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Bears are active in Grand Teton
Black and grizzly bears are roaming throughout the park--near roads, trails and in backcountry areas. Hikers and backcountry users are advised to travel in groups of three or more, make noise and carry bear spray. Visitors must stay 100 yards from bears. More »
Area closure in the area around Baxter's Pinnacle
An area closure is in effect around Baxter's Pinnacle to protect nesting peregrine falcons. This closure precludes any climbs of Baxter's Pinnacle and usage of the walk-off gully. This closure will be in effect through 8-15-2013. More »
Area Closure in effect in the Elk Ranch area
A temporary area closure is in effect in the Elk Ranch Area to protect wildlife during the denning and young-rearing period. Follow the link for a map of the closed area. More »
In 1998, the Ramshorn Lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Legendary mountaineer and founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Paul Petzoldt purchased a cattle and guest ranch in 1935 with Gustav Koven. They expanded the ranch to include a dude ranch, hunting camp and climbing headquarters. Petzoldt helped build three cabins while gathering logs and excavating a cellar for the Ramshorn Lodge.
Petzoldt withdrew from the partnership after two years, but the Ramshorn continued for years as one of the valley’s most exclusive dude ranches. Grand Teton National Park purchased the ranch in 1956, and then leased the ranch to Katie Starratt, who relocated the Elbo Ranch operations. After she died in 1974, the park leased the property to the cooperative and independent Teton Science Schools still in use today.
How to get there: Drive north from Jackson on highway 191 past Moose Junction and turn right onto Antelope Flats Road. Drive three miles and turn right on the Kelly Road, in another one and a half miles turn left following signs to the Teton Science Schools Kelly campus. The Ramshorn Lodge is a central structure that houses the campus’ cafeteria.
Did You Know?
Did you know that Jenny and Leigh Lakes are named for the fur trapper “Beaver” Dick Leigh and his wife Jenny (not pictured)? Beaver Dick and Jenny assisted the Hayden party that explored the region in 1872. This couple impressed the explorers to the extent that they named the lakes in their honor. | <urn:uuid:660f3a7c-0717-41c3-8758-44cb332a20f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/grte/historyculture/rams.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942357 | 512 | 1.609375 | 2 |
At the time of his final act of savagery he was 38 years old, bulky of frame and his arms and torso were covered in tattoos. His name is Richard Allen Davis and he possesses qualities that are both unique and rare to mankind. He lacks conscience and receives great joy from inflicting pain and suffering upon others.
Such great joy in fact, that his final bloodlust was only satisfied after he had kidnapped, raped, and murdered twelve year old Polly Klaas. He disposed of her remains by dumping her on a garbage pile off a freeway-off ramp, hiding her slight lifeless body under a piece of plywood, hoping that his crime would not be discovered. But it was.
Davis was not regurgitated from Hell into Petaluma so that he could kidnap Polly in the late evening of Friday October 1, 1993. He had been weaving his web of perversion around Polly’s home for quite some time. Witness after witness testified that they had seen him in the weeks prior to the crime.
One boy observed the killer vomiting in Wickersham Park on an early September. He asked the sick man if he needed help. “Get the hell out of here you stupid kid,” was his only response. An artist deliberately avoided the gaze of the man with the scary, darting eyes and the prison tattoos. A teacher, moonlighting as a house painter, unsuccessfully attempted to engage the man with the frightening demeanor in conversation on several occasions as the killer wandered aimlessly around Polly’s neighborhood in early August.
The unbelievable, but all too common criminal history of Polly’s killer spans more than two decades and includes incidents of kidnapping, robbery, assaults with shotguns, handguns, knives and fireplace pokers.
Always, the victims were women, who were alone and vulnerable. Often times they would escape, notify authorities and Davis would return to prison. Finally, he could take it no more.
He had to find a victim that could not, would not, fight back. A small victim that he could control over — perhaps a little girl, under the veil of darkness, where he could hide in the shadows and deny his crimes.
Polly is not dead simply because Davis wanted to eliminate witnesses to his crime. If it were that simple, he could have hidden his face behind a mask. Instead, he leveled incalculable violence upon a little girl who was afraid of the dark and feared the boogeyman.
It was only in the throes of this massive perversion that he was able to achieve the sexual release that was the goal of his attack. Had he not been captured he would have repeated this scenario again, and again, and again.
How do I know these things to be true? Fifteen years ago I spent six months sitting in a courtroom as prosecutors built the case against my daughter’s killer. I listened to psychiatrist after psychologist detail the mind of a sexually sadistic psychopath.
Their arguments were so convincing that he was sentenced to death. He still sits on death row and as he told psychiatrist Lewelen Jones, he “masturbates twice daily and thinks of tying up female victims of past crimes.”
I can think of no better justification for the death penalty. | <urn:uuid:9590d996-9ebd-431b-9f72-f4110e28f483> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gilroy.patch.com/groups/marc-klaass-blog/p/bp--vote-no-on-proposition-34-the-evil-that-lurks-among-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986115 | 666 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Originally Posted by bossxr8
The diff ratio can be determined by finding the little metal tag on the diff centre that has the ratio stamped on it, or count how many times the tailshaft does a complete turn compared to the wheels. If the tailshaft turns 3 times to the wheels once then it is a 3:1 ratio. I think thats correct.
Yeah, for a LSD it is that easy. Better off going more turns to reduce the error. For example, mark the tailshaft and the wheel. Have someone watch the wheel. You turn the tailshaft until the wheel has spun 10 times. Then however many times the tailshaft spun, divide by ten. It is a lot easier to accurately count 27, 28 or 29 compared to 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9 (figures are for examples only). | <urn:uuid:cdfe7f00-03b9-42e3-bca5-e42c6f4fa314> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fordforums.com/f536/lsd-how-do-you-tell-116059/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958368 | 177 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Psychologist Richard Samuels, a defense witness, testified for a fifth day Thursday after telling jurors his diagnosis explains why Arias can't remember much from the day she killed her lover.
Arizona is one of a few states where jurors have a legal right to query witnesses through written questions read aloud by the judge. In most other states, it's up to the judge to determine whether to allow it.
Samuels answered more than 100 questions Thursday, and then was questioned by attorneys on both sides about his answers. He resumes testimony on Monday.
Many of the juror questions Thursday focused on Arias' lies, how Samuels could be sure she is telling the truth now, whether her memory loss could be fabricated and his opinions on premeditation.
"How can we be certain that your assessment of Ms. Arias is not based on her lies?" one juror question read.
"The diagnosis of PTSD is a function of an evaluation based upon my 35 years of experience in working with individuals with PTSD," Samuels replied, noting he can say with "all reasonable psychological probability" that she meets the criteria.
Arias faces a possible death
When Samuels initially began his evaluation, Arias was sticking to the intruder story.
Jurors asked if Samuels could be certain that Arias wasn't still lying about the day of the killing.
"Not with 100 percent certainty," he said. "Psychology is the science of behavior so we're seldom 100 percent sure."
Samuels testified previously that Arias was likely suffering from acute stress at the time of the killing, sending her body into a "fight or flight" mode to defend herself, which caused her brain to stop retaining memory.
The jury asked Thursday whether this scenario could occur even if this was a premeditated murder, as the prosecution contends.
"Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? No," Samuels said.
"Can acute stress occur if someone plans to kill versus defending themselves from danger?" the panel asked.
"Um, homicide is of a different nature," Samuels said before being cut off by an objection from the prosecutor.
"Possible but not probable," he continued.
The jury later asked if it is possible for a defendant to trick a psychologist into thinking they have PTSD.
Samuels said it was possible but unlikely, noting when a person is telling the truth their stories tend to change slightly as they are questioned repeatedly. He said Arias' intruder story remained exactly the same until she eventually said it was self-defense.
"It is my feeling that once the story changed (from intruders) she was essentially telling actually what happened," he said.
Defense attorney Jennifer Willmott later questioned Samuels.
"Is it rational for a person who was at a crime scene to leave evidence behind that they were at the crime scene?" Willmott asked.
"No," Samuels said.
"Well thought out?" she prodded.
"No," Samuels replied.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez seized on Samuel's credibility, accusing him of forming a relationship with Arias and being biased.
Samuels previously testified he had compassion for Arias.
In his typical dramatic fashion, Martinez displayed a page from the dictionary defining the word "compassion."
"A desire to alleviate someone's distress is an indication of sympathy isn't it?" Martinez yelled.
"According to Webster's," Samuels replied calmly.
"So you felt sorry for her," Martinez snapped back.
"No, I didn't, a sense of compassion," Samuels said.
Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the head and had his throat slit. Arias' palm print was found in blood at the scene, along with her hair and nude photos of her and the victim from the day of the killing.
Arias said she recalls Alexander attacking her in a fury. She said she ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf and fired in self-defense but has no memory of stabbing him.
She acknowledged trying to clean the scene, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion.
None of Arias' allegations of Alexander's previous abuse, that he owned a gun and had sexual desires for boys has been corroborated. | <urn:uuid:a021ebb7-9047-45fb-8eec-2818a7f2b9be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinij.com/tablehome/ci_22837866/testimony-resumes-jodi-arias-murder-trial | 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 | 0.982838 | 904 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Too many schemes spoil welfare plot for UP’s Rohanpara
Recall the narrative about how the village, with a population of little over 3,000, where over 100 welfare schemes are being run, continues to be a spectacle of underdevelopment and subhuman living conditions.
Speaking to local government officials, FE found that the reason for the disastrous performance of central and state-level schemes at the grassroot level is a lack of convergence of schemes with similar objectives, very limited authority given to district officials and poor monitoring due to the massive number of schemes with very small outlays.
“There is a lack of coordination at the local level. There are many schemes that if converged at the local level can be implemented in a better way. Schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, midday meal scheme, Total Sanitation Campaign and Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission are connected in the some way or the other,” said a block development officer (BDO) of Ambedkar Nagar district administration, asking not to be named.
Officials at the district level concede that too many schemes, most of them having as as little an outlay as Rs 15,000 for a village, are difficult to implement, let alone monitor. “It is not easy for the BDO to keep an effective vigil on the proper execution of such a number of schemes,” Harishankar Singh,
Be the first to comment. | <urn:uuid:d7b454f9-6c11-4b3d-9e07-52adfccc7cfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/too-many-schemes-spoil-welfare-plot-for-up-s-rohanpara/1065113 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946814 | 300 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Thu June 28, 2012
Governor Orders Planning System for Capital Projects
Governor Susana Martinez is continuing her push to overhaul how New Mexico handles capital improvements and is ordering state agencies to develop five-year master plans for setting priorities for the financing of projects.
Martinez has issued an executive order requiring the new planning process for capital improvements by agencies under the governor's control.
The governor vetoed nearly $23 million worth of capital improvements earlier this year and she complained the Legislature had taken a "grab bag approach" by spending taxpayer money on capital projects that hadn't been thoroughly vetted.
Martinez said Wednesday that a master list of projects will help "identify the state's needs so we can avoid wasteful spending." The capital plans will be updated yearly and submitted to the Legislature as well as the governor. | <urn:uuid:31aad992-5f43-478c-88e2-aa7c9c5b1017> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kunm.org/post/governor-orders-planning-system-capital-projects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936829 | 168 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Welcome to Peace News, the newspaper for the UK grassroots peace and justice movement. We seek to oppose all forms of violence, and to create positive change based on cooperation and responsibility. See more
"Peace News has compiled an exemplary record... its tasks have never been more critically important than they are today." Noam Chomsky
Editorial: Keep going
The climate conference in Copenhagen is a turning point in world history. The protests in Denmark and around the world before and during the conference are therefore of enormous importance.
As a species, we are now fully conscious of the effects of our actions on the world’s climate and therefore on all the interlocking ecosystems on which human and other forms of life depend. At Copenhagen, the world’s governments could give their informed consent either to a scientifically-grounded restriction in the emission of greenhouses gases, or to large-scale death and destruction by unstoppable climate chaos. The outcome in Copenhagen has already been foretold.
The battle for the future of the world is not over, however, and the weight of all our protests now will affect the next stages in our species’ faltering attempts to deal with its most significant global problem, its most devastating crime.
Sloggers and co
Many years ago, one of the historians of Peace News, Andrew Rigby (still on the board of Peace News Ltd), pointed to a provocative piece published on 8 August 1958.
Reginald Reynolds distinguished between three main currents in the nonviolent movements of the time. The pacifist “old guard” were “good old sloggers who cling bravely to the belief that the slogans and activities which have been proved and tested by decades of dismal failure deserve our allegiance and will at any moment lead on to victory”.
Then there were the “perfectionists”: “having proved that there can be no peace without a complete social, political, economic, psychological and spiritual revolution, they nevertheless leave me with an awkward feeling that they are talking very good sense about town planning when the immediate and urgent necessity is for a fire engine, which they reject as a palliative.”
The final group were the “firefighters”, driven by a desperate sense of urgency and a passion for action, but who (in his view) lacked “any real understanding of what they are up against”.
Peace News stands for the sloggers, who have staying power, for the perfectionists, who see the need for revolution, and for the firefighters, who throw themselves into the struggle.
Peace News needs the best qualities of every generation of activists, and it needs the ferment of debate across generations and across movements – and across ideological divides.
Debates over strategy have gone on in these pages for over 70 years. Over and over, in and out of these pages, nonviolence has been questioned, and, over and over, people committed to nonviolence have mounted defences of their bedrock principles.
Nonviolence is robust. It will last. | <urn:uuid:cc5b0db7-44dc-4c07-9bdc-5dd789d7478d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peacenews.info/node/5821/editorial-keep-going | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956774 | 619 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The workaday residents of London are again being asked to participate in the defense of the city. Bow Quarter in East London is a white collar, somewhat pedestrian neighborhood populated by young families and professional types, but this summer residents very well might see their sleepy enclave militarized. Over the weekend the Ministry of Defense notified residents of a few different neighborhoods around London’s Olympic Park that they could become home to batteries of high-velocity surface-to-air missiles. In other words, Londoners are getting rockets on their rooftops.
London’s security operation for the Games (running from July 27 to August 12) is pretty spectacular, and the military will be playing a central role alongside police and more conventional security officers. Britain’s MoD has already confirmed that up to 13,500 troops, two warships, Typhoon fighter jets, military explosives ordnance disposal teams, and combat helicopters will all be deployed around the country for the duration of the Olympics. But the militarization of their rooftops came as a surprise to residents, who were informed via the post that roughly 10 troops and a variety of hardware could be installed atop their buildings for up to two months this summer. More | <urn:uuid:4390e327-71be-4826-a2b8-d58f278936d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/tag/anti-aircraft-missiles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97201 | 241 | 1.539063 | 2 |
At the heart of the Cashiers/Glenville area is the highest lake east of the Mississippi. Resting at 3,542 feet, Lake Glenville is a premier destination for anyone looking for a day on the water fishing, skiing, or just enjoying an unobstructed view of the surrounding peaks.
Lake Glenville, or Thorpe Reservoir as it was originally known, is the result of a World War II demand for aluminum. In 1940, the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) constructed Thorpe Dam to power a factory built to answer the wartime demands. The resulting reservoir soon turned the Glenville community from agriculture grounds to lakefront property.
With over 26 miles of shoreline and depths of up to 125 feet, Lake Glenville is a recreational dream. From casting plugs for largemouth bass to crossing wakes belly-down on tubes, visitors are presented with an abundance of recreational opportunities.
In the pristine waters of Glenville, visitors can enjoy swimming, boating, jet skiing, canoeing, kayaking, and a barrage of other water sports.
Travelers with the fishing bug can test their skill against largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, trout, and a smorgasbord of panfish. Fishing in Lake Glenville is especially productive during spring and fall, but trophies can be taken year round.
Folks looking for a quiet escape on the water can take full advantage of panoramic views of Appalachia, serene wildlife, and three easy-to-access waterfalls: Norton Falls, Mill Creek Falls, and Hurricane Falls.
Carol Adams, a member of the local nonprofit Friends of Lake Glenville, states that these "incoming waterfalls, seen only from a boat, add to the beauty and special features of Lake Glenville."
"The lake's shoreline is a beautiful green vista," Adams adds. "There are no boat houses to disrupt the view of shoreline flora and fauna."
With no disruptions and one of the few places in the area with 360-degree views from the valley, the lake is a great vantage point for leaf lookers wanting a full-on picture of the fall colors. From the middle of the lake, visitors are ensconced by fall's brilliance as the lake's surface reflects the surrounding mountains.
Residents or visitors can easily access the lake from two points along Highway 107: Ralph J. Andrews Campground and Signal Ridge Marina.
Andrews Campground provides 47 campsites (both tent sites and RV sites) from April 15 to October 31. With picnic areas, fishing spots, showers, and bathrooms, the campground delivers practical accommodations while giving a taste of the outdoors. Located on Pine Creek Road off of Highway 107, the grounds also have a full-time camp manager to answer any questions visitors may have.
A marina and boat rental establishments offer easy access for families looking to get out on the water.
"Lake Glenville is very family oriented," said Mary Shuey, who works at a Glenville marina. "I see children with parents and grandchildren with grandparents. This lake brings generations together."
Getting on the water is as simple as stopping by a marina or boat rental establishment and renting a boat. On Glenville, visitors can rent pontoons, tritoons, bass boats, kayaks and canoes.
Besides providing easy access to the lake, local businesses offer customers bait, tackle, skies, wakeboards, tubes, outdoor attire, and snacks. You can also find recreational equipment, including fishing rods and kneeboards.
Whether you want to catch the scenery or drop a line, Lake Glenville is an aquatic playground for anyone who ventures off its banks. Easy-access and comfortable water make Lake Glenville a prime destination for visitors young and old.
Article courtesy of Crossroads Chronicle - By Staff Writer David Joy | <urn:uuid:9ca9ee67-494c-4e4e-ae1e-7bcefc1fed44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mckeeproperties.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=216&Itemid=169 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935022 | 794 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Aside from being “classic” and being sought after, the following books are considered as the best books in running that greatly influenced people from their sedentary life to being active through running. These books contributed in the resurgence of “running boom” in the United States and in other countries.
Few minutes before the start of the 2nd PAU “P2P” 70K Run last Sunday, Paolo Osmena, a PAU member and BDM 102 veteran, gave me these three (3) “classic” running books which I consider as “collectors’ items” for seasoned runners. I was surprised and humbled by the generous gesture of Paolo of giving me these “treasures” among runners. Thank you very much, Paolo!
The Complete Book of Running by James Fixx was published in 1977 and it became as the best selling book for that year. I tried to look for this book in the 70s and 80s in the local bookstores but it was not available. While I was on schooling in Fort Benning, Georgia in the mid-80s and during my stay in Los Angeles after my schooling, I was not able to buy or look for this particular book, to include the other two books. There was no Amazon.com at that time yet. So, when Paolo gave me this book, it was my first time to actually hold and browse the pages of such book.
The red color of the cover, the running legs of the author, the red running shorts, and the red ASICS racing shoes were properly conceived as a “marketing” ploy for the book and it was a success. Nowadays, you seldom see red running shorts, red ASICS racing shoes, and running without socks!
The Second Book of Running by the same author was published in 1980 but it did not create the same magnitude of popularity of the first book. It would be noted that the color of the cover page was in blue—blue running shorts, blue Adidas running shoes, running without socks, and the same running legs of the author. Four years after this book was published, the author died due to heart attack after completing his daily running workout. He was 52 years old.
Dr George Sheehan is considered as the modern day “philosopher of running”. He was a cardiologist in profession but became popular due to his writings about running with an essay he wrote every week in local newspapers and later with the Runner’s World Magazine. He died at the age of 75 due to prostate cancer. This particular book was the second to the last book that was published before he died in 1993. This book is a compilation of the essays he wrote and published in his column/page with the Runner’s World Magazine.
On a personal note, Paolo is sending me a “message” by giving these most treasured books about running. He is telling me to write and publish also a book about my entries in this blog which had been my plan for the past years. It is a dream to write a book as a compilation of all the entries of this blog and it is a matter of organizing them from one general topic to another. I know that this dream will become a reality.
(Note: Photos of the books were taken from Amazon.com) | <urn:uuid:fb11bfe0-d29a-4f1d-ad2f-c8777ab92afe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baldrunner.com/2010/09/03/classic-running-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989103 | 694 | 1.679688 | 2 |
AUGUSTA — Gov. John E. Baldacci on Feb. 17 recognized Boy Scouts from the Pine Tree Council and the Katahdin Area Council at a State House celebration of the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouts of America.
The governor issued a proclamation declaring February as Scouting Anniversary Month.
“Our state’s reputation as a place where citizens are involved and concerned about their neighbors is one that others envy. That good fortune needs to be nurtured,” Baldacci said. “Respecting others and giving back to the community is not only what it means to be a Mainer, but it’s the Scouting tradition.”
“The work of the Boy Scouts of America fosters this connection of young people to their community,” the governor said. “Through the Boy Scouts, youth gain a better understanding of the world around them and develop experiences that will last a lifetime. Boy Scouts exemplify the true spirit of our communities and what it means to live in our great state.”
“Whereas, the Boy Scouts of America has been at the forefront of instilling the timeless values of leadership, achievement, community service, character and environmental stewardship in youth since its founding in 1910; and
Whereas, this national youth movement has made serving others through its values-based program its mission; and
Whereas, the Boy Scouts of America is committed to helping millions of youth succeed by providing the support, friendship and mentoring necessary to live a happy and fulfilling life; and
Whereas, the Katahdin Area and the Pine Tree Councils of the Boy Scouts of America and their Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops and Venturing crews are celebrating Scouting’s 100th anniversary with the theme “Celebrating the Adventure, Continuing the Journey;” and
Whereas, there are more than 525 community organizations that make Scouting available for more than 14,000 youth members in our state who participate in the Scouting program as a means of character building, citizenship training, and personal fitness,
Now, therefore, I, John E. Baldacci, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim February 2010 as Scouting Anniversary Month throughout the State of Maine, and urge all citizens to recognize this observance.” | <urn:uuid:a0ff10a0-80a8-4bf0-91dc-638c59423c3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bangordailynews.com/2010/02/24/the-weekly/governor-marks-boy-scoutsrsquo-100-years/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94142 | 464 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Generational tradition still alive at Tom Tom Festival
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Video: Tom Tom Festival
DID YOU KNOW?
The Tom Tom festival originated to honor Yoakum's tomato industry from the '20s and '30s. This Festival is one of the oldest in the region.
YOAKUM - Marshall Fowler plays to win, even if it's a simple game of tomato toss.
The 12-year-old competitor started eyeing the red, round balls to get an advantage.
"I already know which one I want to get," he said as he peaked into the bin.
The sounds of Texas Country blasting through the city park became his anthem. He snapped his fingers to the beat before the game started.
Marshall was crushed when one of the game officials, Connie Zimmerman told him, "You can't pick your own tomato."
His dreams were deferred but not denied. He changed his strategy and enlisted his partner, Kaci Herman, to intimidate the competition.
"You're little," Kaci told one of their opponents. She later gave him a hug and a warm smile.
Kaci shared some advice with her teammate, "You have to cup your hands when you catch it," she said.
The seventh-grader was among 20 players in the first Tomato Toss at the Tom Tom Festival.
For the past 84 years, residents from Yoakum and the surrounding communities have gathered to celebrate the historic event. There were about 300 people attending Saturday afternoon.
The city once served as a stopping point for green, wrapped tomatoes in the '20s and '30s. This year, organizers wanted to add creative ways to celebrate Yoakum's history.
"We were going to do an egg toss, then we decided, 'Let's just do tomatoes,'" said Zimmerman, the chamber chairwoman.
The Yoakum Chamber of Commerce hosted the festival, which contained a salsa contest, rodeos, a talent competition, washer tournaments, Weiner dog races, helicopter rides, parades, and, of course, tomato-related events.
There were also hours of live music throughout the day. Debra Vinklarek remembered how the festival used to be when it had street dances and a sense of familiarity.
"You would walk down the street and know everyone there," she said. "Now it's so many people here from out of town."
The 58-year-old Yoakum native did share laughs with her best friend and sister-in-law. "We've been friends since 1973," said Sheryl Vinklarek. "It's been a long time," Debra Vinklarek said jokingly.
Lynn Hart, of Weimar, a newcomer to the festival, came to help others indulge their sweet tooth. She sold cotton candy to sugar lovers of all ages. The 65-year-old grandmother of four wore the delectable delight on the top of her head.
Hart retired two years ago and travels in the region to attend various festivals. Although she runs a business, the mother of two revels in making others happy.
"Did you see how she smiled at me. That's it," she beamed.
Marshall's mother, Lisa Fowler, was proud of her youngest son. "He's my small-fry," she said.
The mother of three has a personal connection to the Yoakum festival. Her father, Pete Matthew, served as King Tom Tom in 1947.
"There's always been a Tom Tom," said Fowler, who also serves as secretary for the Chamber of Commerce.
Marshall kept his eye on the tomato prize. The little athlete just loved the feeling of participating in the contest. "It's real exhilarating to try not to drop the tomato," he said.
Although Marshall and Kaci had a perfect practice round, they were eliminated from the competition. Marshall dropped the tomato.
Their pint-sized competitor, Bryson, lost at the same time. The tomato juice splashed on his cargo khaki shorts and polo top.
The 4-H friends and teammates, Kaci and Marshall, left the match dry, but next year Marshall will try a new strategy.
"I'm going to try not to get her to throw to me with one hand," he said. | <urn:uuid:8470c69d-673f-4532-9ca5-2cb08c81ede6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2012/jun/02/cd_tom_tom_fest_060312_178338/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978805 | 907 | 1.773438 | 2 |
TOKYO—Life in Japan is showing tentative signs of returning to normal, but a fresh challenge may be facing the expatriates and Japanese who left and are now trickling back to their offices: how to cope with ostracism and anger from their colleagues who have worked through the crisis.
One foreigner, a fluent Japanese speaker at a large Japanese company, said that his Japanese manager and colleagues were "furious" with him for moving to Osaka for three days last week and that he felt he was going to have to be very careful to avoid being ostracized upon returning to work in Tokyo.
Japan Quake's Effects
The flight of the foreigners—known as gaijin in Japanese—has polarized some offices in Tokyo. Last week, departures from Japan reached a fever pitch after the U.S. Embassy unveiled a voluntary evacuation notice and sent in planes to ferry Americans to safe havens. In the exodus, a new term was coined for foreigners fleeing Japan: flyjin.
The expat employees' decision to leave is a sensitive cultural issue in a country known for its legions of "salarymen": loyal Japanese employees whose lives revolve around the office, who regularly work overtime and who have strong, emotional ties to their corporations and their colleagues.
"There is a split between [the Japanese and foreigners] on where their allegiances lie. In Japan, the company and family are almost one and the same, whereas foreigners place family first and company second," said Mark Pink, the founder of financial recruitment firm TopMoneyJobs.com, based in Tokyo.
The head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, at a news conference Tuesday, expressed his disappointment that so many foreigners—from the U.S., France, the U.K., China and Hong Kong, among others—had been urged to leave the country by their governments and by worried families. Their flight was at least in part due to the more alarmist tones the foreign media took in coverage of the disaster, compared with the local news that emphasized how problems were being addressed.
"Many countries arranged for planes to bring their people back home. In some embassies, they sent messages to their nationals in Japan that the situation is very dangerous, while at some companies, top executives have come to Japan to provide reassurance," said Atsushi Saito, head of the TSE. "It may be part of TSE's role to put down rumors and to transmit to foreign nations what a great country Japan is."
One expat in Tokyo, who runs his own small business, decided to go to London last week with a business partner. "It has been the right thing to do from a work-productivity point of view, as we have a big deadline to meet at the end of the month," he said. "That said, I don't feel very good about leaving and I'm sure people will perceive it as cowardly, and I won't object to that."
Those foreigners who return will find life in Tokyo is largely back to normal, with trains crowded during rush hour and men in suits packing restaurants during lunchtime in the city's main financial district. But signs of disruption linger: Many shops close at 6 p.m. to conserve electricity and many stores are still out of basics such as milk and toilet paper.
One foreign investment banker in Tokyo says he wasn't surprised that so many employees left. "We don't hire people into the financial industry to risk their lives—this is investment banking and we hire investment-banker types," he said. "We are trying to avoid ostracism for those who come back—there is no upside in that—but there is good-natured hazing."
To be sure, most foreign senior-level managers leading teams in Tokyo stayed in the capital or relocated their entire offices to other locations in Japan, according to several managers interviewed Tuesday. In most cases, the expats who left are stay-at-home mothers, their children and those workers who don't have staff reporting to them and can work remotely from Hong Kong and Singapore. Some Japanese, of course, also left Tokyo, though mainly women and children going home to their families in other parts of Japan, while their husbands stay in behind to work.
"If I had left as the president, my role as a leader would have been diminished," said Gerry Dorizas, the president of Volkswagen AG's operations in Japan, who has been in that role four years. "We've been very transparent."
VW Japan has moved all its staff, including 12 expats and 130 Japanese staff and their families, to Toyohashi in Aichi prefecture.
Boeing Co., which has operated in Japan for more than 50 years, says the majority of its 30-strong staff in Tokyo have remained, despite an offer to work in Nagoya, or for expats to take a home leave.
Christine Wright, managing director of Hays in Tokyo, one of the country's leading recruitment firms, said: "I saw no reason to leave; if you have a commitment to your staff, you stay there."
Some said the expats would likely find local colleagues to be more understanding than expected. They say a decade of deflation and economic hardship has changed the Japanese mindset. "I think the Japanese had more of the group mentality decades ago, but not so much now," said Shin Tanaka, head of PR firm Fleishman Hillard's operations in Japan. "I think most [Japanese] people are staying because they think there is little risk."
A Japanese employee at a foreign investment bank said he wasn't bothered by the fact that some of his colleagues left last week. He felt the gap was narrowed by technology, anyway, allowing some who left to do their share. "It hasn't really been a problem," he said. "They're working remotely out of other countries in Asia."
Still, the return of the "flyjin" to Tokyo and other areas of Japan will likely be an issue for management to grapple with one way or another in the coming weeks.
"Most companies are trying to give some space to people on both sides to adjust: the people who feel they were abandoned and the foreigners who are coming back and feeling some initial tension," said Mr. Pink. "Within a week or so that may resolve itself."—Alison Tudor and Kana Inagaki contributed to this article.
More Coverage of the Japan Earthquake
- Rescue by Bus: China Sends for Its Own
- Looting Rears Its Head in Japan
- China Concrete Pumper Gets Into Nuclear Effort
- Japan Plant Had Troubled History
- U.N. Agency Calls for Safety Review
- Officials Expect 'Ups and Downs' for Reactors
- Radiation Fears Prompt New Exodus
- Exams of U.S. Nuclear Plants Conducted
Write to Mariko Sanchanta at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:b1c990c0-11ac-42b2-a957-fe60ff32bfe6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576216301249128570.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 | 0.982673 | 1,422 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Snapshots from Greece: Spanikopita's Cousin, Hortopita
Whoever's running the spanikopita marketing campaign really deserves a raise. I was in Greece for almost a week before I realized that what I thought was spanikopita—layers of crispy phyllo dough stuffed with a cheesy, leafy green mess of joy—actually wasn't. It was hortopita, a savory pie cousin that contains horta, or edible wild greens such as dandelions, chard, kale, and lamb's quarters.
Horta directly translates as "grass" in Greek, but refers to about 80 different greens (step aside, spinach) growing all over the country—alongside highways, in fields, and many other places with dirt. It's delicious alone (sauteed with lemon and olive oil) but obviously a few hundred times better when feta and layered pastry sheets are involved.
You can find hortopita in bakeries all over Greece, usually in a big tray ready to be cubed out. Whether eaten as a snack or small meal, hortopita is much more common than spanikopita because it doesn't have to be limited to just spinach. Greeks can be more flexible with hortopita, using whatever greens are lying around.
If Popeye and Paula Deen ever raised children together, I think they'd fatten them up with hortopita, spanikopita, or anything else from this delicious vegetable-stuffed pastry family.
Snapshots from Greece: Nescafe Frappe
Snapshots from Greece: Koulouri, the Thessaloniki Street Food
Snapshots from Greece: The Modiano Market in Thessaloniki
Snapshots from Greece: Fage Yogurt
Snapshots from Greece: Souvlaki from O Thanasis in Athens | <urn:uuid:901c4d31-37c5-4812-a43f-fe5967f3f036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/07/print/hortopita-spanikopita-greek-spinach-pie-greens-pastries.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 | 0.934841 | 385 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- Talk to the expert 0844 879 3960
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Newari traders from the Kathmandu Valley established Bandipur as a hub on the Indo-Tibet road in the late-18th century, bringing with them the rich architectural heritage which endures in the town to this day. Bypassed by the main Pokhara–Kathmadu highway, its core of brick and wood shop-houses and temple, beautifully embellished with traditional metal work and wood carving, has remained miraculously unblemished by concrete. Moreover, superb views of the distant Himalaya are to be had from hilltop viewpoints around the town, reached via easy trails through the surrounding terraced fields and forests. | <urn:uuid:b7f58139-bab6-480e-99a3-ccf394c29f9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transindus.co.uk/highlight/bandipur | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970408 | 151 | 1.6875 | 2 |
COLUMBUS — Veterinarians at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium think they know what’s killed 14 of their exotic birds since April.
The zoo says a bacterial infection was passed from bird to bird, killing one-third of its lorikeets.
Zoo veterinarian Dr. Michael Barrie tells The Columbus Dispatch they think the infection has stopped and that the last death came more than a week ago.
The aviary that houses the birds and where visitors can walk through and feed nectar to the lorikeets has reopened.
The zoo’s veterinarian says they may never know what actually caused the infection. | <urn:uuid:b5132ae3-bff7-4822-b991-e39ac22b1841> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.toledoblade.com/State/2012/07/08/Columbus-Zoo-reopens-bird-exhibit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968056 | 131 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Message to Parents
H1N1 on the Campus - A message to Parents of Students of Memorial University Students
Media reports of the H1N1 flu have understandably caused some parents concern in recent days. Memorial University has experienced an increase in flu-like illness but we believe the situation is manageable.
Numbers to date
Our data shows that as of Nov. 10, 2009, approximately 1400 students (just over 8% of the student population) had reported flu-like illness on our self-reporting system. About 160 students in our residence complexes had reported flu-like illness. The majority of these cases have been resolved. None of the cases in residence has required hospitalization.
H1N1 Preparedness Planning
The health of our students is important to us. Since the spring, we worked with local health officials, public health agencies and our academic leaders to ensure that Memorial University was fully prepared for the arrival of H1N1 influenza. We educated our campus communities about proper hand washing and other activities to mitigate the spread of the H1N1 strain. We also arranged for town hall information sessions for students and employees focusing on the central message of ‘Clean, Cover and Contain’.
For a more complete picture of these efforts, and to find a number of contacts should you have any concerns or questions, please visit our web page at www.mun.ca/h1n1.
In addition, residence students are being monitored for H1N1 by residence personnel. Staff members have been briefed on symptoms and there is a systematic protocol in place for dealing with students who present with flu-like illness.
On the St. John's Campus staff will ensure that, if possible, the campus physician from Student Health Services (SHS) will visit to consult with students who are ill. Students with underlying health conditions (i.e. asthma, diabetes, etc.) and whose symptoms are severe will be transported to a hospital. Residence staff can make these arrangements if the student cannot.
Students at Grenfell Campus are advised to check with their family physicians. Anyone without a family doctor should contact Student Services at 637-6232, or call the provincial healthline at 1-888-709-2929.
The health of our students, your sons and daughters, is a top priority. If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at or e-mail us at:
About H1N1 Planning:
* David Head, Chair, Pandemic Preparedness Planning Committee at email@example.com or 709-737-4895;
* Karen Alexander, Emergency Management Coordinator, at firstname.lastname@example.org or phone 709-737-7544.
Further details about H1N1 Planning at Grenfell Campus:
Dennis Waterman, director of finance and administration; email@example.com, 709-637-6251
Mary Sparkes, coordinator, Student Services - firstname.lastname@example.org, 709-637-6248 | <urn:uuid:e78e9e83-24fa-4c97-807e-af3730502368> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mun.ca/h1n1/intro/Important_Updates_-_H1N1/parents.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93144 | 635 | 1.773438 | 2 |
As readers of this blog will know I am a proud man of York, a beautiful city in the north of England and home to the world-famous York Minster. Since an early age I have attended services here with my family and have often popped my head inside just to gawp at its splendour. The sound of its bells in the morning is, for me, the sound of home and for the people of this city the Minster is York.
Despite all of the wonder, this stunning cathedral is in dire need of help. It may come as a shock to learn that it costs around £20,000 a day to keep the Minster operating. Visitors often grumble at having to pay for admission to the building but their money directly supports the future of this holy and historic building. The funds raised from admission charges are not always enough, however, making other sources of income vitally important.
The York Minster Fund was originally founded in the 1960s in order to raise money for the restoration of the Minster’s Central Tower, which was in danger of collapse. Since then it has continued to generate funds for the work of conservation and restoration of the fabric of the building. We should all be able to enjoy this stunning building and help to preserve it for future generations but, to put it bluntly, York Minster cannot survive without your help.
To aid the work of the Fund I have set up an account with the online charity website Just Giving. If you have enjoyed reading this blog and would like to help support one of the World’s greatest cathedrals then please do make a donation. It’s quick and easy to do and your help is greatly appreciated. You can also aid many other cathedrals, churches and Anglican charities on Just Giving, so please do spend some time exploring their website.
Thank you for your support | <urn:uuid:ff7e37a8-4d6f-4847-8ccf-537a399c5cb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cathedrallicking.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/york-minster-fund/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=a21ac6eb7c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971232 | 382 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Pumpkin Pie Sale on Wednesday Helps Feed the Hungry, Freeze em’ for Thanksgiving!
Here’s a way for you to save time AND help feed the needy in the Northland. It’s become a yearly tradition that the First United Methodist Church members and students from the College of St. Scholastica join forces and make lots and lots of pies to sell with the proceeds going to CHUM. It happens Wednesday, so set a date reminder on your phone, or put a postie note where you’ll see it.
The fresh, delicious pies will be available at the First United Methodist “Coppertop” Church, 230 East Skyline Parkway in Duluth on Wednesday, October 3, from 1-5p. Cost is $10.
This is a great way to “get ahead” with your Thanksgiving feast. Buy pies and freeze them!
Meg Kearns, the CHUM Food Shelf Director says, “We receive cans and cans of pumpkin each year, many more than we can distribute.” LeAnn House, St. Scholastica music faculty member and FUMC member, heard about the extra cans of pumpkin and came up with the idea of the annual pie sale.
Throughout the year the CHUM Emergency Food Shelf is stocked with non-perishable food items donated by area congregations and other groups. “Along with those canned goods, we need cash in order to purchase meats, milk, cheese and other perishable items,” Kearns explains.
Average food costs have risen from 22 cents per pound to 28 cents per pound over the last year. “We are seeing more people in need of food assistance and they are returning more often. It has become more difficult,” Kearns states “to keep our food shelves full.”
Unsold pies will be distributed to Food Shelf guests for Thanksgiving.
In related news, the Thanksgiving Day Buffet will be open to all at the DECC again this year. Volunteer sign up is now open! | <urn:uuid:0f4aad30-0509-41b5-9d45-f82a2fe9a694> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kkcb.com/pumpkin-pie-sale-on-wednesday-helps-feed-the-hungry-freeze-em-for-thanksgiving/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941596 | 429 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Remarks on the World Situation
Intellectual Idealists, World Events
and the New Creation
I cannot persuade myself that all the things that are happening — including the triumph of the British policy and deterioration
of Gandhi's intellect — are meant for the best. . . . Bengal is now benighted and there is no sign of light anywhere. Tagore
too has just written an article of despair in which he forebodes
gloomily an end of the world, pralaya-kalpānta, as perhaps the quickest and most satisfactory solution to the mess we
are in. Add to this my own lack of devotion and faith. . . . I do sometimes even feel that in the end you will give up this
wicked world and wish with Tagore for the pralaya and retire into extracosmic samadhi.
I have no intention of doing so — even if all smashed; I would look beyond the smash to the new creation. As for what is
happening in the world, it does not upset me because I knew all along that things would happen in that fashion. I never had any
illusions about Gandhi's satyagraha — it has only fulfilled my prediction that it would end in a great confusion or a great fiasco
and my only mistake was that I put an "or" where there should have been an "and"
— and as for the hopes of the intellectual
idealists I have not shared them, so I am not disappointed.
10 August 1933
Gandhi, Tagore and the New Creation
A friend writes: "Tagore and the Tagorians have by now all
but given up Sri Aurobindo for lost — as one irreclaimable. . . . They no longer have the faith they once had that Sri Aurobindo
was going to inaugurate a new era of creation in the world of fact." I feel that Tagore has come to this conclusion after
reading your Riddle of This World, which must have appeared to him more of a riddle than an explanation. For formerly he
Page – 209
wrote enthusiastically to me about you as a creator. I suspect also that Romain Rolland's retraction has something to do
with Tagore's retraction. But I expect sooner or later he will write somewhere about your becoming a thorough introvert.
There of course the whole Bengal intelligentsia (such as it is) will agree with him. Are you staggered at such a lugubrious
I cannot find any symptom of a stagger in me, not even of a shake
or a quake or a quiver — all seems quite calm and erect, as far as I can make out. And I don't find the prospect lugubrious at all
— the less people expect of you and bother you with their false ideas and demands, the more chance one has to get something
real done. It is queer these intellectuals go on talking of creation
while all they stand for is collapsing into the Néant without their being able to raise a finger to save it. What the devil are they going to create and from what material? and of what use if a Hitler with his cudgel or a Mussolini with his castor oil can come and
wash it out or beat it into dust in a moment?
23 March 1934
The World Situation before World War II
I was discussing the Ethiopian problem with some friends. One
suggested it would result in a world war. He thought such a war would clear the way for the supramental and supposes
that Mussolini would help precipitate the war. Perhaps after the war everybody will be so tired out that they will begin to
read the Arya or else go to the Wardha Ashram to get peace.
I don't think! They will only gasp and talk peace for a bit and
then get ready for another war. I don't see why the supramental should need a general carnage for its appearance
— if it were
so it should surely have appeared in 1919. But perhaps that was sufficient only for the overmind to look in and it needed
Mussolini and a general extermination by all sorts of poison gases to persuade the supramental to follow suit? For the poison
gases by aeroplane were not ready to make their "descent" in the last war.
8 September 1935
Page – 210
The adage "Honesty is the best policy" was invented in a
semi-barbarous age when mankind had not made so much progress
as now, an age which no longer exists — except perhaps in the wilds of Abyssinia, and now Mussolini is out to finish with it
and bring in the blessings of civilisation even there. Nowadays the saying is notoriously out of date; it only means that with
honesty you have less chances of going to jail — provided you are lucky and also provided you have not met Mahatma Gandhi.
But Rockefellers and the rest of the commercial aristocracy were not born for jail but for palaces with marble water closets and
the immortality of Rockefeller institutes and honour in the land of the gangsters and the free. All this is not meant to tempt you
out of the paths of virtue.
7 November 1935
You write as if what is going on in Europe were a war between
the powers of Light and the powers of Darkness — but this is no more so than during the Great War. It is a fight between two
kinds of Ignorance.1 Our aim is to bring down a higher Truth, but that Truth must be able to live by its own strength and not
depend upon the victory of one or other of the forces of the Ignorance. That is the reason why we are not to mix in political
or social controversies and struggles; it would simply keep down our endeavour to a lower level and prevent the Truth from descending which is none of these things but has a quite different law and basis. You speak of Brahmatej being overpowered by
Kshatratej, but where is that happening? None of the warring parties incarnates either.
17 February 1937
On World War II
You have said that you have begun to doubt whether it was the Mother's war and ask me to make you feel again that it is. I
affirm again to you most strongly that this is the Mother's war. You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against
1 The reference is to the Nationalist and Republican forces, and their Fascist and
Communist backers, during the Spanish Civil War. — Ed.
Page – 211
others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth
that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind
in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or that superficial circumstance. It
is no use concentrating on the defects or mistakes of nations; all have defects and commit serious mistakes; but what matters is
on what side they have ranged themselves in the struggle. It is a struggle for the liberty of mankind to develop, for conditions in
which men have freedom and room to think and act according to the light in them and grow in the Truth, grow in the Spirit. There
cannot be the slightest doubt that if one side wins, there will be an end of all such freedom and hope of light and truth and the
work that has to be done will be subjected to conditions which would make it humanly impossible; there would be a reign of
falsehood and darkness, a cruel oppression and degradation for most of the human race such as people in this country do not
dream of and cannot yet at all realise. If the other side that has declared itself for the free future of humanity triumphs, this
terrible danger will have been averted and conditions will have been created in which there will be a chance for the Ideal to
grow, for the Divine Work to be done, for the spiritual Truth for which we stand to establish itself on the earth. Those who
fight for this cause are fighting for the Divine and against the threatened reign of the Asura.2
29 July 1942
I just received a long letter from Krishnaprem. He evidently wants to qualify his statement about violence. For myself I
have no doubt as you who know have said so. Only one point gave rise to doubts in me, in regard to what Nolini wrote in his
2 This letter and the one that follows were later revised and issued as messages, first to
the members of the Ashram, then to the general public. They are published, as revised,
in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, pp. 463 68. In the present volume they are
published as originally written. — Ed.
Page – 212
masterly analysis of the values at stake, comparing this war to Kurukshetra.3 This is exactly what troubles Krishnaprem.
How can the Allied Powers be compared to the Pandavas? I never doubted the wisdom of all efforts being directed against
Hitler, but is it not unwise to compare him to Duryodhana and the Allied Powers to the Pandavas? I have received of late
from correspondents and friends objections to that effect — that the Allies can hardly be dubbed "modern Pandavas". The
Pandavas were protagonists of virtue and unselfishness, which can hardly be said of the Allies who are all selfish (more or
less) and exploiters of weaker races and imperialistic.4
What I have said is not that the Allies have never done wrong
things, but that they stand on the side of the evolutionary forces. I have not said that at random, but on what to me are clear
grounds of fact. What you speak of is the dark side. All nations and governments have shown that side in their dealings
with each other, — at least all who had the strength or got the chance. I hope you are not expecting me to believe that there
are or have been virtuous Governments and unselfish and sinless peoples? It is only individuals and not too many of them
who can be described in that style. But there is the other side also. Your correspondents are condemning the Allies on grounds
that people in the past would have stared at, on the basis of modern ideals of international conduct; but looked at like that,
all big nations and many small ones have black records. But who created these ideals or did most to create them (liberty,
democracy, equality, international justice and the rest)? Well, America, France, England
— the present Allied nations. They
have all been imperialistic and still bear the burden of their
3 The reference is to the essay "Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre" written in Bengali by
Nolini Kanta Gupta and published along with other material in a pamphlet entitled
Sri Aurobindo o Bartaman Yuddha ("Sri Aurobindo and the Present War") in Bengali year
1349 (1942 43). The title "Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre" is taken from the Bhagavad
Gita and evokes the Kurukshetra war. At the end of the essay, the writer mentions
Duryodhana and his ninety-nine brothers, who were on one side in that war, and the
five Pandava brothers and Sri Krishna, who were on the other side. — Ed.
4 Here Sri Aurobindo wrote between two lines of the correspondent's letter:
"Good Heavens, but so were the Pandavas, even if less than more! They were human beings,
not ascetics or angels." — Ed.
Page – 213
past, but they have also deliberately spread these ideals and introduced self-governing bodies and parliamentary institutions
where they did not exist; and whatever the relative worth of these things, they have been a stage, even if a still imperfect
stage, in a forward evolution. (What of the others? What about the Axis' new order? Hitler swears it is a crime to educate the
coloured peoples, they must be kept as serfs and labourers.) England has helped certain nations to be free without seeking
any personal gain; she has conceded independence to Egypt and Eire after a struggle, to Iraq without a struggle. On the whole
she has been for some time moving away steadily from Imperialism towards a principle of free association and cooperation;
the British Commonwealth of England and the Dominions is something unique and unprecedented, a beginning of new things
in that direction. She is turning in spirit in the direction of a world-union of some kind after the war; her new generation
no longer believes in an "imperial mission"; she has offered India Dominion Independence (even, if she prefers it, she can
choose or pass on to isolated independence) after the war, on the base of an agreed free constitution to be chosen by Indians
themselves; though this, it has been feared, leaves a loophole for reactionary delay, it is in itself extremely reasonable and it
is the Indians themselves with their inveterate habit of disunion who will be responsible if they are imbecile enough to reject
the opportunity. All that is what I call evolution in the right direction — however slow and imperfect and hesitating. As for
America she has forsworn her past imperialistic policies in regard to Central and South America, in Cuba, the Philippines,
— everywhere apart from some islands in the Pacific which would go plop into other hands, if she withdrew from them.
It is perhaps possible, some suggest, that she may be tempted towards a sort of financial imperialism, the rule of the Almighty
American Dollar, by her new sense of international power, or led into other mistakes, but if so we may fairly assume from
her other strong tendencies that she will soon withdraw from it. The greater danger is that she may retire again into a selfish
isolationism after the war and so destroy or delay the chance of
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a possible beginning that may lead eventually to some beginning of a free world-union. But still there again is the evolutionary
force. Is there a similar trend on the part of the Axis? The answer is plain enough both from their own declarations and
their behaviour. Avowedly and openly, Nazi Germany today stands for the reversal of this evolutionary tendency, for the
destruction of the new international outlook, the new Dharma, for a reversion not only to the past, but to a far-back primitive
and barbaric ideal. She fully intended to reimpose it on the whole earth, but would have done so if she had had, as for a
time she seemed to have, the strength to conquer. There can be no doubt or hesitation here; if we are for the evolutionary future
of mankind, we must recognise that it is only the victory of the Allies that can save it. At the very least, they are at the moment
the instruments of the evolutionary Forces to save mankind's future, and these declarations of their own show that they are
conscious of it. Other elements and motives there are, but the main issue is here. One has to look at things on all sides, to see
them steadily and whole. Once more, it is the forces working behind that I have to look at, I don't want to go blind among
surface details. The future has first to be safeguarded; only then can present problems and contradictions have a chance to be
solved and eliminated.
Krishnaprem too has become doubtful about the Allies being
compared to the Pandavas. Would you kindly throw some light on the question?
For us the question put by you does not arise. The Mother made it plain in a letter which has been made public that we did not
consider the war as a fight between nations or governments (still less between good people and bad people) but between
two forces, the Divine and the Asuric. What we have to see is on which side men and nations put themselves; if they put
themselves on the right side, they at once make themselves instruments of the Divine purpose in spite of all defects, errors,
wrong movements and actions (past or present or possible
Page – 215
backslidings in the future) which are common to human nature and to all human collectivities. The victory of one side (the
Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces; the victory of the other side would drag back humanity, degrade
it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished. That
is the whole question and all other considerations are either irrelevant or of a minor importance. The Allies at least stand for
human values, though they may often have acted against their own best ideals (human beings always do that); Hitler stands
for diabolical values or for human values exaggerated in the wrong way until they become diabolical (e.g. the "virtues" of the
Herrenvolk, the master race). That does not make the English or Americans nations of spotless angels nor the Germans a wicked
and sinful race, but as an indicator it has a decisive importance.
Nolini, I should suppose, gave the Kurukshetra example
not as an exact parallel but as a traditional instance of a War between two world-forces in which the side favoured by the
Divine triumphed, because its leaders made themselves his instruments. I don't suppose he envisaged it as a battle between
virtue and wickedness or between good and evil men or intended to equate the British with the Pandavas, nations with
individuals or even individuals with individuals, — shall we say, Stafford Cripps with Yudhisthir, Churchill with Bhima and General Montgomery with Arjuna! After all, were even the Pandavas virtuous without defect, calm and holy and quite unselfish and
without passions? There are many incidents in the Mahabharat which seem to show to the contrary that they had their defects
and failings. And in the Pandava army and its leaders there must have been many who were not angels or paragons of virtue,
while there were plenty of good men and true on Duryodhana's side. Unselfishness? But were not the Pandavas fighting to establish their own claims and interests — just and right, no doubt, but still personal claims and self-interest? Theirs was a righteous
battle, dharmya yuddha, but it was for right and justice in their own case. The Allies have as good or even a better case and
reason to call theirs a righteous quarrel, for they are fighting
Page – 216
not only for themselves, for their freedom and very existence, but for the existence, freedom, maintenance of natural rights
of other nations, Poles, Czechs, Norwegians, Belgians, Dutch, French, Greece, Yugoslavia and a vast number of others not yet
directly threatened; they too claim to be fighting for a Dharma, for civilised values, for the preservation of great ideals and in
view of what Hitler represents and openly professes and what he wishes to destroy, their claim has strong foundations. And
if imperialism is under all circumstances a wickedness, then the Pandavas are tainted with that brush, for they used their victory to establish their empire continued after them by Parikshit and Janamejaya. Could not modern humanism and pacifism
make it a reproach against the Pandavas that these virtuous men (including Krishna) brought about a huge slaughter (alas
for Ahimsa!) that they might establish their sole imperial rule over all the numerous free and independent peoples of India?
Such a criticism would be grotesquely out of place, but it would be a natural result of weighing ancient happenings in the scales
of modern ideals. As a matter of fact, such an empire was a step in the right direction then, just as a world-union of free peoples
would be a step in the right direction now, — and in both cases the right consequences of a terrific slaughter.
Who are the people who have such a tenderness for Hitler and object to his being compared to Duryodhana? I hope they
are not among those — spiritual people among them, I am told, — who believe
— or perhaps once believed? — Hitler to be the
new Avatar and his religion (God help us!) to be the true religion which we must all help to establish throughout the wide world
or among those who regard Hitler as a great and good man, a saint, an ascetic and all that is noble and godlike. I don't
see why Hitler should not be compared to Duryodhana, except that Duryodhana, if alive, might complain indignantly that the
comparison was a monstrous and scandalous injustice to him and that he never did anything like what Hitler has done. By
the way, what about Krishna's jitvā śatrūn bhunksva rājyam samrddham? An unholy and unethical bribe? Or what on earth
did he mean by it? But battle and conquest and imperial rule
Page – 217
were then a dharma and consecrated by a special form of sacrifice. We should remember that conquest and rule over subject
peoples were not regarded as wrong either in ancient or medieval times and even quite recently but as something great and
glorious; men did not see any special wickedness in conquerors or conquering nations. Just government of subject peoples was
envisaged, but nothing more — exploitation was not excluded. No doubt, many nations in the past were jealous of their own
independence and some like the Greeks and later the English had the ideal of freedom, more especially of individual liberty. But
the passion for individual liberty went along in ancient times with the institution of slavery which no Greek democrat ever
thought to be wrong; no Greek state or people thought it an injustice to take away the freedom of other Greek states, still
less of foreign peoples, or deemed it immoral to rule over subject races. The same inconsistency has held sway over human ideas
until recent times and still holds sway over international practice even now. The modern ideas on the subject, the right of all to
liberty both individuals and nations, the immorality of conquest and empire, or, short of such absolutist ideas, such compromises
as the British idea of training subject races for democratic freedom, are new values, an evolutionary movement, a new Dharma
which has only begun slowly and initially to influence practice, — an infant Dharma that would be throttled for good if Hitler
succeeded in his "Avataric" mission and established his new "religion" over all the earth. Subject nations naturally accept
the new Dharma and severely criticise the old imperialisms; it is to be hoped that they will practise what they now preach when
they themselves become strong and rich and powerful. But the best will be if a new world-order evolves which will make the old
things impossible, — a difficult task, but not, with God's grace, absolutely impracticable.
The Divine takes men as they are and uses them as his instruments even if they are not flawless in character, without
stain or sin or fault, exemplary in virtue, or angelic, holy and pure. If they are of good will, if, to use the Biblical phrase, they
are on the Lord's side, that is enough for the work to be done.
Page – 218
Even if I knew that the Allies (I am speaking of the "big" nations, America, Britain, China) would misuse their victory or bungle
the peace or partially at least spoil the opportunities opened to the human world by that victory, I would still put my force
behind them. At any rate, things could not be one hundredth part as bad as they would be under Hitler. The ways of the Lord
would still be open — to keep them open is what matters. Let us stick to the real issue and leave for a later time all side-issues
and minor issues or hypothetical problems that would cloud the one all-important and tragic issue before us.
P.S. This is an answer to what is implied in your letter and, I suppose, in those of your correspondents, not to anything in
K's letter. His observations are all right, but circumstances alter cases. Ours is a sadhana which involves not only devotion or
union with the Divine or a perception of him in all things and beings, but also action as workers and instruments and a work to
be done in the world, a spiritual force to be brought on the world, under difficult conditions; then one has to see one's way and do
what is commanded and support what has to be supported, even if it means war and strife carried on whether through chariots
and bows and arrows or tanks and cars and American bombs ˙
and aeroplanes, in either case a ghoram karma: the means and times and persons differ, but it does not seem to me that Nolini
is wrong in seeing in it the same problem as in Kurukshetra. As for war, violence, the use of force to maintain freedom for
the world, for the highest values of human civilisation, for the salvation of humanity from a terrible fate, etc., the old command
rings out once again after many ages for those who must fight .
or support this battle for the right, mayaivaite nihatāh pūrvam
eva nimittamātram bhava savyasācin.
2 September 1943
The War and Sri Aurobindo's Work
The other day X said that Hitler had so arranged things that
the Allies will not be able to make any headway in Italy. Also that in Russia he has shortened his front so that the Russians
will not move any further.
Page – 219
Well, they seem to be making some headway in spite of Hitler's arrangement. I seem to remember Hitler made arrangements for
taking Stalingrad; the result was that he has been kicked out almost entirely from old Russia.
Also he said that Japan was going to crush China in three months.
It doesn't look like it; but perhaps they have confidential information?
Then the day before yesterday I heard about Y's remark about the Allied paratroops having been wiped out.
declared that Y had said no such thing. I wondered about this, made inquiries and was told that he had said something. Did
People say that he did — on the authority of the man to whom
he said it. Does Y deny his saying it?
Write to me if you find a little time whether I am right in
feeling that speculating intellectually about Allied reverses is not a right movement as it may easily lead us, unawares, into
sympathy with the hostile hordes who are against your work.
All these things are silly utterances in which the wishes of the
mind are presented as truth and fact. That is a common habit in this very imperfect humanity and ordinarily it would be of no
importance, except that such inventions and falsehoods are most improper in the mouth of a sadhaka and the habit must be a great
obstacle to any progress. But here the wish behind, whether they are conscious of it or not, is that the Asura shall prevail against
the Divine. That means a most dangerous giving of oneself to the Falsehood that is seeking to prolong its hold on the world
and establish definitely the reign of Evil over the whole world. That is what the victory of Hitler would have meant
— it would
have meant also the destruction of my work. You are quite right therefore in resenting this kind of attitude (also there is the fact
that it establishes a centre of support for the Falsehood and Evil
Page – 220
in the Asram). The propagation of this Falsehood, false ideas, false feelings, false actions and persuading people that they are
right is the chief instrument of the Asura and its prevalence and success a sign of the growth of darkness on the earth. Fortunately
the intensity of the peril is over, however long the struggle may still last. Other perils and manoeuvres of the Asura may follow
afterwards; so it is good to discourage firmly the tendency so that it may not do harm hereafter.
10 June 1944
The Situation after the War
All that [answers to various questions] is however another matter than the question about the present human civilisation. It is
not this which has to be saved; it is the world that has to be saved, and that will surely be done, though it may not be so easily or so
soon as some wish or imagine or in the way that they imagine. The present civilisation must surely change, but whether by a
destruction or a new construction on the basis of a greater truth, is the issue. The Mother has left the question hanging and I can
only do the same. After all, the wise man, unless he is a prophet or the Director of the Madras Astrological Bureau, must often
be content to take the Asquithian position. Neither optimism nor pessimism is the truth, they are only modes of the mind or
moods of the temperament. Let us then, without either excessive optimism or excessive pessimism, "wait and see".
2 September 1945
This is no time for patting the Germans on the back or embracing and consoling them. If they are allowed to get on their legs again
without trouble or without making an atonement for the horror of darkness and suffering they have inflicted on the world, they
will rise only to repeat their performance, — unless somebody else forestalls them. The only help we can give to Germany now
19 March 1946
Page – 221
I know that this is a time of trouble for you and everybody. It is so for the whole world; confusion, trouble, disorder and upset
everywhere is the general state of things. The better things that are to come are preparing or growing under a veil and the worse
are prominent everywhere. The one thing is to hold on and to hold out till the hour of light has come.
2 June 1946
Capitalism and Socialism
Sri Aurobindo is in no way bound by the present world's institutions or current ideas whether in the political, social or economic
field; it is not necessary for him either to approve or disapprove of them.5 He does not regard either capitalism or orthodox
socialism as the right solution for the world's future; nor can he admit that the admission of private enterprise by itself makes
the society capitalistic, a socialistic economy can very well admit some amount of controlled or subordinated private enterprise
as an aid to its own working or a partial convenience without ceasing to be socialistic. Sri Aurobindo has his own view as to
how far Congress economy is intended to be truly socialistic or whether that is only a cover, but he does not care to express his
view on that point at present.
15 April 1949
5 Sri Aurobindo dictated this note to his secretary, who replied to the correspondent.
Page – 222 | <urn:uuid:90fcb0a5-e2a8-4f0c-bd0d-796756f0f8f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sriaurobindoashram.com/Content.aspx?ContentURL=_StaticContent/SriAurobindoAshram/-09%20E-Library/-01%20Works%20of%20Sri%20Aurobindo/-01%20English/-03_CWSA/-35_Letters%20On%20Himself%20And%20The%20Ashram/-21_Remarks%20on%20the%20World%20Situation%201933%20%C2%AD%201949.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965913 | 6,638 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Americans Believe in the Value of Homes
Americans remain highly confident about the nation’s housing prospects, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports. More than four out of five homeowners expect the value of their home to appreciate over the next five years and nearly seven out of 10 say it is their most valuable investment, according to results from a new nationwide survey.
“The poll clearly debunks the more sensational media reports speculating on the demise of the housing market,” said David Pressly, president of NAHB and a home builder from Statesville, N.C. “It is interesting to note that other polls conducted by major news organizations have come up with similar results, indicating that despite the current housing market downturn Americans resoundingly believe that buying a home is the best investment they can ever make.”
The survey of 2,000 households, including more than 1,750 registered voters, was conducted by RT Strategies between October 26-29, 2006.
The polling found that 81 percent of homeowners believe that the value of their homes will rise over the next five years. Only 13 percent felt their home would fall in value, while 4 percent expected no change and 3 percent were unsure.
In addition, 69 percent of the respondents listed their home as their most valuable investment. By contrast, this was followed by 401(k) and other retirement accounts, with just 11 percent of those polled citing this as their top investment.
Looking ahead, NAHB said the housing market is poised for solid and sustained growth in the future.
“We are in the midst of an inevitable adjustment following the housing boom of 2004-2005 when housing market activity soared to unsustainable levels,” said NAHB chief economist David Seiders. “Housing demand should stabilize in short order and the downward adjustment to housing production should run its course by mid-2007. The market that emerges from this correction will display good balance between supply and demand and move to a healthy and sustainable trend based on solid underlying fundamentals.”
© Copyright 2006 Key Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission. | <urn:uuid:5860d1a1-12e5-4833-ba8b-8852efadc224> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usglassmag.com/Door_and_Window_Maker/Backissues/2006/December2006/IndustryIndices.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967264 | 440 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The opening scene of the documentary film Waste Land looks like it's straight out of Wall-E heaps upon heaps of garbage, which make such a pointed statement about excessive waste that you'll never want to throw away anything again. Filmmaker Lucy Walker tackles tough topics, often with a unique twist. This, her third of four films, made in Rio de Janeiro at the site of the world's largest landfill, does just that. Through her lens she'll make you rejoice in humanity's ability to turn trash into treasure. The British-born filmmaker will be on hand tonight at the International Documentary Association's Doc U Conversations With Lucy Walker at Cinefamily to talk about Waste Land and her other triumphs: Blindsight, about six blind Tibetan teens who climb Mt. Everest; Devil's Playground, about Amish teenagers during rumspringa, the traditional experimentation period; and Countdown to Zero, a harrowing look at the nuclear arms race. IDA board president and Oscar-nominated doc filmmaker Eddie Schmidt narrates her body of work, followed by a Q&A with Walker.
Mon., Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m., 2010 | <urn:uuid:f7ea953f-16ef-4281-87fc-648758f1f910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laweekly.com/2010-10-14/calendar/little-miss-sundance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947584 | 238 | 1.742188 | 2 |
I get lots of questions about how I was I able to create an image and my response normally is to get it right the first time. What is the first time? The first time is when you’re actually taking the photo. I place a big emphasis on this because I would much rather be shooting than sitting in front of a computer trying to “fix” something, especially if I saw the problem when I was taking the photo.
Some of the biggest problems with trying to fix a problem later are:
You may end up with a situation where you can’t satisfactorily remove something from the photo such as trash, branches, or something that just looks out of place. Just stop what you’re doing and remove it.
Trying to fix poor exposure will always degrade the quality of a file. Increasing the exposure will add noise/grain to you image. Trying to reduce exposure can result in some highlights that just can’t be recovered and will be blown out. It’s best to get it right to get it at capture.
Focus just can’t be fixed if you missed it. You can try to mask it by sharpening the areas that you wanted in focus but it’s just not the same as if you nailed it.
The amount of time you’ll spend trying to fix the same problem on multiple files really adds up and it gets tedious. Who wants to sit through hundreds of files fixing mistakes you made. You can’t batch fix all problems, especially when it comes to cloning out something unwanted since it would shift from picture to picture.
Camera Model: NIKON D700
Lens: 70.0-200.0mm f/2.8 VRII
Focal Length: 200mm
Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100)
ISO equiv: 200
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB
Photographer: Robert Bromfield
Copyright: RBromfield Photography http://robertbromfield.com
So now that we have covered “Getting it Right in Camera,” let’s take a look at shot discipline. Shot discipline is the technique that you use to create photos. Note that shot discipline takes place even before you start shooting.
Think about the type of lenses you will be using. We’ll talk about portraits in this instance. Longer focal lengths are always preferred since they have the ability to slim your subject, isolate your subject from the background, and compression effect it has people is very pleasing to the eye.
Think about the focal lengths you will be using. A wide angle lens up closes will distort and make your subject have enlarged features. I won’t use a wide angle lens for a portrait unless I wanted to include the background in the photo in a meaningful way. If you’re using a zoom lens you could use a shorter focal length to capture the entire subject but on the other hand it’s best to zoom to the longest focal length and step back. Of course you have to be practical about how far you can step back. The photo above was taken at 200mm and I was quite a ways back. This allowed me to isolate the subject from the background and it created the illusion that the background was a lot closer to the subject than it really was.
Think about how you will frame your subject within the photo. I really only believe in cropping in camera and not in post processing. If I have to crop after the fact it usually means I wasn’t close enough to my subject, I didn’t pay attention to distracting elements in the photo and/or I didn’t have the right lens. When you crop an image you are reducing the image quality but that’s not the worse part for me, when you crop you are changing the aspect ratio for the photo. If you wanted to print a photo then you may have to crop again to regain the proper aspect ratio. Plus why throw away part of your image?
Observing what’s in your frame goes hand in hand with this also. Make sure you don’t have a pole or a tree growing out of your subjects head. If you see something distracting such as garbage, branches and things that you can remove. Remove it! Nothing beats cloning something out in real life.
Sharpness and focus. This one is really big for me. Sharpness is crucial for me and I go through great lengths to make sure I produce sharp photos.
- I make sure I use a fast enough shutter speed. I try to make sure that my shutter speed is equivalent or faster than my focal length but that’s not always possible.
- Turn on Vibration Reduction if the lens has it.
- Before taking a photo I exhale then hold my breath. This reduces the amount of sway that you introduce.
- Use back button focus. When you use the shutter release button to focus and take the photo you tend to push harder on the button, this in turn moves the camera. Instead roll your finger onto the shutter release button. This also separates the Vibration Reduction functionality from focusing.
- Use a sharp lens.
- Use a tripod if you can, even for portraits.
For focus I make it a point to focus on the subjects eyes or the nearest eye to me. Nothing ruins a portrait faster than out of focus eyes and/or face. Furthermore choosing the correct aperture to determine how much of your photo is in focus is also key. A smaller aperture, larger number, will have more in focus and a larger aperture, a smaller number, will have less in focus.
Think about how will you light your subject. Will you use ambient light, mix ambient with strobes or just use strobes? My favorite is to mix ambient with strobes. I prefer this method since:
- I can control how the lighting looks.
- I can control the direction of lighting
- I can use lower ISO settings when the light starts to dim.
- Sometimes with ambient light you just have certain shadows that you just can’t eliminate,.
- You can create soft light at will with a strobe and a modifier.
From the example portrait above I mixed ambient with a strobe. I metered using a handheld light meter. This allowed me to control two zones of lighting. The light on the subject which was lit by the strobe and the background which was lit by the ambient sunlight. To get flattering light I used a modifier which was a 60″ umbrella. With light modifiers the bigger it is and the closer it is, the softer the light will be and the faster the light will fall off.
Find the right moment by paying attention to your subject. Instead of taking many spray and pray photos why not just focus on a few keys moments and nail those instead. When you take a lot of unnecessary photos you have to cull a lot which wastes time.
In conclusion, when you bring everything together, which can seem like a lot, you get a much better starting point. When you bring the photo into your image editor you are enhancing your image instead of fixing your image. The portrait above is straight out of the camera with no edits except adding a watermark. If I were to enhance the portrait I would remove any blemishes that were on the subject’s skin. | <urn:uuid:d31c72c4-c312-4ee0-b5a4-38128639440f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://robertbromfield.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938309 | 1,548 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Welcome to our first Coastal Roundup. Every Friday, we’ll post a combination of local events and links to interesting articles relating to coastal ecology, fishing/ seafood, and tourism- basically everything relating to the ecosystems we cover (salt marsh, oyster reef, and seagrass bed). Leave a comment below if you’d like us to include your upcoming events.
Rebecca Wilkerson & Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV
Back in the Grass and on the Reefs
We’re back in full production on new videos that explore our coasts and the coastal way of life through the habitats that feed and employ so many in our area. The slideshow below takes you through the last couple of weeks as we got wet and muddy with Dr. Randall Hughes and Dr. David Kimbro.
We’ve been heading back to St. Joe Bay to cover Randall Hughes’ marsh and seagrass bed studies, and this week we’ve been noticing a lot of people out on the water filling their buckets with scallops. Bay Scallop Season started July 1, and has just been extended by two weeks to close on September 25th. For more information on licensing and catch limits, visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife page on scallop season.
To top off your day of scalloping with a quick and delicious meal, try Bay Scallop Scampi paired perfectly with a crusty bread or steamed veggies.
Red Snapper Season has been extended six days in the Gulf of Mexico. Due to bad weather in June and loss of fishing opportunities, the NOAA Fisheries decided to extend the last day of harvest until July 16th. For more information, including the recent changes, read the full Florida Fish and Wildlife update on Red Snapper Season. (photo copyright Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
While the red snapper has been extended, Snook Season in the Gulf of Mexico will remain closed for another year and is now expected to reopen September 1, 2013. However, catch-and-release of snook will be allowed during the closure with proper technique, and the Atlantic season will remain unchanged. To learn more about the closure or the proper catch-and-release technique, read Florida Fish and Wildlife’s news release.
FSU Coastal and Marine Lab
The FSUCML Conservation Lecture Series presents Auburn University’s Dr. Mark Albis. He will share his findings on the effects of invasive Pacific Red Lionfish on Atlantic coral-reef fish communities. The lectures are open to the public. To find out more about the presentation or upcoming lectures, visit the FSU Coastal and Marine Lab page.
“Sopchoppy Stop” Eco-Heritage Tour
This tour will take place on July 14, beginning with a stroll through historical Sopchoppy and continuing via guided cruise along the Sopchoppy River. Learn more about the tour here.
The C-Quarters Marina’s 8th Annual Youth Fishing Tournament July 21st
The tournament is open to all kids 16 years old and younger, who can fish along the Carrabelle River to Dog Island. All participants must be registered prior to the tournament. Entrants must also attend a Fishing Clinic on the evening before Saturday’s tournament. To learn more including regulations and what will be provided to the kids, visit the C-Quarters Marina’s page on the tournament. (photo copyright Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
We first met Alicia Brown just after her arrival at the FSU Coastal and Marine Lab, when she helped Dr. David Kimbro with his October 2010 “Oyster Push” experiment. Alicia, along with Dr. Laura Petes and fellow grad student Carley Knight, have published a paper in the journal Ecology and Evolution. The study looks at how low freshwater input affects the survival of the Apalachicola oyster population. Read their full paper here.
Tropical Storm Debby
Many of us are still drying off from Tropical Storm Debby, and while life is getting back to normal, our coastal ecosystems are still dealing with the upheaval of the storm. Those most harshly affected were the animals that make their homes along our shores. Audubon of Florida reports that shorebird nesting areas and colonies were washed away during the storm.
Sea turtle nests were also affected by the storm. Alligator Point has been having a productive nesting season so far, but as The Tallahassee Democrat reports, the storm washed away many nests or left them inundated for days.
One of our least heralded defenses against the effects of storms are our coastal wetlands. For instance, one of the services provided by salt marshes is reducing tidal surge during storms. This Gainesville Sun editorial looks to remind us of the importance of coastal wetlands during weather events.
Whether you’re a visitor or a resident, it is important to know who to contact for information in case of an emergency, such as the recent storm. To view Emergency Management contact information for each county in Florida visit the Florida Disaster page for contact listings.
When you visit a beach with your family and friends, you don’t want to worry about dirty water. NPR’s health blog reports on ratings released by the Natural Resources Defense Council on the cleanliness of beaches nationwide. Florida did not boast any 5-star ratings, though our own St. George Island did receive a 4-star rating. | <urn:uuid:8a9ec845-9e0b-46cd-a8e5-54b40f3b2460> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfsu.org/blog-coastal-health/?p=3963&cpage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939758 | 1,124 | 1.78125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON – As many look with concern at the events unfolding in Egypt, an Egyptian human rights activist believes that there is hope in the developments, including for Christians.
Dr. Andrea Zaki Stephanous, general director of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services, told The Christian Post on Wednesday evening that he did not believe, as others do, that the events in his country were a "Christian Winter."
"It is Arabic Spring and it is not 'Christian Winter,'" said Stephanous.
"It's important for the Christians to know that freedom is never ever a gift from anyone. Freedom and equality are achieved through struggle, participation, and being there."
Stephanous was one of several speakers who attended an Egyptian Summit organized by the World Evangelical Alliance in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 7-8.
The summit focused on the developments in Egypt since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.
"We came here from Egypt with our partners and friends from USA and the main objectives at this summit are that we share the challenges, the hopes in a post-revolution context in Egypt," said Stephanous.
"We shared our hopes, our fears, our dreams, but also exchanged ideas."
Topics covered at the summit included how Egyptian society could look in its post-revolution context and what roles Christians should play in the developments.
Since Mubarak was ousted and imprisoned, a temporary military government has been installed and parliamentary elections held. Islamic political groups have won the majority of seats in parliament during the recent elections, causing widespread concern around the world.
But Stephanous said, "Democracy is democracy. If you like the outcomes or if you don't like the outcomes at the end of the day, people voted."
"Democracy is not only majority and minority," he added. "Democracy is a comprehensive concept that goes beyond elections. It's for social cohesion, for social solidarity."
Currently, as violence continues to plague the country, the military government and the Islamic-party- dominated parliament are working on a constitution. Stephanous told CP that it is important for there to be more input in the document than just from the current majority.
"You see, all discussions in Egypt at the moment, they are that the majority or the minority should not alone develop the constitution," said Stephanous.
"I think if the majority alone at the moment take the risk and develop the constitution alone it will be a major mistake."
Other speakers at the WEA summit focused on Egypt included Samira Louka Daniel, chief of operations for the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue; Ibrahim Makram Ghattas, director of CEOSS Development Sector; and Atef Gendy, president of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. | <urn:uuid:25600dfa-4e85-4d8c-8199-8af4892a8786> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/egypt-revolution-not-a-christian-winter-says-evangelical-rights-activist-69095/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963953 | 568 | 1.65625 | 2 |
190 Georgian 'political' prisoners walk free
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Nearly 200 people considered political prisoners by Georgia's new parliament walked free Sunday under an amnesty strongly opposed by President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Many of the 190 prisoners had been arrested during anti-Saakashvili protests in May 2011, while others had been convicted of trying to overthrow the government or of spying for Russia. Relations with Moscow were cut off after Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008.
"This was a great shame on the country, when Saakashvili had personal convicts," said the head of parliament's human rights committee, Eka Beselia, who greeted 70 prisoners released from Gldani Prison No. 8 in Tbilisi, the capital. "The new government fulfilled its obligations before these people who had suffered for so many years in prison."
More than 3,000 other prisoners who had their sentences reduced under the amnesty will be freed in the next two months.
Saakashvili's party, which dominated Georgian politics for nine years, lost control over parliament in an October election. The new majority party in parliament also won the right to form a new government and name the prime minister, who is now in a position to challenge Saakashvili for power.
Saakashvili warned of grave consequences following the release of what he described as criminals and Russian spies. He also scolded parliament for not using the convicted spies to trade for Georgians convicted of espionage in Russia. Four Russian citizens were among the prisoners released Sunday.
Freed prisoner Dzhemal Gundiashvili, a 51-year-old engineer and father of six, was arrested during the May 2011 protests, convicted of trying to overthrow the government and sentenced to three years in prison. He said Sunday that he was repeatedly beaten in prison and had his ribs broken.
"Many intend to continue the fight so that Saakashvili's regime is held responsible for its crimes — I am not afraid of this word — for its crimes against humanity," Gundiashvili said.
Videos of prisoners being beaten and sodomized in the Gldani Prison were broadcast shortly before the parliamentary election and fed popular anger against Saakashvili's government, which has been accused of turning a blind eye to widespread abuses in Georgia's prisons. | <urn:uuid:300a71a6-eeec-4d4c-aaf0-153430908492> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnsnews.com/news/article/190-georgian-political-prisoners-walk-free | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983844 | 488 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A lot of newspapers and radio programmes have been talking about The History Boys over the last month or so. It was a very successful Alan Bennett play – originating on the small screen, performed at the London West End before moving to New York’s Broadway.
It was as if the actors were still on stage. Despite being on film, the backdrops to each scene were static and looked staged. The only movement came from the pupils and teachers walking across the stagnant set. Yes the school boys didn’t look as old as they are. Yes the casting is perfect. But no, it still feels like a stage play or TV drama.
If you’re planning to get last minute tickets to see the current run at the reborn Grand Opera House, there are only seats available for the matinee and evening shows tomorrow (Thursday). And don’t read on … in case I spoil the plot.
Following their successful A-level results at a state grammar school, the boys are being crammed for the Oxbridge entrance exams and interviews. The teachers think they know each other, but don’t. The headmaster demands results, and under-appreciates his current staff. There’s a clash between old fashioned teaching methods and young whipper snappers just out of teacher training.
The main educational theme running through the story is one of rounded education and motivation leading to big results. But the story also raises awkward questions about standards and how society’s opinion of wrong and inappropriate changes over time.
Hector is fat, gay, entertaining, and enjoys giving pupils a ride home on his motorbike so he can have a quick feel at some point during the journey. Today most kids would have him reported to the police before they got in the front door. Back in the 80s, the boys in the story have all warned each other that it would happen; they have strategies for getting in his way and frustrating his wandering hands.
Is it abuse? Yes. It was in the 80s. And it still is now. But Bennett seems to condone Hector’s flaw, underplaying its significance and how it takes advantage of the boys. But then they are over 18 and only back at school to apply to Oxbridge, and their prior awareness does point to informed consent … is it that actually still part of the abuse.
Alan Bennett was interviewed in the Guardian ...
All the same, it’s still uncomfortable viewing at times, mixed in with the music, the song, the poetry, the culture that enriches every other scene.
‘… The History Boys also scratches the surface of a subject most prefer to ignore. Hector's flaw is to grope his pupils while they ride pillion on his motorbike - "I only discovered it's an impossible manoeuvre after I'd written the play," says Bennett - while Irwin succumbs to pupil Dakin's offer of a quick blow-job (though an accident prevents it from happening).
Bennett laughs off any suggestion he is condoning paedophilia. "The boys are all consenting adults," he says, "and Hector's behaviour is very unthreatening. The boys all consider him to be a bit of a joke and just tolerate it as part of the price of his eccentric teaching style. I didn't write in his death to redeem his transgression, I did it to make the drama work."’
As well as the oft-quoted
“How do I define history?
It’s just one f***ing thing after another.”
there are other gems scattered throughout the film.
Mrs Lintott - “History is a commentary on the various continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with a bucket?”
One to go and see – but keep your eyes and brain open – and let me know how you find it. | <urn:uuid:3d2135a2-2c3b-4b67-b31d-1651dae6ad8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alaninbelfast.blogspot.com/2006/11/history-boys-film.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977747 | 803 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Dollar sends Aussies abroad
Destinations such as Paris are luring Australians.
THE number of tourists heading overseas has risen to its highest in more than a year, as the high dollar continues to lure Australians abroad.
In a sign of the uphill battle facing domestic tourism, the Bureau of Statistics yesterday said short-term departures rose to 684,000 in May, just below an all-time high reached in April last year.
Using trend figures, which are adjusted for volatility, the number of tourists departing the country each month is 5.1 per cent higher than a year ago.
But while Australians cash in on cheap holidays overseas, conditions remain weak in the big markets that have traditionally supported inbound tourism.
With economic woe engulfing the US and Britain, the number of Americans visiting Australia has risen by just 1.6 per cent and British visitors are up by 1.5 per cent.
Instead, growth in inbound tourism is dependent on Asian nations, especially China. Arrivals from China - the second-largest source of short-term visitors after New Zealand - surged by 14.9 per cent over the year.
The chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, John Lee, said without the surge in Chinese visitors, international arrivals would be falling. He said Australia faced growing competition to attract Asian tourists from the US, with the number of Chinese visiting America up by almost 50 per cent in the first four months of the year.
''It is vital Australian agencies have sufficient resources to promote Australia in those key markets to ensure we don't lose hard-won market share.''
As tourism suffers from the high dollar, separate figures highlighted the ongoing plight of the construction industry. The Australian Industry Group's performance of construction index was virtually unchanged at 34.8 points in June. A reading below 50 points to an industry that is shrinking. | <urn:uuid:c8b2be2c-fe86-45ca-835a-53c1e851a13f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/business/dollar-sends-aussies-abroad-20120706-21mjv.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934264 | 379 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Cost is, of course, a subjective matter, but here are some general examples of average prices for three different types of boats. A 17 –to- 19-foot outboard-powered family runabout will be in the 8 –to- 18 thousand-dollar range. The average cost for a fishing boat with an outboard motor will be in the 4-to- 8 thousand-dollar range. If you're considering a sailboat, you could acquire a catamaran, which will bring you years of excitement on the water for an average cost of 5-to- 7 thousand dollars. Down payments generally run from 10 to 20 percent and may be negotiable. Of course there's more to the expense of owning a boat than the down payment. You'll need to consider all the factors to get a complete picture of expenses. For example, boats can be financed and it's important for both you and the dealer to look for the best interest rate possible. You'll also need to consider boat registration fees, certification expenses, equipment, life jackets, insurance, trailer registration, dock fees, maintenance, repairs, taxes, fuel, oil, and winter storage if needed. For more information, talk with a boat dealer in your area.
©2006 Crossroads Mobile. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:b9fe0eed-3f1b-4021-b007-7814ca2d8a84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kget.com/guides/outdoor/story/Boating-is-it-expensive/UfzgTrX-xUGTjd6H5JKFeQ.cspx | 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 | 0.939503 | 275 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Just How Extreme Are The Haunted Houses This Halloween?
If you’re thinking of celebrating Halloween by going to a haunted house attraction, you also might want to schedule an appointment with a psychologist the following morning.
The Wall Street Journal took a behind the scenes tour of several haunted attractions that have been dubbed as the scariest in the country. They don’t just feature simple jump scares and things that go bump in the night. They play on some mankind’s deepest, darkest fears using new technology and personalized fear enhanced experiences.
For instance, the Blackout Haunted House in Manhattan, New York assaults its customers’ fears on a very deep, psychological level. Customers are only allowed to walk through it one at a time. Patrons are placed in waiting rooms and each one is dragged into it by the actors as they kick and scream for their lives, which is usually a big no-no for most haunted houses since they don’t allow the actors to even touch their patrons. They are then subjected to individual mock torture sessions in which they are strapped to a table with their face covered as an actor “bashes a mallet around your fingers.” They are even given a code word that tells the actors they can’t take the fear anymore and around 20 percent of the people end up uttering it.
The Nest in Chandler, Arizona, a house that won last year’s coveted “Spookiest Place in America” title from the viewers of ABC’s ‘Good Morning America,’ makes their fear experiences much more personalized. The operators actually connect to each customer’s Facebook profile as they are going through the house. When they reach a certain room, they can hear their name being called out in the dark and see projected pictures of their loved ones being turned into zombies or splattered with knife scars and blood stains. | <urn:uuid:3ee86a6b-6a59-4065-a822-1d46bc167c08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://planet1051.com/just-how-extreme-are-the-haunted-houses-this-halloween/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971278 | 388 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Israel’s Dmatek to supply Singapore with SARS patients tags
Dmatek Ltd., the Israeli-based London-listed provider of leading electronic monitoring technologies, will supply electronic monitoring systems for use by the Health Ministry of Singapore. The need to quarantine potentially large numbers of individuals who have been directly exposed to an infected person during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Global Spread ten-day incubation period creates a serious challenge for health authorities, which can be effectively addressed with Dmatek electronic monitoring systems.
Dmatek's systems will be used to monitor the whereabouts of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) patients subject to quarantine conditions. The systems enable monitoring of individuals or groups of patients. They are quick to set and can be easily implemented in medical facilities or in individuals' homes. Dmatek systems are already widely used in the USA, Europe and Asia for both Health and Law Enforcement applications.
Dmatek systems inherent technology features enable users to install monitoring systems within very short time periods and be sure the supervised individuals are monitored at any given time. The tags are lightweight, waterproof and enable their wearers to go about their daily activities without any interruption.
Dmatek CEO Yoav Reisman commented: "We are well aware of the magnitude of the problem and therefore immediately responded to the Singaporean request for additional units and shipped them with no delay." He added: "The need for monitoring under these circumstances is critical and I believe our system can provide the public health authorities a very effective solution for controlling the spread of dangerous fatal epidemics like SARS.
According to the World Health organization (WHO) report, on April 14, 2003, a cumulative total of 3169 cases of SARS, with 144 deaths, have been reported to WHO from 21 countries. This represents an increase of 213 cases and 25 deaths since the last update on Saturday. Singapore has the world's fourth-highest number of cases, with 158 confirmed infections and 72 suspected. Twelve people are believed to have died from the illness, and 84 have recovered. There are some 600 people currently under home quarantine in Singapore. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com) | <urn:uuid:0ae5395f-8282-4967-8c64-629ec33285d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/business/israel%E2%80%99s-dmatek-supply-singapore-sars-patients-tags | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933928 | 460 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Wanted: Qualified Data Scientists, People Skills A PlusA good data scientist is hard enough to find; try finding one who can effectively communicate data-driven insights to non-technical folk.
What makes a great data scientist? Technical chops are essential, of course, including the ability to devise algorithmic solutions to solve complex business problems. But the qualified applicant must also be able to effectively communicate these data-driven insights to a less-technical folk, including the vast majority of business users.
- The Five Must-Haves of Big Data Storage
- Banking on Results: Turn an Avalanche of Data into Actionable Insight
- Big Data Analytics: Profiling the Use of Analytical Platforms in User Organizations
- Big Data: Harnessing a Game-Changing Asset
- Take the InformationWeek 2013 Database Technology Survey
- Security Implications of Big Data Strategies
In a phone interview with InformationWeek, Dr. Olly Downs, senior VP of data sciences at Globys, a cloud-based marketing analytics firm, said that finding this balance is often tricky.
"I don't feel like we've solved it, but it's a real challenge point for the industry: How to present robust, scientific results and convey that kind of robustness and integrity, but at the same time, make that information accessible to a broad audience," Downs said.
Globys runs highly contextualized marketing campaigns for mobile carriers via SMS, outbound telemarketing, electronic direct mail and other channels.
[ Big data was the clear winner in the presidential election. Learn Nate Silver's Big Data Lessons For The Enterprise. ]
Before joining Globys to manage a team of six data scientists, Downs held chief scientist positions at Atigeo, a big data analytics company, and Mindset Media, an ad-targeting firm acquired by Meebo in Feburary 2011. He's also served as director of research at Pelago (bought by Groupon in April 2011) and was principal scientist at INRIX, a traffic information services provider spun off from Microsoft Research.
There's a well-publicized shortage of data scientists. An oft-quoted 2011 study by the McKinsey Global Institute, warns the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 190,000 data scientists by 2018.
Why the shortage? One reason is that the job requires knowledge of a wide array of technical disciplines, including analytics, computer science, modeling and statistics. But Downs believes there's more to it than that.
"It is a challenge to find qualified people, but the challenge is shifting a little bit," he said. "It used to be that people didn't know what this was. There were people with this expertise -- the right expertise -- but in very disparate areas of science."
That's changing, however.
"What we experience today, actually, is there are lots of people who want to be a data scientist," he said. "They've perhaps dabbled in it and applied common, nicely packaged machine-learning algorithms to data to answer a specific problem."
However, these people may not have a great deal of experience in identifying business challenges and developing the right algorithmic approaches to solve these problems, Downs added.
And that's essentially what Downs and his Globys team of six data scientists do: Find data-driven insights that help marketers, including those who aren't mathematically or statistically inclined, apply abstract analytical concepts to real-world problems in the business world.
Downs believes data scientists need more tools to uncover actionable insights.
"There's still a very big emphasis on data management and less emphasis -- because it's much harder -- on discovering useful information, and I think that will come next," he said.
Data scientists aren't magicians, of course, and it's easy to overstate their data-manipulating wizardry. In a June 2012 blog post, Gartner research director Svetlana Sicular poked fun at the business world's sudden fascination with the data scientist:
"Companies are desperately seeking mysterious creatures -- data scientists. Some people claim to have seen them in LinkedIn and Target. Perhaps, those were encounters with data scientists from LinkedIn that shop at Target? Or Target data scientists who search on LinkedIn for pregnant teens? Either way, the companies are desperate (except for LinkedIn and Target). But they are seeking anyway. Why? Because nowadays, everyone wants to compete in the new, data-driven economy, where Google and Amazon have already figured out 'data alchemy' -- turning data into gold," wrote Sicular.
Sure, data scientists may not solve all the world's data-related problems, but they can help glean a little extra meaning from those petabytes of information that keep rolling in.
In-memory analytics offers subsecond response times and hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. Now falling costs put it in reach of more enterprises. Also in the Analytics Speed Demon special issue of InformationWeek: Louisiana State University hopes to align business and IT more closely through a master's program focused on analytics. (Free registration required.) | <urn:uuid:e730844b-3b9b-482e-87f6-b34ba2229010> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/news/big-data-analytics/wanted-qualified-data-scientists-people-skills-a-plus/240115300?cid=SBX_iwk_related_news_Information_Management_software&itc=SBX_iwk_related_news_Information_Management_software | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945775 | 1,041 | 1.664063 | 2 |
As I promote our local farmers' market at festivals and fairs all over town, I get a variety of questions from the community. For instance, two weeks ago I posted about the safety of buying at the farmers' market after having spoken to a concerned citizen. But the question I get more often than any other is: Is the farmers' market more expensive?
Well, that's a tough question. And my typical answer starts with "Yes and No." We touched on this briefly last month with actual costs, but not so much from a philosophical point of view. For that, we're going to need to delve a little deeper into the market to answer this completely.
First, let's strictly talk prices. Comparing dollar for dollar, some things I've found are actually cheaper at the market, some are more expensive, and some are about the same. And of course it all depends on what's on sale at your local grocery at any given time.
Cheaper - at our market, the eggs are WAY cheaper than what you'd find at the grocery. We're running $2.50 for a dozen free-range eggs. Last time I looked in the grocery, it was anywhere from $3.50 a dozen or some are that much per half dozen.
About the same - Veggies, I find, are about the same price (again strictly dollar for dollar) as you'll find in the grocery stores. I'm guessing vendors shop at the grocery occasionally or check out local ads to gage prices.
More expensive - Fruits are generally more expensive at our market because they are such a rarity, but then it's only certain fruits. Melons are about the same price, but peaches, plums, and berries are definitely pricier dollar for dollar.
But does "dollar for dollar" really account for the true cost of the items we buy, whether from the grocery or from the local farmers' market?
I recently read a blog post challenging readers to determine if local/organic foods are too expensive, or are conventionally-grown foods too cheap. I'm a firm believer of the latter. Since the 70's and for good reason, our food system has pushed an agenda of making lots of food available at cheap prices. I mean that's great, right? Well, unfortunately, we've only swung the pendulum to the opposite extreme. Because what we're getting is not just inexpensive food but the quality is seriously lacking as a result. In other words, that cheap food is nutritionally cheap.
And not only do we have to buy (and eat) more of a conventionally-grown product to get the same nutrition (because conventional growing depletes the soil of nutrients), but we "pay" also (though indirectly) for the damage these monocultures and pesticide-laden crops do to our environment. And this doesn't even take into account the "price we pay" as a community when we give our dollars to big-box grocery stores instead of local farmers, an unfortunately dying breed. We may not pay the price at the check-out counter, but we do eventually pay the price.
What is the true cost of our food? I'm not sure anyone can give you a concrete answer, but you can bet that food grown sustainably and naturally, food grown locally by area farmers is closer to a real price.
So back to our original question: is the farmers' market more expensive? From time to time, you may pay a little more money out of pocket, but if you take into account the rewards to our health (instead of health care costs), to the Earth (instead the cost of depleted resources), and to our local economy (losing local businesses to the mega-cheap big-box stores), then eating locally from your area farmers' market may just be the smartest financial decision you can make.
What about you? Do you find your local farmers' market more expensive dollar for dollar than the grocery store? Are you willing to pay a little extra for quality, a cleaner environment, and support of the local economy? | <urn:uuid:0a74a8c8-b21f-4a48-9bb7-1c2b6f4b979e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simple-green-frugal.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-farmers-market-more-expensive.html?showComment=1243651513738 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960049 | 836 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Best Way To Build Your Immune System
There are hundreds of wonderful antioxidants ranging from acai berries to oregano and turmeric. As a consumer you should know just because it has the highest antioxidant rating does not necessarily mean the product in your hand is going to be the best.
Cost per pound is always a factor the more expensive it is the less the manufacture can afford to put in the product. This is why I use turmeric it is up there in the 100 thousand range and the cost is relatively low, so I can afford to put lots of turmeric in the product called Rest Easy™ instead of fillers and other lower antioxidant rated materials
Here is a great article from Natural News
Did you know? Oregano delivers more antioxidants than blueberries, oranges or apples Tuesday, February 07, 2012 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
(NaturalNews) Oregano, a common ingredient in Italian and Mexican cuisine, comes from the leaves of an herb native to the Mediterranean (not to be confused with Mexican oregano, native to the Americas), is one of the most concentrated antioxidant sources ever studied. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, its antioxidant activity is between three and 20 times higher than that of any other herb. Even well-known antioxidant-containing fruits fail to measure up: Oregano has four times the antioxidant activity of blueberries, 12 times that of oranges and 42 times that of apples.
While you can get some of these benefits from just cooking regularly with oregano, a more concentrated form may sometimes be required. That’s why the essential oil of oregano is a common remedy for bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. It’s so effective — and tastes so good — that some restaurants actually sprinkle oregano oil over their salad bars to prevent them from becoming breeding grounds for bacteria. And because of the high antioxidant content in the oil, it probably keeps the salad fresh for longer, too!
The best source I know for oregano is North American Herb and Spice, which offers a variety of oregano oil products under the “Oreganol P73″ brand name (www.P-73.com). Gaia Herbs also makes a quality oregano supplement (www.GaiaHerbs.com).
I have personally used oregano as emergency medicine to completely eliminate digestive distress after eating what I found out was contaminated food. In fact, oregano kills e.coli, salmonella and virtually all other food-borne pathogens.
Personally, I don’t travel without it.
Source: 25 Amazing Facts About Food, authored by Mike Adams and David Guiterrez. This report reveals surprising things about where your food comes from and what’s really in it! Download the full report (FREE) by clicking here. Inside, you’ll learn 24 more amazing but true facts about foods, beverages and food ingredients. Instant download of the complete PDF. All 25 facts are documented and true.
When I travel I never leave without Rest Easy™ which is the fermented turmeric brew. Note turmeric is a lot cheaper than rosemary so when one is making these concentrated materials one can afford to use a whole lot more of the base ingredient to produce a higher quality product.
Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is a laboratory analysis that provides an overall measure of a food’s antioxidant activity. The test works by challenging a food product with an oxidizing agent, and then measuring the overall capacity of that food to resist oxidation. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1133067
When you compare dried oregano which has a 175, 295 ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value with the turmeric which has a 127,068 ORAC value these are outrageously high numbers in comparison to say basil at 4805 ORAC or Red wine at 4523 ORAC and tomatoes in the 520 ORAC range.
I designed Rest Easy™ with the intention to build ones immune system up so in addition to the turmeric we have a large full spectrum probiotics with organic and inorganic minerals to further turbo charge the turmeric. Thus one has a complete support system.
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You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:211a1354-79d2-4685-8cf8-ed994bc4b0a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gobeyondorganic.com/the-best-way-to-build-your-immune-system | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932048 | 895 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Skip to comments.The New York Times and New Black Panthers Protect Election Lawbreakers
Posted on 09/26/2012 7:34:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Once upon a time in America, if a group of citizen volunteers set out to help election officials detect problems with the voter rolls, they would have been praised. If a group of citizen volunteers had detected scores of dead people on the voter rolls they would have received broad accolades from all corners of America.
Once upon a time in America, we esteemed law abiding citizens who helped law enforcement detect law breakers especially when it comes to the sanctity of elections.
But this isnt the America we used to know. Instead, when election integrity groups like Houston-based True the Vote help detect countless problems with American elections including people who illegally voted twice in the 2008 Presidential election from different states they are slandered and attacked by the New York Times, academia and formerly relevant civil rights organizations.
When the Pew Charitable Trust reports that there are 2,000,000 ineligible voters on the rolls, nothing happens. But when volunteers seek to find and remove them, they are attacked as racists.
Something has indeed changed.
The 2012 election will have something never before seen in American elections ordinary citizens in every corner of the country analyzing the voter rolls to see if dead and ineligible voters remain registered. On election day, volunteers will fan out across thousands of American polling places armed with pen and paper and record what happened.
For exercising this noble civic undertaking, the headlines of the New York Times scream Voter Harassment Circa 2012. The Times tells us a Tea Party group, True the Vote, descends on a largely minority precinct and combs the registration records . . . nonexistent [voter fraud] is used as an excuse to reduce the political rights of minorities, the poor, students, older Americans and other groups that tend to vote Democratic.
This is an outright lie. And it might be shocking if it werent published on the pages of a newspaper with a long history of publishing lies, such as those fed through the pen of Times reporter and Stalin stooge Walter Duranty. The Times has no data that cleaning up the voter rolls affects minorities and the poor, but emotional dog whistles work better than reason or facts.
Then the Times lies about the election day poll observation activities of citizen volunteers: In 2009 and 2010, for example, the group focused on the Houston Congressional district represented by Sheila Jackson Lee, a black Democrat. . . . That didnt stop the group from sending dozens of white poll watchers to precincts in the district during the 2010 elections, deliberately creating friction with black voters.
The truth is that True the Vote was deployed all over Harris County, Texas, in 2010. The only place where their elderly, and usually female, volunteers were met with hostility and discourtesy was in Sheila Jackson Lees Congressional district. Nowhere else did they encounter any objections to their law abiding observation activities. But in Jackson Lees district, these elderly retirees were verbally assaulted and in some cases even removed from the polling places after the personal intervention of Quanell X of the New Black Panther Party.
It makes you wonder what was happening inside the polls that made elderly volunteers with a pen and paper so threatening.
Once upon a time in America, the outrage would be directed toward the uncivil New Black Panthers who threw out the elderly poll watchers, and not toward the poll watchers merely recording events inside the polls.
Small liars at left-wing blogs print lies like the Eric Holder Justice Department is investigating Tea Party voter intimidation, and then big liars and big newspapers eventually print the same thing. This is how decent Americans seeking to improve the election process are smeared and slandered by the irresponsible. This is another in a growing list of modern examples where the law abiding are attacked while the lawless are defended.
Unfortunately, the New York Times is not alone in smearing law abiding citizens. The usual suspects have joined in. The Advancement Project, Demos, the Brennan Center and Common Cause have all resorted to slander and dishonesty to stop the work of law-abiding groups like True the Vote.
But a few facts get in the way. First of all, the National Voter Registration Act (usually called Motor Voter), invites private third-party groups to play a role in policing the nations voter rolls. This was part of a compromise in 1993 in Congress to increase voter registration. For 20 years, this right lay dormant, untouched by any party or candidate. Not until after 2010 did groups like True the Vote mushroom all over the nation and begin to use this federal power to police the rolls.
Second, most state laws permit third party election observers. The power to observe the election is a power used in third world elections to ensure they are fairly and properly run. That groups like Common Cause now oppose the exercise of this right says a great deal about them. These citizens groups are doing exactly what the law allows quietly standing in a polling place with a pen and paper.
Apparently to some in Rep. Sheila Jackson Lees district, having someone watch and record the voting process is too risky.
In my book Injustice, I document instance after instance of election fraud. But I also report the troubling results of a poll conducted by pollster Pat Cadell. He found that only 17% of Americans believe we still enjoy the consent of the governed. He calls this attitude pre-revolutionary. Free and fair elections, open to observation by all, are the best way to foster belief that we are governed by consent. The more thugs groups like the New Black Panthers and high-browed publications like the Times seek to remove law abiding citizens from American poll places, the more we will wonder what they are trying to hide.
The FVAB website incorrectly stated ballots must be returned by November 16. The actual deadline is 4 p.m. November 9. Any military ballots received in that intervening week would not have been counted by local and state election officials."..............
It’s really quite simple:
Democrats are the primary perpetrators and beneficiaries of vote fraud, and they will exploit and avenue to acquire or retain power.
New black panther party = domestic terrorist organization. Not all of the “extremist” groups are from the right. Of course you’ll never here that from the MSM, who fawn over these leftist groups. Unfortunately for the media types, they’re usually the first ones to eat a bullet in a leftist revolution.
So what is a political movement to do, particularly one as fanatic and apocalyptic as this one? Well, if you have an alternate system made up of outside organizations not subject to governmental oversight, a system populated with self-selected fanatics and true believers, a system poised and ready to march, you can do what was done in Wisconsin. You can turn the superstructure loose to threaten the public peace, smash things up, abuse the electoral process, create a media spectacle, and pressure the state to do things your way. You can use nonpolitical organizations (in the electoral sense) to get a political result........." Democrats Unveil the Weapon of the Future
LOL at the NYT jumping in bed with the NBP. I hope they catch a disease.
They do that again and they will have the tar beat out of them or worse.If the DOJ will not enforce the constitution, then the People will. The DOJ is counting on that.Let the games begin.
Taking care of the obvious fraud perpetrated by the liberals in their politically controlled districts is a double edged sword...One that should not be feared, but met with a discerning sword of our own...
I had the chance to do some poll watching in Shiela Jackson Lee’s home precinct here in the Houston area, and all of the reports of abuse of those poll watchers is true...
The time for sending little old ladies into that fight is OVER!!! conservative people need to start ponying up and putting yourself in the line of fire...
Preaching to the choir in these forums is all well and good, but we need to start getting our butts out there and making a presense that malfeasance, and fraud in our voting system will no longet be tolerated, and if exposing that causes heartburn and unsocialble behaviour in the liberal community, well, ain’t that just a pile of tough sh!t...
Some could assume I could be a very intimidating person, but when the abuse started to hit me at that poll, I stood my ground, met it head on...They tried to lawyer me out the door, they tried to do some things that they assumed I would not notice, and I ended up documenting (recounting) everything I saw that was deceptive with times and names of people if I could get them...
I went to a law firm here in Houston to give a private deposition, and they submitted that to the DA and to the Texas Secretary of State to no avail...Nothing was done with it...
But I believe we need to keep the pressure on...And never let up an iota on these criminals...
If we let up, they win...And it is not about them winning either, it is about protecting our ability to have free elections in this country, and if they don’t want to play it straight, that obviously means we have to combat it in their districts, and do so with no fear of their tactics to keep us from ensuring to the best of our abilities to keep it on the straight and narrow...
The time for talk is over, get your butts out there and get busy!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. | <urn:uuid:caa60d4a-f34e-40a7-9a64-72c26f04b02c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2936469/posts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95366 | 2,036 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Transparent Library School
23/05/2011 § 3 Comments
Summertime! After a few weeks of sparse updates, the HackLibSchool team is kicking it back into gear. We first wanted to take the time to thank our readers for all the great conversations we have had over the past several months. It is encouraging that our writings have inspired discussions here and elsewhere, and we hope to continue to provoke thought and engagement around the topic of training for librarianship.
In the spirit of our original proposition to hack (breakdown, disrupt, challenge) library school, and in response to Michael Stephens’ recent article in Library Journal titled “The Transparent Library School,” we have decided to spend the next few weeks writing specifically about the educational programs in which we are students. We see this as a necessary progression of this blog as a resource for students considering this educational track, offering them the chance to have an insiders point of view on a variety of different programs, and also as a means to open up the dialog on the value of the Master’s degree in Library and Information Science and the programs that grant the degree.
Expect to read some basic overviews of the schools we represent, some recommended courses, perhaps a insight into the bureaucracy and/or politics of the program, and of course expect constructive criticism. Part of our goal for this blog is not only to encourage fellow students, but also to challenge our administrators and professors (who have been largely and surprisingly absent from our dialog since the beginning) for the purpose of keeping LIS education at the cutting edge of the information economy. Especially as a majority of the HackLibSchool Editors are very recent graduates, we have opinions, ideas and suggestions that should be heard. Hack Your Program, Open MLIS, Inside Library School, The Transparent Library School, whatever you want to call it – we are here to offer our point of view. Please feel free to offer yours as well, and here’s to another great semester of thought-provoking discussions. | <urn:uuid:5e06b33c-6169-4ece-92a1-bb617291c5bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/the-transparent-library-school/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=8099f58e7f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956444 | 416 | 1.625 | 2 |
Ovarian Atypical Endometriosis: A Precancerous Lesion
Masaharu Fukunaga. Jikei University Daisan Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Background: Endometriosis is a relatively common condition found in up to approximately 30% of women undergoing laparotomy. But little is known about the incidence of ovarian atypical endometriosis (AEM) and its relation to ovarian carcinomas and the precancerous potential has been discussed.
Design: A series of consecutive cases coded as ovarian endometriosis (EM), ovarian carcinoma, or borderline tumor during the period 1987 to 2009 was retrieved from the surgical pathology files at our hospitals and was clinicopathologically analyzed. The diagnosis of AEM was based on the presence of epithelial features: large hyperchromatic or pale nuclei with moderate to marked pleomorphism; increased nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio; and cellular crowding, stratification, or tufting. Three or more of these criteria must be present.
Results: Atypical glandular changes without ovarian epithelial tumor were observed in 7 (1.1%) of 624 ovarian EM cases. The changes were always focal findings. One patient with ovarian AEM had synchronously endometrioid carcinoma and AEM in the subserosal of the uterus. One patient with ovarian AEM developed endometrioid carcinoma in the abdominal wall 18 months after left oophorectomy. The remaining five ovarian AEM patients without ovarian neoplasm did not develop any malignant epithelial tumors in a follow-up study with average of 6.2 years and a range of 3 to 9 years. Ninety-five (21.5%) of 442 ovarian cancers were associated with ovarian EM; 55 with typical EM and 40 with AEM. Clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas were most frequently associated with EM, with 40.2 % (41 of 102 cases) and 30.9% (21 of 68), respectively. AEM was fund in 20 clear cell carcinomas, in 12 endometrioid carcinomas, four serous carcinomas, three mucinous borderline tumors (Mullerian type) and one serous borderline tumor. In 16 cases, AEM was contiguous with carcinomas. Epithelial metaplasia, including eosinophilic, ciliated and mucinous metaplasia, was more often observed in AEM (47 of 47) than in ME (421 of 622).
Conclusions: Although ovarian AEM without neoplasms is a rare phenomenon, AEM possesses a precancerous potential and is most frequently associated with clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas. Epithelial metaplastic changes are also associated with AEM. Close screening of cellular atypia, hyperplasia, or epithelial metaplasia in ovarian EM is required. It is proposed that a diagnosis of AEM be followed by careful long-term observations of the patient to detect possible concurrent or subsequent development of neoplasia in the ovary or extra-ovarian sites.
Category: Gynecologic & Obstetrics
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 1:00 PM
Poster Session IV # 143, Tuesday Afternoon | <urn:uuid:62588e31-2699-4b28-bd5a-ab50b867ed0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abstracts2view.com/uscap12/view.php?nu=USCAP12L_1137 | 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 | 0.939444 | 668 | 1.664063 | 2 |
“Mr. President, are you ready to rock?” exclaimed Senegalese hip-hop star Youssou N' Dour as Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili arrived at a May 26 concert that was designed to raise awareness about the plight of Georgia’s 350,000 Internally Displaced Persons.
While the rest of the country celebrates Easter every year at home around the dinner table, one village in western Georgia marks the day with a rugby-like scramble that effectively blocks traffic for hours on the country’s East-West national highway. The game, lelo ( "goal" in Georgian), has no rules, no time-outs and no limit to the number of men who may play.
As Georgia strives to recover from the global economic crisis, the government is struggling to find a balancing point between the protection of workers' rights and the need for employers to boost output. President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration is hearing it from both sides.
Abkhazia has hailed Russian recognition of its independence from Georgia as the start of a new era, but for Georgians in the southern Abkhaz region of Gali the campaign to strengthen Abkhazia's statehood poses a dilemma: whether or not to take Abkhaz citizenship.
The Georgian village of Karateli lies seven kilometers north of Gori. While many buildings in the village are still standing, a large number of homes along the road have been destroyed and every store looted. Village residents recall being terrified as marauding bands swept into the village.
For many Georgians, May 21 was as much about a mysterious armed incident near the border with the breakaway region of Abkhazia, as it was about electing a new parliament. While details remain murky, the incident is stoking tension between Georgia and the renegade territory.
Almost inured to conflict, residents of Sukhumi, capital of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, are focusing less on the Georgian plane shoot-down incident and fears of fresh fighting, and more on the likely benefits to be had from Moscow's recent lifting of an economic embargo against the region. | <urn:uuid:b973dde9-289b-4987-96a3-1e7ce2f573af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dev.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/1579 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960807 | 451 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Capture Billing helps physicians and healthcare facilities get paid correctly with proper coding, claims submission and insurance follow-up.
Washington, DC (Vocus) June 16, 2010 – The American Medical Association AMA has come out with a report stating that one in five medical claims submitted to health insurance companies are processed inaccurately which leaves physicians and other healthcare providers receiving lower or no reimbursements for services provided.
The AMA estimates that up to $15.5 billion in unnecessary administrative costs could be saved by medical practices if insurance companies would improve their claims processing accuracy. This would lead to lower healthcare costs and improve quality of care.
As much as $210 billion is spent per year on insurance claims processing. Physician practices spend up to 14% of their revenue in medical billing costs to submit claims and help ensure accurate payments from insurers. Even at these rates practices find it difficult to keep up with burdensome requirements and administrative challenges imposed by insurance companies.
Two of the reasons that a staggering 20% of all claims are processed incorrectly include lack of eligibility, and that contracted fees for service were paid correctly as low as 58.6 percent of the time as stated by the AMA report. These numbers actually show an improvement over last year.
Physicians need help to submit their claims timely and accurately with all the proper coding, modifiers and supporting documentation when preparing their claims for insurance submission. Medical billers and coders must follow the progress of those claims and appeal all underpayments and denials when necessary. Plus doctors must submit their claims electronically. There are offices that still file claims on paper which results in increased error rates and much slower payments.
To the patient, incorrectly processed claims mean that they may be responsible for medical bills that should have been paid by their health insurance company. “We want to make sure that insurance companies pay our patient’s medical bills as they are contracted to do so,” says Dr. John Farrell, practicing physician and Director of Capture Billing. “When we submit the claims accurately we expect insurance companies to pay them properly. Our mission is to make sure they do.”
Physicians and healthcare facilities can get assistance in proper coding, claims submission and follow-up by contracting with a good outsource medical billing company, such as Capture Billing, who are experts at submitting claims properly and will fight to get the correct insurance reimbursements due their physicians at a lower cost that can be done in-house. | <urn:uuid:10d8b909-1d76-440d-8d68-82fc2723a577> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capturebilling.com/capture-billing-combats-health-insurance-companies-that-pay-1-of-5-claims-wrong/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973197 | 497 | 1.757813 | 2 |
fustakrakich writes with news that a boat powered only by its sails has reached speeds of 100km/h for the first time. The team also claims to have reached 109km/h over a 500m course. The craft took the speed record back from kite surfers, who have somewhat smaller sails but a massive weight advantage over boats. "Sailrocket 2 set the record last week, and the speed 54.08 knots (100.1 km/h) the craft achieved has been recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council as the new mark in Class B for vessels traversing a 500 meter course. The speed is higher than any other vessel recorded in the Council’s lists and is the only recorded speed over 100 km/h." Gizmag has a more detailed article about Sailrocket 2's exploits, and says in an update that the craft achieved speeds of 121km/h today (65.37 knots). | <urn:uuid:1de19619-aad9-4c09-acfe-78f537e3fe04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11/24/183235/100kmh-sailboat-sets-speed-record/informative-comments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965587 | 193 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Kundra to agencies: Prepare now for future data deluge
Emerging technologies will create huge amounts of unstructured data; agencies need to prepare now
- By Doug Beizer
- Jul 22, 2009
Agencies need to prepare for an explosion of new data over the next five years that will be created partly because of emerging Web 2.0 technologies, Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, told a conference in Washington.
"This notion of thinking about data in a structured, relational database is dead," Kundra said July 21 at the Open Government and Innovations Conference. "Some of the most valuable information is going to live in video, blogs and audio, and it is going to be unstructured inherently."
Electronic health records, for example, will transform the way people get health care and will generate new and varying pieces of data, Kundra said. "If you look at an iPhone and the ability to go out there and take a picture or video that is GPS coded, and upload it in real time has fundamentally changed the notion of the relationship between technology and us," he said.
Consumers adopting Web 2.0 technology will create great pressure on government agencies to provide services in terms the public is used to, Kundra said.
"Why is it that you can go online and compare hundreds and hundreds of flights, and make a booking within minutes, yet when you are looking for government services like student aid, it is more complicated than the IRS 1040 form?" Kundra said.
Federal policies and statutes, such as the Paperwork Reduction Act or the federal Internet cookies policy, must be re-evaluated to make it possible for agencies to fully embrace Web 2.0 technology, Kundra said.
The Paperwork Reduction Act was created in part to keep government from becoming too intrusive in people's lives. However, the law makes it difficult for agencies to use social media to solicit ideas and comments from the public, Kundra said.
"Technologies that exist today didn't exist at the time these statutes were being put in place," he said. "We actually just requested comments through the Federal Register and the Open Government blog on the cookies policy, for example."
Government Computer News' parent company, the 1105 Government Information Group, sponsored the conference.
Doug Beizer is a staff writer for Federal Computer Week. | <urn:uuid:9b71030d-615a-40c1-a23b-409a3d5bc020> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/articles/2009/07/22/kundra-data-explosion.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954735 | 485 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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Infectious Diseases Headlines
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government health officials are investigating several complications reported with potentially contaminated medications made by a Tennessee specialty pharmacy.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Health officials investigating a cluster of mysterious illnesses in Alabama closed their investigation Thursday after determining the illnesses were unrelated and no new bacteria or viruses were involved.
GENEVA (AP) -- World Health Organization officials said Thursday that their probe into the deadly new coronavirus that has now claimed 22 lives is being delayed because of a dispute over the ownership rights to a sample - a claim disputed by the researcher at the center of the issue.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant shuttered eight months ago after a salmonella outbreak is back in production, and company officials say their coveted natural and organic butters could be back on store shelves within a month.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) -- Federal investigators probing the hantavirus outbreak blamed for three deaths at Yosemite National Park recommended on Monday that design changes to tent cabins and other privately run lodging first be reviewed by National Park Service officials.
WAGENINGEN, Netherlands (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite are much more attracted to human odours than uninfected ones, according to a study by a team of scientists.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court says a woman can seek lawyers' fees from the government even though her lawsuit over damage she said was caused by a vaccine was ruled untimely.
ISLAMABAD (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- At least one tribal policeman was killed when unknown gunmen attacked a polio-vaccination team in north-western Pakistan's Monday, officials said.
LONDON (AP) -- More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says a yellow fever booster vaccination given 10 years after the initial shot isn't necessary.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS has apparently spread from patients to health care workers in eastern Saudi Arabia, health officials said Wednesday.
NEW DELHI (AP) -- The Indian government has announced the successful development of a low-cost vaccine proven effective in preventing the deadly diarrhea-causing rotavirus.
PARIS (AP) -- France has confirmed a second case of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS, authorities said Sunday, as they increased efforts to inform the public about how to avoid the illness and watch for its signs.
KABUL (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Afghan Taliban on Monday announced they would support polio vaccinations, but warned foreigners not to participate in the campaigns.
LONDON (AP) -- Two respiratory viruses in different parts of the world have captured the attention of global health officials - a novel coronavirus in the Middle East and a new bird flu spreading in China.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A new report shows 200 people who dined at one of Las Vegas' most popular restaurants about a block off the Strip have reported food poisoning symptoms, making it the largest outbreak southern Nevada health officials have seen in at least a decade.
PARIS (AP) -- French health officials said Friday they are investigating three suspected cases of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS, while a man confirmed to have the virus remains hospitalized.
PARIS (AP) -- A 65-year-old Frenchman is hospitalized after contracting France's first case of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS, and French health authorities said Wednesday they are trying to find anyone who might have been in contact with him to prevent it from spreading.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A defense attorney is telling jurors they must decide if a former endoscopy clinic owner and employees knew they were committing a crime, or if they simply made a mistake when patients became infected with incurable hepatitis C in 2007.
(Associated Press) -- Peter Nguyen was a promising medical student when his school learned that he had tested positive for the hepatitis B virus. He said he was blackballed by school administrators and forced to halt his studies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a chemical that's been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, from the body wash in your bathroom shower to the knives on your kitchen counter to the bedding in your baby's basinet.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities were investigating a valley fever outbreak that sickened 28 workers at solar power plants under construction in Central California.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Already facing a potential contempt order, Gov. Jerry Brown now must leap another hurdle to meet a court-ordered deadline this week to say how he will reduce crowding in California prisons.
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese health officials say the 4-year-old son of a man infected with a new strain of bird flu has also caught the virus.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The state's efforts to stop the rapid spread of valley fever through two Central California prisons have been so ineffectual that it should stop placing prisoners there, a medical expert told a federal judge in San Francisco overseeing health care in the state's prisons.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Large specialty pharmacies like the one that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak last year would be subject to federal safety inspections and manufacturing standards under a new Senate proposal introduced Friday.
LONDON (AP) -- Chinese scientists have for the first time found strong evidence of how humans became infected with a new strain of bird flu: from chickens at a live market.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Two dozen babies sat on the laps of their mothers, who dressed in a rainbow of headscarves at the Medina Maternal Child Health Center. They are among Somalia's luckiest - the first to receive a new vaccine that protects against five dangerous diseases.
PHNOM PENH (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- The World Health Organization on Thursday announced a 400-million-dollar program to combat a resistant strain of malaria that has emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years.
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Two more Yosemite National Park visitors have been found with a mouse-borne virus blamed for the deaths of two people, bringing the total number of infections to six, state health officials said.
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Consumer News DMT
Consumer News DMT
333, 338, 341, 342, 343, 344, 411, 7087, 7228, 8009, 8010, 8011, 8012, 8013, 8014, 8015, 8895, 8896, 8988, 9247, 9254, 20774, 20775, 20776, 20778, 20779, 20780, 20783, 20785, 20786, 20789, 20792, 20833, 20938, 21142, 21291, 21343, 21344, 21345, 21928, 21961, 22002, 24129, 24524, 24603, 24644, 25491, 25886, 28041, 28042, 28043, 28815, 28918, 29758, 29783, 29796, 29806, 29823, 29834, 29848, 29852, 29861, 29866, 30961, 31307, 31406, 31438, 31464, 32054, 32143, 32212, 35038, 35178, 35428, 48607, 68682, 888341, 888342, 888343, | <urn:uuid:d211a285-8cb7-4335-8c9e-65e10f956be5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSNRM000/333/29758.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936658 | 1,671 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The New America Foundation has released a report by J. H. Snider with this title, but the subtitle, "America's $480 Billion Spectrum Giveaway, How it Happened, and How to Prevent it from Recurring," is more descriptive. Snider has written widely on spectrum issues, often for the NAF, where he is Research Director of its Wireless Future Program. His points frequently include the inefficiency of current spectrum allocations (television broadcasting being one of the biggest), that the public should receive compensation for use of the spectrum (which would incent efficient use), and the importance of allocating additional spectrum to wireless IP delivery. One might describe the effects of the first and third as moving spectrum from my mother to my children.
I generally admire the work of the NAF and have spoken at one of its events. While I think his writing is thoughtful and constructive, I've also been critical that he and other wireless advocates frequently low-ball the number of Americans who depend on over-the-air reception and that he presents an analysis of how spectrum should be allocated for broadcasting that misses the realities of consumer behavior and broadcast economics: paraphrasing -- they have one standard definition channel now, so they should be able to get by with one of their current six megahertz in the digital world.
I've only had a chance to skim the paper, but it will be important reading for broadcasters, if only to keep us from taking the public spectrum we occupy for granted. And you just might learn something.
Link: New America Foundation.
Update 21 July 2007:
If you're interested in the above, also check out: NAB: Back to the Paper Bag on this weblog. --Dennis | <urn:uuid:a8802038-276c-447c-9ec7-c504a4eda560> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technology360.typepad.com/technology360/2007/07/the-art-of-spec.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96678 | 350 | 1.625 | 2 |
By Lisa Merton
Thursday, January 5, 2012
"Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" is broadcast tonight on PBS. Here, Lisa Merton looks back on making the film in Kenya and struggling to capture the sense of divinity and hope projected by the recently deceased Nobel laureate.
(WOMENSENEWS)--My engagement with the late Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai began as a 15-minute film and ended with the 54-minute tribute that airs tonight on PBS.
I hope viewers of our film will pick up on the luminous sense of divinity that hovered around Maathai. If so, we will have done our job.
Maathai did what had to be done and never lost hope, however hard things were for her. Her perseverance made it difficult for me to accept, just a bit more than three months ago, that she could really die. I thought I would have her as a friend and mentor for 20 more years, at least.
"Well I must say that when you travel along a path such as the one I have traveled, you must have hope," she said to me in an interview in 2005. "You can't afford to give up. And so no matter how dark the cloud is, there is always a thin silver lining. I always tell myself, just look for that thin silver lining and hold onto it long enough . . . and eventually that silver lining can sometimes become a very big beam of light."
My first meeting with Maathai was in May 2002 when Alan Dater, my husband and filmmaking partner, and I were asked to go to Yale University to interview the Kenyan environmentalist. A board member of the Hartley Film Foundation had heard Maathai give a talk and asked us to produce a 15-minute film based on our interview and some archival footage.
At that time Maathai was the McCluskey visiting fellow in conservation at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. I remember clearly the moment she walked into the room. Her smile was wide and crinkled up the corners of her eyes with laughter. Her handshake was strong and firm. As her story unfolded, we were in awe.
She had grown up in the Central Highlands of Kenya living on the land; a "child of the soil," as she put it. Everything she said was imbued with that deep rootedness in the natural world and her understanding of humanity's interdependence with nature.
As a University of Nairobi representative to the National Council of Women of Kenya, she came to learn that rural women did not have enough firewood, their children were malnourished and the soil was eroding from their fields. It was then that she made the connection between environmental degradation and poverty and suggested to women that they plant trees to ameliorate their circumstances: trees prevent soil erosion, they supply firewood and nutritious fruit to combat malnutrition and can also provide economic benefits.
In fighting for a healthy environment for rural women, for good governance and human rights, Maathai had walked a path that brought her head to head with Daniel arap Moi, the president who had a stranglehold on power in Kenya for 24 years. In 1989, the Moi regime was behind the proposed construction of the Times Tower, a 62-story skyscraper in central Nairobi's Uhuru Park, "the people's park," as Maathai called it. She successfully stopped the construction of the tower. This was the first of many confrontations that pitted Maathai and Moi against one another.
She had suffered personally and publicly, yet she harbored no bitterness. In February 1992, for example, she demonstrated with the mothers of political prisoners in Uhuru Park at what came to be known as Freedom Corner. Hundreds of people demonstrated for several days. The Moi government sent in the General Service Unit, an arm of the Kenyan military, to brutally break up the demonstration. Maathai was beaten unconscious and was in a coma in a Nairobi hospital for many days.
By Danielle Zielinski
By Miriri Duncan
By Henry Neondo
By Ajitha Menon
By Ellen Spiro | <urn:uuid:8858c4a3-139f-4161-8cd2-8314926b532e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://womensenews.org/story/arts/120104/taking-root-filmmaker-remembers-wangari-maathai | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983015 | 865 | 1.625 | 2 |
(CNN) -- A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.
Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."
The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.
Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.
The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.
The handwashing started in February 2009 and went on until March of this year, the hospital told KSDK.
The hospital has set up a special clinic and education centers to help patients who may have been infected. However, Carnahan said he feels more should be done and those responsible should be disciplined.
"I can only imagine the horror and anger our veterans must be feeling after receiving this letter," Carnahan said. "They have every right to be angry. So am I."
This is not the first time this year a hospital has been in hot water for not following proper procedures.
In June, Palomar Hospital in San Diego, California, has sent certified letters to 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other similar procedures, informing the patients that there may be a potential of infection from items used and reused in the procedures. | <urn:uuid:68839f0f-08f6-49e7-a131-b86948f29207> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hospital.hiv/index.html?eref=rss_health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965514 | 416 | 1.8125 | 2 |
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We, as a nation, are at this fiscal precipice because elected officials from both sides of the aisle are more concerned with pursuing their party agendas at any cost, ahead of what is in the best interest of this country.
They have proven that time and again, no more glaringly as the current "negotiations" between Congress and the White House.
Anyone who believes that this fiasco is and continues to be the fault of just one person or just one group or just one party is dangerously ignorant and naive.
The Republicans want to cut spending, protect tax cuts for the wealthy, reform entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, and not increase taxes on lower income brackets.
The Democrats don't want to cut spending, don't want to increase taxes on lower income brackets, don't want to reform entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, and want to increase taxes on only the wealthy.
Both parties are unwilling to budge an inch, putting their party agendas ahead of the country.
It will take a combination of all of these things - tax increases at all income levels and meaningful, long-term spending cuts - to get us out of the mess that we continue to find ourselves in.
If our politicians are unwilling to do that, we will not see any meaningful recovery in the foreseeable future. If we, the people, keep re-electing these same politicians to office, we have no one to blame but ourselves for our continued lack of recovery. If we, the people, don't hold our elected officials responsible to do the job that they were elected to do, from the top down, we have no to blame but ourselves for our continued lack of recovery.
The problems that we, as a nation, continue to suffer through are not Republican problems or Democrat problems. They are American problems. It's up to us to work together to make the necessary changes to get back on the road to recovery.
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Today's Top News
Looking Catastrophe in the Eye
Denial of climate change is deep and it is wide.
We woke up this weekend to news of record-breaking tornadoes touching down across a wide swath of the American Midwest, flattening entire townships and leaving behind multiple trails of devastation.
Reading the mainstream media reports, the focus was all on the damage; very little was said about the cause.
Again, a case of focusing on symptoms rather than on the motivating problems. The news media focuses on the “what” but ignores the “why.”
And they are even further away from what’s most important: looking for solutions.
Last Thursday, thanks to the ever-impressive leadership of Senator Bernie Sanders, representatives of the national and international insurance industry came together in Washington to discuss the business implications of climate change.
Co-sponsored by the Ceres Foundation, which has been working to bring business into the sustainable future fold, the meeting was unequivocal in its acknowledgement that climate change is here, it is real, and it must be dealt with head on, before it runs right over us like a tornado.
The reinsurance industry reps were pretty blunt.
“We need a national policy related to climate change and weather,” said Franklin Nutter, president of the Reinsurance Association of America.
Pete Thomas of Willis Re, a global reinsurance broker, cited an alarming statistic: 4 out of 5 Americans now live in federally declared disaster areas. “”Demographics and coastal urbanization are catastrophic force multipliers, making weather events increasingly costly,” he said.
In case you didn’t know, reinsurance companies are the ones that insure the insurers.
A difficult industry, in the age of climate change.
If I were an economist, I would be doing the math to figure out whether we are really coming out ahead as a society when we fight to pay less than $5 a gallon for oil.
What may seem cheap up front is often outrageously expensive in the long run.
Like eating cheap food laced with chemicals to keep costs down, to find yourself paying the exorbitant bills for chemotherapy in midlife.
It just doesn’t make sense.
There has never been a more important time to come forward and demand that government and industry work together to ensure (not insure!) our future.
Let’s stop hiding our heads in the sand and pretending that everything will be all right–until the next tornado, hurricane, wildfire or drought rides roughshod over our house and town.
Sitting at home worrying serves no purpose at all.
If you want to be of use to your grandchildren and all future generations, you should be out on the frontlines, insisting that:
a) the media does its job as a watchdog and reports the whole story;
b) our elected representatives do their job and create policy aimed at saving lives by mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change; and
c) our fellow citizens get off their butts and start taking responsibility for our collective future. | <urn:uuid:1a455945-0794-4467-adbf-276669724676> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/04?quicktabs_1=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942448 | 732 | 1.765625 | 2 |
WHAT IF MY COLORS ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOUR COLORS
They are, because people having varying numbers of Rods and cones in their eyes, it causes people to see colours differently.
Also there is a theory that everyone sees, for example, the colour red differently eg Red=yellow, but because we’ve been taught that, that specific colour is red, no one knows if everyone is seeing the same colour as another person.
Really excited for the next
Episode of game of thrones it should be
Wow how wonderful is this turning out for everybody
Edmure is gonna marry roslin; i’m so glad they got this
Deal worked out with the freys
Definitely a move toward peace
I‘m just so thrilled that everything is going so well for the
North, long live robb stark, I
Guess nothing is stopping him from winning the war now!! heh | <urn:uuid:7ca69c91-5fbb-4351-97a3-44b3172c2aec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mano-bey.tumblr.com/ | 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 | 0.946182 | 195 | 1.515625 | 2 |
So, you want to buy some stock in an American corporation.
And you go to your broker.
Brokerman, please help me.
I want to buy some stock in an American corporation.
But here’s the thing, Brokerman, sir.
Can’t safely go into Wall Street, with executives being led away in handcuffs, can I, Brokerman sir?
Calm down, calm down — Brokerman says.
It’s all media hype.
I’m here on Wall Street, and I haven’t been mugged, have I?
But Mr. Brokerman, sir, I’m watching television and see these corporate executives being handcuffed by big burly guys in blue jackets and big yellow letters on the back that say F-B-I.
Turn off your television. It’s all tabloid stuff, Brokerman says.
Lookee here, Brokerman says — I’ve got these ratings.
I take all the financial data from all the publicly held companies and rate each one, A to F — just like grade school.
Now — Brokerman says — here are a group of stocks that you can buy safely — because the computer has rated them A.
Don’t worry. Trust me.
Everything is going to be alright.
Andersen — guilty, obstruction of justice.
ImClone Systems CEO — under indictment, insider trading.
Martha Stewart — under investigation, insider trading.
Enron — criminal investigation.
Or what about Adelphia, CMS Energy, Computer Associates, Dynergy, Global Crossing, Halliburton, Kmart, Lucent Technologies, MicroStrategy, Network Associates, PNC Financial Services, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Tyco International, WorldCom, and Xerox?
All of them are now facing serious questions about their business practices.
Three Rite Aid executives — indicted for cooking the company’s books by overstating revenues by $1 billion.
Remember Merrill Lynch?
Remember the Merrill Lynch analysts who were telling their customers — trust me, buy this stock, this stock is highly rated?
And then they would turn around and e-mail their buddies — hey, this stock is crap, why are we recommending this crap to our customers?
And then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer gets ahold of the e-mails, brings some kind of enforcement action, and goes before the television, and says the case is settled, Merrill will pay $100 million.
But Spitzer doesn’t get Merrill to admit wrongdoing. And he signs some kind of agreement that is totally unenforceable.
He later admits that had he forced Merrill to admit wrongdoing, the firm would have gone kaput. Just like Andersen.
And Merrill Lynch isn’t the least of them. Most of the big investment companies are now under investigation by the states for misleading investors just like Merrill did.
Weiss Ratings Inc. is an independent ratings firm (<www.weissratings.com>).
Earlier this month, Weiss Ratings released a study that found that among the 50 brokerage firms covering companies that have gone bankrupt this year, 47 firms continued to recommend that investors buy or hold shares in the failing companies even as they were filing for Chapter 11 in the first four months of 2002.
Lehman Brothers maintained six buy ratings on failing companies, while Salomon Smith Barney maintained eight hold ratings up through the date the companies filed for bankruptcy.
Also sticking with buy ratings until the very end were Bank of America Securities, Bear Stearns, CIBC World Markets, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Goldman Sachs, and Prudential Securities.
"This analysis shows that Wall Street’s record is far worse than previously believed," says Martin D. Weiss, chair of Weiss Ratings "Even when there was abundant evidence that companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, over 90 percent of the latest ratings issued by brokerage firms continued to tell investors to hold their shares or buy more."
So, what happens when people think that the Street is being overrun by criminals?
They don’t go there.
And that’s what investors have started doing. Pulling out.
As the Dow heads below 9,000 (James "Dow 36,000" Glassman, where art thou?), can anyone doubt why?
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999. | <urn:uuid:6d5c73a2-995a-458a-a757-78411d6c604e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2002/06/25/brokerman/ | 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 | 0.943907 | 999 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Starting to feel the things I don’t want to feel again.
So, for those of you who asked, this is where my...
Today in "I didn't know they were Black!!": Ludwig...
theafrosistuh: SOURCE The true identity of Ludwig van Beethoven, long considered Europe’s greatest classical music composer. Said directly, Beethoven was a black man. Specifically, his mother was a Moor, that group of Muslim Northern Africans who conquered parts of Europe—making Spain their capital—for some 800 years. In order to make such a substantial statement, presentation of verifiable...
Tuesdays are my day off, no school, no work, and the house is empty. So what do I do? I prance around in my underwear, do laundry, homework, clean all the things, check tumblr constantly, and actually cook for myself. I fucking love Tuesdays.
-cellar-door asked: Do you know what those gifs are from of the woman yelling at the other woman to apologize for her racist comments? I would like to see it.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans...– Sherman Alexie is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and filmmaker. His book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto’s Fist Fight in Heaven,” was on the banned curriculum of the Mexican American Studies Program. http://progressive.org/sherman-alexie (via chicanainchoos)
"Ghetto" Names and America's Issues with...
somerset: Life as a Middle Child: What is it with Ghetto Names sumney: I get it now. All my life, I grew up being told that “black” names are ghetto and held by people who are likely to be trashy. If you know a girl named Laquisha, Latoya, Shaniqua, or Kelendria, she’s probably the neighborhood hoodrat, and even names like Tyrone and Tyrese are blacklisted in our society (pun intended)....
800,000 excess deaths could have been averted between 1991 and 2000 had African...– David Williams from Harvard School of Public Health (via “Race, Racial Inequality and Health Inequities: Separating Myth from Fact” by Smedley, Jeffries, Adelman, and Cheng)
Please help me get my dad back!
of-praxis: long-live-starkid-potter: My dad was taken by Immigration and they could sent him back any day now! He won’t be able to come back for 10 years and he hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s been living here for 20 years, always paying taxes, and helped many families start lives in America. We need your help. Sign this petition! ...
Anonymous asked: Describe what you look like physically.
itsjustmelting asked: If you could go on a date with any actress, who would you choose?
Anonymous asked: i think you have to make me some vodka sauce
Making gnocchi with vodka sauce for lunch, jealous?
You fucking bum me out sometimes, you know.
Starved for affection, terrified of abandonment, I began to wonder if sex was...– Douglas Coupland, Generation X (via hateshiploveship)
Romance tip: the best way to tell someone you like...
Something’s gotta give, it may as well be our fingers. Touch me, ‘til my ribs...– Andrea Gibson | <urn:uuid:a8173521-164a-4fa7-863a-70c6a79034e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://loveyourchaos.tumblr.com/archive/2012/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956059 | 759 | 1.507813 | 2 |
We’re excited to give you an early look at Hillary Jordan’s novel When She Woke, landing in bookstores on October 4th. (Read an excerpt at the very bottom of this post.) It’s already garnered a significant amount of pre-publication buzz, thanks to an overwhelming response from booksellers (see some of their blurbs below) and a great deal of fanfare at Book Expo America.
“When she woke, she was red. Not flushed, not sunburned, but the solid, declarative red of a stop sign.
She saw her hands first. She held them in front of her eyes, squinting up at them. For a few seconds, shadowed by her eyelashes and backlit by the hard white light emanating from the ceiling, they appeared black. Then her eyes adjusted, and the illusion faded. She examined the backs, the palms. They floated above her, as starkly alien as starfish.”
—from When She Woke
From the author whose international bestseller, Mudbound, so hauntingly re-created America’s past comes a stunning creation of America in the near future, where faith, love, and sexuality have fallen prey to politics.
Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family, but after her arrest, she awakens to a nightmare: she is lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, and cameras are broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for home observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a new and sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder. The victim, says the state of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father—a public figure with whom she’s shared a fierce and forbidden love.
When She Woke is a stunning story about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are released back into the population after being “chromed.” In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she has held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes the personal.
Praise from Booksellers
“I can’t wait to put When She Woke into everybody’s hands. Bravo to Hilary Jordan. “ —Roberta Rubin, The Bookstall at Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL
“When She Woke is a masterpiece . . . It is powerful, compelling, sensitive, and poignant. I read it in one sitting.” —Bill Cusumano, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI
“Be prepared to lose sleep over the too-close-to-reality aspects of this beautifully written novel. Hillary Jordan’s When She Woke delves and connects and exposes in profound ways.” —Dana Brigham, Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA
“A novel that will inspire a provocative discussion among readers.” —Michele Filgate, McNally Jackson Books, New York, NY
“When She Woke is a page turner. Just as Jordan so beautifully wrote about the injustice and tragedies of racism in America in her last novel, Mudbound, she now artfully exposes the injustices and heartbreak caused by religious extremism that, as she demonstrates in When She Woke, can arise from any rigid doctrine, even in heartland America.” —Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO
“Wow! What a read! When She Woke has everything good and delicious that one wants in a book: great characters, steady plotting, and a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, compelling, and unsettling story.” —Melinda Powers, Capitola Book Café, Capitola, CA
“I’m gobsmacked! When She Woke is riveting from page one.” —Emily Crowe, The Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA
“There’s no doubt that When She Woke is an intense book!” —Jenn Northington, Word, Brooklyn, NY
“Put this one on your book club list, because everyone is going to want to discuss it.” —Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX
“When She Woke reads like a really good movie. It’s a transformational, awakening story disguised as a fast-paced thriller.” —Debra Linn, Books & Books, Bal Harbour, FL
“I found myself telling everyone I met about When She Woke—the story is that compelling.” —Christie Olson Day, Gallery Bookshop, Mendocino, CA
“Hillary Jordan is one of our most important political writers, and When She Woke is a very brave work.” —Lucy Kogler, Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, NY | <urn:uuid:ee83f9c5-0f5e-4f78-ba63-464715c57d7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.algonquinbooksblog.com/blog/sneak-peek-when-she-woke-by-hillary-jordan/comment-page-5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947359 | 1,106 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Ashfield man voluntarily helps grieving kids
“Children don’t grieve like adults grieve. And they don’t grieve like adults expect them to,” says Michael Epstein of Ashfield.
Epstein has been working with grieving children for the past nine years as a volunteer facilitator of children’s support groups in a program called “The Garden: A Center for Grieving Children and Teens.”
Although this program is based out of the Hampshire Regional YMCA in Northampton, about 25 percent of the children in this program come from Franklin County towns.
The bereavement program helps children ages 5 though 18 whose lives have been disrupted by the death of a close family member. It also offers professional community education and training in grief support.
In 1993, Epstein’s wife died of cancer, leaving two children who were then ages 5 and 10 years old.
“The Garden was not yet around,” said Epstein, who subsequently joined a hospice support group. But when he learned about The Garden, he got involved.
Epstein is employed as a survey engineer for the state Department of Transportation, but over the years he has worked as a volunteer facilitator with all but the youngest age group of children who come through The Garden programs. In the sessions, he has used musical instruments, puppets, kites and artwork to help children express their feelings.
Because the program is based at a Y, the sessions generally end with physical activities, he said.
The bereavement groups for children and the caregivers of grieving children are held on Sunday afternoons, while a support group for teens meets on Wednesday.
“Two generations ago, people didn’t deal with kids’ grieving,” he said. “Kids didn’t go to funerals, per se. Even now, when it comes to kids, they try to hide (death) from them.”
And yet, says Epstein, one in 20 children, under the age of 18, will experience the death of a parent in the United States.
The inability to cope with the loss of a close loved one can affect a child’s ability to get close to other people or form close relationships later on, said Epstein. It can make a child feel alone, and create feelings that she or he isn’t comfortable expressing to classmates.
Although children don’t always show grief in obvious ways, sometimes they will react to a loved one’s death by behaving more immaturely. Some may experience bed-wetting or have trouble making friends. They could start having difficulty in school, or difficulty in communicating.
Epstein said the children in The Garden programs have lost family members through illness, car accidents, suicides, killings and even from the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
“(Children) may have emotional roadblocks that we adults have also,” said Epstein. “We try to validate the children’s grief and feelings. Sadness is expected. Anger, guilt — when a child thinks he or she could have done something or they fought with the person who died. Relief, when the person who died suffered or their illness made the child uncomfortable. And even happiness, when the person who died was abusive. We do not judge or say what is the right or wrong way to grieve.”
Epstein says the program tries to give the children constructive ways to grieve.
For instance, he said, perhaps the birthday of the deceased parent or sibling could be a day in which to celebrate their life.
“Memories might be one of the topics, so we might make a memory box,” he said. “Self-care is another topic. We might make some worry-beads and talk about constructive ways to grieve. We might write a letter to the person who died, which gives (the children) a chance to say things to the person they might never have been able to say when they were alive. We’ve had people fly kites, and send their messages up the kite strings.”
Epstein said puppets made out of lunch bags has been a good tool for children, because the decorated puppet “can be whatever they want it to be. It removes kids from themselves. It gives you a chance to express yourself without making yourself vulnerable.”
Epstein also likes to lead a meditative exercise in which the children are taken through a series of relaxation exercises, before visualizing a place where they feel comfortable and safe. “Then I bring them back, and remind them, if they ever need a place in which to feel safe, to think of that place,” he said.
Each week, the groups tackle different topics, geared to the age-level of the participants. This spring’s topics include: “Exploring death — what does it mean?” “Dreams, nightmares, worries” and “Memories/remembering.”
The 10-week sessions for the different age groups are free to families for as long as they need the support. The Garden generally serves about 25 families per year, says Epstein. He said the average participation in Garden programs is about 18 months.
Over the years, he said, some children have formed long-term friendships and even a few marriages have occurred between people who met in these groups.
The next series of sessions for children and the caregivers of grieving children begin Sunday.
The Garden also does outreach, although most people don’t want to hear about the program until they need the services, says Epstein. “They don’t want to hear about it, because they don’t expect somebody in their family to be dying an untimely death.”
When asked how do adults know if a child needs these support services, Epstein replies, “If they’ve had a close relative die, it’s always appropriate.”
The Garden is always looking for volunteers. Epstein said volunteer facilitators, like himself, generally work five to six hours during program weeks, and monthly participation as part of the Garden Advisory Board. The program is also looking for one-day help with its annual fundraiser, “Walk/Run to Remember,” which will be held on April 27.
For more information about The Garden, or to register for sessions, call the Hampshire Y at 413-584-7086, ext. 124.
The Garden is on Facebook and online at:
You can reach Diane Broncaccio at:
or 413-772-0261, ext. 277 | <urn:uuid:bbb9520a-42ff-4d30-a379-23a69acc908c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recorder.com/news/townbytown/warwick/4027477-95/epstein-garden-program-grieving | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969528 | 1,381 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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heritage is very important. Logansport once did have the Iron Horse Festival every summer which featured the old Wabash Cannonball steam locomotive. That festival attracted tourists and train buffs from all over. They even had train rides between Logansport and Lafayette on the old Wabash Cannonball.
who was the genius who elected to sell the old Wabash Cannonball about 4 years ago and put an end to the Iron Horse Festival?
I personally think that the small town of Delphi has been doing an outstanding job preserving its heritage. For example, just look at the Wabash and Erie Canal Park and the Interpretative Center there. absolutely outstanding and an excellent tourist attraction. Mayor Mike Fincher was there about 3 years ago. I would like to see Cass County and Carroll County undertake a cooperative endeavor to rebuild a stretch of the old Wabash & Erie Canal between Logansport and Delphi, and have canal boat trips for area residents, visitors and tourists.
Last edited by Southside Shrek; 02-25-2007 at 10:14 AM..
another thought about losing or giving up a town's heritage. China Lane in downtown Logan on East Market Street is about the oldest building left standing downtown. It is sad to see it standing alone and just surrounded by empty space. Kind of reminds me a little of Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped there in August 1945---the last building left standing.
Absolutely! And with the references to my comments to Notfromhere, What you may or may not know is she wrote a post that personally flamed me inregards to what I do to try to make a difference in this community. I was lashing out in regards to her comments about, " If you knew who I was, You wouldn't be talking to me like that" and " You think just because you pull weeds downtown, that it's making a difference".
I do agree very much with your comments regarding working together to make Logansport a better place, this was the point all along. But , there is no use putting down community organizations that do alot of good in this community, just because they don't fit you particular political needs.
We have alot of organizations in this community that deal with the issues of "special needs", whether it being Big Brother-Big Sisters, Area Five, HUD, Emmaus Mission, Salvation Army,Succeed, AIM, United Way and the list goes on and on.
And we'll have to agree to disagree on the issue of Logan's Landing, Cass County Arts Council, Art's Association and performing arts council not being a viable source for a community . All of these organizations contribute to the quality of life in Cass County. Without a stable and enriched quality of life, a community will decay. All large companies looking for locations has Quality of life standards for the communities they consider. Every organization in town plays into a larger picture......sometimes the picture is more vast than some people can see. And the reference to these particular organizations being for the benefit of people who may have more, well, that's simply not true. And I think we both know that. I your defense it may seem that more well-to-do people help with these organizations, Why is that a problem? I would rather say THANK YOU to them and be on my way. Why would I get upset, because someone may have more that me. This is the way alot of people give back to their community, This is the way they choose to make a difference. And the perception of only the rich run these organizations is just false, Hundreds of people...Rich and poor and everyone in between volunteer their time to Dozens of organizations.
And in sumation, Of course I know what you're talking about when you talk of the have-nots. My only question was, What are doing to correct the situation?
I'll continue to do what I can, howerver long I can do it. I'm commited to this town and I'm glad I moved back. Logansport is a great city and it's only getting better,and I'm proud to be a small part of the process.
It seems that I've been sucked into a drama that has no end. And I should be ashamed of how I've responded to all of the negative comments on this thread, I'm better than that.
This will be my last post, Thanks to the people that choose to make a difference in this community. Lead by example, they may be able to cast a dim light on all of the negative. But, they can never take away the fact that the positives in this community outweighs everything else.
it's always amazing how different people in the same community can see things so much differently. Oftentimes an 'outsider' can see things that neither of them see because they're too close to the situation.
My name is Shae Young and I am the Executive Director of Logan's Landing, which is the downtown organization. I was happy to see your interest in some of the homes along Banker's Row. I have been able to go through almost every house that is currently for sale along Banker's Row and I would be happy to gather information on any house that you are particularly interested in. There are tax credits, tax abatements, and other resources available to assist anyone who is interested in investing in these homes. I have even had a contractor go with me on 2 visits to get a better idea of how much money and time would be involved in some of the houses.
These homes are in desperate need of love and attention (and yes that also means money), but they are by the river and they do hold a lot of history if that is something that interests you. There is something unique and very beautiful about these houses. It draws you in and if you have a good vision, you will be able to see how beautiful one of these homes could be for you. There are good people who live along Banker's Row who have invested a lot of time and money and I know they would be happy to share their stories with you. There are quite a few who fell in love with these houses and moved from another state because they saw the potential not only in the houses, but the community as well.
Our community is like every small community in America, actually like any community in America large or small. There are always going to be negatives in a community, but that is what makes us work harder to push forward. We have a good community. I am very proud to call Logansport my home, with its faults and all. I think that if given the opportunity, you would also see that there is something about Logansport that makes you want to try. I hope you haven't been too frightened by the responses you got from your inquiry, I hope that you still choose to at least take a look for yourself what kind of community Logansport is with its good and bad. I hope you are able to see the potential this community has and you may never know how far we have come, but we have made some great strides forward and I certainly appreciate seeing all of these responses. I think that almost everyone who has responded cares about the community and would not have taken the time to respond if they didn't.
So again to sum it all up, if you have any questions or would like more information on the incentives for purchasing a house along Banker's Row (we actually have numerous incentives to get new businesses and helping existing businesses in the downtown as well--this is something we continue to work on), please contact me at 574-722-9345 or email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Thank you so much for your time and interest in our community and I hope that if you come to town for a visit, you will find what you are looking for!
That is the sort of balanced response that should have taken place here from the get go. Admitting the good AND the bad. Instead of pretending that Logan is the perfect place. There just is no such thing.
I think that if things hadn't gotten so personal, this thread would have been much more informative and less of a hot topic.
Thank you for the balance!! I for one appreciate it. Nice to see someone in your position who has a realistic view of our community.
Thank you for your inquiry of the house on Banker's Row. I am pleased to announce that I am employeed by the organization that currently owns this property.
Specifically in regards to 136 Eel River Ave, this grand old dame is a circa 1880's Italianate with a three story corner tower, carved limestone hooded windows, wide corbeled overhangs and has an ornate first story bay window. The interior features a curved walnut staircase, tall ceilings, inlaid wood floors, built-in cabinetry, a fireplace & very spacious rooms.
The house has a great view of the Eel River from the back porch and the front porch is a few steps away from the corner park with large fountain.
The exterior of the house has a new roof and the masonry (this is an all brick house) is currently undergoing substantial restoration.
That is the good news. In the interest of fairness, much work remains. This house will require the new owner to finish the utilities, install a new kitchen, baths & laundry. Most of the plaster repair, painting & floor refinishing still remains to be completed.
The neighborhood, much like the house itself, has some great assets but problems areas still exist. The architecture on Banker's Row is some of the nicest in the city, however a number of vacant houses await new owners to restore them to their former glory. The area is experiencing an ever changing dynamic with many diverse populations represented. Within several blocks one can surely find low income familes, professional singles, rentals, beautifully restored owner occupied homes, a mix of whites, blacks and Hispanics co-existing in a wonderfully complex enviroment commonly referred to as an "urban neighborhood".
In the larger Logansport community, our oganization has received invaluable support for our numerous projects. From the Mayor's office to individual contractors, many have donated time, energy and resources to ensure a better community. I would also like to acknowledge the Century Career Center who has staffed our house restoration on Eel River with a full time instructor and many students who are learning skills in the construction trades. Overall, our experience has been this: many fine, hard working local folks dedicating themselves to improving their tiny corner of the world.
If you would like more information about our house project, feel free to check out HistoricProperties.com Our organization is working in many fine communities like Logansport so you might want to go to our website at HistoricLandmarks.org
Once again, thank you Pat for your interest.
Community Preservation Specialist
Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana
any lead paint and asbestos in that old house?
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Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com. | <urn:uuid:341cc5b6-34d5-4026-a533-d1806a60ebf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/43205-logansport-indiana-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974744 | 2,388 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Memorial Day, 2011
Today we officially set aside time to pause and remember those in the military who have died while protecting this country. Many of us also remember our other departed loved ones – all those who have preceded us in the transition from this physical realm to the non-physical beyond. This dedicated public pause to reflect upon The Great Matter is an important exercise that should not be neglected.
In a Buddhist funeral, as in most Buddhist ceremonies, there is chanting, there are offerings of incense, bows and other ritual elements, and there is an “eko,” which is the Japanese word for dedicating the merit of the efforts made during the ceremony. Here, offered for the benefit of all who have died — both those now being remembered and those who have been forgotten — is the eko or merit dedication I wrote for the first Buddhist funeral I conducted:
> May all awakened beings manifest through the three treasures their luminous mirror wisdom. Having chanted the Great Compassionate Mind Dharani for Removing Hindrance, we dedicate this merit to:
To the safety, well-being and peaceful transition of our great abiding friend(s),
<insert name(s) of the departed here>,
To all beings in the transition of death at this time,
To the comfort and equanimity of all those suffering grief, loss and bereavement at this time,
And to all sentient beings.
May the living find solace, strength and nourishment in the vast emptiness of the dharma realm. May the deceased depart from suffering, receive great joy, and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect liberation. May all buddhas and bodhisattvas in the ten directions unceasingly watch over and protect us so that our vows may be fulfilled. And may we, together with all beings, realize Buddha’s Great Awakened Way. <
On another, equally reflective note, I read an article today that really captures something I have felt deeply for many years, but could never quite articulate effectively. My thanks to Jonathan Franzen for his thoughtful and skillful effort, which appeared in the Week in Review section of yesterday’s New York Times:
Sending blessings to all - | <urn:uuid:1212e99c-7e39-41c3-88c2-89a6223dfa03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://desertmirror.org/2011/05/30/1168/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=39170bc4ce | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949597 | 457 | 1.632813 | 2 |
News and notes
By TIMES WIRES
Published September 15, 2006
Turtle tangles with ray, gets a painful souvenir
Humans aren't the only creatures who have to worry about painful jabs from stingrays. On Aug. 12, a 122-pound loggerhead sea turtle was captured in a net with a stingray by a company working to save sea life during a dredging project near Egmont Key. A stingray barb was found lodged in the turtle's left rear flipper. The staff of Clearwater Marine Aquarium was called to rescue the loggerhead, later named Soto. Surgery removed the barb, but staff members noticed Soto wasn't using the flipper, said Dana Zucker, the aquarium's chief operating officer. So last week Soto was among nine turtles shipped to the University of Florida for treatment of various ailments. An X-ray showed that part of the barb was still embedded in the flipper, requiring further surgery that revealed the barb perforated the turtle's intestine. Vets in Gainesville are cautiously optimistic about Soto's recovery. The medical bill will be paid by the Batchelor Foundation, which focuses on environmental issues and medical research.
He's a Category 5 jerk, but not a criminal
Salah Darwish did a bad, bad thing: he took free water intended for victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and sold it at his Polk County convenience store. Unethical, a court said. Reprehensible, his own attorney said. But illegal? Nope. An appeals court decided he should be freed from five years' probation because Darwish, 42, wasn't required to say what he planned to do with the water. "In this case, we expect that many people would find Mr. Darwish's conduct to be offensive from an ethical point of view," the 2nd District Court of Appeal court wrote. "But the question before us is not one of morality." Darwish's attorney, Jeff Holmes, said his client has offered to make restitution. "It was wrong and reprehensible," Holmes said. "He acknowledged that, but he didn't commit a crime."
Sounds like episode of 'Miami Vice'
Piles of cash. A secret safe. Phony receipts. It's politics, Miami style. Details have begun to emerge from the long-running corruption probe of former Miami-Dade Commissioner Miriam Alonso involving a scheme to siphon more than $100,000 out of her campaign accounts in the late 1990s, the Miami Herald reports. Worried the cops would find the cash, her husband had a secret floor safe installed at an apartment an aide owned and stuffed it with cash, the newspaper reported. Phony receipts were used in a coverup, the aide alleged. Alonso and her husband, Leonel, have pleaded not guilty to 117 felony counts. The case is not expected to go to trial until next year. | <urn:uuid:0259de6d-ff41-4856-be8f-5b73d3220535> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/15/news_pf/Tampabay/News_and_notes.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97759 | 597 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Our children are dying. They aren't graduating from high school or college, they're being buried six feet under. They aren't building families, they...
Ultimately, as it goes in America, a jury will ultimately decide what happened on the night Trayvon Martin was found dead. They will piece together all the evidence provided and images, and put together a narrative that we can only hope, will act in the name of equality and justice.
Arianna and Kellyanne Conway discuss Jonathan Haidt's new book, which argues that "righteousness" precedes self-righteousness. Through that lens, the women debate their different views of the Trayvon shooting and "War on Women".
Josh Brolin seemed to be a bit of an afterthought. For whatever reason, Brolin stepped out of the way and let the cast shine -- which resulted in one of the best shows of the season.
The power prosecutors have to charge people with crimes is often overlooked.
Don't get me wrong, I blame George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin. But I also blame the NRA and the politicians who do their bidding for putting the gun in his hands.
It's a tragedy that five years after Virginia Tech so little has changed. How many years must we wait until tragic headlines about school shootings, children dying, and people using the "shoot first and ask questions later" defense to take the law into their own hands go away? When will we finally get the courage to stand up as a nation and say enough to the deadly proliferation of guns and gun violence that endanger children's and public safety? As a nation we can't afford to keep waiting for common-sense gun control laws that would protect our children and all of us from indefensible gun violence. The time to act is now.
In an economy where failing corporations have to be bailed out by the government, is it not time to end the madness, stop wasting the billions, and begin to create drug policies based on science, personal liberty, and learned lessons?
When it comes to young black men, apparently hoodies are a health hazard. I know it sounds crazy, but unfortunately too many young Black males are ta...
News and information about Trayvon Martin's death dominates the media. It wasn't always that way, the shooting occurred on February 26th but the n...
Student protests across the nation are indicators of the rising youth discontent within American public schools and they demand our attention. We as parents, teachers, and community members should support students in their need for more civic engagement in public education standards.
Should 'Stand Your Ground' laws be repealed? Join the debate here, and see if anyone can change your mind.
I want the Supreme Court to keep affirmative action in place, regardless of whether or not, on the surface, my position seems to be against my own self-interest.
Reflecting on the murder-suicide perpetrated by his friend Landon Jorgensen, ConcealedCarryForum.com owner Nathan Collier said, "Prior to this incident Landon was one of the good guys. He taught people how to protect themselves from these very types of attacks."
Wearing a hoodie with our heads bowed, or even staring defiantly into the camera lens, is not empowering in any substantive way. If the problem was how we dressed, as a people we'd be in a much different situation than we are in today.
Public discourse is focused on allegations of bias regarding the initial police investigation of the Trayvon Martin case and Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, but the emphasis should be on the level of racial resentment that existed. | <urn:uuid:f55777b7-9e4b-40e2-88f7-8e887b9e3ea6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/trayvon-martin/8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968353 | 739 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We have a small programme. Currently we have 7 students; 3 from Japan, 1 each from Germany, Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland . We have a policy of a limit of 6 from one country.
We provide monthly reports on the student – from the host, student, and homestay assistant. We carefully monitor integration, safety and academic progress.
ERO checked our procedures recently and we received excellent feedback. They confirmed we are offering a quality service.
We have German students who aim for New Zealand University Entrance. This will enable them to attend university in Germany on their return. We have had two students who have achieved this qualification to date.
Westland has a very temperate climate. It is located in a rainforest region – so, yes it does rain, and quite heavily at times. However the number of days when it rains is not that different to Auckland (Hokitika - 168; Auckland - 145). The heaviest rainfall is in Spring (September). Winter on the other hand is mild – often with clear blue skies. Summer is temperate. Westland is the least windy region in the country.
The Hokitika weather has contributed to a beautiful ecosystem; this part of New Zealand gives you the chance to experience unspoilt, lush rainforest, and some of the most breathtaking glaciers in the world.
Hokitika is located on the coast. The beach has opportunities for body boarding.
All outdoor activities are close by – and one of the special factors for us is that the students in the outdoor education programme can take part in abseiling, rock climbing, kayaking etc – and be back for the other classes.
We offer ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) for beginners and advanced students. IELTS is available for students wishing to take this qualification. Grammar is included in one section of the Year 13 English course. Because we have a small international programme there is plenty of opportunity to make NZ friends and improve your English conversation. | <urn:uuid:b82271a3-8c20-4797-afe2-3c1f17596707> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westlandhigh.school.nz/index.php/frequently-asked-questions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943148 | 411 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Watermark Insertion Into MP3 Bitstream Using the Linbits Characteristics
We suggest the watermarking techniques which inserts additive informations into quantized integer coefficients whose values are over 15, called linbits, during Huffman coding in MP3 encoding procedure. The linbits are inserted into the bitstream with binary codes as it is. We inserted watermarks by modifying the linbits, and made an experiment evaluating audible distortion through the MOS Test. In our experiment, 20 untrained listeners were asked to rate 20 samples of about 15 seconds in which watermark is inserted at 128kbps, according to perceived quality on a scale of 1(very annoying) to 5 (imperceptible). As a result, we confirmed that we could insert the additional informations or watermarks of about 60bytes/second with sound quality of MOS 4.6 on an average.
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This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers. | <urn:uuid:d37c994b-46df-49e4-b5e5-453f23c2e89e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=12338 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933952 | 256 | 1.796875 | 2 |
May 21, 2013
Your search for ENVIRONMENT in American Cancer Society returned 4 articles
A dire government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society.May 07, 2010, Friday
Millions of Americans participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life events each year; now, the residents of an online world are getting in on the act.August 21, 2005, Sunday
Four major public health organizations today offered their strongest support yet for a legal settlement with the nation's cigarette manufacturers, creating further divisions in the already discordant body of anti-smoking advocates. Dr. John R. Seffrin, the chief executive of the American Cancer Society, said that after examining the public health measures agreed to so far by the cigarette industry, a settlement could save the lives of one million American children who might be discouraged fr...June 13, 1997, Friday
FOR SALE: the former headquarters of the United Negro College Fund. For sale: the former headquarters of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. For sale: the former headquarters of CARE. Nonprofit organizations are on the move. Several prominent ones, most recently the 50-year-old college fund, have relocated headquarters and back-office operations from New York City, leaving a string of empty East Side office buildings in their wake.August 07, 1994, Sunday
SEARCH 4 ARTICLES ABOUT THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY:
Subscribe to an RSS feed on this topic. What is RSS? | <urn:uuid:4f52a82f-e48c-45b7-afc1-1e5e7573da44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_cancer_society/index.html?query=ENVIRONMENT&field=des&match=exact | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941235 | 315 | 1.640625 | 2 |
|300-303||Brill Ohio||T30||1931||Sold to Des Moines, 1940. Became 131-134|
The Topeka trolleybus line's route went as follows: north on Jackson at 10th St, east on 6th St (one block), south on Kansas Ave, west on 10th St, south on Clay St, west on Huntoon St, south on College St, and wye at 17th and College. Reverse of same route to 10th and Jackson
Graphical map here.
The 300 class trolleybuses were replaced by the 600 class (600-603) Mack buses.
All of the photos on this page were photographed by Raymond C. Hilner. Ray started out as a motorman on the Topeka Railway Co. on May 16, 1922 and retired at Treasurer of the Topeka Transportation Co on July 31, 1962. I am glad that Mr. Scalzo took the time to scan the photos where all can enjoy them. Ray's wife Catherine made sure that all of the collection was taken care of, and I would ask to include a credit line for both Ray and Catherine.
My dad's best friend was Ray Hilner. Dad and Ray were aboard the LAST revenue run of the TRy's 127 on Topeka's street car lines. Dad was the last paying passenger and Ray was riding on his TRy pass. I was taken many times on the street cars, but I was only 13mos old and my mom says I was at home, sleeping. I was also aboard on TRy 302 on one of the runs of the trolleybuses on the last day (July 31, 1940) and I remember that ride!
I agree. We owe a great debt and much thanks for Mr and Mrs Hilner to have taken and preserved these photos, and for you, Art, to forward the backstory. Thank you. --Tom | <urn:uuid:4427f798-bbb9-4499-a749-341e451bea24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://trolleybuses.net/tpk/tpk.htm | 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 | 0.984415 | 391 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Presbyterian Panel began in 1973 and is an ongoing panel study in which mailed and web-based questionnaires are used to survey representative samples of constituency groups of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). These constituency groups include members, elders, pastors serving in a congregation, and specialized clergy serving elsewhere. The 3,742 member panel consists of 1,099 members, 1,164 elders and 1,469 clergy. Panels are re-sampled every three years. The main goal of this study is to gather broad information about Presbyterians in terms of their faith (beliefs, church background, and levels of church involvement), and their social, economic, and demographic characteristics (age, sex, marital status, living arrangements, etc.). The May 2007 survey focuses on churchwide special offerings.
- Data File
- Cases: 481
Weight Variable: None
- Data Collection
- Date Collected: October 2005 (background questions) and May-August 2007
- Funded By
- Congregational Ministries Division, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
- Collection Procedures
- Background Data
Data were collected by self-administered mail and web-based surveys. "In the initial mailing on October 21, 2005, each sampled individual was sent a 9”x12” envelope (personally addressed) containing the following materials: a letter encouraging participation from Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly, on the moderator’s letterhead with pre-printed signature in blue ink (not personally addressed); a personally-addressed cover letter, with pre-printed signature in blue ink, from John P. Marcum, Panel Administrator; a tri-fold brochure describing the Panel in a question-and-answer format; a questionnaire; and a postage-paid, business-reply envelope. (Overall design of the survey and the mailings followed the “Tailored Design Method”; see Dillman, 2000.)" (Technical Notes: Religious and Demographic Profile of Presbyterians 2005)
"All individuals who had not yet responded were mailed a reminder postcard on November 4, 2005. A second reminder, including cover letter, replacement copy of the questionnaire, Q&A brochure, and postage-paid reply envelope, was sent on November 18, 2005, to all sampled persons who had not yet responded. A third reminder, with cover letter, replacement copy of the questionnaire, Q&A brochure, and postage-paid reply envelope was sent on December 30, 2005, to all remaining non-respondents." (Technical Notes)
May 2007 Data
Questionnaires were mailed between May 11 and May 14, 2007. Returns were accepted through mid-August 2007. Response rates for this survey are: members, 33%; elders, 43%; ministers, 48%. Results are subject to sampling and other errors. As a general rule, differences of less than 8% are not statistically meaningful.
"The Panel consists of three samples, each drawn from a separate constituency group, or population, of persons affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The PC(USA) consists of congregations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." (Technical Notes)
"The population of elders is defined as the subset of active members of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations: (1) who have been ordained to the office of elder by a PC(USA) church (or a church affiliated with one of its predecessor denominations) and (2) who are currently serving on the session of a PC(USA) congregation. (See Book of Order,
G-6.0101 through G-6.0108, and G-6.0300 through G-6.0304.) At the end of 2004, the population of elders serving on session was 106,419 (this figure is estimated; 1,475 congregations (13.4%) did not report their number of elders)." (Technical Notes)
- Sampling Procedures
- "Three representative samples were drawn, one from each of the three populations, using probability techniques." (Technical Notes)
First, the number of elders was imputed for each congregation that had not reported a number for 2005, based on the mean number of elders for congregations of similar membership size. Then, using proportional stratified sampling, we drew a sample of 401 congregations from the national total of 11,019, based on region, race ethnicity, and session size (i.e., number of elders currently serving on session). Each sampled congregation was then asked to draw eight elder names, using a random process. (Technical Notes)
- Principal Investigators
- Research Services, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and John P. Marcum, Panel Administrator
- Related Publications
- Research Services, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Churchwide Special Offerings: Findings from the May 2007 Survey. Louisville, KY, 2007. | <urn:uuid:90059b0e-496f-4b6e-b29b-1a5cabee7a5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/PP07CSOE.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946572 | 1,032 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Last april, the student paper at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, The Daily Collegian, ran a column by graduate student Rene Gonzalez attacking Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals safety who had volunteered for the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan. Gonzalez called Tillman an "idiot" who was "acting out his macho, patriotic crap" and got what he deserved. An outcry ensued, on and off campus. The Collegian printed a statement defending Gonzalez's free speech rights while distancing itself from his views; university president Jack M. Wilson publicly deplored the column but affirmed the writer's right to free speech.
In my commentary on the brouhaha, I wondered if the people who stood up for free expression in this case would have been as generous toward, say, racist, sexist, or antigay expression. Now, we have an answer. In recent weeks, UMass has been up in arms about an alleged racist incident involving a humorous drawing of a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
The incident happened last March after the elections for the UMass Student Government Association, at a post-election party attended by nine association members. One of them, Patrick Higgins, had been labeled a "racist" during his unsuccessful run for SGA president because he opposed a proposal to reserve a quota of seats in the student Senate for members of ALANA, a group purporting to represent "African, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native American" students. At the party, someone drew a caricature on a dry-erase board depicting Higgins as a "grand wizard" in a pointed hat and with a burning cross in his hand, with a speech bubble that said, "I love ALANA!"
Photos from the party were posted on a student's website; last month, someone tipped off the campus community to their existence. There were forums and meetings to deplore an alleged climate of racism on the UMass campus. The university launched disciplinary proceedings against the students for "harassment." While the charges also involved underage consumption of alcohol, that was clearly a tangential issue.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Gargano told The Daily Collegian that he was considering a variety of sanctions against the offenders—dubbed "the KKK9"—including removal from their posts in student government or 500 hours of community service. Still others demanded the students' immediate expulsion from UMass.
In an e-mail communication last week, Gargano told me that the case was closed, having been "resolved within the parameters of the university Code of Student Conduct." Citing student privacy, the university will not comment on the specific penalties issued to any of the students.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonpartisan group that defends civil liberties on college campuses, regards the university's response as an appalling disregard for free speech. The foundation points out that the drawing of the "grand wizard" with his eyes crossed and his tongue hanging out could hardly be construed as an expression of sympathy for the Klan; rather, it was intended to spoof, perhaps in a not very sensitive or tasteful manner, the specious charges of racism made earlier against Higgins. (In the campus hysteria, the drawing was consistently mischaracterized, with its context and its satirical nature left out.)
In its statement, the foundation contrasted the persecution of the students in this case to the university's refusal to take sanctions against Gonzalez. However, to be fair, Gonzalez did not exactly get off scot-free. After his screed against Pat Tillman got national exposure and became fodder for conservative websites and talk shows, he began to receive anonymous death threats. He tried to get the Collegian to remove his column from its website, and finally decided to leave the campus. New York Press columnist Matt Taibbi accused Wilson of colluding in this "pogrom" by denouncing Gonzalez's column even while defending his "right to be wrong."
There is today, in some quarters of our culture, a real and troubling intolerance toward speech that offends patriotic sentiment. Sometimes, it can turn into intimidation that punishes dissent. But at least it does not operate under the cover of official authority by university administrators wearing the mantle of liberal values. One may argue about whether Wilson's defense of free speech in the Gonzalez case was strong enough. However, says Greg Lukianoff, director of legal and public advocacy for the foundation, "By at least defending the right of Rene Gonzalez UMass demonstrated that it understood the essentiality of free speech, especially on campus. By trying to punish Patrick Higgins and the other students in this case, however, UMass has shown that it will employ an unconscionable double standard." Indeed. | <urn:uuid:90f65de8-2f1c-4a90-8a4b-d902b4e867b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/archives/2004/10/26/klansman-vs-tillman/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970582 | 961 | 1.585938 | 2 |
DANVERS — A breast cancer diagnosis is stressful enough. But for some women, it also means struggling through a confusing healthcare system and making the difficult choice between paying rent and paying hospital bills.
That’s where the VNA Care Network and Hospice comes in. For more than 10 years, the organization’s Breast Cancer Treatment Support Program has provided financial assistance and other support to breast cancer patients in need.
One of 24 programs funded by the Massachusetts affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s grant program, and the only one that helps women statewide, the Breast Cancer Treatment Support Program provides $250 stipends for patients to use where they’re needed most.
“A lot of the women have issues with transportation costs,” said Joan Fitzpatrick, RN, a nurse care manager in the VNA Care Network’s Danvers office and manager of the support program. “A lot of them have to travel into Boston two to three days a week for several weeks.”
Women can also use the money for copays, medications, deductibles and wigs, or even to pay for groceries, utilities and rent.
“Especially with insurance costs going up, a lot of women have trouble meeting the copays and deductibles,” Fitzpatrick said.
Women who receive the stipends are asked to send a note to the VNA Care Network, explaining how they used the money and whether it was helpful.
The program’s nurse care managers also help women make doctors’ appointments, fill out applications for other financial assistance programs, and understand other available resources that they otherwise may not have known about.
“They don’t always know where to look,” Fitzpatrick said.
For women who don’t speak English well or at all, patient navigators can help. Fatima Gomes and Lucy Clinton are fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish, and the VNA Care Network has other translators on hand available to help women who speak a different language.
Before receiving assistance, each applicant is assessed for financial and social need, any barriers to care, and whether she has insurance, Fitzpatrick said.
“Most are insured,” she said. “Every once in a while someone comes in who needs insurance.”
When that happens, the Massachusetts Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program will provide MassHealth coverage for treatment of women diagnosed with either cancer.
While some women seek help on their own, many come to the program through a referral. Fitzpatrick said social workers, the Dana Farber Cancer Center, and Lowell Community College have all pointed women to the program.
So far this year, the VNA Care Network’s program has helped 86 women statewide, but there’s always a greater need. Fitzpatrick said the program receives its funding in six-month increments, and there’s already a waiting list for the next installment.
Most women understand the VNA Care Network’s limitations. And every year the program seeks more opportunities, such as its partnership with the North Shore Community Health Network.
The Komen grant provides the bulk of the program’s funding, and the organization is thankful for the support. VNA Care Network employees do their part to give back, too — they have a team in the 20th annual Komen Massachusetts Race for the Cure, taking place Saturday, Oct. 20, in South Boston.
Statistics show that breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide among women, and the VNA Care Network’s Breast Cancer Treatment Support program falls in line with Komen’s mission — to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening diagnosis by advancing research, education, screening and treatment. | <urn:uuid:935fc0e1-43a8-453c-ae3b-d347dff689a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salemnews.com/fightcancer/x1200632664/For-women-in-need-local-help-is-available | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945369 | 773 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Smokers are amongst the most diverse products you can buy. Partly because of the number of fuels or energy sources they use and partly because smoking can mean anything from traditional barbecue cooked at around 225 degrees F, to cold smoking for things like fish, cheese or jerky that are cooked lower than 60 degrees F. Most electric smokers can do it all and while this might be their strength, it can also be their weakness. However, the strength of a good electric smoker is in its automation. A good, and generally more expensive, electric smoker allows you to select a temperature, and a time as you load it up and turn it on. The simplicity of this type of equipment is akin to using a microwave.
Cookshack has over 40 years experience making smokers for restaurants, barbecue competitions and backyard cooks, but they let their users design this unit. What you get is the ultimate in computer controlled backyard smoking. This unit will let you load up a brisket in the morning, set a desired temperature or time and head off to work for the day. When you get home, you'll be eating barbecue brisket. It really is that easy. With temperature probes, hold cycles and automatic smoke generation, this is the perfect smoker for the barbecue lover who doesn't have a lot of time, but has the money to pay for the best.
There are many who would like to smoke up their own barbecued meat, but may not want to deal with controlling fires, or regulating temperatures. The Smokin' Tex, like most electric smokers, takes the guess work out of the process and lets you focus on the food, or maybe, on work. This smoker is simple to use, thanks to its basic function. It does lose a little versatility thanks to the preprogrammed design, but it is a great smoker for those who don't want to light fires or adjust vents.
Of the "Lazy-Q" electric smoker appliances this is the best. This refrigerator style smoker is thermostatically controlled and can produce hot and cold smoke. You will truly get a wide range of smoking abilities out of this unit. Smoke is created by burning wood disks that are added to the unit by a controlled mechanism. You will get as much or as little smoke as you want and you don't have to tend to any fires. In fact, once set you can leave it until you are ready to eat.
The Old Smokey electric smoker is basically a tin can with a heat element, a drip pan, and a couple of racks for the food. The simplicity of the design is what makes this a great smoker. The heat element in this unit can generate enough heat for low temperature grilling or roasting, but it is designed to smoke at low and slow temperatures. You load wood chips on to the heated plate to create smoke and load food above the drip pan (not a water smoker) on the racks. The electric design makes barbecue easy in this unit.
For smoking large cuts of barbecued meat, buy a different smoker. For nearly 55 years the Big Chief, and its little brother, the Little Chief, have been designed for smoking all those things that don't traditionally fall into the strict category of barbecue. For smoking fish, jerky, sausage, cheese, this is the perfect smoker. The lower adjustable cooking temperatures and decent smoke production is great for preserving foods and adding smoke flavor to things you might not cook, or might finish off someplace else, like say, your oven.
Like the Cookshack or Smokin' Tex smokers, the Smokin-It smokers are stainless steel box electric smokers. With a dual layer box separated by fiberglass insulation, this is an efficient little smoker that is easy to use and reasonably priced. Of all the stainless steel box smokers this is the least expensive and a good value, but might not give you what the more expensive smokers will.
Masterbuilt has been producing some low priced smokers for many years, including electric refrigerator style smokers like this one. To put it simply, this is a heated box that produces smoke and effectively makes up to 30 pounds of smoked foods, whether it is jerky or barbecued brisket. The control panel lets you select the temperature, anywhere from 100 to 275 degrees F., and the time it will run at that temperature for up to 24 hours. Of course, if you are not around to add wood chips to the smoker box, it is basically just a small, low powered oven. So you shouldn't exactly set it and forget it.
Inexpensive box smokers have been around for years and they tend to suffer from the same problems such as, poor smoke production and an inability to hold heat or smoke. Char-Broil's version of this classic and simple design is better than most and at well under $200USD, it isn't a big investment. What is good about this unit is that the cast iron cooking racks are long enough to hold a full rack of ribs, which is a definite plus.
Meco is known for making electric grills and inexpensive smokers. This is the top of their line and it still comes in around $180USD. This electric smoker has a water pan, making it what Meco calls a combo smoker. The reality is that this is a simple, barrel shaped electric smoker that is competent but not fantastic. While it is easy to use, the design makes it hard for this unit to hold in heat or smoke. Consider this a good little smoker for those who don't expect a lot.
If you are new to barbecue and wondering what kind of smoker you should buy to see if you really want to take this art form seriously, typically the answer is to get a Brinkmann Gourmet Charcoal Smoker. The cost is low and the performance adequate. The electric version of this popular smoker is nearly twice as much money, though still under $200USD. However, with no temperature control and limited space, you might find this a little frustrating to use. This can be particularly true if the weather is uncooperative, and by this I mean a little rain or any kind of wind. | <urn:uuid:af1ec1f1-d305-4b9a-b785-cfd4b4d6dbe7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bbq.about.com/od/electricsmokers/tp/Top-10-Electric-Smokers.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963045 | 1,246 | 1.59375 | 2 |
It was a gorgeous day: clear blue skies, no wind to speak of, and temperatures hovering around freezing. These conditions could be considered balmy, given that we were in northeast Minnesota in February. We were lucky; just a few weeks before it was in the -30’s, before wind chill. When informed of the pending trip, non-birding friends and relatives wondered what could draw a cold adverse, lifelong southern boy like me to such northern latitude in the middle of winter. Other birders, of course, already knew the answer – owls.
Owls, and one in particular, are the reason my wife and I are staring intently out the windows in the backseat of Mike Hendrickson’s SUV this beautiful day. Along with some birders from Florida, we have engaged Mike, a fantastic bird guide, to help us find some birds that we missed during the festival.
That would be the Sax Zim Bog Bird Festival. The Sax Zim Bog, 45 minutes northwest of Duluth, is one of the best locations in the lower 48 for winter birds. And we have encountered many of those fantastic winter birds while on field trips the past two days. Common Redpolls were all over the place, and there were even a few Hoarys among them. At the various feeding stations in the bog we found a Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jays, and both Pine and Evening Grosbeaks. White-winged Crossbills proved to be very common this winter, and we found them at many stops.
The non-passerines were also well represented by Ruffed and Sharp-tailed Grouse, Bald Eagle, and a fortuitously re-found drake Barrow’s Goldeneye. We even enjoyed the gulls along the shore of Lake Superior, picking out Great Black-backed, Glaucous, and Thayer’s from the crowd of Herring Gulls.But the highlight had to be the Northern Hawk-owls. We had great looks at several of these atypical owls, characteristically perched on the tip of a small branch as if impaled. But, alas, the other three hoped-for owls – Great Gray, Snowy, and Boreal – did not cooperate.
We were hoping that would change today, with Mike’s help. And it did in Duluth when Mike picked out a tiny spot of white that differed from the surrounding white vastness of the lake ice. My first Snowy Owl! At full zoom on the scope, the owl was clearly identifiable, but less than satisfactory. Luckily, we were able to drive around to a spot much closer to the bird. From there we got our fill of this marvelous creature that was just standing there, looking around, and waiting for night to fall.
I have wanted to see a Snowy Owl for as long as I can remember. But this day there was another bird that I wanted to see even more.
We have driven along miles of back (and some not-so-back) roads, eyes strained trying to pick out a small blob in a tree that doesn’t quite belong. Finally, Mike’s sharp eyes spot something. There, on the snow-covered bank. Our target – a Boreal Owl!
We stop to get a better look. From the location of the body, it was clear that a car must have hit it. From a closer examination, Mike determined that it hadn’t been doing too well even before its demise. He could feel the keel of the breast, which meant that it had not been hunting very successfully.
One can learn much from a corpse such as this, besides the bird’s condition at death. You can better understand the physiology, such as the way the wings work and the arrangement of the feathers. You can also study the field marks at leisure, ensuring that when you come across a live bird you can identify it. Even the best field guide or photograph can’t beat the real thing!
Knowing this, I want to examine the bird for myself. Mike, who assists Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and is thus permitted to salvage dead birds, was able to afford me a closer look. But I couldn’t do it. Not because I am grossed out; there was no blood, no mess. In fact, it appeared as if it had been killed that very day, or the night before at the earliest. Further, with the cold temperatures there seemed to be very little risk of infection by disease or parasites.
At the time, I didn’t fully realize why I couldn’t take it, or hardly stand to even look at it. The bird’s demise, especially in such an unnatural manner, saddened me. But it was more than that. Now, I think that I just couldn’t bear my first encounter with this bird occurring in these circumstances. It’s not supposed to happen this way! It should have been a long, difficult search (well, it was that) that ended with me staring into yellow, fierce, intensely alive eyes. Not these dull, lifeless orbs.
Someday, after finally seeing this owl in the manner that it deserves, I will be free to examine a fallen bird. With a mixture of pity, respect, and curiosity, I will feel the softness of the feathers, study the special adaptations that permit silent flight, and experience the sharpness of talon and bill.
But not until then.
This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest.birding festival, Minnesota, owls | <urn:uuid:509b396e-edcf-4dda-b742-9d03738839f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birdsonthebrain.com/category/birding/minnesota/ | 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 | 0.976711 | 1,170 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Hot answers tagged mon-manna
Pork is not kosher, the taste of pork is not non-kosher. Only the animal itself is. The Midrash Tanchuma speaks of fish called the Shibuta which has the same taste as pork. For each thing that was prohibited, the Lord permitted something else instead. Since He prohibited the flesh of the swine, which is considered so fine, a substitute for it was ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible | <urn:uuid:83c2a7dc-4fe4-4da3-89e9-72c56ec04b43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judaism.stackexchange.com/tags/mon-manna/hot?filter=year | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961074 | 105 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Office of Inspector General has issued several recent reports concerning ways in which the Department could reduce the size of the complex to reflect current and future operating strategies. One report identified land that we believe the Department could dispose of allowing it to focus on the mission of the Department rather than land management (DOE/IG-0399). Another report identified leased administrative facilities, a significant amount of which were vacant (DOE/IG-0402). Finally, we analyzed operations at Mound and concluded that the remaining functions could be transferred to another operational facility with significant cost savings (DOE/IG-0408). We began an audit of operations at the Tonopah Test Range to determine if there were cost effective alternatives to continued operations. | <urn:uuid:be9cc917-1eca-43f1-852d-030ecfe3a933> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://energy.gov/ig/downloads/audit-alternatives-testing-tonopah-test-range-ig-0418 | 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 | 0.967624 | 148 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Mica Units 5 & 6 Projects
Time to install two units
We're installing two generating units at Mica Generating Station to ensure B.C. continues to have electricity to meet peak demand. Mica was Designed as a six-unit facility, but installation of Units 5 and 6 had been deferred.
Overview and updates
BC Hydro is working to install two additional approximately 500 MW generating units into existing turbine bays at Mica Generating Station.
The Mica Unit 5 project will also require construction of a new series capacitor station near the midpoint of the existing Mica to Nicola 500 kV transmission line needed to reliably deliver the additional electrical generation at Mica.
- Map showing preferred location of capacitor station [PDF, 51 KB]
The target in-service dates for Mica Unit 5 is October 2014 and the target in-service date for Mica Unit 6 is October 2015.
- Mica Unit 5 and Unit 6 Projects Update, May 2012 [PDF, 316 KB]
- Mica Unit 5 and Unit 6 Projects Update, August 2011 [PDF, 357 KB]
- Mica Unit 5 and Unit 6 Projects Update, July 2010 [PDF, 188 KB]
- Mica Unit 5 and Unit 6 Projects Update, September 2009 [PDF, 177 KB]
- Mica Unit 5 and Unit 6 Projects Update, October 2008 [PDF, 206 KB] | <urn:uuid:2d6be998-a6fd-4c2f-80ff-f0961191a0cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/mica_generating_station_upgrade.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930372 | 284 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A time will come in 2013 when the Woodrow Wilson Bridge corridor will not be under construction. For a driver who’s been commuting through that area for a mere decade or so, that will be a new experience.
There, like a good doctor, I’ve given you legitimate hope. Now let’s talk about this year.
Even here, the news is not bad. Yes, there will be more pain, but it’s the kind drivers have grown used to. And the cure, which involves a heavy injection of asphalt, will start to take effect.
By the Monday morning commute, the THRU lanes on the Capital Beltway’s inner loop should be in their final configuration after a weekend of paving and traffic disruptions in the area west of the bridge on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. The THRU lanes are the express lanes on the left side of each loop. The lanes to the right are the LOCAL lanes. They provide access to some exits that the THRU lanes skip.
With the THRU lanes in their final alignment, work will focus on the inner loop LOCAL lanes. From Monday until July 1, when further paving is scheduled to be done, only one inner loop LOCAL lane will be open.
During that time, drivers on the inner loop THRU lanes won’t be able to exit at the Eisenhower Connector. Drivers bound for Eisenhower Avenue will need to exit farther west at the Van Dorn Street interchange.
If the weather doesn’t mess with this schedule, all the inner loop work between Route 1 and the Eisenhower Connector will be done by July 2, leaving two THRU lanes and two LOCAL lanes in their final alignment.
Meanwhile, work will be underway on the outer loop lanes. The outer loop is the more difficult side when it comes to traffic management during construction, but the payoff will be great.
Because of the way the reconstruction of the Beltway interchanges was sequenced, drivers approaching the bridge from the completed Maryland side of the project have been enjoying the advantages of the wider bridge for a few years.
The Virginia side is different, because the Telegraph Road interchange was the last scheduled piece of the project. The outer loop lanes remain constricted in the work zone, so drivers can’t get the congestion relief from the widened bridge until they actually reach the bridge.
So traffic has remained bad at peak periods, and things could get worse for about a month during the outer loop paving. The split between the LOCAL and THRU lanes on the outer loop will occur earlier, and the lane configuration will be different.
Project managers considered various alternatives to this temporary degradation in the traffic flow, but they concluded that the alternatives would have added many months to the time it will take to complete the Beltway work.
This will be a heavy period for vacation traffic, but project managers aren’t so worried about those drivers, who tend to be tentative when traveling through unfamiliar territory. That’s a good thing, the project managers said. It’s the regulars, who have internalized the current traffic pattern, who are most likely to be frustrated by the temporary change.
This difficult period is likely to begin in the middle of this month. The latest plan calls for the outer loop’s THRU lanes to open in their final configuration about June 18, with the LOCAL lanes to follow about July 23.
That’s a date to look forward to — “the final uncorking of the bottleneck,” said Jonathan A. Jacobsen, the project’s executive manager.
Then the main remaining task will be completion of the Telegraph Road reconstruction. Project managers hope to have the job substantially completed by the end of this year, but some work will continue into next year. All work is scheduled to be done by June 30, 2013.
As with the Beltway lanes, the task of rebuilding Telegraph Road is made more complex by the need to keep heavy volumes of traffic moving through the zone while work is underway. During these past several years of the project, some drivers have written to express their frustration with its pace. They see torn-up areas where no one appears to be working, or sections that look done but have not yet opened.
Jacobsen described the process in terms similar to those used by managers of other projects involving interchange reconstruction, such as the 495 Express Lanes work at Interstate 66 and the Dulles Toll Road, Arlington Boulevard at Courthouse Road and the 11th Street bridge at DC-295.
He talked about the need to sequence work, closing a segment or road and rebuilding it, then opening that up and closing another. The Telegraph Road interchange project was the largest single contract ever awarded by the Virginia Department of Transportation. There are a lot of segments.
Jacobsen said it would do little good to open up one completed segment of roadway if drivers had to hit the brakes a quarter-mile down the road when they reached an uncompleted portion. | <urn:uuid:a505db19-b15b-4205-8378-d1652d7cc7dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-06-01/local/35462343_1_outer-loop-beltway-lanes-local-lanes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949916 | 1,030 | 1.742188 | 2 |
|T O P I C R E V I E W
||Posted - 05/30/2012 : 08:54:38
Gee I get the Catholic church mixed up on some sites as they have the same pictures and not the same beliefs?? Why are there devisions? Why did a lady tell someone to go to the Eastern church?
Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy of Basil? What are the differences of these churches?
|14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
||Posted - 06/02/2012 : 13:41:07
There is a song I sing in Latin but I can't find it anywhere the way I learned it as a child,I have sung it in the meeting of the Daughters of Isabella's and to a very old lady there and she never herd it the way I was singing it; I wish I could get that song and do more verses.Is there a place I could go to for song in Latin of the fifties and sixties form the church?
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 20:56:40
We don't even need an actual rosary to pray it. A simple peice of kitchen twine with ten knots tied into it will do.
In a pinch, our ten fingers will work.
A precursor to the Rosary was to carry pebbles in one pocket and transfer them one by one to the other to keep count.
Some people just don't like change.
After Vatican II, there were a lot of individuals who added their own interpretations to the Vatican II documents and did introduce a lot of novel ideas that were not very good. BUT, the Church has been correcting all the little innovations that should not have been introduced - none of those novelties were approved by the Church.
But there was also a lot of good. Allowing the vernacular was a good thing. Latin is a beautiful tradition in our Church, but it was put in place because it was the vernacular of the time.
Vatican II was not a bad council. It was a valid council with a great deal to offer the Body of Christ.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 20:43:22
The Rosary is a magnificent devotion, but Mary would never ask anyone to buy them.
She has asked that we pray the Rosary. She has often asked that we return to Christ. But never has she asked for money, or asked anyone to buy anything.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 20:00:00
The time I was there they said Mary told them to ask all people visiting to buy a rosary bead I laughed at that and told her what they said she still thinks they are the old church and the right one that the church should not have changed all that they did,when they did this they left the faith and became another church not of the right learning's.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 18:25:10
Mary can visit anyone Our Lord permits. She has been seen by atheists, muslims and Christians. BUT, not all Marian apparitions are authentic. The Bible says to test all spirits and with good reason. The Catholic Church is very strict on this, and has proven far more false than true.
The way to tell is by what she is teaching and if the miracle stands up to scrutiny. If she is promoting something that is contrary to the Faith, then the vision is false or even fake. And God's miracles can not be debunked.
Mother Mary would never approve of an actively gay clergy, so anyone trying to make like she said this was good, is lying.
If they are in contact with the spirit world, tell your friend to run from them. No good can come of that. True Marian apparitions are not at our command. No one can just conjure her up.
They left the Church because they did not want to listen to sound doctrine. They wanted to do things their own way. But Jesus is the ONLY way. Separating and otherwise causing division is not of God.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 17:26:53
That's really nice to be able to go to different cultures and be a member of their church even though you don't live there:) And in different languages yet all one.So they were Catholic why did they leave or separate? They claim they are the real church that is why she goes to their site and I believe there is only one site they have.They seem military and they are always saying that Mother Mary said this and that every time you go there. I thought it was strange they still hear from Mary and you don't?I told her it was a phony site just by that miracle stuff all the time and they think they are in constant contact with the spirit world and Mary they are strange. B3
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 11:27:21
I do like the different rites. They all believe as we do and are loyal to the Pope, but they bring a rich heritage to the Church.
The Mass is said even in Aramaic today, and Greek (though I expect the language is modernized), and Latin, as well as many more. And we can participate in those rich services when we travel, not as foreigners but as fellow members of the same family.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 11:23:21
Many like to retain "Catholic" as a label even when they are not part of the mother Church. They also want the connection to the Apostles and historic succession; however, they lost that right when the split from the origianl Church.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Jesus is the Head of the Catholic Church and the Holy Spirit guides her. And those that would seek to teach error are swept out of her like dust from the floor. If they had been of the Catholic Church, they would have remained with her.
||Posted - 06/01/2012 : 07:22:29
It sounds as if your friend may have been talking either about the Old Catholic Church or the Orthodox Old Catholic Church.
Both are schismatic and neither are in Communion with Rome - which makes their Sacraments invalid. (No matter what they websites write).
The website for the schismatic denomination "Roman Catholic Women Priests" also falsely assert that their sacraments are valid, and they are not.
This is from Wiki:
The Old Catholic Churches in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands view homosexuality as moral, permit gay and lesbian priests, and bless gay couples.
These American based "catholic church" organizations are very misleading.
They are neither in communion with Roman Catholicism nor are they part of the Orthodox community.
||Posted - 05/31/2012 : 19:35:06
OH! I just remembered something, I have a friend that goes to a site from New York and she got put off a forum for this because they are from the old church and laws of the Catholic church?A different kind of church and laws they are very strict and I don't care for them.I even called them to see if they were for real and a lady answered and said they did exist and they were the real church and the one now is a fake one. This was a few years ago have you ever herd of them? I think they believe in saint Veronica and they speak of the end times and revelations etc.?They go way over board in their thinking and it is scary.
||Posted - 05/31/2012 : 19:30:20
What do you know about the Babylonia (Chaldaeans)? Who are they and where are they? When did they become Catholics? I ask this for a reason.This is not a bad thing as you explained because every rite means their own rite to their country traditions, am I right? They are all Catholic and are with the Pope but they just do their masses according to their language and styles?This is not as confusing now as I do understand how this could be.When I was at the site they looked very nice and different crowns and clothing etc. I liked the Coptic ones they were allot like the church of Rome and their picture's art, are allot alike.I did get very confused when I saw these people from a different place doing almost the same as the Catholic church.I love the music it is ancient I love the Gothic and knights music it has historical values:)
||Posted - 05/30/2012 : 14:14:44
baby3, I know it can get confusing. Most of the Catholic parishes in the United States conduct Masses that are Novus Ordo. Only a very few in the U.S. (relatively speaking) offer Masses following a different missal.
||Posted - 05/30/2012 : 10:53:55
There are several "Rites" within the Catholic Church.
The largest is the Latin Rite, which is the most most often attributed to Catholics. What makes it the Latin Rite is that the official prayers of the Mass and documents are first written in Latin.
The current Latin Rite Mass is called the Novus Ordo Missae (or New Order of the Mass). It was initially deployed, as bwellmysoul mentions, in the late 60s/early 70s by Paul VI. The official Mass is still in Latin, but permission was granted for local translations. This is when the Mass changed from the Traditional Latin Mass to Mass in English. Along with that, the Priest moved from facing away from the Congregation to facing toward it, and some other changes in posture.
But there are also other Rites, most often associated with the Eastern Catholic Churches. These Rites have Masses originally from other languages than Latin, with different prayers that reflect local traditions. But, unlike Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches are still in union with the Pope.
According to Wikipedia, "The Catholic patriarchs and major archbishops [of Eastern Catholic Churches] derive their titles from the sees of Alexandria (Copts), Antioch (Syrians, Melkites, Maronites), Babylonia (Chaldaeans), Cilicia (Armenians), Kiev-Halych (Ukrainians), Ernakulam-Angamaly (Syro-Malabars), Trivandrum (Syro-Malankaras), and Fagaras-Alba Iulia (Romanians). The Eastern Churches are governed under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches."
So, on that post, it might have been someone Catholic who really likes the liturgies of the Eastern Orthodox, and someone recommended they look at an Eastern Catholic Church as a way to remain in communion with the Holy See but experience a style of worship they like.
The catchphrase here is "unity in diversity."
But you have to be cautious that one isn't inadvertently attending a small sect that really isn't Catholic but calls itself so.
||Posted - 05/30/2012 : 10:42:28
"novus Ordo Missae" — "novus" being the Latin for "new".
"The new Order of the Mass" by Pope Paul VI.
I'm just barely old enough to remember when Mass was said in Latin. (Rather like watching a Mass from Rome today, said in Latin by the Pope).
Roman rite Catholic Masses are said according to an order, with particular wording that is also said by all Churches. The Roman Missal recently had a few wording changes beginning in November of 2011.
However I think your question concerns the Eastern Catholic Churches.
They have the same beliefs but their worship services follow a separate rite.
The rites include:
Western Rite - Roman
Eastern Rite - Armenian · Alexandrian · Byzantine · Antiochian · West Syrian · East Syrian
Some parishes of Anglicans - who are coming into full communion with the Catholic Church - will be allowed the inclusion of their historic rites.
Wiki does a good job of explaning the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. | <urn:uuid:f12ff431-1ade-470f-9a1e-756d646d4673> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.speroforum.com/forum/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=161608&TOPIC_ID=7882&FORUM_ID=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981284 | 2,564 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The aircraft – said to belong to Agni Air – crashed as it tried to land at Jomsom airport, a key trekking hub.
Reports said a number of people had survived the crash but police reported at least nine deaths. Several Indian nationals were said to be on board.
Aviation accidents involving small aircraft are not uncommon in mountainous Nepal.
Last year 19 people were killed when a plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed outside Kathmandu.
“The plane was about to land at Jomsom airport. It hit a muddy slope and the plane is now buried in the side of the hill,” police spokesman Binod Singh told the AFP news agency.
The Agni Air 9N AIG was carrying 18 passengers and three crew members, and had been travelling to Jomsom from the city of Pokhara.
Reports say at least four survivors were taken to hospital in Pokhara for treatment. | <urn:uuid:5dfb96e0-0fec-4fe3-b7aa-f00155cd44c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pakiworld.com/plane-crashes-in-northern-nepal-21-killed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985805 | 192 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to be sick. It was against the law. Back then we didn't have colds, headaches, allergies or nasal congestion. Any and all illnesses were lumped into one category: feeling poorly or “peaked.” Regardless of what ailed us, we didn't stay in bed. Everyone was too busy working to be sick. The day started at 5 a.m. and our noses didn't come off the grindstone until late at night. We wore our sweat like cologne, and our injuries like a red badge of courage. Kids were forged in a furnace of grueling chores, long school days, tasteless sack lunches and illnesses that either killed you or gave you true grit.
Nowadays, if a kid so much as sneezes they run home, swallow a handful of pills, and stay in bed for a week. A scraped knee means an ambulance ride to the emergency room and a possible blood transfusion. In my day if you took off the tip of a finger with a circular saw, you barely missed a beat. You wrapped a rag around the bloody stub and kept working. If you fell off the tractor and dislocated a shoulder, someone would jump
No one cared about germs or bacteria in those days. We splashed around in streams that formed where drainage from the sewage plant converged with runoff from the local creosote factory. We pelted each other with mud and dead animal carcasses and used cow pies for Frisbees. We seldom showered and went to bed with busted lips, open head wounds, and festering sores. Polio, chicken pox or diphtheria wouldn't dare venture near us. We were filthy little kids, impervious to disease.
You want to talk about colds? When I was a kid everyone at school had a runny nose. Our noses ran continuously until we graduated 12th grade. There were no 24-hour cold remedies, and no one bothered carrying around hankies or Kleenex. That was for old guys and sissies. We simply wiped our snotty noses on our shirt sleeves or placed an index finger over one nostril and blew hard. That's how we got the job done.
Young people today are different. They're a bunch of virus-fearing, vegetable-scrubbing softies. Everything they touch needs to be FDA inspected, professionally shrink-wrapped and sterilized under 10,000 kilowatts of ultraviolet light. They wear SPF 150 sunblock, disposable face masks, and germ resistant underwear. Their homes have HEPA-filtered air, dishwashers that scald and sanitize, and pets that are hairless and hypoallergenic.
I haven't been sick in over 60 years, but it's not because I eat only organic food, scrub with antibacterial soap or feng shui my house. It's because I'm not afraid to expose myself to life's countless germs and viruses. If young people really want to stay healthy, they need to go outside, chop a cord of firewood, dig an irrigation ditch and roll in a patch of poison oak. After that, they might want to flog themselves with a bundle of stinging nettles, hike to the top of the nearest mountain, and pay a visit to Fukushima where they can inhale a healthy lungful of radioactive isotopes. In other words, they need to build up that old resistance.
I might just suggest this to my own son. I can't imagine a better way to harden that kid's weak resolve, not to mention get him out of the house for a few hours.
Tim Martin resides in McKinleyville. | <urn:uuid:e7e068e9-92ff-4143-9e10-39cff32805a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_20731671/kids-these-days-need-toughen-up | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97511 | 772 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Where Are You Now That I Need You?
(from Radiohead...if you didn't know)
I think this is a huge question facing most people (especially those living in post-modern societies) today. It might be a question that defines so many of our divides and poses the greatest anxiety we, the emerging world, generally feel.
Most of us can see that we're in a mess of some sort. We can all acknowledge that there is pain, hardship, unfairness, inequality and other such things in our world. We can look back and say that some of the decisions we made collectively and personally have led to this point...whether we point the finger out or in. And most of us do both on some level.
But where do we go from here? How do we "get out of this mess" if we can agree that we are in one? Even if you don't think things are so bad, you still would agree that the questions How do we continue? How do we progress? are crucial questions.
There are, of course, several answers to these questions. Trillions upon trillions of paths and possibilities, both personal and communal.
The answer to Where? often comes with a corresponding Says Who? (sometimes cleverly disguised as Why?). And there might also be the corresponding contextual question In what situation?. This is important to recognize. Authority is the issue I was attempting to wrestle with in my There Is No King post. I understand that I was, in some ways, suggesting a new locus of authority that made some folks very uncomfortable.
Months back I posted that I believed that values are arbitrary and contextual. I was trying to address the ideas that we have about the Out There. I'd like to quote from one of my favorite books, Oh, The Places You'll Go,
The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.
No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!
Is there any way to pull ourselves away for some sort of objectivism on this matter? Can we observe why we choose to do what we do? I mean, really why. Not "because it says..." or "because he...". And why do we respond the way we respond? Why do we feel aligned with certain ideas or groups? Where does our hurt truly comes from? Why do we so badly need the Out There?
Listen, I'm not suggesting that we have to give up our Out There, whether it be a religious tradition, political party, neighborhood ethic, family story, whatever. I'm just saying we should call it for what it is and recognize that we choose it on some level. We are the givers of meaning. We give authority to the story, asking that it give us meaning back. But the real authority is right here.
So where do we go from here? I hardly know. Well, I have some ideas, but those forms aren't nearly as important to me as how we interact with forms, these inevitable disposable forms.
On we trudge/gallop/run/glide/dance/breathe. | <urn:uuid:8ea5d8e1-2319-44ab-9534-e31cfb133c64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecobaltseason.blogspot.com/2009/11/where-do-we-go-from-here.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960074 | 828 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Natracare tampons were developed as a direct response to health and environmental concerns about dioxin pollution caused by chlorine bleaching, the extensive use of pesticide spraying on conventionally grown cotton, and the use of rayon and other synthetics in tampons.
Natracare tampons are made from only certified organic 100% cotton and are the only fully certified organic cotton tampons available in the world today. They are non-chlorine bleached and women can be reassured that they do not contain synthetic materials, such as rayon, or chemical additives such as binders or surfactants. Certified organic cotton removes the risk of direct exposure to residues from chemical pesticides and fertilisers used on traditional cotton.
The applicators have a rounded, petal-shaped end that makes inserting the tampon easier and more comfortable. The applicator is made from biodegradable card.
The applicator is cardboard and I find it harder to use than the plastic ones, but obviously these are much better for the environment and I feel better about using them. It is worth it to me to compromise on ease of use.
Other than the applicator, I had no issues with this product and I feel better about using an organic, chemical free tampon. I will be buying these again.
these r pricey and they dont absorb as much as the drugstore brands but the fact that theyre going inside of me and have no chemicalsis what i like.. so i will continue to buy them. regarding pads: you need to buy 2 boxes to last you your whole cycle so ill stick to the drugstore ones for that. | <urn:uuid:f964f583-ed15-4a0f-9c30-602e986ed508> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://well.ca/products/natracare-organic-tampons-with_9438.html | 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 | 0.959087 | 331 | 1.515625 | 2 |
This is probably going to be a stupid thread and I don't really expect anyone to reply but, as a keen pianist, it intrigues me that the dynamics of music can convey different emotions, whether it be by volume, melody, harmony, rhythm, modulation or by other musical mechanics. Some music can even make people cry. And all this happens as a result of a combination of changing frequencies of sound.
Anyway, as part of my interest in music, I'm always on the search for the "perfect chord". Some chords are smooth and harmonious and full of feeling and warmth. Other times they can be climactic, angry, conveying a sense of doom or tension. It's interesting though, that chords do not usually work out of musical context.
This is one of my favourite chords at the moment, the ffz below. It's right near the end of Chopin's Prelude No.22 in G minor and after the mad build-up of the piece (if you know it) it casts a clanging, unresolved blow, that just hangs in the air begging for the final cadence. I love it.
What's your favourite chord or chord progression? | <urn:uuid:5ecee504-2c5a-4574-96e8-a23e4c517df6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?50028-How-music-conveys-emotion-and-your-favourite-chord&p=877420 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941478 | 241 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Chula Vista's tough anti-blight ordinance has become a national model for requiring lenders to maintain vacant foreclosed homes before they fall into disrepair, but the city is under mounting pressure to reduce the measure's stiff fines and give lenders more time to improve properties.
The city broke new ground in the fall of 2007 by enacting regulations that allowed it to issue citations for blighted dwellings after lenders filed notices of default, which mark the start of the foreclosure process.
So far, Chula Vista has levied fines totaling more than $1.3 million and collected about $752,000. Registration fees for vacant homes under the program have reached about $183,000.
Some critics say an unintended consequence of the ordinance may be to delay the recovery of the local real estate market. Faced with large fines, some banks may become reluctant to do business in the city, they say.
Initially, some lenders expressed shock at fines that on occasion can exceed $10,000. Officials say the large penalties were necessary to force a change in lender behavior.
Traditionally, cities have waited until lenders have taken formal possession of abandoned foreclosed homes before issuing citations. That can take months in some cases, forcing municipalities to address blight issues on their own. Typically, they remove weeds and drain swimming pools, seeking reimbursement later. Chula Vista has used its measure to place the burden on lenders.
The program requires banks and loan servicers to inspect foreclosed properties to confirm they are occupied. If they are abandoned, the lenders must register the properties with the city and secure and maintain them.
Under the ordinance developed by Doug Leeper, the city's code enforcement manager, lenders are responsible for upkeep, even if ownership hasn't formally been transferred to them through foreclosure.
With fines that can reach $1,000 per day, the measure has pushed Chula Vista to the forefront of a national drive to maintain neighborhoods hit hard by the mortgage market meltdown, said Peter Lemos, code enforcement field manager for Stockton.
Stockton is one of more than 200 communities nationally that have adopted anti-blight measures based on Chula Vista's regulations, Lemos said.
“It brought to light that the lender or the bank is responsible for the vacant properties,” he said. “Before, until you had a new homeowner, no one was responsible.”
Real estate agents typically work closely with lenders, supervising repairs to vacant foreclosed homes and preparing them for resale. Initially, there was little opposition to Chula Vista's abandoned-property ordinance from agents, said Pat Russiano, president of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, a trade association for South County.
The group has come to believe that banks eventually may avoid doing business in Chula Vista because of the ordinance, Russiano said. With credit tight and many lending institutions struggling to maintain solvency, real estate agents say they don't want lenders to have another reason not to approve home loans.
“They are already scared to death,” Russiano said. “Why give them one more thing to worry about?”
Large fines could affect lending decisions among banks that already are hurting from widespread home loan failures, said Dave McDonald, government affairs chairman for the San Diego County chapter of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. | <urn:uuid:43f39af5-85a4-4470-b299-fba1e9c3c875> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/jul/07/city-under-gun-ease-blight-fight/?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957042 | 682 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Our one year old daughter has discovered a fun game in the family room. Whenever we are down there, she marches right over to the entertainment center and begins to pull DVDs off of the shelves. She refers to them as “books” and opens them up to show us, then throws them on the floor.
Obviously, this is a habit that we’re working hard to break, using the usual tactics one would use on a one-year old: clearly telling “no,” diverting from the situation, and so on. However, given the easy accessibility to the DVDs, our daughter is just attracted to them like a magnet each time we enter the room.
The best solution, obviously, would be to simply get the DVDs out of her way – but that would require either getting a new shelving solution or putting them into storage, neither of which is a particularly amenable option.
This leads us to a joking conversation I had with my wife the other night. We were both in the kitchen preparing a supper which used some leftovers as a primary ingredient, and I was commenting on all of the various frugal things we do – use leftovers, cook at home, clip coupons, use inexpensive bulbs, and so on. And then, in jest, I said the kicker: “With all the money we save with these things, we should just replace that entertainment center.”
We both laughed it off at the time – after all, I was basically making a joke. However, the moment stuck with me.
I realized that what I described was quite similar to a food binge after several days of dieting – a huge negative over-response to a series of small positive steps. Even more frightening, it was something I used to actually do myself – I’d behave well financially for a while, then binge on something foolish and completely undo my good work.
So, let’s look at our situation again. I’m sitting there listing out all of our good little frugal moves over the last week or so. We ate at home several times, saving $20 or so! We used leftovers, saving $10 or so! We used energy efficient light bulbs, saving $5 or so! We saved $10 at the grocery store on Sunday with our coupons (really, we actually did)!
Wow, we’re really doing good, aren’t we? With all that savings, we’ve already saved most of the cost of that entertainment center. And we deserve it, right? Don’t we deserve the good things in life?
Many people view frugality as exactly that – a bunch of little steps they can take in areas of their life that are less important so that they can afford to splurge in other areas. “If I eat a cheap meal the next few nights, I can afford to go out to that steak house with my date on Saturday.” “If I carpool, I can afford to buy that new gadget in a few months.” Instead of helping you build a financially stable life, frugal tactics are sometimes used as bartering trinkets to help you keep living the high life.
And that’s okay, as long as you’re honest with yourself about what you’re doing. This type of frugality doesn’t serve to put you in a better financial state – instead, it serves to help you maintain a lifestyle that, in some regards, is beyond your means.
This is equivalent to eating a piece of fruit for breakfast and a tuna sandwich for lunch so that you can have a steak for supper chased by a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Sure, the piece of fruit and the tuna sandwich are good moves, and sure, you’re in a better state than if you had a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast and a Big Mac for lunch, but at the end of the day, you’re not truly getting ahead. You’re merely subsidizing other behavior.
Frugality is merely one tool in the toolbox if you’re seeking financial success. Patience is also vital – it’s going to take time to turn things around. Self-discipline plays a role, too, so you don’t fall into the binge trap.
The real question is, what do you want? Are you striving to get ahead financially over the long haul? Or are you content to just make ends meet while still enjoying most of your perks? In either case, frugality can be a valuable tool. | <urn:uuid:bf8b02ce-2adc-4137-9aee-1f7149c59dd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/01/09/frugality-and-binge-buying/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966885 | 959 | 1.742188 | 2 |
What Does Medically Stable Mean?
Medically Stable includes the concept that the Pre-Existing Medical Condition of a traveler, a traveling companion or a non-traveling family member) must not be foreseen to “take a turn for the worse”.
|As you look and call around, you will find a wide range of advice & opinions as to what exactly it means to be Medically Stable. In order to better explain this, there are a few concepts that are good for you to understand:
1) Foreseen or expected to “be a turn for the worse” – If you’re given a week to live and you want to buy travel insurance for a cruise next month, you can’t cover the Pre-Existing Medical Condition. It’s like wanting to buy Fire Insurance when your house is on fire.
2) Medically Able To Travel – The insured traveler must be able to travel on the day they get their travel insurance. Don’t call us to order a policy if you’re being treated now, or have a surgery scheduled and can’t currently travel, yet your doctor says you’ll be able to travel later. You will not be covered at all. This includes calling us from your hospital bed.
What else is important?
Seven of our plans (CSA Freestyle plans, Global Alert plans, Travelex Select, Travelex Max & TravelSafe Classic) cover stable pre-existing medical conditions on non-traveling family members who reside in the United States, Canada or Mexico even if you’re past the pre-existing medical condition waiver deadline for the travelers themselves.
A cynic might say, “Any insurance company will always turn down any claim”. I can’t speak for all insurance companies, but the travel insurance companies we offer all have claim departments staffed by people. You are working with real human beings who have a heart and want to help you.
But, why are there so many denied claims? I (Steve) firmly believe that the majority of denied claims are because the insured travelers either received the wrong advice prior to purchase or that they were sold the wrong policy by an uninformed travel insurance seller. You get our help with claims. We have never had a legitimate claim turned down from any of our companies since we started in 2001. We even help you if you didn’t buy from us.
Travel insurance providers’ Medically Stable rules apply to the Covered Person’s medical condition on the day they get their travel insurance. If you are one of the travelers, you must be “medically able to travel when you pay your premium (get your travel insurance)”. In other words, your doctor says you can travel. If your doctor’s saying you can’t travel, but you insist you can travel, the insurance company will always side with your doctor.
PS - Steve has some Free Gifts & Fun Stuff for you to enjoy just for visiting TripInsuranceStore
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PPPS - Even though TripInsuranceStore.com is the world's most informative travel insurance website, you are still responsible to know the coverage terms, conditions, limitations, and exclusions of your plan. No comments or explanations confirm or deny coverage. You need to refer to each plan's policy wording. Click here to get each plan's complete details of coverage. | <urn:uuid:9e6eba44-471a-48ef-b3ac-6c1fd7ccac9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/what-is-medically-stable/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943743 | 739 | 1.59375 | 2 |
By Starrla Cray
DELANO, MN Pretty soon, there won’t be any sign of unsightly overhead power lines in Delano.
Delano Municipal Utilities (DMU) has been working to put in underground cables in an effort to beautify the city, increase system reliability, and prepare for a possible industrial park north of town.
“We have about 90 percent buried so far,” DMU general manager Hal Becker said.
The plan is to have all overhead lines in Delano buried within two to four years.
“It basically depends on how much work comes in at the same time,” Becker said.
Most of the overhead lines in Delano are more than 40 years old, and they are in need of replacement.
“Our overhead lines are in very bad shape,” Becker said.
In addition to the electric lines, DMU is also putting in underground cable and phone lines.
“The cable and phone companies contracted us to do the work,” Becker said.
Cost and reliability
The cost to replace the existing overhead lines with underground lines is $11,800 per residential block.
If new overhead lines were installed instead, the per-block cost would be $7,482.
Although underground lines are more expensive than overhead lines, they are well worth it, according to Becker.
Contributions from the phone and cable companies help to offset the cost, as well.
“The amount of money DMU collects from the telephone and cable utility to pull their lines along with our lines is $4,175 per block,” Becker noted.
With that amount included, underground lines are $143 more than new overhead lines per block.
“There is a cost difference, but your reliability is way down with overhead lines,” Becker said.
In addition, underground lines are not affected by storms, tornadoes, and ice.
With the new underground cables, reliability will be further improved with a looping system.
“We are looping all our lines, so that if we lose a segment, we can back-feed from another source,” Becker said.
In the current industrial park, DMU put in a looping system with four ways to feed in power.
“In most areas, the minimum we want to have is two,” Becker said.
A few weeks ago, there was a small outage in which residents lost power for between a half hour and an hour and 15 minutes.
“If we would have had this in place, we could have had all our customers back on within a half hour,” Becker said. “It doesn’t prevent outages, but it will shorten the duration.”
Growth and voltage
The new underground cables will deliver power at 12,500 volts to transformers that serve existing residential and commercial customers along Highway 12. Previously, power output had been at 4,160 volts.
“We’re increasing the capacity on our conductors by approximately three times,” Becker said.
The underground cable effort is also making room for future growth on the north end of Delano.
“We’re basically preparing for a new industrial park, if and when it does happen,” Becker said.
Aesthetics and info
Improved aesthetics is another benefit of underground cables, according to Becker.
“So far, we’ve had very good feedback from our customers in locations where overhead lines have been removed,” he said. “It has improved the appearance of those areas considerably.”
DMU is currently working in various locations throughout the community.
Near Railroad Avenue, for example, underground lines have been installed, and DMU is waiting for the phone and cable companies to do a conversion.
When the conversion is complete, DMU removes the overhead lines.
Near 72nd Street SE, underground lines are also being installed.
Feeders are bored horizontally at about 5 feet below ground, with a directional drilling rig. According to a memo from DMU, the company’s equipment is capable of “steering” the drill head underground and clearing obstacles such as buried utilities, rocks, or tree roots.
After the hole is bored underground, the machine is used to pull black conduit, pipe, or wire through the same bore hole with a pulling pressure of up to 20,000 pounds.
For more information about the underground power cable project, call DMU at (763) 972-0557. The DMU web site is www.delanomn.us/index.html. | <urn:uuid:0ee79a74-c579-46fb-93a1-a9185d98bb05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.herald-journal.com/archives/2010/stories/Cables-Delano.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952493 | 968 | 1.671875 | 2 |
STEUBENVILLE - Changes in the way America does business will be coming as far-reaching mandates of the Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, begin to kick in in 2014 and beyond.
That was the message to about 50 business owners and others attending a seminar Wednesday at Froehlich's Classic Corner hosted by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Small Business Development Center. Scott Pipes, president of Pipes Insurance Services of New Philadelphia, and Mark Fearon of the accounting firm of Rea and Associates, told those gathered the next two years will deeply affect how individuals and businesses obtain health care insurance because of the law. Their message to business owners - plan now or pay much more later.
"It's not a new law - it's just a massive law," said Pipes of the coming mandates. "In my humble opinion, this law will change the labor market more than anything else in our lifetime."
Mark J. Miller
IMPACT DISCUSSED — Scott Pipes, president of Pipes Insurance Services of New Philadelphia, discussed the impact the Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, will have on individuals and employers in the coming year during a seminar Wednesday at Froehlich’s Classic Corner hosted by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Small Business Development Center.
Pipes continued to say that, "When you file taxes on 2015 you will have to prove you had qualified health care coverage in 2014 or pay a fine."
Pipes said the individual mandate fine is small at first, but gradually will increase during the next two years.
"There are nine exemptions to that (mandate)," said Pipes, adding those exempted from the individual proof of coverage include American Indians, those with religious objections, illegal immigrants, certain ministries, the incarcerated, those deemed unable to afford coverage and those who didn't make enough to file an income tax statement.
Pipes said the penalty for non-proof of health care coverage begins at $95 per adult and $47.50 per child in a household or 1 percent of household gross adjusted income, whichever is greater. Those numbers will rise to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child or 2.5 percent of household adjusted income, whichever is greater, by 2016.
"The fines (for non-coverage) will be paid by that individual," said Pipes, adding businesses also could be affected, depending on circumstances.
The reasons for the law include universal coverage and to make sure all individuals are paying into the health exchange pools, Pipes said. He said in the original law, individual states were required to set up health care exchanges to expand Medicaid for those with inadequate or without health care insurance.
"This part of the law was blown up by the Supreme Court," said Pipes, adding the court ruled states are no longer mandated by the federal government to participate in the exchanges. "In Ohio, at first Gov. (John) Kasich wasn't going to set up a (state) exchange, but he changed his mind and now is going to set up an exchange."
Who is eligible for the exchanges depends on income and a percentage of the federal poverty guidelines, while Medicare for those age 65 and older will remain the same, Pipes said. Employers also have to make sure their employees have what the federal government deems as adequate health care coverage to avoid paying fines and penalties, said Pipes.
"It's (business owners') duty now to make sure employees are covered," he said, adding many of the numbers involved in coverage are based on the previous year's income and tax returns for the employee. "You need to be thinking about this now for next year."
Pipes said without the proper ratios, employees could leave a business' health care plan and jump into one of the exchanges, which could lead to the business having to pay a penalty. The number of employees, how many hours a week they work and how they are counted by the federal government also will factor into companies avoiding fines. He said companies with or near 50 employees need to obtain professional guidance on how to best proceed with a strategy.
"If (a business owner) is at 50 employees or more, they need to talk to someone," he said. "If you (own) other companies you had better talk to someone."
The law also stipulates any employee averaging 30 or more hours a week is considered a full-time employee and is mandated to be covered, said Pipes. There are several triggers in the law that could lead to a business paying a fine, depending on everything from how the government counts employees to what percentage of an employee's health care premium an employer pays, he said. According to the law, any penalties levied against a business are used to subsidize the health care exchanges, Pipes explained.
Some businesses will consider dropping health insurance for employees and elect to pay the penalties instead, said Pipes. He said while that may be a strategy for some businesses. it may not be in their best long-term interest.
"(Employees dropped from business health care coverage) will have two places to turn to - another employer that does offer (health care) coverage or to the exchange," said Pipes.
Pipes also went into some of the complexities associated with the law, including unintended side effects, accounting bureaucracy and tax issues involved. He stressed businesses needed to plan now.
"You need to have a basic strategy," said Pipes, adding there were several options, from a business dropping health insurance to making sure employees are covered to prevent penalties being levied. "If (a business owner) provides a (health insurance plan) for employees now, they are probably in good shape."
Fearon told the gathering the law does contain some tax incentives to help companies with a smaller number of employees provide employees with health care coverage. | <urn:uuid:008d6513-2567-4ef0-b987-d036e1117551> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weirtondailytimes.com/page/content.detail/id/595184/Health-care-law-will-lead-to-labor-changes.html?nav=5006 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975605 | 1,197 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Haley Viccaro, Albany Bureau
ALBANY -- The deadline to register to vote in this year's election, including for president, Congress and state Legislature, is Friday.
There are several ways to register to vote: in person at a county board of elections, at state voter registration centers or by mail. The election is Nov. 6.
"I would say it is critical to vote in this general election. It is everyone's civic duty, and people need to be registered by Oct. 12," said John Conklin, spokesman for the state Board of Elections.
Some counties will be open this Saturday to register applicants in person, giving voters an extra day to register. People serving in the military or newly naturalized citizens can register in person by Oct. 26.
Applications by mail must be postmarked by Oct. 12 and received no later than Oct. 17. Change of name, address or party enrollment must be received by Oct. 17 to be processed in time for this year's general election.
"For mail, if you are going to postmark the registration application it has to be by Friday, there is no leeway on that," Conklin said. "If you send your application early and we receive it later than the deadline, your registration won't take effect for this general election."
Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Oct. 30 and by Nov. 5 for in-person applications. Absentee ballots can be filed if a voter is absent from the county of residence on Election Day.
This year there is the option to register to vote online through the Department of Motor Vehicles' website. The DMV provides the system to register to vote when applying for a driver's license or ID card.
"People need to have an established DMV account to register online, which includes having a driver's license or ID card," Conklin said. "The same deadline by Friday applies, and the application will be sent out to the local boards on Monday to be processed."
Qualifications to register to vote include being a United States citizen, 18 years of age, live at present address for at least 30 days before an election, not be in prison or on parole, not judged mentally incompetent by a court and not registered to vote elsewhere.
Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said registering and voting in elections are important. New York has a heavily Democratic enrollment edge, but there are many close elections for Congress and the state Legislature this year.
"We often don't have competitive statewide races," Greenberg said. "This is a state that's two-to-one Democratic enrollment. It's a very blue state. But we have very competitive races for Congress, for state Senate, for state Assembly, and in local elections."
New York has about 5.6 million enrolled Democrats and 2.8 million enrolled Republicans. The state has 2.3 million people who are enrolled as unaffiliated voters.
New York has had close elections in recent years, Greenberg noted. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Syracuse, won by about 700 votes in 2010, while Sen. Stephen Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, won a Republican primary last month by 107 votes.
"It's a cliché, but it's a cliché for a reason: Every vote counts," Greenberg said.
Click here for more information on how and when to register | <urn:uuid:f94f2ddc-b620-45f4-829a-29a67e525047> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wgrz.com/(S(dvtg1t45jfosyf450gakalaf))/news/article/185178/13/Want-to-Vote-This-Year--Register-By-Friday | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972037 | 695 | 1.726563 | 2 |
A chief of police in a border town in northeastern Greece says irregular migrants are no longer crossing into the country from its land border with Turkey.
Barbed-wire fences, landmines, thermal night vision cameras and regular patrols are among the tools used to stop a phenomenon the Greek state considers a national security threat.
Some 55,000 people were detected attempting to wade across the Evros River into Greece from Turkey in the region in 2011.
The figures have now dropped to near zero, says Pashalis Syritoudis, director of police in the run-down Greek border village of Orestiadas.
“In July 2012 we had 6,500 illegal migrants who passed the border. In August, we had only 1,800. In September, only 71 illegal immigrants, in October only 26 and now there are none,” he told EUobserver on 22 November.
Orestiadas is six kilometres west of the Evros river on the Greek-Turkish border.
It is home to a large number of Greek police officers, military personnel and staff from the EU’s Warsaw-based border control agency, Frontex.
From his modest office at the police headquarters, Syritoudis oversees border operations in a jurisdiction that covers an 80-km-long stretch of the Evros river as well as the 12.5-km-long land border with Turkey.
He says the trend stopped since Greece launched Operation Xenious Zeus in early August.
Migrants are now targeting the more treacherous sea crossings near Lesvos, Sumos, Symi and the Farmkonis islands instead.
“We have given a very clear message to the facilitators [migrant smugglers] and their source countries in North Africa and other countries that Evros is no longer an easy passage to enter Europe,” Syritoudis noted.
Further south in a three-star hotel in Didymoteicho, Greek border guards take a rest from their shifts on patrol.
One officer, who did not want to give his name, told this website that his unit apprehended a young man from Pakistan in the winter whose hand had frozen solid.
“We had to cut off his hand. He told us to send him back, that he was now useless to his family. We felt sorry for him, not because he lost his hand, but because he was no longer a value to his family,” he said.
He said he had also seen pregnant women and young girls trying to cross the river. In one case, a Pakistani woman had a baby on the road just 10 days before crossing the river.
“You begin to understand that things must be terrible for them to take such risks and I really feel for them but at the same time we feel unnerved, unsettled by their presence and numbers. We are terrified by this invasion,” the officer said.
Land mines lurk in Greek village
Further south still, outside Syritoudis’ jurisdiction, the remnants of a decades-old conflict remain buried beneath the soil of rural villages.
A skull and crossbones marks the entrance to a tiny road that leads to Gemisti, a small Greek village just a few metres away from the Egnatia A2 motorway where lorries queue to enter Turkey.
Behind the sign, buried in the thick brush, are anti-vehicle mines.
They are a legacy from the second world war and the 1946—1949 conflict in the Western Macedonia and Epirus regions in northern Greece.
But they also killed over 100 people trying to get through the strip between 1998 and 2008, says Geneva-based Landmine Monitor.
Greece signed a convention in 2005 that prohibits the use, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines as well as obliging signatories to uproot and destroy any mines left in their domain.
But the land in the Gemisti region is still deadly.
“They [migrant smugglers] would lead the migrants through the fields to clear a way. They would lie to them and say it was safe,” an elderly lady—who runs one of the two village cafes and who declined to give her name—told this website.
The same story was repeated in Peplos, another village a few kilometres from Gemisti.
“Many times the Turks would tell the migrants to walk through the mines and some stepped on them . . . When we found them, we would call the military to come pick up the bodies,” Michalis, an elderly farmer, said.
The Greek military did uproot almost 30,000 antipersonnel mines in 57 sites along the Turkish border in 2009, but left behind ones which are designed to be detonated by heavy vehicles such as tanks.
“The majority of casualties occurred at the border between Greece and Turkey , two at the border with Bulgaria, and the location of four remains unknown,” the NGO, the research arm of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, told this website in an email.
Who were they?
Most of the dead people were Iraqis. But the nationalities of almost half were never properly identified.
Greece has not recorded any casualties since 2008, but Landmine Monitor said “there is a fair possibility that the data collection is not complete.”
Meanwhile, a 2012 report declassified in April by the Greek ministry of defence notes that barbed wire has been added to keep people out of almost all the minefields in the border region.
But it added that migrants become victims because they are led by smugglers to the border along the River Evros at night and then instructed to ignore mine fences and markings.
“Sometimes they are even aided in cutting the wire and led into minefields,” the report said. | <urn:uuid:bed12b8a-ef22-4d9c-a3b0-ea8013703ad4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amren.com/news/2012/12/land-border-sealed-greek-police-chief-says/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97347 | 1,203 | 1.835938 | 2 |
CARY, N.C. — Many women have their tubes "tied" when they are finished having children. Tubal ligation is intended to be permanent, but there are times when a woman changes her mind.
Tamessa Rivers thought she was finished having children. The mother of two had her tubes tied six years ago. After marrying her husband, Joel, the two dreamed of having a child together.
"I just really didn't think I could get pregnant," River said.
There was an option. Rivers' doctor, in her hometown of Pageland, S.C., told her about the North Carolina Center for Reproductive Medicine in Cary, and a procedure to surgically reconnect her tubes.
"It took us a while to think about it, but it was worth a shot," Joel Rivers said.
More couples are making that same decision. Reproductive surgeon Dr. Sameh Toma says he performs more tubal reversals than ever.
"The most common reason is divorce," he said. "[Women] remarry, and they have a new husband that they would like to have a child with."
Doctors tie tubes several different ways. The procedure cuts off the fallopian tubes so when eggs are released they are absorbed into the body.
Toma does not know if he can reconnect the tubes until surgery. Using a microscope, he can tell if there is enough tube left.
"Usually, I say it's a one shot thing," he said.
Success rates are up to 80 percent, depending on how the original procedure was done and the woman's age.
Tamessa Rivers had the procedure in November 2002 and was pregnant by January 2003.
"That was the happiest day of my life," her husband said.
Joel Rivers II was born in October.
"Nothing can compare to the feeling. It's unbelievable," the proud father said.
The procedure costs around $6,000 and is not covered by insurance. | <urn:uuid:63bf763a-bc07-4424-af20-99a45bb9abd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/112020/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99097 | 403 | 1.632813 | 2 |
WESTPORT, Conn.—The euro was plummeting. The stock market was gyrating. And Ray Dalio, president of one of the world's largest hedge funds, took a moment to talk about mosquitoes.
"Man will never be able to build a flying device like a mosquito," mused Mr. Dalio, the 60-year-old founder of Bridgewater Associates. "I look at nature's complexity and think, man has the intelligence of mold growing on an apple."
Mr. Dalio, his staffers readily admit, is an unusual boss. His firm runs on a set of 295 principles that Mr. Dalio devised and distributed to all employees. The 83-page treatise, which draws lessons from the natural world, advises employees on how to achieve fulfillment at work and in life.
In conversation Mr. Dalio weighs in on a range of topics, from inflation to the virtues of home-grown tomatoes. He started writing down his principles about three years ago, basing many on his observations of interactions between employees.
Because money talks, people listen. Bridgewater which started investing institutional money in 1985 with a $5 million investment, now oversees $75 billion. With its largest fund returning an average of about 13% annually over the past 19 years, Bridgewater counts among its investors most of the world's sovereign wealth funds and big pension funds like the Arizona State Retirement System.
Mr. Dalio is among a handful of philosopher-investors known not only for moneymaking prowess but also for their distinctive take on life. Former trader Nassim Taleb gained note for his "Black Swan" theory about the fragility of human knowledge. Warren Buffett's folksy aphorisms are almost as famous as his fortune. ("Love is the most important thing and yet you can't buy it.")
Mr. Dalio's basic philosophy is what he calls "hyper-realism," a notion that brutal honesty, no matter how uncomfortable, yields the best results. Principle No. 8: "There is nothing to fear from truth....Being truthful is essential to being an independent thinker and obtaining greater understanding of what is right."
At Bridgewater, being truthful also requires being a bit ruthless. Employees aren't allowed to talk critically about someone unless the person is present. Principal No. 11: "Never say anything about a person you wouldn't say to him directly. If you do, you are a slimy weasel." If an employee breaks the rule three times, they can be fired.
"Most people actually love this rule,'' says Mr. Dalio.
Recordings of company meetings are stored electronically in what some employees call a "transparency library," and many can be listened to by any of the firm's 1,000 employees.
At first, Bridgewater trader Jon Hantler, a veteran of Deutsche Bank and Putnam Investments, had difficulty adjusting to the hyper-realism at Bridgewater, where colleagues openly critiqued his ideas and drilled into his weaknesses.
"I would go home defeated," said Mr. Hantler. "My wife would tell you, it was a challenging thing for us." But then, six months ago, his wife joined Bridgewater in its client-service unit.
One benefit of adopting the company culture: "Our fights are less frequent, shorter and less painful,'' he said. "I am more open-minded."
At a recent staff meeting in a Bridgewater conference room, Mr. Dalio blasted a department head who admitted he'd given an employee a better performance rating than he deserved. "Telling me what I want to hear creates a sugar addiction," said Mr. Dalio, who was wearing chinos, boat shoes and a company name badge with the word "Ray" in big letters.
Some investors like the tough love. "It's not a bunch of bull, it's not a bunch of platitudes," says Bruce Zimmerman, chief investment officer of The University of Texas Investment Management Company, which oversees the school's investments. "I think the way they are brutally honest with each other helps with results."
In many of its funds, Bridgewater takes investment positions that aren't tied to the performance of the stock market. This helped its largest investment fund return 9.4% at the height of the crisis in 2008, while many other investors were clocking big losses. It didn't work as well last year. The firm's largest fund had a return of 2%, while the U.S. stock market rallied strongly. Since the credit crisis began heating up in July 2007, the fund has returned an average of 11% annually.
Mr. Dalio says he's not interested in discussing his principles "in front of the world." But they have leaked out anyway, to the blog Dealbreaker. The blog excerpted them under the headline, "Be the Hyena. Attack the Wildebeest," a reference to the hedge-fund king's ruminations on natural selection.
"Like the hyenas attacking the wildebeest, successful people might not even know if or how their pursuits of self interest helps society, but it typically does," Mr. Dalio writes.
At Bridgewater's headquarters in Connecticut, a stone wall marks the entrance to a long driveway winding through the woods. A brook flows beneath the building, a three-story structure of glass and stone. Employees like to point out there are few flashy cars in the lot.
"We are nerds," says Seth Birnbaum, a portfolio strategist who came to Bridgewater eight years ago out of Amherst College, where he studied philosophy, political science and economics.
Growing up on Long Island, Mr. Dalio says, he was a "very ordinary kid who was a substandard high school student."
Today, his net worth is an estimated $4 billion, according to Forbes. He lives in the hedge fund capital of Greenwich, where he once threw a benefit party that featured the Allman Brothers Band and Bonnie Raitt.
At home, too, he applies his hyper-realist philosophy, even with his family. "Each person finds this hard," he says, "until you get used to it."
Write to Michael Corkery at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:648dfa5f-0c0a-4965-8cc6-1b318e48dfa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704256604575294381732663678.html?mod=WSJ_mgmt_LeadStoryCollection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974047 | 1,273 | 1.679688 | 2 |
As ridiculous as it might seem, I fell in love with a poster exhibit this past weekend. The posters are from one of the most ambitious campaigns to encourage people to use public transport and staged by London Transport. Original art was commissioned and the results are an amazing exploration of consumption and place, and the creation of a strong civic identity. (The title of the show was taken from a 1948 show at the Victoria and Albert Museum that exhibited the original artwork for the posters.) The Yale exhibit site has a slide show of some of the posters - I highly recommend the book. The graphic design and art are truly beautiful. Below is a favorite by Tom Purvis. Can we do a poster contest, MTA? WMATA?
Posted by Shin-pei at 12:43 PM
I have a Los Angeles bestie who I get to see about once a year. She's involved in the public space scene there - on the board of the LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, works at Getty, super talented, etc etc. Every time we get together, we show each other the latest in our respective cities, then inevitably get going on all the fun projects we want to do. Above is a little snapshot of one of those sessions from 2007. I love that we got so excited about this (you be the judge of the merit of the ideas). We were going to call our bi-coastal collaboration "Public S.A." - for Public Service Announcement. I still love the name.
Posted by Shin-pei at 9:07 AM
Not sure where this came from...happy to credit it...
This blog started back in 2004 as a way to track public space issues that interested me. Way back then, Curbed was the reliable neighborhood development blog (rather than a hack for realtors). Jen Bekman of the eponymous gallery used to gather us design, city, urbanist, architecture bloggers together for drinks every so often. Today, it would have to be a large bar to fit just the architecture bloggers out there.
I felt OK with amateurly covering this space back then because there weren't too many others covering it. Obviously, things change, and this space changed. Tracking news stories became more about how public space gets won (markets, streets, parks, etc). It got more personal as I managed to talk my way into working at a few favorite organizations - Project for Public Spaces, Transportation Alternatives, ZGF - who were tackling the issue in their own ways. Still amateur, but different.
Fast forward today. It's amazing how much the proliferation of media and free tools has led to such great coverage of space, design, architecture, urbanism, planning, and everything in between. I stopped tracking articles about public spaces, development, and cities because so many places did it so well (and much better than me).
My interest in public spaces started broadly. I came to focus on transportation (i.e., 80% of NYC public space are its streets). From transportation, I opened up to climate change and energy (i.e., 70% of our oil is consumed for transportation purposes). And now I've come full circle back to cities (i.e., metropolitan regions take up only 2% of the earth's land mass but are responsible for 70% of global emissions).
Over the course of the next few months, I'll be developing ideas and activities around cities, energy, and climate change. After being able to work on a variety of different scales, with various communities, and in design, planning, and policy, I feel that tying this broad, long-term, global issue - climate - to a very tangible, rooted perspective - cities - is a good way to try. The point is not to duplicate the wonderful work that so many organizations are doing on urban policy. The point is to advance energy and climate policy by examining opportunities and challenges in governance, policy, innovation, systems, and participation, through the lens of cities. The second point is to amplify the work that others are doing on urban policy and in elevating the profile of cities more generally.
I'm really excited about this. I've thought a lot about whether I should shut BttN down, since it really no longer is a place to come and look at public space ideas, but I think I'll keep it up for the rare occasion that I find something worth sharing. It's a chance to continue noting a couple of things important to me: the smallest scales (that's why I love little urban interventions) when working on big policy. And signals of cultural shifts afoot - hence the inclusion of art on this site.
That's where things are in 2011. Let's see how this goes!
Posted by Shin-pei at 6:14 PM
I was cleaning out my files today on the train and found a bunch of short documents squirreled away all over my laptop (not the most organized filer here.) I guess I used to sit down and write out a random public space idea, then save and forget all about it. Below is the first one, exactly as I wrote it a few years ago. It's silly and ingenuous and not well-developed - but I did laugh.
Small, interstitial public spaces are the best opportunities to improve the experience of a city dweller. Though New York City has lately paid much attention to reclaiming public space such as pop-up cafes, new public plazas from underutilized street space, the bus stop – and the bus layover space, with its 15 feet of curb – is an underutilized space as well. And of all of New York City’s residents, the bus rider’s experience is one given the least attention.
This is a campaign to provide to bus riders a truly magnificent experience, one that equals the benefits they provide the city by not driving a car, polluting the air, and endangering its citizens. Historically, bus riders have been viewed as second class citizens. This is perhaps illustrated by the way Charlotte, NC, in the 1980s encouraged the development of skywalks, pristine walkways that protected privileged citizens from the weather as well as providing access to retail. Down below, on the messiness of the street, no shelter was provided for bus riders. They were forced to stand up to climate and few amenities.
The campaign will identify popular bus stops – those with plenty of riders but with very few amenities. (Though NYC has launched a new street furniture system with new bus shelters, the shelters are expensive enough and sidewalk space scarce enough that not all bus stops will have shelters.) Adopt-a-Stop would pair the bus stop with a local civic organization. On a designated day of the year, the group will design an experience for riders alighting the bus at that particular stop. This will draw attention to the highly utilized bus stop system and greatly underserved bus ridership in NYC. Why shouldn’t bus riders receive the same high quality experience as other people on the street?
Yes, why the hell not?? And to get your creative juices going, here's a set of amazing bus shelters.
Beat the cold in Minneapolis
This one is famously community-oriented.
Tons more on flickr...
Posted by Shin-pei at 5:48 PM
Image from NYT
Ah, the dream of stadiums as a driver of economic growth. It does happen. But it's not a quick fix.
The NYT has an interesting article today, "Company's Arenas Leave Cities with Big Problems." The article describes the pain several smaller towns in more remote locations are experiencing because of their stadium strategies. They are now left with the high costs of maintaining the building and paying back the initial debt without the expected revenue. Other city services are being cut to keep the stadium afloat. There are few available buyers for stadiums, though I do recall a moment during the real estate bubble when there were quite a few international buyers for unattractive real estate.
(Apparently the cities bought into the sales job from Global Entertainment, promised. Full list of stadiums this company helped build, pdf.)
[I've written a few times about stadiums at BttN and interestingly, this post, A stadium round-up is consistently one of the most popular pages on this site. (Probably because sports fans trying to find a nearby stadium vastly outnumber urban nerds.)]
Posted by Shin-pei at 5:26 PM
images by Vera Frankel, rehearsals for String Games: Improvisations for Inter-City Video, 1974 from here
I'll ask it once again, who (person or organization) do you think is making good progress on cities, climate change and policy? It can be on any scale - urban intervention, city-wide, sectoral, regional, state, national, supranational, bilateral, multinational...you choose. I want to know who your city-climate change heroes are. You can define action, who does it, how much, what success is, etc. The only caveat is that your nominee should deal with policy somehow - effectively, the rules that allow multiple actors to engage with one another while avoiding public harm (btw, this is such a low bar that I feel it needs a disclaimer - this should not be a standard for public policy!)
Posted by Shin-pei at 5:13 PM | <urn:uuid:1f71a088-2064-4261-b473-9dd63ad7040f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northbird.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961915 | 1,915 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Skype Worm Unleashed by Hackers Attacking Windows PCs
Computers with Windows are recent victims of cyberpunks, who have unleashed a worm, which is distributed via its instant messenger service, aiming the VoIP talk software.
The latest worm is communicating very realistic bogus Skype Instant Messenger talks while trying to affect its targets. Skype alerted its users about a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) worm capable of attacking Windows PCs on September 10, 2007.
The September 10, 2007 blog entry of Skype's representative Villu Arak further informs that the organization has already contacted antivirus purveyors to check the advance of the worm capable of infecting Windows PCs of Skype users, according to news released by PCworld.com. Arak also outlined instructions for eliminating the worm.
As per additional SpywareGuide Greynets blog review, the malware directs chat communications trying to deceive targets into believing they were inadvertently delivered the file with alluring contents.
The particular link tries to transfer a file with .scr extension meant for screen savers. When clicked open, the worm - also called Skipi, Pykspa and Ramex - initially tries to incapacitate anti-virus software, and then fixes some data thieving malicious software, indicates Symantec's study.
As per the Skype blog, three anti-virus sellers, namely Kaspersky Lab, F-Secure and Symantec Corp, have created remedies for this incursive worm named "w32/Ramex.A". A manual remedy is also outlined, but according to the blog, only specialists can attempt. Five .exe files have to be erased apart from deletion of all hosts file records to restart the anti-virus updates.
The harm perpetrated onto users' PCs by the worm is still unclear. Moreover, Skype's repute has already been tarnished greatly, as it is the firm's second significant reliability crisis within weeks. There was a breakdown of service towards August 2007 end, stretching over a day. That serious event incited much conjecture about the reliability of Internet telephony for small-scale enterprises.
The recent happening will make it all the tougher for Skype to defend its efficacy. For Skype, this worm is a real nuisance, especially since it is attempting real hard to project itself as a serious business outfit instead of an average setup to telephone near and dear ones worldwide.
Related article: Skype Plugs Critical Security Hole
» SPAMfighter News - 19-09-2007 | <urn:uuid:e69717b8-9cb9-4876-855c-eabc415374e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spamfighter.com/News-9072-Skype-Worm-Unleashed-by-Hackers-Attacking-Windows-PCs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931464 | 510 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The United States criticized Cuba on Friday for denying imprisoned American contractor Alan Gross permission to visit his ailing mother as a humanitarian gesture.
"The Cuban government can't even grant that kind of humanity in a totally unequivocal situation to begin with," she said.
Gross, 63, was arrested in December 2009 for distributing laptops and communications equipment to members of Cuba's small Jewish community under a State Department contract.
Cuban foreign ministry official Josefina Vidal told CNN on Thursday that Gross could not leave the country because he began serving 2.5 years ago a 15-year sentence for "acts against the independence or territorial integrity" of Cuba.
The contractor has requested permission on repeated occasions to visit his sick 90-year-old mother.
"The continuing imprisonment of Alan Gross is deplorable. It is wrong. And it's an affront to human decency," Nuland said. "The Cuban government needs to do the right thing."
Nuland said Washington would not consider a prisoner exchange of Gross, who is reported to be in poor health, for five Cuban agents who were tried and imprisoned for espionage by the United States.
One of the so-called "Cuban Five," Rene Gonzalez, who was released on parole in October after serving 13 years in prison, was allowed to make a two week visit to Cuba in March to visit his cancer-stricken brother.
Vidal said the Cuban government was willing to negotiate to find a "humanitarian solution... on a basis of reciprocity," but offered no specifics.
"There's no equivalency in these situations, and the Cuban government knows that," said Nuland.
"On the one hand, you have convicted spies in the United States, and on the other hand, you have an assistance worker who should never have been locked up in the first place.
"So we are not contemplating any release of the Cuban Five and we are not contemplating any trade," she said.
Source: AFP American Edition | <urn:uuid:7a0abb64-0255-4d61-8c3f-97b70e044538> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blnz.com/news/2012/05/11/slams_Cuba_jailed_American_contractor_44c5.html | 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 | 0.982561 | 408 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Funded by $43-million from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) and nearly $20 million from Norfolk Southern, the projects lengthened or built new passing tracks between Manassas, Va., and Front Royal, installed five miles of double track near the Virginia Inland Port, improved signal and traffic control systems and increased train speeds through Riverton Junction near Front Royal.
"The completion of these I-81 corridor improvements will benefit both freight and passenger rail service in Virginia," said DRPT Director Thelma Drake. "This capacity will attract more trucks from the highways to trains, as well as facilitate future passenger expansion in Northern Virginia."
"With these improvements, we can move more trains faster through Northern Virginia," said John Friedmann, Norfolk Southern vice president Strategic Planning. "This is a significant milestone in increasing the freight capacity of the Crescent Corridor in Virginia, and a prime example of a successful public-private partnership at work."
The Crescent Corridor initiative supports the Commonwealth's goals for improving freight transportation in Virginia while facilitating passenger improvements.
The Crescent Corridor consists of a program of improvements to infrastructure and other facilities geared toward creating a seamless, high-capacity Intermodal route spanning 11 states from New Jersey to Louisiana and offering truck-competitive service along several major interstate highway corridors, including I-81, I-85, I-20, I-40, I-59 and I-75. More than $2 billion in projects have been identified to improve freight rail service and reduce interstate highway congestion. | <urn:uuid:18fed484-2de8-4b97-ad70-c5ce6f504e96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/freight/class-1/major-crescent-corridor-improvements-completed.html?channel=1%20ON%20Track%20Maintenance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947514 | 312 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Information about mental health and wellbeing
Commencing a course at university is an exciting and challenging experience for anyone. There are many things to consider and many unknown factors that could cause anxiety, such as: Am I doing the right course? Where will I live? Will I make friends? How will I manage my finances?
For students who have experienced mental health difficulties such anxieties can seem daunting. Coping with the rigours of university whilst dealing with the reality of living with mental health issues can be extra challenging. It is therefore important that before you choose a university and commence your studies you consider the support and structures that will be in place to ensure that your time at university is a positive experience.
To help you with this process, this website attempts general answers to frequently asked questions. We would also encourage you to contact the university of your choice direct, and make further enquiries about services offered at that particular institution. | <urn:uuid:5c7fcfb3-4282-44f4-9ec1-012b898ca3d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/student-support-mental-wellbeing/information-for-students/prospective-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966563 | 186 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The Art of Serenity
The aesthetics of peaceful interiors is almost always simple. The use of furniture and decor is minimal. Peace needs space to breathe and as such, requires many empty spaces, an openess, a cleanliness and a quietness. There are few things that are as peaceful as sitting comfortably, perhaps quietly, in a space allowing the eyes to wander lazily across a room of soothing colors, comfortable furnishings and calming lighting. The addition of soothing sounds, music and fresh air can enhance the experience and lift the spirit to another level.
People have varying sensitivities to their interior environment. Some people are more comfortable with aesthetic simplicity than others. For some it is a preference, for others, it can be a necessity or completely insignificant.
Like most things in life, creating a peaceful space is a journey. It is a path that leads from the outside in - from an exterior space of peace to an inner peace. I know because I have been on the path for the past 12 years. For those interested in pursuing this path, some ways to begin include “downsizing your stuff”, eliminating debt, ridding your interior environment of clutter, objects and people that “weigh you down”. It means managing your emotions, your thoughts and your mindfulness in order to eliminate the toxic effect of people and circumstances in your life.
It is not to be taken lightly, for it can transform you in ways not imagined. It has theraputic value, an element of happiness and occasional bliss. Within it, you may find compassion and tolerance, some balance and occasional harmony with all that resonates around you.
There will be noise. There will be chaos. The senses will be soothed, stimulated, assaulted and nurtured. A different, and emerging peaceful you, will respond objectively in each situation limiting the length of time it takes to recuperate from a negative experience, or detach from an unhealthy or toxic situation. You will meet each intrusion with indifference, each annoyance with detachment. | <urn:uuid:78875d08-b3a4-4cdb-a9e5-fc21967da073> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apeacefulspace.com/first-steps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951218 | 415 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A title is something strong. Something that leaves its mark through time, in the memories and in the hearts. A title tells things about the content, its purpose, its meaning, its point.
For your needs in strong titlecase letters comes Anthracite. Looking almost like they were carved out of raw wood in the 1820s, the letters of Anthracite will not only imprint well but they will also impress. Its carving gives a feeling of relief, or shades, of textures that will be unique every time you use it. The perfect font if you want to stand out and be read.
available in all of the styles: | <urn:uuid:39d0a498-f2c0-4c28-b92f-f723a1c136b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/fabulousrice/anthracite/?add_to_album=FontStyle+224917 | 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 | 0.964643 | 130 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Plastic Pollution Conversation: Pacific Rim Tour 2012
The Pacific Rim Tour 2012 is an international series of events geared toward building a worldwide network of partners committed to making a positive difference in the health of our oceans.
Our goal is to create an international awareness of plastic pollution impact, challenges, and solutions.
The chain reaction of thought set off by these events will increase our chances to heal the seas of our neglect.
2012 Tour Summary
A fundamental rethinking of the plastic age and a growing global health crisis....
These words echoed at each venue along the Tour route, igniting audiences into listening, learning and launching a chain reaction of thought in how we view the plastic age, ourselves in it and what we must do in order to preserve our oceans and the overall health of the planet.
This highly successful, well attended Tour reinforced the '"clear and present danger" that plastic marine pollution challenges us with. The world must be convinced to cease using its oceans as the final resting place for its waste and The Plastic Pollution Conversation is a voice that speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves……our ocean’s inhabitants. As a result of this Tour, the volume of this voice has been raised for more to hear and join in the Conversation about challenges and development of viable solutions.
In TOKYO, one of the venues I visited was a middle school where children are fighting plastic pollution with filling stations for reusable bottles. Another high point in this great city was at Kasumigaseki, where a high level press conference was held, both for the publishers of my book, Plastic Ocean (in Japanese) and NHK to view the “Inconvenient Truth of Waste,” “Trashed”, narrated by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons. I introduced the film with a Power Point presentation and took questions after the film and had a book signing with successful sales. As a result, I was asked to do an interview with the largest daily in Japan that everybody reads, Tokyo Shinbun. It included pictures and was a great kick off for my Pacific Rim Plastic Pollution Conversation Tour. .
The next stop was HONG KONG, the site of the largest plastic pellet spill in recorded history, which devastated local fish farmers businesses in two ways. The majority of the fish ate the pellets and were in deep distress, swimming belly up as a result of the buoyancy created by the pellets. Though the pellets were found to be toxic free, all retail outlets refused shipments of the surviving fish. Joining in a beach cleanup, I was very impressed with young people who had invented a rotating screen to scour out the pellets. It was also very disturbing to learn that shark nets have to be used to protect beach goers.
On to AUSTRALIA. Hobart, Tasmania….Revisiting the islandat the southern tip of the continent, the birthplace of the ORV Alguita, I lectured at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Stanley Burbury Theatre at the University of Tasmania. A great discussion took place surrounding sampling plastic debris loads on MacQuarie and Heard Islands daily, rather than monthly, something they have done for years.
In Melbourne, I toured two community gardens and did a beach cleanup. The next day, my talk at the South Melbourne Commons was followed by journeying north to Jervis Bay where I presented at the Maritime Museum. In Sydney, I presented at the Toronga Zoo, had numerous interviews in the Sydney metro area and an interview with the ABC Science Show. It was interesting that the Tara Expeditions samples that were collected for Algalita revealed 50,000 pieces of plastic in Antarctic water. I was happy to be there coincidentally and have an opportunity to talk about it.
NEW ZEALAND. The southern-most stop on the Tour. The Sir Peter Blake Trust staff scheduled me at the New Zealand Maritime Museum and former Auckland Mayor Bob Harvey not only turned over his home in beautiful KareKare to me, he asked me to stand in for him at the Keep Auckland Beautiful meeting.
MAUI. Maui Ocean Center Aquarium was an interesting venue and well attended. I went on a beach cleanup on the windward side with a Maui resident who had been a crew member on the first leg of our 2012 Asia Pacific Expedition. I was appalled to see the ghost nets embedded in the sand, making them extremely difficult to remove. An in-studio taping of my presentation at Akaku Community Television will be available for viewing on our website shortly. Several other venues included The Whaler’s Museum in Ka’anapali and the NOAA/Whale Sanctuary in South Kihei.
OAHU was the last stop on the Tour at the University Laboratory School in Honolulu on October 14. It was a great pleasure to make new friends from the Sustainable Coastlines and to wind up the Tour with a get together at Wylands’ Penthouse in Waikiki.
This summary would not be complete without acknowledging the many organizations that made this Tour not only possible, but successful. While I may not have included all of them, please take a moment to become familiar with the names of folks in far reaches of the world who are connecting the dots to make a difference. MEET THE “PLASTIC” GRAPEVINE VOICES >>
The Plastic Pollution Conversation in the NEWS: | <urn:uuid:95115ad6-808d-4399-951a-6dc64b137d86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.algalita.org/plastic-pollution-conversation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964506 | 1,106 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Senior and graduate accounting students from Montana State University’s College of Business are offering free help preparing tax returns for MSU students and individuals who made less than $58,000 last year.
The help sessions will be held on the MSU campus in Reid Hall 302 (computer lab). No appointment is necessary. Sessions will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on the following dates: Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26, 28; March 5, 19, 26, 28; and April 2. At the sessions, students will be available to prepare federal and state income tax returns and answer tax questions. Free electronic filing will be available for most 1040 forms.
Individuals who are interested in free help should bring their 2012 W-2 forms, other tax documents, social security cards and copies of their 2011 tax returns (if available). International students and employees should also bring their passports and visas. Tax assistance for international students and employees begins Feb. 26.
The student accounting volunteers are part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which was established by the Internal Revenue Service to assist people who may find it difficult to pay for tax preparation services. The program also gives accounting students practical experience.
Each student accounting volunteer has passed an IRS tax preparation exam, completed at least one comprehensive tax course, received specific training related to common tax issues, and has access to a variety of federal and state reference materials. The sessions are sponsored by the MSU College of Business and Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for financial information students and professionals.
Tim Melevin, an assistant visiting accounting professor at MSU, supervises the students. For questions, please email email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:678a06dc-9c9d-4dd1-b23d-a32a2050b1f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.montana.edu/cob/2013/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949071 | 356 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Clippings, correspondence, photos, programs, publicity, scrapbooks, posters, postcards and posters concerning the career of
Lillian Birmingham and her daughter Alma Birmingham.
Lillian Birmingham, nee Kraft, was born in 1871 at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She possessed a deep, rich contralto voice and
began singing during her teens . In 1889 she moved to San Francisco and was married there in 1890 to J.E. Birmingham, a jeweler.
During her long singing career, she studied in London and Paris, and performed in San Francisco, other California cities,
London, New York, and Hamilton, Canada. Her last public performance was in San Francisco in 1932, but she remained active
and influential in California music, both as a member and leader of numerous musical organizations and events, and as a teacher
of voice. In March, 1942, she suffered a severe stroke and died a few days later. That same year, the Lillian Birmingham Scholarship
fund was established by her family in memorial of her. | <urn:uuid:697d49ec-afca-456d-a9f6-61cca25c2759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf987006jd/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974047 | 215 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Archaeologists using revolutionary airborne laser technology have discovered a lost mediaeval city that thrived on a mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain 1200 years ago.
As America marks the six-month anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults in the hamlet of Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, gun control advocates have noted that another milestone has been reached - more Americans have died by the gun since then than the total number of US troops killed in Iraq.
Washington: US lawmakers have set out to puncture the claimed altruism of the man whose disclosure of top-secret surveillance programs have caused a storm in Washington, portraying him as a Beijing partisan in continuing US-China cyber wars.
There was as much shrugging as shock over Washington's latest leak.
Rupert Murdoch and his third wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, had been living as a married couple until a few weeks ago.
A mist-covered mountain in Cambodia gives up its treasure, writes Lindsay Murdoch.
Human genes will no longer be controlled by private companies in America after a landmark ruling by the country's highest court.
Scratched and exhausted, Damian Evans pushed through dense Cambodian jungle into a clearing where mountain villagers long ago attempted to grow rice, stepping onto a weed-covered mound.
Four people were confirmed dead in a shooting in an area of St. Louis housing small businesses, St. Louis Police said on their official Twitter feed.
Google has pledged £1 million ($1.65 million) to a British charity that monitors online child porn, just days after British Prime Minister David Cameron demanded the internet giant do more to tackle the problem.
CHECK out the best of our photos from the month of May. | <urn:uuid:d44d8139-f3d4-47e9-9444-7cf127fe418b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knoxweekly.com.au/news/world/?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959624 | 348 | 1.632813 | 2 |
2001: Top-secret changes revealed
As many as four work crews are busy at Augusta National Golf Club making significant changes on seven holes. The work involves adding seven new tees, reshaping fairway bunkers on three holes and reconfiguring fairway contours on three holes, Golfweek has learned.
The work is nearing completion and will leave plenty of time for turfgrass recovery for the 2002 Masters.
In a separate plan, officials from Augusta National have made inquires to representatives from adjoining Augusta Country Club. The immediate object of interest is a one-acre parcel along the right side of Augusta Country Club’s 387-yard, par-4 ninth hole. Access to this plot of land would enable Augusta National officials to add about 30 yards to its 485-yard, par-5 13th hole.
At the 2001 Masters, Augusta National chairman William “Hootie” Johnson announced that some significant changes were forthcoming, but would not comment on details. The work is being overseen by architect Tom Fazio. No club official or anyone associated with the work would comment about the renovations.
The par-72, 6,985-yard course, designed by Alister MacKenzie and Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones, has undergone considerable modification since its opening in 1933. In recent years, trees have been used to narrow landing areas on what originally was designed to play as a ground game-oriented layout with vast contours and putting surfaces in the midst of a parkland setting. Light rough was brought back in 1999 after a long hiatus. In 1981, the Bermudagrass greens were converted to bentgrass for the 1982 Masters.
While par will be unaffected, the course could gain as much as an estimated 115 yards, bringing it to 7,100 yards. Several fairways are being regraded to reduce ground roll and make the course play even longer.
The plans appear to include historic restoration of the bunker shape on the eighth fairway. | <urn:uuid:48d181cd-b19f-44c5-aa33-82e4ae55fe65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://creese@golfweek.com/news/2001/nov/16/2001-top-secret-changes-revealed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963754 | 409 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Every market runs in supply-demand cycles, even petroleum. With natural gas prices at near-record lows, major companies in the Marcellus shale natural gas play are backing off their aggressive pursuit of leases.
Natural gas prices have dropped about 49% from the June 2011 peak of $4.92 per million Btu (MMBtu) to the current level of around $2.50 (Henry Hub spot price, the benchmark supply point in Louisiana). In late April, natural gas hit a 10-year low of $1.82.
That's one reason Chesapeake Energy, the Marcellus shale's major player, has slowed its acquisitions, reports Jim Leonard, natural gas leasing consultant from Endicott, N.Y. Chesapeake and others are concentrating on leases that allow them to delay drilling infinitely or hold wells in production with little or no actual activity.
Declining numbers of drilling rigs in Pennsylvania are another clue. Tom Murphy of Penn State University's Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research, reports that 95 rigs were working in Pennsylvania in early May, down about 15 from a year ago. Half of the wells drilled aren't currently producing, adds Murphy. "The biggest reason is the lack of pipelines."
But there's another even bigger reason. Due to the huge natural gas surplus, inventories in underground storage have persistently exceeded the five-year average since late September last year, according to Leonard Zacks, CEO of Zacks Investment Research, Inc. And he predicts that gas production is likely to test the nation's underground storage capacity by fall.
As noted, this has forced natural gas players to announce drilling/volume curtailments. Talisman Energy Inc., another major Marcellus player has slashed its 2012 capital budget to minimize investments in development drilling.
Drilling activities have also shifted to western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. There, fracked wells in the deeper Utica shale formation yield higher-value liquefied gas plus oil.
"We don't expect much upside in gas prices in the near term," says Zacks. "There appears no reason to believe that the supply overhang will subside and natural gas will be out of the dumps in 2012." | <urn:uuid:9e6382b6-817f-481b-891e-4650aabfc926> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/story-marcellus-shale-natural-gas-boom-has-peaked-0-60175 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951346 | 450 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Sinai Peninsula remains a hot spot for Israeli tourists who love scuba diving, snorkeling, or just relaxing on the beach. Over the weekend, what started out as a much-needed summer get-away turned to tragedy as three bombs exploded, killing more than 90 and injuring another 200. The attack leveled the first floor and shattered the coffee shop of the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el Sheikh.
A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, though none of the terrorists were Egyptian. In fact, the majority of the dead were Egyptians and the remainder mostly European tourists. While some 10,000 Israelis in Sinai at the time of the attack, reports indicate only one sustained injuries.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the attacks as cowardly and an attempt to undermine Egypt’s security, with al-Qaeda’s Sinai branch catching Egyptian intelligence by surprise.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called Mubarak to express condolences over the deadliest terror attack in Egypt’s history. Egyptian security forces have already arrested more than 70 in connection with the attack. | <urn:uuid:13a0896a-1935-487c-8279-4fe55652d66b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/3859/Default.aspx?archive=article_title | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940723 | 228 | 1.703125 | 2 |
As some of you may know, we lost another cultural icon today. Maurice Sendak, author of several beloved children's books including Where The Wild Things Are
. Along with the loss of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (who was the subject of many a tribute this weekend
), it's been a sad week for pop culture. However, these two were connected in another way besides their close passing-- Yauch helped produce a documentary on Sendak created by his good friend, Spike Jonze (director of many a Beastie Boys music video). Jonze spent six years following Sendak, preparing interviews to distract him from the grueling production of his film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are
(which spawned its own contributions to the musical conversation
). The result was hours of intimate footage of Sendak, full of the same insight and wonder as the work he did.
Jonze assembled the footage into a documentary called Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak
. He then sought out his old friend Adam Yauch, and together with Yauch's Oscilloscope Laboratories, released the full doc to HBO and later on DVD and Blu-ray. You can still purchase the whole thing on the Oscilloscope website
Sendak is extremely poignant, especially when discussing his work, death, and the important people in his life. Of death, he says: "clearing the decks for a simple death, you're done with your work, you're done with your life...and your life was your work."
Here's a clip, make sure you've got some Kleenex at the ready: | <urn:uuid:70a1b20b-2d0d-4a19-8316-613cb6fe9c48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/5-8-2012/Watch-A-Documentary-on-Maurice-Sendak-Produced-by-Adam-Yauch.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97263 | 334 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Natural Knitter: How to Choose, Use, and Knit Natural Fibers from Alpaca to Yak: Barbara Albright
My review :) This is a very bittersweet review of Barbara Albright's “The Natural Knitter”. Barbara wrote both knitting and cooking books. Sadly she died last fall of a brain tumor at the age of 51. This was her last book, and regrettable she missed enjoying her wonderful book. The world has lost a wonderful person, knitter and author. When Barbara wrote “The Natural Knitter” it had to be an enormous task to write and illustrate. This book is like an encyclopedia of yarn all natural all beautiful. You will learn what natural fibers to use from Alpaca to Yak. We are all familiar with the new interest in natural fibers like cotton, flax and hemp and all other fibers that come from plants. | <urn:uuid:2b6ae584-5dfa-4348-a857-da19e67747bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisnext.com/item/CBD4DEDF/08273ED9/The-Natural-Knitter-How-to | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947613 | 182 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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