in front of an auditorium packed with more than 300 people, the Latina Leadership Network, presented me (and Robert, in absentia) a beautiful Certificate of Appreciation, and the Chancellor, wearing a Made in LA T-shirt herself, presented a plaque that reads "for bringing the film Made in LA to San Jose City College and sharing the story of strength, triumph and courage". I was moved, very moved by all of this care, passion and recognition...
Our deep gratitude to all the sponsors, organizers and teachers who made this possible, and to Dee Dee Kost for single-handedly spearheading this event!
|Detail from one of the panels they created -isn't it really beautiful?|
|With some of the teachers, sponsors and organizers of the event| | <urn:uuid:69bf86cf-825d-4500-addb-5f93a5b7828a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://madeinla.com/month/2009/05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966865 | 2,376 | 1.625 | 2 |
Newburyport Daily News
---- — To the editor:
Do you remember when you were a baby and the world looked bright and very interesting? We didn’t have a care in the world! As grown-ups, many gave up those beautiful ideals of freedom, love, caring, sharing, not being serious and having fun. Where have we gone wrong? Why have we allowed ourselves to be harangued by others who tell us what to do, like when we were children. Slowly, we have let people with different values and ideas make us take a back seat or better still, intimidate to make us believe we do not have any worth or say!
We are a nation of people from many countries and groups and we could work together to have a government, “of the people, by the people, for the people,” and instead we retreat in apathy. We know the answers, some with religion, others other ways, but inside we all want to help and make life better. Let’s stop thinking of the moment. The future is the most fun, gives us promise of things to aim for and we can win together to make this a saner world.
Words are only words and cannot hurt us. Differences, disagreements and compromise are good and we should not be embarrassed to say our thoughts because this is what makes our country great! Your values are still right, whatever they are. Stand up for them and make yourself known. Feeling one would be blamed for an opinion is silly and wrong. Never back off from what you believe and your integrity is what you are fighting for and then happiness and peace will ensue.
An example was the shooting in Newtown. Devastating to the world, too! Then what happened? Gun people were blamed and this may not be the whole truth. This helped with a cause, but the real cause was underlying and that was, the shooter had a long-standing problem of depression and seemed to be treated with a quick fix, which would be a drug, poison going into his body and distorting his thinking even more. So, let’s look and not be led so easily by groups that want to solve an immediate problem and not look for the real reason, being that a person cannot function in society.
Many thanks for reading this and I would be interested in your comments. We must work for the good of all in society and not only for today, but for our future. We are all able people and can make a difference! | <urn:uuid:3a8fbfd7-f857-465e-b97a-966b04318e9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newburyportnews.com/opinion/x1746076919/Backing-away-is-easy/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979064 | 513 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Stuart at Early Warning has a look at global oil production trends - 2012 Global Fuel Supply Still Flat.
I seem to be the only person paying much attention to this, but I still think it's significant. May figures for global liquid fuel supply are out from OPEC and the IEA and they continue to show that global supply has increased very little since January (in contrast to the very strong increases in the second half of 2011).
Other things being equal, we would expect this to lead to rising prices. Instead, prices have been weak/falling as a result of Eurozone fears. The fears about the eurozone are legitimate, but still, at present the global economy has got to be growing, if a little weaker than normal. Only Europe is actually contracting at present and that mildly. Thus, if the fears do not translate into much more pronounced global contraction in reality fairly soon, oil prices could jump up quite a bit. On the other hand, of course, if Europe does turn into a full-blown financial crisis then they could fall further.
There is a strong Schrodinger quality to the oil markets at present: prices are a superposition of the state in which Europe turns into a major global financial crisis, and the state in which it doesn't. I wonder how long before the measurement is made?
Ten days or so ago, I posted the graph above under the headline "Sharp Uptick in Iraqi Production". I chose my words carefully - "uptick" to indicate that this was a movement upward of the same general order of magnitude as other recent movements in the time series, and "sharp" to emphasize that, as upticks in Iraqi production go, this was a somewhat larger and faster one than has been typical (but not, in my judgement, so great as to make the use of "uptick" misleading).
Yesterday, the New York Times decided to report on the same development under the headline "Oil Output Soars as Iraq Retools":BAGHDAD — Despite sectarian bombings and political gridlock, Iraq’s crude oil production is soaring, providing a singular bright spot for the nation’s future and relief for global oil markets as the West tightens sanctions on Iranian exports. ...
I don't object to the graphic. Nor of course do I disagree that Iraq's production has increased and is likely to increase further (I've been covering this for a long time).
But I do really question whether the sober grey-lady paper-of-record should refer to an increase of about 300kbd above the level of last fall as "soaring" in the present tense. I don't think so. I think "soaring" carries a strong connotation of already being way up in the air, or ascending very materially and rapidly. I don't think 300kbd merits that term. I think, if we wanted to use a flight metaphor, we might reasonably say "has begun to take off" or even "looks set to soar". But I think the use of "soaring" in the present tense is an exaggeration. I think this fits in a long-standing pattern at the New York Times of distorted coverage in which positive oil market developments are over-hyped while negative ones are minimized. | <urn:uuid:2284bd95-1e3d-49cd-bacf-cc84ebdcced4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2012/06/2012-global-fuel-supply-still-flat.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967209 | 665 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How to create SEO content
The major point of SEO is to create a content that will lead to an increased traffic and hence to a bigger view. The SEO content will determine on how the website will be viewed and also, it will determine to the ranking of the site. The major aspect to be considered in the creation of the SEO content is by the use of the keywords. The key word should be golden in the whole content, everything should be directing to the key word.
After you have determined the topic you want to create the content about, you must determine the major keyword or keywords. This is very important as it is the guiding principle during the searching.  There should also be the use of the supporting terms which should be closely related to the key word. Together with the supporting terms in the content, there should also be the use of the core core terms which will be able to summarize the content of the page.
The key word or words should be carefully selected in a way that they will not be just the general phrases. When a keyword is unique in a way, it will be possible to be distinguished from the  many that have some words like which are similar to it. For example, if you are using a keyword jeans, it would be better to have Polo jeans. This will be a better keyword than just jeans. So after the identification of the keyword, it should now be phrased in a unique way other than how the common words appear. Otherwise, this is the purpose of the keyword in the creation of the SEO content.
Then , ensure that the keyword phrase is appearing in the title which you could choose for the SEO content. Careful consideration should be taken to ensure that, the title looks like a title and not like a spam. The simple reason is that, the search engine would discard it for a spam. The keyword should thereafter be placed in a good and systematic way in the content. The strategic placement of the the keyword is another key concept to be carefully considered in the creation of the SEO content. The keyword should be found appearing in the opening paragraph, in the middle and in the ending paragraph. The middle paragraph should have the keyword appearing several times as it is the core area of the content.
The other aspect to consider is the word count of the content. Most of the search engine normally recommends a web copy of at least 200 words. There is also the use of the meta tag in the html coding. Since the html coding will be involved in the search of the content, it is important that the meta tag contains the keyword. This will help in the ranking of the SEO content if the meta tag has used the keyword well. | <urn:uuid:c130c1e9-323d-44d8-a979-695507b5ec15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2011/09/26/how-to-create-seo-content/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939446 | 551 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Release Date: November 13, 2009
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Unfortunately for retailers, the Grinch will be pushing the shopping cart again this holiday season, says Arun Jain, Samuel P. Capen Professor of Marketing Research in the University at Buffalo School of Management.
"This year is likely to be a repeat of 2008 with the same winners and losers. A gloomy employment picture, restricted availability of credit and continued uncertainty regarding the stock market are likely to spoil the mood for Christmas shopping," Jain says.
According to Jain, households plan to spend the same amount or less than last year on holiday shopping. The focus will be on essential household items, like cookware and basic clothing. High-priced items like jewelry tend to lose their luster in these difficult economic times, he says.
"Those with extra cash have already spent it on flat-panel TVs and cheap laptops by HP, Dell and Acer," says Jain. "Worse still, no radical electronics goods like iPhone, Nintendo's Wii or Blue-Ray are being offered this year. The incremental technology offering Internet connectivity is not going to help. The only electronic gadgets worthy vying for are the electronic book readers being offered by Amazon, Sony and others, but these have been around for a while and are not exactly setting fire to consumer demands."
Jain contends that the fashion industry has not been of much help, either. "Fall fashion trends are uneven and there is no 'must have' style to encourage shoppers to break their piggy banks," he says. "The same story holds for toys -- most are ho-hum and there is nothing that will set toy aisles on fire."
Retailers are already responding to the gloomy outlook, according to Jain. "Wal-Mart, to preserve its dominant position in such a depressing economy, is focusing on low-priced items such as toys for under $10. Sales, price cuts and promotions will be used by discount stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, Sears and TJ Max to steal market shares," he says. "Other big beneficiaries will be online stores like Amazon that offer branded merchandise at attractive prices, often saving buyers sales tax and the need to travel to stores."
Jain predicts that competition among stores will be fierce as they battle to grab whatever market share they can get in this depressed market. "As early as Halloween, we've see 'value-priced' merchandise on display, and consumers have been bombarded with promotions, coupons, lay away and interest-free credits to nab sales," he says.
The Wall Street Journal has ranked the UB School of Management No. 9 in the nation among schools with strong regional recruiting bases. In addition, BusinessWeek has ranked the school as one of the country's top 5 business schools for the fastest return on MBA investment, and Forbes has cited it as one of the best business schools in the U.S. for the return on investment it provides MBA graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit http://mgt.buffalo.edu.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities. | <urn:uuid:6a64c4fa-6b08-45eb-95a8-ecd59a905f7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2009/11/10650.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96032 | 711 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Those traveling along Route 422 between Annville and Palmyra may have noticed large piles of dirt in the field along the north side of the highway.
The piles, or berms, were placed there recently to act as a buffer for a future expansion of Pennsy Supply's Millard Quarry, according to Dino Faiola, director of operations for Pennsy Supply.
"It's from an aesthetic standpoint for the next phase of our surface quarry," Faiola explained. "We're required by the state to provide some barriers. They don't want people driving along and being distracted by this quarry."
In addition to the berms, grass and trees will also be planted to enhance the buffer, he said.
"This year we'll continue to bring that berm around the east side of the property, the Clear Spring Road side," he said.
Pennsy Supply owns the field and leases part of it to a local farmer, who plants crops there. Faiola said Pennsy intends to continue to lease as much of the field as possible for as long as possible for farming.
The quarry will begin expanding into the field in 2014 or 2015, Faiola said.
"Ultimately, by 2016 or 2017 we'll be moving the surface operations to the south side, to the field," he said.
Workers have been hauling stone out of the Millard Quarry for more than 120 years after the Millard family started the quarry in the 1880s. The stone mansion that sits along Route 422 at Clear Spring Road was the family's home and now serves as the offices of the quarry's upper
The family owned the quarry until the 1960s, when it sold the quarry to Bethlehem Steel Corp. Bethlehem Steel sold the quarry in 1988, and it passed through several other owners before Pennsy Supply's parent company, Old Castle Materials, bought it in 2001.
Situated on more than 1,000 acres owned by Harrisburg-based Pennsy Supply, the quarry is about three miles long, a half-mile wide and more than 500 feet deep. It stretches from Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township to Forge Road in North Londonderry Township.
Between 150 and 200 trucks are loaded up and haul material away each day, with each truck carrying about 22 tons. In an average year, 2.1 millions tons of material is taken from the quarry - about 1.52 million tons of dolomite and about 580,000 tons of limestone.
"Mainly what we'll be mining off of this side (the south side) will be the dolematic stone, the road stone," Faiola said. "We'll continue to extract the high calcium stone in the north side quarry."
In addition to providing a buffer for the quarry, the berm will provide an additional benefit, Faiola said.
"With the berm there, it doesn't allow snow to drift across the highway," he said. "That has been a problem in that area.
firstname.lastname@example.org; 272-5611, ext. 145 | <urn:uuid:95506bc5-b0f9-4f54-8c81-b2a3145e5e42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldnews.com/latestnews/ci_22332558/pennsy-expand-millard-quarry-north-annville?source=most_emailed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971203 | 627 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Last night, British period drama “Downtown Abbey” had its stateside premiere of the third season — to the accompaniment of thousands of excited tweets. And at least for this “Masterpiece Classic” fangirl, one of the highlights of the first episode was the arrival of Shirley MacLaine’s Martha Levinson, the gilded American counterpart and foil to Maggie Smith’s zinger-slinging Dowager Countess. The genteel enmity between them was prefigured when Violet, the Dowager Countess, says before the American Levinson’s arrival, “When I’m with her, I’m reminded of the virtues of the English.” It was an absolute joy watching the two legendary actresses spar high-handedly over the relative merits of British tradition v. American inventiveness.
But even though Levinson’s bold outsider ways, her wry expressiveness and even her refusal to eat crab (as communicated by her maid) may have indicated otherwise in the premiere, it seems she is not a Jewish character. Not strictly, anyway. Many of us were convinced that — thanks to her husband’s name, “Isidore Levinson,” and his fortune as a Cincinnatti dry goods manufacturer — there was strong evidence for Martha’s and her offsprings’s Jewishness.
And we weren’t strictly wrong. It just seems that according to Downton’s creators, Isidore, a Jew, left the tribe behind him when he married. Renee Ghert-Zand discovered the truth, embedded in an official behind-the-series book:
The tome contains a chapter devoted to “Mrs. Isidore Levinson,” which states that although, “Martha’s husband was Jewish, she herself is not, and their children were raised Episcopalians.”
Well, you could have fooled me, since I thought MacLaine played Martha as Jewish. (A diehard fan, I’ve seen the third season, which has already aired outside the U.S.) With Martha Levinson’s brash demeanor and over-the-top wardrobe, I thought producers were signaling not merely that the character is nouveau riche, but that she’s nouveau riche and Jewish.
Ultimately, whether Levinson is actually Jewish or whether she just married a Jew and raised her children as Christian isn’t particularly relevant to her symbolism in the plot. The fact, for instance, that Martha would have had no issue marrying a Jewish man while the thought of any sort of “foreigners” renders the Downton clan apoplectic illustrates the difference starkly.
What Levinson represents, and what both Jewish and American characters have long represented in the tradition of British fiction and television, is the uneasy but fascinating relationship between the staid British gentry and the dynamic, untethered ways of “the outsider.” In Anthony Trollope’s famous nineteenth century novel “The Way We Live Now,” the diffidence of the characters hailing from the English upper crust is pointedly contrasted with, among other examples, both a brilliantly crooked Jewish financier and a completely over-the-top, sexually crazed American adventuress — contrasted with a strange mix of admiration and disdain.
“Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes continues rather in this vein. The tug between stuffy but longstanding aristocratic rules of behavior and the intrusion of the “new order” is a theme that beats viewers over the brow when we watch the show. It’s obvious to me where Fellowes, an avowed Tory, stands: He portrays the social agitators, from the radical Irish Chauffer Branson, to the do-gooder cousin Isobel Crawley, as socially-inept prigs — or even worse, the case of class-resentful servant Thomas, as manipulating and evil — and has a soft spot for the snootiest aristocrats and the most loyal servants.
Matthew Crawley, who stands for a middle way, eventually accepts fate and becomes the heir to Downton. But even though Fellowes’ heart may be with the old ways, I have to watch “Downton” with the exact opposite sentiment as the Countess predicting her encounter with Levinson: I’m reminded of the virtues of energetic outsiders, whether Americans, Jews, both, or other. | <urn:uuid:62c6620a-1e97-4bc9-b9c1-b9ba1ef239f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/168878/jewish-downton-abbey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955267 | 953 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal: US connections grow
In London Saturday, Rupert Murdoch issued full-page apologies for the phone-hacking scandal that has hit his media empire. Critics say his free-wheeling and politically conservative approach may have affected US journalism as well.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is used to ruling his vast publishing and broadcasting empire with transcontinental authority.Skip to next paragraph
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But today, he finds himself in an unusual and no doubt uncomfortable position: Having to issue a series of apologies for his organization’s “serious wrongdoing” as he watches some of his top lieutenants leave under fire.
Meanwhile, critics muse that Mr. Murdoch’s free-wheeling and politically conservative hand in British reporting may have influenced American journalism as well – particularly in the well-regarded Wall Street Journal, whose parent company Dow Jones was acquired by Murdoch’s News Corp. in 2007.
In seven national newspapers Saturday, Murdoch apologized to the British public for the unethical and possibly illegal activities his now-defunct Sunday tabloid News of the World carried out in the name of journalism – including charges of phone hacking and bribery of police officials.
"We are sorry," Murdoch says in full-page ads, which are scheduled to run Sunday and Monday as well. "The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected."
A day earlier, Murdoch met personally with the family of Milly Dowler, the murdered British teenager whose cell phone voice mail allegedly was hacked by News of the World employees.
"He apologized many times,” Mark Lewis, the Dowler family's lawyer, told the Guardian. “I don't think anybody could have held their head in their hands so many times.”
It was a big change from just days earlier, when Murdoch told the Wall Street Journal that News Corp. had handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible," making just "minor mistakes."
The scandal already had crossed the Atlantic with news this week that the FBI is investigating whether victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and their families were subject to phone hacking from Murdoch's News Corp.
It’s been reported (although without proof) that a private investigator and former New York City police officer was offered payment for information about 9/11 victims.
"If these allegations are proven true," Rep. Peter King (R) of New York, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "the conduct would merit felony charges for attempting to violate various federal statutes related to corruption of public officials and prohibitions against wiretapping.”
"Given the large scope of Scotland Yard's investigation which reportedly includes a list of 3,870 names, 5,000 land-line phone numbers and 4,000 cell phone numbers that may have been hacked, I believe it is imperative to investigate whether victims in the United States have been affected as well,” Senator Menendez wrote to US Attorney General Eric Holder. | <urn:uuid:d4067ded-0bdf-4f0d-90d1-471527acb746> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0716/Rupert-Murdoch-phone-hacking-scandal-US-connections-grow | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973607 | 654 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Actually, adding cayenne pepper to your food throughout the winter may even help boost your immunity, preventing some of those nasty cold from occurring in the first place. But if you do wind up sick in bed, there are a few ways to get that mucus broken up and cleared out of your system without resorting to an expectorant medication. Using cayenne pepper for colds is probably one of its most popular uses. Try giving a few of these cayenne pepper remedies a chance to help you feel better.
Cayenne Pepper Tea
It is very simple to make a cayenne pepper tea, but if you are not used to eating peppers and other spicy foods, I would go very easy with the dosage to begin with.
The best pepper is usually found at a health food store or someplace like Whole Foods, any place that you can buy cayenne pepper in bulk. You are looking for the powder and not dried peppers. You want something that can dissolve in your tea.
Just be cautious about what you buy because this stuff comes with various levels of “heat”. You can buy cayenne that’s as hot as 90,000 skoville units (this is very hot!) or as little as 30K. I would recommend the lowest skoville unit possible when you are just starting.
Once you have your cayenne pepper, time to make tea. Just add a little bit, between 1/8th and a teaspoonful depending on your tolerance. As I’ve said before on this site, a little bit goes a long way and you can always add more, so start with the smallest amount possible and then add more if you find you can tolerate the heat.
So add your cayenne pepper to hot water and if you like, flavor it with a light squeeze of lemon juice, or a bit of lemon zest. Then drink.
If you find that after drinking the cayenne tea, you need something to help reduce the “heat” in your mouth, some bread is a good way to do it. Just eat a little bit and the sugars in the bread will help tamp down the heat. Whatever you do, avoid drinking milk. While milk is one of the best ways to reduce the heat sensation caused by spicy foods, dairy is the worst thing to consume when you have a cold as it just creates more mucus that you need to try and expel.
Cayenne Pepper gargle
If you have a sore throat, you can also try gargling with cayenne pepper to relieve some of the inflammation and pain. Just a warning here: again, too much cayenne pepper can make things worse. So go slow and easy! Add a tiny bit of cayenne pepper to room temperature water and gargle with that. Earth Clinic has some good tips on using a cayenne pepper gargle from their various users.
Of course, cold and flu seasons isn’t the only reason to take advantage of the properties of cayenne pepper and the mucus loosening that it can do. If you have allergies that leave your head stuffed up and feeling awful, this spicy pepper can also help with those. | <urn:uuid:d7203280-2890-42a4-ad0c-a9b92e13ddce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cayennepeppercleanse.com/27/cayenne-pepper-and-mucus | 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 | 0.945136 | 662 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Cross-posted at Not Your Average Feminist
I have been told all of my life that communities of color, specifically the black community, are far more homophobic than “American” (used far too often interchangeably with white) communities. Now, I know and hopefully you know, that this is total bullshit. As a person who identifies as Jamaican, I know exactly where these attitudes come from.
And while homophobia, heterosexism, and anti-queer violence may be more socially accepted in some areas or communities, NO culture is free of these experiences. The issue should not be who is more homophobic, because then folks who think their communities are far superior will become complacent with heterosexism. No one is at that level. Not to mention that there are queer people of color! To write any one country, ethnicity, cultural group, or even city block off as being homophobic and hence unsafe to interact with, the larger queer community is being fractured. For example, I’m not going to sacrifice my Jamaican identity or my love for hip hop music just because I’m queer. Instead, I want to name and dissect the heterosexism and misogyny in the communities I come from so that we can have the tools to change things for the next generation.
This is why I love this video:
POWERFUL (despite the use of alternative lifestyle)
When B.E.T. premiered this video, they edited out any scenes of the two men kissing. The small amount of media coverage this story got called B.E.T. and the black community (because there’s just one big one you know) too homophobic to run the video as is. Yet not in one story did writers ask why MTV or VH1 hasn’t aired the video at all. Just something to think about.
What are your thoughts? | <urn:uuid:307a35b5-b5d6-43d4-85be-2139811106e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.feministing.com/2011/04/04/music-for-the-queer-black-soul/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948852 | 387 | 1.648438 | 2 |
DOHA, QATAR — Negotiators worked past the deadline early Wednesday to save the World Trade Organization's attempt to start a new round of talks on freeing up global commerce.
The goal was a compromise over farm export subsidies that would ease objections from the European Union, especially France, and avoid another collapse like the one the WTO suffered in Seattle two years ago.
But the EU's attempt to extract concessions on environmental issues in return were blocked by developing countries led by India, said Nacer Benjelloun, Morocco's ambassador to the WTO.
"At this stage I am not very optimistic," he said, adding that India showed no signs of budging in the closed-door sessions.
Big agricultural exporting countries like Australia, Canada and Argentina, supported by the United States, oppose a subsidy program because they say it lets European farmers export products below market price, distorting and hurting the world market for farm goods.
Poor countries, many of which depend on agriculture for exports, also were backing the call to eliminate subsidies.
But EU members France and Ireland were opposed. The 15-nation EU votes as a bloc, and any deal must be approved by all WTO members.
The talks were supposed to end at midnight, the official deadline of the five-day meeting of the WTO's 142 members. But as Wednesday rolled around, the negotiations were still going, and diplomats said they were likely continue through the night.
French Trade Minister Francois Huwart said the issue was "a sort of deal-breaker point," suggesting France would force the EU to walk away rather than concede ground. | <urn:uuid:e0ee55bc-ec88-4342-9043-a840fefaedc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-11-14/news/0111140297_1_wto-members-farm-export-subsidies-farm-goods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976567 | 325 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Trout Fishing Tips for Montauk
Montauk State Park's premier attraction is fishing on the Current River for both rainbow and brown trout. For fishing the Current River there are three basic methods for catching trout; bait, spinning lures and fly fishing. All tackle should be small including bait. This is especially true if the water is really clear. If you have any questions, our experts in the tackle shop can help you make choices based on current conditions. Some of the conditions include cloud cover, temperature, water clarity and seasonal insect hatches.
A great tip offered by an experienced guide is to keep your lures out of the trees. This is important because fish don't grow on trees. The tackle shop inside the Dorman L. Steelman Lodge at Montauk Resort maintains a full selection of tackle that accommodates all these conditions. Fish are not as dumb as we would like to think they are. If fly, spinner or bait doesn't look, act or taste like the real thing, the fish probably won't give it the time of day. Make sure your hooks are sharp, your jig rust free and your line new and flaw free. By using good equipment you will have fewer stories about the "big ones lost" and more fish fillets which make the entire fishing experience more enjoyable.
The best advice an experienced fishing guide offers is to be observant and quiet. Quiet so not to scare the fish away and observant of other Anglers. If someone is catching a lot of fish pay attention. Note what they are doing and pick up the subtleties, and try to incorporate them into your own fishing. When they are done fishing for the day ask them questions, offer them a beer and pick their brains. There is nothing better than to make a friend who appreciates fishing as much as you do. The best advice we could ever impart is to be patient and have fun.
» Fishing Permits, Seasons and Regulations | <urn:uuid:d8d71c9d-d0e7-4733-b13b-34d40f3669fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montauklodge.com/montauk-fishing | 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 | 0.967245 | 399 | 1.578125 | 2 |
March 7, 1924 – Dec. 27, 2012
NORTH TONAWANDA – Esther Pane, the co-founder of Pane’s Restaurant, died Thursday in Cleveland Clinic. She was 88.
Born in Conflenti, Italy, the former Esther Paone and her family immigrated to the United States in 1932, settling in Lockport.
She and her husband, Peter Pane Jr., settled in North Tonawanda and raised seven children. Her husband died in 1988.
In 1959, Mrs. Pane and her husband converted a small tavern on Payne Avenue into a popular restaurant. The Italian-American restaurant grew from eight tables to seating for 350.
“She really, really enjoyed cooking,” said her son James K., who added that his mother was adept at “transforming the most ordinary ingredients” into mouthwatering dishes. “It was just her way of doing things.”
The restaurant’s menu is a testament to her cooking savvy, including family recipes for sauces and dressings. In particular, she was proud of her basic red sauce, her son added.
After retiring from the restaurant’s day-to-day operations in the 1990s, Mrs. Pane still took an active role as mentor, offering guidance and support to the family.
Survivors include two other sons, Peter III and Thomas J.; and two daughters, Margaret L. Jamulla and Rosemary Werth.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic Church, Oliver Street and Center Avenue. | <urn:uuid:c7c578d6-812b-4073-9744-26d3debc827a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121230/CITYANDREGION/121239955/1065 | 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 | 0.975296 | 344 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The international fame of the town rests perhaps on its two great food products - parmesan cheese and parma ham - that are both highly reputed around the world. The city itself also has a great deal to offer, including some of the finest buildings, artworks and monuments in northern Italy and numerous bars', restaurants and upmarket shops.
The heart of the city radiates north and south from Via Mazzini and piazza garibaldi with most important sites close by, and this is a good place to start your visit to Parma.
The three historical highlights of the town are all close together, and comprise the cathedral, the baptistry, and the San Giovanni Evangelista church:
Completed in 1106, the cathedral in Parma is an example of the Lombardy-Romanesque architectural style of the region.
Inside, the cathedral is highly decorated - note in particular the frescoed ceilings then inside the dome you can see the astonishing painting of the 'Assumption of the Virgin' by Corregio.
It was other artists from Corregio's school that painted the ceiling of the nave, while another artistic highlight in the cathedral is the statue by Antelami called 'Descent from the Cross'.
The remarkable baptistry (also by Antelami) was built over the course of the 13th century and its ornate design and decoration make it an exceptional building, perpaps the most important medieval building in Italy and combining elements of both gothic and romanesque astyles of architecture
The four-storey baptistry is built in light pink marble and has many individual highlights such as a frieze that encircles the building. You will notice that its external octagonal appearance becomes a 16 sided interior, with the walls and ceiling ornately frescoed - from the outside there is little clue to the magnificent domed ceiling inside the baptistry.
At the Museum Diocesano you can see some sculptures from the cathedral and baptistry as well as an extensive mosaic dating from the 5th century.
Church of San Giovanni Evangelista
This church was built in the early 16th century and has a baroque style facade including several inset statues. Inside there is another dome painted by Corregio, called the Vision of Saint John at Patmos, as well as paintings by Parmigiano.
Other highlights and information
Yet more stunning frescoes can be seen in the Santa Maria della Staccata church, this time by Parmigianino, and in the impressive Camera di San Paolo (part of a benedictine monastery) there is another exceptional work by Corregio, this time representing mythological characters.
The impressive Teatro Farnese, a wooden structured copy of Palladios theatre in Vicenza, is part of Parma's extensive Palazzo Pilotta - the palazzo itself dates from the 16th century and has large gardens developed in the 18th century with a sprinkling of fountains. Much of the Palazzo was severly damaged during the Second World War but has been extensively renovated since.
There are also two very interesting museums in Parma in the Palazzo Pilotta:
- the National Gallery, which includes works by El Greco, Corregio and Fra Angelico among others; and
- the National Museum of Archaeology, with a wide selection of Roman era artefacts collected in the region around Parma
In addition to all this splendour, find time to explore the narrow backstreets of Parma, before heading for some of the many fashionable boutiques and restaurants, which will tempt all remaining funds out of your credit cards
After exploring the historic centre of Parma cross the river to vist the large gardens of the Duke's Palace along the western river banks. These are a pleasant place for a stroll, with the palace and gardens dating from the 16th and 18th century respectively
Garden enthusiasts will also want to visit the Parma botanical gardens (on Viale Martiri della Libertà), an extensive park area also established in the 18th century.
Parma and opera
Notably, if you are a music lover, Toscanini was born at 'Casa Natale di Toscanini' (I'm gussing it wasn't called that when he was born!) at the southern corner of the park of the Duke's Palace. Verdi also lived in Parma and composed several works in the city. Music lovers wont want to miss the opera if there is a performance during your visit - the opera house is one of the finest in Italy.
Photos taken within 10 km
Map of Parma & places nearby
Fidenza 22 km
Sabbioneta 26 km
Correggio 36 km
Castell'Arquato 37 km | <urn:uuid:c1818f2f-a857-430b-84a4-e00eee965f4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.italythisway.com/places/parma.php | 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 | 0.955278 | 995 | 1.601563 | 2 |
John Piper Confronts Sin of Racism, Including His Own
A rally against school integration in 1959
Evangelical theologian John Piper admits it: he was "racist to the core" and a born-again Christian at the same time.
But thankfully, he says, "God had mercy on this teenage racist who little by little was awakened to something beautiful – namely racial diversity – and to something horrible – namely my own sin – and to repentance as an ongoing way of life."
The influential pastor tackled the controversial issue of racism on Thursday at Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, a predominantly black church in Minneapolis. He addressed a diverse audience as he spoke about his latest book, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian, where he defined racism this way: The heart that believes one race is more valuable than another is a sinful heart....
Good, someone's interested. According to historian David S. Reynolds (not a Christian), whose account is in general sympathetic, Brown was a full-strength Five-Point Calvinist. He & his father Owen were thoroughly versed in Jonathan Edward's works, & those of Edwards Jr., besides Scripture itself.
Yet while Brown gave regular Bible instruction to his family & followers, he never joined a church. While he attended a Congregational church once, he saw that blacks had to sit in the back. Brown was outraged, and offered his pew to them; later, the deacons paid him a disciplinary visit, and Brown gave them a stern talking-to.
Brown considered chattel slavery an act of war against its victims, justifying violence against it. While in prison awaiting trial, he refused ministration from Southern clergymen.
Every now & then I agree with Jim. How can you be a racist & a Christian? Tough question. I find it very troubling to learn how thoroughly racist America was in the supposedly "Christian" 19th & much of the 20th centuries. This was largely independent of latitude & politics. Just read some of the idiotic, fallacious nonsense otherwise educated (and many "Bible-believing") people said and wrote back then about blacks, whom they rarely bothered to interview, apparently.
BTW, John Brown, who attacked Harper's Ferry, was among the few Americans of his day who was truly comfortable around black people, & treated them as *complete* equals, unlike even the abolitionists who supported him. This is why the black community has consistently esteemed him since then. I bet most of you don't know Brown's theological commitment; hint: it wasn't Transcendentalism.
Galatians 3 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.---NASB
SA put up an interesting article, if nothing else for this quote, 'He [Piper] heard the general director of the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society respond to a student's question about the possibility of his daughter marrying a Pakistani while on the mission field.
His response was something like: "Better a Christian Pakistani than a godless white American!" Piper recalled.' | <urn:uuid:34a586fa-27e8-4362-bdce-233aca0de4dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sermonaudio.com/new_details.asp?ID=32737 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975434 | 697 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Home prices will decline into next year, Fannie Mae said Thursday, reversing earlier projections that the housing market would stabilize this year.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a so-called double-dip recession was possible “if home prices go down.”
Fannie’s forecast, disclosed in its latest quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, shows that the government-owned mortgage giant has turned bearish on the housing market. Fannie Mae, the federal mortgage association, along with its sister entity, Freddie Mac, own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages.
“We expect that home prices on a national basis will decline slightly in 2010 and into 2011 before stabilizing, and that the peak-to-trough home price decline on a national basis will range between 18 percent and 25 percent,” the bailed-out behemoth said in its filing. | <urn:uuid:3ab1d7af-0b13-48bc-acd7-246e3776b6db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alohapolitics.com/?tag=financial-crisis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96037 | 202 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Call for calm after Indian train attack
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has called for calm after up to 50 people were killed when an angry mob set fire to a passenger train in the western state of Gujarat.
The train was carrying dozens of Hindu activists returning from the north Indian town of Ayodhya where they had been demanding the government build a temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque destroyed nearly a decade ago.
At least 18 others were seriously injured in the attack on the Sabarmati Express service which happened Wednesday morning near the station at town of Godhra.
Officials have refused to confirm the identity of the attackers saying only that a mob of about 2,000 firebombed the train setting four of the cars alight and nearly destroying one of them.
Most of those killed are believed to be Hindu activists. The number of dead is expected to rise.
Calling for calm Vajpayee said the government was "very worried" about the incident and urged all communities to respect the law.
"I will ask people to be patient, they should not get excited or incited," he said.
"The country's unity and the spiritual brotherhood should be maintained at all costs."
The demolition of Ayodhya's Babri mosque in 1992 sparked riots between Hindus and Muslims across the country that left more than 2,000 people dead.
Police say the Hindu activists traveling on the train had earlier confronted a group of Muslims at a nearby train station.
Extra security forces are being rushed to the area with a curfew imposed on the town and police being given orders to shoot on sight any troublemakers.
The government has promised a full-scale inquiry into the attack.
The town of Godhra has a sizeable Muslim population and has been scene to several clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the past.
Police have also been put on heightened alert in Ayodhya where some 11,000 security personnel have already been deployed.
The activists traveling on the train belonged to the World Hindu Council which has called on supporters to travel to Ayodhya to put pressure on the government to allow construction of the temple.
Over the past few days an estimated 15,000 followers have taken up that call and traveled to the town.
The Council has said it plans to begin building work on the temple by March 15, ignoring court orders banning any construction at the site.
Vajpayee has publicly appealed to Hindu activists to call off their campaign saying they should respect legal rulings on the disputed site.
Hindu activists have said they will not wait, but have pledged their campaign to get the temple built will be carried out peacefully.
WORLD TOP STORIES:
|Back to the top| | <urn:uuid:dd4fd99c-a407-423b-b6e9-8ddd92d11d0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/02/27/india.train.1000/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974996 | 564 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam -- who developed India's ballistic missile and played a key role in its 1998 nuclear tests -- said Wednesday that Fukushima should not deter India from going ahead with its plans for a massive expansion in nuclear power production, writes the Economic Times.
"Nuclear plants should and would continue to operate. Accidents did happen but there were always solutions to problems and precautions to be taken," the paper quotes Kalam as saying at a university lecture.
Earlier, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to the prime minister questioning the wisdom of the controversial nuclear power "park" planned for Jaitapur, Maharashtra, according to the Indian Express.
While he didn't go so far as to question India's nuclear expansion plans in general, the minister suggested that the accident at Fukushima should prompt new questions about large facilities.
“While I agree that sites are limited, should we not relook at this concept of nuclear parks where we set up giant capacities in one location (like at Fukushima)? Jaitapur will have 10,000 MW of capacity. Is this wise?" the letter reads, according to the newspaper.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) plans a 9,900 MW nuclear plant near Jaitapur. It will be the largest nuclear power generating station in the world by net electrical power rating once completed. The project is slated to be built by France's state-owned Areva Group using the company's controversial Evolutionary Pressurized Reactors. | <urn:uuid:50ed03e8-12fa-48d6-98d5-231130515d54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/bric-yard/india-jaitapur-nuclear-plant-earthquake-risk | 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 | 0.948874 | 307 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Working Moms: Flu Season
We've heard a lot about this season's flu epidemic. In a recent study, 84% of working parents admitted they've gone to work sick before to save their leave time for sick kids. Well, that can spread germs and others can get sick. Here are some things experts say we can do to cut down on getting sick at work and bringing those germs home:
Click here to read the full story. | <urn:uuid:ebff0aad-5b30-46d5-a454-0f23cfd61285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.local15tv.com/content/workingmoms/story/Working-Moms-Flu-Season/C6RgdbCQ5k6nM5Rh2BTtgA.cspx?p=Comments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949754 | 92 | 1.5 | 2 |
N.B. Psychologists have proven what we already know, shoes tell us much about the wearer…
The Keen Newport H2, priced at $100.
Manolo says, your name is Rick. Not Ricky, Rick, and you work as the engineer for one of the oil companies doing tolerance analysis, but that is not important.
What is important is that you like to run. No, you love to run, really run. Ten, fifteen, twenty miles the day, much more on the weekends.
Although you run the very respectable marathon times, you have this awkward gait that forces you, when you are in the race, to run more frantically. Thus, it is not unusual for bystanders to shout as you go by, “What’s chasing you, buddy!” (Mark, one of your old running “friends,” would always shout back “Zombies!” People would laugh, which is why you prefer to run alone now.)
You started running again twelve years ago, to combat the onset of the middle-aged spread. And today, you weigh five pounds less (actually 4.65lbs less this morning) than you did when you were in college.
“The best shape of your life,” you like to announce frequently to whoever will listen. Your wife, Debbie, she doesn’t like to run, or exercise much at all, which is why she put on that weight, fifteen pounds. She was not that good looking to begin with, but she was nice to you in your senior year, when the other girls would not give you the time of day. And she has been the good mother to Rick, Jr., taking him to his trombone lessons and making sure he does his homework.
Most mornings you’re up early, four-thirty, and out on the road by five, running. Because of this, you maintain the strict 8:30PM bedtime. Debbie doesn’t seem to mind. She doesn’t like to have people talking to her when she’s watching Mark Harmon on NCIS.
You like these Keen shoes because they’re outdoorsy, and they look cool with your favorite work pants, those khakis ones that convert into shorts by unzipping the legs. So clever. They must have been designed by the engineer. | <urn:uuid:965d3084-3429-4e91-ad6a-c68cf60ea634> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shoeblogs.com/2012/07/03/shoe-personalities-keen-newport-h2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982935 | 492 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Today (30th April), an item was posted on titled ‘Animal welfare’, written by Adolfo Sansolini.
‘… A new publication on the animal welfare problems caused by long-distance live transport is now available in PDF format. A printed version will be available soon.
I was glad to participate in the production of this new resource, ’8 hours is more than enough!’, which aims to convince the European institutions to take effective action to end the plague of long-distance live animal transport.
At the end of 2011, the European Commission released a report saying that the 2005 Regulation governing live transport simply needs to be enforced in order to put a stop to the enormous suffering still experienced by tens of millions of animals. 8 hours is more than enough! explains why a reliance on proper enforcement of the existing rules is unlikely ever to be effective, because some of the rules have been in existence for over 20 years and have never been properly enforced.
The 8 hours is more than enough! publication was produced as part of the 8hours campaign, which is already supported by nearly 1,100,000 citizens who have signed the online petition and by the majority of Members of the European Parliament, who signed Written Declaration 49/2011, adopted by the European Parliament on 15 March 2012.
8 hours is more than enough! can be read or downloaded for free on the 8hours website …’
Read the item and view image at http://animalwelfareandtrade.com/animal-welfare-new-publication-on-live-animal-transport | <urn:uuid:0a6f3921-2cf0-41fb-ab05-b72c88d7437a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnewsforlife.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/8-hours-is-more-than-enough-new-publication-on-live-animal-export/ | 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 | 0.951197 | 325 | 1.820313 | 2 |
In order to make increase beekeepers must know the conditions in their colonies under which bees rear their own queens. There appear to be three of these known to beekeepers:
1. Emergency Impulse
Let's get a discussion of the mechanics of these going here for understanding.
Comments to begin?
Dee A. Lusby | <urn:uuid:fe934825-fb67-47dc-8a68-67a64b658be6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?201014-Conditions-Under-Which-Bees-Rear-queens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951451 | 69 | 1.726563 | 2 |
In the dating world, people constantly joke about supposed "dealbreakers"— qualities in a person that would automatically rule him or her out as a prospective partner — whether it's a former English major's peeve over incorrect usages of "there," "their" and "they're" or a fitness trainer's disdain for couch potatoes.
That's all well and good, but race, people, should really not be a deal breaker in 2012. These statistics we found are maddening.
More from YourTango: Stop Hibernating! How To Date When You're Allergic To Everything
A recent survey conducted by online dating site OurTime.com found that 42 percent of adults would not date somebody outside of their own race. Within that statistic, respondents age 55 and up tended to lean more toward those of their own race, at a whopping 54 percent, compared to those between 18 to 34 at only 33 percent. Female boomers were especially biased, as only one-third of women over 55 say they would date outside their race.
Curiously, it seems that race is more of a factor for women than for men: 65 percent of men said they would date someone outside of their race, while only 51 percent of women said the same. Additionally, 64 percent of those who are unemployed would consider an interracial relationship, while only 50 percent of employed adults would.
Many questions here: Why are female boomers so much more biased? Why are women so much more biased in general? Is it less taboo for a white man to date a black woman than the other way around? And what's with the unemployed being so much more open to interracial relationships — is this because it's harder for them to find relationships, period? Hmm.
More from YourTango: 5 Beauty Picks That'll Last You All Of Memorial Day Weekend
Do you consider race a dating dealbreaker? Do you fall into any of the statistics above?
More juicy content from YourTango: | <urn:uuid:f2e1f06e-c258-406a-aa17-17fea2dd87c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourtango.com/2012159850/what-constitutes-dating-deal-breaker-your-book | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972999 | 405 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Whatever holiday it is that you celebrate.
What sort of traditions do you have in your family?
We have several that the children enjoy. Occasionally we will try something new, add it into the mix and sometimes they stick and sometimes they don’t. The Advent calendar is one of those things. If I buy one the kids like it, but they don’t really miss it if I forget, like I did this year. I am going to spend the next week talking about the various traditions that we have established for our family during the holidays.
We are a family of readers. it only makes sense that the first tradition I write about is about books.
Every year I wrap all of our Christmas story books in wrapping paper and put them in a basket. Each day the younger children take turns picking out and unwrapping a book for us to read. And yes, we have over 25 of them. (Advent varies slightly in length from year to year– this year it began December 2nd, so we will double up on a day when one of the children happens to pick a short book.)
The books vary from the tried and true old classics like, Twas the Night before Christmas
to the modern classic, Polar Express
to books like the Berenstain Bears visit Santa Bear, I’m not posting a picture of this one.
Every year I try to buy a few more books to add to the mix to replace some of the lesser loved (usually by me) or too juvenile ones in our collection. I look for rich quality pictures and an engaging storyline that appeals to both grown-ups and children.
Today we read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey
This book is a perfect example of the sort I try to find. The story is deep enough that a twelve year old can listen to it and discuss it afterward, but the beautifully detailed illustrations keep the interest of an almost 2yr old while I am reading.
So tell me what are your holiday traditions? Do you do something unique or fun that your family enjoys? Or did you do something as a child that you hope to continue as an adult?
Write about it on your own blog if you like and leave a link to the post in the comments. | <urn:uuid:b172fba7-2d16-4594-813a-ed868d3b927d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inthetrenchesofmotherhood.com/?p=63 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954778 | 464 | 1.65625 | 2 |
1. He must be responsible. This is the first step to determining if he is good husband material. Five of the most important words a woman can say to a man are “Do you have a job?” This will help her determine whether or not he is experienced in shouldering responsibility. When a man does not work, there is no consistent measure. If he is not responsible for himself, how will he be responsible for others? A man’s ability to take care of himself is a vital part of who he is. He will never take any relationship seriously until he takes himself seriously. Responsible is a key ingredient in husband material.
2. He must be accountable. Accountability is the second ingredient in husband material, and it begins with a man keeping his word. The way a man takes responsibility for his actions, pays his bills, gets to work on time, or attends church service all give insight to how accountable he will be towards his relationship. If a man is going to be a successful husband in this world today, he must be willing and able to be accountable for his words and actions.
3. He must have a positive attitude about marriage. Man’s attitude towards marriage is the third ingredient in becoming husband material. If he views marriage as a “ball and chain,” he will also view his wife as a liability. This failure to see the value of a wife will untimely limit his creativity and vision. On the contrary, the man that sees marriage as an asset will use words and actions that show he values the relationship. This will allow him to find that which is good and obtain favor from God. “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).
4. He must want to be married. One of the main ingredients in becoming husband material is the desire to be married. It would be a mistake to believe that just because a man has a positive attitude about marriage that he wants to get married. The desire to be married is not automatic. Relationships evolve from friendship, to dating, to an engagement, to marriage. Each man varies in the time it takes to matriculate through the stages. If a man really and truly wants to be married, he will be the one to ask.
5. He must be willing to share his life. This is the most important ingredient in husband material. No one can become a part of a man’s life without him sharing it. His heart, emotions, time, and space must be willingly shared. He must be willing to make room in his life. The willingness to share his life is the point where “I” becomes “we” and “his” becomes “ours.”
Although these are not the only ingredients in husband material, I do believe they are some of the most important. From that moment that these ingredients come together, dreams, goals, and ambitions will become one and will reflect what is good for the family unit. The individual man will cease to exist and a husband will be born. This will create a bond that will never be broken because this oneness will be forged together by the strongest of all material, love.
Timothy Houston is an author, minister, and motivational speaker who is committed to guiding positive life changes in families and communities. For questions, comments or more information, go to www.tlhouston.com. | <urn:uuid:9469e2b9-609d-407e-a449-4f72015c7130> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insightnews.com/columns/timothy-houston/8361-is-he-husband-material | 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 | 0.975743 | 711 | 1.59375 | 2 |
An anonymous reader points out a column by James Boyle, who knows a thing or two about copyright, analyzing the Obama Administration's policy choices about intellectual property and high tech. "Traditionally, Democratic administrations take their copyright policy direct from Hollywood and the recording industry. Unfortunately, so do Republican administrations. The capture of regulators by the industry they regulate is nothing new, of course, but in intellectual property there is the added benefit that incumbents can frequently squelch competing technologies and business methods before they ever come into existence. ... The Obama administration's warm embrace of Silicon Valley, and Silicon Valley's checkbook, had given some hope that this pattern would change — and I think it will. Now, instead of taking copyright policy direct from the media conglomerates (who, after all, have a very legitimate point of view — even if not the only point of view) it is quite likely that the administration will construct it as a contract between content companies and high-technology companies such as Google. In some places, citizens and consumers will probably benefit, simply because optimizing for the interests of two economic blocs rather than one is likely to give us a slightly more balanced, and less technology-phobic, set of rules. And perhaps the administration will go further. But recent actions make me doubt that this is the case." | <urn:uuid:c098f74c-f62a-4899-b5c9-09f6d068a97a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/21/2327214/How-the-Obama-Copyright-Policies-Might-Unfold | 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 | 0.956198 | 266 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It could be said that Eleanor Henderson’s debut novel Ten Thousand Saints is about ten thousand different things—addiction, adoption, family, hedonism, asceticism, AIDS, poverty, and homelessness—to name a few. A brief synopsis cannot really describe the sensory-overload of this tightly-packed 400 page novel. The title, Ten Thousand Saints, comes from the Book of Jude: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.” This mysterious inscription, printed at the beginning of the book, is a strange, yet fitting, way to begin what is ultimately a wonderfully strange and sublime novel.
Ten Thousand Saints opens underneath the stands in a football stadium on New Year’s Eve, 1987. Jude—named for the Beatles song or the saint; it’s a point of contention between his parents—and his best friend Teddy are getting high and thinking about their next high. This day will be the last day on earth for Teddy, who will die of an overdose in the early hours of New Year’s Day. For Jude, losing his best friend leaves him alone in a world in which he’s already marginalized. The adopted child of divorced parents, Jude is dyslexic, drug-addled, and depressed. After Teddy’s overdose, Jude is also diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome. Looking at the photographs of children with FAS in informational brochures, Jude sees his own face reflected back to him for the first time. He is angry and despondent.
Jude leaves his mother’s home in Vermont for his father’s place in New York, where he encounters Teddy’s brother, Johnny. Johnny is a straight edge—no drinking, no drugs, no meat, no sex—musician and tattoo artist. Jude falls hard for Johnny’s apparent confidence and purpose, and the straight edge culture becomes addiction-prone Jude’s new obsession. In the middle of all this is Eliza, Les’ step-daughter who is pregnant from a one-time fling with Teddy. She holds all the sadness and all the hope of this novel in Teddy’s unborn child. In a misguided attempt to honor his brother, Johnny marries Eliza and together with Jude, they attempt to set up house. It’s a house of cards, of course, which the reader knows from the beginning, but wants to hope for some redemption, anyway.
The New York years of the book take us through punk shows, riots, demonstrations, and the beginning of AIDS. The setting feels pre-apocalyptic or pre-adulthood—however you choose to look at it. Ultimately, the book isn’t about drugs, or music, or religion—although all of those are ways that characters experience belonging. It is about finding home. At the last show at CBGB, an adult Jude reflects: “There are ten thousand Johnnys and ten thousand Judes, throwing themselves against one another to see what they can start” (384). The saints are all of us, and the only prayer that makes sense in life is “thank you.” In a beautiful passage, Harriet tells Jude: “When they brought you to me, ten days old, I couldn’t believe you were finally mine. I was so grateful. You were like a little bundle that had just fallen from the heavens. And I thought, Jude. In Hebrew, it means ‘Praise.’ Or, ‘Thanks’” (372). Ten Thousand Saints certainly left me with a sense of gratitude for all the chaos and beauty that is life. | <urn:uuid:3b190273-b29d-4413-b3b9-2adba99d9aa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tulsalibrary.org/blog/all-saints-rebecca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955915 | 768 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers and the New York Times are heartily celebrating the fact that an increasing number of Americans are becoming informants and turning in their neighbors and family members to the authorities in return for cash rewards.
Citing gas prices, foreclosure rates and runaway food price inflation, The Times lauds the fact that citizens are reporting on each other, ensuring "a substantial increase in Crime Stopper-related arrests and recovered property, as callers turn in neighbors, grandchildren or former boyfriends in exchange for a little cash."
The fact that people turning in their own neighbors and family members for payoffs is one of the hallmarks of a Stasi-like police state doesn't seem to register with reporters Shaila Dewan, Brenda Goodman, or Crime Stoppers U.S.A President Elaine Cloyd, who hails the snitches for getting "creative" to offset a rough economy.
(Article continues below)
Forget Orwell's 1984, this purebred tyranny is about as sophisticated as the wacky dictatorship portrayed in Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 movie The Running Man, where citizens are reminded by huge TV screens that they can "earn a double bonus for reporting on a family member!"
It's difficult to judge the most disturbing aspect of this story - the fact that people would slavishly turn in their grandchildren and neighbors for instant cash - or the horrible spectacle of having to endure the the New York Times celebrating it.
"For tips that bring results, programs in most places pay $50 to $1,000, with some jurisdictions giving bonuses for help solving the most serious crimes, or an extra “gun bounty” if a weapon is recovered. In Sussex County, the average payment for a tip that results in an arrest is $400," according to the report.
“Crime doesn’t pay but we do,” say the mobile billboards cruising Jacksonville, Fla. A poster in Jackson, Tenn., draws a neat equation: “Ring Ring + Bling Bling = Cha-Ching.” The bling, in this case, is a pair of handcuffs."
Enthusiastic spies are assured that they can earn as much as $700, $750 per week for information leading to two or three arrests, more money than a minimum wage job. The tattle-tales' identity is kept anonymous and they can even report people by text message.
Crime Stoppers coordinator Trish Routte described the ability to make a living from reporting friends and family members to the authorities as "wonderful".
Lest we forget that from this same wellspring of tyranny emerged Operation TIPS, which was supposedly nixed by Congress, a DOJ, FBI, DHS and FEMA coordinated program that would have recruited one in twenty-four Americans as domestic informants, a higher percentage than was used by the Stasi in East Germany.
Government funding was cut after an outcry but private funding continues and the same program was introduced under a number of sub-divisions including AmeriCorps, SecureCorps and the Highway Watch program.
More recently, ABC News reported that "The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort.....to aid with criminal investigations."
Since authorities now define mundane activities like buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children or mentioning the U.S. constitution as the behavior of potential terrorists, the bounty for the American Stasi to turn in political dissidents is sure to be too tempting to resist.
As any budding dictator will tell you, the creation of an informant society where individuals self-regulate their behavior in fear of being turned in by a citizen spy is one of the key stepping stones to tyranny. To have the media celebrate the fact that people are reporting on their neighbors and grandchildren puts the icing on the cake.
Get your exclusive Prison Planet.tv membership today and enjoy a plethora of multimedia content as well as access to live video streaming of The Alex Jones Show - click here to subscribe. | <urn:uuid:fd502ecf-3c42-4d85-afdf-4d65ec416888> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://propagandamatrix.com/articles/may2008/051908_family_members.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955765 | 837 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Headline from Wapo is "White House, Joint Chiefs at odds on adding troops" , the headline implying that the Joint Chiefs do not agree on addition troops being sent to Iraq.
The pentagon and the joint chiefs asks legitimate questions, ones they are being paid to ask during these meetings. They bring up points about logistics, they mention potential flaws in certain plans.... they are doing their job. They are trying to see all possibilities and all ramifications. It is hard forseeing the future and trying to think of all possible problems that "could" oocur. These are things the president NEEDS to be aware of, things the president has to know about.
It seems to me that if the joint chiefs of staff simply nodded in agreement and did NOT bring up all the possibilities they would not be doing their jobs.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said military officers have not directly opposed a surge option. "I've never heard them be depicted that way to the president," the official said. "Because they ask questions about what the mission would be doesn't mean they don't support it. Those are the kinds of questions the president wants his military planners to be asking."
I would be extremely worried if the joint chiefs of staffs weren't asking questions.
On another front but related to this issue... Robert Gates said something yesterday that didn't seem to sink in to alot of people.
Robert Gates assumed the helm at the Pentagon on Monday, warning in his first public remarks as defense secretary that failure in Iraq would be a "calamity" that would haunt the United States for years.
The former CIA chief pledged to give President Bush his honest advice on the costly and unpopular war, and said he would go to Iraq soon to see what U.S. commanders believe should be done to quell the growing violence.
"All of us want to find a way to bring America's sons and daughters home again," Gates, 63, said after taking the oath of office as defense secretary from Vice President Dick Cheney at a Pentagon ceremony. "But as the president has made clear, we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and endanger Americans for decades to come."
Gates seems to be quite aware of the ramifictaions of losing and failure and understands the need to succeed.
The need to succeed.... catchy phrase.
Others discussing Iraq:
Keep up with the discussions at memeorandum. | <urn:uuid:42b2e6d0-7944-4520-a42d-eeefa49df8f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.jp/2006/12/white-house-and-joint-chiefs-on-iraq.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977975 | 528 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Trivia and Tidbits
- More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.
- American men say they’d prefer to receive boxed chocolate as a Valentine’s Day present followed by gourmet, high-end chocolates then conversation heart candies.
- A majority of men (53 percent) admit that they lean on friends and family to find the perfect present for their sweetheart while 11 percent look to co-workers, 10 percent ask the cashier and 7 percent consult the World Wide Web.
- Even if they don’t make the final purchases until the last few days, the majority of men (75%) testify that they plan ahead for Valentine’s Day.
- When it comes to present time, women prefer a gift after a nice dinner, while most men prefer gifts first thing in the morning.
- American men and women agree that the most romantic place to share candy is in front of the fireplace.
- On average, men shell out $130 each on candy, cards, jewelry, flowers and dates. That’s more than double what women commit to spending.
- Children receive 39 percent of all Valentine’s Day candy and gifts. Following them are wives/mothers (36 percent), fathers/husbands (6 percent), grandparents (3 percent), and pets (1 percent).
- In the 1800’s physicians commonly advised their lovelorn patients to eat chocolate to calm their pining.
- As an elixir for love, chocolate has been believed throughout history to bring smiles to the broken-hearted and to prompt amorous feelings in both men and women. It is believed that Madame Du Barry served it to all her suitors; Casanova consumed chocolate instead of champagne to induce romance; and Montezuma, the king of the ancient Aztecs, believed chocolate would make him virile.
- At one time, conversation candies were made into shapes including horseshoes, baseballs and watches.
- About 8 billion hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.
- The peak selling season for conversation hearts last only six weeks, but confectioners produce the candy for nearly eleven months of the year.
- At least 10 new conversation heart sayings are introduced each year. Recent additions include "Yeah Right", "Call Home" and "Puppy Love."
- Each year the television game show JEOPARDY! includes questions about conversation hearts on its Valentine's Day show.
Trivia facts and survey results provided by the National Confectioners Association and used with permission. | <urn:uuid:44192d52-1479-481c-a098-2eb3449a6b6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://candy.about.com/od/thecandyindustry/a/vday_trivia.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931112 | 558 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Honour Bound director Nigel Jamieson speaks with WSWS
23 August 2006
Honour Bound director Nigel Jamieson is best-known for his large-event productions—Tin Symphony at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the closing ceremony of the Manchester Commonwealth Games. But before migrating to Australia from Britain in 1992 he worked with the Royal National Theatre and founded and directed the acclaimed Trickster Theatre Company and several other theatre groups. In 1985, he was awarded the Greater London Arts Award for outstanding contribution to the fields of Dance and Physical Theatre.
In Australia, Jamieson has worked with the ABC, the Adelaide Festival, Legs On The Wall and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus. His local productions include, Theft of Sita, All of Me, Wake Baby, In My Name and Homelands. He recently spoke with the WSWS about Honour Bound.
Richard Phillips: Why did you decide to develop a production on David Hicks?
Nigel Jamieson: I was approached by the Sydney Opera House and asked whether I had any ideas for a new work. I was in the middle of three other things at the time but had just seen The President versus David Hicks and was very moved by it.I walked down into the cavernous space underneath the Opera House and had this image of a suspended figure in orange boiler suit spinning in white space. This was the initial image around which the show was developed.
What has happened to David Hicks is traumatic and highlights some fundamental principles about our society. His plight, and Honour Bound itself, asks whether we’re going to stand by habeas corpus, trial by jury, presumption of innocence, the declaration of human rights, the Geneva Conventions and all those things that we’ve signed up for as a democratic, humanitarian people.
I’m always interested in creating heightened forms of physicality and David’s story had many elements that could be explored. There was Guantánamo itself, which was established to be outside the law, almost as if it doesn’t really exist—not part of the US or Cuba. This meant we could develop something on a number of different planes—upside down, in the air and on the walls. The prisoners are always chained up and being interrogated and manipulated so various aerial images came to mind, with ropes, pullies, levers and other devices used as metaphors.
Theatre is always the strongest when it covers the extremes of humanity and it seemed to me that Guantánamo has a terrible inhumanity and barbarism that should be exposed. At the same time, there is Terry Hicks [David’s father], who has an incredible warmth, and I thought that with his assistance we could develop a wonderful production.
RP: Did you meet Terry after watching the documentary?
NJ: Yes, I saw the film last year and then visited Adelaide and met Terry and Major Michael Mori [David Hicks’s military lawyer].
Terry is an astonishing persion—totally open, engaging and warm. How he and his wife Bev cope with the pressures they’re under I can’t even begin to imagine. I know that if my son were in David’s situation I’d be in a terrible state but Terry maintains his integrity and never appears to get angry.
Obviously there are many difficult moments which affect him deep down but this never seems to stop him from communicating a very reasonable message. And he always treats everyone in the same straightforward way. Four and half years ago he’d never been outside Australia and then suddenly he travelled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US to try and secure his son’s basic rights.
RP: There are many striking scenes in the production. How did you develop the sequence with the suspended Guantánamo prisoner walking along the Geneva Conventions?
NJ: These documents can be quite dry reading so we wanted to find a way of presenting these principles in a living way and at the same time illustrate the dilemma facing the prisoners. The solution lay in trying to make the process somehow interactive. We began experimenting with various video programs, which allowed the text to be manipulated, and combined this with walking on the wall.
RP: Washington and the Howard government would certainly like the Geneva Conventions to become a dead letter.
NJ: US Attorney-General Gonzales has described the Conventions as “quaint”. Their attitude seems to be that these principles are only OK in peaceful times and as soon as there are real problems they should be dispensed with.
As terrible as 9/11 and other terrorist atrocities around the world were, these Conventions were put in place in 1947 and 1948 in response to the deaths of 200 million people who lost their lives in the most terrible circumstances. There was, of course, the Holocaust, where six million Jews were exterminated, and millions of others in atrocities in other parts of the world, so the Geneva Conventions were not born in a period of peace and harmony but out of the horror of the Second World War.
Now we’re told that these principles are old-fashioned or impractical because the situation is different and we’re dealing with “bad guys”. But to describe terrorists as “bad guys” doesn’t explain anything. Of course, they’re bad guys, that’s a given. In any case, if the aim is to stop terrorism, what’s going on in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib only provides ammunition for the terrorists.
RP: Two other sequences are striking: the video footage of Terry and Bev Hicks’s home and the suspended dancer attempting to lifting himself via leather straps. Could you elaborate?
NJ: The decision to use shots of Terry’s home came after I’d seen footage of US President Bush declaring that these people—the prisoners in Guantánamo—have no country, have no place, they’re just parasites. I wanted something to deflate this demonisation, which has been constantly used in the war on terror. David Hicks does have a home and a country and he has parents and he has his own kids.
With regard to the leather straps, they were inspired by the photos of prisoners strapped into transport planes and the cruel images from Abu Ghraib. This sequence is very vigorous and physically difficult but [gymnast and circus performer] DJ Garner is a master of this sort of routine, which really conveys the struggle and pain facing the prisoners.
The dance routine attempts to depict what it’s like to be locked up for four and a half years and then suddenly given hope that you might be released because of various legal victories—the US Supreme Court decision or being granted British citizenship—and then those hopes being dashed. How do you deal with this and how do you keep your sanity?
The routine is also related to the problems David confronted as a teenager and a young man. He struggled at a school, then his parents split up and he fell to pieces. He struggled to get off drugs, and eventually did so, then he met his wife and there were kids and then all that fell apart, so he had to deal with a lot of difficult issues. This sequence was originally 27 minutes but we had to edit it down to three and a half minutes because it is so physically demanding.
RP: The Arabic song that concludes the show is very beautiful.
NJ: Yes, the lyrics go something like: “Forgive us for our cowardice but we have been tortured beyond what we can bear”. It’s a traditional Egyptian song which Mishline Jammal sang and recorded especially for the show.
RP: What’s been the response to the production? I read somewhere that some newspapers have refused to review it.
NJ: I read that too but it isn’t really correct because virtually every newspaper has written reviews and they’ve been very good. I heard that someone on the radio claimed it was a waste of money to be defending David Hicks but the truth is that the Australian government is not defending David at all.
If we take a step back on these basic legal rights then the most terrible brutality is unleashed which undermines everybody. The lesson of history is that if people don’t fight for these basic democratic principles then it doesn’t take very long to arrive at the kind of hell that we saw in the images from Abu Ghraib and what happened there was introduced by General Miller who used these methods in Guantánamo.
This is the main point that the show makes and is shown in the Pentagon reports that are read during the performance. These are not reports from prisoners but the Pentagon itself, which describes the most horrendous crimes—people being stripped naked and put on leashes, people being molested with dogs, people put in stress positions, people being drowned, etc., etc.
RP: One thing that Honour Bound doesn’t deal with, however, is the Howard government. David Hicks remains in Guantánamo primarily because the Australian government refuses to call for his release or challenge Washington. Can you comment on why this isn’t in the performance?
NJ: I just didn’t want the production to be an attack on the Howard government. Yes, it has refused to demand his return but I don’t think this is the main thing. On opening night some people in the audience hissed when there was footage of Bush. Of course, they’re free to do that, but I think this distracts from the emotional power of the show.
The production is primarily to try to physicalise what we have discovered, read and explored about Guantánamo and make it more visceral than what it is when reported in the media.
In the end, we had about six and a half hours of text from Terry and Bev and they covered the role of the Howard government in these interviews but we couldn’t put it all in. There are references to the fact that the British, French and Spanish governments all insisted on their people coming home and right at the end Terry says it is, “about bloody time they did something about it”.
The Australian government keeps saying it has been assured by the Americans that David Hicks is not being abused but all you have to do is pick up the widely available literature documenting the atrocities in Guantánamo. Does the Australian government think it appropriate to be smeared in menstrual blood, to be tied on leashes, to interrogate people for days on end, with sleep deprivation? This is torture and abuse in any language but I guess the government will continue to claim David is being treated OK as long as Australian people don’t care.
RP: Apart from the Opera House and the Malthouse in Melbourne are there plans to perform Honour Bound in other venues, working class suburbs, for example?
NJ: It all depends on funding and dealing with the costs of getting it out there. Obviously we want to do it as widely as we can and there has also been some interest from overseas. Hopefully whoever sees the show will begin thinking more deeply about these important issues. It isn’t just about David Hicks, it’s a question of basic human rights. | <urn:uuid:82fb16fe-b357-4bc4-b9b4-9a0655a2cf63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wsws.org/en/articles/2006/08/njam-a23.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973073 | 2,329 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Forgive the music at the link, from Lucknow:
Your vote would not only change the fate of Uttar Pradesh, but it could also fetch extra marks for your child. In a unique first, many schools in the city have decided to award extra marks to students whose parents will cast vote in the assembly election.
And there is this:
The incentive would not be limited to exams alone, it would also find a mention in the character certificate of a student. Mishra suggested that a column for marking whether or not the child successfully convinced his/her parents to vote and hence displayed a sense of civic consciousness will be added in the report card. In case of a student is of 18 years then the relevant entry will be a mark on his/her own performance on the election day.
For the pointer I thank Sharath Rao. | <urn:uuid:1ddb86bf-43e2-4ddc-87ec-bb9910c1685d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/02/political-markets-in-everything.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950571 | 170 | 1.601563 | 2 |
04 May 2010 09:03am
I see in the best practice guide that it says the following
"For .com companies, a common option is to use sub-directories for each country that use standard ICANN country addresses, e.g. www.company.com/de or www.company.com/german ideally with local language versions. However, better performance will be obtained through use of ccTLDs".
The UK-based company which I work for exports to a number of different English-speaking, foreign countries. Some of its .co.uk pages are very highly ranked in Google.
In order to make maintenance manageable and achievable I would like to use include statements so that when updates are made to content, such as to the Company's News page, only one set of content has to be updated.
If this duplicated content is hosted on servers which are physically located in the foreign country, the ccTLD domain is used for each country, and lang is correctly set in the HTML tag, are there likely to be any duplication penalties which will limit how these foreign pages rank in Google? If so, how can these penalties be avoided whilst making updates easy to perform? Is this possible?
04 May 2010 16:23pm
I hope I have not caused confusion in the above post where I say "lang is correctly set in the HTML tag". Please note that the language used in these English-speaking foreign sites would be English throughout.
10 May 2010 10:42am
I take it that the lack of any response to this post either means that I have asked a question which is not valid or that answering it is not easy.
SEO / Web Developer at Zeland
10 May 2010 14:40pm
This is quite a tricky issue with a lot of things to take into account.
It would not be possible to give a definitive answer without some level of consultation and understanding of your business. Also for some types of search, localisation can be of limited benefit.
Another point is that this is a somewhat controversial/debated issue - my personal thoughts are that "better performance will be obtained through use of ccTLDs" is rather a large understatement.
There are real risks of content duplication having negative effects in search with the set up you describe. Localisation is one of the most involved and complicated facets of SEO, and when localisations are using the same language, this increases complication and risk significantly.
There may be a number of options available to you that allow you to maintain a reasonable presence in search accross a number of localisations without requiring full re-authoring of content, though again this depends on the set up of your site and your business.
10 May 2010 14:59pm
Thank you for taking the trouble to reply.
I was interested to see you say that better performance through use of ccTLDs is rather a large understatement.
10 May 2010 15:09pm
I'd rather not get into a debate about technical specifics, but using the sub-directory or subdomain method usually gives no control over which localisation is returned in search - for example the Australian/Canadian localisation being returned for UK visitors in most searches because it has the most backlinks (or vice versa). I've also seen sites not appearing in results at all when searching with the "Pages from [country]" modifier (when they certainly would do if using ccTLDs).
There are workarounds in Google Webmaster Tools where you can specify that a folder on the site is targeting a specific country, but this may not be 100% effective and by definition only works in Google. It also ignores the idea that UK searchers would rather visit a .co.uk site than a .com site.
Finally, ccTLD localisation gives a chance for your company to appear more than once in search results via the different localised domains, which would not happen otherwise.
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It takes 30 seconds to register | <urn:uuid:6f726cf0-8a57-4651-ae10-0e9ccedd431b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/au/forums/best-practice/penalty-avoidance-on-english-speaking-foreign-sites | 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 | 0.93702 | 956 | 1.679688 | 2 |
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UW Professor and Former Student Receive $1 Million Grant to Start Biotechnology Business
October 17, 2012 — One million dollars will go a long way to help get a Wyoming business off the ground.
University of Wyoming Department of Molecular Biology Professor Don Jarvis and former UW student Christoph Geisler received the large grant -- in partnership with a company from the University of Kentucky -- for a collaborative effort to develop new platforms for manufacturing biotechnology products.
Jarvis and Geisler began their company, GlycoBac, in summer 2011 after winning UW’s John P. Ellbogen $30k Entrepreneurship Competition. After using their $12,500 award from the competition to establish the company, Jarvis and Geisler, together with ParaTechs Corp., submitted a proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant.
GlycoBac’s goals are to find ways to produce glycoprotein drugs using insect cells. In this initial project, GlycoBac will work together with Angelika Fath-Goodin, the project’s co-principal investigator at ParaTechs in Lexington, Ky.
Started by Bruce Webb from the University of Kentucky, ParaTechs has developed technology designed to increase production levels, while GlycoBac has developed technology designed to increase product quality in insect cell-based manufacturing systems.
“We’re on parallel tracks. ParaTechs has technology that it believes can produce larger amounts of material, and we have a technology we believe can produce higher quality material,” Jarvis says. “We chose to couple our technologies in an effort to develop insect cell systems that can be used to manufacture larger amounts in addition to higher-quality biotechnological products.”
GlycoBac and ParaTechs submitted the proposal for their cooperative research in April and received a grant of more than $1 million to be used over a two-year period. Each company will receive about half of the funding to conduct its research.
“We will be working together due to our common interest in improving insect cell-based expression systems to produce recombinant proteins with biomedical applications,” Jarvis says. “Insect cells have been used as platforms to create FDA-approved drugs, and they provide a faster and safer alternative for doing so. They are not well suited for the production of glycoprotein drugs at this time.”
With the help of the grant, GlycoBac will officially begin operations as a company and will begin product development in earnest.
“Right now, the company exists on paper. But, we don’t have a lab or product yet. This grant will help us to get up and running,” Jarvis says.
As a former $30k Competition winner, GlycoBac is eligible to work in the Wyoming Technology Business Center for a year after moving out of its current facility.
As GlycoBac begins to operate as a business venture, it will hire its first employees, including a chief research scientist and technical assistant, while Jarvis will serve as a consultant.
Don Jarvis and former UW student Christoph Geisler will partner with a University of Kentucky company to develop new platforms for manufacturing biotechnology products. (UW Photo) | <urn:uuid:2241900e-46b2-417b-a95d-7a620097dc94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2012/10/uw-professor-and-former-student-receive-1-million-grant-to-start-biotechnology-business.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941339 | 697 | 1.726563 | 2 |
In the wake of the Newtown shootings, school districts across the country are hiring armed guards to patrol the hallways of their schools. Meanwhile, in Harrold, Texas, teachers are encouraged to carry concealed handguns. NBC's Charles Hadlock reports.
Gun-control advocates responded with outrage and disbelief Friday after the National Rifle Association called for armed guards in every school and blamed music, movies and video games for firearms violence.
While some people in Newtown, Conn., said they supported the idea of police with guns in their schools, critics said a volunteer force was impractical at best, dangerous at worst.
"The last thing we need are the George Zimmermans of the world patrolling our schools," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, referring to the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Florida.
The slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week has prompted some gun-rights advocates to soften their position, and there was speculation that the NRA might put forth some type of concession.
But NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre -- who will appear Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" -- did not indicate the group would support new restrictions.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the National Rifle Association held a news conference in Washington and blamed the media and video games for cultivating a culture of violence.
Defiant NRA leader rejects gun controls, asks to put police in schools
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,'' he said, roughly outlining plans for an NRA-sponsored program to train and certify volunteers to protect schools from "the next Adam Lanza."
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he was at a loss for words after hearing the proposal.
"I don’t even know where to begin," he said on msnbc. "As a supporter of the Second Amendment and a supporter of the NRA — even though I’m not a member of the NRA — I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that our country now is talking about arming our teachers and our principals in classrooms."
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he was stunned by LaPierre's comments.
"It is beyond belief that following the Newtown tragedy, the National Rifle Association's leaders want to fill our communities with guns and arm more Americans," he said in a statement.
"The NRA points the finger of blame everywhere and anywhere it can, but they cannot escape the devastating effects of their reckless comments and irresponsible lobbying tactics. The NRA leadership is wildly out of touch with its own members, responsible gun owners, and the American public who want to close dangerous loopholes and enact common-sense gun safety reform."
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the press conference "a shameful evasion" of the gun crisis, devoid of soul-searching.
"They offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe," he said.
In Newtown, where funerals for the Sandy Hook victims were still going on, opinion was divided.
"I think that's a great idea," Elaine Bartell said of LaPierre's armed-guard proposal. "I would feel much safer, and children would be protected."
Msnbc's Thomas Roberts talks to a political power panel that includes former RNC Chairman Michael Steele to get reactions to the NRA news conference on gun control.
Mary Fernandes, a mother, said an increase in guns is the last thing schools need.
"I think it's sad that it's come to this state. We need do something about the gun control and I don't think that [armed guards] is the answer," she said. "I don't believe people need guns in their homes."
Some gun control advocates target ammo clips
Dennis van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, told NBC News the idea “that there be a policeman in every building” deserves to be part of a wide-ranging discussion about how to protect schoolchildren from bullets, but he scoffed at LaPierre’s call for volunteers packing heat.
“We have 90,000 [school] buildings in America, and you want to volunteers to come and have a gun at the school?” he said, noting that many schools already have armed safety officers. “When somebody has an assault rifle and blows out a window with it, you can’t stop that.”
Gun-rights advocates said LaPierre struck the right tone in his hotly anticipated announcement – the powerful lobbying group’s first comments since the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Robert Farago, publisher of a popular blog called TheTruthAboutGuns.com, said he did "a good job putting forth a positive solution to the problem of spree killing in schools."
He was disappointed, however, that LaPierre did not explicitly say the NRA would fight any proposed assault-weapons ban. And he thought LaPierre's criticism of video games and movies was off-target.
"I think the effect of the culture isn't the determining effect in an attack like this," Farago said.
On Facebook: Do you agree with the NRA's stance?
Dave Workman, senior editor of The Gun Mag, a publication owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, said the NRA news conference “just ramps up the attention to gun-free zones.”
“We’ve had shootings in shopping malls, movie theaters, schools, colleges – all gun-free zones – so maybe it’s time to take a look at that,” Workman said.
“The prevailing wisdom with a lot of the gun owners is -- it’s about time we started talking about something other than banning guns.”
A long-dormant national conversation about guns has reignited: some are calling for an assault weapons ban while other feel guns themselves aren't the root of the problem. So far the shootings have sparked several gun buy-back programs and even an anti-gun video organized by big-city mayors – but the NRA says it's the entertainment industry that is partly to blame. NBC's John Yang reports.
For Dave Hoover, whose nephew A.J. Boik was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre, the time for talk is over.
“Nobody wants to come in and take your gun away from you, but I don't think it's too much for us to ask that if I'm an individual who has lost their mind and wants to go wreak havoc in a mall or at a church or at a theater -- for the love of God we should be able to stop that,” Hoover told NBC affiliate KUSA.
“We need to stop having these discussions about it, get down to work, roll up our sleeves and accomplish something.”
While LaPierre was still talking, Twitter lit up with reaction.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence instantly asked for donations to support its efforts to ban assault weapons and limit the number of guns that can be bought at one time.
"To all #NRA members who believe like we do, that we are better than this, we send this message … Join us," tweeted the group, which was formed after Jim Brady was shot with President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Businessman Mark Cuban, who owns a movie distribution company and a chain of cinemas, wrote this on his verified Twitter account: "I think the NRA press conference is what the Mayans had in mind when they said the world would come to an end today."
More content from NBCNews.com:
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook | <urn:uuid:7bfb5fa0-2d63-4611-a700-727c441fd60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usnews.nbcnews.com/michael-bloomberg | 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 | 0.971901 | 1,591 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Is it worth switching to a new browser? Marc Andreessen never had to force users to ask that question when he built Mosaic in 1993. For most early adopters, it was their first browser.
But now he's backing the development of another browser, RockMelt. This browser is not perfect, but it does show that there's room yet in the market. If Facebook built a browser, it would probably look a lot like this.
This has been tried before. The other social Web browser, Flock, integrates Facebook features. Also, like Flock (at least the new 3.0 version), RockMelt is built from Chromium, the same Google-developed open toolkit underneath the Chrome browser.
RockMelt is solid effort and is worth trying. Here are some reasons you will probably like it; and, to be fair, some things that may turn you off:
Why you'll like it
It's a real social browser RockMelt shows which of your friends are online on Facebook, right in your browser. If you want to share something from the Web, you'll know who's going to see it right away. It makes sharing links and pages more engaging than using Twitter or even Facebook's site. (Downside: you can't scroll the left-hand "Facebar," which is sorted alphabetically, so unless you filter your friends by your RockMelt favorites, you'll always see your "A" friends on your list but you may never see your "Zs.")
… Read more | <urn:uuid:6e971b5d-793e-4e66-8e4e-ca6abdc7e918> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8300-5_3-0-6.html?keyword=rock | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957403 | 315 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The FCC launched a rulemaking proceeding Feb. 8 aimed at revising its long-standing Universal Service Fund (USF) with the goal of expanding the nation’s wireless and wired broadband Internet network to rural America.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seek to transform universal service and intercarrier compensation policies and programs to provide funding to make broadband service available and affordable in remote, rural areas and tribal lands.
The USF, established under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, has, among other things, helped to connect rural America to telephone service. However, according to the FCC, elements of the fund have become inefficient and wasteful.
To support USF, a system of payments between carriers, called intercarrier compensation (ICC), has been established. The system, however, has as its foundation payments based on the difference between local/long-distance telephone service and per-minute charges. According to a commission statement released with the rulemaking proceedings, the loopholes in ICC distort markets and derail investment in advanced IP networks.
"'The Universal Service Fund is broken.' You don’t have to take my word for it. Those are the words of the bipartisan team of Lee Terry, vice chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees communications, and Rick Boucher, then the chairman of the subcommittee," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement released with the rulemaking notice. "The Intercarrier Compensation system is broken too. Neither program is up to the nation’s broadband challenge, and both are plagued with waste and inefficiency.”
Four principles guide the proposed reform outlined in rulemaking notice: modernizing USF and ICC to support broadband networks, ensuring fiscal responsibility, demanding accountability, and enacting market-driven and incentive-based policies.
In the near term, the rulemaking proposal identifies steps to close loopholes, cut waste and reward efficiency. In the longer term, it proposed simplifying and unifying USF into a single fund and eliminating per-minute intercarrier charges.
By cutting waste and inefficiency from the current structure, the FCC aims to spur investment in high-speed Internet in unserved portions of the country.
“Broadband, high-speed Internet, now serves the role that telephone service once did,” Genachowski said. “It is the indispensible infrastructure of the 21st century. Broadband has become vital for our economic future and global competitiveness, and it is a key building block for achieving common goals on education, health care, energy and public safety.”
While the commission unanimously adopted the rulemaking, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, one of the two Republican commissioners, said he would have preferred to have seen the commission take a more comprehensive approach.
“Today the commission is choosing to take the piecemeal route again by not addressing the contribution mechanism at the same time. While not ideal, in my view, piecemeal reform is better than no reform at all. As such, I commend the chairman for taking on this complex but important effort,” McDowell said.
The FCC also will hold public workshops on key issues raised in the proposed reforms. With the combination of workshops and written comment submissions, the commission hopes to provide the public with ample opportunity to register its thoughts about the proposed changes, an agency statement said. | <urn:uuid:7a698c43-05a0-4dea-b109-469a8c4fb7be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broadcastengineering.com/ott/fcc-proposes-modernizing-funding-mechanism-bring-broadband-rural-america-20110209 | 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 | 0.948443 | 687 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Media release | 6 March 2013
Old age and declining health no barrier to a happy social lifeAustralians in their 70s and 80s enjoy better social relationships and report higher satisfaction with their lives compared to people in their 50s, according to a study released today.
Despite being in poorer health and more likely to be living alone, people aged over 70 said they were less likely to feel socially isolated and, instead, had more companionship than their younger cohorts.
The findings were released in the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre report Staying Connected: Social Engagement and Wellbeing Among Mature Age Australians.
National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said the results were surprising.
“This older cohort is more likely to report that they socialise as much as they want to and they have all the friends they want or need, so overall the quality of their social relationships is higher than for younger people,” he said.
“Compared to those in their 50s and 60s, they also reported higher levels of being comfortable with their living standards and felt free to make decisions about how they live their lives.”
But the study raised some worrying concerns about the wellbeing of people aged in their 50s, O’Neill said.
“People in their 50s are not doing as well. They are more likely to feel isolated from others and more likely to feel a lack of companionship,” O’Neill said.
“Possible reasons for this include potential stressors of workforce participation or unemployment, sharing their household with children and the hours involved in caring for their elderly parents.”
The researchers surveyed 2,123 members of National Seniors Australia aged between 50 and 89 years.
Michael O’Neill is available for comment.
Media contact: Casey-Ann Seaniger 07 3233 9135
With 200,000 members Australia-wide, National Seniors is the consumer lobby for the over 50s. It is the fourth largest organisation of its type in the world.
In this section
Login to update your details, renew membership or make a donation. | <urn:uuid:d65a019f-e59f-4b34-a90a-c47aa5bcc077> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationalseniors.com.au/page/Driving_Change/News/Press_Releases/2013_Media_Releases/Staying_Connected/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982051 | 439 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A few months ago, a dog arrived at the Cumberland County Animal Shelter starved and on the verge of death. The small German shorthaired pointer was emaciated to the point you could easily count each one of her ribs.
She weighed in at 23 pounds, less than half the weight of a healthy dog of her breed and size.
Her back legs were covered with raw abrasions.
Shelter attendants nursed the dog that was understandably shy and a little fearful of people. With her allowed time at the facility up, the shelter reached out to see if a rescue group could possibly help.
After seeing her picture, I contacted my sister-in-law. She has German shorthaired pointers and is also connected to a rescue organization for the breed. I sent her pictures and asked if there was any way she could get help for the dog.
My sister-in-law contacted the rescue organization. Shortly after, arrangements got underway and this little dog's amazing journey began.
First the dog was transported to Raleigh by a Cumberland County Animal Services shelter volunteer. The volunteer met my sister-in-law who then transported the dog to another town to be examined by a vet that works closely with the rescue group.
The little dog was also given a name - Faye.
The vet noted Faye's starving and weakened condition and administered treatment which was paid for by the rescue organization. The next day, the vet deemed Faye healthy enough to make the important third leg of her journey, the one that would take her to her new foster family.
With all the rescue organization's foster homes filled to capacity in North Carolina, Faye was to be taken to neighboring Tennessee for foster care. Faye left the vet's office with yet another volunteer from the rescue group.
Then, in a manner very much resembling a relay race, the little dog was driven the miles of stretches down roads and highways, delivered from one volunteer to another, all the way to her foster family in Tennessee.
A total of 10 volunteer drivers each took a turn in helping Faye along her journey.
Faye would remain safe in her foster home to be nursed back to health, socialized and loved until a permanent home could be found for her.
It has been three months since little Faye left the animal shelter. I have been trying to keep up with her journey via the Internet. Last week I received the news that Faye has been officially adopted and living in her forever home.
I was sent pictures. The transformation of this once shy, starving little dog is nothing short of remarkable.
No one person or volunteer brought about this positive outcome for Faye. Working together, many volunteers did their small part to help. It was the collective efforts of many that created a "fairy tail'' ending for a deserving little dog.
That is why I wanted to share Faye's story.
There are many unsung heroes who work tirelessly behind the scenes for shelter animals like Faye. These include shelter attendants, shelter volunteers, rescue organizations and their volunteers, veterinarians who support these groups and those willing to open their homes to provide foster care for animals in need.
Often this work is done quietly with little or no recognition.
Their reward is simply in knowing they have helped a helpless animal.
Faye's story is the exception, and not the rule. Unfortunately, most shelter pets do not experience a happy ending like Faye. However, with more shelter and rescue volunteers willing to do a small part, the chances increase that more animals like Faye will end up in a loving home.
Lisa Carter Waring, a retired educator and consultant, can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:81c605f1-4c61-4365-be8e-d6de6edcac80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/10/03/1207925?sac=fo.community/hopemills | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976223 | 762 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A 432-acre property in Louisville that was intended to house a "world-class" research and training campus -- a facility heralded for its potential to bring thousands of jobs and an economic boom -- is back on the market.
Phillips 66, the Houston-based energy firm that earlier this year spun off from ConocoPhillips, plans to sell its property off U.S. 36, Louisville officials announced Wednesday.
ConocoPhillips purchased the site -- which long served as a campus for Storage Technology Corp. and, later, for Sun Microsystems Inc. -- in 2008 with the intention of building a global training center and research and development campus.
After ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) split into two publicly traded firms earlier this year and the Louisville site landed in the hands of Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), the property's new owner didn't share the same goals. And on Tuesday morning, Phillips 66 officials picked up the phone to relay that information to Louisville Mayor Bob Muckle.
"The uses that ConocoPhillips originally envisioned for this site don't really fit into Phillips 66's long-term plans at this time," Muckle said.
As a result of the reorganization, Phillips 66 acquired the research facility in Bartlesville, Okla., and moved forward on plans to establish an international training center at its new corporate headquarters in Houston, Muckle said.
Louisville officials were "disappointed" by the decision, but Muckle said he remains optimistic about the site's future.
"On the other hand, I was concerned that one of the possibilities was they would not move forward and not decide what to do with the property, and leave the property languishing," he said. "Frankly, it's probably the best ... large, developable site in the Denver area."
Louisville city officials said Phillips 66 has not yet listed the property but "plans to do so shortly."
Phillips 66 officials issued a brief statement about the planned sale.
"After careful consideration of the needs of the new company and its employees, Phillips 66 has decided to sell its 432-acre property in Louisville, Colo.," Phillips 66 spokesman Rich Johnson said in a statement. "Phillips 66's predecessor company, ConocoPhillips, purchased the Louisville property in 2008. As a result of the repositioning of ConocoPhillips into two independent energy companies, the Louisville site became an asset of Phillips 66."
In a response to follow-up questions from the Camera, Johnson said he could not add much other than to say Phillips 66 is reviewing options to identify a broker to market and sell the site.
City officials plan to actively help court potential suitors, Muckle said.
"(Phillips 66 is) going to work with us to try to find a buyer that's compatible with our community and good for our region and not just sell it to the first person that comes along," he said.
Despite the site's inactivity to date and the uncertainty as to how long it may remain that way, Louisville's revenue position remains largely unchanged, Muckle said. Although projections were made that the campus would contribute about $1.5 million annually to the city coffers, the city never assumed any revenue nor made modifications to its budget, he said.
Others in the private sector, however, bet big on the potential boon.
ConocoPhillips' expected arrival spurred a flurry of commercial activity in the areas surrounding the campus. Hotels and multifamily housing projects were built in anticipation that the project would generate patrons, residents and revenues.
Etkin Johnson Group's website for the Broomfield Business Center -- a 74.3-acre mixed-use development near the Northwest Parkway -- touts the planned arrival of its neighbor: "The site is located just east of the ConocoPhillips Global Training and Technology Center that is scheduled to open in late 2015."
Broomfield officials were also disappointed but remained optimistic about what could come from the sale.
Etkin Johnson moved forward on building 330 rental units after Phillips 66 took over the site and the campus' future was put in question, said Kevin Standbridge, Broomfield's deputy city and county manager. An active regional economy, he added, also appears to be bolstering interest in the city's commercial sector, notably the nearby Flatiron Marketplace.
The region's residential real estate market was put into a "frenzy" when ConocoPhillips was announced as the buyer, said Rick Staufer, Realtor and co-owner of Staufer Team Real Estate in Louisville. Prices jumped but since have settled down to realistic levels, he said.
In addition to its size and locale, the fact that the 432-acre site is "shovel-ready" and zoned for industrial and office purposes makes it an attractive property to market, said Tom Clarke, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
Noting the Denver metro region landed 10 corporate headquarters this year -- and has been averaging six to 10 headquarters since 2003 -- Clarke said he likes the area's chances of attracting a firm of high pedigree.
The bulk of that activity lately has been in technology and financial services, he said.
"Probably, for that site, it would be more of a tech play than a financial services play," he said.
Camera Staff Writer Joe Rubino contributed to this report.
Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at 303-473-1332 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:0e65fd43-999e-434b-96a4-329e6caac016> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_21792880?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966553 | 1,130 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Staff Photo by D. Patrick Harding -- Joe Nivert, left, and Amy McGauley, pedal through their neighborhood on a short afternoon bicycle ride.
When President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office Tuesday, he will become the first member of “Generation Jones” to occupy the Oval Office.
Tradition may dictate that, at 47, Mr. Obama is a member of the baby boomer generation, but Generation Jonesers, born in the latter half of the baby boom years, 1954 to 1964, are setting themselves apart from their older counterparts, according to Jonathan Pontell, who coined the term “Generation Jones” several years ago.
“The term comes from the idea of a large, anonymous generation,” Mr. Pontell, 50, said from his office in Los Angeles. “It comes from the slang word ‘jones’ — a craving or yearning. Like you’re jonesing for something. We’re the ones who, as teenagers, made that a popular term.”
Those who now range in age from 43 to 54 were too young to get involved heavily with the upheaval of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, but were old enough to absorb some of the idealism of the era. When Jonesers came of age in the mid-1970s and early ’80s, Watergate, gas shortages and the Iranian hostage crisis had created the “Me Generation,” leaving millions nowhere to focus that idealism.
Younger boomers were left with an “unrequited jonesing quality” that was answered with President-elect Obama’s “Yes, we can” campaign message.
“It’s sort of relevant now because we are at a point to connect with those youthful dreams,” Mr. Pontell said.
So what are Jonesers jonesing for? Many things, Mr. Pontell said.
“We’re asking ourselves, ‘Is this all there is?’ ” he said.
Every generation gets to that middle age and has that now-or-never feeling. This generation, whose members are taking stock and reassessing their lives, still are young enough to change jobs, careers and move to new cities, he noted.
Chattanoogan Amy McGauley, 50, a self-employed massage therapist, said she feels the difference between herself and older boomers.
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m as settled as they are,” she said. “Their life is all defined and most are set in everything they’re going to do.”
But Ms. McGauley said she’s still in the “figuring-it-out stage.”
“Not everyone in our generation is looking to retire,” she said. “We’re still young enough that we’re still wanting to learn and do different things. And whatever little we may have had saved for retirement is mostly lost, so it’s almost like we’re starting over. We’re not in a comfort zone.”
Her friend, Joe Nivert, 63, retired from Firestone and settled into a life of cycling and occasional day trading, she said.
“He’s retired, calm and comfortable, and I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do to get my life in order,” Ms. McGauley said.
Tatjana Meerman, 49, publisher of Packaged Facts, a source for market data, trends and analysis in consumer industries, said generalizing about generations is tricky, but those on the trailing edge of the boomer generation are really closer to Generation X (those born 1964-1979).
“The leading edge boomers, the older ones, got all the good jobs. The trailing edge got the back burner and had to be more flexible and struggle more,” she said.
Jonesers are more flexible and less conservative. “Those are attributes also given to Generation X,” she said. | <urn:uuid:b1576662-b769-404d-9f8f-82790905449d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jan/18/generation-jones-soon-have-its-man-washington/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966518 | 880 | 1.765625 | 2 |
ALBANY, Ga. -- Nichelle Miller isn't the type of person who's happy leaving things alone. Two years ago Miller, who does data entry for Jb Tax Services on East Broad Avenue, decided she didn't like the direction young people in Albany were taking.
"Every time you look at the news you see young people fighting or shooting each other -- breaking into cars," Miller said. "These kids need to know there's somebody out there who cares about them and is willing to help them find the right path."
Miller, 25, decided to try to help the situation, she said. She started a new non-profit organization called Taking it Back, Inc., to provide what she felt was a sorely needed beacon for misdirected youth.
"I did a lot research first," Millers said, "and I discovered there were about 600 501(c)3 (non-profit organizations) in Dougherty County already. But I thought we were still lacking for all the problems we still have."
During a youth meeting at the Police Department Community Center on East Oglethorpe Boulevard Saturday, area yougsters participated in program called "My Voice Matters," a question-and-answer session in what Miller called a gameshow format. These questions, however, were geared toward teen sexual activity and the dangers of transmitted diseases.
Athena King with the American Cancer Society was on hand to speak about HIV and HPV, which can cause cervical cancer. King even brought her 9-year-old daughter, Skye, to the discussion.
"I'm all for abstinence," King said, "But education is just as important. HIV has become more prevalent in Dougherty County. HPV can be spread just by casual contact."
Miller is planning a field trip to Valdosta State Prison on April 2, she said, for her next program, called "Reality Check." There, kids age 14 and up will have a chance to see what can happen to them if they stray from the "straight and narrow path."
According to Miller, her organization is funded entirely out of her own pocket, with some donations from churches and other organizations. She would, however, welcome volunteers and individual donations.
"It's not about me or any individual entities," Miller said. "It's how we can band together to help our kids." | <urn:uuid:45148d7b-7079-42cf-bd30-7b6a3c4cc021> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/mar/17/taking-it-back-inc-provides-youth-direction/?news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980219 | 480 | 1.59375 | 2 |
PETERSBURG, VA., May 28, 1864.
Major General W. H. C. Whiting having referred to me that portion of Brigadier General H. A. Wise's report of his operations on the 16th instant wherein it is stated that General Whiting was drunk, I hereby state, on my honor as an officer, that I was with General Whiting from the time of his arrival in Petersburg and during the day in question, and that he did not drink any spirituous liquor whatever; that I was present at his interview with General Wise on the night of the 16th instant and know that he was perfectly sober.
W. C. STRONG,
DREWRY'S BLUFF, May 28, 1864.
J. F. CALDWELL,
Superintendent C. S. Military Telegraph Lines:
Seven hundred feet will cross the river. By using piles 600 might do.
C. T. MASON,
HEADQUARTERS DIVISION, May 29, 1864.
Lieutenant Colonel G. M. SORREL, Assistant Adjutant-General:
COLONEL: I send you a rude sketch of the position. If it be true, as the courier I sent you reports, that the enemy advance in our direction, I know of nothing to notify us of their approach. There is no obstacle to the passage of infantry in all the country between Breckinridge and Field. The first thing they would strike would be the artillery in the field in Field's front. I wrote an inquiry about the proposition to send a division in the interval between Early and Breckinridge. Please inform me.
J. B. KERSHAW, | <urn:uuid:c7328ec5-77eb-4631-84af-1e09e339c05c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/recordView.cfm?Content=069/0845 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963621 | 357 | 1.695313 | 2 |
MONUC Monthly Human Rights Assessment: January 2008
|Publisher||UN Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC)|
|Publication Date||3 March 2008|
|Cite as||UN Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), MONUC Monthly Human Rights Assessment: January 2008, 3 March 2008, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/47cff41d1a.html [accessed 19 May 2013]|
MONUC Human Rights Division
03 mar. 08 – 13.07h
Summary: At least 30 civilians were allegedly killed by CNDP elements in the vicinity of Kalonge, Masisi Territory, North-Kivu Province, between 16 and 20 January 2008;In Kinshasa, Ms Aimée Kabila Mulengela, Laurent Desiré Kabila's daughter was shot dead by two men – one wearing military uniform – at her residence; The Gédéon trial resumed before the Kipushi Military Tribunal, Katanga Province; In Bas-Congo, incidents between BDK members and PNC officers resulted in the death of six civilians and more than thirty injured; FARDC and PNC elements were responsible for a large number of violations of the rights to life and physical integrity, including rape.
1. Concordant information indicates that on 16 and 17 January 2008, in the vicinity of Kalonge, at least 30 persons were killed in several incidents by CNDP elements using firearms, machetes and hammers. The killings were planned and civilians were deliberately targeted. Based on testimony gathered so far, the likely motive for the killings is the fact that the victims had left a CNDP-held area to seek refuge in an area controlled by PARECO (Patriotes Résistants Congolais).
2. The United Nations Human Rights Office in the DRC (UNHRO) has conducted investigations into allegations of serious human rights violations committed by soldiers of the FARDC 13th Integrated Brigade following recent operations against dissident FRPI militiamen in Kamatsi, Territory of Irumu in Ituri. During a visit to Kagaba on 31 January 2008, UNHRO/Bunia confirmed six cases of enforced disappearance and one case of arbitrary execution.
The team also received reports of two cases of arbitrary execution (one of which allegedly involved the killing of five civilians) and a case of attempted arbitrary execution. The UNHRO encouraged the Office of the Military Prosecutor to conduct a formal judicial investigation.
3. Since December 2007, 79 detainees, including 31 children, have been transferred from Goma to the CPRK (Centre Pénitentiaire de Rééducation de Kinshasa). They were interrogated at the Military Intelligence HQ in Kinshasa. Most of these detainees are accused of spying, treason and fleeing before the enemy during battle.
In line with this case, on 29 January 2008, the UNHRO met with the FARDC Chief of Staff of Military Intelligence (ex-DEMIAP) in Kinshasa to discuss the detention and legal conditions of the 79 detainees and find a solution to their situation within the context of the Acte d'Engagement that was signed on 23 January 2008 at the end of the Goma Peace Conference. As there were discrepancies in the number of minors and civilians in the group, it was decided that a subsequent meeting would be held to determine their exact numbers in order to facilitate their eventual release.
4. In Katanga, on 15 January 2008, the Gédéon trial resumed before the Kipushi Military Tribunal. Ten victims from Mitwaba testified before the Tribunal. A new accused, who was implicated in the murder of the Dilenge traditional ruler, also appeared in court. On 29 January 2008, the Court heard the testimony of a man who claimed to have been abducted in 2005 by two of Gédéon's co-defendants.
He stated that during his abduction and forced recruitment into the Mayi Mayi group, he had witnessed a number of atrocities, including arbitrary executions, mutilation of corpses and cannibalism perpetrated by militiamen acting on the orders of the two men. In response, the two categorically denied any implication in those atrocities and claimed that the witness was indeed their commander.
The statements made by twelve victims at the previous hearing were also confronted with the declarations of the 25 co-defendants. The day's proceedings came to an abrupt end after one of the main accused claimed that he had fought against the Rwandans on behalf of the Government and that high-ranking Government officials had supplied weapons to the residents of Butumba village in 1998. The trial will resume on 5 February 2008.
5. Following allegations of serious human rights violations committed by lendu combatants of the FNI (Front Nationaliste Intégrationniste of Peter Karim) splinter group, under the command of Konzinziko Chabani Ekoli, on the night of 4-5 January 2008, in the localities of Lalo and Djurukidogo (70 km northwest of Bunia), on 12 January 2008, the UNHRO carried out an investigative mission in situ.
The team established that two children were burnt to death, the chief of the locality of Djurukidogo and a 15-year-old girl were abducted, two men were subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, nine villages were looted and burnt down and about 982 civilians sought refuge out of the affected localities.
6. On the night of 15 January 2008, Ms Aimée Kabila Mulengela, Laurent Desiré Kabila's daughter was shot dead by two men – one wearing military uniform – at her residence in Kinshasa. The assailants broke into her house and stole her computer, mobile phones and other valuables. It would be recalled that the UNHRO has been following the case of Ms Kabila since it initially found her illegally detained at Kin Mazière detention centre during a routine visit.
Ms Kabila was arrested on 30 December 2005, held there with no charge for 56 days and released upon UNHRO intervention. After her release, she went into hiding with her five other children, claiming that she was at risk of further human rights violations because of a dispute with the Kabila family. On 26 January 2008, the two alleged perpetrators were arrested.
7. In Maniema Province, on 6 January 2008, four human rights activists were allegedly threatened with death by the Administrateur du Territoire in Punia (230 km northeast of Kindu). The victims had denounced the massacre of 13 civilians perpetrated by RCD combatants in complicity with the then local administrative authorities, including the current Administrateur du Territoire, in 2002. The four victims went into hiding.
Implication of FARDC soldiers in human rights violations
8. In North-Kivu, on the night of 12-13 January 2008, a civilian (trader) was allegedly shot dead in presence of his second wife by armed men in military uniform in the neighborhood of Katindo. The UNHRO will follow the case.
9. In Equateur, on 14 January 2008, a three-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a FARDC soldier in Gemena (520 km northeast of Mbandaka). The alleged perpetrator broke into the residence of the victim, in the absence of her parents. The victim was admitted to the local hospital. The alleged perpetrator was arrested and detained in the Office of the Military Prosecutor holding cell.
10. Still in Equateur, on 13 December 2007, a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a FARDC Lieutenant in Gemena. The victim was intercepted on her way to the market, taken to the nearby bush, threatened with death and subsequently raped. The victim was admitted to the local hospital. The alleged perpetrator was arrested and detained in the Office of the Military Prosecutor holding cell.
11. In North Katanga, during the night of 7-8 January 2008, in the neighbourhood of Regeza Cité Kapulo in Kalemie, a civilian was intercepted by two FARDC soldiers who allegedly beat him with the butts of their A-47 rifles and extorted his mobile phone and 12,000 FC. The victim who was unable to identify the perpetrators will however lodge an official complaint to the Auditorat Militaire.
12. In Kasaï Oriental, on 13 January 2008, a civilian was allegedly subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by five FARDC soldiers in the commune of Kanshi, Mbuji Mayi. The victim had resisted extortion of his motorbike. The victim sustained serious injuries on mouth, left eye and lip.
13. In North-Kivu, on 8 January 2008, a woman was allegedly subjected to ill-treatment by a soldier attached to the Intelligence Office of the 8th Military Region in Butembo. The victim was undressed and threatened with death by the T2 Officer.
14. In Bandundu, on 4 January 2008, a woman was arbitrarily arrested in place of her son by a FARDC soldier attached to the Office of the Military Prosecutor. Another victim's son was allegedly beaten up by the alleged perpetrator. She allegedly paid the sum of 15,000 FC in exchange for her release.
15. In Ituri, from 3 to 10.January 2008, the President of the local civil society in the Territory of Mambassa, and also Coordinator of the local human rights association, was arbitrarily arrested and illegally detained at the FARDC T2 offices. He was allegedly undressed and repeatedly beaten up during his detention. The victim was accused of interfering with the functioning of the FARDC.
Implication of PNC elements in human rights violations
16. The UNHRO has received frequent reports of serious human rights violations committed by PNC elements while on missions to remote areas. On 23 January 2008, a civilian who was serving lunch to a group of police officers on mission in the village of Bulukutu – 600 km south-west of Mbandaka – 32 km of Boende – Equateur Province, was allegedly shot dead by one of the officers because he felt that the victim had given a larger serving to his colleagues. The alleged perpetrator was arrested but later released allegedly due to the absence of detention facilities in the locality.
17. Another case was reported on 28 January, in Bena-Leka, territory of Demba, Kasaï Occidental Province, where seven PNC elements subjected a civilian to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment because he had failed to comply with instructions issued by the local authorities to install hygienic facilities on his premises. The man was severely beaten, undressed and made to walk naked to the local ANR office.
The ANR chief provided him with clothes and then released him. Reliable sources indicated that the victim's wife and sister were also manhandled by the policemen. UNHRO/Kananga was able to contact the Provincial Minister in charge of the territorial administration who intervened to calm the situation in Bena-Leka.
18. On 23 January, a police officer allegedly raped a minor who was detained for theft in a private residence in the locality of Ekelewa, territory of Aru, Ituri.
19. A woman was allegedly raped by three police officers on 3 January at the PNC camp in Boende, Equateur Province. The victim was arrested at her home, transferred to the PNC camp, threatened with death and subsequently gang raped.
20. On 28 January, a Radio Okapi journalist was threatened by the Chief of the PIR (Police d'Intervention Rapide) in Goma, North Kivu while covering a story on the non-payment of police elements sent from Kinshasa for the Kivus Peace Conference.
21. In Province Orientale, on 28 December 2007, a civilian was allegedly arbitrarily arrested, illegally detained and later extorted and beaten up by seven PNC officers in the Territory of Dungu. The victim was released three days later by the local Judicial Police Officer.
22. In Kasaï Oriental, on 14 January 2008, a journalist was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by a group of PNC officers in the Neighbourhood of Masanka, Commune of Diulu. The victim was covering a Karate match. His camera and two mobile phones were also damaged. The victim sustained injuries on his right hear and his jaw.
23. In Northern Katanga, on the night of 17-18 January, a MONUC national security staff was arrested, severely beaten up, tied up and detained in police custody in Kalemie, North Katanga. Around 3:00 am, the victim was reportedly informed by the MONUC Kalemie security duty officer of an attack on the residence of a UNHCR staff. The victim informed Security that he was going to check the information as he lives in the vicinity.
On his way to the scene of the crime, he was able to see a group of men running away and he then proceeded to hide himself in a field for security reasons. He was later arrested as a suspect by PNC elements, who were patrolling the area. Although he identified himself as a MONUC security staff, he was severely beaten up, tied up and then detained in a police holding cell while his radio and personal cellular phone were taken from him.
The victim was released around 12:00 pm after a statement was taken from him. The victim was admitted to MONUC hospital where he received medical treatment. UNHRO/Kalemie was able to see traces of injuries on his body consistent with his allegations. UNHRO/Kalemie is closely following up on the case.
COMMENTS: PNC elements simply ignored the attempts by MONUC RSO and the Benin Battalion troops who arrived on the spot to ascertain that the victim was a MONUC staff. It should not be ruled out that the refusal of the PNC Commander to release the victim might be linked to the arrest and detention of the PNC Commander over theft charges on 25 August 2007.
24. In Kasai Oriental, the UNHRO registered on 10 January 2008 the case of a civilian who was allegedly subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by PNC guards during his detention in the PNC holding cell in the night of 27 December 2007. The victim later passed away.
25. In Maniema, the UNHRO heard of four civilians, including two minors who were subjected to torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatments as well as extortion by two PNC commanders and ten other PNC officers in Kindu on 22 September 2007. Following the incident, the victims were admitted to the local hospital for medical treatment. All of them have officially lodged a complaint against the two PNC commandants.
26. In Kasaï Occidental, a local partner NGO in Tshikapa reported to the UNHRO that during the night of 7 to 8 January 2008, a policeman attached to the Bakwa PNC sub-station (Territory of Tshikapa, 300 km south of Kananga) completely naked broke into a house wherein a woman was sleeping. The PNC officer undressed her, attempted to rape her but eventually failed as villagers intervened on time. He was later arrested.
27. Still in Kasaï Occidental, the UNHRO learnt from a partner NGO that on 8 January 2008, a woman was severely beaten by the Commander of the Kamako PNC sub-station (about 400 km south of Kananga). She was admitted to the local hospital. Her husband who asked the commandant to pay the medical treatment was threatened with arrest.
28. In Bandundu, according to a local source, on 22 December 2007, a PNC officer allegedly killed a civilian in Mpoko (Territory of Mushie, Plateau district, about 190km south-west of Bandundu) when shooting at the crowd who was demonstrating.
29. Still in Bandundu, a woman was subjected to severe ill-treatment by two PNC officers attached to the PNC sub-station in Makabayu (about 15 km of Kwamouth in the Plateau district) for not having paid a debt. Following the victim's official complaint, the PNC officers were arrested.
Implication of armed groups in human rights abuses
30. In North-Kivu, on 23 January 2008, two civilians were allegedly killed during a CNDP attack against PARECO positions in the village of Kisaki, Groupement of Ufamandu, Masisi territory.
31. On 24 January, the chief of Kilali village (Groupement of Bakano, Collectivity of Wanyanga, 35 km southwest of Walikale) was allegedly shot dead by the FDLR. Local sources indicated that the FDLR had accused him of providing information on their location to the FARDC 85th Brigade. Three of the alleged perpetrators were arrested.
32. Still in North-Kivu, on 27 January 2008, two girls were allegedly abducted, threatened with death and subsequently gang raped by elements of Lafontaine Mayi Mayi group in the locality of Kayali and Bunyatenge in the territory of Lubero. Both victims were admitted to the local hospital.
33. In Ituri, on 24 January 2008, during a joint monitoring visit to Lalo, the UNHRO met with three civilians who had sustained machete wounds during an attack by elements of a FNI (Front des Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes) splinter group, under the command of Konzinziko Chabani Ekoli, in the village of Ngbatsiba. The victims were admitted to the local hospital.
34. In South-Kivu, on 7 January 2008, a 68-year-old man was allegedly extorted and shot in his right leg by a FDRL combatant in the locality of Lemera. The victim was admitted to the local hospital.
35. In Province Orientale, during the reporting period, the LRA (Lord Resistance Army) intensified its operations in the Territory of Dungu. During a field mission to the Territory of Dungu, the UNHRO observed that over 20,000 civilians have sought refuge out of the territory as a result of continuous human rights abuses, including abductions, extortions, arbitrary arrests and looting perpetrated by LRA elements.
On the night of 15-16 December 2007, the Combonian monastery and hospital were systematically looted by LRA elements in the locality of Duru (90 km north of Dungu). On 29 December 2007, three fishermen were allegedly abducted and taken to an unknown destination by LRA elements in the locality of Madoro, Dungu Territory).
36. In North-Kivu, on 14 January 2008, a civilian was allegedly arrested by CNDP elements in Bunagana, Groupement of Jomba on the grounds that he was collaborating with the FDLR. Still in North-Kivu, on 4 January 2008, in Mabenga, north of Rutshuru two civilians were allegedly killed while four others were injured during an ambush set by FDLR elements.
37. On 6 and 7 January 2008, in the locality of Kisharu, UNPOL reported that armed men identified as FDLR elements reportedly pillaged civilian properties. During the incident, one civilian was allegedly killed whereas another was seriously injured.
38. In Ituri, in the night of 4 to 5 January 2008, militiamen belonging to a FNI splinter group attacked the villages of Lalo and Djurukidogo (Walendu Djatsi collectivity in Djugu Territory). They pillaged both villages and set them on fire. During the arson, two children resulted dead and a woman was seriously injured. The same group later continued to burn other villages in the area.
Administration of justice
39. In Ituri, on 28 January 2008, the Bunia Military Tribunal sentenced two FARDC soldiers to death and another to 10 years imprisonment for criminal conspiracy, extortion and violation of military instructions. They were also dismissed from the FARDC.
The same day, four PNC officers were sentenced to life imprisonment, 20, 10 and 2 years in prison respectively for murder, rape, murder and failure to assist in the investigation of a crime. The officers who were convicted of murder and rape were ordered to pay the sums of $50,000 and $5,000 US respectively, in damages.
40. In Bas-Congo, on 29 January 2008, the Boma Military Tribunal in Muanda sentenced a FARDC soldier to 10 years imprisonment for rape. He was also dismissed from the FARDC and ordered to pay the sum of 50.000 FC in damages. Still in Bas-Congo, on 31 January 2008, the Boma Military Tribunal in Muanda sentenced a police officer to 10 years in prison for rape and the Mbanza Ngungu Military Tribunal sentenced a soldier to 10 years imprisonment for rape and also ordered him to pay 44,200 FC and 3,000USD in judicial fees and damages respectively.
41. In Katanga, on 10 January 2008, the High Military Court in Lubumbashi confirmed the first-instance verdict in the appeal trial of Colonel Mwamba Mwamba. The defendant had been previously sentenced to the death penalty by the Military Court for the murder of the President Kabila's aunt, Espérance Mukalay Kabila, in June 2005. In addition, the High Military Court ordered the defendant to pay the amount of 36,280USD in damages to the family's victim and in solidum with the State.
The Public Prosecutor expressed his concern about this disproportionate compensation allocated to the presidential family considering that the victim had no heirs and her relationship with her husband had not been proven. Additionally, in comparison with high profile cases wherein crimes against humanity have been committed, victims never obtain more than 10,000 USD as a compensation for their suffering.
42. On the same date, in the case of three FARDC soldiers charged with desertion, the High Military Court ruling on the first-instance verdict decided to reduce their sentence from 6 to 4 years of imprisonment and to annul their dismissal from the army. The three Banyamulenge FARDC soldiers were posted in Kalemie had left their position in May 2004 due to a campaign led against Rwandans. By this second-instance ruling, the defendants who had already served more than half of their imprisonment may be released in June 2008 and able to reintegrate the army.
43. Still in Bas-Congo, on 30 January 2008, the hearing into the case of three Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) members, charged with aggravated assault, arbitrary arrest, torture, usurpation and the abduction of a civilian on 1 January 2008, took place before the Tshela Tribunal de Grande Instance (210 km northwest of Matadi). The arrest of the three BDK members by the PNC on 3 January was reportedly one of the factors that triggered the January 5 violent incident in the territory of Sekebanza during which six persons, including five BDK members and one ANR agent lost their lives. In his closing statement, the Prosecutor requested 15 years imprisonment for all the three accused, in conformity with art 67 para 2 of the Penal Code. The three accused did not have any lawyer present at the trial. The verdict will be pronounced on 7 February 2008.
44. Incidents of mob justice continue to be reported. Preliminary investigations revealed that on 30 January 2008, a demobilized soldier who was caught in the act of committing a robbery outside a nightclub in Kalemie, North Katanga, was allegedly beaten to death by security guards and local residents.
45. In North-Kivu, on 9 January 2008, a presidential ordonnance setting up an Operational Military Court in the province was passed. While the UNHRO acknowledges positively the purpose of fighting against the prevalent impunity, the office is concerned by the large territorial and material competency of this newly jurisdiction whereas no limits have been set for its ratione temporis competency.
Prisons and other Detention Centres
46. The UNHRO has obtained information on three prison escapes in Kikwit, Province of Bandundu, for the month of January 2008. On 29 January, ten inmates, including three charged with murder, escaped from the Bulungu prison (200 km north of Kikwit). The police officers who were on guard at the time of the escape were questioned by the local judicial authorities.
On the night of 27 January, two detainees escaped from the Kikwit Central Prison and on 22 January an inmate was shot dead outside the prison as he attempted to escape. None of the escapees have so far been captured. The dilapidated state of the prisons in Kikwit has been cited as the main cause of the escapes.
47. The UNHRO/Aru is very much concerned over the recurrent prison escape at the Aru Central Prison, in Ituri. On 10 January 2008, two inmates charged with murder and rape respectively, escaped the Aru Central Prison. It would be recalled that on 9 January 2008, six detainees had escaped from the same prison. UNHRO/Aru had made representation to the local judicial authorities.
48. In Northern Katanga, on 17 January 2008, the Director of the Kalemie Central Prison was briefly taken hostage by the inmates, in protest against the chronic food shortage in the prison. The inmates had not eaten for three days. | <urn:uuid:b3b15880-6325-499f-8299-321b3e83bad3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=publisher&publisher=MONUC&type=&coi=&docid=47cff41d1a&skip=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976502 | 5,299 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It used to be that taking a bite of a chicken sandwich just meant you were hungry. Now it has become a symbol of whether you stand for or against same-sex marriage, or – alternately – the right to express your personal views without fear of retaliation.
At Chick-fil-A locations across the country, people voted with their wallets today, coming out to express support for the fast-food chain after CEO Dan Cathy said in an interview that he is a firm backer of traditional marriage. At one Atlanta location, the restaurant was packed, while the line for the drive-thru looped twice around the building and out into the street.
The backlash across the country against Chick-fil-A has been ferocious. After the mayors of Chicago and Boston heaped scorn upon the company, the mayor of Washington, DC, suggested it was peddling “hate chicken.” The Chick-fil-A firestorm has taken on different meanings for different people. For some, it harks to the days of intolerance and segregation. For others, it is about religious views of marriage. But for most people who Fox News spoke to today, it is about free speech.
Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day – as it is being called was the idea of former Arkansas governor and Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee. But as protests against Chick-fil-A swelled across the country, dozens of groups and prominent individuals joined in support of the company. Among the groups is Project 21, a black conservative activist organization. One of its members, Demetrios Minor, said critics of Dan Cathy have taken his statements completely out of context.
“I think liberals are missing a vital point in their blind hatred of Chick-fil-A,” Minor said in a statement sent to Fox News. “Being against gay marriage is not being anti-gay.”
What is your opinion about same-sex marriage? Are you for or against it? Feel free to sound off in the comment box below!
Source: Fox News
Image: The Lonely Conservative | <urn:uuid:b256a0b6-9e62-4dd6-84f8-17a05ad78c8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kozmedia.com/tag/intolerance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971225 | 425 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Pieces of ‘The Lady’
Jewelry and watches belonging to the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum went under the hammer on Tuesday in Dubai.
April 29, 2009 1:59 by Dana El Baltaji
A Christie’s auction of jewelry and other personal items belonging to Egypt’s legendary Umm Kulthum was held in Dubai on Tuesday, reports Zawya Dow Jones. Included in the sale is a cultured pearl and paste festoon brooch given to the singer by the late Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, which sold for $30,000.
Umm Kalthoum is widely regarded as the one of the Arab world’s most distinguished and influential singers. Born in 1904 into a poor family, Umm Kulthum was taught religious songs by her father, an Imam in a mosque. At the age of 12, he disguised his daughter as a boy and entered her in a performing troupe.
At the age of 16, she was noticed by a mildly successful Arab singer, Abol Ela Mohamed, and was soon recognized as one of Egypt’s greatest talents.
Her death in 1975 prompted Egypt’s second largest funeral gathering (after that of President Gamal Abdel Nasser); over four million mourners congregated in the Cairo, Egypt to pay their respects to ‘The Lady’, a term former French President Charles de Gaulle used to describe the singer.
Most of Umm Kalthoum’s belongings Christie’s Jewels and Watches Dubai Sale were bought by wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen who wished to remain anonymous.
In addition to the singer’s jewelry and watches, Christie’s auction featured 120 lots, netting a total of a $4 million. Of the 46 watches on sale, the highest netting lot was a platinum manually-wound tourbillion wristwatch by A. Lange & Söhne, which sold for $146,500 (AED538,124).
“Buying was selective but nearly three-quarters of the value of the sale was bought by Middle Eastern buyers, an encouraging sign of the developing jewelry and watch market in the region,” said David Warren, director of jewelry for Christie’s Middle East.
Middle Eastern buyers at Christie’s auctions have increased by 400 percent since 2004. | <urn:uuid:51002947-6539-4a55-b7ef-a66a33b6bb3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kippreport.com/fcs/pieces-of-the-lady/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961018 | 493 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Ed Harrell On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, with a crew of 900, was sunk by a Japanese torpedo. Five days later, 317 men were rescued. Hear about this riveting moment in history from survivor, Ed Harrell, today on the broadcast. Download Transcript
In the insightful and powerful book that started it all, Dennis Rainey connects at the heart level and challenges men at each step of life's journey, calling on men to reject passivity by embracing courage. | <urn:uuid:02032a14-4229-4519-9081-34eebf3c24de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oneplace.com/es/ministries/familylife-today/player/ducks-on-the-pond-rescued-at-last-118227.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935788 | 99 | 1.789063 | 2 |
- Context Matters: The Illusive Simplicity of Macaque V1 Receptive Fields (2012)
- Even in V1, where neurons have well characterized classical receptive fields (CRFs), it has been difficult to deduce which features of natural scenes stimuli they actually respond to. Forward models based upon CRF stimuli have had limited success in predicting the response of V1 neurons to natural scenes. As natural scenes exhibit complex spatial and temporal correlations, this could be due to surround effects that modulate the sensitivity of the CRF. Here, instead of attempting a forward model, we quantify the importance of the natural scenes surround for awake macaque monkeys by modeling it non-parametrically. We also quantify the influence of two forms of trial to trial variability. The first is related to the neuron’s own spike history. The second is related to ongoing mean field population activity reflected by the local field potential (LFP). We find that the surround produces strong temporal modulations in the firing rate that can be both suppressive and facilitative. Further, the LFP is found to induce a precise timing in spikes, which tend to be temporally localized on sharp LFP transients in the gamma frequency range. Using the pseudo R2 as a measure of model fit, we find that during natural scene viewing the CRF dominates, accounting for 60% of the fit, but that taken collectively the surround, spike history and LFP are almost as important, accounting for 40%. However, overall only a small proportion of V1 spiking statistics could be explained (R2~5%), even when the full stimulus, spike history and LFP were taken into account. This suggests that under natural scene conditions, the dominant influence on V1 neurons is not the stimulus, nor the mean field dynamics of the LFP, but the complex, incoherent dynamics of the network in which neurons are embedded.
- Extraction of network topology from multi-electrode recordings: is there a small-world effect? (2011)
- The simultaneous recording of the activity of many neurons poses challenges for multivariate data analysis. Here, we propose a general scheme of reconstruction of the functional network from spike train recordings. Effective, causal interactions are estimated by fitting generalized linear models on the neural responses, incorporating effects of the neurons’ self-history, of input from other neurons in the recorded network and of modulation by an external stimulus. The coupling terms arising from synaptic input can be transformed by thresholding into a binary connectivity matrix which is directed. Each link between two neurons represents a causal influence from one neuron to the other, given the observation of all other neurons from the population. The resulting graph is analyzed with respect to small-world and scale-free properties using quantitative measures for directed networks. Such graph-theoretic analyses have been performed on many complex dynamic networks, including the connectivity structure between different brain areas. Only few studies have attempted to look at the structure of cortical neural networks on the level of individual neurons. Here, using multi-electrode recordings from the visual system of the awake monkey, we find that cortical networks lack scale-free behavior, but show a small, but significant small-world structure. Assuming a simple distance-dependent probabilistic wiring between neurons, we find that this connectivity structure can account for all of the networks’ observed small-world-ness. Moreover, for multi-electrode recordings the sampling of neurons is not uniform across the population. We show that the small-world-ness obtained by such a localized sub-sampling overestimates the strength of the true small-world structure of the network. This bias is likely to be present in all previous experiments based on multi-electrode recordings.
- Neural synchrony in cortical networks: history, concept and current status (2009)
- Following the discovery of context-dependent synchronization of oscillatory neuronal responses in the visual system, the role of neural synchrony in cortical networks has been expanded to provide a general mechanism for the coordination of distributed neural activity patterns. In the current paper, we present an update of the status of this hypothesis through summarizing recent results from our laboratory that suggest important new insights regarding the mechanisms, function and relevance of this phenomenon. In the first part, we present recent results derived from animal experiments and mathematical simulations that provide novel explanations and mechanisms for zero and nero-zero phase lag synchronization. In the second part, we shall discuss the role of neural synchrony for expectancy during perceptual organization and its role in conscious experience. This will be followed by evidence that indicates that in addition to supporting conscious cognition, neural synchrony is abnormal in major brain disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. We conclude this paper with suggestions for further research as well as with critical issues that need to be addressed in future studies.
- A comparison of spike time prediction and receptive field mapping with point process generalized linear models, Wiener-Voltera kernels, and spike-triggered averaging methods (2009)
- Poster presentation: Characterizing neuronal encoding is essential for understanding information processing in the brain. Three methods are commonly used to characterize the relationship between neural spiking activity and the features of putative stimuli. These methods include: Wiener-Volterra kernel methods (WVK), the spike-triggered average (STA), and more recently, the point process generalized linear model (GLM). We compared the performance of these three approaches in estimating receptive field properties and orientation tuning of 251 V1 neurons recorded from 2 monkeys during a fixation period in response to a moving bar. The GLM consisted of two formulations of the conditional intensity function for a point process characterization of the spiking activity: one with a stimulus only component and one with the stimulus and spike history. We fit the GLMs by maximum likelihood using GLMfit in Matlab. Goodness-of-fit was assessed using cross-validation with Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) tests based on the time-rescaling theorem to evaluate the accuracy with which each model predicts the spiking activity of individual neurons and for each movement direction (4016 models in total, for 251 neurons and 16 different directions). The GLMs that considered spike history of up to 35 ms, accurately predicted neuronal spiking activity (95% confidence intervals for KS test) with a performance of 97.0% (3895/4016) for the training data, and 96.5% (3876/4016) for the test data. If spike history was not considered, performance dropped to 73,1% in the training and 71.3% in the testing data. In contrast, the WVF and the STA predicted spiking accurately for 24.2% and 44.5% of the test data examples respectively. The receptive field size estimates obtained from the GLM (with and without history), WVF and STA were comparable. Relative to the GLM orientation tuning was underestimated on average by a factor of 0.45 by the WVF and the STA. The main reason for using the STA and WVF approaches is their apparent simplicity. However, our analyses suggest that more accurate spike prediction as well as more credible estimates of receptive field size and orientation tuning can be computed easily using GLMs implemented in Matlab with standard functions such as GLMfit.
- Synchronization dynamics in response to plaid stimuli in monkey V1 (2010)
- Gamma synchronization has generally been associated with grouping processes in the visual system. Here, we examine in monkey V1 whether gamma oscillations play a functional role in segmenting surfaces of plaid stimuli. Local field potentials (LFPs) and spiking activity were recorded simultaneously from multiple sites in the opercular and calcarine regions while the monkeys were presented with sequences of single and superimposed components of plaid stimuli. In accord with the previous studies, responses to the single components (gratings) exhibited strong and sustained gamma-band oscillations (30–65 Hz). The superposition of the second component, however, led to profound changes in the temporal structure of the responses, characterized by a drastic reduction of gamma oscillations in the spiking activity and systematic shifts to higher frequencies in the LFP (~10% increase). Comparisons between cerebral hemispheres and across monkeys revealed robust subject-specific spectral signatures. A possible interpretation of our results may be that single gratings induce strong cooperative interactions among populations of cells that share similar response properties, whereas plaids lead to competition. Overall, our results suggest that the functional architecture of the cortex is a major determinant of the neuronal synchronization dynamics in V1. Key words: attention , gamma , gratings , oscillation , visual cortex | <urn:uuid:efce0018-b731-4fdb-93ff-2ec4eb05d01a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/authorsearch/author/%22Sergio+Neuenschwander%22/start/0/rows/10/author_facetfq/Bruss+Lima | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930252 | 1,774 | 1.796875 | 2 |
NPU Music Professor Emeritus Lee Burswold Composes Counterpoint for Kids
CHICAGO, IL (May 2, 2008) - Lee Burswold’s Counterpoint for Kids has been published by Latham Music, a Lorenz Company. These eight-volume works for violin and viola span beginning, elementary and intermediate levels of difficulty, and are intended for use in both the teaching studio and recital hall. This collection joins an already impressive list of publications by Dr. Burswold including two books on jazz pedagogy and a wide spectrum of music for church and string instruments. Counterpoint for Kids garnered enthusiastic reviews at the recent American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National conference in Atlanta, GA.
In addition to Counterpoint for Kids, Dr. Burswold has completed a similar output for the intermediate/advanced level string player to be published later this year. He is currently working on a series of solo violin and piano works in the Ragtime, Latin and Jazz idioms.
Lee Burswold is Professor Emeritus of the North Park School of Music where he currently teaches counterpoint. He studied composition with Vittorio Rieti, Anthony Donato, Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. A performer as well as a composer, Lee plays commercial, jazz, and ragtime piano in the Chicago area.
A listing of compositions by Lee Burswold can be found at www.lorenz.com | <urn:uuid:f4b96d7d-4b7c-4639-b64f-df58347c2c5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northpark.edu/News/News-Archives-2008/April-through-June/NPU-Music-Professor-Emeritus-Lee-Burswold-Composes-Counterpoint-for-Kids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933845 | 301 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Corporate Social Responsibility
For Thenamaris Ships Management Inc. the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is deeply embedded in the company’s culture. Even though the idea of CSR is relatively new, Thenamaris since the early 1990’s (i.e. before the CSR era) had started, of course without knowing that the CSR ideology will become so important in every company’s existence, creating and advancing CSR principles.
Corporate Social Responsibility is an ideology by which companies have the duty to consider the interests of their stakeholder’s (customers, employees, investors, communities, the environment, etc.) for the full scope of their activities. Moreover, this duty has to always extend beyond companies’ regulatory obligations.
Thenamaris’ slogan (Forward & Beyond) was born from one single idea; that is, beyond regulation, beyond compliance, beyond the necessary. We are proud to state that many of today’s industry standards, best practices, and even regulatory statutes, came to life because of Thenamaris’ mode of operations and paradigm to the shipping industry.
Many practices used by the company in the past which were at the time not compulsory by organizations such the IMO (International Maritime Organization), by the flag States, or by major clients, have presently become regulation or key compliance points.
Looking ahead, Thenamaris will continue trying to excel even further its commitment to the CSR concept by finding new innovative ways to operate the ships under its management. | <urn:uuid:83693683-2416-4d92-aada-9e3eef851c5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenamaris.com/default.asp?pid=25&la=1 | 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 | 0.961105 | 316 | 1.773438 | 2 |
With Christmas approaching faster than a speeding bullet, this is the perfect time for you to think about that last minute present to buy for the web geek in your life. If you’re stuck for ideas for that special someone, forget about that svelte iPhone case carved from solid mahogany and head instead to your nearest comic-book shop and pick up a selection of comics or graphic novels. (I’ll be using some of my personal favourite comic books as examples throughout).
Trust me, whether your nearest and dearest has been reading comics for a while or has never peered inside this four-colour world, they’ll thank-you for it.
Aside from indulging their superhero fantasies, comic books can provide web designers with a rich vein of inspiring ideas and material to help them create shirt button popping, trouser bursting work for the web. I know from my own personal experience, that looking at aspects of comic book design, layout and conventions and thinking about the ways that they can inform web design has taken my design work in often-unexpected directions.
There are far too many fascinating facets of comic book design that provide web designers with inspiration to cover in the time that it takes to pull your underpants over your trousers. So I’m going to concentrate on one muscle bound aspect of comic design, one that will make you think differently about how you lay out the content of your pages in panels.
A suitcase full of Kryptonite
Now, to the uninitiated onlooker, the panels of a comic book may appear to perform a similar function to still frames from a movie. But inside the pages of a comic, panels must work harder to help the reader understand the timing of a story. It is this method for conveying narrative timing to a reader that I believe can be highly useful to designers who work on the web as timing, drama and suspense are as important in the web world as they are in worlds occupied by costumed crime fighters and superheroes.
I’d like you to start by closing your eyes and thinking about your own process for laying out panels of content on a page. OK, you’ll actually be better off with your eyes open if you’re going to carry on reading.
I’ll bet you a suitcase full of Kryptonite that you often, if not always, structure your page layouts, and decide on the dimensions of those panels according to either:
- The base grid that you are working to
- The Golden Ratio or another mathematical schema
More likely, I bet that you decide on the size and the number of your panels based on the amount of content that will be going into them. From today, I’d like you to think about taking a different approach. This approach not only addresses horizontal and vertical space, but also adds the dimension of time to your designs.
Slowing down the action
A comic book panel not only acts as a container for its content but also indicates to a reader how much time passes within the panel and as a result, how much time the reader should focus their attention on that one panel.
Smaller panels create swift eye movement and shorter bursts of attention. Larger panels give the perception of more time elapsing in the story and subconsciously demands that a reader devotes more time to focus on it.
This use of panel dimensions to control timing can also be useful for web designers in designing the reading/user experience. Imagine a page full of information about a product or service. You’ll naturally want the reader to focus for longer on the key benefits of your offering rather than perhaps its technical specifications.
Now take a look at this spread of pages from Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Throughout this series of (originally) twelve editions, artist Dave Gibbons stuck rigidly to his 3×3 panels per page design and deviated from it only for dramatic moments within the narrative.
In particular during the last few pages of chapter eleven, Gibbons adds weight to the impending doom by slowing down the action by using larger panels and forces the reader to think longer about what was coming next. The action then speeds up through twelve smaller panels until the final panel: nothing more than white space and yet one of the most iconic and thought provoking in the entire twelve book series.
On the web it is common for clients to ask designers to fill every pixel of screen space with content, perhaps not understanding the drama that can be added by nothing more than white space.
In the final chapter, Gibbons emphasises the carnage that has taken place (unseen between chapters eleven and twelve) by presenting the reader with six full pages containing only single, large panels.
This drama, created by the artist’s use of panel dimensions to control timing, is a technique that web designers can also usefully employ when emphasising important areas of content.
Think back for a moment to the home page of Apple Inc., during the launch of their iconic iPhone, where the page contained nothing more than a large image and the phrase “Say hello to iPhone”. Rather than fill the page with sales messages, Apple’s designers allowed the space itself to tell the story and created a real sense of suspense and expectation among their readers.
Whereas on the web, panel borders are commonly used to add emphasis to particular areas of content, in comic books they take on a different and sometimes opposite role.
In the examples so far, borders have contained all of the action. Removing a border can have the opposite effect to what you might at first think. Rather than taking emphasis away from their content, in comics, borderless panels allow the reader’s eyes to linger for longer on the content adding even stronger emphasis.
This effect is amplified when the borderless content is allowed to bleed to the edges of a page. Because the content is no longer confined, except by the edges of the page (both comic and web) the reader’s eye is left to wander out into open space.
This type of open, borderless content panel can be highly useful in placing emphasis on the most important content on a page in exactly the very opposite way that we commonly employ on the web today.
So why is time an important dimension to think about when designing your web pages? On one level, we are often already concerned with the short attention spans of visitors to our pages and should work hard to allow them to quickly and easily find and read the content that both they and we think is important. Learning lessons from comic book timing can only help us improve that experience.
On another: timing, suspense and drama are already everyday parts of the web browsing experience. Will a reader see what they expect when they click from one page to the next? Or are they in for a surprise?
Most importantly, I believe that the web, like comics, is about story telling: often the story of the experiences that a customer will have when they use our product or service or interact with our organisation. It is this element of story telling than can be greatly improved by learning from comics.
It is exactly this kind of learning and adapting from older, more established and at first glance unrelated media that you will find can make a real distinctive difference to the design work that you create.
Fill your stockings
If you’re a visual designer or developer and are not a regular reader of comics, from the moment that you pick up your first title, I know that you will find them inspiring.
I will be writing more, and speaking about comic design applied to the web at several (to be announced) events this coming year. I hope you’ll be slipping your underpants over your trousers and joining me then. In the meantime, here is some further reading to pick up on your next visit to a comic book or regular bookshop and slip into your stockings:
- Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner (Northern Light Books 2001)
- Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud (Harper Collins 1994)
Have a happy superhero season.
(I would like to thank all of the talented artists, writers and publishers whose work I have used as examples in this article and the hundreds more who inspire me every day with their tall tales and talent.) | <urn:uuid:5111fabd-967b-42f5-b276-00b619afc050> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://24ways.org/2007/underpants-over-my-trousers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946715 | 1,701 | 1.523438 | 2 |
“The Common Room” is a series of Norfolk-based community popup days, open to all, creating innovative projects and events. Following on from the successful prototype day last November, we will be hosting another day of making, learning, sharing and socializing at the 15th Century St Laurence’s Church in St Benedict’s Street, Norwich, on Saturday, 23rd February, 2013, from 11am until 4pm.
The Common Room is an experiment in creating a community space,
made and shaped through local collaboration, connection and
resourcefulness: a social engine room for developing our community’s
ideas and projects. It was initially created by Social Spaces and 00:/
in partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust, and is now run by a
Norwich based community group formed from some of those who were deeply
inspired by the prototype day.
Just a few of the events on Saturday, 23rd February, will include: a trade school, weaving, origami, herbs for resilience, disruptive
education, grassroots communications and media, a book exchange, pod building, DIY events, a speaker’s
corner, maker’s market, music and food workshops, as well as a chance to
meet and talk with other interesting members of our community over a
cup of tea and launch your own ideas!
For further information contact Jeppe Graugaard firstname.lastname@example.org
Flight of the Butterflies - *As the IEA reports ever-increasing carbon emissions, and Britain's environment minister denies any change in the climate in the last 17 years, what is the...
1 week ago | <urn:uuid:c2fa93c5-5d0a-4df7-979f-b0f7c407c3d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transitionnorwichnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-common-room-23-february.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953393 | 343 | 1.585938 | 2 |
For Immediate Release, March 19, 2009
Contact: Peter Galvin, (707) 986-2600, email@example.com
Hidden Threats and Greenwashing Abound for
Investors in Foreign Real Estate
SAN FRANCISCO— Purchasing property in Latin America is nothing new to American investors, but with the recent economic downturn and uncertain U.S. market, U.S. homebuyers and retirees may be more tempted than ever to invest in ostensibly attractive real estate deals in Latin America. Unfortunately, even the most savvy investors may face multiple challenges, including unfamiliar legal systems, unreported or underreported environmental impacts, substandard construction, and unprincipled developers who evade accountability in U.S. courts. The recent allegations of fraud and misrepresentation against real estate tycoon Donald Trump and a Baja California, Mexico resort is just one example of how seemingly good investments can go wrong.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the Center for Biological Diversity’s conservation director, Peter Galvin, is issuing an open letter to American investors and a formal plea to attorneys general and secretaries of state to issue specific consumer-safety guidelines warning investors of the dangers of investing abroad.
Galvin stated, “Americans need to be very wary when looking at investing in real estate abroad. While prices may seem low and promises of environmental sustainability sound very attractive, the on-the-ground reality is often very different from developers’ flowery promises and slick sales brochures. Some investors have lost their life savings due to faulty or disputed land titles; many others have purchased homes or property they were led to believe was part of an environmentally sensitive development plan, only to find out later about the severe environmental destruction caused to create and maintain these false or ‘greenwashed’ development projects.”
The Center recently published a policy analysis on the risks faced by American baby-boomers — a generation with an estimated value of $15.5 trillion over the next 20 years — when purchasing “green” real estate in Latin America. The analysis highlights two developments in Latin America that have, by many peoples’ standards, failed to live up to their promise to be green. It looks at how federal law, and the laws of California, Texas, Arizona, and New York — states with high numbers of retirees — can protect investors.
The findings of the policy analysis are disturbing: While investors have some recourse in U.S. courts or abroad when developers’ promises turn out to be false, investors who’ve specifically bought into “green” developments that turn out not to live up to their environmental promises currently have very little legal recourse when things go bad. The Center is sending its policy analysis and open letter to the attorneys general and secretaries of state of all 50 states with the hope that the appropriate regulatory agencies will alert their constituents about the perils of investing in real estate abroad, in particular projects marketed as “green.”
Read Greenwashing Risks to Baby-boomers Abroad.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national nonprofit conservation organization with nearly 200,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. | <urn:uuid:6ec7750e-64f0-4c68-bcfd-618d5ea26392> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/greenwashing-03-19-2009.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93277 | 662 | 1.6875 | 2 |
A musical version of the popular film returns to Broadway for the holiday season.
What Is the Story of Elf?
Elf begins at Santa’s North Pole workshop when one of the elves, Buddy, learns that he is not actually an elf; he’s human. When Santa tells Buddy the whereabouts of his birth father, Buddy heads to New York City hoping to reconnect with his dad. His father turns out to be a cranky workaholic who wants nothing to do with Buddy or his Christmas-loving antics. Buddy however develops a bond with his step-mother, half brother and a beautiful Macy’s co-worker and helps restore the lost holiday spirit of his jaded New York family.
What Is Elf Like?
While a few changes have been made, Elf is very faithful to the popular 2003 film the show is based on. Audiences will recognize many of the film’s jokes with several new ones added. The brassy score features Christmas carol-tinged songs and the story takes place on a brightly colored stage where Santa’s workshop and the New York City skyline come to life. There are many big dance numbers featuring the show’s 25-member cast with humor prevalent throughout.
Is Elf Good for Kids? Elf is perfect for children. Kids will love Buddy’s smiley personality and be wowed by the show’s visual magic (including Santa’s flying sleigh). There’s some very minor sexual innuendo, but that will likely fly high above your happily entertained children’s heads. | <urn:uuid:7b500c0f-f5b9-45db-a74a-e917dce8c3c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.broadway.com/shows/elf/story/ | 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 | 0.946711 | 325 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Afghans have mixed reaction to US election
KABUL — While President Barack Obama praised the military and the sacrifices troops have made in his victory speech early Wednesday, there was one glaring omission: mention of Afghanistan, where 60,000 U.S. troops are still engaged in a war that refuses to end on schedule.
During the campaign, both Obama and Repubican challenger Mitt Romney avoided talking about the messy, unpopular war that the U.S. public has lost interest in, even as troops continue dying.
In his speech, Obama said “a decade of war is ending,” in reference to the deadline, still more than two years away, for international combat troops to leave Afghanistan. But the war is still a daily reality for both Afghans and the thousands of frontline troops who still see steady fighting in Afghanistan’s many contested provinces.
After overseeing the end of the war in Iraq and witnessing the uncertainty that has gripped that country since, Obama now faces the prospect of trying to wind down yet another conflict that is unlikely to offer a clear victory and the probability of a residual American troop presence for years to come.
The U.S. military barred reporters access to deployed troops as they watched returns come in.
The American ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, released a statement after Obama’s victory, saying the U.S. would not abandon Afghanistan.
“Americans have sacrificed much, and contributed much, in Afghanistan,” the statement said. “President Obama is committed to our enduring partnership, our strategic partnership, with the people of Afghanistan.”
The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was traveling in Indonesia on Wednesday, issued a brief statement congratulating Obama on his win.
“President Karzai also hopes that with the re-election of President Obama, the bilateral relations between Afghanistan and the United States could further expand on the basis of mutual interests of the two countries,” the statement said.
As news of Obama’s re-election trickled out to Afghans, reaction was mixed. Some were happy for the continuity, but many were wary of what the president will accomplish for Afghanistan after more than 11 years of international occupation that has yet to bring peace to this beleaguered country.
“He should try to focus more on bringing security to our country,” said Abdul Wahid Kareem, a 35-year-old dress shop owner in Kabul. “We can’t do anything on our own for security.”
Two big issues Afghans would like to see the president tackle in his second term are development and a peace deal with the Taliban.
Hedayatullah Ahmadi, owner of a refrigerator repair shop, said Obama needs to focus on building factories and creating job opportunities for Afghans.
“If he fulfills the promises he made to Afghans, then it would be great,” he said. “He said he will bring peace to Afghanistan by 2014.”
Abdul Ghafar, 23, a university student in restive Laghman province, said he would have preferred Romney because he may have brought a different strategy to Afghanistan. Romney also had said he would seek a transition of security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
“If Obama follows the same policy he followed the past four years, I don’t think we’ll see positive change in this country,” he said. “Look at my province; there is fighting almost every day.”
Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report | <urn:uuid:601c9ab2-ed61-4030-95c9-f27f8041c22b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stripes.com/news/afghans-have-mixed-reaction-to-us-election-1.196261 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97083 | 741 | 1.828125 | 2 |
You are herecontent / The Bomb-Bomb-Iran 'Parlor Game'
The Bomb-Bomb-Iran 'Parlor Game'
Normally, if two countries with powerful nuclear arsenals were openly musing about attacking a third country over mere suspicions that it might want to join the nuclear club, we’d tend to sympathize with the non-nuclear underdog as the victim of bullying and possible aggression.
You might think that – unless you were told that the two nuclear-armed countries are Israel and the United States and the non-nuclear country is Iran. Then, different rules apply, especially it seems in leading American news outlets like the New York Times.
In what reads like a replay of the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Times and other major U.S. news media appear onboard for war, again happy to make the likely aggressors the “victims,” and to turn the prospect of a bloody conflict in a Muslim country into a parlor game.
Indeed, the New York Times on March 28 presented the idea of “imagining a strike on Iran” as “Washington’s grimmest but most urgent parlor game,” assessing how a military strike by Israel, “acting on its fears that Iran threatens its existence,” would play out. Read more. | <urn:uuid:4168f8b6-d45d-4351-81b9-d316fb05b1a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://warisacrime.org/node/51218 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94913 | 282 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Call it what you like — war, tragedy or farce — but the disagreement over global currency exchange rates shows no sign of coming to a peaceful negotiated agreement.
Asked last week if loose Federal Reserve monetary policy was to blame for inflation in emerging markets, Ben Bernanke stoutly denied that it was anything to do with him, maintaining in central banker-speak that he’d been tucked up in bed at home at the time.
“I think it’s entirely unfair to attribute excess demand pressures in emerging markets to U.S. monetary policy, because emerging markets have all the tools they need to address excess demand in those countries,” the Fed chief told reporters assembled at the National Press Club in Washington.
“It’s really up to emerging markets to find appropriate tools to balance their own growth.”
Now on the face of it, that statement is a nonsense: regardless of emerging markets, like say, China, having tools at their disposal to put out the fire of domestic inflation, it is still possible, even likely, that Fed policy is partly responsible for widespread commodity price pressures. | <urn:uuid:8d358ec2-2a7b-4c22-b06b-ec2b28502f69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/james-saft/tag/exchange-rates/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957276 | 230 | 1.789063 | 2 |
And on this homestead farm… We have space (time and energy) for a finite number of animals, so we have the lovely opportunity to indulge the few ones we have. We aspire to give them good, healthy lives. Currently, we have 2 cows, 4 goats, 2 sheep, 2 pigs, 120 or so laying hens and a rotation of “meat” birds. The birds are on pasture all the time and during the eight or nine months a year when the soil is not too wet we are able to feed all the 4-leggers on grass as well.
For those who buy from us you should know, we feed these guys organically for their health (ours and yours,) for the health of our soil, and because this whole GMO question really, really, really ticks us off and we do not want to support or encourage the use of them in our world.
Being a small property we are fortunate to be able to irrigate the portion of our pasture we need to keep green during the dry months. For confinement we use two electric wires with step on posts to define our grazing areas which keeps our herd on the grass we choose and gives us the opportunity to “mow” the property. We give the cows and goats the first shot at the grass, giving them a small area to eat down but careful to not let them eat and eat on the same patch of land for too long.
Our grazing shape on the pasture that we are currently trying looks sort of like a couple of bowling allies. We stretch out the electric fencing in one long strip at a time, coming out from one of the barnyard gates in a 5-6′ by 200′ stretch. This seems to be feeding the two cows and goats for about a day. Then we push the grazing alley over another alley width, more or less, the next day.
Growing healthy pasture, we’ve learned, is reflected in the rumen biology of our cows and is a craft we are still learning. We aspire to grow healthy pasture (and in turn, healthy animals, healthy food…) In this pasture management rotation, after the cows and goats and sheep we finish with our chickens. We are shooting for a 23-26 day rotation before the cows return to the first “alley.”
To introduce our barnyard residents, first among them, Bambi-the-beautiful-and-well-loved cow. Bambi is a two year old bred heifer, (she is due to calve this December– woo hoo!!!) a 46″ tall doe-eyed jersey who rules the yard. She may be smaller than the average cow but our girl has made herself top barnyard girl at the farm. Bambi comes when her name is called (assuming she feels like it) and can open gates on her own and frequently does, so we make extra provisions to keep this smart lady where we want her (or do not want her.)
Cows are herd animals, we knew this from reading in the cow books we consumed before bringing Bambi home, but we hoped she would find enough company with the goats. After seven months we were convinced she needed a cow companion, so the Fall of 2012 we brought Pansy to the farm.
It was a joyful, joyful cow-day when we unpacked Bambi’s new friend from the trailer. We could hear the happy thought bubble coming from Bambi: “It’s a COW, see that!? That’s a COW!!!” Needless to say, we’ve come to learn from Bambi what big personalities cows have. Our girl galloped and bucked with delight seeing what a treasure our trailer brought to her meadow. It was an especially happy day at the farm and it felt like an excellent good decision to bring in a second cow, Pansy, to the farm.
It was the beginning of our “herd.” And the two have been inseparable since– a couple of bookends in the meadow, munching side by side, following one another to and fro between the pasture and the barnyard, discussing the daily cow news…
Mother’s Day 2013 Pansy calved adding “Fred” to the barnyard. Fred was born with contorted tendons in his front legs and unable to walk on his front hooves. For the first few days we splinted his joints so that he could stand and reach his momma’s teats. The words “run Forest run!” came to mind watching this little bull calf on his patched together front legs. His tendons did stretch out and he frollics around the pasture just fine now, but he’s been “Fred Forest” since.
Bambi, Pansy and Fred Forest share the barnyard with Winnie (pictured above,) Gretel (above left) and her daughters, Flower and Thumper. The night of the “big Friday the 13th storm,” April 2012 was the birth of our these two (Flower and Thumper.) They were not bottle raised which may explain why they are sort of wild-goat-hoodlums. But we’ve also seen that goats seem to mellow out over time, and become more trusting and sociable with people as they get older, so maybe Flower and Thumper will as well. But for now they are two classic goat imps.
We also have 120 or so laying chickens in three chicken-appointed horse trailers. In the winter we rotate the chickens between the fruit trees, using the driveway that circles 1/2 the property to park them in this area of the property that we can access using the driveway. This works out great as the land is too wet for the tractor that we use to move the trailers. The chickens get fresh pasture and the fruit trees get well fertilized this time of year. In the summer when we won’t damage the soil, we put them on the other parts of the meadow.
Four or five times a year a rotation of duck and chicken are respectfully homed here and given an organic and natural style of life. Once they outgrow their brooders we pasture rotate the chicken and ducks around the property as wel
And pigs… of course we have pigs. Pigs seem to make a farm complete. All our kitchen scrapes go to these guys and the whey from our cheesemaking, which they just go bananas over. This year we have two, “Tim and Dave.” We are pasture rotating these guys as well but not within the same areas as the chickens, goats, sheep and cows. We are moving them once a week on about a 20′ by 20′ patch of land. We are using electric wire to keep them confined and it seems to be working pretty well. | <urn:uuid:f1a73450-4778-4491-af0a-903579212e6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.echovalleyfarm.net/barnyard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970671 | 1,428 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The community that immediately shaped the faith of my Ice ancestors, and in which at least three generations of Ice’s participated, is Center Point Christian Church in Center Point, Doddridge County, West Virginia. Their involvement in this congregation in the 1850′s and 1860′s is the earliest I can place them, with certainity, in the Stone-Campbell movement.
The origins of this small congregation are unknown. Center Point and Doddridge County are basically absent from every indexed Stone-Campbell periodical. They are meeting in or near the building they now occupy as early as the Civil War. Isaac Ice’s daughter, aged seven years, died in 1863 and was buried in the church cemetery. This is not only the earliest date I can place the Ice’s at Center Point Church, it is the earliest I can verify the existence of the congregation. Isaac, his wife Elizabeth and son Andrew Jackson Ice are buried there. Andrew’s son Kromer was a member of this congregation for about a year before he went to Hiram College in 1899. Kromer (K. C.) preached his first sermon at Center Point Church September 6, 1896. Alex Kuhn, a Bethany College graduate, preached there and baptized Kromer a few months earlier. The last contact I am aware of which KC Ice had with this church was in 1898-1899. He returned to West Virginia after he completed the MD at St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1903. I envision him preaching here some while he was a student at Bethany College from 1904-1907 and perhaps again some while he preached at McMechen Christian Church, up near Wheeling, in 1907 and again in 1911. But I have no proof, only hunches. If he kept records of any preaching at Center Point other than his first sermon they are likely long gone as no one in the family has them.
The congregation has never been large. The Wikipedia article for Center Point says it is a “village in the middle of nowhere”…a fact to which I can heartily attest…Laura and I drove to Center Point on our honeymoon in the summer of 1998 (that wasn’t the only destination on our honeymoon). It is beautiful. The sort of place I wouldn’t mind retiring to. The village is rural and remote and the congregation has never had more than about 80 or so members.
Center Point Church is listed in the Yearbooks of the Disciples of Christ from the 1910′s until 1984. It is listed in the Directory of the Ministry of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ first in 1972 and is still listed there in the 2009 edition with a membership of 75. In 1984 the congregation decided to discontinue their affiliation with those Christian Churches which became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Citing dissatisfaction with the Disciples affiliation with the National and World Councils of Churches, Center Point congregation removed their listing from the Yearbook. To ask to be “removed from the Yearbook” is tantamount to withdrawing from the denomination. They had been listed dually in both the Directory of the Ministry and the Disciples Yearbook for a dozen years.
Tracing the history of this congregation has not been easy. It does not appear in the indices to the Millennial Harbinger, Barton Stone’s Christian Messenger, Walter Scott’s Evangelist, the Christian Record, Missionary Tidings, World Call, Christian Standard or the Christian-Evangelist. Doddridge County doesn’t appear either…in any of those indices! Without some kind of notice in the papers it is next to impossible to locate the men who preached there. As to the origins of the congregation…I’m totally in the dark. DCHS does not have a congregational file for this church or for the county.
There was a West Virginia state paper: the West Virginia Christian. The bad news is that the holdings at DCHS consist of fragments of three issues I contributed from my papyrological inheritance from KC Ice via Grandad (Dr. MC Ice). Nothing on Center Point.
So, I have no idea when this church started, by whom or under what circumstances…no congregational file, not even the first mention of this congregation in any of the major indexed periodicals of the Stone-Campbell movement, no mention of it in Cramblett’s state history of West Virginia Disciples, and no idea who preached here, for how long, where they came from or where they went when they left.
The only names I have are James P. Freese who preached at Center Point in the middle to later 1970′s. James was somehow associated with Kentucky Christian College. Charles B. Guthrie preached there from 1972, when they first were listed in the Directory of the Ministry, until 1975. Beyond that I am in the dark.
It may be that I can visit Center Point again someday. More to come. | <urn:uuid:2a556070-0017-46ab-a35b-5bd568a701fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mcgarveyice.wordpress.com/category/center-point-christian-church/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965427 | 1,030 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Meetings are boring and tedious. Taking copious notes generally doesn't help matters too much. Want to avoid doing a little extra busywork? Evernote can interpret notes for you from a photo.
This tip comes from Evernote's productivity ambassador Joshua Zerkel:
Meetings with other professionals can be productive, but taking notes can be a real chore. At your next meeting with a client, vendor, or consultant, instead of frantically writing down notes from the meeting and trying to copy everything that's written on a whiteboard, try snapping a photo of the whiteboard with your phone, and send that pic to Evernote. Since Evernote can read the handwriting in the photo, you'll be able to easily search for and refer back to that whiteboard later on when you need it.
While these notes might not be terribly comprehensive, or you may have to take a few photos to capture everything that makes it onto the board (in case something gets erased), it's a really handy way to have an easy, searchable reminder without doing much work at all.
Photo by F Delventhal. | <urn:uuid:c8ec7ced-b901-4586-8404-6cd78b7da1fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5934352/avoid-taking-notes-in-a-meeting-by-simply-snapping-a-picture-into-evernote?tag=Notes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954717 | 229 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Chinese authorities on Friday blocked access inside the country to the English and Chinese websites of The New York Times after they published an article reporting that family members of Premier Wen Jiabao had amassed a fortune worth billions of dollars.
Citing corporate and regulatory records, The Times said it had pieced together evidence showing that Wen's relatives have controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion, often hiding their names "behind layers of partnerships and investment vehicles involving friends, work colleagues and business partners."
China reacted angrily to the report, preventing people inside the country from visiting the two Times websites or searching for the terms "New York Times" and "Wen Jiabao" on popular social media platforms.
"It's trying to blacken China's image and has ulterior motives," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a response to a question about the article, which mentioned Wen's son, daughter, younger brother and brother-in-law as being among those who had grown rich during Wen's time in power.
Asked about the decision to block the websites, Hong replied: "China regulates the Internet in accordance with laws and regulations."
The Chinese government tries aggressively to control the flow information inside its borders about sensitive topics like unrest in Tibetan areas and criticism of senior officials. It strictly manages the output of domestic news media outlets and has a history of shutting off access to international news websites.
Chinese authorities have blacked out the broadcast signal for international television stations like CNN and the BBC when they have aired sensitive reports about the country.
The Times story about Wen's family's wealth comes at a particularly delicate time for the ruling Communist Party, only a matter of weeks before the start of the 18th Party Congress, at which the country's next set of top leaders will be announced.
Authorities have stepped up security in Beijing, where the congress, part of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, will take place. This transfer of power has already been complicated by the dramatic and damaging scandal involving the former high-flying official Bo Xilai and his inner circle.
In a country where official corruption is widespread, the top leadership is particularly sensitive to suggestions that its members or those close to them have become unusually wealthy. The growing divide between rich and poor after two decades of torrid economic growth has added to that defensiveness.
The Times article on the wealth of Wen's relatives comes four months after Bloomberg News reported that the extended family of Vice President Xi Jinping, the presumptive next top leader of China, had accumulated business interests worth hundreds of millions of dollars during his rise up the Communist Party ladder.
Chinese authorities cut off access to the Bloomberg News website following publication of the article, which was also based on public documents.
The blocking of the Times websites Friday also takes place four months after the introduction of the Chinese-language site, which the company said at the time was "intended to draw readers from the country's growing middle class" through a mixture of reporting by Chinese journalists and Times articles translated from English.
The Times cited a company spokeswoman as expressing disappointment Friday that web access had been cut off.
"We hope that full access is restored shortly, and we will ask the Chinese authorities to ensure that our readers in China can continue to enjoy New York Times journalism," said Eileen Murphy, according to The Times. "We will continue to report and translate stories applying the same journalistic standards that are upheld across The New York Times."
The servers that host both the English and Chinese sites of the Times are outside mainland China, according to the news organization. | <urn:uuid:d85f0e24-e1b4-4bb0-82a5-1454012b0a45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/China-blocks-NYT-website-after-wealth-story/-/475880/17141350/-/pjhoflz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968029 | 729 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Tunisia: New struggles break out in struggle against old regime
The rhetoric from Tunisia's interim government, led by the Islamist party Ennahda (the Renaissance), as well as the financial establishment, is that the old regime is gone.
What is needed now, they say, is stability and the restoration of economic growth to complete the transition to democracy.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on April 2: "Investors and the population at large need to regain confidence in the future of the economy, to look beyond the short-term difficulties and provide the foundations for a rebound of the Tunisian economy."
Echoing these remarks, the April 29 Global Post reported Ennahda political bureau member in Tunis, Said Ferjani, as saying: “We have to restructure an economy that has failed the country for more than half a century.
“We need some kind of stability. Some of the people don't want stability because they don't want the government to succeed.”
The reality, however, is the new regime has been largely constituted out of the skeleton of the old. The corrupt bureaucracy may be administered over by new ministers appointed by the government arising from the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, but the repressive police state apparatus remains the same.
The government of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, has been rocked by an ongoing wave of demonstrations, sit-ins and strikes by students, workers, the unemployed, democracy activists, and feminists.
The protest wave has been demanding the fulfillment of the demands of the Jasmine Revolution ― an end to corruption and the dismantling of the police state, justice for the victims of state violence and an economy which serves the needs of Tunisia's people.
Corruption and neopotism remains rife throughout the country. The publicly funded works scheme was expanded by the interim government after the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's overthrow on January 14 last year, in a bid to alleviate crippling youth unemployment.
Writing in the February 9 Guardian, Eileen Byrne said that in the town of Kasserine, the scheme was suffering from widespread abuse by foremen skimming more than 50 dinars a month ($33) from each worker.
In impoverished interior towns such as Kasserine, and the major coastal cities, protests have continued on-and-off since the October 23 constituent assembly elections.
A major issue has been the place of religion in the new state. Throughout January, a group of hardline religious Salafists occupied a university campus in Manouba and assaulted several administrators. This resulted in counter-protests by secular activists demanding an end to religious violence and defence of the civil state.
The Salafist occupation not only demanded the right for female students to wear the Niqab during exams but also for sharia law to be the basis of the new constitution. The Ennahda-led government called for peace, yet several of Ennahda's constituent assembly representatives made public statements supporting the Salafist occupiers.
Thousands rallied in Tunis's central Avenue Habib Bourguiba on March 20, Tunisia's independance day, to support the demand for a democratic state and to condemn the interim government's refusal to follow through on demands of the revolution.
EuroMoney.com said a chant at these protests was "People are sick of the new Trabelsis" ― a reference to the family of Ben Ali's second wife, which was a major beneficiary of the old regime's neopotism.
After these protests, a ban on demonstrations in Avenue Habib Bourguiba was announced on March 28 by Interior Minister Ali Laarayadh.
A major protest took place on April 9 to reject the ban. It was met with a major police crackdown.
The rally had originally been called to mark national Martyr's Day, but the breakup of a small protest by the unemployed two days before meant it quickly focused on slogans such as: "No fear, no terror ― the streets belong to the people."
Marching on Avenue Mohamed V, which adjoins Avenue Bourguiba, the protesters were met with lines of riot police, tear gas and assault. Lina Ben Mhenni, who writes the A Tunisian Girl blog, was among those assaulted by police officers.
Jaouhar Ben Mbark, an activist, suffered a broken arm, as did many others.
"About a dozen police attacked me," Ben Mbark told Human Rights Watch. "There were some men in plain clothes behind them, heckling me and calling me all kinds of names.
"While the police were dragging me to their police van, these men continued following behind them, hitting me and heckling me."
A march of 15 unemployed youth from Sidi Bouzid to raise awareness of the dire situation n Tunisia's interior region was also caught up in the violence on April 9. Sidi Bouzid is the town where Mohamed Bouazizi self-immolated on December 17, 2010, triggering the uprising against Ben Ali.
Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The renewal of violence against demonstrators in the principal streets of Tunis shows that legal structures remain intact that made repression possible in the past, combining abusive laws and impunity for security forces.”
On April 12, Laarayadh backed down, announcing that the ban would be lifted so long as protests were “peaceful, orderly, remain in file, and adhere to pre-established routes and timings”.
An "investigation" into police violence was also announced.
Less than a month later, May Day rallies brought thousands of people to the streets. About 20,000 marched on Avenue Bourguiba. Demands echoed those of the uprising against Ben Ali: "Bread, freedom and national dignity"; the right to work; prosecution of corrupt officials; and freedom for the media.
The rallies were organised by Tunisia's largest unions, the UGTT and UTT. However, Tunisia Live said on April 28 that Ennahda also endorsed the rally on Avenue Bourguiba.
The UGTT was a leading body in the uprising against Ben Ali. It has since played an important role in supporting the wave of strikes and labour protests that has been renewed since the October 23 elections.
In late December, a congress of the UGTT elected a new leadership. Nizar Amami said in International Viewpoint that the new leadership is made up of a variety of left union activists, including those with party affiliations and independants.
The only alternative list, formed around the outgoing deputy leader, was largely comprised of those associated with Ennahda.
Whether the step towards such left regroupment in the UGTT will be followed throughout the rest of civil society ― in particular, by the left parties ― remains to be seen. If so, it can strengthen the struggle to challenge the establishment's bid to silence dissent through "stability".
Although the Jasmine Revolution has already won some impressive gains ― the overthrow of Ben Ali and many of his top cronies, and the constituent assembly elections ― the ongoings protests show that the economic and social injustices that drove Tunisians to breaking point in December 2010 are yet to be addressed. | <urn:uuid:dc9b3c73-4b5d-4269-8a9e-0eaecb605cd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51088 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969181 | 1,501 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Marijuana law reform is gaining some serious momentum in New York as we approach the end of this year’s legislative session.
Recent polling data released by Siena Research Institute revealed that 82% of New Yorkers support the medical use of marijuana. Fortunately for New York lawmakers, they can take action to address this issue that’s supported by an overwhelming majority of their constituents. Medical marijuana legislation is currently pending in both Houses of the New York Legislature and these measures have been gaining substantial political support. This legislation is expected to be debated by elected officials in the coming weeks. If you live in New York, click here to quickly and easily contact your state politicians and urge them to support this important legislation.
In addition to medical marijuana, it seems that full legalization will also soon be debated. State Senator Liz Krueger announced her intentions to introduce legislation that would legalize the recreational use and limited cultivation of marijuana. The measure would also allow for the commercial sale of marijuana at retail outlets regulated by the New York State Alcohol Authority.
“It is my intention as a New York State senator to soon introduce a law that would actually decriminalize, regulate and tax marijuana in New York,” stated Sen. Krueger.
NORML will update you when this legislation is introduced.
On Friday, April 5th, Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky stated that he will let Kentucky’s industrial hemp measure become law without his signature. Gov. Beshear had expressed concerns that marijuana growers could hide their illegal growing operations with hemp plants. Despite his concerns, he allowed the measure to become law without his signature and did not veto the legislation.
House and Senate lawmakers passed an amended version of Senate Bill 50, “An Act relating to industrial hemp”, in March during the final hours of the 2013 legislative session. Noting that “public pressure to pass the bill helped achieve the last-minute deal.”
After the bills approval by the state legislature, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer stated that “by passing this bill, the General Assembly has signaled that Kentucky is serious about restoring industrial hemp production to the commonwealth and doing it in the right way. That will give Kentucky’s congressional delegation more leverage when they seek a federal waiver allowing Kentucky farmers to grow hemp.”
Kentucky is now the ninth state to have passed a law allowing for farmers to cultivate industrial hemp. Hemp cultivation is still prohibited by the federal government, so until the feds alter their current policy, it is unlikely that Kentucky farmers will begin to grow this crop. Of the eight states who previously approved industrial hemp legislation, only Hawaii has received a federal waiver allowing them to grow an acre of hemp for research purposes.
Federal legislation, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, to amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana is currently pending in the US Senate and House of Representatives and has been sponsored by prominent politicians such as Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. You can click here to write your federal officials in support of this legislation.
House and Senate lawmakers yesterday passed an amended version of Senate Bill 50, “An Act relating to industrial hemp.” The floor votes took place with only hours to go before the close of the 2013 legislative session. Proponents of the measure acknowledged that “public pressure to pass the bill helped achieve the last-minute deal.”
The United States is the only developed nation that fails to cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop, according to the Congressional Resource Service. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only minute (less than 1%) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Farmers worldwide grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including food and clothing.
Senate Bill 50 “establishes conditions and procedures for the licensing of industrial hemp growers by the Department of Agriculture.” It designates the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission to work in concert with the state Department of Agriculture, and also tasks the University of Kentucky Agricultural Experimental Station to engage in research related to hemp production.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 88 to 4. The Senate re-approved the measure by a vote of 35 to 1.
Said Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer in a prepared statement: “By passing this bill, the General Assembly has signaled that Kentucky is serious about restoring industrial hemp production to the commonwealth and doing it in the right way. That will give Kentucky’s congressional delegation more leverage when they seek a federal waiver allowing Kentucky farmers to grow hemp.”
Federal legislation, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013, to amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana is pending in the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Senate Bill 50 now goes to the desk of Democrat Gov. Steve Beshear, who has said he shares the concerns of the Kentucky State Police who opposed the bill,” but has not stated publicly whether he intends to veto the measure.
If you live in Kentucky, click here to write the Governor and urge that he does not stand in the way of this legislation.
At a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast in South Boston this past weekend, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) took a jab at pro-legalization Republican State Representative Dan Winslow (R-Norfolk), who is currently vying for the Republican nomination for Senate in Massachusetts’s upcoming special election.
Addressing the crowd, Senator Warren said, “I advise everyone to pay very close attention to Dan Winslow’s platform. He has a 100 percent ranking from the gun lobby and he’s for the legalization of marijuana. He wants us armed and stoned.”
According to statements received by VoteSmart, Rep. Dan Winslow’s stance on marijuana policy is as follows:
I disfavor decriminalization of marijuana because it increases demand from illicit sources. Instead, I think we need to legalize marijuana (likely starting with medicinal marijuana in view of the current federal prohibition) and then regulate it and tax it. Only be lawful production of marijuana will the cartels, crooks and drug dealers be put out of business in the US. – State Representative Dan Winslow (R-Norfolk)
Representative Winslow is currently engaged in a primary for the GOP nomination, if he were to receive it he would face either Democratic Congressmen Stephen Lynch or Edward Markey in the June 25 special election.
Today, Pennsylvania State Senator Daylin Leach will formally introduce a bill to tax and regulate marijuana in Pennsylvania.
“This past November, the people of Washington State and Colorado voted to fully legalize marijuana,” said Leach. “It is time for Pennsylvania to be a leader in jettisoning this modern-day prohibition, and ending a policy that has been destructive, costly and anti-scientific.”
“NORML applauds Senator Leach for taking this important step forward to end the failed policy of marijuana prohibition in his state. Pennsylvania has long been considered a bellwether state that sets the precedent for politics across the country, as such it is both exciting and encouraging to see the Keystone State take up this crucial dialogue,” said Erik Altieri, Communications Director for NORML, “Marijuana prohibition costs the state of Pennsylvania over 300 million dollars a year in enforcement costs and tens of millions a year in lost potential tax revenue, while doing little to keep the substance out of the hands of children or lower use rates. It is time for a new policy that works for the state and its people. We encourage all of Senator Leach’s colleagues in Harrisburg to join him in this call for rational marijuana laws.”
Speaking at Monday’s press conference will be Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and Dr. David Nathan, a clinical associate professor from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
The press conference will be aired live online here at 2pm EST on February 11th.
If you live in Pennsylvania, you can easily contact your state representatives and tell them to support this legislation by visiting NORML’s Take Action Center here.
Senator Daylin Leach will be the keynote speaker at the NORML Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, you can purchase your tickets to that event by clicking here. | <urn:uuid:55e470d3-54b0-45b6-821d-8356c33ac060> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.norml.org/tag/senate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949618 | 1,734 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In recent years, there's been an heigtened demand for organic products, particularly for organic baby products. Parents of course want the best for their children and organic baby stores in Waco stock everything they require to keep their little ones happy and healthy.
Waco organic baby stores sell items that have no toxins and chemicals. So the primary benefit of organic baby products is that they are healthier and have a lower risk of triggering side effects like allergic reactions.
Eco-conscious parents also like the fact that organic baby products are also better for the earth. Cotton utilized to make cloth for organic baby clothes, for example, aren't treated with chemicals and insecticides that affect a great deal more than the cotton crop.
Products in Waco Organic Baby Stores
As a greater number of parents realize the importance of choosing organic, many more organic baby products are being sold in stores across the United States. These days, parents can buy an organic option for nearly anything.
Popular organic baby products include:
- Baby clothes
- Baby food
- Bath products
- Lotions and Creams
Manufacturers can only label their baby products organic once they have gained organic certification. One important note to remember is that unlike organic products, 'all natural' products aren't regulated by the FDA. Parents that are considering an 'all natural' product should carefully look over the ingredients and/or label to determine whether an organic option is a better choice.
Well Known Organic Baby Stores in Waco
Burt's Bees is a well known line of personal organic products, including organic baby products. Burt's Bees products can be bought in well established stores across America such as Target.
Baby Earth is an online organic baby store that sells all natural and organic baby products from numerous providers.
Whole Foods Market has been a top provider of organic products since 1980, and there isn't a shortage of organic baby products in their stores.
The Organic Consumers Association and the Organic Information Center are also wonderful resources for researching different organic products and services, including organic baby stores.
Investing in organic products, especially food and hygiene products, when children are in the initial stages of development is an investment worth making. As organic baby products increase in popularity parents can expect to find more local and online organic baby stores in Waco to shop at and more affordable prices as well. | <urn:uuid:3e746b57-1bd7-4c85-b5c2-b589a8f549c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.organicaginfo.org/texas/organic-baby-stores-waco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951844 | 479 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The pickle jar
Usually what I do first in a review like this is provide an overview of the history of the operating system I'm about to dive into. The plan for this review is no different, except for the fact that I found it very hard to find good information on MorphOS' rather short but eventful history. This probably has something to do with the sharp disagreements that took place between a number of developers and Genesi, the company funding development. It is likely this condensed history contains errors, so feel free to correct me.
Anyway, I'll do my best to get an as accurate as possible overview of MorphOS' history. You can pretty much follow the AmigaOS history which I jotted down for the AmigaOS review up until the mid-'90s. This was a tumultuous time for the Amiga platform; Commodore toppled over in 1994, and after that, the Amiga trademark was bounced around from owner to owner, but mostly as an empty shell without any real products.
Fed up with all this stuff, a few members of the Amiga community decided to build a new PowerPC platform and operating system from scratch. The new hardware platform was designed and built by bPlan/Genesi, while the operating system was developed by a number of individuals from the Amiga community. This would become known as MorphOS, and it started in 1999.
The earliest versions ran using PowerPC accelerator cards in classic 68k Amiga machines, while also needing parts of the AmigaOS in order to function properly. It wasn't until 2002 that the first, non-prototype Pegasos machines appeared out of collaboration between bPlan/Genesi and Thendic France, which could run either MorphOS or Linux.
Things got a bit hectic and dark in 2004, when several MorphOS developers accused Genesi of not paying them. A page was put on the MorphOS website which detailed what amounts of money Genesi owned the developers; the page itself is gone, but the thread on MorphZone is still there. Development was put on hold.
Genesi responded that they were trying hard to remain afloat themselves, but how exactly the situation has been resolved is still a mystery to me. All I do know is that at some point development picked up again, with Genesi still being the major backer of the effort. Ambient, MorphOS' desktop environment, was released as open source (GPL) too around this time.
The hardware situation for MorphOS used to be relatively bright, but currently, it's all rather bleak. Genesi had the Pegasos I, a PowerPC G3-based motherboard, followed by the Pegasos II, which used a different northbridge and introduced some fixes. The Pegasos II became available as a model with a G4 processor, too. You could also get your hands on a Pegasos II motherboard by buying Genesi's Open Desktop Workstation, a complete computer with casing and all. All of these are currently discontinued.
MorphOS also runs on Genesi's EFIKA, a small motherboard built around the 400 MHz Freescale MPC5200B SoC-processor. Further specifications include a 44-pin 2.5" IDE slot, USB ports, a serial port, stereo audio in/out jacks, a 100Mbit ethernet port, a 33/66 MHz PCI slot, and 128 MB DDR RAM.
Since the EFIKA has been discontinued as well, it is very hard to get your hands on hardware capable of running MorphOS. There have been numerous clues that the MorphOS development team is working on porting the operating system to the PowerPC Mac Mini, and maybe even other PowerPC Macs too. Sadly, after Apple's switch to Intel (have you heard?) this is just a stop-gap solution. Genesi, in the meantime, has more or less dropped their interest in the PowerPC platform, and are now focusing entirely on ARM - which MorphOS does not (yet?) support.
A third platform for MorphOS is classic Amiga machines equipped with PowerPC accelerator cards. A special version of MorphOS, called PowerUP, is available for these machines, and is free to use. The accelerator cards, however, are no longer in production.
This leaves MorphOS in a bit of a pickle. Without any hardware to run on, it's difficult to envision a future for MorphOS, so the rumoured PowerPC Mac port is rather vital for the platform's survival. A port to the sam440ep board would also be welcome, as ACube is still making and selling them.
I'll first dive into describing the hardware used for this review, during which I will also explain why I found it very difficult to review MorphOS properly (clue: it's a hardware limitation). After the hardware, I will detail some of the characteristics of MorphOS and what differences I - not an Amigan - found between AmigAOS 4.x and MorphOS. As a result of MorphOS being very much like AmigaOS 4.x, as well as because of it running mostly the same applications, this review will build upon the AmigaOS 4.1 one. Especially on the applications front, the operating systems have a lot in common, so rehashing everything seems a bit redundant.
As always, keep in mind that I will not compare MorphOS to Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Such comparisons are useless and completely beside the point. If you do not understand why, you are probably reading the wrong website. | <urn:uuid:1a4e14b8-4bfb-4cf0-87ee-2c14d860e222> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osnews.com/story/22315/MorphOS_2_3_EFIKA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966532 | 1,146 | 1.671875 | 2 |
As many of you might know the most important piece of equipment for lifeguards is the rescue tube. The guard rescue tube is a traditional wraparound tube designed for beach, lake or pool in the water rescues. It can be handed to a victim for a close-in assist, or used to reach a struggling victim without contact, towing a passive unconscious victim, or even supporting the rescuer. The rescue tube will never absorb water, rot or mildew because it is made from closed cell “Ensolite” foam and covered with a heavy-duty red vinyl skin. There is often a safe quick-release buckle and tow line with a looped end that make pulling the victim to safety easy work for the lifeguard. Rescue tubes are available in a couple of different sizes depending on the use. You can find lifeguard rescue tubes and other rescue equipment at D&J Sports Swim Shop. | <urn:uuid:6d3978c3-c558-4a10-a269-8f0709147f03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.djsports.com/2009/04/28/lifeguard-rescue-tubes/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=420e8d64d7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949085 | 185 | 1.71875 | 2 |
(Fuente Mc Kinsey, círculos de colores QFC)
Posts Tagged ‘Italia
(Fuente: Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., via Business Week)
(Fuente: DTCC & Bloomberg, via Zero Hedge)
(Fuente: Nomura, via FT Alphaville)
(Fuente: The Economist)
Baseline tiene un interesante post que agrupa la problemática europea: deuda, deficits, riesgo moral, corrupción, rescate.
The eurozone self-rescue plan announced last night has three main elements:
- 750bn euros in a fiscal support program, with 1/3 coming from the IMF (although this was apparently news to the IMF).
- The European Central Bank promises to buy bonds in dysfunctional markets.
- Swap lines with the Federal Reserve, to provide dollars
The underlying problem in the euro zone is that Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain are locked into a currency which means they are uncompetitive in trade terms while they are also running large budget deficits. To get out of this they need large wage and price cuts to restore competitiveness, and they need to make fiscal cuts to get budget balances back at sustainable levels.
Markets decided these adjustments were going to be difficult, so spreads on those countries’ debts widened (i.e., interest rates relative to German government bonds). As the rates go up, this causes local asset prices to fall, concerns over bank balance sheets increase, etc. This combination was causing an incipient run on banks. Any country with its own currency could reasonably devalue in such a situation, but this is not an option within the euro bloc.
To ultimately get out of this mess, the euro zone needs to grow fast enough to allow nations to grow out of debt. The global backdrop here is very positive in the short term. The jobs numbers in the US last week and strong numbers out of core northern Europe suggest the world can grow. No doubt the ECB and the Fed will use the eurozone scare to justify longer loose policies.
It could be that in two years time Europe’s deficits are much lower, the ECB has hardly bought any bonds, and they have successfully managed a Greek debt restructuring while Spain is out of trouble, and Portugal and Ireland are scraping by in limbo but now isolated problems. With the US likely to still be running near 10% GDP budget deficits – who will seem more risky then? This immediate confidence in the US dollar that has come out of this European crisis could very quickly evaporate.
Alternatively, the underlying fiscal problems in Europe could fester – and the “rules” designed to limit moral hazard may turn out to be a complete paper tiger. In that case, the Europeans again have to make a fateful decision: Do they try to inflate out of the debt burdens of their weakest member countries; or do they instead try to manage selective default, keeping in mind that most Greek debt at that stage will be held by other eurozone governments.
(Fuente: Bloomberg, via Spiegel) | <urn:uuid:2c3301de-2307-499c-b177-a7954511838b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://qfclub.wordpress.com/tag/italia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933434 | 642 | 1.507813 | 2 |
DOCTORS have attacked a scheme that offers GPs the same cash incentives to work in tiny country towns as bustling cities. The federal government is under pressure to dump the system because it does nothing to help lure doctors to where they are needed most. Read more about it here.
DUNGOG, NSW: A small town 3.5 hours north of Sydney, Dungog is home to about 3000 people. Current zoning means a doctor would be paid the same incentives to work in Dungog as major NSW cities like Wagga Wagga, Albury, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour.
CHERBOURG, QLD: A tiny town 3.5 hours north-west of Brisbane, Cherbourg is home to about 1100 people, the majority indigenous. Current zoning means a doctor would be paid the same or even less incentives to work in Cherbourg as major Queensland cities like Cairns, Toowoomba and Townsville.
CASTLEMAINE, VIC: A modest town about 1.5 hours north-west of Melbourne, Castlemaine has a population of about 8000. Current zoning means a doctor would be paid the same incentives to work in Castlemaine as major Victorian and Tasmanian cities like Ballarat, Bendigo, Hobart and Launceston. | <urn:uuid:929c48de-bc59-46db-ab50-08efbabd01c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bunburymail.com.au/story/223831/regional-doctor-shortages-case-studies/?cs=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961536 | 268 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Upside Down Economics (Thomas Sowell) “From television specials to newspaper editorials, the media are pushing the idea that current economic problems were caused by the market and that only the government can rescue us. … What was lacking in the housing market, they say, was government regulation of the market’s ‘greed.’ That makes great moral melodrama, but it turns the facts upside down. … It was precisely government intervention which turned a thriving industry into a basket case.” Sowell goes on to explain how the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, not really enforced until the Clinton Administration, is responsible for the housing crisis.
Patton Boggs LLP has a detailed analysis of the recently-signed stimulus package available for download at its site. “Implementation of the massive stimulus package must be carried out by a myriad of Federal, State and local government entities on a severely accelerated timetable. The distribution of funding often involves new grant programs, programs that are parallel to existing funding mechanisms, new regulatory standards, and an array of bureaucratic issues. Moreover, although the money will be awarded quickly, with little initial oversight, during the next few years there will be close scrutiny by Congress and various agency Inspectors General of how the money is distributed and whether it is spent wisely and fairly.” Watch out, I say.
Rebuilding America’s Job Machine “Industrial policy isn’t dead. It’s thriving in the states—and may be the start of a U.S. comeback strategy,” according to BusinesWeek. At least this article sounds a few notes of caution: “Mixing taxpayer money and private industry is risky, of course. Public officials can be bad at picking winners. State intervention can lead to cronyism and market distortion. … These are some reasons Harvard Business School competitiveness guru Michael E. Porter preaches caution. ‘The grassroots model, where regions get on with it without waiting for Washington, is one of America’s great strengths,’ Porter says. But he calls many state interventions unrealistic. ‘Subsidies are usually a sign you have no underlying advantage in an industry.’
What’s in the Stimulus Bill for You (New York Times) “All the talk the last couple of days about the stimulus bill was about compromise and slimming down. What is left, though, is a huge spending bill, with well over $100 billion in tax breaks and handouts for individuals.”
Terrible Credit Crunch of 2008 — The Greatest Hoax of All Time? (Robert Higgs, The Independent Institute) Was there a credit crunch last year? Is it still going on? Robert Higgs presents evidence based on Federal Reserve System statistics. | <urn:uuid:e511a7a9-ab57-4682-a7d8-c5f33da7d246> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wichitaliberty.org/economics/articles-of-interest/2508080/ | 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 | 0.952245 | 573 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The C2K Blog
Published: 2/21/2012Breaking up is hard to do. Making up can be even harder. It requires vulnerability, honesty and a willingness to admit mistakes. A year ago I wrote about the large number of companies being expelled from the UN Global Compact and the potential impact it had on a company’s stakeholders. I encouraged those remaining to hold to their commitments to the Compact’s 10 Sustainability Principles rather than be expelled and send a mixed message to stakeholders about their intentions.
Last week, the UN Global Compact announced it had expelled even more companies bringing the total to 3,123. What’s maddening about those increasing numbers is that maintaining membership in the Compact is easy. Companies are not asked to be perfect on all measures. They aren’t even required to report on all ten principles. Instead, the Global Compact encourages continuous improvement and a focus on quality over quantity.
Published: 2/15/2012With all of the recent focus about Apple’s supply chain woes, it can be easy to forget that there are companies making positive efforts to advance human rights within their supply chains. Some have implemented these efforts of their own accord while others, like Apple, were prompted to act due to public outcry when abuses were brought to light. There are many examples, but I’d like to tell you a story about a company that sensitively addressed local customs and culture to bring change to a community and help ensure the sustainability of its supply chain. It all started more than 10 years ago…
Published: 2/7/2012Much like an orchestra, Corporate Social Responsibility produces a more pleasing result when all players are included in its efforts. While the melody played by a single instrument can be beautiful, there is nothing quite like the richness of a full orchestra playing in harmony.
Only when multiple players come together with a holistic and innovative response to issues, such as in Transformational Partnerships, can the full potential of CSR be realized. When the brightest minds from the private sector, not-for-profits, governments and agencies like the UN are united, innovative and sustainable solutions can be created far beyond what any one party can accomplish alone.
Published: 2/2/2012“When you are increasingly naked, fitness is not optional. Survival will force you to get buff.” – Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams in HuffPost Business
It’s time for companies to shed their bulky clothing and show the world what’s underneath. Some of what’s under there will look pretty good and some of it will need some shaping up. Either way, we want to see what you’ve got.
Founder of Company2Keep
Posts by Year
Posts By Month | <urn:uuid:c73c13d5-7524-4474-8775-937f6357aaab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://company2keep.com/blog/archive.html?filterbymonth=2012-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957713 | 566 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Libertarians like to claim that markets correct themselves without government interference. Therefore we don't need government regulation. That claim is based on some flawed assumptions. Here's why we need regulation.
* Many times consumers are not rational. They base purchasing decisions on a wide variety of irrational impulses -- if I buy that product I'll be just as cool as the model hawking it.
* Even when consumers want to be rational they are faced with situations where it is impossible to get enough reliable information to make intelligent decisions. Celebrity endorsements work well here -- if the product makes that athlete better it will help me too.
* Libertarians are also irrational at times -- just ask them about global warming.
* Those who make stupid choices (such as when they can't get reliable information) deserve the consequences. Bad things don't happen to just the stupid. The standard of justice does (or should not) be based on whether someone has occasionally made stupid purchases. If your economic model is based on people getting ripped off, it is not self-regulating.
Put it another way, only the con artist wants deregulation. | <urn:uuid:01321a45-0c51-4e2f-8609-08a81aefef19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gaycrowsnest.blogspot.jp/2011/01/business-model-of-con-artist.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968109 | 226 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Exiled Tibetans mull new political ruler
By Saransh Sehgal
DHARAMSALA, India - In response to a hint from Tibet's spiritual leader, the
Dalai Lama, that he will retire from his political role in the
government-in-exile within a year, Tibetan exiles are gearing up to elect a new
political leader. A preliminary poll for the next prime minister of the Tibetan
government-in-exile has chosen two US-educated Tibetans as top runners.
Speaking on Indian television earlier this week, the 75-year-old Dalai Lama
said: "In order to fully utilize democracy, I feel it is better I am not
involved and that I am devoted to other fields, like promotion of human values
and peace and harmony. But first I have to discuss this, to inform members of
the Tibetan parliament."
The Dalai Lama will address his retirement at the next session of his exiled
parliament in March and then look to scale back his
responsibilities in the following six months, said Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman
for the Dalai Lama's office here. Taklha stressed that the Dalai Lama cannot
renounce his spiritual duties but plans to retire from his ceremonial
responsibilities as head of his exiled government.
Aware of the Dalai Lama's inevitable retirement due to his age, the Tibetans in
exile have attached much importance to the selection of their future political
leadership. According to rules, Tibetan exiles choose their leaders through two
rounds of elections. The preliminary poll was held on October 3, in which
exiles cast their votes to elect the successor to outgoing kalon tripa (prime
minister) Samdhong Rinpoche, who has already served two five-year terms since
2001. His current term will end in August 2011. The government-in-exile is
headquartered in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama has been based since a
failed uprising in 1959 against Beijing's rule.
The leading candidates for the top post after the preliminary election are Dr
Lobsang Sangay, a senior research fellow at Harvard Law School, and Tenzin
Namgyal Tethong, a diplomat who also lives in the US. Pending the second round
of elections early next year, one of them will be the leader of the exiled
Tibetan community and the Free Tibet movement, with full authority after the
Dalai Lama's full retirement. Both men were educated in the US, and given their
background, analysts believe there will be a greater influence of Western
values on Tibetans in exile, leading to a more confrontational attitude to
Out of the 79,449 registered voters, slightly over 47,000 (approximately 61%)
cast their votes in the preliminary polls across 56 locations in India, Nepal,
Bhutan, European countries, the US and Australia. Lobsang Sangay lead the first
round with a total of 22,489 votes, while Tenzin Namgyal Tethong received
Dolma Gyari, the only female candidate, secured third place with 2,733 votes;
she currently serves as the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
As many as 17 candidates competed for the post during the preliminary poll, and
the Tibetan Election Commission, as per its electoral rules, selected the top
six candidates for the final round of polls to be held on March 20, 2011.
Tibetans from different walks of life, including students, bureaucrats, women
and monks were seen jostling on the preliminary poll day with green
registration books to cast their votes. Although the Tibetan
government-in-exile is not recognized by any other government in the world,
Tibetans in exile have taken the election of the next leader, who will fill the
vacuum left by the retirement of the Dalai Lama, very seriously.
Lobsang Sangay, the frontrunner in the first round of elections, is an expert
on international law. One sign of his popularity is that he regularly visits
the exile capital Dharamsala and interacts with officials of the Tibetan
During the run-up to the primary election campaign, many Tibetans posed
questions on the web to the prospective candidates. One of the questions put to
Lobsang Sangay was: "What do you see as the key responsibilities of the next
He replied: "First we have to define whether the kalon tripa is a leader
or an administrator. If he is simply an administrator, then experience, both
institutional and personal, is a must. However, His Holiness (the Dalai Lama)
himself has stressed that as our democracy progresses, the kalon tripa should
assume more political leadership. For the kalon tripa as a leader, the
primary responsibility is to resolve the Chinese occupation and alleviate the
challenges faced by our brave compatriots in Tibet. Secondly, it is to gain
support from the international community and to raise the profile of the
Tibetan government, which is rather weak."
On the issue of rights of Tibetans, he recently said: "They have the right to
self-determination, to demand rights. They are in a position to get something.
The ultimate goal of the Chinese is to turn Tibetans into Chinese." He also
said he was looking forward to supporting the Dalai Lama's "middle way" of
dialogue between the Chinese government and the Tibetan spiritual leader.
The second contender, Tenzin Namgyal Tethong, is a distinguished fellow at
Stanford University. He began his work in the Tibetan exile community in India,
teaching Tibetan students in refugee schools. He has also served as a
representative of the Dalai Lama in United States. He said the results of the
preliminary elections "confirmed the wide public support for his nomination by
several important Tibetan organizations and groups, as well as many
individuals." He was highly encouraged by the results of the preliminary round,
Interestingly, Tibetan exiles have seen these US-educated-and-based candidates
as more acceptable than others. Analysts believe this suggests that the exile
community is increasingly under the influence of the US, as the exiles believe
America can play a major role in bringing about a solution to the Tibet issue.
"The US has a significant stake and role in maintaining stability in Asia,
especially when China's rapid rise as a superpower is proving to be the most
pressing challenge for the US. We are hopeful that the US government will not
lose sight of the strategic significance of Tibet's territorial integrity,"
reads a letter signed by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest
pro-independence group based in exile, during US President Barack Obama's visit
"It is certain that being educated at such prestigious US universities does add
more weight to their candidacy, and the two top contenders are welcome here to
accept the role and lead the government," said Tenzin, an exiled Tibetan in
Nancy Pelosi, outgoing US house speaker, has always been supportive of the
Tibetan people, and helps maintain the strong Tibetan connection with the US.
In her statement marking Dalai Lama's 75th birthday in July of this year,
Pelosi said: "The Dalai Lama has made the human rights situation in Tibet an
issue of international concern, and it is long past time to resolve it. A
negotiated agreement would ensure internal stability in Tibet and bolster
China's reputation in the world."
A statement on Pelosi's official site also cites her commitment to "continue to
support the struggles of the Tibetan people and honor the sacrifice of those
who gave their life fighting for freedom. We must be committed to meeting the
challenge of human rights in Tibet if we are to work for human rights around
It will be interesting to see how the final round of elections will go in
March. Will the new leadership in exile carry on the Dalai Lama's middle way
approach, or will there be a long-term strategy to make the movement less
vulnerable to China's strong antagonism? Needless to say, Beijing is also
closely watching these developments, wary that the new Tibetan leader will
become more radical and pro-Western.
Saransh Sehgal is a contributor based in Dharamsala, India. He can be
reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:1037133b-cd90-4ba9-ba55-7d459c712df6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/LK25Ad02.html | 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 | 0.959801 | 1,772 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Steve Hayward makes the case that we do need to raise taxes -- but not on the rich:
Maybe it will help if I qualify this by saying that I think taxes should be raised sharply on the middle class and the poor, many of whom currently pay almost no federal income tax at all, while cutting the capital gains tax, the corporate income tax, and the highest marginal income tax rates. Feel a little better? I thought not.
But here’s the case: one problem with our current tax policy is that at the moment the American people as a whole are receiving a dollar of government for the price of only 60 cents. (I don’t say a “dollar’s worth of government,” but let’s leave that snark for another time.) Any time you can get a dollar of something at a 40 percent discount, you are going to demand more of it. My theory is simple: if the broad middle class of Americans are made to pay for all of the government they get, they may well start to demand less of it, quickly.
Hayward goes on to flesh out his argument more, so be sure and read the whole thing over at Powerline. It's an interesting argument, even if it's kind of a non-starter in political circles. Still, there's definitely an underclass in the country that are accustomed to getting something for nothing. The irony being that while Democrats have coasted on stoking this soak-the-rich resentment for decades the bill is coming due. We can't possbly raise enough revenue from rich people to begin to address our current debt issues, and it's the middle class and poor that are going to be hurt when things fall apart. | <urn:uuid:62924349-d5be-4905-95cc-9f404cf3b7af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/should-we-raise-taxes-middle-class-and-poor_576322.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963269 | 353 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Recently, 12 individuals from eight different parishes in South Carolina and other parts of the country conducted a clinic over six days in La Barquita, an impoverished barrio outside of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The team members included two translators, a nurse practitioner, several registered nurses, a pharmacist, a lab technologist, and several non-medical volunteers.
They included five members of All Saints Episcopal Church, as well as other individuals from St. Mark’s, St. Stephen’s, Holy Communion, and Holy Spirit in South Carolina, plus others from parishes in Florida and Massachusetts.
During the 32 clinic hours at the San Pedro y San Padro Episcopal Church, they saw 283 patients. The church’s Vicar, Father Emilio, limited the number of patients the team could see since there is so much abject poverty in this area the clinic could have been overwhelmed with patients.
Such a situation would have affected the quality of care that could have been given to patients and would have presented safety issues for all. In addition, for the safety of team members, the clinic hours were established to ensure that the entire team was out of the barrio by 4 p.m. each day.
Many houses in the barrio were damaged when Tropical Storm Sandy passed through and caused massive flooding. Since the church is on the highest ground in the barrio, many people had sought refuge there from flooded homes.
In addition to the 12-person team, there were two translators from the Dominican Republic, as well as a physician from Cuba, and one day there was also a physician and a dentist from the Dominican Republic. Many of the local parishioners helped each day with the clinic operation. According to Dale Finn, team leader and a registered nurse who lives in Sun City Hilton Head, “We were thrilled to have this additional assistance because our goal is to work with the local Dominicans and help them to establish their own health care in the future.”
“The team was outstanding in its efficiency and flexibility,” Finn said. She pointed out that they organized the clinic quickly and began to see patients.
Finn said patients were registered in the church and a group of church ladies came for a portion of each day and they sat in the back of the church smiling. When she asked a parish helper why they were there, she was told, “they just come to watch.” Every day they would come — sometimes twice a day — just sitting quietly watching and smiling.
Many of the patients had gastrointestinal and nutritional problems, skin disorders, hypertension, along with other complaints. The medical mission team had available medications they purchased in the Dominican Republic and some from the United States, largely through donations made by friends and members of their respective parishes.
Judy Cote, assistant team leader and a registered nurse working in the clinic’s pharmacy said, “We treated nearly every child over two years of age and every adult for parasitic worms!” “As well as everyone having received adult or children multi-vitamins, we dispensed antibiotics and heart medications to those in need,” Cote said.
One major disappointment occurred when an 8-year-old was brought to the clinic by his mother with a deformity of his leg caused by a bone infection. Since the mother was an illegal Haitian, she was not entitled to government services.
One of the local volunteers called the boy’s medical condition to her husband who is an orthopedic surgeon. In order that he could again play and walk as a normal child, the boy was scheduled for surgery. However, because of his congestion when he came to the hospital, the surgery had to be canceled.
Unfortunately, the orthopedic surgeon had to move on to his next assignment in Africa for six months. However, the surgeon has attempted to get another doctor in the Dominican Republic to perform the operation pro bono. It is unclear whether or not that will work out.
At the end of the week, after everything was packed up for next year, Father Emilio and the leadership of the church, had a going away party for the team. Father Emilio had written each team member a personal letter of thanks stating how meaningful it was that they had come to his church. Each of the church members present handed them the letters individually, followed by much cheering and applause from all present.
“Not one of the team members had a dry eye,” Finn said.
Cote agreed with that assessment.
“My heart was moved as tears ran down my face, not having experienced before such an outward appreciation at mission,” she said.
Julie Erlandsen, a non-medical member of the team from Sun City Hilton Head, said the people were gentle, patient, and loving.
In all their poverty, their faith shone through and gave them strength and joy.” As she departed, Erlandsen said, “It was hard to leave these lovely people, but I hope they know that the world has not forgotten them.”
“The week was very busy, tiring, emotional, dusty, hot, and confusing,” Finn said.
However, as each team member said their good-byes, they hugged and thanked the church members for allowing them to come. The team plans on returning next year, with no firm date yet established. | <urn:uuid:a5dbb3ac-5678-41dc-822b-1cde41a32bc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blufftontoday.com/bluffton-news/2013-02-27/south-carolina-medical-mission-team-travels-dominican-republic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988509 | 1,122 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Twilight of the Culture
Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco 9/30/2007. Photo from Zombietime
What can we say about a culture that doesn’t want to reproduce itself? That’s what is happening in Europe, Canada, and now even in the United States - centers of Western Civilization all. What’s going on? Native-born European women aren’t bearing children at anywhere near a sustainable rate. Indeed, they’re having so few that their demographic will be reduced by half every generation. Meanwhile, Muslim immigrant women in Europe are having children at a rate that doubles their population in the same intervals. Should present trends continue, Europe as we know it will cease to exist in half a century. It will become Eurabia. A similar trend the United States is not yet so acute but it’s trending in that direction, and the immigrant population is predominantly Mexican. Our most populous state has been called Mexifornia by some.
Why have western women chosen not to reproduce as they use to? Maybe they’ve lost confidence in men as husbands and fathers. Maybe they think western culture is inferior and don’t want to bring children into it. Maybe they’re unwilling to make the physical, temporal, financial, and emotional sacrifices necessary to raise a child, or more than one child. Maybe the question doesn’t matter. Perhaps it’s just a phenomenon of social Darwinism that if one demographic group chooses to make itself extinct, another takes its place.
A significant portion of my fellow baby boomers are worried that they may not become grandparents. Some have no grandchildren at all and others have only one or two because their children don’t want to bear children. I wrote about this recently and it seemed to touch a nerve. Some agreed with my suggestion that the dearth of grandchildren was due to one or more factors such as selfishness, indifference, or just plain laziness on the part of boomer offspring. Most responses, however were indignant attempts to refute those suggestions, or they were scornful declarations that it was none of my business whether people reproduced or not, that it was a private decision and should not be scrutinized by anyone, especially me. Others made Malthusian arguments that our planet cannot sustain any more people and their decisions not to reproduce were therefore morally correct.
America’s libido is certainly strong enough. That’s not the problem. We’re nothing if not sex-obsessed, but a critical mass in western culture disassociates sex from reproduction and family. After intense and prolonged pressure from leftist women’s and homosexual groups, certain non-reproductive versions of sexual behavior which used to exist only in the shadows were declared constitutional rights by activist judges. Abortion to further divorce sex from reproduction is also a constitutional right. Paradoxically, one of the euphemisms for abortion employed by women’s groups is “reproductive freedom.” They don’t mean freedom to have children. They mean they’re free to refuse children even when they’re pregnant - free to vacuum babies out of their wombs by the millions. They’re free to pretend that it’s nobody else’s business either - that nobody else in the culture should have a right even to voice disapproval. Europe and Canada have “Human Rights Commissions” and the like which are functioning to harass anyone who does so, as in the case of Alberta Pastor Stephen Boission who was convicted of “hate speech” for writing a letter to the editor critical of pro-homosexual propaganda in the province’s schools.
Reproduction is not the only function of sex, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not the most important function for any culture or society that wants to avoid extinction. If sexual minorities have “rights” to not only practice, but publicize their behavior using taxpayer money, other taxpaying members of that culture should at least be able to discuss the subject without legal harassment. It’s simply madness to muzzle them, but that’s exactly what’s happening. Now those groups redefine marriage and family to include homosexual couples - insisting by all these measures that western culture put its imprimatur on a scheme to dismantle itself. Some states and provinces and even countries have outlawed use of words like “husband” and “wife” as discriminatory.
Words follow thoughts. Orwell was right to warn us in his novel “1984” about Big Brother’s inclination to dispatch the Thought Police when thinking got politically incorrect. He was a bit premature by predicting his nightmare society would manifest in the late 20th century. The big-government left was just getting geared up then. They’re finding their stride in the early 21st, so watch what you say if you don’t want to be hauled before the tribunal. If you think it’s bizarre that your culture is more concerned about polar bears and trees than people, that it wants to protect bath house sex and abortion more than babies and then spoonfeed their propaganda to schoolchildren with your tax money, you better shut up about it or the Thought Police will be coming for you.
Labels: liberal pieties | <urn:uuid:74e3d2de-f1f7-4cb2-a18e-30fd3e09e251> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/2008/01/twilight-of-culture.html?showComment=1200825180000 | 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 | 0.96431 | 1,100 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Apple, Google Asked To Require Privacy Policies
Developers of iOS and Android apps may soon have to provide information about how they use location data.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., made the request in a letter sent Wednesday to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Larry Page, following up on a recent hearing at which company representatives testified about location data privacy.
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Concerns about how location data is being used flared up last month when researchers highlighted the presence of a database of location information stored unprotected on the iPhone. The findings prompted Apple to publish a lengthy explanation of how it uses location data to dispel misconceptions.
"Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date," Apple said.
Nonetheless, Franken sees a need for greater clarity in the form of privacy policies. Citing a report indicating that less than 20% of free apps include links to privacy policies, Franken said in his letter to Apple and Google that while there's a need for greater disclosure in all apps, he would at least like to see the two companies require privacy policies for apps that utilize location data.
"I ask that you require all location-aware applications in your app stores to provide privacy policies that clearly specify what kind of location information is gathered from users, how that information is used, and how it is shared with third parties," Franken wrote in his letter.
Andy Rubin, who runs Google's Android business, has characterized location data as "extremely valuable." Such data is only going to become more important as mobile commerce takes off. Google on Thursday launched a mobile commerce platform with Citi, MasterCard, First Data, and Sprint, hoping to encourage payments made through NFC-equipped phones.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dan Davies, founder and president of AbleLink Technologies, which makes mobile apps that allow users with cognitive disabilities to authorize the transmission of location data to caregivers, said in a phone interview that a proposal like Franken's assumed perhaps too much about how location data is used. He said it could prove burdensome to impose such general policy inclusion requirement that treats all apps the same way.
"In our apps--Community Sidekick for the iPhone and WayFinder for Windows Mobile devices--permission to be remotely monitored is provided by user settings under the control of the person being tracked," Davies said in an email. "Thus, if the individual determines that he or she would like to have the benefit of knowing a caregiver is essentially watching over them while they are alone in the community, then those features are turned on to allow that to happen."
Enterprise Connect is taking our deep mobility expertise and bringing it to your desktop with a one-day virtual event, The Future Of The Mobile Enterprise, to be held Wednesday, June 8. Ever-increasing mobility is perhaps the most important trend affecting enterprise communications today. Learn how to support and secure smartphones, deal with the effect of tablets on IT planning, and more. Register now. | <urn:uuid:1a819055-0562-4f2a-9c64-c8b86307f0be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/development/mobility/apple-google-asked-to-require-privacy-po/229700073 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94705 | 647 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Review: Politics is warfare without bullets. All war is really about who we identify with, and why, and to what extent we will defend our collective identity and all that it means to us. It’s been said that the first casualty of war is innocence (or truth), and by extension, we understand the true casualty is the human soul. George Clooney’s 2011 film ‘The Ides of March’, adapted from the play ‘Farragut North’ by Beau Willimon, is about that terrible moment of spiritual violence as it occurs in two men: Junior campaign manager Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) and Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney). They are mirror images of each other; idealistic, brilliant, driven, and undercut by their own pride and lust.
In the film’s opening scene, Meyers walks on stage and gives a speech which is effectively an oath of religious loyalty to the United States Constitution. It turns out he’s simply reading Morris’ lines, doing a sound check on a darkened stage, but we don’t doubt for a minute that he believes it as strongly as Morris. Stephen Meyers is the ultimate political enthusiast; he ties the very fate of his soul to that of his candidate, and views himself as an extension of the candidate’s identity, as if Meyers was a fragment of Morris that converses with him from outside Morris’ conscious mind. In war, soldiers wear a uniform to subsume them into the group, and in politics, the fighters wear their candidate, whether in campaign paraphernalia or ideology, and the effect of both strategies is to make the individual’s fate concurrent with the whole.
When the political bond between candidate and supporter is strong enough, all it takes is a single, critical mistake to reverberate through the entire campaign and force the parts of the whole to face each other as individuals. The first sign of trouble appears when Meyers accepts a meeting with a rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti,) who offers him a job, and the crucial tip that both campaigns are gunning for the same supporter. Meyers refuses the job offer, but his rival insists that Morris is like any other politician; prone to corruption and bound to fall. Because Meyers does not alert his own boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to the illicit meeting and its details, he becomes the target of a savvy reporter (Marisa Tomei) and begins to keep secrets, justifying them by his crucial role in Morris’ campaign. He begins an affair with a beautiful intern (Evan Rachel Wood,) only to discover that Morris has been with her as well, and has impregnated her.
With his own corruption weighing on his soul, and his candidate’s idealistic façade exposed, Meyers chooses a dark path to save the campaign. The scene in which Meyers make his decision is well-executed on every front. He sits in his car in the dark under pounding rain, voice mails echoing in his head like accusing spirits, while Gosling plays Meyers as utterly overwhelmed, his tears lost in the reflection of raindrops on his face.
Not only is Clooney’s direction solid, but his portrayal of Morris is subtle and believable. Like Meyers, Morris is on the defensive, and even before corruption infects the campaign the two men are subtly at odds, vying for control over the message. Clooney plays Morris as a man who has lied to himself to protect his ideals because he believes that the message is more important than his conscience. To Morris and Meyers, the war trumps the solider; a little bloodshed is necessary to win the fight, and what does it matter if it’s their own persons that are destroyed in the process? When the two men finally face each other, instead of letting the campaign go to save themselves, they agree, in effect, to destroy each other’s souls.
Considering how profundity bleeds from the film’s subtext, I have to admit I find it more than a little odd that critical reaction wasn’t more favorable. This is a great thriller, one fashioned in the mold of ’70s political films like ‘All the President’s Men’, with a kind of cynical clarity of vision. Its most direct homage to the era is its darkly ambiguous ending, which may be the reason some critics find the film underwhelming. The film doesn’t tie up everything in a neat little bow, instead cutting to black right before a climatic decision is made, and in doing so Clooney denies us the most obvious form of catharsis. Instead, we must provide our own, dwelling on the film’s powerful themes until we realize the film isn’t about Stephen Meyers, but what it means to live in a society where political responsibility rests on our shoulders. The film ends with Gosling’s character breaking the fourth wall, looking us in the eye, in effect asking us, “What decision would you make?” In the campaign for the heart, you decide who wins. | <urn:uuid:bf1f9af5-096f-41f1-9ae2-ca2c07c84351> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesilvermirror.wordpress.com/tag/ryan-gosling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967072 | 1,063 | 1.695313 | 2 |
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- It started as a way for one Montana family to talk about the tragic school shooting of 26 children and adults. It's blossoming into an international movement to build a chain of handmade paper hearts to stretch from Billings, Mont., to Newtown, Conn.
Gala Thompson and her family's Paper Hearts Across America estimate it would take about 19 million of the small paper hearts to connect the two cities.
They don't actually plan to stretch the chain of hearts across the nation. But they're asking people all over the country and the world to send them that number so they can deliver the hearts to the residents of Newtown and show them there's still good in the world.
The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/UmsVfd ) the response is growing, with more than 10,000 handmade hearts already sent from as far away as China and Australia.
Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com | <urn:uuid:42e51e3a-3d0e-42fa-a064-aaba01c9fec8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilx.com/news/nationalnews/headlines/Group-Collecting-Paper-Hearts-for-Newtown-Community-184844911.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932191 | 206 | 1.820313 | 2 |
I just made twenty small plant pots out of old copies of the Park Slope Food Coop newsletter. They’re for the Victory Garden class I’m teaching tomorrow at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but I’m making a few for myself, too. You can watch a short video about how to make them here. Here are some dill seedlings in one of the pots.
Another reused/recycled pot comes from the tomato can that came to me as a container for Meg’s backyard eggs (she nestled them in straw inside the can). I punched out some drainage holes on the bottom, and now it’s holding cilantro.
These are some tomato seedlings growing in an old local milk carton. I cut off one side and made drainage holes on the opposite side. The rubber bands keep the center from bowing away from the potting mix.
Besides starting seeds and potting up seedlings, today I went to a tasting of oils made from locally grown squash seeds. In my new book, I bemoan the lack of local vegetable oils. If I’d known about these by Stony Brook Oils I would have mentioned them for sure. They had two oils at the tasting, one made from butternut squash seeds, and the other from delicata squash seeds. Both are absolutely delicious! Not primarily cooking oils (I’m keeping my olive oil exemption), but finishing oils with a buttery taste a little like a mild toasted sesame or walnut oil.
Last but not least, I am out of local garlic and well into the stash of lacto-fermented garlic that I put up last summer during the garlic harvest. To make it, peel and slice garlic cloves in half. Cover them with a brine of 2 teaspoons salt per pint of water and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days. Store in the refrigerator until you run out of the local garlic from last year’s harvest.
There’s also plenty of field garlic around, but although I’ve been using the leaves like chives, the tiny bulbs are a pain to peel. I’ll stick with my lacto-fermented garlic until the first green garlic shows up at the farmers’ markets next month.
Some food-related classes I’m teaching in April that you might be interested in:
April 17th Urban Foraging
April 25th Edible Weeds
April 25th The Thrifty Urban Locavore
Get Signed Copies of Leda’s Books! (credit cards okay via Paypal): | <urn:uuid:2af558d9-3ea5-4b2d-924a-b5ab4240c25c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ledameredith.net/wordpress/?m=201003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947065 | 540 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Brides want to look glorious on their wedding day but it is not easy to get charming look, if you want to get it at all then stick on top fashion designers to help your wedding as charming style. Designers always try to introduce latest designs for the wedding day, but the traditional bridal lehenga is most popular among al women. Asian designers usually use dark colors for wedding lehengas but now in 2012 they are trying to use light colors as well because white color stands for the purity so that’s why they use this color in wedding dresses.
Fully embroidered bridal lehengas are use as bridal wear but it to hard to choose bridal dress from bulk because of their different styles. Work of zari, zardozi, beads and tiaras on the border of lehenga is highly trndy in theses days. Here they also use different color combinations for bridal dresses, combinations may include light and dark as well. | <urn:uuid:1f87165f-209e-4069-bb7b-35a19eca2db5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photo-bugs.com/fashion/wedding-dresses/ttraditional-bridal-lehenga.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936891 | 201 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Jan Chipchase, Nokia's peripatetic investigator of cultural technology, spotted this electronic price tag in a Tokyo shop. He notes it is a "Small sign. Big implications."
Long expected, dynamic contextual retail pricing is now apparently in prototype. An LED mini-tag displaying the price of an item offers many benefits -- to sellers primarily. The price of a can of soup can change depending on the weather, the price of the competition down the street, the amount of stock in the back room, the price of corn futures, or even the pattern of traffic in the store. Quants will have a field day coming up with gonzo algorithms maximizing all these variables. "Get the perfect pickle code!" says the spam to grocery store owners. The optimization inherent in this price display would optimize retail profits first, but eventually, like all the other "zero friction" transactions in the network economy, this dynamic pricing (think eBay) benefits the consumer.
However to repeat an earlier prediction of mine: some consumers will head to stores that boast "NO DYNAMIC PRICING!" just as many eBay buyers (I am often one of them) choose to pay the immediate "Buy it Now" fixed price rather than haggle over a fluctuating auction price. Uncertainty has its costs. | <urn:uuid:efb699df-3fd8-4450-b0c7-6eb743abfa9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kk.org/ct2/2007/10/retail-dynamic-contextual-pric.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931054 | 266 | 1.5 | 2 |
(New York) -- A prominent Saudi Arabian human rights defender was brought before a Riyadh court on Monday on 11 activism-related charges in the latest example of what Amnesty International called a "troubling string of court cases" aimed at silencing human rights campaigners.
The charges against Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani include setting up an unlicensed organization, understood to be the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) of which he is a founding member, "breaking allegiance to the ruler," accusing the judiciary of allowing torture and accepting confessions made under duress, describing the Saudi Arabian authorities as a police state, inciting public opinion by accusing authorities of human rights violations, and turning international organizations against the Kingdom.
His appearance in Riyadh’s Criminal Court is part of a series of recent trials aimed at silencing human rights activists in the Kingdom.
"The Saudi Arabian authorities’ trial of Mohammad al-Qahtani is just one of a troubling string of court cases aimed at silencing the Kingdom’s human rights activists," said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program. "The case against him should be thrown out of court as it appears to be based solely on his legitimate work to defend human rights in Saudi Arabia and his sharp criticism of the authorities."
The Saudi Arabian authorities have recently targeted a number of human rights defenders, both through the courts and through arbitrary measures such as the imposition of travel bans.
On June 11, Dr. Abdullah al-Hamid, a well-known advocate of reform and another of ACPRA’s founders, also went on trial at Riyadh’s Criminal Court, charged with a long list of offenses. Most are similar to those with which al-Qahtani is charged and relate to his human rights work. He is also charged with inciting disorder, including by drafting and publishing a statement calling for protests.
Several human rights activists were present at his trial hearing, including al-Qahtani, who was only then informed that he was to be brought to trial a week later.
The trials of al-Qahtani and al-Hamid are due to resume on September 1. The two men, along with Dr. Abdulkareem Yousef al-Khoder, another founder and current president of ACPRA, have been under investigation by the public prosecution since March.
ACPRA was set up in October 2009. As well as reporting on human rights violations, it has helped many families of detainees held without charge or trial to bring cases against the courts and government.
In another ongoing case, human rights defender and writer Mikhlif bin Daham al-Shammari faces multiple charges, including trying to harm the reputation of the Kingdom in international media, communicating with suspect organizations and accusing state organs of corruption. Al-Shammari is well known for his critical writings about human rights violations and corruption.
He was released in February on bail after more than a year and a half in detention for an article he published criticizing what he said was prejudice by Sunni religious scholars against members of the Shi’a minority and their beliefs. In April the authorities informed him he was banned from leaving the country for 10 years.
His trial in the Specialized Criminal Court – which was set up to try terrorism suspects – began onMarch 7 and his next session is scheduled for June 26.
Another human rights activist, Waleed Abu al-Kheir, is still fighting a case for disrespecting the judiciary and harming the reputation of the Kingdom by giving an international organization false information about his wife Samar Badawi. His trial before the Criminal Court in Jeddah began in September 2011.
He also had a travel ban imposed on him in March, just days before he planned to attend a democracy course at a US university. Amnesty International previously said the ban was unjustified and called for it to be lifted immediately.
"Through trials based on spurious charges and arbitrary restrictive measures like travel bans, Saudi Arabian authorities are engaged in a campaign to force human rights defenders into submission," said Luther. "This must come to an end and human rights defenders must be allowed to carry on their crucial work to expose human rights violations and call for justice and accountability."
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. | <urn:uuid:4d43c6c0-ee66-4b8e-b563-00af8dbbfd19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/news-item/saudi-arabia-ramps-up-clampdown-on-human-rights-activists | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975894 | 942 | 1.5 | 2 |
Brands, brand equity, brands “doing good,” brands screwing up, brands inspiring, brands annoying…
Basically, brands are always doing.
A great example of this is Red Bull and their Launchpad. The project begins with people submitting a 30 second video to the Launchpad site that explains an idea they want to see happen; “Here’s a chance to do what has never been done before. Make it big. Make it bold. Make it before someone else does.” The uploaded video clips will go through voting to see which idea will be brought to life.
The project idea lives up to their motto, “Red Bull Gives You Wings.” Finally Red Bull has left the cartoon campaign of old men with wings flying around the screen chugging the energy drinks. Their new campaign, Launchpad, is more realistic and focuses on inspiring athletes and doing the impossible. With the Launchpad project idea, Red Bull tells you they can make your dream come true whether it’s on a court or something impossible you want to see happen.
Here is one of the Red Bull commercials off their new campaign.
(Song – “Outro” by M83)
The campaign has definitely changed my outlook on their brand for the better.
I may not drink Red Bull but I feel this brand has given me some wings. | <urn:uuid:aaa1c76f-a6de-46f4-8500-23167ea158fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laurenaloos.com/2012/02/27/23-red-bull-wings-from-the-drink-or-the-brand/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95739 | 285 | 1.515625 | 2 |
In the interest of determining the worth of a Yale education, we hereby examine a poem by noted demi-puppet lit-blogger Elizabeth Skurnick. The poem is titled "Persephone in Hades."
(We're off to a good start. One could be only an Ivy Leaguer and come up with a title like that!)
"First we spread out like two twin sheets.
These were white sheets, unberibboned,
and I smoothed them with my bare
hands, ticking off the vines, the pachysandra,"
(Pachysandra! Good! Here we see evidence that Ms. Skurnick received her $120,000 worth. $120 worth anyway. $20 for a good thesaurus?)
"each winter solstice beyond the flowered
bedroom curtains. An acre of soil spread
into a thumbnail of garden: piled and wet,
heaped thriftily. Two moths drifted in the distance
and a dandelion bloomed like a whisker
on the summer side. For years we had grown flat
and placid as the Atlantic, marred only
by an India wind, occasional natterings."
(--"an India wind, occasional natterings"-- it sounds impressive, but haven't we lost the audience?)
"On August evenings we set sail,
I the lookout and you at the helm
traveling faster and further
until we tumbled to the bottom, swallowed
by Neptune in the wake of one enormous burp.
Just above our heads, the sun drifted hazily"
(Man, that was one enormous exciting metaphor.)
"Like an inverted, ninety-watt bulb.
We burned off our eyelashes.
That was us in the days
before a paper bag covered the candle"
(One can see this shit being read before an audience, who are falling out of their seats in boredom.)
"and the wax burned down to a black stump stick.
(Also: two sieves side-by-side
in the moonlight, while the stars
wept busily at the pluck of a mandolin.)"
(Maybe it's "good" poetry-- but what does it say to anyone? Where's the emotion and relevance? It reads like the rarefied impressions of an Ivy Leaguer, who's paid huge sums of money to become so rarefied.)
"Have I used up all my shots?
Four fillings, I broke, cracking the ice
in my drinks. You favored gin.
Some nights you'd take a sip and look
up, startled, as if I had entered--
or was suddenly leaving-- the room."
(I'd put the enormous burp right here, at the end.
Well, they liked it at Yale.)
--Stolen with apologies from the Fall 2003 Melic Review. | <urn:uuid:e5ea1e13-7c52-4b9a-b7f1-397f82ec11e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kingwenclas.blogspot.com/2005/02/lit-blogger-in-performance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93476 | 605 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In the context of the United States legal system, admission on motion
refers to a type of reciprocal agreement
between two U.S. states
to allow members of the Bar association
from each state to practice in the other. Thus, lawyers who wish to practice in two states do not have to take the bar examination
in both states in order to be admitted to practice
. Rather, they may simply file a motion
with the governing body of the bar association or other professional regulator of the state into which they are relocating.
Not all U.S. states have such an agreement, and some states do not have reciprocity with any other states. | <urn:uuid:21cb91d6-e711-4f7b-a280-2a9499b5352e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Admission+on+motion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960896 | 136 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The 'cannot stat' message produced by cp
is telling you that those files don't exist. You probably don't have the package installed that contains them. Since I'm not an Arch user, I don't know which package that would be, but I'm sure that Arch has some alternative to Debian's 'dpkg -S /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml'.
As for editing text files from terminal, you're probably looking for nano
. If you're more familiar with vim
, either of those would work too, but I'm assuming you're not based on the context. One does not simply forget about vim
Some of what I am about to say is Debian specific since I have a heavy background in Debian, not Arch. My hope is that it will guide you in the right direction.
The reason that startx
doesn't do anything by default, even after you have installed LXDE, is because you haven't told it what to do. It doesn't inherently know which desktop environment you want to use or even which ones are available unless you tell it explicitly. While many other distros will at least keep track of which desktop environments are installed through the package manager and attempt to set sane defaults, that is not an elegant approach based on the Arch philosophy, so Arch doesn't provide such a mechanism (that I am aware of).
Your next step should probably be to search the Arch wiki for information related to setting the default desktop environment. In Debian this can be done quite simply using the command 'update-alternatives --config x-session-manager'. Similarly, if you installed a display manager in Debian, such as lightdm
, it would be automatically configured and give you a list of installed desktop environments on next boot. If you wish to change your display manager in Debian, you can run 'dpkg-reconfigure <display_manager_name>'.
After a quick search based on the above information, I believe that the following two Arch wiki articles should help you. The first one is for setting the default session manager for your user and the second one details setting the default display manager for the system. | <urn:uuid:7054073a-322a-4e6b-b68e-806014e56ae5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1116075-to-my-fellow-arch-people/page__p__595288215 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942864 | 442 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Once again, the district's "feedback" process has pitted families against families, neighborhoods against neighborhoods. Unfortunately, for every family that is unhappy about being assigned away from a popular school, there's usually another family happy to be assigned to it. So, how can we win?
The real problem is: The district has failed to convince us that they have a credible plan to improve the less popular schools. (Are they even trying to convince us?)
I applaud Melissa's "don't give up" sentiment and think everyone should continue to advocate for boundary changes they believe are necessary, but please ALSO advocate for developing a credible plan to improve more schools now. And I'm not talking about more "excellence for all" lip service -- I'm talking about specific steps they will take to improve schools.
Examples of specifics? We all have our own. We need more money from the state, but it's not just about funds. For me, I'm convinced it comes down to giving the schools more freedom to try. I didn't agree with everything Scott Oki had to say last night or in his book, but I did agree with a bunch of his proposals:
- Every school should have its own Board made up of community leaders, charged with actually listening to people who are served by the school. That Board should have the power to hire or fire the principal (just like the School Board should be holding the Superintendent accountable.)
- Every principal should have the freedom to do whatever it takes to improve their school -- including hiring and firing teachers, developing their own assessments, and finding innovative ways to make instruction relevant and fun. We don't need charter schools in Washington, but we do need schools that are not shackled by bureaucracy.
- We need more teachers, fewer central administrators. We have more non-teachers in SPS than teachers! What are we getting for that? In countries like Japan, they typically have a ratio of 4 teachers to every 1 administrator. The primary business of schools is teaching and that is where our dollars should be going.
- Let's work to get more volunteers (parents, business, organizations, even older kids) into all neighborhood schools. Together, we have to keep up high expectations for all students and schools. (That means rigor -- not D's to graduate.)
How can we get there? For one thing, we need the unions to work with us. There could and should be a win-win partnership between parents and the union -- once we agree to put kids first. If we fight for hiring more teachers and improving more schools, then the Teacher's Union benefits. And let the union lead the discussion for what defines a poor performer (teachers know which of their peers are struggling) and let peers review all teacher dismissals to ensure nobody is unfairly targeted for whistle-blowing or to free up salary.
If you disagree with me, I'd love to hear other suggestions for changes that don't pit parent vs. parent and neighborhood vs. neighborhood. If we want to fix things, we need to find more positions we can all agree on because right now parents don't have much a voice in the process. And at the end of the day, there just aren't enough seats in (insert popular school name here) for everyone who wants to go there. | <urn:uuid:7790be21-a23a-472a-b2dd-5815dd068338> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/11/parents-divided-or-united.html?showComment=1258003245140 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979678 | 675 | 1.625 | 2 |
Retirement is a new phase in your financial life that involves changes in lifestyle and spending. It can be an adjustment to generate your own retirement income, often from a fixed amount of assets. A good way to make it work is to plan for multiple income streams.
With the average American living into their 80s (and some well beyond), and future Social Security and pension income uncertain, most of us will need to tap our savings and investments for retirement. Using multiple sources of income helps protect against risk and address various needs. Income streams from personal retirement funds typically fall into two basic categories: systematic withdrawal from savings and investments and a lifetime income plan that converts retirement savings into a fixed, regular income stream.
Your Northwestern Mutual financial representative can help you develop the right retirement income plan for you, considering personal, financial and family circumstances and taking into account all available income streams. These may include:
Social Security – Benefits paid to eligible individuals, their spouses and dependents based on career earnings. Available as early as age 62, the amount varies based on the retired worker’s birth date and when he or she chooses to receive benefits.
Defined Benefit (Pension Plan) – If provided by an employer, pension plans generally promise to pay employees a retirement benefit based on a formula and offer the option to receive payment in different ways, including continuing partial benefits to a surviving spouse. Choosing the right option for you would involve analyzing your needs and availability of other resources – your financial representative can help.
Employment – Part- or full-time employment may supplement income for a time, but it is best to plan so employment is a choice rather than a necessity – you don’t want to be at risk if your health or job opportunity suffers.
Annuities – These provide guaranteed income for a defined time period, which can include your lifetime and/or your spouse’s lifetime, and also offer a guaranteed death benefit while you’re accumulating for retirement. Annuities are gaining popularity because they provide a consistent retirement income and ensure people won’t outlive their assets. Contracts are designed for retirement and can be established with either pre-tax dollars (qualified) or after-tax dollars (nonqualified). Two types of contracts offer a choice of either fixed or variable rates of return – income annuities where funds are converted to a steady stream of income upon purchase, and deferred annuities that allow you to accumulate funds, tax-deferred, and then convert to an income stream at a later date. Your financial representative can discuss your options to help you decide if an annuity is right for you.
Qualified retirement plans, IRAs and 403(b) plans – Traditional retirement plans including those sponsored by companies, individuals and non-profit organizations, respectively, typically are created from tax-deductible individual and employer contributions that grow, tax-deferred, until distributed. Most have minimum distribution requirements and penalties for withdrawing funds before age 59-1/2. Learn more about IRAs and 403b plans.
Investments – Mutual funds, stocks, bonds, money market and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and investment trusts, among other investments, are not subject to contribution limits or penalties for early withdrawal if they are held outside of a qualified retirement plan. They are generally subject to annual taxation on earned interest, dividends and capital gains.
Business/investment property – Real estate and business interests may require more time to sell than other investments, so your retirement income plan needs to include a thoughtful exit strategy that considers timing, taxation and other aspects of sales proceeds.
Cash value life insurance – Permanent life insurance in retirement can not only support the continuing needs of a surviving spouse or family member, it can create supplemental retirement income through withdrawals, policy loans or cash dividends. It also can provide an effective and tax-efficient way to leave a legacy by transferring assets to the next generation and/or to charity.
During the working years, your retirement savings plan helps you accumulate assets based on individual goals and financial circumstances. When it is time to begin distributing your funds, it is just as important to have a personalized retirement income plan to effectively manage and distribute your retirement savings. Your financial representative can be your resource and guide in developing the best plan to deliver your own steady retirement income. | <urn:uuid:571f5135-031f-4fb4-a59b-4ed226cb6ea7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northwesternmutual.com/learning-center/article-library/retirement-blueprint2.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950249 | 878 | 1.585938 | 2 |
It’s iced coffee season, which in New York means hitting the cold brew.
If you don’t know what cold brew is, then you haven’t been paying attention. The steep-and-strain method of making coffee without hot water, a rare sighting in New York as recently as 2010, came into fashion last year, and now it’s as easy to find as a sailor-stripe shirt: it’s sold by the stubby and the growler, bottled as concentrate or already mixed with milk, available on tap or in an ice pop. Cold brew is now as much a part of the New York summer as the fragrant streets of Midtown and the Mister Softee jingle.
And yet some of coffee’s heavy hitters feel that cold brew is a mistake — they say it’s flat and featureless, a good way to turn remarkable coffee beans into unremarkable coffee. It’s for amateurs. According to them, we should be making ice brew.
Ice brew is just a variation on drip coffee (what’s called “pour over” these days), in which you brew directly over ice. The hot coffee drips onto the cold cubes and cools instantly — the hot water quickly extracts more flavor from coffee grounds (cold brewing takes longer, which is why it sits overnight), and the rapid cooling means that the coffee doesn’t have the time to develop the unpleasantly harsh flavors you get from slowly chilling hot coffee in a refrigerator. The benefits? You get all the vivid, fresh flavors of hot coffee in an ice-cold drink. I wrote about ice brew last summer, and while I liked the coffee just fine, I was unconvinced. I’m returning to it this year because the clash between cold brew and ice brew is heating up. Read more… | <urn:uuid:774aeb42-c667-4348-bab8-4e8b45b49a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/tobys-estate-coffee/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963909 | 390 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Mark O'Connell of The New Yorker appreciates Marilynne Robinson, as all right-thinking people should. Some particularly lovely passages:
...Robinson’s moral wisdom seems inseparable from her gifts as a prose writer. Near the end of “Gilead,” Ames contemplates Jack Boughton, the wayward son of his friend Reverend Robert Boughton. He finds himself unable to understand Jack’s motivations, the reasons for the miserable and self-destructive life he has lead. “In every important way,” he writes, “we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence.” Coming from a Calvinist minister, this sounds at first surprisingly like moral relativism, but what it is, really, is moral intelligence. He continues: “We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, untraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us.”
This is not the kind of voice I normally associate with religious people, and it makes me wonder whether we might not be listening to the wrong voices.
She makes an atheist reader like myself capable of identifying with the sense of a fallen world that is filled with pain and sadness but also suffused with divine grace. Robinson is a Calvinist, but her spiritual sensibility is richly inclusive and non-dogmatic. There’s little talk about sin or damnation in her writing, but a lot about forgiveness and tolerance and kindness. Hers is the sort of Christianity, I suppose, that Christ could probably get behind. I’ll never share her way of seeing and thinking about the world and our place in it, but her writing has shown me the value and beauty of these perspectives.
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly broadcast a profile of Robinson in September, 2009.
Here's more about Robinson, the author of Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, and some excellent essays. | <urn:uuid:4d8e397b-7ee3-45bf-bd84-dda8a2370183> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/arts/marilynne_robinson_literature_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948689 | 470 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Leif Ericson Camper Talks About Horse Mishap
June 18, 2010, 6:08 PM
SIOUX FALLS, SD -
An incident during a horse ride at the Leif Ericson Day Camp sent eight campers to the hospital Thursday.
While most of the children had bumps and bruises, a 10-year-old girl who was hospitalized overnight had more serious injuries and was released Friday afternoon.
Ten-year-old Meredith Ollerich has a few scrapes on her leg after she fell from her horse, but the scrapes are minor compared to the serious concussion she suffered in the fall.
"I didn't really know what was happening, so I just fell to the ground head first," Meredith said.
Meredith says about 15 campers and counselors were riding horses Thursday afternoon when they came upon a group playing with drums and cowbells.
"We were going past the part where they were playing the drums and the last two horses got scared and started running past the other horses, and the rest of the horses started speeding up after them," Meredith said.
Meredith and the seven others who fell off were taken to the hospital. That's when she started getting sick from her concussion so doctors kept her overnight. But Meredith's mother, Stephanie, is thankful the injuries weren't worse.
"The doctor says it could have been a lot worse from the location of where she fell, and so that's all you can be thankful for is that she's okay," Stephanie Ollerich said.
All of the campers were wearing helmets during the horseback ride, and the Ollerichs say that prevented more serious injuries.
"If she didn't have the helmet, she would have done a lot more damage. So it's good that they have that safety precaution," Stephanie said.
The Ollerichs are glad that the camp took those safety precautions and responded quickly when an afternoon horseback ride took a wrong turn.
"It's just a freak accident and you really can't blame anybody for it, and we're just thankful everyone was there and on the ball and the counselors knew what to do," Stephanie said.
Meredith says she'll spend the weekend resting and wants to head back to camp next week. In the meantime, the YMCA is reviewing it safety procedures and policies for the camp.
© 2010 KELOLAND TV. All Rights Reserved.
5/19/2013 11:56 AM
The Hand County Sheriff’s Office is searching for Leroy Nye, who was last seen at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.
5/15/2013 6:12 AM
The Yankton County Sheriff's Office has seized a vehicle that authorities believe was involved in a fatal hit-and-run incident.
5/19/2013 5:22 PM
Police are still actively searching for Leroy Nye, 80, who went missing from a home in St. Lawrence, SD and are asking for your help.
5/16/2013 12:09 PM
It wasn't the big jackpot, but more than two-dozen workers at a Sioux Falls company won't mind splitting the second-place winnings in Wednesda...
5/18/2013 10:14 PM
Emergency responders airlifted a Faulkton High School senior to a Sioux Falls hospital Saturday after a single vehicle car crash the day before her hi... | <urn:uuid:07eaaa22-abe9-4081-854c-936e3ce7bda5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/leif-ericson-camper-talks-about-horse-mishap/?id=101453 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982199 | 713 | 1.570313 | 2 |
They came to us for advice and guidance on completely revamping their existing site and overall look and feel for the organisation.
We're really going to brighten things up and due to the nature of the organisation create a highly accessible website with some interactive features so that their service users can gain advice and feedback via the site.
WECIL have had a sneaky peak at the new design and they're very happy with the results.
Website due to be launched mid July.
Created on Friday June 19 2009 12:00 AM
The new, vibrant website has been launched as a resource to help parents and young people find play areas throughout Bristol.
The website includes an interactive map of the city highlighting the location of the play areas, which can also be found by using the advanced search facility.
We've built Go Places to Play on behalf of Bristol City Council, one of the 30 Local Authorities to be awarded Play Pathfinder status - new funds from central government made available to help create and improve play areas throughout the city. We're hoping that local people and visitors to Bristol will use the website to find the best places for their children to play.
Find out more about Go Places to Play
Created on Tuesday June 16 2009 12:00 AM
Rather impressed by the Google Wave demo, launched just before the weekend. The product promises to revolutionise communication, and it very well may prove to do just that!
Elements we like:
- Real-time typing, together with the contextual spellcheck. No more enigmatic pen shuffling nonsense - participants will see the message appear in the wave as soon as it is created.
- Drag and drop features - where anything on your desktop, file or previous wave can be dragged into a new one, and edited by anyone connected to the wave.
- The potential for collaboration. This just takes Google Docs to an entirely different level!
- Playback allows you to catch up on how the wave developed, following sequential additions from the whole group, or individual participants. This also facilitates accountability as each wave can be audited (inspired by version control).
Wave looks like a gigantic leap forward in terms of web development, with the race to create the first apps already well under way.
Created on Monday June 01 2009 07:06 AM
Twitter was something we avoided as a company for quite a while for two main reasons:
1. Time and productivity can very easily get sucked away by hours of endless tweeting.
2. No one's really interested in the minutiae of our working days (let's face it - we're not as important as this guy).
Thankfully, we finally overcame our reservations a while back and now use Twitter both as a quick way to link through to useful finds on the web and to update followers on our latest news and blog posts. We're finding it most useful as a neat RSS feed for industry news.
Created on Sunday May 31 2009 08:03 PM
Even though a European directive has required us to recycle electronic waste since early 2007, the UK is still lagging desperately behind the rest of Europe, the BBC unveils today. Apparently fewer than half of us recycle our electronic equipment, compared to 80% of Germans.
While this is an embarrassing statistic, I think the lack of kerbside collection and inner city recycling facilities for this type of waste could be to blame. A quick postcode search for places designed to take this sort of rubbish reveals a disparate picture of sites well outside main conurbations. With households containing:
"an average of 2.4 TVs, 1.6 computers, 2.4 games consoles, 3 mobile phones, and 2.2 MP3 players,"
the case for providing more urban recycling points and kerbside collections looks very strong.
Created on Tuesday May 26 2009 01:28 PM
We've all been impressed by a new website launched by the British Red Cross this week. Its main aim is to provide parents with free, simple, trustworthy advice on emergency first aid that could one day help to save their child or baby's life.
What struck us was the level of accessibility incorporated into such a media rich site. As well as including well-known text-resizing functionality, they have also added subtitles to videos and sensible title tags on navigational links.
It's clear that they have thought about the whole range of potential site visitors, from the visually impaired to dyslexic and hard of hearing users.
What's slightly disappointing is that they fail to meet the basic validation requirements set out by w3c. Hopefully this is just a 'work in progress' glitch - it is after all mentioned on their main website that accessibility is something they are constantly trying to improve.
At a time when all web developers should be getting to grips with the new WCAG 2.0 guidelines, this site is a lovely example of user inclusivity.
Created on Wednesday May 20 2009 04:32 PM
Microsoft reported last week that the internet will soon become the most popular medium for home entertainment in Europe, surpassing the TV by June 2010.
This certainly seems to ring true at Focus! A quick straw poll found that everyone here uses the internet to view video and TV content to some degree, ranging from YouTube clips of parrots dancing to full feature films from 4OD. Some don't even own a TV set, preferring to watch programmes provided online instead.
Apart from new media geeks, it's generally young people between 18 - 24 years old who will most likely eschew the TV screen in favour of their computer monitor, preferring on-demand video to live TV programmes.
Microsoft and New Media Age both agree that the web will be accessed more frequently via mobile phones. Games consoles such as the X-Box and PlayStation will also play a part in the decline of television use.
The real challenge will be how to effectively integrate all these different devices. Web developers will need to ensure their web applications are compatible across mobile, console and computer platforms.
Created on Monday May 11 2009 03:41 PM
April has seen a lot of comings and goings for Focus, including Mike's homecoming, Jim's departure, and the arrival of our newest recruit, Paul Springett.
We've waved a tearful goodbye to our web developer Jim, who has swapped his keyboard in favour of a camper van and the open road. He'll be travelling across the Iberian Peninsular for the rest of the year and hopes to learn more about green technologies.
Filling Jim's shoes will be no easy feat but picking up the gauntlet is Paul Springett, our newest recruit at the Bristol office. We chose him from a promising bunch of candidates for his invincible Jedi coding skills and penchant for Apples.
Mike has been back in the UK a few weeks now and has been sporting his brazil nut tan with a certain air of pride! Far from feeling travel sore, he's already planning his next trip overseas - to the Americas this time!
Created on Tuesday May 05 2009 11:50 AM
E-consultations have become an essential tool for many local authorities, helping them to fully engage with the general public. We have developed a new e-consultation module that is simple to use, and will help website administrators build their own questionnaires from scratch with the minimum of fuss.
Bristol City Council have recently embraced this new tool to consult with young people using the website, Go Places Do Things. Their aim is to gain an insight into how the website users feel about a wide range of complex issues affecting their daily lives. This information will then be used to improve services for young people in the local area.
E-consultations could work equally well in the private sector, helping businesses develop a greater understanding of their clients' needs. The resulting statistics are effectively displayed using easily downloadable graphs and charts to include in reports. Each questionnaire can be reused, edited, and scheduled to run over specific periods of time.
Please get in touch if you would like more information about e-consultations.
Created on Friday May 01 2009 12:00 AM
A message from the Queen - if you've ever been lucky enough to receive one - would traditionally be in the form of posted letter. High quality paper, HRH watermark, the Royal seal encrusting the envelope, all that jazz. The kind of thing you'd frame, or put away for grandchildren to admire.
Now you can receive emails from the Queen! Fully embracing modern culture, our beloved HRH has recently sent a bunch of adoring fans a response to their various posts on the Royal website... electronically!
I suppose this makes sense. A number of them live in the farthest flung corners of the Commonwealth possible, making postal deliveries rather difficult. A 12-year old girl living in the Australian Outback received her email after inviting Queen Elizabeth to swap Buckingham Palace for a life on a remote cattle farm 200km from the nearest town. I'm sure Lizzy managed to deal with this offer with the greatest aplomb - having a lifetime's worth of polite engagements to attend you would rather hope so!
I like the idea of our Queen embracing modern technology, although the day we see her sitting at her Mac, tapping Her Royal Feet to iPod 'choons' and emailing Philip using txt speak is still very far away!
Created on Wednesday April 29 2009 11:20 AM
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Bristol: 0117 949 8008 | <urn:uuid:3400f4b7-4b45-457b-9a3b-2653fb577c93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisisfocus.co.uk/blog-articles?page=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950765 | 2,089 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Those of you who missed the Czech Constitutional Court's ruling and the subsequent signing of the Treaty by Vaclav Klaus on were likely staying on an uninhabited island. The addition of the final signature last Tuesday at 15.00 PM Central European Time also marked an official end to a long period of speculation and uncertainty, as well as a short tradition of researchers to accompany statements on Lisbon with 'if ratified', 'likely to be ratified', 'eventual ratification of', ... The Treaty will now likely 'enter into force' on 1 December 2009.
That time is now over, and now most attention is arguably spent on rumours about who will take up the new two top political posts, rumours which are ever-dynamic and are covered in much detail by different media. With the exception of a single blog post on the EU Observer website, it appears that nobody really has a problem with the prospect of all three top posts (President of the Council, Commission, and High Representative for foreign affairs) will go to male candidates. But although the Lisbon Treaty aims to ensure a more democratic, transparent and effective Union, this does not appear to apply to this preparatory phase.
Much more important for this Blog, though, are the implications of Lisbon for the future of European development cooperation. As I described in more detail in a previous blog post, much of this relates to the distribution of responsibilities for development cooperation between the European Commission and the European External Action Service, as well as the extent to which the European Parliament will be able to hold the new EEAS to account.
Public Conclusions of a meeting of EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs on 26 October confirm that guidelines for the establishment of the EEAS have now been adopted. It has been agreed that it will become a separate entity with autonomy in terms of its budget and staff management (and hence independent from the Commission and the Council Secretariat). Most of all though, it has been decided not to make decisions yet, and the first job of the High Representative on foreign affairs will be to make a proposal on the organisation of the service, which will be adopted by the EU in April next year.
A short commentary on the adopted plan notes the following: "The 27 [EU member states] give themselves until the end of the year to split up between the EEAS and the Commission services the programming of the different financial instruments (European Development Fund for the ACP, European neighbourhood and partnership instrument, development cooperation instrument, European instrument for democracy and human rights, stability instrument, etc), which add up to nearly €50 billion for 2007-2013."
As far as development cooperation is concerned, it is now considered to move the 'geographic units' of DG Development into the new EEAS, which could be put in charge with the programming of development cooperation with the Commission keeping responsibility of the rest of the 'project cycle'. This would in practice likely have the consequence that DG Development (now responsible for programming) will be merged with EuropeAid (responsible for implementation). At the same time, this could mean that the often lamented split between the two DGs would become an even larger and pseudo 'inter-institutional' one. To be continued. | <urn:uuid:ad6fd35a-5878-4fcb-b518-e95eb8cbf0bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Europe-s-International-Role/The-End-of-the-Beginning | 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 | 0.962762 | 642 | 1.757813 | 2 |
GST/HST Info Sheet GI-072
Note: Goods acquired by Indians and Indian bands off a reserve in Ontario without being delivered to a reserve will generally be subject to the HST as of July 1, 2010. However, the Government of Ontario has announced that, effective September 1, 2010, point-of-sale relief equal to the 8% provincial part of the HST will be provided on eligible purchases by qualifying First Nation purchasers. In the interim, from July 1 to August 31, First Nations purchasers can receive refunds by submitting receipts to the Ontario Ministry of Revenue.
For more information, please see the News Release Continuing Point of Sale Exemption for Ontario’s First Nations and the Backgrounder Ontario Point-of-Sale Exemption for Ontario Status Indians and Your Questions Answered: First Nations. In addition, the Ontario Ministry of Revenue and the Canada Revenue Agency will be releasing further details for vendors and Indian purchasers in the near future.
Vendors and service providers who sell to eligible Ontario First Nations customers should be aware of reporting procedures for the point-of-sale relief of an amount equal to the provincial part of the harmonized sales tax (HST). GST/HST Info Sheet GI-106, Ontario First Nations Point-of-Sale Relief Reporting Requirements for GST/HST Registrant Suppliers discusses how GST/HST registrants who provide this credit at the point of sale would be required to report the HST, beginning September 1, 2010.
The harmonized sales tax (HST) began on April 1, 1997, in the participating provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The HST replaces the goods and services tax (GST) and provincial sales tax (PST) in participating provinces. Ontario and British Columbia (B.C.) will introduce an HST effective July 1, 2010. The HST rate will be 13% in all participating provinces except B.C., where the rate will be 12%, and Nova Scotia where the rate will be increased to 15%, effective July 1, 2010. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers the HST for the current participating provinces and will administer the HST in Ontario and B.C.
HST will apply in the same way as GST, and its application will be consistent with the provisions of the Indian Act. Goods and services sold to Indians, Indian bands, and band-empowered entities that are currently relieved of the GST will also be relieved of the HST. Goods and services sold to Indians, Indian bands, and band-empowered entities that are currently subject to GST will generally also be subject to HST.
HST will not apply to goods acquired on a reserve in Ontario or B.C. by Indians, Indian bands, and unincorporated band-empowered entities. Goods bought off a reserve by Indians, Indian bands, and unincorporated band-empowered entities will be relieved of tax if the goods are delivered to a reserve by the vendor or vendor's agent. In both cases, appropriate documentation supporting the relieved sale must be provided to the vendor. If the goods are being purchased on or off the reserve by an incorporated band-empowered entity, they will also have to be acquired for band management activities for HST relief to apply.
Services performed totally on a reserve that are acquired by an Indian will be relieved of HST. Generally, services performed off a reserve will be subject to HST.
Services acquired on or off a reserve by an Indian band or band-empowered entity for band management activities will not be subject to HST. However, point-of-sale tax relief will not apply to transportation, short-term accommodation, meals, or entertainment purchased off a reserve. Bands or band-empowered entities must file a general rebate application to recover HST on these purchases if they are made in the course of band management activities or for real property located on a reserve.
Note: Some Indian bands, tribal councils, and band-empowered entities are currently entitled to claim public service body rebates under the GST. These groups will continue to claim partial rebates for the 5% federal part of HST they pay on eligible purchases. They may also be entitled to recover a portion of the provincial part of HST they pay depending on where they are located and if they meet the rebate eligibility criteria.
The introduction of the HST in Ontario and B.C. will not change how the GST/HST is applied to goods and services acquired by Indians, Indian bands, and band-empowered entities outside of Ontario and B.C. Goods and services sold to Indians, Indian bands, and band-empowered entities outside of Ontario and B.C. that are currently relieved of the GST/HST will continue to be relieved of these taxes. Goods and services sold to Indians, Indian bands, and band-empowered entities that are currently subject to GST/HST will remain subject to these taxes.
The same goods that are currently zero-rated for GST purposes will be zero-rated for HST purposes, regardless of where they are sold. HST will not be charged on these goods, whether or not they were purchased on a reserve. Examples of zero-rated goods include:
The same things that are exempt from the GST will also be exempt from the HST, regardless of where they are provided. HST will not be charged on them, whether or not they were acquired on a reserve. Examples of exempt services or supplies include:
The Ontario and B.C. governments have announced targeted tax relief of the provincial part of the HST on certain designated items right at the cash register. Where the person purchases a designated item at a retail establishment, the retailer will automatically provide the purchaser with a point-of-sale rebate, crediting the provincial part of the HST and only collecting the 5% federal part of the HST (equivalent to the GST). Examples of such designated items include:
For additional information please see GST/HST Technical Information Bulletin B-039, GST/HST Administrative Policy – the Application of the GST/HST to Indians, which summarizes the CRA’s administrative policy respecting GST/HST relief for Indians, Indian bands and band-empowered entities.
Please note that the tax relief described in this info sheet does not apply to First Nation taxes imposed by Aboriginal governments and administered by the CRA as the Indian Act tax exemption does not apply to such taxes. As well, this info sheet does not apply to Aboriginal governments and their citizens that have signed final or self-government agreements that end Indian Act tax relief (see GST/HST Notice238, First Nations Having a Self-Government Agreement Ending Indian Act Tax Relief – Determining Tax Relief for Indian Members Who Are Not Citizens ).
This info sheet does not replace the law found in the Excise Tax Act (the Act) and its regulations. It is provided for your reference. As it may not completely address your particular operation, you may wish to refer to the Act or appropriate regulation, or contact any CRA GST/HST rulings office for additional information. A ruling should be requested for certainty in respect of any particular GST/HST matter. Pamphlet RC4405, GST/HST Rulings – Experts in GST/HST Legislation, explains how to obtain a ruling and lists the GST/HST rulings offices. If you wish to make a technical enquiry on the GST/HST by telephone, please call 1-800-959-8287.
If you are located in Quebec and wish to make a technical enquiry or request a ruling related to the GST/HST, please contact Revenu Québec by calling 1-800-567-4692. You may also visit their Web site at www.revenu.gouv.qc.ca to obtain general information.
All technical publications related to GST/HST are available on the CRA Web site at www.cra.gc.ca/gsthsttech. | <urn:uuid:9790b6e8-2a45-4ac1-87e7-338cc1730039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/gi-072/gi-072-e.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942414 | 1,663 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Rea Dol is the Director and co-founder of Society of Providence United for the Economic Development of Petion-Ville (SOPUDEP), a grassroots organization in Haiti offering education for children and adults and a micro-credit program for women. Her work in the aid effort following the January 12th earthquake in Haiti was the subject of a New York Times documentary. While in Haiti in July, Montreal freelance journalist Darren Ell asked her about the impact of the earthquake.
What happened to the community of Morne Lazarre, where your school, SOPUDEP, is located?
The community of Morne Lazarre was devastated by the earthquake. I was in the school when it happened and I cannot describe the horror around me. The school was empty and did not fall, but the neighbourhood collapsed. Five people were crushed to death just meters from me when one of the outer walls of the school grounds collapsed. My first responsibility was to my family, so I had to get home, but the streets were chaotic. People were panicking and screaming. I had to run home ten kilometres through those streets to find my family. The phones weren’t working. It was horrible.
In Morne Lazarre as in many areas of the city, it’s hard to say who died and how many because in many cases, the only people who knew who was in a house were the inhabitants themselves, and they died. Many are still under the rubble. Extracted bodies were rapidly buried, and now people are displaced throughout the city, so it’s impossible to get accurate numbers. We know Morne Lazarre intimately though. Three thousand people lived here prior to the earthquake, and we estimate that 65% of them died and 95% of their homes were destroyed.
How did the earthquake affect you personally?
On a personal level, when the earthquake happened, I couldn’t understand why I didn’t die. Where I was, many of the people around me died. It affected my profoundly, but I knew I had to overcome my feelings. I had to join in the struggle. I understood quickly that I had a mission. At first, I felt unable to offer support, but I had to do something, so I got a gallon of Betadine disinfectant and some gauze and went out into the street. I cleaned wounds wherever I could. After three months, I finally took a break. But during those first three months, I had boundless energy. So much needed to be done. I spent a lot of time in the camps with my staff and students. They really needed our solidarity. No other schools were doing this, going out into the city to find their people and reconnect with them.
I couldn’t have offered support to anyone with out the support of the Sawatzky Family Foundation (SFF), the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund (HERF), the Haiti Action Committee, special friends of SOPUDEP and individuals donating through the SOPUDEP website. They were always there for us. The work I did during the crisis built my credibility in the city as well to the point where people were consulting me on questions of the credibility of various organizations. But it was more than that. People began staying with me in my home! They kept coming and we cared for them, and we still do.
What has been the impact of the earthquake on education in Haiti?
25% of our schools were destroyed, 50% were seriously damaged and another 25% are standing, but staff and students won’t work in the buildings, so classes have resumed under tarps, but at least 50% of the students haven’t returned. Many died, and others have been dispersed throughout the city now in the tent cities, often far from their schools. It’s a very difficult time for education.
How has the earthquake affected the students and teachers?
We did an assessment of students after the earthquake. Some children who had an average of 80% prior to the earthquake scored 40%, a serious decline. There are several reasons for this. One is the living conditions they now find themselves in. When they had their homes, they could find a place to study, but in the camps, it’s hot and crowded in the tents. What’s more, kids are running around the camps all day, so students are distracted and can’t get their work done.
The trauma of the earthquake has diminished their capacity to retain information and learn. In April, when we reopened the school, we didn’t get into the regular curriculum at all. We did some cultural activities, sang songs and danced, but nothing else until May. We asked students to write about the earthquake. They all said it was the worst moment of their lives. They said they’d never recover from it. They added though that school was like medicine for them. Coming back to school was like life beginning again for them.
When we reopened, the teachers weren’t up to it. They were traumatized and asked for psycho-social assistance because they didn’t feel stable. Imagine how awful the students must have been feeling if the adults themselves needed help! We found a specialist in the city to help teachers get back to work. The assistance was successful, and yet when a truck rolled by and the school shook, it was total panic in the school and the teachers were the first ones out. We told the teachers they were supposed to be the last ones out of the classroom! They said, “We like our life too!” But I understood. They had to run. They were too traumatized. Everyone was.
After the quake, many teachers were living in very bad conditions. Some were sleeping in cars or public squares because they didn’t have tents yet. So we got tents for everyone so they could have some stability in order to work and prepare their classes. Today, six months after the earthquake, their situation has somewhat improved but it’s still difficult.
Many NGO’s were criticized during the earthquake. What was your experience of aid from large organizations?
The number of NGO’s in Haiti has ballooned again in Haiti. Are they going to change things fundamentally? We don’t think so. Without generalizing to all the cases, and without saying they haven’t helped, we believe they could do more. As far as organizations that could have helped SOPUDEP, there is Save the Children who sponsored a lot of organizations. They’re located right next door to us and they never helped us at all. They had a cash for work program for rubble removal, but I had to pay out of pocket to arrange rubble removal. When they finally came six months after the quake, they asked how they could help us and said they could fix the roof and clean out the toilets. But we didn’t see these as problems. We had more urgent needs related to our classrooms, but that assistance wasn’t there.
What we really needed - financial assistance - came from our regular donors and via our website. The big organizations offered only a small amount of material support: 100 tarps from the Red Cross, plus Save the Children eventually brought in some chalkboards and other school supplies. But the direct aid we gave to families, over 2957 families in 32 areas throughout the city, came from the SFF. It is the engine of SOPUDEP. With the SFF, we have a stable budget and we can plan. Teachers can also plan their lives now knowing there is a paycheck coming.
On a more global level across the country, aid was a disaster in terms of helping families. NGO’s decided to disburse assistance to women only. This led to the abuse of women. They would wait four hours under a hot sun, they’d get beaten by guards. This was shocking to us. They should have chosen Haitians to manage this. The voucher system for aid was abused. Vouchers were hoarded and given to friends while others got nothing. In the camps it was a mess. People with the vouchers were demanding sex for vouchers. Women’s organizations were very upset. Women’s desperation was being used as leverage for sex. What’s more, in order to get help, you had to demonstrate you were in absolute misery. How poor do you have to be to get help? For example, to get a tarp, you had to prove your ripped bedsheet was inadequate.
What does the near and long term future hold for SOPUDEP?
Our current school building is problematic. For years, we’ve received threats, sometimes armed, from a corrupt mayor. For this reason, we were already taking measures prior to the earthquake to find another location for the school. The earthquake made this move imperative. No one trusts the old building and the community is in ruins. We’ll be moving from Morne Lazarre to Delmas 83, quite far away, and this will cause problems for many of our students. Nonetheless, we want to offer all the help we can to keep everyone in our program.
We also want to help other schools in the area. Whenever we receive support, we offer supplies to other schools as well. SOPUDEP includes our main K-12 school, adult education, and a street children education program. We are reflecting on the problem of access to university as well, a huge problem in Haiti. We’ve received a proposal on this matter, and it could be an area for growth in the future. We have a larger vision in the field of health. Anything that represents a major roadblock for the population is where we put our energies. Another problem is unemployment, so we created a micro-credit program for women. Not being able to help your children yourself is awful, so we’re offering women the means to generate income and feed their families.
When we began, we had a small group of adults. It was a community organization that came together to discuss the problems of the country. While doing that, we saw more important problems. We started with activities for children every Saturday. Former President Aristide eventually integrated us into the field of literacy. Today, we have 58 people running our various programs. We are planning the construction of a new school, but our teachers need ongoing help for salaries. We also need assistance integrating our other projects into the SOPUDEP program: our micro-credit program and the elementary school in Boucan La Pluie neighbourhood.
We have grown a lot, but always one step at a time. It is very difficult to build organizations in Haiti. There are few means and we can’t know if we’re going to succeed. Things are shifting and changing all the time, and now things have been degraded to the lowest level possible. They say this is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It doesn’t have to be that way. If we unite, a lot can happen. Working only for your own well-being will get us nowhere. Because of the terrible things that have occurred in our past, trust is an important issue. You absolutely need the trust of those around you in order to accomplish anything. What’s more, the systems in this country are deeply problematic and we need support and solidarity to change them.
What are your feelings on the reconstruction plan for Haiti?
The Government of Haiti should have taken the responsibility to rebuild many of the affected areas. Instead, construction was chaotic and anarchic with no oversight. As a consequence, people are currently living with significant physical dangers and many have already been victims of these dangers. The big question is: “Who is responsible for the reconstruction plan and will ordinary people be allowed to participate in it?” Thus far, we don’t see this at all.
An example is what we see across from the National Palace. This is the face of the country, a symbol of Haiti. And what do we see six months after the earthquake? Thousands of people living in absolute squalor in tents. Many people believe that reconstruction will not be possible with the current government, and many are concerned about who will be in the next government. Electing our own representatives is a sacred right and part of the solution we need. We are however in doubt about many things. Lavalas is there as a popular organization but there are several leaders, each one of them wanting to become the leader. Banning Lavalas from elections has only complicated things. What’s more, past choices were poorly done. For example, the people chose René Préval as someone who could represent them, but the opposite has happened.
Six months after the quake, nothing serious has been done. The first phase is over: everyone has shelter. We should have seen a second phase of more permanent shelters, but this hasn’t happened. The third phase should have been the rebuilding of the country, but we don’t see how this can happen with the current government. It’s abdicated it’s responsibilities. We’ve seen no results and I’m very concerned. Haiti needs to change. Otherwise, why would we keep working? All Haitians need to be very conscious right now, otherwise we won’t get anywhere.
Originally from Saskatchewan, Darren Ell is a teacher, photographer and freelance journalist residing in Montreal. Between 2006 and 2008, he documented the legacy of the 2004 coup d’état in online publication with the Citizenshift, The Dominion and Haiti Action. His photographic installation on this subject, Haiti Holdup, was exhibited at Concordia University in Montreal.
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POPE/ Sirico (Acton): The option for the poor is not necessarily an option for the state
martedì 19 marzo 2013
“It’s really possible to have ‘the preferential option for the poor’, without having a preferential option for the state”. This is the assertive closing of the interview with Father Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute (Michigan, U.S.). Acton Institute has a center in Italy too (Rome), and another one in the country from which the new Pope come from, Argentina. In these days, Sirico is in Italy to follow the Conclave.
Father Sirico, what is your opinion on this awkward moment for the Church and on the election of the new Pontiff?
He strikes me as the right pope for the right moment. He is obviously a man of deep humility and prayer, and in a society that is increasingly superficial, one can sense the depth of his soul.
In particular, what do you think of the approach of austerity an closeness to the people Pope Francis is proposing to the Church?
I think it is refreshing and authentic as well as welcome. Each new pope adds a new emphasis to a part of the Church's teaching that may require a renewed emphasis.
As it happened with Joseph Ratzinger, Cardinal Bergoglio too has been charged by some Italian media to have covered the Argentinean dictatorship. What do you think of this way of acting by the media, and is this usual in the US media as well?
It never takes very much to make any kind of wild accusation against someone. The thing is to prove it. And these irresponsible accusations reflect very poor on the authors and their publications. They have been repeatedly repudiated and proven false. In the US we do not have the same level of irresponsibility probably because our newspapers must compete in the market, unlike many Italian newspapers that are supported by the government or political parties. While there is often bias in mainstream American journalism, they have to use sources or there are seen to be unreliable by the consumers.
President Obama has sent a warm message to the first Pope coming from America, and he has defined him ““a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us,”. How is the new teaching of the Church of Pope Francis perceived in the United States?
This will be interesting to see, because while Obama very often speak in moving words and images, when it comes to understanding the causes of wealth creation, he has a very superficial understanding of business, which is the best institutional way in which we can help the poor to rise from poverty.
And what about Latin America? This continent is facing an increasing economic development, but what are the chances for a more ordered growth than the one the West had?
This depends on what one means by an “ordered growth”. There is a great temptation, given the history of many Latin America countries, to so 'order' their economies that the growth is stifled. Anticipating what consumers needs and organizing the facts of production to meet those needs is not an exact science, and requires both risk in the undertaking, but also a deep knowledge of the culture in which such enterprises operate to hope to become successful. One the other hand, if we mean by “order” the rule of law, this is, of course, essential to insure contacts economic progress.
Pope Bergoglio did not share the liberation theology and he came to condemn his Jesuit brothers who were attracted by it. What is your opinion on this?
It was a very brave thing that Pope Francis did at that time in Argentina, and all the more difficult because he has to confront his brother Jesuits who were attempting to politicize the gospel and service to the poor. It is hard to offer a correction to men you live and pray with, so this shows the clarity of the Holy Father's thinking on this point, namely that one can truly have “a preferential option for the poor” without having a preferential option for the state.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
We celebrate love and marriage on this Valentine’s Day and are proud that Connecticut law treats the love between gay men and women the same as love between human beings.
It’s also tax season, though, which brings a major reminder of how unequal gay husbands and wives remain in the eyes of the federal government.
The IRS does not recognize legal gay marriages in states such as Connecticut because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, whose constitutionality will be considered this year by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The resulting mess at tax time is enough to send couples into marriage counseling.
“Even though same-sex couples may be able to file jointly on state tax returns, they will have to file as individuals or — if there is a qualifying dependent — heads of household on their federal turn,” the Associated Press writes.
But your husband or wife does not qualify as a dependent if you’re filing as head of household. And couples with children have to choose which parent claims them.
And because your state tax return requires information from your federal return, some gay couples are having to fill out a “dummy federal return” in order to fill out their joint state tax return.
The estate tax also penalizes legally married gay couples, and that’s one of the main points of contention in the Supreme Court case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.
“Either way the Supreme Court rules on DOMA, there will be federal tax questions,” the AP quoted National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson as saying in a report to Congress on the issue.
And either way, Connecticut’s representatives in Congress should be pressuring the IRS and federal government to respect the state’s marriage law and the equal treatment of its citizens. | <urn:uuid:07395265-a573-47e0-b36a-fa5da17fdd66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://registercitizen.com/articles/2013/02/13/opinion/doc511c2cbcaa66a394768209.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958237 | 374 | 1.757813 | 2 |
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