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President Obama’s Call to President-Elect Putin, as provided by the White House
President Obama called Russian President-elect and Prime Minister Putin to congratulate him on his recent victory in the Russian Presidential election.
President Obama highlighted achievements in U.S.-Russia relations over the past three years with President Medvedev, including cooperation on Afghanistan, the conclusion and ratification of the START agreement, Russia’s recent invitation to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and cooperation on Iran.
President Obama and President-Elect Putin agreed that the successful reset in relations should be built upon during the coming years.
The President said that he looked forward to hosting President-Elect Putin at the G-8 Summit in May at Camp David.
The two leaders outlined areas for future cooperation, including strengthening trade and investment relations arising out of Russia’s pending accession to the WTO. President Obama and President-Elect Putin agreed to continue discussions on areas where the United States and Russia have differed, including Syria and missile defense.
President Obama and President-Elect Putin agreed to continue their efforts to find common ground and remove obstacles to better relations. ####
36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes
Obama administration vows inaction on rising gas prices
How many Senate staffers does Barbara Boxer need to hold her sign?
On returning Bill Maher's $1 million, Obama's PAC says, You're kidding, right? | <urn:uuid:5277a483-d63b-4a4c-94d2-4237c07cb60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/030912-603933-obama-phone-russia-putin-with-congratulations.htm?Ntt=text | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944728 | 292 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Calorie restriction, a diet that is low in calories and high in nutrition, may not be as effective at extending life in people as it is in rodents, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
You don’t say.
Go read the whole article. Some interesting stuff there. I’ve got lots of thoughts, but I have to go write for people who pay me. | <urn:uuid:60f536f7-fd72-45d9-8fba-2844d1d21155> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kateharding.net/2008/09/26/quick-hit-turns-out-people-arent-rats/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=d42062ed33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969698 | 87 | 1.6875 | 2 |
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Ontario and Quebec’s Canadian Young Farmers Forum representative says a new Farm Credit Canada loan program with a $500,000 ceiling is a “great initiative” that recognizes “young farmers are vital to the success of agriculture in the future.”
Jessica Burgess, 23, from Bruce County, says she’d like to eventually take over the family dairy operation but with the costs of quota and land prices “I don’t know if it’s going to be viable for myself to do that as an individual.” The young farmer loan would help; although she hasn’t seen what the requirements are yet so doesn’t know if she would qualify.
But she’s pleased to see a loan in place with such a high ceiling. “They do realize agriculture is getting more expensive to invest in.” A federal news release issued Thursday, says the $500 million loan program offers people 18 to 39 who qualify, loans of up to $500,000 to buy or improve farmland and buildings. Interest rates are variable at prime plus 0.5 per cent and there are special fixed rates. As well, there are no loan processing fees.
Clem Samson, FCC’s vice president of western operations, says the loan program is available now. He says it is designed to encourage younger people to move into agriculture.
Young farmers, typically defined as less than 40 years of age, are involved in the formative years of an operation, Samson says. “As people build equity and so on it can be more difficult to get financing moving forward,” he says. “So what we thought we’d do is come about with a product that was less expensive fee-wise and so on and then also a rate that was lower than the normal industry would give out.”
The news release says about 16 per cent of Canadian producers fall into the younger farmer category according to the 2006 Census. BF | <urn:uuid:c960de1c-59a0-4c0b-8527-7044d0a61529> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://betterfarming.com/comment/4090 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979197 | 416 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Showcase Your Strengths through Storytelling
- Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Storytelling also builds your confidence, which is an important asset when job hunting or marketing your business. By creating and telling a collection of stories about what you are able to do and the positive results you have achieved, you refine your understanding of your unique set of abilities and the value you can bring to an employer or client.
In working with our career coaching clients, we have found that many people undervalue the very skills and abilities that are their most marketable assets. Why? It is because we often take for granted the things that come most naturally to us, reasoning that if something is relatively easy for us, everyone must be able to do it. When you tell your stories and see others' reactions to what you have done, you will gain a deeper appreciation for the uniqueness and significance of who you are and what you are capable of doing. You have been created for a purpose, and your stories will help you better understand that purpose and communicate it to others.
Kevin Brennfleck and Kay Marie Brennfleck are the authors of Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life. As National Certified Career Counselors and Life Calling Coaches, they are recognized experts in helping people identify their giftedness and find their purpose in life. If you are interested in career coaching and testing to discover work that fits your God-given design; or would like assistance with writing a powerful resume, interviewing effectively, finding job openings, or other aspects of a successful job search, you can schedule a free consultation session at www.ChristianCareerCenter.com.
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Add Crosswalk.com content to your siteBrowse available content | <urn:uuid:40a87cc8-78d2-4092-b7d2-fd21d9d3f41c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crosswalk.com/family/career/showcase-your-strengths-through-storytelling-11609140.html?p=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954551 | 383 | 1.53125 | 2 |
|Smoking restrictions have been applied unevenly |
across Swiss cantons
Voters in Switzerland appear to have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum.
Hotels, restaurants and bars are currently allowed to have rooms for smokers but critics say this harms the health of those who work in them.
Restrictions introduced two years ago were watered down after lobbying from the catering trade and tobacco firms.
With returns from nearly all 26 cantons counted, the full ban seemed to have been rejected convincingly.
Zurich newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung suggested voters had rejected the ban by nearly two-thirds.
In some cantons, more than 70% of voters rejected the ban, according to Geneva newspaper La Tribune de Geneve. Geneva itself bucked the trend by supporting the ban by 52% to 48%.
Geneva and seven other cantons have already imposed their own comprehensive bans on indoor smoking in places of employment while the remaining, smaller cantons have been less restrictive.
Jean-Charles Rielle, a doctor and member of the committee behind the proposal, told AFP news agency before the vote that they wanted to clear up the confusion.
"In the cantons where these laws [banning smoking rooms] are already in effect, we saw immediately... a 20% drop in hospitalisation due to cardiovascular incidents, heart attacks and these kinds of problems," he said.
However, Laurent Terlinchamp, president of Geneva's association of cafe owners, restaurateurs and hoteliers, said the proposed measures were extreme.
"In Geneva, where the law came in two years ago, we were told that a new clientele would start to come back to establishments," he said.
"But it's not the case today because profits are down 10% to 30% depending on the type of business."
La Tribune de Geneve suggests voters rejected a full ban because they did not want to force the smaller cantons into changing their local laws, and because of resentment at perceived state interference in people's lives. | <urn:uuid:0c782b92-88fc-4ad8-8981-551b4651fffd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://samdailytimes.blogspot.com/2012/09/swiss-reject-full-ban-on-smoking-in.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97026 | 423 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Decoherence of Measurement
By: Dr. Sam Vaknin
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The original article was written in April 1998.
It was edited for language and one paragraph - regarding Zurek's work - was added - in December 2004.
Arguably the most intractable philosophical question attached to Quantum Mechanics (QM) is that of Measurement. The accepted (a.k.a. Copenhagen) Interpretation of QM says that the very act of sentient measurement determines the outcome of the measurement in the quantum (microcosmic) realm. The wave function (which describes the co-existing, superpositioned, states of the system) "collapses" following an act of measurement.
It seems that just by knowing the results of a measurement we determine its outcome, determine the state of the system and, by implication, the state of the Universe as a whole. This notion is so counter-intuitive that it fostered a raging debate which has been on going for more than 7 decades now.
But, can we turn the question (and, inevitably, the answer) on its head? Is it the measurement that brings about the collapse or, maybe, we are capable of measuring only collapsed results? Maybe our very ability to measure, to design measurement methods and instrumentation, to conceptualize and formalize the act of measurement and so on are thus limited and "designed" as to yield only the "collapsible" solutions of the wave function which are macrocosmically stable and "objective" (known as the "pointer states")? Indeed, pointer States are reminiscent of the "strange attractors" of chaos theory!
Most measurements are indirect - they tally the effects of the system on a minute segment of its environment. Wojciech Zurek and others proved that even partial and roundabout measurements are sufficient to induce einselection (or environment-induced superselection). In other words, even the most rudimentary act of measurement is likely to probe pointer states.
Superpositions are notoriously unstable. Even in the quantum realm they last an infinitesimal moment of time. Our measurement apparatus is not sufficiently sensitive to capture superpositions. By contrast, collapsed (or pointer) states are relatively stable and lasting and, thus, can be observed and measured. This is why we measure only collapsed states.
But in which sense (excluding their longevity) are collapsed states measurable, what makes them so? Collapse events are not necessarily the most highly probable some of them are associated with low probabilities, yet they still they occur and are measured.
By definition, the more probable states tend to occur and be measured more often (the wave function collapses more frequently into high probability states). But this does not exclude the less probable states of the quantum system from materializing upon measurement.
Pointer states are carefully "selected" for some purpose, within a certain pattern and in a certain sequence. What could that purpose be? Probably, the extension and enhancement of order in the Universe. That this is so can be easily substantiated by the fact that it is so. Order increases all the time.
The anthropocentric (and anthropic) view of the Copenhagen Interpretation (conscious, intelligent observers determine the outcomes of measurements in the quantum realm) associates humans with negentropy (the decrease of entropy and the increase of order).
This is not to say that entropy cannot increase locally (and order decreased or low energy states attained). But it is to say that low energy states and local entropy increases are perturbations and that overall order in the Universe tends to increase even as local pockets of disorder are created. The overall increase of order in the Universe should be introduced, therefore, as a constraint into any QM formalism.
Yet, surely we cannot attribute an inevitable and invariable increase in order to each and every measurement (collapse). To say that a given collapse event contributed to an increase in order (as an extensive parameter) in the Universe – we must assume the existence of some "Grand Design" within which this statement would make sense.
Such a Grand Design (a mechanism) must be able to gauge the level of orderliness at any given moment (for instance, before and after the collapse). It must have "at its disposal" sensors of increasing or decreasing local and nonlocal order. Human observers are such order-sensitive instruments.
Still, even assuming that quantum states are naturally selected for their robustness and stability (in other words, for their orderliness), how does the quantum system "know" about the Grand Design and about its place within it? How does it "know" to select the pointer states time an again? How does the quantum realm give rise to the world as we know it - objective, stable, certain, robust, predictable, and intuitive?
If the quantum system has no a-priori "awareness" of how it fits into an ever more ordered Universe – how is the information transferred from the Universe to the entangled quantum system and measurement system at the moment of measurement?
Such information must be communicated superluminally (at a speed greater than the speed of light). Quantum "decisions" are instantaneous and simultaneous – while the information about the quantum system's environment emanates from near and far.
But, what are the transmission and reception mechanisms and channels? Which is the receiver, where is the transmitter, what is the form of the information, what is its carrier (we will probably have to postulate yet another particle to account for this last one...)?
Another, no less crucial, question relates to the apparent arbitrariness of the selection process. All the "parts" of a superposition constitute potential collapse events and, therefore, can, in principle, be measured. Why is only one event measured in any given measurement? How is it "selected" to be the collapse event? Why does it retain a privileged status versus the measurement apparatus or act?
It seems that preferred states have to do with the inexorable process of the increase in the overall amount of order in the Universe. If other states were to have been selected, order would have diminished. The proof is again in the pudding: order does increase all the time therefore, measurable collapse events and pointer states tend to increase order. There is a process of negative, order-orientated, selection: collapse events and states which tend to increase entropy are filtered out and statistically "avoided". They are measured less.
There seems to be a guiding principle (that of the statistical increase of order in the Universe). This guiding principle cannot be communicated to quantum systems with each and every measurement because such communication would have to be superluminal. The only logical conclusion is that all the information relevant to the decrease of entropy and to the increase of order in the Universe is stored in each and every part of the Universe, no matter how minuscule and how fundamental.
It is safe to assume that, very much like in living organisms, all the relevant information regarding the preferred (order-favoring) quantum states is stored in a kind of Physical DNA (PDNA). The unfolding of this PDNA takes place in the physical world, during interactions between physical systems (one of which is the measurement apparatus).
The Biological DNA contains all the information about the living organism and is replicated trillions of times over, stored in the basic units of the organism, the cell. What reason is there to assume that nature deviated from this (very pragmatic) principle in other realms of existence? Why not repeat this winning design in quarks?
The Biological variant of DNA requires a biochemical context (environment) to translate itself into an organism an environment made up of amino acids, etc. The PDNA probably also requires some type of context: the physical world as revealed through the act of measurement.
The information stored in the physical particle is structural because order has to do with structure. Very much like a fractal (or a hologram), every particle reflects the whole Universe accurately and the same laws of nature apply to both. Consider the startling similarities between the formalisms and the laws that pertain to subatomic particles and black holes.
Moreover, the distinction between functional (operational) and structural information is superfluous and artificial. There is a magnitude bias here: being creatures of the macrocosm, form and function look to us distinct. But if we accept that "function" is merely what we call an increase in order then the distinction is cancelled because the only way to measure the increase in order is structurally. We measure functioning (=the increase in order) using structural methods (the alignment or arrangement of instruments).
Still, the information contained in each particle should encompass, at least, the relevant (close, non-negligible and non-cancelable) parts of the Universe. This is a tremendous amount of data. How is it stored in tiny corpuscles?
Either utilizing methods and processes which we are far even from guessing – or else the relevant information is infinitesimally (almost vanishingly) small.
The extent of necessary information contained in each and every physical particle could be somehow linked to (even equal to) the number of possible quantum states, to the superposition itself, or to the collapse event. It may well be that the whole Universe can be adequately encompassed in an unbelievably minute, negligibly tiny, amount of data which is incorporated in those quantum supercomputers that today, for lack of better understanding, we call "particles".
Our Universe can be mathematically described as a "matched" or PLL filter whose properties let through the collapsed outcomes of wave functions (when measured) - or the "signal". The rest of the superposition (or the other "Universes" in a Multiverse) can be represented as "noise". Our Universe, therefore, enhances the signal-to-noise ratio through acts of measurement (a generalization of the anthropic principle).
Time Asymmetry Re-Visited (Abstract Only)
Anthropic Agents and the Increase of Entropy (Abstract Only)
The Quantum of Continuity
Notes and Thoughts about String Theory
The Complexity of Simplicity
And Technical Note about Ambiguity and Vagueness
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Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited
A Macedonian Encounter
Internet: A Medium or a Message?
Write to me: firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:b515fe24-5a07-45b6-8df0-24f336294a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://samvak.tripod.com/deco.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933682 | 2,266 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Recent reports, no less than their accompanying photos, suggest that Hugo Chávez may be dying. But if he hangs on, he is on his way to being reelected president again in Venezuela’s December 2012 national elections. The Western hemisphere’s second-greatest political survivor (after Fidel Castro) is now using his cancer patient status to his political advantage, and his popularity is rising as a result.
His old war cry of socialist homeland or death has given way to a new motto splashed across his Facebook page: “We will live and we will conquer.” The ambiguity as to whether he is referring to next year’s presidential elections or his battle with cancer is not accidental. It is a further elaboration of Chávez’s cult of personality, and his battle with cancer fits his revolutionary image.
But if his illness increases his popularity, it lessens his authority. He is getting his medical treatment in Cuba in order to control the flow of information that might leak back into Caracas. But that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill or his rivals, including those in Chávez’s United Socialist party of Venezuela competing to replace him.
So an optimist might say that the prospects for change in Venezuela are excellent: Either Chávez is finished, by cancer or the ballot box; or in his efforts to appeal to the middle class and small businessmen he is compelled to moderate his socialist policies. However, it now seems that Chávez is hardly the extent of Venezuela’s political problem. No matter what happens to the founder of chavismo, evidence shows that the country’s political class is marked by institutionalized criminality and ties to international terrorism.
Recently the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) published the Spanish edition of its strategic dossier, The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador and the Secret Archive of ‘Raúl Reyes.’ Reyes was the second-in-command of the Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, until he was killed in a 2008 raid on his camp in Ecuador. The IISS report, based on the information taken from his laptop, provides some of the most damning proof to date against Chávez and his associates regarding their violent extremism.
Perhaps most important, we now know that a number of Venezuelan politicians supported FARC as far back as 1997, or before Chávez was even elected, and continued to support the outfit even when Chávez withdrew his support for reasons of political expediency. In other words, a segment of the Venezuelan political elite would continue to support violent extremism even if Chávez were gone.
Still, it is Chávez who clinched the relationship with FARC. It seems that he really thought the Americans might tire of his shenanigans at some point and invade Venezuela. In that event, Chávez believed that FARC, perhaps like Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as Iraqi insurgent groups, could be of some help in pushing back the larger, occupying force. The report also shows that Chávez’s former deputy head of intelligence claimed that he was involved in creating “urban shock troops” that would enable FARC operatives to penetrate deep into Venezuela as paramilitaries.
These paramilitary outfits were the core of Chávez’s counterinsurgency plan, should any conspiracy, foreign or domestic, take up arms against him. “Instant Mobilization Networks” would bypass the armed forces, whose loyalty was uncertain, and call upon the paramilitaries to block opposition groups from mobilizing support and reaching key government buildings and other valuable sites. The paramilitaries, according to the report, would “attack, neutralize, or liquidate” the opposition “through sabotage and targeted assassination.”
It’s worth remembering the chavistas’ history of violence, with pro-regime terrorism dating back a decade—including the 2002-03 assassinations of opposition demonstrators in Caracas. In February 2003, the Colombian consulate and the Spanish embassy were bombed with C-4 explosives, and the U.S. embassy was subsequently closed following a credible threat. In 1999, the Tupamaros, one of many homegrown Venezuelan terrorist groups trained by the FARC, bombed the Colombian consulate in Caracas and attempted to do the same to the embassy.
In addition to domestic terrorism, there is support for international terrorism, and regardless of what happens in the December 2012 presidential elections, it will be difficult to put an end to it. Thousands of foreign terrorists have been given national identity cards that identify them as Venezuelan citizens and give them full access to the benefits of citizenship. In 2003, Gen. Marcos Ferreira, who had been in charge of Venezuela’s Department of Immigration and Foreigners, said that he had been asked by Chavez’s former deputy head of intelligence to allow the illegal entry of Colombians into Venezuela. Moreover, Venezuela’s intelligence service, then known as the DISIP, regularly fast-tracked terrorists, including Hezbollah and al Qaeda members, into the system.
FARC and Venezuela also collaborated on arms deals with foreign governments. FARC secretariat member Luciano Marín brokered an arms deal as part of Venezuela’s weapons purchase from Russia. Chávez attempted to broker a similar deal with Belarus, wherein Venezuela would sell oil to Belarus and accept black market weapons for the FARC as partial payment, thereby allowing Venezuela to subsidize FARC weapons purchases while avoiding the usual trails of both serial numbers and finance. Cuba and Iran are also involved in training the FARC.
The United States has committed blood, treasure, time, and prestige to waging a global war on terrorism in the Middle East. There’s no reason to ignore this growing threat in its own backyard.
Vanessa Neumann is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where she is a specialist in Latin America and terrorism. | <urn:uuid:d4fa6812-1261-4092-8281-683c6fc6a52c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/hugo-ch-vez-s-long-shadow_595217.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97447 | 1,225 | 1.648438 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2010.
At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest "Person of the Year" since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh; he was 25 when he was named in 1927, Time said Wednesday. Zuckerberg beat out Britain's Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks: She was 26 when she was named in 1952.
Incidentally, Queen Elizabeth II has recently joined Zuckerberg's social networking behemoth.
Zuckerberg has put himself on the map not only as one of the world's youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy.
Earlier this year, he pledged $100 million over five years to the Newark, N.J. school system. Now, he's in the company of media titans Carl Icahn, 74, Barry Diller, 68, and others who have joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to commit the country's wealthiest people to step up their charitable donations.
Zuckerberg owns about a quarter of Facebook's shares.
Zuckerberg has built Facebook into an international phenomenon by stretching the lines of social convention and embracing a new and far more permeable definition of community. In this new world, users are able to construct a social network well beyond what would ever be possible face-to-face.
"I'm trying to make the world a more open place," Zuckerberg says in the "bio" line of his own Facebook page.
Born in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room, the site has in six years grown to more than 500 million users worldwide and a dollar worth in the billions.
Facebook was the subject of director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's film "The Social Network." It features a dark portrayal of Zuckerberg by Jesse Eisenberg, as well as the direction he's taking his company and his status as one of America's most influential figures.
The film has been picked as the best of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review. On Tuesday, it received six Golden Globe nominations, including best picture, drama, going up against its chief rival, the British monarchy tale "The King's Speech," which led with seven nominations.
Time's "Person of the Year" is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. | <urn:uuid:3d41f3e1-a31d-4f8c-8792-c63677758612> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.havredailynews.com/cms/news/story-205292.html | 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 | 0.973156 | 515 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Many moons ago, my sister lived in Morocco to learn Arabic and teach music in a school for the blind. Traveling to a foreign country with a native is perhaps the best way to see a country and avoid the tourist traps and scams. Traveling with my sister at the end of her year was a close second. She spoke (and read) the language fluently, which allowed us to navigate the country and menus quite easily.
When we’d go out to eat, I’d let her order. I recall one café... We placed the typical order, “jusz jasz”: two chickens. The waiter quoted us a price: 80 dirham. What?? My sister pointed to the Arabic menu and with a flawless accent and perfect grammar, she questioned, “But the menu says it’s only 20.”
Another favorite was the vegetable salad. Beets, potatoes and carrots were sautéed in fruity olive oil, seasoned with cumin, coriander and black pepper.
This year, I grew beets for the first time. As the British name, "beetroot," would suggest, they grow underground so it's not obvious when they're ready to harvest. One farmer advised to inspect the shoulders of the root which protrudes from the soil. When they are several inches in diameter, the beets are ready. Also, the leaves should be broad and long. I began harvesting the beets last week, and every time I dug one up, it seemed too small. Alas, once you harvest, you can’t put them back.
With my baby beets, I sautéed them with olive oil, cumin and coriander, and tossed them with mint: the perfume took me back to the summer with my sister, wandering the country together.
Moroccan Style Beet Salad with Mint
5 baby beets or 2 medium beets
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
Salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste
8 large mint leaves, cut into chiffonade
1. Put beets in a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil over high flame. Cover pot and let simmer for 20 minutes, or until beets are tender – a butter knife will insert easily.
2. Remove beets from heat and let cool. The skins should peel off easily.
3. Cut beets into 8th.
4. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium flame. Add cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Cook until spices become aromatic. Add the beets, and warm through, tossing to coat in scented oil.
5. Remove from heat and serve. Sprinkle mint on top, and a squeeze of lemon. | <urn:uuid:602903e1-7d83-499b-b036-2970dc9e1f4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.growcookeat.com/morocco/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946176 | 581 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A consciousness-raising journey, starting in Ethiopia and other countries in Africa before skipping over to the Americas and winding up in the sunny Caribbean, will provide a respite from the winter blahs, gray skies and cold temperatures – all without leaving Buffalo.
The virtual trip is part of the second annual “Africa: Spirit and Sound” presented by Healing Hands and Juneteenth of Buffalo on Monday in Kleinhans Music Hall. The two shows at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. use the arts as a vehicle to teach African and African-American history, and to show how Africans have influenced other countries.
“We want to inject the idea that we are capable and conscious enough to take care of ourselves,” said Ros Jomo, a musician with Healing Hands.
The educational presentation includes music, dancing, poetry and special guest Donisha Prendergast, a filmmaker and granddaughter of reggae legend Bob Marley.
Prendergast said she is eager to return to Buffalo following a visit last year for a screening of her film, “RasTa: A Soul’s Journey.” The documentary follows her around the world as she learns about the roots and evolution of the Rastafari culture that started in Jamaica with the “downtrodden ones, the poor people,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Jamaica.
Organizers are expecting about 15 schools to attend this year’s event. The show opens with an African-inspired story by Sharon Holley, a co-founder of Tradition Keepers and Spin-A-Storytellers and a retired librarian.
Then begins the “journey,” an on-screen, PowerPoint presentation that takes the audience to various countries represented in the show.
“It’s like we’re on an airplane visiting different parts of the world,” Jomo said.
The first stop is the African continent and will include clips of important historical and current figures as well as icons of well-known ancient sites.
Then it’s off to the Americas for an education about how the spirit of music helps black Americans express their culture. A gospel singer will perform spiritual songs to show how the African culture was transplanted during the transatlantic slave trade.
Anthony Neal, an associate professor at Buffalo State College, will recite a poem that gives a general overview of the transatlantic slave trade.
The final destination is the Caribbean with visual clips of early settlements and African people arriving there.
Prendergast then will speak about creating a world in which young people can prosper.
“Her message is to strive and empower themselves,” Jomo said.
“Africa: Spirit and Sound” is in keeping with the missions of Juneteenth and Kwanzaa to acculturate African-American children to the many possibilities that can take place when they are properly educated, Jomo said.
“We want to inspire them through the arts to find their special place – like math, science – and add value to the community. We want to encourage kids to engage in community building, educate them that we have the ability to fix our own problems,” Jomo said.
Admission is $5.50 for students and seniors, $10.50 for adults. For more information, call 948-5738. | <urn:uuid:1c99dff1-badf-4c97-b06c-3a7969749605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130209/CITYANDREGION/130209145/1040 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945503 | 707 | 1.671875 | 2 |
With two important cases on gay rights and marriage equality slated for oral arguments in the Supreme Court next week, Americans of all stripes are participating in a national debate over this emotionally charged issue -- on the Internet, on television, in our leading newspapers and around countless dinner tables.
Despite this interest, only a handful of people will get to see these historic arguments -- those who show up to the courtroom next Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the result of the Supreme Court's longstanding policy prohibiting cameras inside the courtroom.
The court's main reason for banning cameras -- as Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy reminded us recently at a congressional hearing -- is there would be an increased risk the justices' questions and comments would be taken out of context and then played (and replayed) on the news or, worse yet, lampooned on "The Colbert Report."
This would be a completely valid concern if it weren't for the fact that it's happening already. As the justices well know, reporters, columnists, cartoonists and late-night comedians already extract the juiciest sound bites from oral arguments, sometimes taking them out of context and blowing them up into big stories. Indeed, such sound bites often dominate the media's coverage of the Supreme Court.
For evidence of this, look no further than Justice Antonin Scalia's remark from the court's oral argument in the case of Shelby County v. Holder. Scalia suggested the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had survived only because of the self-perpetuating power of "racial entitlements" -- a comment that generated countless news stories, editorials, op-eds and political cartoons, to say nothing of parodies on satirical shows such as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show."
Or, better yet, consider Justice Clarence Thomas' decision in January to tell a joke during oral argument -- breaking his seven-year streak of silence and, in the process, becoming front-page news. Does anyone, other than the closest court-watcher, even remember the name of that case or the issues it presented?
Or, take the constant plight of Kennedy, who commentators tend to assume is the decisive vote in each of the court's most important cases. His every question, word, sigh and hiccup becomes a key part of how cases are covered in the media, as everyone scrambles for possible clues for how Kennedy might vote. Needless to say -- and as Kennedy well knows -- such predictions are often inaccurate.
Sometimes, the focus on sound bites is entirely appropriate.
Scalia's characterization of the Voting Rights Act was offensive, and it deserved to be national news. Furthermore, it's important to report potentially revealing comments from the court's swing justice.
But more often than not, the media coverage of the court is already focused on sound bites, which sometimes get taken out of context. Therefore, the Supreme Court might as well open up and let all Americans experience the majesty of its hearings -- an experience that can be captured only by attending an argument in person or by watching an argument unfold live in one's living room or on one's laptop. | <urn:uuid:552ab123-ccc0-4a5b-91bc-b3bdcf89ed83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koco.com/news/national/Opinion-Justices-let-cameras-into-the-court/-/9844074/19424622/-/to6ye7z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95254 | 631 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Your greatest asset may be the people who work within your company. When the last employee has gone home for the day, the computers, desks and equipment, by themselves, will be useless until the next business day when your staff returns.
- Chapter 1: Why Have Written Human Resource (Personnel) Policies? - Every business needs human resource/personnel policies to spell out what is expected of the employee / employer relationship. Avoid confusion and potential legal action against your business by putting them in writing.
- Chapter 2: Human Resource Policy - An example of a Human Resource policy statement tailored to fit your business, it protects both employer and employee by making clear what is required of your employees, and what they can expect from you in return.
- Chapter 3: Temporary/Contract Hires vs. Permanent - Like the idea of "try before you buy?" A temporary or contract worker may be just the thing for your business. Here is a comparison of temporary and permanent hires to help you sort out which is right for you.
- Chapter 4: Recruiting, Selecting and Hiring Someone - The hiring process can be a daunting one. Attracting the "right" applicants, screening for compatibility with the job and your company, and the legal issues surrounding a new hire are all important considerations for a business owner looking to expand his or her staff. Read on for advice on this crucial aspect of running a successful business.
- Chapter 5: Benefits - Benefits are an important part of both attracting and retaining employees. Some are required by law, while others are "perks" offered by you, the employer. This chapter discusses benefit categories in terms of what are required, their approximate costs, and ways to save money while still offering competitive packages.
- Chapter 6: Performance Management - The relationship with your employees does not end when the ink on the contracts dries. Performance management is a vital part of keeping your business running smoothly. Follow these steps to help you develop a performance management model that works for your company.
- Chapter 7: Employee Retention and Motivation - After all the rigors of the hiring process, you've found the right person for the job. Now how do you get them to stay? Far from the "carrot and stick" approach, true motivation comes from the employees themselves. Here are some thoughts on employee retention and solving the issue of motivation.
- Chapter 8: Discipline - Though the word discipline often conjures negative connotations, in the business world it can be a tool for improving performance as well as correcting behavior. Read on for ways to use discipline effectively in your business, from using positive consequences to what to do if you need to terminate an employee.
- Chapter 9: Employment Laws - If you wanted to get into the "nitty-gritty" of employment law, you'd have gone to law school, right? Be that as it may, all business owners should at least have a working knowledge of the kinds of laws that protect both their businesses and their employees. This chapter covers some of the major requirements of federal and state employment law but, as always, will not replace the specialized knowledge of a good labor and employment law attorney.
- Chapter 10: Additional HR Resources - Groups like the Small Business Administration and SCORE are great resources for small business owners. Here are a few other places to look for help with your human resources needs. | <urn:uuid:5c3c2cd7-b050-4371-8356-bf519a4ad577> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fnbaudrain.com/brc/SBR_template.cfm?DocNumber=PL05_0000.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948553 | 691 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Whatever floats your boat
Island hop ... children play on Magnetic Island.
Deborah Dickson-Smith took her water babies to five Australian island resorts to rate their kid-friendliness - here are the results.
Lady Elliot Island
Lady Elliot Island lies at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. The continental shelf is only 10 kilometres to the east and it's this geographical position that makes it special.
Lord Howe Island.
Being so close to the shelf means the island attracts large numbers of marine megafauna: turtles, manta rays, large wrasses, reef sharks and (depending on the season) whales.
The island is surrounded by beautiful coral gardens and, within minutes of arriving, we're able to grab a snorkel, step off the beach and swim with turtles.
The kids are ecstatic and could spend hours following the turtles around, tickling their shells. The turtles seem to vie for our attention - nudging each other out of the way to have their shells scratched. Further out on the reef, we encounter manta rays, leopard sharks, wobbegongs, bull rays and wrasses of all sizes and colours. The palette is amazing, in both the coral and the thousands of fish swimming around us.
Like most islands, this tiny atoll has an interesting history. It was decimated 100 years ago by early entrepreneurs, who stripped the island bare while mining the guano produced by the thousands of nesting seabirds. A regeneration program has been in place for several decades and the island's plants are thriving, which has brought the seabirds back. It is estimated their population has reached 500,000.
Swimming with the island's turtles is a life-changing experience, for children and grown-ups. The sound of kids squealing with delight through their snorkels makes me grin just thinking about it.
Room rates are from $163 a person a night and $61 a child (three-12 years) for an Eco Hut. Return flights from Hervey Bay or Bundaberg cost $262 an adult and $143 a child.
Top marks Sustainability and accessibility.
Downers If you're a light sleeper, the bird noise might irritate (earplugs are supplied).
Don't miss An early snorkel.
Lord Howe Island
If you were given the task of designing a perfect tropical island, I don't think you would create anything better than nature has managed here.
From the top of Malabar Hill on Lord Howe's northern tip, just 208 metres high, we survey the landscape before us. The lush-looking island sweeps around a turquoise lagoon to the volcanic peak of Mount Gower on its southern tip. Only a 1½-hour flight from Sydney, it is isolated more by exclusivity than distance. The island accommodates up to only 400 guests, and unless you're already a resident or you're lucky enough to marry a resident, it's more or less impossible to move here.
Because of this relative isolation, the island is an important conservation site for many rare and endemic species. Almost half the island's 241 native plant species are found nowhere else.
It is an escape from technology and the hustle of urban life: there is no mobile phone coverage (the islanders voted against its introduction), limited internet access and the easiest way to get around is by bicycle. The challenge facing the kids on this five-day trip: no Facebook, no Minecraft, no Xbox and no texting friends - a thought that makes me deliriously happy.
This is a place to unwind, relax and teach kids to appreciate the natural environment. And, really, Lord Howe Island is what you make of it: a virtual Choose Your Own Adventure destination. There are guided and unguided hikes for all fitness levels, from the relatively easy climb to Kim's Lookout in the north to the eight-hour trek up Mount Gower's 870 metres in the south. But since our kids aren't great hikers (we would have to drag them), we opt for the nearest beach.
On Neds beach, we drop a donation in the honesty box and grab a snorkel and a pair of fins each before entering a natural aquarium of rainbow-coloured wrasses, mullets, garfish, silver drummers and metre-long kingfish. The water is thick with fish and if snorkelling is not your thing, you can just wade in knee-high and feed them.
On the other side of the island, we find turtles on Settlement beach and a lagoon of coral gardens teeming with marine life including clownfish, angels, giant clams, reef sharks and rays. Technology is forgotten.
There is a wide range of accommodation on the island, ranging from budget cabins to family apartments and five-star luxury resorts such as Capella Lodge and Arajilla.
We stay at the family-friendly Pinetrees Lodge, which is one of the oldest family businesses in Australia, and is run by the sixth generation of the original family.
Pinetrees has family packages that include free accommodation and meals for kids under 10 years, starting from $1065 a person for five nights.
QantasLink flights from Sydney to the island cost $1000 return.
Top marks The variety of activities available for grown-ups and kids.
Downers The flight is a bit pricey (but worth it).
Don't miss Fish Fry night at Pinetrees Lodge every Monday.
Our visit to Heron Island coincides with the Heron Island Dive Festival, which is held in July each year.
The man sitting opposite me on the ferry has a camera with underwater housing and so many arms and attachments that it looks like one of those giant Japanese spider crabs.
I look down at my little Canon S100 and its new (single) arm with new underwater torch attached, which I'm very excited about using for the first time.
I expected to see impressive camera equipment on this trip and I'm not intimidated. What I don't expect to see are large numbers of kids. I thought Heron Island was out of reach for most families, geographically and economically.
Apparently not. The geographic part just shows my own ignorance; it's a two-hour ferry trip from Gladstone on the lower reaches of the Great Barrier Reef.
In fact, a lot of the divers here have brought their families with them - the older kids come diving with their parents, some snorkel in the lagoon and some go for reef walks with the Junior Rangers kids' club.
Heron Island's "signature" dive is the Heron Bommie, a vast underwater island of spidery hard corals teeming with life. We end up there first, before exploring Tenements, Coral Cascades (my favourite), North Bommie and a few other wonderful dive sites.
The most memorable is a night dive on Heron Bommie. My first night dive is nowhere near as scary as I have feared; in fact, it isn't scary at all. The best experience by far is finding a sleepy turtle in a coral cave, and following him (video recorder running) as he gracefully does a little spin for me. He's beautiful.
Rooms start from $398 a night and include three (cooked) meals a day. Kids stay and eat free. Boat transfers from Gladstone cost $99.50 each way an adult and $49.75 each way a child.
Top marks Accessibility, both the destination and the snorkelling.
Downers Make sure the kids take seasickness tablets for the ferry trip.
Don't miss Night diving.
Just off the coast of Townsville, Magnetic Island looks almost close enough to swim to (if it weren't for the stingers). It's a short, smooth, 20-minute ferry ride, so don't worry about seasickness or boredom on the way over.
It is a stopping point on the backpacker route up the east coast, and famous for its full moon parties, so it will be interesting to see what the island has for families.
Transport on the island is by rental Mini Moke or beach buggy, and our choice is a pink buggy that looks as though it should be driven by tour-guide Barbie. The kids approve heartily. I hope it doesn't rain.
The island is mainly national park, with a few residential clusters surrounding the more popular beaches. One of the main attractions for kids is the large population of koalas. The animals were introduced to Magnetic Island in the 1930s as part of a conservation program and they have thrived. A short stroll along one of the island's many bushwalks and you're pretty much guaranteed a sighting.
To get even closer to the furry creatures, we visit Bungalow Bay Koala Village, one of the few places in Australia where you can hold a koala.
Getting closer to the island's marine life is best done by kayak. Magnetic Island Sea Kayaks does a sunset tour of Horseshoe Bay, which comes complete with dolphins, turtles and a bottle of champers to quaff while watching the sunset.
Because we're here in stinger season, we're provided with head-to-toe stinger suits and even don football socks and gloves - our tour guide is taking no chances.
A few dolphins join us along the way and the kids have a great time turtle-spotting ("I saw it first!") but not much time actually paddling.
The island has plenty of safe swimming beaches - each with a stinger net - and the water is warm year-round.
There is a wide range of accommodation, from cabins and holiday houses to five-star villas. We stay at Pure Magnetic villas - beautiful Balinese villas overlooking a beach lined with coconut palms.
Transfers from Townsville are $13 each way. Accommodation ranges between $200 and $400 a night for a house that will sleep up to six.
Top marks Lots of easy bushwalks with great views.
Downers The stingers.
Don't miss The chance to cuddle a koala.
The writer was a guest of Lord Howe Tourism and Tourism Queensland. | <urn:uuid:6de753c2-682c-447b-a744-a242a3b22a33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/travel/holiday-type/family/whatever-floats-your-boat-20121026-28a7z.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95289 | 2,119 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Call to arms
Teachers union, which have defended the "single salary schedule" like the Rock of Gibraltar, are beginning to sign on to "combat pay", i.e. bonuses for teaching in high-poverty schools. Both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Bay State's AFT chapter recently announced their support for this form of "differential" pay. AFT Massachusetts president Thomas J. Gosnell said, "I don't see how [students in high-poverty schools] can get better services if there are not incentives for teachers to provide additional time and programs for the students." Unfortunately, the unions still oppose merit pay, which ties teacher salaries to student achievement. Nor do they support extra cash for teaching a high-need subject, such as math or science. So much for incentives. Still, cracks are starting to show in the union's armor, and sooner or later the entire single salary schedule is likely to crumble.
"Extra pay urged at poorest schools," by Maria Sacchetti, Boston Globe, November 30, 2006
blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:2006a785-1338-4b70-8acf-9c9001204165> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-weekly/2006/december-7/call-to-arms.html | 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 | 0.964694 | 220 | 1.757813 | 2 |
It is not exactly a traditional Sunday stroll in the English countryside as 84-year-old Vietnamese zen master Thich Nhat Hanh leads nearly a thousand people through the rolling Nottinghamshire hills in walking meditation.
The silent procession takes on the shape of a snake as it wends its way extremely slowly through a forest glade and an apple orchard. The assembled throng are asked to deeply experience each step they take on the earth in order to be mindful in the present moment.
Thay, as he is known, steps off the path into a field of tall grass and sits quietly in meditation. He exudes a sense of serenity, born of his 68 years' practice as a monk.
Despite having hundreds of thousands of followers around the world and being viewed with the same reverence as the Dalai Lama, Thay is little known to the general public. He has chosen to shun the limelight and avoid the shimmer of celebrity endorsement in order to focus on building communities around the world that can demonstrate his ethical approach to life. There are monasteries in France, America and Germany as well as groups of supporters that meet all over the world, including more than 20 "sanghas" across the UK.
He is seeking to create a spiritual revival that replaces our consumption-based lives with a return to a simpler, kinder world based on deep respect for each other and the environment.
He rarely gives interviews but recognises that the enormous challenges facing the world, combined with his own increasing age and frailty, means it is important to use what time and energy he has left to contribute what he can to re-energising society and protecting the planet.
For a man of his age, Thay keeps to a punishing schedule. After having lectured to thousands at London's Hammersmith Apollo, Thay has come to Nottingham for a five day retreat, then goes on to a three month tour of Asia, before returning for a winter retreat at his Plum Village community in France, where he has lived in exile for more than 40 years.
Thay, a prolific author with more than 85 titles under his belt, has taken a particular interest in climate change and recently published the best-selling book 'The World We Have – A Buddhist approach to peace and ecology.'
Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption
In it, he writes: "The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way."
In his only interview in the UK, Thay calls on journalists to play their part in preventing the destruction of our civilisation and calls on corporations to move away from their focus on profits to the wellbeing of society.
He says that it is an ill-conceived idea that the solution to global warming lies in technological advances. While science is important, even more so is dealing with the root cause of our destructive behaviour: "The spiritual crisis of the West is the cause for the many sufferings we encounter. Because of our dualistic thinking that god and the kingdom of god is outside of us and in the future - we don't know that god's true nature is in every one of us. So we need to put god back into the right place, within ourselves. It is like when the wave knows that water is not outside of her.
"Everything we touch in our daily lives, including our body, is a miracle. By putting the kingdom of god in the right place, it shows us it is possible to live happily right here, right now. If we wake up to this, we do not have to run after the things we believe are crucial to our happiness like fame, power and sex. If we stop creating despair and anger, we make the atmosphere healthy again.
"Maybe we have enough technology to save the planet but it is not enough because the people are not ready. This is why we need to focus on the other side of the problem, the pollution of the environment not in terms of carbon dioxide but the toxic atmosphere in which we live; so many people getting sick, many children facing violence and despair and committing suicide.
"We should speak more of spiritual pollution. When we sit together and listen to the sound of the [meditation] bell at this retreat, we calm our body and mind. We produce a very powerful and peaceful energy that can penetrate in every one of us. So, conversely, the same thing is true with the collective energy of fear, anger and despair. We create an atmosphere and environment that is destructive to all of us. We don't think enough about that, we only think about the physical environment.
"Our way of life, our style of living, is the cause of it. We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So when you attend a retreat you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome.
"How can we change the atmosphere to get the energy of healing and transformation for us and our children? When the children come to the retreat, they can relax because the adults are relaxed. Here together we create a good environment and that is a collective energy."
Capitalism as a disease
Thay talks about capitalism as a disease that has now spread throughout the world, carried on the winds of globalisation: "We have constructed a system we cannot control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims."
He sees those countries that are home to Buddhism, such as India, China, Thailand and Vietnam, seeking to go even beyond the consumerism of the West: "There is an attractiveness around science and technology so they have abandoned their values that have been the foundation of their spiritual life in the past," he says. "Because they follow western countries, they have already begun to suffer the same kind of suffering. The whole world crisis increases and globalisation is the seed of everything. They too have lost their non-dualistic view. There are Buddhists who think that Buddha is outside of them and available to them only after they die.
"In the past there were people who were not rich but contented with their living style, laughing and happy all day. But when the new rich people appear, people look at them and ask why don't I have a life like that too, a beautiful house, car and garden and they abandon their values."
While Thay believes that change is possible, he has also come to accept the possibility that this civilisation may collapse. He refers to the spiritual principle that by truly letting go of the 'need' to save the planet from climate change, it can paradoxically help do just that.
The catastrophe to come
"Without collective awakening the catastrophe will come," he warns. "Civilisations have been destroyed many times and this civilisation is no different. It can be destroyed. We can think of time in terms of millions of years and life will resume little by little. The cosmos operates for us very urgently, but geological time is different.
"If you meditate on that, you will not go crazy. You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.
"It's like the person who is struck with cancer or Aids and they learn they have been given one year or six months to live. They suffer very much and fight. But if they come to accept that they will die and they prepare to live every day peacefully and they enjoy every moment, the situation may change and the illness may go away. That has happened to many people."
Thay says that the communities his Order of Interbeing is building around the world are intended to show that it is possible to "live simply and happily, having the time to love and help other people. That is why we believe that if there are communities of people like that in the world, we will demonstrate to the people and bring about an awakening so that people will abandon their course of comforts. If we can produce a collective awakening we can solve the problem of global warming. Together we have to provoke that type of awakening."
'One Buddha is not enough'
He stops for a moment and goes quiet: "One Buddha is not enough, we need to have many Buddhas."
Thay has lived an extraordinary life. During the Vietnam War he was nearly killed several times helping villagers suffering from the effects of bombing. When visiting America, he persuaded Martin Luther King to oppose the war publicly, and so helped to galvanize the peace movement. In fact King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968.
In the following decade Thay spent months on the South China Sea seeking to save Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees from overcrowded boats and, in more recent years, he led members of the US Congress through a two-day retreat and continues to hold reconciliation retreats for Israelis and Palestinians at Plum Village.
His whole philosophy is based on watching the breath and walking meditation to stay in the present moment rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.
He says that within every person are the seeds of love, compassion and understanding as well as the seeds of anger, hatred and discrimination. Our experience of life depends on which seeds we choose to water.
To help the creation of a new global ethic and sustain those positive seeds, Thay's Order of Interbeing has distilled the Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path into five core principles.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings, updated in the last year to make them relevant to our fast changing world, are not a set of rules but a direction to head in. Beyond calling for mindful consumption, they encourage an end to sexual misconduct as well as a determination "not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programmes, films, magazines, books and conversations."
* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010 | <urn:uuid:db833135-7c97-4026-b2fe-b06e39700a39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=14183 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967227 | 2,121 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Florida election officials used a flawed method to come up with a listing of people believed to be convicted felons, a list that they are recommending be used to purge voter registration rolls, state officials acknowledged yesterday. As a result, voters identifying themselves as Hispanic are almost completely absent from that list.
Of nearly 48,000 Florida residents on the felon list, only 61 are Hispanic. By contrast, more than 22,000 are African-American.
About 8 percent of Florida voters describe themselves as Hispanic, and about 11 percent as black.
In a presidential-election battleground state that decided the 2000 race by giving George W. Bush a margin of only 537 votes, the effect could be significant: black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic, while Hispanics in Florida tend to vote Republican.
Elections officials of Florida's Republican administration denied any partisan motive in use of the method they adopted, and noted that it had been approved as part of a settlement of a civil rights lawsuit.
''This was absolutely unintentional,'' said Nicole de Lara, spokeswoman for the Florida secretary of state, Glenda E. Hood, an appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother. ''The matching criteria were approved by several interested parties in the lawsuit, and the court. I don't know how it got by all those people without anyone noticing.''
Jill Bratina, a spokeswoman for Governor Bush, said: ''The governor is complying with the law and complying with the settlement. Recognizing now that there is a discrepancy, the Department of State is looking into the options.''
Anita Earls, one of the lawyers for plaintiffs in the civil rights suit, said state officials had not given them the kind of access to data that might have uncovered the flaw.
The method uses race as one of several factors in determining whether a felon has registered to vote. If a voter's first name, last name and date of birth are the same as those of a convicted felon but the race is different, the name is not put on the list for potential purging.
But the database of felons has only five variables for race: white, black, Asian, Indian and unknown. And a voter registered as Hispanic whose name and birth date matched a felon's would be left off the purge list unless his race was listed as unknown.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Kristen Perezluha, said the felon database used F.B.I. criteria for judging race and so never listed Hispanic.
Florida undertook a similar purge of voter rolls in 2000, but that list was shown to include the names of many who were not felons. The new effort at such a purge, begun by Governor Bush's administration in May, was supposed to be free of those problems. But after a state judge last week ordered the release of the current list, it became clear that thousands of felons who had been granted clemency were still on it.
Democrats said yesterday that the latest disclosure should be the last straw. ''Either this administration is acting incompetently in regard to voters' rights,'' said Scott Maddox, the Democratic state chairman, ''or they have ill will toward a certain class of voters. Either way, it's unacceptable.''
''The honorable thing to do,'' Mr. Maddox added, ''is throw the list out and not purge people erroneously on the eve of election.''
Some county election supervisors have said they are reluctant to use the state's list to purge the names of any voters. The law leaves that responsibility to the county officials, but it is unclear how many will use it.
''It's an impossible task to do properly,'' said Ion Sancho, the supervisor in Leon County, in the Florida Panhandle.
The paucity of Hispanic voters on the felon list was first reported Wednesday, by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, but officials said then that the problem was not systematic. After The New York Times examined the data, state officials acknowledged that the method for matching lists of felons to those of voters automatically exempted all felons who identified themselves as Hispanic.
Hispanic Republicans outnumber Hispanic Democrats by about 100,000 voters in Florida. But more than 90 percent of the approximately one million registered blacks there are Democrats. The exclusion of Hispanics from the purge list explains some of the wide discrepancy in party affiliation of voters on the felon list, which bears the names of 28,025 Democrats and just 9,521 Republicans, with most of the rest unaffiliated. | <urn:uuid:9ac1862b-d23f-426e-8f1a-d4aa3c5d5bdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/us/florida-list-for-purge-of-voters-proves-flawed.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 | 0.966985 | 913 | 1.71875 | 2 |
"The Seattle Police Department will continue to enforce laws against unlicensed sale or production of marijuana, and regulations against driving under the influence of marijuana, which remains illegal," the book says.
Growing marijuana at home and selling it to friends or family remains against the law, the guide says. But, it adds, "In the future, under state law, you may be able to get a license to grow or sell marijuana."
Smoking pot in public, like having an open beer, "could result in a civil infraction -- like a ticket -- but not arrest," it says.
In fact, Seattle police officers have been advised not to take any enforcement action other than to issue a verbal warning, if the new law is violated.
"You can certainly use marijuana in the privacy of your own home," the guide says. "Additionally, if smoking a cigarette isn't allowed where you are (say, inside an apartment building or flammable chemical factory), smoking marijuana isn't allowed there either."
What if an officer suspects a motorist is under the influence of pot?
"If an officer believes you're driving under the influence of anything, they will conduct a field sobriety test and may consult with a drug recognition expert," it says. "If officers establish probable cause, they will bring you to a precinct and ask your permission to draw your blood for testing. If officers have reason to believe you're under the influence of something, they can get a warrant for a blood draw from a judge. If you're in a serious accident, then a blood draw will be mandatory."
No longer will the smell of marijuana emanating from a vehicle lead to a search unless the officer has "information that you're trafficking, producing or delivering marijuana in violation of state law," it says.
Seattle does not hire police officers who have used marijuana in the previous three years, but the department is consulting its lawyers "to see if and how that standard may be revised."
Pot use and possession by anyone under age 21 is still a violation of state law. "It may be referred to prosecutors, just like if you were a minor in possession of alcohol," the police guide says.
The ban by universities and colleges on smoking pot on campus is not expected to change. | <urn:uuid:a3a930f4-63b2-4818-b09c-dd9a58329a08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/Pot-smokers-enter-legal-limbo-in-Washington/-/475880/17666808/-/item/1/-/15hgpddz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96809 | 461 | 1.71875 | 2 |
OTTAWA — The University of Ottawa is suffering from a bedbug infestation, as the critters become more common in the city, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
A student complained to University officials that there were bed bugs in her apartment at the Brooks Residence building; however officials said the pesky intruders were probably just mosquitoes, the article stated.
According to the article, after closer examination, however, university officials confirmed a bedbug problem at the student residence building.
So far the residence, which houses up to 708 students, has had only one complaint and that student has been temporarily relocated, the article noted.
"We do understand how difficult it is to go through this. Bedbugs hit you when you''re sleeping and we know the impact it has on the residents," said Pierre La Roche, a communications spokesman at the University.
Click here to read the complete article. | <urn:uuid:360b31cc-9d9f-4a18-9baf-3f85f419ad7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cmmonline.com/articles/print/bedbugs-found-in-university-residence-3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978853 | 183 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Department of Recreation Therapy provides a variety of regularly scheduled groups, in addition to individual work with patients of the Schizophrenia Research Unit (SRU), the General Clinical Research Unit (GCRU), and the Children's Day Unit (CDU). Recreation Therapy fieldwork students from NY, FL, PA and Canada have completed internships at the Institute. Department members also supervise volunteers assigned to the three units. These volunteers implement patient groups such as Art Therapy, Yoga, Creative Writing and Pet Therapy. The department has two dedicated Recreation Therapists, Lawrence Rotundo, CTRS and Michele Jacques, Sr. RT and is administered by Dana Moore, CTRS.
Recreation Therapy is the provision of treatment, leisure education and recreational services to help persons with psychiatric illness to restore and rehabilitate functioning, to improve health and well-being, and to develop, maintain and express their most independent leisure lifestyle. The Department of Recreation Therapy functions as active members of their respective interdisciplinary treatment teams. Their responsibilities include assessing patients’ progress, participating in team meetings, maintaining their own level of professional preparedness, and contributing to the education and training of the many volunteers, students, new practitioners and interns that come to the Institute. The major focus of these treatment modalities is activity groups, but individual attention, in the form of educational, vocational and leisure counseling is also provided. The Department of Recreation Therapy continues to offer a variety of regularly scheduled groups on the research units, in addition to individual work with patients. | <urn:uuid:68ec5f5f-eb02-4df0-a298-9f7fa923f286> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://columbiapsychiatry.org/nyspi/patients-and-families/recreational-therapy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94996 | 306 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Mom Breastfeeds the Wrong Baby In the Hospital
Those first days in the hospital after my son was born are a bit of a blur. I was sore, sleep deprived and getting to know this new baby, who was mine, but still a complete stranger. I remember the nurses checking and double checking our hospital bracelets when I picked him up from the nursery after taking a shower, and thinking, “Oh, come on, I know that one’s mine. Sure, he’s new, but I’d recognize those piercing dark blue eyes anywhere.” (Now, his eyes are dark brown, but still intense.) But at the same time, I was kind of relieved they were checking because, honestly, my mind wasn’t exactly with-it, and, well, newborns look a lot alike. No one wants a mix up.
But, mix ups do occasionally happen — in fact, one did this week at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Apple Valley, Minnesota. New mom Tammy Van Dyke says her newborn son, Cody, was placed in the wrong bassinet and taken to another mother’s room, and that the other mother breastfed him, according to KARE 11 in Minneapolis.
Reportedly, the other mother told a nurse ”I don’t think this is my baby,” and the nurse told her it was, and that she was just tired. After the feeding, the mother saw that the baby’s bracelet was not her child’s. Both women underwent tests for HIV and hepatitis after the incident.
Thursday, Abbott Northwestern Hospital released a statement that said:
“Yesterday morning at Abbott Northwestern Hospital an infant was taken from the newborn nursery to the wrong room and was briefly breastfed by a woman who is not this infant’s mother. While hospital procedures require staff to match codes on the infant’s and mother’s identification bands in order to prevent incidents like this, it appears these procedures were not followed in this case.”
Scary! It just goes to show, even in those first days, you do have mother’s intuition, but it’s worth it to do some double checking — trust your gut, and check the bracelet.
What do you think of the baby mix-up story? Was the mother at fault? Or the nurses or both?
Plus, more from The Bump: | <urn:uuid:bcfe2cd0-5ca2-4a0e-a7d1-311838dacfcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.thebump.com/2012/12/07/mom-breastfeeds-the-wrong-baby-in-the-hospital/?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Dec12-_-BabyMixUp-_-none | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971439 | 502 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Last weekend we had the pleasure of sponsoring University Hacker Olympics. Unlike your typical hackathons, this one emphasized connecting University students with industry professionals.
Personally, I thought the event was innovative in the field of recruiting. In the traditional interview process, sometimes great candidates were dismissed because their shyness or nervousness inhibited them from performing. 1-1 interviews can be intimidating, we’ve all been there. From the interviewer’s perspective, asking candidates to solve problems does not provide any valuable insight into how pleasant it would be to work with them in a working environment.
Sering is a community based theater company that sets up cultural projects for schools. They share their knowledge with other theater companies around the world. Although they make use of internet to communicate, they couldn’t find a solution that fitted their needs. They wanted a social platform that allows small groups of admins to work distribute initial content and let the project grow through a large number of participants.
Existing tools like e.g. Basecamp were found too complex in setup. So we (duall.be and skylight.be) built a custom solution for them that fitted their needs and named it a “virtual office”. One of the many requests was the ability to organize a grouped video chat between the project managers and the participants. And with that -since it’s a global community of children and adults who don’t necessarily speak each other languages- the ability to automatically translate text-chat to the users language. | <urn:uuid:a9b84705-f3b1-4a2e-9e6b-ecd7bcc13770> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tokbox.com/blog/tag/case-studies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961269 | 311 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com -
Bowing to Radical Islam
Posted By Joe Kaufman On March 3, 2010 @ 12:03 am In FrontPage | 25 Comments
On February 9, 2010, the Pompano Beach, Florida city commission granted the imam of the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSB), Hasan Sabri, the honor of giving the invocation at one of its bi-weekly commission meetings. Given the extremist history of the imam and his mosque, one can only look upon this as a tremendous embarrassment for the city and an ominous sign for the future of its citizens.
“I ask you now to stand for the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Invocation tonight is given by Imam Hassan Sabri from our Islamic center.”
These were the words of Pompano Mayor Lamar Fisher, just prior to him rising out of his seat, clasping his hands, and bowing his head in prayer, as Sabri stood directly in front of him and commenced in the honor that was bestowed upon him. All but one of the city’s commissioners mimicked the Mayor with their clasped hands and bowed heads, as did much of the audience. If many of the onlookers knew of this imam and the institution he was representing, they might have walked out instead.
Sabri began his prayer, otherwise known as Salaat, with the words, “A’uudhu billaahi minash shaitaan ar-Rajeem,” which means “I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.” After he completed the Arabic, he attempted to translate for the audience his recitation. However, nothing close to the first statement would be found in the translation. Was this deliberate or merely an oversight?
Sabri, the imam of ICOSB, was previously affiliated with the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), a radical mosque with a number of ties to terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda. In March 2000, Sabri’s name was found on the homepage of the ICBR website as the teacher for ICBR’s new Wednesday tafseer (Quran interpretation) class.
Under Sabri’s name was an announcement that ICBR had added a new link to its site. That link was qoqaz.net or “Jihad in Chechnya,” a website that existed to raise funds and recruit fighters for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The site was produced by Azzam Publications, named for the former mentor of Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam.
Later that year, ICOSB posted on its website a Friday sermon given by Sabri, where he denounced America as an enemy and threatened Muslims who assist the U.S.
Sabri stated, “Allah tells us, in the Quran, that the kuffar will continue to fight Muslims – will continue to put a plan after a plan and implement a plan after a plan – until Islam will cease to be and until Muslims are either liquidated or they have joined the Christian or the Jewish faith… And it is imperative upon us as Muslims belonging to the Ummah of Islam to understand exactly what’s happening to our brothers, not only for the sake of understanding alone, but so that we will know what the enemies of Islam are planning, and so that we will plan ourselves… [The United States] is calling its people and its army and its nation to rush to the help of Muslims, but in reality this is not what’s going on. In reality what’s going on is that they want to mobilize Muslims and to use the vigor and the vim that Muslims can generate – to use their money and to use their souls and to use their lives – so that they will further [the United States’] plans in that part of the world… [D]o not rely on the kuffar, because if you do so, you will suffer.”
This same type of animosity was present, when this author appeared on a South Florida radio show to debate Sabri in the beginning of 2003. During the show, Sabri said that Jews have no right to Jerusalem and that “Allah” should “rid Beit Al-Maqdis” (Jerusalem) of all of its Jewish inhabitants.
As well, during the show, Sabri said that it was “prophesy” that, in the future, Jews would go to war with Muslims and that inanimate objects, such as large rocks, will inform Muslims that Jews are hiding behind them and will tell the Muslims to kill the Jews. Sabri described this as “the final battle between right and wrong.”
With all of this in mind, it is very possible that, when Sabri mentioned in his Pompano commission invocation that he “seeks refuge” from “Satan, the accursed,” he actually was directing the statement at the audience and commission to which he was speaking in front of. This is disturbing in itself, but how much more so is it, given the fact that Mayor Fisher, in his introduction of Sabri, referred to ICOSB as “our Islamic center.”
It was an interesting choice of words for the Mayor to use. Indeed, he was one of the commissioners, in 2006, who voted in favor of giving ICOSB a permit to build, in the heart of Pompano, a brand new 29,000 square foot mosque – a structure whose construction is well underway – so in a sense, he is tied to the center’s prolonged existence. And being that this is the case, Mayor Fisher, on some level, needs to accept responsibility for the problems that go along with his Islamic center, specifically its terrorist connections.
According to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s office, ICOSB is owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a group that was recently named by the United States Justice Department as being a party to a criminal conspiracy to provide millions of dollars to Hamas. Aside from its ownership of various radical American mosques and children’s schools, NAIT also controls the finances of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), two of the largest Muslim Brotherhood entities in the U.S.
Of course, all of the above information had to be ignored, in order for Sabri to receive the honor of performing the commission meeting invocation. It had to be ignored, as well, for ICOSB to receive the permit for its radical mosque to be built.
The expense for these ignored threats to the community goes way beyond the millions of dollars in construction costs for the mosque. The expense is the security of the residents of Pompano and beyond.
Beila Rabinowitz, the Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2010/joe-kaufman/bowing-to-radical-islam/
Copyright © 2009 FrontPage Magazine. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:94dc0304-c225-4d5b-98d3-93fca6ced55c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2010/joe-kaufman/bowing-to-radical-islam/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970251 | 1,512 | 1.625 | 2 |
Strings-attached gifts impact organizations' sustainability
February 06, 2013
Nonprofit organizations often rely on funding from foundations and philanthropic contributors to help them build new facilities, fund important programs and cover payroll for the people working in the field every day. However, these generous gifts can sometimes present challenges when they come with long-term provisions, according to The New York Times.
If a donor has made legacy commitment with parameters that don't expire, nonprofits and other organizations can be forced to make difficult decisions down the road - do they honor their donors' wishes or do what's best for the program's sustainability, the source asks. For instance, Fisk University in Tennessee needed to seek court permission to sell a stake in its art collection to stay open, but it ran into static because the collection's donor, Georgia O'Keefe, had given it with the provision that it not be sold.
In another example, John's Hopkins University is facing a roadblock in its attempt to develop a 4.7 million-square-foot research park on campus, which was donated in 1988 by Elizabeth Banks, a farmer and school teacher, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Banks gave the university the 138-acre plot of land in Maryland to protect it from development, but the school's new plans exceed the 1.8 million-square-foot plot of land that was originally set aside for development.
These organizations are making their cases in front of judges to get permission to do what's best for their future outlooks. Nonprofits can similarly assess and demonstrate their financial needs with fund accounting software. | <urn:uuid:bb0bf8fe-a790-4188-8ce2-ba4b1e8833dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://na.sage.com/sage-nonprofit-solutions/product-support/resource-center/nonprofit-industry-news/article-detail?title=Strings-attached-gifts-impact-organizations'-sustainability&id=f358df88-38f9-4b6d-9e6f-754d9aba8772 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960658 | 324 | 1.765625 | 2 |
- DAIRY PRODUCTS
- WEB EXCLUSIVES
- BUYERS GUIDE
The retail price for a pound of butter is $2.53, a drop of 51 cents from two weeks ago. Shredded cheese, ice cream, regular and Greek yogurt prices rise.
Nonfat dry milk production remains heavy with producers holding inventories more confidently, according to the latest Dairy Market News by the USDA. Higher than anticipated volumes of milk are being directed to cheese plants across the nation. Despite increased inventories of cheese, manufacturers are reporting good sales and are mostly comfortable with the added production.
Cheese markets across the U.S. continue to look for a clear price direction. Milk production in the East and Midwest is increasing, and Western milk supplies are building as Arizona and New Mexico near peak production.
The USDA's AMS service reported this week that total organic milk products sales for November 2012 were 191 million pounds, an increase of 9% from November 2011.
Milk production is steady despite colder and wetter conditions in the Southwest. Arizona milk supplies are heavy. In the Northwest, milk supplies are slowly increasing. Output trends in Utah and Idaho are about steady. Farm milk pickups are on the rise in the Midwest at higher than expected levels.
The Italian-born owners of G.S. Gelato bring their recipes and production equipment to Florida's Panhandle where they make authentic Italian gelato for retail and foodservice customers.
This photo gallery contains additional, unpublished photos of dairy processing facilities featured in Dairy Foods magazine. To view more Behind the Scenes galleries go to our archives page!
The Food Safety Summit offers the opportunity to attend and participate in these selected sessions remotely by registering and joining in LIVE from your computer.
An at once an all-inclusive guide to the meaning of hundreds of technical terms and ideas needed for ice cream manufacturing, as well as a practical introduction to the ingredients, freezing methods, flavoring, and packaging of ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, gelato, frozen yogurts, novelties and many other kinds of frozen desserts.
With access to over one million professionals and more than 60 industry-specific publications, Clear Seas Research offers relevant insights from those who know your industry best. Let us customize a market research solution that exceeds your marketing goals.
Find Ingredients, Equipment, Distribution, R&D and More. | <urn:uuid:00331d23-919e-4271-b6d3-8b8e371a4346> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/topic/2632-sales-data | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945438 | 486 | 1.804688 | 2 |
OK, I’m being facetious in the title. Well, at least for those who’ve been paying attention. For the rest, this may actually come as a surprise:
Political activism has drawn the University of California into an academic death spiral. Too many professors believe their job is to “advance social justice” rather than teach the subject they were hired to teach. Groupthink has replaced lively debate. Institutions that were designed to stir intellectual curiosity aren’t challenging young minds. They’re churning out “ignorance.” So argues a new report, “A Crisis of Competence: The Corrupting Effect of Political Activism in the University of California,” from the conservative California Association of Scholars.
My guess is, and I think this would be easily substantiated, that the U of C system is just an example of the problem, not the sole problem. (The study is here.)
Of course the left has a ready answer for all of this:
UC Berkeley political science Professor Wendy Brown rejected that argument. (Yes, she hails from the left, she said, but she doesn’t teach left.) The reason behind the unbalance, she told me, is that conservatives don’t go to grad school to study political science. When conservatives go to graduate school, she added, they tend to study business or law.
“If the argument is that what is going on is some kind of systematic exclusion,” then critics have to target “where the discouragement happens.”
So, other than “stereotypes are us”, Prof. Brown has no real explanation. Because, of course, unless all “conservatives” go to business and law and none to political science (which we know isn’t true), the problem isn’t about who does or doesn’t got into grad school, but who gets hired by universities, isn’t it? And most people with a modicum of common sense know that most people who hire have a tendency to hire people like what? Like them.
And anyway, it appears its not really about learning or acquiring skills such as critical thinking:
At the same time, grades have risen. “Students often report that all they must do to get a good grade is regurgitate what their activist professors believe,” quoth the report.
Hardly an atmosphere (akin to a “hostile workplace”, no?)in which a “conservative” would feel comfortable and certainly not one in which a critical thinker would be welcome.
Peter Berkowitz took a look at the study and concluded that the result was much worse than imagined:
The politicization of higher education by activist professors and compliant university administrators deprives students of the opportunity to acquire knowledge and refine their minds. It also erodes the nation’s civic cohesion and its ability to preserve the institutions that undergird democracy in America.
The analysis begins from a nonpolitical fact: Numerous studies of both the UC system and of higher education nationwide demonstrate that students who graduate from college are increasingly ignorant of history and literature. They are unfamiliar with the principles of American constitutional government. And they are bereft of the skills necessary to comprehend serious books and effectively marshal evidence and argument in written work.
In other words, they’re indoctrinated and not taught to think critically. And, per the study, they’re actually ignorant of “the institutions that undergird democracy in America”. That would, in part, explain their ‘shock’ at the validity of the arguments against ObamaCare (so there’s your example of the point).
Granted, this is but one study, it’s by a conservative group and there may be a bit of confirmation bias concerned on my part, but I’d love to see the left really document an actual challenge to its substantive points instead of doing what they usually do – wave it away. While it may be one study by a conservative group, it does note that which Berkowitz points out – “numerous studies” of the system demonstrate the facts listed, i.e. an increasing ignorance of history and literature, unfamiliarity with the principles of American constitutional government, lacking skills necessary to comprehend serious writing, marshal evidence and argue their point effectively. Or, in other words, think critically. Wait, isn’t that what universities are supposed to teach?
Start there. Explain. | <urn:uuid:0db5ddb7-5fd3-44d6-abd2-17a66a6c16eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativecommune.com/2012/04/higher-education-heres-a-surprise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9591 | 940 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Salazar, Cantwell push to protect San Juan Islands
Saturday, February 18, 2012
ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) -- U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he's pleased community members are as dedicated as ever to preserving the natural treasures of the San Juan Islands.
Salazar was in Anacortes, Wash., Saturday to discuss national efforts to protect nearly 1,000 acres of federally-owned lands in the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington. In November, Salazar included the islands on a list of lands that deserve permanent protection.
Salazar hosted Saturday's town hall meeting with U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.
Cantwell has introduced legislation to turn several dozen spots across islands into a National Conservation Area, which would ensure continued public access and protection. Rep. Rick Larsen introduced similar legislation in the U.S. House.
The locations range from forests to lighthouses and draw thousands of visitors each year. | <urn:uuid:87acd0a7-b45e-42c3-9d04-e9e004a62ad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/feb/18/salazar-cantwell-push-to-protect-san-juan-islands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959039 | 202 | 1.820313 | 2 |
When the naturalists, poets and painters of the 18th century began to see the alps in a new light and curiosity replaced fear, tourism was born in Switzerland. The picturesque lakeside towns of Interlaken, Lucerne, Lausanne, Montreux and Vevey were the starting points for trips to the alpine scenery.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries English tourists showed Switzerland its attractions and invented sports like mountain-climbing and skiing. Swiss engineers developed all sorts of devices to bring guests to the peaks without own efforts - from cogwheel-railways and cableways to ski-lifts.
Swiss customs officers are correct, polite and efficient. Never try to cheat or to bribe them - their sense for duty is even stronger than their sense for politeness and efficiency. Security checks at airports are taken more seriously than in most other destinations - but that does not mean that you have to queue up and wait for hours.
Entry RequirementsTourists to Switzerland need the following travel documents for a stay of up to three months:
Please note that stricter regulations apply for persons that intend to stay in Switzerland for more than 3 months or for other purposes than tourism, education, medical treatment or airport transit.
As passport and visa requirements may be subject to change at short notice, travellers are advised to check the official passport & visa website of Switzerland's Federal Administration. For additional information on visa, permanent residence, work permits and business matters, please contact the nearest Swiss Consulate General or Swiss Embassy.
Switzerland's official currency is the Swiss Franc (abbreviations CHF, sFr, Fr.), and is divided into 100 Rappen [Rp] / Centimes [cts], but the smallest coin in use is 5 Rp. It is recommended to have a small amount of cash (50 CHF) on hand upon arrival in Switzerland or to change at the aiport / railway station for immediate expenses (taxi, city transportation etc.).
Under Swiss laws, tourists may import and export any reasonable amount of Swiss or foreign currency to and from Switzerland in cash or traveller cheques. Please note that other countries do have severe restrictions and check with the regulations applicable in your country of origin and in countries you may visit in transit.
The exchange rates of Swiss Francs against other European currencies have been stable almost for decades: The Euro and its major predecessor German Mark at a rate of 1 CHF = 0.6 to 0.7 € (Euro) and the British Pound at a rate of 1 CHF = 0.4 to 0.5 £ within roughly 15%. The current weakness of the Euro following the financial crisis and the "strenght" of the Swiss Franc do not reflect basic economic facts and are therefore both speculative and unlikely to last for a longer period. Meanwhile the US Dollar has been oscillating between rates as different as 1 CHF = 1 $ and 1 CHF = 0.5 $ within one decade. Over the last 40 years, the US $ has dropped from 5 CHF to 1 CHF.
Current Exchange Rates
To buy one Swiss Franc at a Swiss bank, you have to pay
For one unit of foreign currency you get this amount of Swiss Francs:
Exchange rates are as of October 2011 and subject to daily changes!
You can get daily exchange rates for 18 currencies here (site in German language)
(Translation: Einheit = unit of foreign currency, Ankauf = you get this amount of Swiss Francs,
Verkauf = exchange rate to change back to foreign currency)
The electric current used throughout Switzerland is 230 Volts AC, 50 cycles (continental European standard). Wall outlets are unique to Switzerland, however. There is a limited compatibility with other continental European plugs: the standard continental type hexagonal plugs with two round pins (Euroconnectors, pin distance 19 mm [3/4 inch], pin diameter 4.0 mm [1/6 inch]), applied for many electrical travel products, may be used without problems. Adaptors for other plugs are available in most hotels and in supermarkets. Please note that German / French / Austrian plugs with thick pins (diameter 4.8 mm [1/5 inch]) and Italian plugs with three thin pins in a row are not compatible with Swiss wall outlets, despite of the equal distance of their two main pins.
Flat type wall outlet for dry rooms
Deep type wall outlet for wet rooms (bathrooms, kitchen)
Swiss hexagonal three pin plug
European hexagonal two pin plug
Please be careful with equipment designed for 100/110/120 Volts AC (as used in America and some parts of Asia). While some notebook computer and mobile phones mains adaptors are explicitly designed for automatic adaptation to a wide range of input voltages (100 to 240 Volts), some travel products like hair-dryers must be switched from 110 to 230 Volts before use in continental Europe and other equipment (for example most AC adaptors for small electronic equipment like radios and cameras) may be completely incompatible and these equipments could be damaged if used with doubled voltage! So never try to connect a device designed for 110 Volts to a 230 Volts outlet! Devices designed for 220 Volts (used to be continental European standard some years ago) or 240 Volts (UK, Australia) will work without problems at 230 Volts, however.
Switzerland is probably really the "safest place on the planet", considering both technical safety standards and security aspects (low rate of criminality, cautiousness of the population). But nobody and no system is perfect. Be cautious of pocket thieves, especially in crowded places.
Statistics tell us that next to smoking, eating too much, drinking alcohol excessively, climbing chairs to reach the ceiling and using electrical devices in bathrooms, there are two major risks for Switzerland's inhabitants: sports and traffic accidents.
Though Switzerland may have more detailed laws than other countries to ensure that everybody may enjoy the same very high level of liberty without being restricted by reckless mighty people, authorities expect that you take responsability for yourself. For example, no signs are telling you that you are using hiking paths at your own risk, but if you do, you should be reasonably equipped with solid shoes and know your physical condition.
Tourists often underestimate the dangers of thin air above some 2500 m [8000 ft] which can result in altitude sickness [AMS] or hypothermia if you do not take enough time to accomodate. Therefore all mountain peaks over 3000 m [9800 ft] are usually reached in two days: first day ascent to a cottage operated by Switzerland's Alpine Club (SAC) and accommodation at about 2500 m, second day climbing the peak in the early morning, before the surface ice is starting to melt. For tours above 2500 m [8000 ft] even Swiss inhabitants take an experienced moutaineer to guide them safely. Tourist offices in Swiss alpine destinations will help you to find a certified professional guide.
Other unexpected risks are sudden floods in dry or almost dry little
brooks: Due to a thunder-storm or to operational changes of hydroelectic
power plants, water level in apparently harmless brooks may rise from
below one to several feet within a few minutes.
Believe it or not: the gravel on the picture (left) was taken there by wild waters. The Swiss are much too thrifty to invest in hydraulic engineering (like in the background) without good reasons ...
Finally, skiiers might get buried under an avalanche when skiing outside marked ski runs. All official ski runs are carefully designed to avoid all risky spots (some runs may have a small risk on some days, however, and will be closed when dangerous). Skiing outside official ski runs, though not prohibited by law, is often reckless with regard to scaring away wild animals and it causes more than a dozen mortal accidents per year. Famous Swiss St. Bernhard's dogs are trained to find people under avalanches and modern radio direction finding equipment provides additional help, but all too often helpers are too late to find buried skiers still alive.
While nobody needs to believe in medieval legends of dragons living in mountain lakes any longer, a sound mix between excitement over the staggering beauty of the alpine scenery and awe of the forces of nature in the mountains is still a good choice.
See also: Traffic rules and speed limits in Switzerland
Short quotations allowed but with precise declaration of origin (Link).
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
2017.8 - Census of Population and Housing: Selected Education and Labour Force Characteristics for Statistical Local Areas, Australian Capital Territory, 2001
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/04/2003
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AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
The Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) to experience the largest increase in the proportion of full-time workers were South Canberra (to 67.9% in 2001 from 65.7% in 1996) and Belconnen (to 61.3% from 60.0%). Only three SSDs in the ACT recorded a fall in this proportion (Woden Valley (to 62.6% from 63.9%), Gungahlin-Hall (to 67.8% from 68.3%) and Tuggeranong (to 63.9% from 64.3%)).
Every SSD experienced an increase in the proportion of part-time workers. The largest were recorded in Australian Capital Territory - Balance (to 28.1% in 2001 from 20.6% in 1996) and Woden Valley (to 30.4% from 27.1%). The smallest increase was in the SSD of South Canberra (to 25.9% from 24.8%).
In 2001, high proportions of full-time workers were recorded in the metropolitan Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) of City (85.5%), Kingston (77.1%), Majura (76.8%) and Phillip (73.8%). Harman (88.3%) and Duntroon (83.9%), as expected of military bases, also recorded high proportions of full-time workers.
The highest concentrations of part-time workers, as proportions of persons in the labour force, were recorded in the SLAs of Acton (67.7%), Pialligo (36.8%) and Bruce (36.2%).
In 2001, the largest occupation groups were Professionals (41,976 persons or 26.1%), Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers (29,092 persons or 18.1%), Associate Professionals (22,782 persons or 14.2%), Managers and Administrators (18,372 persons or 11.4%), and Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Workers (15,039 persons or 9.3%). These proportions are similar to those recorded in 1996
Within the Canberra SLAs, high proportions of employed persons working as Professionals were recorded in City (50.6%), Aranda (41.4%), O'Connor (41.1%), Campbell (40.3%) and Cook (40.0%).
High proportions of persons employed as Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers were recorded in the metropolitan SLAs of Acton (25.9%), Latham (23.5%), Holt (22.9%) and Richardson (22.4%).
High proportions of persons working as Associate Professionals were recorded in Harman (33.1%), Hall (21.4%), Forrest (19.0%) and Greenway (18.1%).
High proportions of employed persons working as Managers and Administrators were recorded in the SLAs of Duntroon (77.4%), Majura (38.5%), Barton (25.2%), Forrest (22.3%) and City (22.2%).
In 2001, the four largest industries of employment in the ACT were Government Administration and Defence (38,475 persons or 23.9%), Property and Business Services (23,684 persons or 14.7%), Retail Trade (19,633 persons or 12.2%) and Education (14,276 persons or 8.9%). These industries were also the top four industries in the ACT in 1996.
Since 1996 there has been an increase in the proportions of persons working in Property and Business Services (to 14.7% from 10.7%) and Retail Trade (to 12.2% from 11.4%), while there was a decline in the proportion of persons working in Government Administration and Defence (to 23.9% from 25.5%) and Wholesale Trade (to 2.0% from 2.5%).
At the SLA level, high proportions of persons employed in Government Administration and Defence were recorded in Duntroon (83.8%), Harman (82.6%), Majura (74.4%), Kingston (41.5%) and Phillip (35.8%).
Some of the highest proportions of persons employed in Property and Business Services were recorded in the metropolitan SLAs of Forrest (29.4%), City (26.6%), Hall (25.3%), Barton (20.3%) and Yarralumla (20.2%).
High proportions of persons employed in Retail Trade were noted in the SLAs of Acton (24.0%), Conder (17.5%), Richardson (17.3%), Charnwood (16.8%) and Gilmore (16.3%).
The highest proportion of persons employed in the Education industry were in the SLAs of Aranda (17.9%), Acton (17.2%), City (16.1%) and Weetangera (16.0%).
The number of unemployed persons decreased by 26.1% to 8,720 in 2001 from 11,804 in 1996. The unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in 2001 from 7.3% in 1996. This compares with an unemployment rate of 7.4% for Australia, down from 9.2% in 1996.
While the number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work fell by 36.1% (to 5,334 in 2001 from 8,351 in 1996), those unemployed persons looking for part-time work only decreased by 1.9% (to 3,386 in 2001 from 3,453 in 1996).
At the SSD level, the largest declines in the unemployment rates between 1996 and 2001 were recorded in North Canberra (to 6.9% from 9.7%), South Canberra (to 4.6% from 7.3%) and Belconnen (to 5.9% from 8.0%).
In 2001, the SLAs with the highest unemployment rate in Canberra were Acton (21.9%), Oaks Estate (14.5%), Turner (11.3%), Reid (11.2%) and Belconnen Town Centre (11.1%).
For those aged 15-24 years, the unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in 2001 from 14.6% in 1996. This compares with a decline to 13.8% from 15.7% for Australia.
The highest youth unemployment rates in Canberra were recorded in the SLAs of Oaks Estate (28.2%), Reid (24.8%), Acton (23.4%), Symonston (23.3%) and Turner (21.1%).
Level of Education
In 2001, there were 112,578 persons aged 15 years and over with a qualification, accounting for 46.2% of all persons aged 15 years and over in the ACT. Between 1996 and 2001 this proportion rose from 40.4% (an increase of 19,691 persons). In Australia, the proportion rose to 34.7% from 30.0%.
Of those with a qualification, 37.6% (42,282 persons) held a Bachelor Degree, 28.3% (31,831 persons) held a Certificate, 18.3% (20,604 persons) held a Postgraduate Degree or Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate and 15.9% (17,861 persons) held an Advanced Diploma and Diploma as their highest qualification.
Of persons aged 15 years and over, the highest proportions of persons with a Bachelor Degree or higher as their highest level of qualification were recorded in the metropolitan SLAs of Barton (47.8%), Kingston (46.2%), Forrest (45.9%), Campbell (44.1%) and Aranda (44.0%). The Remainder of ACT recorded 31.2%.
High proportions with an Advanced Diploma and Diploma were recorded in the metropolitan SLAs of Harman (16.4%), Chapman (10.3%), Greenway (10.0%), Torrens (9.5%) and Fraser (9.4%). The Remainder of ACT recorded 5.0%.
The highest proportions of persons with a Certificate as their highest level of qualification were recorded in the metropolitan SLAs of Harman (26.0%), Majura (22.5%), Dunlop (20.7%), Banks (19.9%) and Conder (19.3%). The Remainder of ACT recorded 13.6%.
Field of Study
Of all persons aged 15 years and over with a qualification, their highest level qualifications were most commonly held in the fields of Management and Commerce (22,588 persons or 16.8%), Engineering and Related Technologies (15,849 persons or 11.8%), Health (10,042 persons or 7.5%), and Education (9,762 persons or 7.3%). Other, which includes Society and Culture, Creative Arts, Food, Hospitality and Personal Services, and Mixed Programmes (35,984 persons or 26.8%) also recorded a high proportion.
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This page last updated 8 December 2006 | <urn:uuid:75cec9a9-af8e-4481-a93b-8b1705174e32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyReleaseDate/B6A0DB6DB325AB4ACA256D01007E836B?OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946776 | 1,935 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Greenspan and The Rate of Interest
Douglas V. Gnazzo
Sir Alan decided to raise short term interest rates via the Fed Funds Rate by raising it 25 basis points or .25% to 3.75%. There has occurred much discussion in the media regarding the reasoning behind Greenspan's decision. Some attribute it to the fact that he is worried about the housing market overheating, as in a bubble that is getting steaming to the point of bursting. This scenario rationalizes that higher interest rates will slow down the booming housing market, which it may very well do - or not.
Others believe that the Chairman raised rates because he is worried about the myriad of bubbles in the United States today: the dollar bubble; the credit bubble; the debt bubble; the real estate bubble; the bond market bubble, and other various asset class bubbles. The rationalization behind raising rates for this scenario has to do with the same basic premise as above, however, it extends over a much wider group of markets and hence more of the economy as well.
Then there is the classic timed tested inflation scenario that prices are going up and will continue to go up - which they are, unless interest rates go up instead, acting as a braking mechanism of rising prices and economic activity in general.
When all is said and done, and hypothecated upon, what it all comes down to is that Mr. Greenspan is trying to ease the runaway train into the station without crashing it, stalling it, or causing any untoward damage - to the train, the passengers, and the surrounding pedestrians. It is not an enviable task, but rule from atop was never meant to be enviable, nor easy. If you don't like the heat, you don't go in the kitchen. The maestro is definitely in the kitchen; and the heat is rising.
It appears that Sir Alan has a bit of a conundrum on his hands. He is stuck between a rock and a hard place so to say: damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't - damned if you will. Here's why.
The Fed Chairman wants to keep the U.S. dollar from collapsing against foreign currencies, as if this was to occur, the Chinese and Japanese would curtail their subsidization of the U.S. bond market, a.k.a. the U.S. debt market. Presently they account for over 40% of the purchases of our debt market, so if they say goodbye, it really could be goodbye - for us. Recently, however, Great Britain has stepped up to the plate as a heavy buyer of our debt, but they too could provide the kiss of death if the dollar was to take a plunge. Interesting times to say the least.
Greenspan hopes and prays that by fine tuning interest rates he can provide support for the dollar and keep foreign interests - interested in buying our debt. However, the Fed Chairman also knows that if he raises interest rates too much or too fast he will sink the housing market; and that he does not want to do. It has been the sea of liquidity provided by Greenspan and company that has kept the economy going via the housing market. If the housing market bubble bursts - the economy will be in dire straights. End of game.
Or in his own words from the recent Fed minutes:
So you can see the conundrum he is in: both "core inflation and longer-term inflation expectations have remained well contained, but pressures on inflation have stayed elevated." That's one job I wouldn't want to have - walking a tightrope over a pit of lions is easier work if you can get it. I'm not sure if you have to be a juggler or a balancing expert to qualify for the job. Being a master magi couldn't hurt, however.
But On The Other Hand
But as we have said, Sir Alan doesn't want to pop the housing bubble, which means that he must offset rising interest rates. Now how does he pull that one out of his hat - he just creates lots of money and credit through prestidigitation. How do we know that the Chairman is saying one thing while doing another? Take a look at the money supply chart below in comparison to the federal funds rate chart, which do you think is rising faster?
The broadest U.S. money supply measure is M-3, as shown in the chart below. It was up $32.4 billion in the latest week. In the last 3 months, M-3 has been up $216 billion, which equates to an annualized rate of almost a trillion dollars a year. And that's just the money supply. In paper fiat land credit is just as good as money. We will place a chart of the Fed Funds Rate side by side for a quick comparison. Basically look for the steepest ascent of the little blue lines.
Unfortunately it does appear that the money supply is rising a bit steeper for a wee bit longer than the Fed Funds Rate has been. Lots of catching up to do, if such is the intent.
Doug Noland, who is as good as it gets about credit and debt reporting, had this to say about the candy suckers being given away in paper fiat land last week:
For a pretty picture to go with the above stated credit growth, Doug Noland offered this on his site:
Is this a clever play on words?]
[Doug Noland Courtesy of Credit Bubble Bulletin - Sept. 16]
Seems that the undertaker, as Ayn Rand used to affectionately call the Greenman, is adding some more punch to the bowl, and by the use of various concoctions, making for a strange brew that Madam Rue would be honored to serve. It would appear he doesn't want the partiers to go home just yet, before he satiates their thirst.
But alas, you know what happens when you indulge too much in the fruit of the vine - you end up making love to the toilet bowl as opposed to a loved one - plus you feel like what goes down the bowl. So much for over-indulgence. Perhaps we need a new 12 step program for credit addiction - especially for Sir Alan, as he does seem to be the enabler supreme for all things fiat or make believe - a true master magi.
What To Do
So what's a poor soul to do? Try to reduce debt. Try to cut back on spending. Try to save if possible. Live below one's means. Write down your present state of affairs, in front of you, so you can see in black and white where you are, and where you are headed.
Formulate a budget so you know exactly what you spend versus what your income is. Talk things over with family or friends that you can trust. But have a plan - short, intermediate, and long term plan. Set goals that are achievable. As you reach them you will gain self-confidence to try for even higher heights.
Once you can reduce debt and begin to save, then it's time to put the savings to work, to add to your income and wealth. Go easy at first if you are not experienced. Do not try for homeruns. He who is steady and grounded wins in this game. Blazing stars just fizzle out into the night sky. And most of all - be prepared for the unexpected - expect the unexpected, and you will not get blindsided. Forewarned is forearmed.
When you are in a position to consider such, consider gold. Gold is honest money. It is not some paper credit or debt, which is nothing but a promise to pay, an i.o.u. Gold is real money and can be used to directly pay off debt; it has no liabilities or strings attached. It is immediate payment for any transaction undertaken. Gold is no man's debt. Gold is the Sovereign of Sovereigns, when gold speaks all lips are silent. As the venerable Richard Russell, sage of the markets said the other night:
Gold's power and secret is that it is no man's liability, it is no man's promise or obligation to pay - it is payment, and has been so for 5000 years. Paper fiat as floated today has been around for a couple of hundred years, and that is even arguable, but another story for another time.
The big lie is that money and debt can be one and the same. They can't. You can not pay a promise to pay with another paper promise to pay. That is not payment. That is just rolling over the debt. Promises for more promises - to pay. Debt transference. Nothing more, and a whole lot less.
When debt is allowed to circulate as the currency - as debt-money - there is hell to be paid. The day of reckoning, the weighing in the balance, keeps getting pushed off farther into the future; but make no mistake about it, the day of atonement will come - if not by us, then by our children, and their children, which isn't the best of legacies to leave your loved ones. Leave them some gold instead.
As a picture is worth a 1000 words we will now provide a picture of total America Debt (which is on the books, as there is another like amount not on the books, what the magi's call off-budget or unfunded liabilities), and a picture of the loss of the purchasing power of the United States Dollar Bill, known as a Federal Reserve Note or promise to pay - a debt instrument.
Courtesy of Michael Hodges
The Grandfather Economic Report
Chart courtesy from Sharelynx at www.sharelynx.net
The above state of affairs is what has led to a bit of a falling out of confidence among CFOs in America. How do we know? Take a look at the chart below. Seems they are aware of the rising debt levels, higher costs, and the loss of 95% of our currencies purchasing power - maybe that's why they are chief financial officers:
Courtesy of Duke University and contraryinvestor.com
All of which adds up to a kind of queasy feeling in the pit of one's stomach - like we're involved in some con-fi-dence game of sorts. Here you take my debt and I'll trade you it for mine. Let's rob Peter so we can make believe to pay Paul. It just doesn't work like that folks - and I don't care what they tell you - if they do - they speak with forked tongue, as the Indians can attest by the terrorist attacks they were subjected to a few hundred years ago in the land of milk and honey.
Be not deceived, they do not want you to know the Truth. The Truth is that Gold Is Honest Money. Debt is a four letter word of evil as presently peddled about. There is nothing wrong with debt - if it is debt created by the loaning of Honest Money, had by honest work, owned by those that earned it, and then lend it, by honest dealings with honest interest rates. Honest.
But when our money is paper fiat debt-money, it is dishonest money, and can only facilitate wealth transference from the many to the elite few. We The People need to stand up and reclaim our constitutional freedoms - our self-dignity and unalienable rights. Honest.
Power to the people, as it was the people that gave birth to the Constitution; it was the people that gave birth to our Country; it was the people that gave birth to the government. It was and Is about - the people.
We The People are Sovereign
Gold is the Sovereign of Sovereigns - remember it well.
Douglas V. Gnazzo©2005 Douglas V. Gnazzo. All rights reserved.
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While Bill Gates' financial backing is not a certainty of success, it can't hurt this startup and even better, it shines a spotlight on what you say is one the "great underappreciated issues of renewable energy," energy storage, for the broader public. It can only serve to foster more attention and hopefully, more investment in this very important technology issue.
This is a good opportunity for an investor like Bill Gates. He gets to invest in something that can potentially make lots of money while also helping the environment and the country. LiIon batteries may be a dead end unless someone can come up with a safer approach. While we concentrate on the Chevy Voit battery problems today, I wonder how many remember the fire issue with the Apple MacBook a wuile back. What we need are solutions that match the application. Batteries for distributed utility power do not need to be the same as batteries for mobile devices, or even cars.
I applaud any and all battery research, but why can't we get some major funding for a proven energy storage technology: Kinetic Energy via the use of high-speed flywheels? It is a proven concept, it has very good storage capability, it is environmentally low-impact, and it can be scaled easily.
As interesting and significant as this is -- as the story says "The company's battery can store about 1.2MWh -- or about 300kW with a four-hour drain time. Sadoway believes it could handle the extra capacity that the grid uses during peak load times" -- the real challenge isn't big batteries which can store more Wh. It's on small batteries, for EVs. As Chuck has written many times, the progress there hasn't met expectations, or, more correctly, promises and hopes. At best, we have specmanship which attempts to make things sound/seem better than they are.
An interesting 'teaser' article - you have my interest but the engineer in me wants more details! I reluctantly acknowledge the main thrust of the article/post is to hit the high lights (i.e. Bill Gates, Liquid Metal Battery Corp, (LMBC) wind, solar, etc) but how about more?
There is NO doubt that large capacity storage of electrical energy is one of the key components in implementation of renewable energy past some percentage of useage (the figure of 20% is sort of sticking in my mind - we are somewhere in the 5% range now (??)) and we absolutely must have some efficient and cost competitive way of getting there. The work being done by LMBC is promising.
OK, on reflection, I guess I should go out on the web when I have sometime and do a bit of wandering around in search of more details. The inquisitive mind.
Grid storage other than very short term like under 5 minutes peaking isn't a problem at all. Why is the grid has been doing that, adjusting the grid since it began around 1900.
Facts are grid demand is far more variable than RE and supply and demand are really just 2 sides of the same coin. So No, you don't need more than 2% of grid storage and that is just for smoothing out the second to second difference between supply and demand.
Though that will easily be solved by the smart grid along with home, apt and EV batteries, charging when cheap to absorb extra grid power at night and between daytime peaks while supplying power during peaks. The utility saves so much in peak power costs and added revenue at off peak EV's might get free fuel for their service.
Recent CCGT tech can be throttled up to 50% power using NG also will cut the need for grid storage.
Another Solar thermal panels are used to suppliment NG power plants meaning no storage needed. Biomass, Hydro also are on demand. Really the only problems are big distant wind farms that start/stop together and even their with cogen biomass to cover when the wind isn't blowing.
And last for now, far more RE spread out in small systems on many homes, buildings will average out very well again making storage far less.
This whole scam was made up by big energy/power because they know RE is already if well shopped in many places competitive with coal even before the 30k people/yr in the US that die, etc. from it's pollution. And they want the corporate welfare to continue paying congress to make sure it happens.
What's the big deal? Spoken like someone who doesn't have to do it.
Facts are we have improved batteries by a factor of 4 but no matter how good they are, everyone wants more for less in a smaller size. Then they bitch when given bleeding edge tech and the laptop bursts into flames!
Maybe consumers could stop wanting all those features they never use, maybe a slower cpu or a car that does take 4000lbs to move a 200lb person around?
And back on topic, we already have $100/kwhr batteries for grid UPS work. They are called lead batteries. Yet no grid battery banks of them. Why? Lead in grid UPS use costs under $10/kwhr/yr.
Could it be there is no market for batteries in that service?
Whole-heartedly agree. Too bad we can't change human behavior. Everyone wants more, bigger/smaller, and faster and they want it yesterday. Nevermind the fact we don't need or use it. And I include myself in that behavior as well.
Thanks for the comments, Jerry. You are right, I don't design them, and neither do most people commenting here, so thought I'd ask the really basic question to get some enlightenment for all of us.
It sounds like one major problem is the same one as all the other basic electronic problems, such as "not enough" processor speed, RAM, HD space or -- battery life, at least from the user's POV. In other words, these ideal specs are all moving targets. That was a bit of a wakeup, to learn that batteries have improved by a factor of 4. Did you mean in terms of lifetime?
I used x's4 as an average comparing lead/ nicad, NiFe to Lithium present average about in capacity/lb.
In cycle life it's hard to beat NiFE/Edison or Ni-Cad flooded cells which last 50+ yrs. Some NiFe made in 1900/10 for EV's are still going strong!! I have some Nicad battery cells that are 40+ yrs old and still do rated power I abuse in an E bike. But NiFe really needs watering every 4 days and battery self discharges over 10 days. Nicad is much better but still more work than lead has almost 2x's the number of cells at 1.2vdc/cell, lead at 2,2 and lithium about 3.7vdc.
Some lithium if charged correctly and not over discharged like A123 get over 10k cycles. But they likely have an age limit we won't know until they hit it. 7 yrs is mentioned by some makers but no one really knows as they haven't been around long enough to find out. YMMV
Lithium's need very good battery management systems to live and those are still coming up to speed. I'll wait until price drops some more to about $250/kwhr before I switch my EV's over to them as lead does fine and my pack has another 5 yrs in it.
One last thing is battery salepeople are liars. Never ever believe them. Ask but verify anything they say. In hobby EV's we, EVDL list that have been building, driving EV's for 30 yrs, , take every new battery and test it hard both on the bench and on the road, then report to the rest of EVers if it's good enough and if it meets specs. Few do.
In the future li/air and li/sulfur have 10x's present Li cap on the bench. If they can tame them and increase cycle life fossil fuels won't stand a chance. Costs for materials would be about $20/kwhr at that weight!! I believe in a battery only when I can put it in my EV's though as many are vaporware.
The only good point is even lead batteries in a well designed EV or home power RE system can do what we need very cost effectively. For those few times you need more, just fire up a small generator for unlimited range at over 100mpg.
Before I go I always wondered why those up north don't use heating fuel to make electricity first, selling it to pay the cost of the fuel? Power the home, charge the battery for when the heat cycles and supply peak grid power at high profit rates? I can't justify it here in So Fl but up north would be the first thing I'd do before my first winter there.
I use lead battery storage in my 'off grid' house in Tennessee. Here's the big lead battery problem: The $100 / kwh needs watering, desulfating and equalizing to preserve its promise. Use of hydro-caps lowers watering expense (including labor), but increases the cost. AGM lead-acid batteries reduce much of the above listed limitations, but go for about $175 / kwh. But, here's the big deal breaker... You get about 500 cycles at 50% depth of discharge. That's $0.20 / kwh alone. I look forward to these batteries, and the 57 degree C batteries being promised for 2015 for $250/kwh. The big deal is that they offer thousands of charges without all of the maintenance. Plus charge (coulombic) efficiency is over 99%. This promise then provides storage under $0.02/kwh which makes it a deal changer.
Sounds to me like you are seriously overcharging your batteries, murdering them. You shouldn't need to water batteries more than 4- 6x's/yr if charged correctly. They only need to be equalized 1/mo to 15vdc. I see at most 1hr/mo doing battery check/watering, washing PV or give the windgen a good look at. Only poor systems need a lot of work.
Most batteries do not die, they are murdered well before their time. You think lead is hard to do, Wait until you get lithium.
One doesn't 'desulfate' lead batteries, they are charged, Pulsing/desulfating scam does little that a 60cycle battery charger doesn't do. Nor do properly cared for batteries sulfate until their 7-9 yrs for golfcart and better lead batteries. By the time they are sulfated, they are already dead so reviving' them only lasts a few weeks at very low capacity.
Any good RE system needs to be automatic tending to itself most of the time on battery charging, grid feed times, etc. It's not that hard to do. Just stop charging when batteries hit 14-15vdc/ 12vdc nom depending on temp, age. The other is cut loads at 10.75vdc to prevent reversing a cell. Done right you'll get 7-8 yrs out of them.
Though for homes, business molten salt of which there are a number like The Zebra Battery allready in the OEM market for vehicles, etc and GE is doing one could be a good market. Backing up the grid is too big a job for batteries.
Charge eff might be good but keeping it hot means you have to really work it to be economic. In EV's their eff dropped badly from such losses if the vehicle didn't work most of the day, or better, 24/7 like delivery or taxi, for which they are great it seems.
I'm far from a battery expert, but my belief is that the substances known to be suitable to build a battery simply don't have the capacity to develop electrical energy for truly long periods. Think of what is required - regardless of whether we're talking energy storage for wind, or solar, you'd better be able to provide a clean 7-days' worth of electrical energy at advertised output, and those substances simply don't exist currently.
Researchers in Germany are currently working on a battery which shows promise, but a practical prototype is still a few years away. I don't believe that there's a, "conspiricy theory" at work, because the first one to, "reach the finish line" stands to make a big pile of jack. Once the final barriers are broken, among other things, you'll see a subsequent, rapid de-centralization of electrical energy generation, because consumers will embrace these technologies.
I've checked into doing something for my family, and truthfully, I need to come up with at least $25,000.00 - $30,000.00 to generate a scant 12-KW reliably. Payback is well-past 25-years, so guess what? I'm reluctantly sticking with the electrical energy utility in our area.
Do you complain when you have to refuel your car before reaching your destination? Maybe you find it inconvenient to eat more than once a week. Batteries have come a long way, but can't keep up with the demands and wants of the people. I've had this discussion several times.
A prime example of the naive faith that technology is infinitely malleable and any miracle is possible if we just put our minds to it.
As James Howard Kunstler says, we have a touching belief that all problems have technological solutions, and we lately have taken to using the words "technology" and "energy" almost interchangeably. It just ain't so. Read his book The Long Emergency.
As long as you are going to run very hot batteries, why not improve upon fuel cells? True, they are far more complex and expensive today, but with improved design and mass production they could become economically feasible. You need three elements, a fuel generator driven by electricity, a storage system and finally the fuel cell battery to reverse the process. One benefit of fuel cell technology is the ability to "burn" multiple fuels. The other is the ability to supplement the renewable fuel source with purchased fuel for those times where renewable sources of electricity may be in short supply.
For electric locomotion fuel cell batteries can be recharged in a couple of minutes, just like internal combustion engines, by filling the fuel tank. Storage batteries cannot be recharged as rapidly. And hairbrained schemes to mimic conveniently short pit stops revolve around swapping out whole thousand pound battery packs at the refueling station.
This is not pie in the sky as there have been hydrogen powered electric busses in service in some cities.
Sorry but foolcells are for those who write FC grants or otherwise make a living off them or misinformed. They when everything is added in they never bother to mention, FC's are 25% as eff as batteries or a third rail. They'd be better off burning the fuel in an engine/gen at 35% eff.
Trains should be run on a thrid rail or overhead wires as many are and almost all trans just by adding contact arms, run on the electric grid. as an added benefit trains going downhill or stopping, their energy can be used to accelerate or climb hills by other trans.
I'm sorry any one that has an RV out in the woods understands capacity vs use rate - without a generator. The other thing people don't understand is a discharged battery vs a depleted battery. Battery capacity declines with age and use. For my battery operated electronics I have rechargables and primaries. It is a life style. Cycle the discharged batteries through the charger. The primaries are backups when the rechargables fail and they will. And at some point they all die permanently. I worked on MinuteMan silos for the MX missile. I studied the electrical grid, diesel electric backup generator, lead acid secondaries and primaries. You match the end of life capacity with the desired use rate. It is just that simple. For stationary power there are little worries. It is the mobile applications that are hard. Where volume and weight have big effects. But we had electric cars since the 1900's, right. Just build inexpensive electric cars. It is the initial cost that is prohibitive. I only have a 24 mile commute (round trip) with only a five mile stretch (both ways) of forced high speed. The rest is 35 mph. I don't need blue tooth, web, and all that other crap. Mpg, maintenance, reliability, and cost is what it is all about.
WBS, The Nissan Leaf EV will easily satify your needs with 60-75 miles to spare. And over 7 yrs will pay for itself in gasoline savings.
You could also spend a lot less by doing some work and converting your own. Take a Miata, Corvette or other lightweight car, put in $1200 in golfcart batteries and a forklift motor and for about $3-6k, you can drive very cheaply using no gas. You can spend far more but not needed.
I have a Harley size trike EV that with a nice body costs me under $1.5k in parts to build as a prototype for possible production. It gets the equivalent to 600mpg/mpge using lead with 60 mile range and a 6hp gas generator that gives unlimited range.
Google EV racing and follow the links to make your own EV until they are really in mass production.
I wish I had the money to invest seriously in technologies like this that may one day deliver real benefits to the world. But since that's not going to happen, I'd just like to say: "Thanks, Mr. Gates, for doing it for us."
First - I'd like to applaud DesignNews for providing visibility to the critical need of mass energy storage as a practical enabler of most "renewable" energy sources such as solar and wind power. This is a "dirty little secret" that most green power advocates fail to mention, but the grid can't really acheive over, say, 30% green sources without bumping into this big problem.
By the way - one reason that the US Govt. is heavily promoting electric vehicles (even though the technology isn't really yet ready for mass adoption) is that they have a HOPE that millions of EV's connected to a "smart grid" will actually BECOME the required mass energy storage for a future green energy system. It could happen, but I'm pretty skeptical and think there are better solutions.
I believe that the two most likely practical solutions are: A) a chemical "fuel" that can be synthesized via solar or other energy sources (biofuel or even better - direct solar or electricity synthesized fuel). This fuel can then be "burned" in a rather conventional power plant or even possibly in vehicles or B) direct thermal energy storage as molten salts which buffers power from multiple renewable sources.
It is relatively inexpensive to have huge insulated tanks of molten salt as energy storage. Converting this heat storage is typically done by rather conventional steam turbines. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy#Molten_salt_storage . Furthermore, these systems can be designed for long life and minimal maintenance, etc. and don't use toxic and rare chemicals.
The current experimental installations use heliostats ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliostat ), and results look encouraging. However, wind power could also add heat to a storage system using resistive elements (I'm not aware of this being tried). Another great benefit of this approach is that a power plant designed to use molten salts for an energy buffer can easily have a "backup mode" of operation that creates steam using natural gas (or other conventional fuel) and the same turbines / generators. This way, the powerplant can provide reliable 24/7 power even during extended overcast or windless days. This flexibility allows one power plant to provide power instead of requiring two plants (one renewable, one conventional) for guaranteed power.
Hopefully a practical solution can be invented and deployed before a "Mad Max" scenario that will happen if fossil fuels run out before a new solution is in place.
The goal is indeed to to get the battery cost to $100/kWh. That's the battery cost, not the cost of the energy. So, for example, a battery capable of storing 20 kWh would cost $2,000. The $0.13/kWh that you're quoting is the price of your electricity.
First of all, let me state that I'm an electrical engineer, so all the discussion about this chemistry and that chemistry pretty much goes over my head. To me, most of these battery technologies sounds dangerous, difficult to control, and inefficient - and with a short life span to boot.
Why don't we consider using one of the oldest 'battery' technologies around: reservoirs? Use the excess energy from the renewable sources to pump water up the mountain to the upper reservoir. When the energy is needed, let the water flow down to the lower reservoir while spinning the turbines on the way down.
Are batteries significanly more efficient than reservoirs? Water reservoirs are certainly more safe, last longer, and other than the small amount that evaporates or seeps into the ground, the energy stored in a reservoir has a very long 'shelf life'. Of course, there are other benefits to water reservoirs - they can be great sources of recreational activity too.
To DougISanDiego: You're right -- the technique you describe is pumped hydro, and it is currently the largest form of storage that we have (albeit, we have very little storage). The problem with pumped hydro is that it takes up large chunks of land -- too large, I'm told, to be seriously considered as a large-scale solution. It's a case of counties not wanting it in their backyards.
In response to the suggestion of using pumped storage, it is expensive and not that efficient, and it requires a whole lot of land, plus it could have a huge environmental impact. Other than those problems, it may be OK.
Seeing " Mister Monopolizer" funding any potentially crucial development is cause for concern.
The biggest challenge related to liquid metal batteries is keeping them hot, because it would require a lot of power just to do that, unless the battery uses mercury, in which case the howel from the safety people will be quite loud.
What about the polystyrene battery that I read about being developed, which is supposedly ten times better .
Dr Xie Xian Ning from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative and his team developed the soft, foldable membrane using a polystyrene-based polymer. When sandwiched between two charged metal plates it can store charge at 0.2 farads per square centimetre, which is claimed to be well above the typical upper limit for a standard capacitor.
Most polystyrene plastics are not very toxic, as well as not very expensive. Those are two valuable characteristics to have in a bettery. At this point it would be worthwhile to have more people investigating that approach.
Of course we must make sure that some patent troll does not get hold of the patent. Perhaps I am being a bit ahead of things with that thought, but maybe not.
I understand the "Mister Monopolizer" moniker, but I have to give Gates credit on this: It's one of five battery start-ups that he's funding. Development of battery technology is difficult at best, with serious doubt as to any payoff in the long run. If it works, we're all the better for it in the end.
OK, i'll say it again, energy storage via kinetic energy, not hydro but flywheels. Direct conversion of electricity, both in and out, at high effeciency, small footprint, near zero environmental impact, scalable. Why is everyone so fixated on yet-to-be-discovered battery improvements and ignoring this mature techmology? Even it it is used as a bridge solution it is affordable and implementable right now.
Maybe the technology that he SHOULD be funding is the next generation of computer operating systems that perform correctly ALL THE TIME. Here's a novel thought. He could invent a multitasking system and name it DOORS 3.2, since someone else has already trademarked the WINDOWS moniker!!!!! Or, how about OS/2.2? That's another catchy name..........
Not interested in getting into a flame war. Just playing devil's advocate.....
You could just as easily point to the Sony laptop batteries that burst into flames, to shoot down battery storage.
Just spitballin' here. My point could have been the perceived safety issue, or the capital costs of building something akin to a nuclear reactor vessel. I don't know.
I wasn't slamming flywheels. I have found however that when an idea isn't not pursued, there is an underlying reason. Sometimes technical, oftentimes political or economic. Without direct knowledge, or exhaustive analysis, am I not allowed to ask the question?
No offence taken, it just seems that containment of a flywheel assy is easily addressed, and as such is relatively a non-issue, IMO. I imagine that this is a technology that would best be scaled up to grid-level NOT by scaling up the flywheel size, but by scaling up the flywheel quantities per installation site. Oh, and while they are at it, a STANDARDIZED design would be nice so that unit costs could be managed, and site capacity would just be a matter of quantity of flywheel modules to install.
The negaive comments on flywheels is akin to rubishing airships because of the Hindenberg.
Modern flywheels are made from composite materials, not solid metal. As such, if they fail, they turn into a shredded ball of fibre with energy absorption everywhere. Yes, they still need a containement vessel to keep the bits in, but not to stop chunks of metal fling everywhere.
Look at Satcon if you want to see how the technology has advanced since the Hindenberg.
The main premis behind the thinking that we must have storage in order to make intermittant power sources useful is based on the presumption that these renewable sources of power would replace the present ones completely, and that anything that allowed for less than 100% use of capacity is worthless. That presumption is based on the business plan that demands that there be no excess capacity, that all the KWH that can be produced must be produced and sold, to provide the maximum Return On Investment. That is the exact same reason as why expending the capacity of the electrical distribution system will do nothing at all to prevent another blackout. The instant that additional capacity becomes available the utilities will do their very best to assure that it is completely utilized, with the result being that there will be no spare capacity to handle the increased load on hot days.
REgarding rotating storage systems: People have been proposing them since at least 1956, when they were discussed in Popular Mechanics magazine. So the concept is not new. But I agree that there must be some problem with the implementation that has kept them from becoming a mainstream choice for all of these years. And the problem is certainly NOT a safety issue. And if guarding them was a concern, just install them in a basement, and any fragments would be stopped before they caused damage or injury. But I am certain that the problem hindering their useage is something besides that.
One additional thought is this: Would you want an individual whose company has a monopoly obtained by questionable means to be in the business of providing something vital? IN addition, would you want the business attitude that intentionally sells products that are deffective, repeatedly, to have a monopoly on high powered batterys that we would be depending on? Would you want your homes power source to be as reliable as Windows?????
IF you don't find those thoughts disturbing, you may not have a grasp of the situation.
While it is quite convenient for people to bash Bill Gates and his software company, it goes without saying that the pro-active way in which fixes are delivered to problems have been adopted by several early and late-stage startups. Once you are past the early adopter stage and trying to commercialize your products, it is all about time to market. The other path is to do years of technological due diligence to come up with the mythical perfect product only to find that you are behind the 8th ball and a step away from bankruptcy since all those years of due diligence and R&D (= cash burn) has eroded your balance sheet. Key strategy is to get your product into the hands of the user once the fatal flaws are removed; follow through with a fixed-term maintenance contract, and solve the end-use problem that you developed the product for. In additiion to software, this philosophy is being adopted in commercializing solar-PV, fuel cells, flywheels, SMES (some day soon) and yes - batteries too!
This move by Bill Gates is a step in the right direction. It is good to see MIT's molten-salt large-scale energy storage technology being productized. With more renewable energy (RE) assets interconnecting to the grid, such a solution is a must from the standpoint of optimally harvesting the energy both during the generating phase as well as non-generating phase (no sunshine and/or wind). This also helps the utilities regulate the energy demand as well as fluctations of frequency and VARs which are direct results of RE integrated into the traditional power generation base. Some of the challenges for adoption of grid-tied energy storage are the cycle life, response (rate of charge and discharge), power/energy density, footprint and cost per kWh. Much akin to various kinds of power generating assets - both traditional and non-traditional, we can expect to see various kinds of energy storage technologies with different performance charactersitscs and ergo different problem solving capabilities. e.g. short-duration or long-duration storage, fast or slow charge and discharge - operate in harmony.
I've always thought that the flywheel concept for storage/capture of excess or intermitent energy is a solid one, though most of the discussion I've read here is focused on large scale (utility- based) application. Does anyone know of any attempts or assessments of small scale (individual) residential or commercial applications of flywheel storage?
It would seem to me that, particualrly for wind power capture, having a mechanical storage system could be that "bridge", absent the presence of the "smart grid" connection that would capture and utilize any excess power.
Finally, I think the entire issue of energy generation, storage and utilization has to be approached with the goal of establishing an integrated, multiple source system. Too, often I sense that the goal is to have these "renewable" sources be the replacement for fossil fuels and ultimately the sole source for power generation. I do not believe that is practical or doable in the near or even long-term, with current technologies. If in the evolution of technology we get to that milestone, so be it...
I had a physics professor tell me about a motor/generator with flywheel system he built at an observatory in Chile. It was large enough to maintain the radio telescope and observatory computers for many minutes, and needed since the local power was often intermittent,
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is | <urn:uuid:493eaee1-8c26-48de-8e0f-3190c5e63553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1395&doc_id=236610&image_number=1&piddl_msgorder=thrd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963273 | 6,753 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A meeting was held Sunday night Jan. 10 at National Theater to discuss what should be done about the unemployed men of Rochester. There isn’t any city agency at this time to help men find work. The only agency helping find employment is the YMCA. An employer said that it is a hard task to discharge a man who does good work because there isn’t enough work for him. Another speaker suggested that he would gladly double his own taxes to have men put to work cleaning and repairing the city streets.
On Jan 11th Patrolman George Alt received reprimand for being intoxicated and entering a saloon while on duty. It was also revealed that he had been borrowing money from saloon-keepers on his beat. He plead guilty of all charges and was moved to another precinct and put on night duty from 8PM to 4AM.
On Jan 11th McCurdy & Norwell Co. is advertising Ostrich Plumes from South Africa. An 11 inch plume sells for 98 cents; 18 inch for $4.98; up to a 27 inch plume for $14.98.
On Jan 15th a delegation from Buffalo, Tonawanda, North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls went to Washington and spoke with President Theodore Roosevelt about the pollution of the Great Lakes. Lake Erie was of great concern at the time.
An extra dividend on Kodak stock was voted by the Board of Directors. Two and a half percent on common stock will be paid on Feb. first. The regular annual dividend of 2.5% on common stock and 1.5% on preferred stock be paid on April first.
Edward Abeles will be at the Lyceum Theater Jan. 14-16 in the play “Brewster’s Millions.” It is about a person that will inherit many millions if they give away a large sum of money in a short period of time. Does that plot sound familiar? It should. Mr. Abeles made a movie of the same name in 1914. Another movie by the same name was made in 1921 starring Fatty Arbuckle. A female version (“Miss Brewster’s Millions”) was made in 1926. Then a British version was made in 1935. Another Hollywood version of ”Brewster’s Millions” was made in 1945 starring Dennis O’Keefe. The British made another version of the movie in 1961 but this time with the title, “Three on a Spree.” And then in 1985 Hollywood again made “Brewster’s Millions” starring Richard Pryor. | <urn:uuid:0afef63e-949d-45de-a174-b0a88ee95e8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rochistory.com/blog/?p=38 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966543 | 533 | 1.679688 | 2 |
PALMYRA TWP. (PIKE) - Myths have been enjoyed for a long time about a town submerged under Lake Wallenpaupack. Now, the truth is revealed which shows that evidence of a town, Wilsonville, can still be traced, as well as roads and even a few tree trunks still standing, 60 feet under the water.?Jon Tandy, president of the Tafton Fire Company, will be repeating his popular talk and slide show, at the Wallenpaupack Historical Society (WHS) monthly meeting, Wednesday, March 20 at 1 p.m. The meeting will be held at the PPL Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center, where the view of the lake in back of the meeting hall is where the village remnants still lie, essentially frozen in time.?Tandy will feature pictures he and others on the Tafton Dive Team gathered in 2012, in practice sessions with their sonar imaging equipment used for search and recovery missions.?Wednesday's presentation is in place of another originally scheduled, "The History of the Snowman."?Tandy is also set to give his presentation this summer, on Saturday night, July 13 at a special WHS program.?The PPL Wallenpaupack Environmental Learning Center is located off Route 6, between the PPL dam and the Wallenpauapack Area High School. The public welcome. Light refreshments follow the meeting. | <urn:uuid:4762f185-20c8-4be9-b358-99d3f89655cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.neagle.com/article/20130315/NEWS/130319843 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962678 | 292 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Since it is National Eating disorder week I thought it would be appropriate to rant on how people believe it is the medias fault for setting this ever changing silhouette. Fashion models, actresses, and recording artists have been known to create controversy when it comes to eating disorders. We see these people as omnipotent, so we try our very best to emulate there greatness in our own image. This is where it can get scary. Many teens fall victim to the size 0, six pack perfection inescapable image. Low self esteem is part to blame, teens feel that they have to build themselves up physically in order to be accepted by society. This is where you can find young girls purging there soul just for a chance to be a cheerleader or a young boy getting up everyday at 5am just to run off that monkey. It is not the medias fault it is our own, we need to reassure ourselves that we are created to be unique in every way and to change that would be a crime against nature.
Live To Love YOU,
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Would you agree that the diet industry is saturated with unhealthy weight loss misconceptions? This has helped lead to an explosion of irrational behaviors, which do little to encourage good health. I hate the fact that in our day and age for some people "health" equals "fad dieting!" Truth of the matter is that being healthy is an ongoing race those who remain dedicated win while others fail miserably. The moral of the story is if you want to change your life you must be dedicated. Without dedication everything will fail horribly.
We have found that the word "healthy" is now part of menu descriptions, over 86 percent of restaurants now use this term. "Dieting consumers don't always view restaurants as a safe place to eat, either because they don't recognize diet-compatible options, or are too tempted to indulge themselves when eating out," says Technomic Executive Vice President Darren Tristano, he continues on to say "However, the number of healthful dishes offered at restaurants continues to grow, and operators are increasingly interested in touting healthy benefits on their menus." I feel that this is an attempt to gain more business from those eager dieters.
Here’s a few of the top 2011 diets and here is a link for more healthy tips (http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/5-diet-resolutions-new-year ).
No. 1: Jenny Craig Diet
No. 2: Slim-Fast Plan Diet
No. 3: Weight Watchers Diet
No. 4: Zone Diet
No. 5: Ornish Diet
No. 6: Atkins Diet
No. 7: NutriSystem Diet
These diets have been house hold names for a while, they have even been endorsed by celebrities in order to gain popularity. But the key is that they charge people for these plans. You can't just start these diets without their set guide. How does this help our obese nation?
Best wishes ,
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Some people believe we all eat for the same reason. This idea is extremely blind to reality. Most people have very specific diet guideline's that they follow; while others live carelessly filling themselves with just anything. But what about eating because your depressed? This very common habit is generally when eating becomes the only or main strategy a person uses to manage emotions. "If you eat when you are not hungry, chances are your body does not need the calories," says Jakubczak. "If this happens too often, the extra calories get stored as fat, and too much fat storage can cause one to be overweight, which may present some health risks." Over 75% of eating comes from emotion, so being in touch with yourself allows you to keep track of your eating patterns. This can be a useful technique if you find yourself binge eating. Jakubczak went on to say, "Keeping a food record and ranking your hunger from 1-10 each time you put something in your mouth will bring to light 'if' and 'when' you are eating for reasons other than hunger." The main idea is noticing that your eating habits are out of emotion or hunger. If your eating out if depression try eating other comfort foods that aren't unhealthy. For example instead of eating a bag of Cheetos , try substituting them for fresh carrots.
Live longer, Be healthy
Friday, February 3, 2012
Have you ever been emotionally attached to food? Or happen to have a memory about food that makes you emotional? I know I have. I have one word: tacos. Tacos and I have a thing for each other. You see, when I was just a young child, my granddad would make tacos every time my mama and I would come visit. Now these tacos weren't just regular tacos. These were super tacos. These tacos were jammed packed with meat, cheese, green onions, lettuce, black olives, tomatoes, sour cream and love. I had never eaten a taco so scrumptious. Taco eating at 2912 Seminary was always an out of body experience. Once everyone had their tacos and was seated, there was complete silence. And after all plates were cleared, we would sit back, watch a movie and eat butter scotch candies. Moments like those made a small but big impact on my life. Family time as a child.
After a few years of visiting, then leaving craving them, I realized that time was overdue for me to learn his secret. One day after grocery shopping I noticed that my mama bought items for tacos, so I jumped on the opportunity for her to teach me how to make them. Once I made that first taco.. And bit into that first taco.. It was on! Since then, I have made thousands of tacos. My granddad died in 2002, so every time I eat or make tacos, I make them with my granddad in my spirit. When people eat my tacos they taste more than just flavor, they taste the love. And that’s the emotion that I want people to feel. Love conquers all, and food is always the way to someone’s heart. When people are full and sleepy, even if they don’t like you, in that moment, they will love you.
So, my question to you is: Do you have a favorite food memory? How about you leave us a comment telling us what your best food memory is. It can be a happy memory or an angry memory. Just leave one that automatically came to mind when you first read this blog..
And I know you want to taste my tacos. So I will leave the top secret recipe for you execute. Do so at your own risk.
1 pound of ground beef
½ diced white onion
1 head of lettuce
½ pound cheddar cheese
1 pack of corn tortillas
1 can of black olive-drained
Taco seasoning pack
1 tablespoon cumin
hot sauce to taste
Cook 1 pound of ground beef in large sauce pan with ½ diced white onion. Once fully browned, drain grease from meat and place back on top of the stove. Add the Del Monte’ taco seasoning packet, stir and repeat with the table spoon of cumin. Add water and let evaporate. Stir occasionally. In a non stick sauce pan (medium or large) place a cap full of oil into the skillet and allow it to get hot. Then, you want to place a corn tortilla in the center of skillet for 30 seconds and flip it. Once flipped you must place a scoop of meat on the center of the tortilla and fold it over immediately, let stand for another 30 seconds and repeat on the other side. Once the tortilla shell is complete, you remove the taco from the skillet and place it on a plate with napkins so the remaining grease can drain out.
Then you repeat the taco making process until you have the desired amount. After all of the tacos are cooked, you (or the people eating them) will place desired condiments’, (always put the cheese directly on the meat when it’s hot so it can melt) and chow down!!
NOTE: These tacos will not taste like mine, unless, you are cooking it with love. All the way from the time you buy the ingredients, until the time you are setting plates and giving out the tacos. Love is the number one ingredient. (To anything) ;-)
C'est la vie.. (SAY LA VEE)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
After completing the 7x7 work, we realized there was still more work to be done. Our mission, which we have accepted, is to keep searching for how to bring healthy eating active living information to youth. We are now P.H.A.T. Detectives… who, is a P.H.A.T. Detective you might ask:
We are Powerful. We are Healthy. We are Active. We are Teens. We are the Youth Radio Eats crew, on a mission that cannot be deterred. We will be watching, observing, discovering, and detecting everything YOU need to know about living a healthy life, in mind, body, and health. On our mission of utmost importance, we strive to share with you the truth about food, and everything associated with food, including our habits, our relationships, our lives! Myths and misinformation cloud our airwaves, our television shows, our neighborhoods, even our schools about what we are SUPPOSED to eat. The P.H.A.T. Detectives are here to show you the real deal, and squash those lies that contribute to our wellbeing. Are you interested in living healthier? Are you interested in being confident in your eating habits and what you put in your body? All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open. Here at Youth Radio, our P.H.A.T. Detective team will be writing blogs, texting, investigating, creating media content, and sharing all that with you! When is this happening, you ask? Whenever you need us……..see you soon! | <urn:uuid:93942600-914f-4bc7-bf96-3017cb2fb851> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://youthradioeats.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960931 | 2,094 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Film review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
posted at 11:01 am on February 3, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
Every week I plan to see a new movie and write a review, but some weeks — especially in January and February — it gets difficult to pick a film. This week, I asked readers to choose between four films, and they chose the one that had actually been in release for a while. The Hobbit opened nearly two months ago, but it’s still in theaters, and it’s easy to understand why.
It won’t be necessary to explain the plot of the film, as I normally do. For decades, The Hobbit has been a nearly indispensable piece of literature for younger readers and adults alike, a rich tapestry of fantasy, morality, virtue and failings. Readers familiar with the book need no explanation, and those unfamiliar will likely not be too interested in the film, or in the differences between the film and its source material.
As Jazz noted a few weeks ago, the film does depart in some ways from the novel. Perhaps the few years that have passed since I last read it have taken a sharp edge off of those memories, but I didn’t feel the differences as sharply as Jazz did. With that said, Jazz is correct in noting that the deviations do seem to have a purpose in allowing a much longer story to be told, which would be necessary if making The Hobbit into three movies, rather than one or two.
There is a difference in tone; the novel has a playful, joyful style suitable to young readers even when the material turns dark. The film instead adopts the general tone that Peter Jackson used in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and for good reason in terms of cinematic consistency. Jackson wants the series to stand as a six-volume epic, while J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit to stand alone, and then wrote his LotR series with a different purpose in mind.
With that said, the film stands on its own very well. The pace mixes well between action sequences and more thoughtful interludes, not unlike the literature itself. Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth is as breathtaking as ever, and the returning cast bolsters the continuity Jackson obviously values. While the film runs 169 minutes — relatively brief for a Jackson film — it doesn’t feel at all too long. Even the additional or extended parts of the movie are gripping.
Some of the cast are returning from the LotR trilogy — especially Ian McKellen as Gandalf, who gets plenty of screen time. Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), and Christopher Lee (Saruman) return for a key sequence in Rivendell, while Ian Holm (older Bilbo) and Elijah Wood (Frodo) make cameo appearances for a framing sequence that accounts for the LotR trilogy to have already been made. Andy Serkis returns as Gollum, too, in a shorter representation of the key riddle game that will turn out to be the crux of the whole series.
The new members of the cast bring their own qualities to the epic. Martin Freeman (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) reminds us that the original novel was in part a treatise on the manners and etiquette of English country gentlemen as well as a story about dwarves, Hobbits, and a dragon. Freeman’s Bilbo starts off wanting nothing to do with adventure and ends up becoming a reluctant hero. Richard Armitage starts off heroically and becomes somewhat more menacing as Thorin. Ken Stott’s Balin has the most to do of the other dwarves, the rest of whom tend to run together as a group rather than stand out as individual characters (a failing that, as I recall, the novel had as well). Sylvester McCoy’s Radagast gets more attention in this movie than in the novel, but I’m not sure that was necessarily a good thing. Barry Humphries, on the other hand, is terrific as the voice of the Great Goblin, a creature that provides a couple of moments of fun in an action sequence that gets a little out of hand toward the end.
Although I loved the original trilogy and knew that Jackson’s technical brilliance would make The Hobbit watchable and entertaining, I still felt some trepidation over his tendency to play with the characters and plot, and worried that he would make a hash out of the story. Instead, he has successfully integrated The Hobbit more tightly into the narrative of The Lord of the Rings, and made the first installment into a wonderfully entertaining opening act. I can’t wait to see the next installment.
The Hobbit is rated PG-13 for violence and intense situations. While the book is accessible for younger readers, there is a big difference between reading about battles on the page and seeing them re-enacted on the screen. The audience at my theater included a few younger viewers and they seemed to handle it well enough, but I’d be careful about having kids younger than ten or eleven years of age watch the film. My granddaughter is 10, and I’m not sure she’d be up for it — or for the length, either.
Addendum: Jazz was right about the Bunny Sled of Doom, though.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:6ec03b66-41b7-4888-9431-08594015d47b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2013/02/03/film-review-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960787 | 1,107 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Letters to the editor - Thursday (9-6-2012)
Democrats, Republicans have differing views on wealth
Perhaps, the basic difference between Democrats and Republicans is their respective views on the distribution of the wealth of our society. Neither party takes the most extreme position. It’s more a matter of emphasis but this emphasis matters greatly, as can be seen in the very different positions of President Obama and Mitt Romney.
Republicans tend to favor the view that those who have been highly successful in accumulating wealth should be allowed to keep the bulk of it. Hence they want government policies such as lower taxes and fewer regulations on companies.
Democrats tend toward the view that there are extenuating circumstances, such as individual differences in native ability, luck and parental background, which cause differences in accumulations of wealth, and therefore, the more fortunate have an obligation to help the less fortunate. This view rests on the assumption that society is not a mere collection of individuals, as Republicans would have us believe, but a group of interdependent persons.
Accordingly, Democrats favor programs that increase opportunities and require the more fortunate to contribute more of their wealth than Republicans and their financial backers want.
The most powerful argument in support of the Democratic position is that consumer spending constitutes 70 percent of the economy. The top 2 percent cannot make the economy work by themselves. The 98 percent must have the wherewithal to purchase goods and services. When they are able to do that, companies profit and the whole society benefits. So, if you are among the 98 percent, it would seem to be in your self interest to vote for President Obama and every other Democrat on the ballot.
— Stephanie Derr
When faith, politics collide
I am neither a Mormon nor a Catholic. But there are many Mormons in my extended family. Some of them are really upset with Romney. See http://mormonsforobama.org/ for details. The early entries get very specific in the ways Romney breaks faith with the Book of Mormon.
Maybe Ryan is the perfect veep for Romney after all. “It’s the height of hypocrisy for Rep. Ryan to claim that his approach to the budget is shaped by Catholic teaching and values,” said Fr. John Baumann, S.J., founder of PICO National Network (People Improving Communities through Organizing).
Another writer, Amy Sullivan, says that “...when Paul Ryan first decided to publicly share his admiration of Ayn Rand, he could not have imagined it would lead to him speed-walking to his SUV to avoid a young Catholic trying to give him a Bible and telling him to pay more attention to the Gospel of Luke.” (http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/03/paul-ryans-ayn-rand-problem/)
A faithless Catholic paired with a faithless Mormon?
The world has changed, and the Right is terrified of this election. They scream, spending $100s of millions because they know that they do not speak for the majority of Americans. They do not speak for women, “minorities,” the daily-increasing poor, the out-of-work or those who cannot access medical care.
They rely on us forgetting their publicly stated top priority when Obama won: make him a one-term president. Since the last election, they’ve prevented anything from getting done, punishing America for its choice, keeping America suffering until they get back the power. Don’t remember? It was in all the papers. They were quite clear about it, knowing that many would ignore/forget. The leaders have to keep you from looking at who they really are, what they stand for.
If they spoke for “all of us,” they wouldn’t need to scream so loud.
— Herbert Maier
Take a stand, seek the truth
Last week, Dee Dee Wright accused the Rowan-Salisbury School System, the administration and Board of Education of a denial of due process. In rendering her accusation, she stated she had a collection of documents proving the county educational establishment denied due process to an employee.
Unfortunately, other employees have made the same assertion. Few, however, have chosen to proceed.
Unsubstantiated allegations against both the superintendent and her assistant may injure one professionally. Ms. Wright should, and must, provide the documentation necessary to support her accusation. Particularly of concern is “certain members of the administration are operating above the law.” Her assertion “a packet of information was mailed to me concerning unfairness within the school system” is a powerful declaration that should not be ignored. For our community’s benefit: investigate.
If your documentation supports and proves your allegations, your defense is the truth. The law allows one protection against defamation and slander; consult an attorney for specifics. The same defense may exist if you present the newspapers with evidence. If you have the evidence and don’t pursue this matter, assuming the truth of your assertions, you will provide license for the continuation of the legal violations that cause you concern.
A refusal to take a stand and support your beliefs and convictions would be similar to the general population’s lack of concern and willingness to act in a moment of crisis. Supporting your cause and beliefs represents the attitude necessary for citizens wanting to maintain a democratic society. Should you not take a stand, you will be one of the millions of Americans who will complain without the right to criticize. As Americans we must recognize that we all must be involved in seeking the truth.
— Arthur Steinberg | <urn:uuid:585ceda8-1cc9-442b-9310-a6f29ea966d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20120910/SP0502/309109986/1075/SP0502/letters-to-the-editor-thursday-9-6-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958625 | 1,154 | 1.828125 | 2 |
History in the Mail
Keeping a family history always seemed like an overwhelming chore to me. With limited time and funds, I wondered how to gather information from relatives across the country. The more I thought about what I should be doing, the more discouraged I became.
Then one day after I had finished reading a letter from my sister in Massachusetts, I went to file it in my letter box. As I did so I realized that I had a wealth of family history collected in that box. And better yet, each letter was a firsthand account! Many of the family’s big events were recorded in those letters—the birth of my cousin’s baby girl, my dad’s call to the bishopric, plans for my wedding, and more.
The letters obviously don’t make a complete family history, but they are a good starting point. The best thing about them is that they’re full of life. They show personality and emotions that may not be obvious in traditional family histories. Better than recording that my parents love the outdoors is the letter they sent written on tree bark they found during a hike. Better than my writing that the family missed me when I left for college are letters and greeting cards in which they say it.
In order to make the letters more accessible to future generations, I slipped each unfolded letter into a clear plastic page and then into a binder. I also wrote the full name of and my relationship to the writer at the top of every letter. I have also learned to keep copies of letters I write. Many times these accounts are more lively than the personal history I keep in my journal because I’ve tried to make them exciting for the reader.
Now when I write or receive a letter I add it to my binder hoping that someday my great-great-grandchildren will read this collection with curiosity and delight.—, Redding, California
The JST at My Fingertips
When the LDS Edition of the King James Version of the Bible was published in 1979, I was fascinated to find the bottom of each page of scripture filled with footnotes. Especially exciting to me were the footnote entries of the Joseph Smith Translation (JST).
Then came the day when a teacher mentioned a JST footnote on a scripture we were discussing. I hadn’t noticed it. How many others had I missed? I looked back over our reading assignments and realized there were dozens of JST passages I had overlooked. Not wanting to miss any more, I decided on a method to alert myself to JST textual additions.
Using a colored pencil, I thumbed through each page and marked every JST footnote and corresponding verses throughout the New Testament. It took a bit of time, but soon my New Testament was sprinkled with unmistakable reminders not to overlook the Prophet’s translation at the bottom of the page.
JST entries too lengthy to be included in the footnotes are located in the appendix between the Bible Dictionary and the Gazetteer. Going through the New Testament another time, I found the references to these longer passages and indicated the page in the appendix where they are found.
An Evening with the Grandchildren
One hot summer evening my husband and I were relaxing after a family barbecue. As we talked about the wonderful afternoon we had spent with our children and grandchildren, we realized we both had a deep desire to get to know our grandchildren better. We wanted them to enrich our lives—and we wanted to be a good influence in theirs. We talked with our children, and together we came up with a plan. One night each month we would have all the grandchildren come to our house while their parents went out on a date by themselves. Our children were pleased because the arrangement gave them time to be alone together without their having to hire a baby-sitter. And we were glad to spend the evening with our grandchildren.
At first we wondered how we would keep the grandchildren involved and happy for a whole evening, but over time our evenings evolved into a flexible routine. After opening with prayer, we would have story time. We have found great joy in occasionally helping teach our grandchildren about faith and spirituality using stories from the Book of Mormon and lessons from the family home evening resource book. This reinforces, but does not replace, the gospel instruction that the grandchildren receive from their parents.
Initially, we told the stories, complete with visual aids, but soon we decided everyone needed a turn in the spotlight. Every month we assigned different grandchildren to share stories for the next month’s activity. Sometimes they would illustrate a story and tell it in their own words; other times they would paste summaries on the back of artwork and read as they showed the pictures. And sometimes the children would come prepared with their own original stories to tell.
After story time we have an activity. Over the years, these varied activities have included these family favorites:
Game nights in which everyone gets involved in playing board games or putting together puzzles.
Service projects such as making greeting cards for the grandchildren’s great-grandmother who lives in a nursing home.
Holiday crafts. Our children’s Christmas trees are decorated with several ornaments made during an evening’s activity.
Family newspaper projects in which each grandchild writes a poem, draws a picture, or contributes in some other way for each edition. Every child gets a copy of the finished product, and we mail other copies to relatives.
Honor night. One year we decided to honor each of the grandchildren with a trophy. On each trophy, a grandchild’s name was engraved along with one good quality he or she had developed. The trophies honored such qualities as “Happy,” “Helpful,” or “Good Reader.”
There seems to be a season for everything, and for us this is the season to enjoy our grandchildren. The greatest benefit of making these special and priceless memories with our grandchildren is the closeness we all feel as a family as we have drawn together and become a bigger part of each other’s lives.—, Pleasanton, California
The Ancestor Game
Several years ago I wanted to plan an activity focusing on family history for our family home evening on Memorial Day. Our children, then ages nine through thirteen, were only vaguely aware of who some of their ancestors were, so I came up with a game that would help us all learn about our ancestors.
I prepared a six-generation pedigree chart on a large piece of butcher paper, filling in only the children’s names and leaving the other spaces blank. Then I made a key to the whole chart so I would know how the completed poster should look.
For each blank space on the chart, I made a separate card listing the ancestor’s full name and information about that person. For example, one card read “Ira Walter Gardner—I was born in 1849 in Sweetwater, Wyoming, while my parents were crossing the Plains.”
As I passed the cards out to the family, I explained the rules: Using the information on the card, each person would deduce where on the chart their cards would go. At each turn they could ask me yes or no questions about their ancestor. As long as they got yes answers, they could continue to ask. If they put their card in the wrong space, or if they got a no answer, their turn was over. The children caught on quickly and soon the chart was complete.
We had a good time with the game, but more important, the children began to see how their ancestry fit together and to develop an appreciation for their forebears.—, Pacific, Washington | <urn:uuid:245bee4c-43f0-468e-aea5-111f3bcb33ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/ensign/1995/09/random-sampler?lang=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975779 | 1,573 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Stay alert: Steer clear of deer during rutting season
Diane Schmidt of Cary was westbound on Three Oaks Road near Cary-Grove High School when a doe jumped in front of her car.
“I slowed down,” she said. “But I hit the baby.”
The fawn collided with the bumper of her car, went toward the windshield and rolled off to the side, Schmidt said. Its legs were broken, and a police officer killed it.
Schmidt’s 2002 Volvo sustained about $1,200 in damage. She wasn’t hurt, but since the accident on Oct. 12, she’s been warning people to be especially vigilant when it comes to deer.
“It happened less than a mile from my house,” Schmidt said. “They seem to be quite active right now.”
It’s true that the activity level of deer is rising this time of year as rutting, or breeding, season peaks in November, said Tom Micetich, deer project manager with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
“They’re pretty much active the whole month of November,” Micetich said. “There’s a peak somewhere toward the middle of November, falling off into early December.”
The deer population in McHenry County is on the decline, Micetich said, and that’s by design.
“Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered in McHenry County eight or so years ago and since we’ve been issuing more [hunting] permits trying to reduce the deer density,” he said.
But deer never have been very good at looking both ways before they cross the street, Micetich said.
From 2007 to 2010, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office had an average of about 235 accidents per year that involved hitting or avoiding deer. In 2011, the office has reported only 85 – but the peak season hasn’t happened yet.
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, 17,132 crashes occurred statewide involving deer in 2010, accounting for 5.9 percent of total crashes. Ten people died in deer-related crashes and 634 were injured.
The majority – 77.2 percent – were on rural roadways and 67 percent occurred when it was dark. Schmidt’s crash happened about 6:45 p.m.
“Slow down a bit, especially at dawn and dusk where you have woodlands or streams intersecting with the roadway,” Micetich said.
Try to stop, but don’t swerve at risk of heading into oncoming traffic or hitting a stationary object.
“Chances are you’ll hurt yourself more than hitting the deer would have caused,” Micetich said.
Research on deer whistles, which are mounted on cars to help prevent crashes with deer, has shown that they don’t work, he said.
“The research that was done on several varieties has shown that deer paid little or no attention to them,” Micetich said. “In many cases, the sound emitted was out of their normal hearing range.”
“If you read the fine print on most deer whistles, they say the warranty of effectiveness is null and void if they’re dirty,” Micetich said.
Drivers can’t get far, especially on rural roads, without collecting some bugs, he said.
The best way to avoid a collision with a deer is to be alert and cautious, and where there’s one – like in Schmidt’s case – there’s likely another.
“Many people are like, ‘Oh, look at the deer,’ to the left and they hit the one coming from the right,” Micetich said. “Chances are there’s another one somewhere close by, especially in the doe-fawn groups.” | <urn:uuid:51c0fdf7-b1f9-4c85-85ad-37bf54ec7678> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwherald.com/2011/10/18/stay-alert-steer-clear-of-deer-during-rutting-season/ai9jpwf/?__xsl=/print.xsl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965979 | 843 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Uncomfortable question of Anti-Semitism
By Jonathan Rosen
Published: November 4, 2001
When I was growing up, my father would go to bed with a transistor radio set to an all-news station. Even without a radio, my father was attuned to the menace of history. A Jew born in Vienna in 1924, he fled his homeland in 1938; his parents were killed in the Holocaust. I sometimes imagined my father was listening for some repetition of past evils so that he could rectify old responses, but he may just have been expecting more bad news. In any event, the grumbling static from the bedroom depressed me, and I vowed to replace it with music more cheerfully in tune with America. These days, however, I find myself on my father's frequency. I have awakened to anti-Semitism.
I am not being chased down alleyways and called a Christ killer, I do not feel that prejudicial hiring practices will keep me out of a job and I am not afraid that the police will come and take away my family. I am, in fact, more grateful than ever that my father found refuge in this country. But in recent weeks I have been reminded, in ways too plentiful to ignore, about the role Jews play in the fantasy life of the world. Jews were not the cause of World War II, but they were at the metaphysical center of that conflict nonetheless, since the Holocaust was part of Hitler's agenda and a key motivation of his campaign. Jews are not the cause of World War III, if that's what we are facing, but they have been placed at the center of it in mysterious and disturbing ways.
I was born in 1963, a generation removed and an ocean away from the destruction of European Jewry. My mother was born here, so there was always half the family that breathed in the easy air of postwar America. You don't have to read a lot of Freud to discover that the key to healthy life is the ability to fend off reality to a certain extent. Deny reality too much, of course, and you're crazy; too little and you're merely miserable. My own private balancing act has involved acknowledging the fate of my murdered grandparents and trying to live a modern American life. I studied English literature in college and in graduate school, where I toyed with a dissertation on Milton, a Christian concerned with justifying the ways of God to man. I dropped out of graduate school to become a writer, but I always felt about my life in America what Milton says of Adam and Eve entering exile -- the world was all before me.
Living in New York, pursuing my writing life, I had the world forever all before me. I chose within it -- I married and had a child. For 10 years I worked at a Jewish newspaper. But my sense of endless American possibility never left me -- even working at a Jewish newspaper seemed a paradoxical assertion of American comfort. My father's refugee sense of the world was something that both informed me and that I worked to define myself against. I felt it was an act of mental health to recognize that his world was not my world and that his fears were the product of an experience alien to me. I was critical of the Holocaust Museum in Washington. I didn't want ancient European anti-Semitism enshrined on federal land. But now everything has come to American soil.
Recently, I read an interview with Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha -- who was not only the representative in the United States of the prominent Cairo center of Islamic learning, al-Azhar University, but also imam of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York City. The sheik, who until recently lived in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, explained that ''only the Jews'' were capable of destroying the World Trade Center and added that ''if it became known to the American people, they would have done to Jews what Hitler did.'' This sentiment will be familiar to anyone who has been watching the news or reading the papers. In Kuwait, there were reports that New York rabbis told their followers to take their money out of the stock market before Sept. 11; in Egypt, the Mossad was blamed for the attack. It is easy talk to dismiss as madness, I suppose, but because so many millions of Muslims seem to believe it, and because airplanes actually did crash into the World Trade Center, words have a different weight and menace than they had before.
So does history, or rather the forces that shape history -- particularly the history of the Jews. It would be wrong to say that everything changed on the 11th of September for me. Like the man in the Hemingway novel who went bankrupt two ways -- gradually and then suddenly -- my awareness of things had also been growing slowly. My father's sister escaped in the 1930's from Vienna to Palestine -- now, of course, called Israel -- and I have a lot of family there. I grew up knowing that Israel, for all its vitality, was ringed with enemies; I knew how perilous and bleak life had become after the collapse of the Oslo peace process a year ago and how perilous and bleak it could be before that.
I knew, too, that works like the ''Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'' the Russian forgery about demonic Jewish power, have been imported into Arab society, like obsolete but deadly Soviet weapons. By grafting ancient Christian calumnies onto modern political grievances, Arab governments have transformed Israel into an outpost of malevolent world Jewry, viewing Israelis and Jews as interchangeable emblems of cosmic evil. So when the Syrian defense minister recently told a delegation from the British Royal College of Defense Studies that the destruction of the World Trade Center was part of a Jewish conspiracy, I wasn't really surprised. | <urn:uuid:e45f15eb-c395-46eb-ae9d-cded1c260558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/04/magazine/the-uncomfortable-question-of-anti-semitism.html | 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 | 0.982887 | 1,169 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Someone who has been harmed, injured or killed as the result of a crime.
An illegal activity or action.
A Georgia state lawmaker with a history of operating on the political fringe has filed a bill stripping the term “victim” from rape, stalking and domestic violence cases.
Franklin’s bill would eliminate the word “victim” from statutes dealing with stalking, rape, obscene telephone contact with a child and family violence and replace it with “accuser.”
It also strikes the word “victim” from statutes dealing with electronic pretrial monitoring, HIV testing of criminal defendants and pretrial discovery, the exchange of crucial information between attorneys prior to the start of a criminal trial.
It wasn’t clear why Franklin’s legislation includes only those specific laws, or whether it would affect how people who file complaints about other crimes, such as child molestation, assault or theft might be described.
Franklin did not return a telephone message or e-mail to his office on Monday.
The proposed change angered some who felt that Franklin meant the legislation as an attack on rape victims and on women, who comprise the overwhelming majority of victims of sexual assault.
“I am dismayed … angry … and shocked by your wacked out ideologies concerning VICTIMS of rape,” one commenter wrote on Franklin’s Facebook page.
Carolyn Fiddler, the communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, wrote on the organization’s website that the legislation diminishes rape victims by questioning whether what happened to them is even a crime.
“Burglary victims are still victims. Assault victims are still victims. Fraud victims are still victims,” she wrote. “But if you have the misfortune to suffer a rape, or if you are beaten by a domestic partner, or if you are stalked, Rep. Franklin doesn’t think you have been victimized.”
In an interview with CNN Monday, Fiddler said she would like to think that Franklin didn’t mean to diminish rape victims with the legislation. But she said the language displayed a “lack of empathy and awareness.”
There is some merit in the idea of neutralizing legal and courtroom language to help focus potential jurors on the facts of a case, instead of the emotions raised by issues of rape and similar offenses, said Russell Gabriel, director of the University of Georgia School of Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic.
Respectfully submitted via the CNN Wire Staff | <urn:uuid:da69553a-163d-483b-b72a-8254362c2c54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annyjacoby.com/tag/rep-bobby-franklin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943322 | 525 | 1.757813 | 2 |
- Last Updated: 10:54 AM, August 12, 2010
- Posted: 10:50 AM, August 12, 2010
A panic button application on Facebook in the U.K. has led to a surge in the number of abuse reports on the website, Sky News reported Thursday.
More than 200 users have clicked on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) link to report suspicious behavior since it was introduced in the U.K. on July 12, figures show.
The ClickCeop button appears on a user's homepage after they install the application, which has been downloaded 55,000 times.
In the month before its launch, only 28 people reported abuse through the social networking site.
Facebook bowed to intense pressure to install the application after the death of teenager Ashleigh Hall in October 2009.
Her killer, Peter Chapman, posed as a teenager on the site and later kidnapped, raped and murdered her.
The website -- which recently passed the 500 million users mark worldwide -- initially said there was no need for an online abuse reporting system.
But CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble said the response to the button proved it was worthwhile.
"The sheer number of people who have engaged with the app -- including the volume of positive comments received via the wall -- has shown that this move has been extremely well received by parents and young people alike," he said.
Joanna Shields, Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the application was not a catch-all solution, but agreed it has been a step in the right direction.
"There is no single answer to making the internet safer but CEOP have taken a great step forward by setting up their ClickCeop page," she said.
"It now means that they can have an ongoing dialogue with thousands of Facebook users, educating them about how to stay safe online in a place and language they are familiar with." | <urn:uuid:73f415be-4da9-4339-ad61-cb6e8df791db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/facebook_panic_button_leads_abuse_2xCKW0JVkXaHx08hWauAhP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974328 | 395 | 1.671875 | 2 |
As a newly diagnosed patient, you are entering what can seem like a very scary time in your life. People can be overwhelmed after hearing the doctor say cancer. To help you answer common questions about cancer and feel more in control of your health, refer to the list to the left for more information and resources to help guide you during the beginning of your cancer journey.
Educating yourself will help relieve stress and calm fears. It can help you learn more about your diagnosis, find medical care and support, and get organized. | <urn:uuid:4a9a96cc-21cd-49f8-8e0e-d004d77699b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.johnstoddardcancer.org/cancer-education.aspx?menuid=35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963701 | 105 | 1.648438 | 2 |
This week’s Regional Italian recipe takes us to Veneto in North-Eastern Italy. Veneto is among the wealthiest, most developed and industrialised regions of Italy and it is also one of the most visited by tourists, its capital being Venice. It is also the region of other famous places like the beautiful Alpine town of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites, Romeo and Juliet’s Verona and Palladio’s Vicenza. Today’s dish comes from Vicenza and it is famous all over Italy. It is called Baccalà alla Vicentina (stockfish Vicenza style) and even though the word baccalà in Italy means salted cod, the original recipe calls for stockfish. They are the same fish (cod), but while salted cod is kept under salt, stockfish is dried. I have made this recipe with stockfish and baccalà and either way is fine. The only difference is that salted cod has to be soaked in water for 24 hours, while stockfish requires 2 to 3 days of soaking prior to being cooked. Stockfish was introduced in the city back in 1432 when a ship from Venice wrecked in the Norwegian Lofoten islands, where stockfish was very common and the crew brought some of this dried fish back to Vicenza. This dish is traditionally served with soft polenta. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out all my other posts on Regional Italian recipes!
Ingredients (for 6 people):
500 gms – 1 lb. stockfish or salted cod (baccalà)
150 gms – 5 oz. onion, diced
180 ml – 6 oz. extra virgin olive oil
1 or 2 anchovies
250 ml – 1 cup milk
Flour to coat
30 gms – 2 tbsp Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano finely grated
1 tbsp parsley, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
NOTE: the original recipe calls for more extra virgin olive oil (250 ml – 1 cup), but in my opinion 180 ml – 6 oz. is enough.
If you are using stockfish, you will need to soak it in water for 2 to 3 days prior to cooking it. Remember to change the water frequently. If you are using salted cod (like I did), you need to soak it for 24 hours (always changing the water frequently to get rid of the salt).
Clean the fish by removing the skin and bones (when present) and cut it in similar sized pieces.
Dice the onion and put it in a pan with 2 tbsp of the extra virgin olive oil. Sauté them until translucent. Add the anchovies and mix well to melt them. Put the fire off and add the parsley. Mix well and keep aside.
Coat the pieces of fish with a little flour.
Put half of the onion mixture at the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot (better if you have a terracotta pot) and put the floured pieces of fish on the top in a single layer (1). Pour the other half of the onion mixture on the top of the fish (2). Add the milk (3), the grated cheese, salt and pepper (4) and all the remaining extra virgin olive oil, making sure the fish is completely covered in liquid (5). Cook on a very low flame without mixing for up to 4 hours or until the fish is very soft (6).
Serve warm with soft polenta.
My parents will arrive tomorrow and will be staying here for about a month! I will still blog normally, but I am asking all my fellow bloggers to bear with me if I slow down a bit on the blog hopping. I will try and keep up, but this is the only time of the year that I get to see my parents (and I am an only child! ), so I really want to make the best of it! I know you’ll forgive me!!! THANKS!!! <3Pin It | <urn:uuid:330fb539-0c61-46e2-b313-fadef6c13643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manusmenu.com/baccala-alla-vicentina | 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 | 0.944279 | 833 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Written by PETA
Earlier this year, we shared a selection of the bad behavior that seems to crop up frequently at McDonald's restaurants, prompted by the story of a woman who went berserk at the drive-through window when she was denied McNuggets. But her nugget-driven nastiness was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Consider the following incidents, just from the past few months:
What could be causing this epidemic of violence? Are these folks just that addicted to the taste of cruelty—or is it some kind of karmic payback for McDonald's callous refusal to require its U.S. and Canadian suppliers to adopt a less cruel method of chicken slaughter?
We're sure that none of you eat at McDonald's, but be sure to tell everyone you care about to stay away from those golden arches for their own safety—and for animals' sake!
Written by Jeff Mackey
This isn't Karma.. this is life. Was it Karma when a PETA protester got pied in the face?
There are a lot of crimes happening at other franchises but PETA only looks at the ones happening at animal abusers apparently.
This does not surprise me at all. I do not eat the crap, haven't in years. It is full of chemicals and who knows what else; I'm the sure the erratic behavior can be associated with that. I just can't believe that in this day and age, when people have so much info regarding health and nutrition, that they still continue to abuse their bodies by eating such crap.
you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to
an animal, please click
here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the
animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local
police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA
immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
Follow PETA on Twitter!
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:9337fc95-bdaf-4209-bcca-957f33531c1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2010/09/27/mayhem-ii-revenge-of-the-nuggets.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973041 | 487 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Posts Tagged ‘Bonus Depreciation’
Jim Wagoner, CPA | Partner, Director of Tax Services Group
Although bonus first-year depreciation and more-generous Code Sec. 179 expensing limits have been extended before, another lease on life for these tax breaks is far from certain this time around. Unless Congress acts, additional ‘bonus’ depreciation deductions equal to 50% of the adjusted basis of qualified property won’t be available after this year. Also, the Code Sec. 179 expensing limit is set to plummet to $25,000 for property placed in service next year. Thus, businesses planning to purchase machinery and equipment during the remainder of this year or early the next should try to accelerate their buying plans, if doing so makes sound business sense.
Buy Depreciable Property and Place It in Service This Year to Lock in 50% Bonus First-Year Depreciation
Under current law, a 50% bonus first-year depreciation allowance applies to qualified property acquired and placed in service after Dec. 31, 2011 and before Jan. 1, 2013.
The adjusted basis of qualified property is reduced by the additional 50% depreciation deduction before computing the amount otherwise allowable as a depreciation deduction for the tax year and any later tax year.
Many tax breaks currently available to businesses will become unavailable after December 31, 2011. With other political policies taking higher priority, the extension of these tax provisions may not occur. The following article provides detail on tax deductions that are scheduled to expire after 2011.
by Marie Jett, CPA | Manager, Tax Services Group
On September 16 the Senate passed its version of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. As of September 21, the House has yet to pass the bill, but the House is expected to pass the bill later this week without modifications, then it heads to the President for signature. We’ll keep you updated on any changes. The following describes a few key features that are in the Senate passed bill. This bill may be called the Small Business Jobs Act, but it affects both large and small businesses, as well as individuals. First, a number of tax law changes in this bill affect depreciable property. | <urn:uuid:744c732a-e704-4bff-9944-00a2450953f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenwaltcpas.com/tag/bonus-depreciation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948323 | 448 | 1.648438 | 2 |
I love the future. I love dreaming about the future, and wondering how technology, culture and political landscapes will change over the generations. I am fascinated and inspired by how some people through history have made an impact on this world that lasts beyond their lifetime.
I want to be someone who leaves a mark on this world, and I figure that the easiest way to do so is to bury stuff. I decided that to mark the birth of Cohen I would create a time capsule containing a few bits and pieces from my life to date and a bit of inspiration for ‘future Cohen.’ At the very least, it will be a fun thing to track down when Cohen is in his twenties.
To pull something like this off you need three things:
1. Something worth finding
2. Somewhere safe to bury it
3. Some way to remember it
Something Worth Finding
There are two components to this. Obviously the contents of the time capsule should be cool and significant, but the other important consideration is having a container that will preserve them for a few decades under the ground.
The trick with deciding what to put in it is to have items that hold a decent amount of significance but are not that valuable in themselves, just in case you can’t find it again (for example, I wouldn’t recommend burying your wife’s engagement ring!). Ideal items are little objects that have a bit of a story behind them. In Cohen’s time capsule I’ve included the calculator that got me through high school and a stanley knife I used for carving lot numbers in boundary pegs during my time as a field assistant. I’ve also included a notebook with sermon notes taken during some of my uni years, and a couple of newspapers from the day of his birth.
I wrote a letter to the future Cohen who will dig this up one day. It was actually quite tricky to write, because I really don’t want it to be an embarrassment when we dig it up. I wanted to share a bit of the wisdom I’ve gained in my life to date, but didn’t want it to be so sentimental it would be weird to read later. I’ve not idea who Cohen will turn out to be, so I tried to keep it fairly general and laid back.
Deciding what container to put all this in is no small consideration. Having the coolest, most appropriate items in your time capsule means nothing if it leaks and becomes a soggy mass of mould and rust. Buying a sturdy, robust and watertight container isn’t something you want to cut corners on. In my case I bought a small food-grade sealable pail from Mitre 10, and lined it with a plastic bag. The newspapers from the day of Cohen’s birth lined the outside of this, and inside I bought a cylindrical Sistema container, that snaps closed to be well and truly airtight. It was in this central core that I put all the things I really, really, really hope are still good in 20 years. You want to get your hands on plenty of silica gel to throw into these containers too. I just gave the good people at Number 1 Shoes a call and they very obligingly held on to a couple of handfuls of satchets for me. Bear in mind that your container of choice needs to be able to withstand the blows of a spade digging it up in a few decades, so an ice cream container simply won’t do.
Somewhere Safe to Bury It
In cadastral surveying, it is a rule that each survey should include two ‘Permanent Reference Marks,’ which by definition should be reasonably expected to last 50 years or more. Because of this background, I’m used to thinking in terms of what future development is possible, and how to avoid it. There’s a lot more at stake when you’re putting something like this down, so you can’t afford not to think about what might happen to it over the decades.
Basically private property is not an option, even if you currently own the land. This limits you to roads and parks. Roads are risky, with all the underground services going on, and the possibility of roadworks or people putting in driveways. This leaves parks. I would avoid anything very close to water, because erosion can happen quicker than you think. Another important consideration is to have some nearby features such as walls or fences that you would expect to be around in a few decades, so that you can reference your time capsule to them.
In my case I opted for somewhere in Cornwall Park, Auckland. It has rich heritage value, so any proposed development would have a hard time getting off the ground. It also has a lot of wide open space, so I could find a spot where it wouldn’t be too dodgy digging a little hole in the ground.
A system to remember it
Once again, the most cleverly thought out time capsule will be worthless if you forget about it, or can’t find it in a few decades. There are two elements to this, how to record the location and how to store that information.
Being a surveyor, recording the location of this time capsule got me quite excited. In my case I borrowed the GPS from work and obtained a coordinate accurate to the nearest couple of centimetres. I also drew a diagram with dimensions from nearby features, and took some photos.
If you don’t have access to a survey quality GPS, you can still get a more general coordinate using phones or tramping GPS units, however you will need to be more careful about finding a spot with nearby features that you can realistically expect to survive as long as your time capsule. However you obtain a coordinate, it is important to keep track of what coordinate system it is in, given that these do change. Don’t worry about how you’ll track down the coordinate later, as they’ll probably have invented glasses that have a built in HUD and possibly X-ray vision by the time you need to find it again.
The other trick is to have a way to access this information in 20 years or so. A hard-copy bit of paper containing this information simply won’t do, because if you lose it you can kiss your awesome idea goodbye. Nonetheless, even if we think technologically, it could all change over a few short years. This means that, just like investing, diversification is key, both in the formats you use and the places you save them.
I produced a sheet with the coordinates, diagram and photos as a pdf, and a jpeg image, as well as saving the raw coordinates and an access description as a .txt file. I also printed the sheet and added to the folder we keep birth certificates and passports in. I stored the electronic files in google documents, dropbox and evernote, so hopefully one of them will survive for that long. To remind myself that it exists I have set up yearly reminders for myself in Google Calendar (its hard to pick if Google will still be the giant it is, so rather than one reminder in 20 years I am reminding myself every year between now and then).
Only time will tell whether all this effort and planning will pay off, but if it does it will be awesome. I’ll be loving it even if Cohen thinks its a random box of junk. If you think I’ve gone overboard, or have ideas for how to do this stuff better please let me know in the comments!
P.S Don’t tell Cohen about this blog post when he’s older! | <urn:uuid:98c240a8-80ee-4d5b-8206-a08994848bdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marcus-brown.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961508 | 1,591 | 1.5625 | 2 |
SHANGHAI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) enjoy a mutually beneficial and reciprocal economic cooperation, said a Chinese expert Monday before the upcoming SCO summit slated for June 15 in Shanghai.
Zhao Changqing, deputy director of the SCO Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that China has made efforts to boost economic and trade cooperation with the five countries in central Asia, namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
He noted that the central Asian countries met with economic difficulties after gaining independence. Between 1992 and 1994, the gross domestic product (GDP) of some countries was halved in comparison with the time before independence. Later they suffered from economic crisis in southeast Asia and financial crisis in Russia. In contrast with them, the Chinese economy soared. | <urn:uuid:7cc61b6e-dc4b-4413-9dba-00cbcf13312e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cfr.org/europerussia/sco-summit-sco-member-states-enjoy-mutually-beneficial-reciprocal-economic-co-op/p18263 | 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 | 0.937009 | 184 | 1.625 | 2 |
Schools of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine
You gotta love choices so that is exactly what I am giving you. You can view this list in two forms. The first is alphabetical. The second is also alphabetical, but listed by state since I know how big a factor location is for picking a school. Note: For updated information on ACAOM accredidation or candidacy please check their website at www.acaom.org
How to Choose A School
Choosing a school is not an easy thing. For me it was all about geography. I just looked up every school available that was on the east coast and that narrowed it down to three (I believe there are five now). Then I visited each. However for those living in the west or south it isn't that easy. Below are the results of the Acupuncture School Survey from 2003-04. This will give you some idea as to how students feel about their schools. This is not the end all type of survey, just something to give you ideas or what to look for.
So here are my two cents about choosing. Call the schools, visit the web sites I have linked on my Schools page and check over them thoroughly. Ask yourself some questions. Do they offer a masters program? How long have they been educating students and how long have they been accredited? Who are the teachers, how long have they been practicing, and how long have they been teaching? Are they focused on a specific style of acupuncture or oriental medicine? Do they offer an herbal program and is it certified? Do they offer other forms of study (i.e., Japanese Acupuncture, Tui Na, Massage, Western Medicine, etc.) Do you need a BA or is it an out of high school kind of place? Does it have a campus or is it just a floor in a building? Resources are important, so see if they are associated with another school or college. Do they have a clinic and what kind of clinical opportunities are offered when you are at that part of your education.
On that note, pick the ones you really like. Then VISIT THEM!!! Of course make sure you schedule your interview that day too so you don't have to fly somewhere twice. Sit through a class. Look around you. Is this environment the type closest to your learning style? Is everyone around you twice your age or half? Now if that isn't enough to give you months to think about I don't know what will. Oh yeah...and make sure you like the place it's in. Don't all of a sudden realize you hate being in the city or in the boonies. | <urn:uuid:78427b8a-7aa7-4f58-9df2-221a311b6cc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tcmstudent.com/schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975982 | 535 | 1.5 | 2 |
|Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York|
6271st Meeting (AM)
Iraqis’ Determination to Resist Return to Perils of Past ‘Real and Strong’,
with Nearly 19 Million Due To Vote Next Month, Security Council Told
Acceptance of Election Results Litmus Test for Success of Process, Says Top UN
Envoy; Iraq’s Delegate Says Government Devising Security Plan to Foil ‘Enemies’
Cautioning against the “persistent scepticism and impatience” that characterized much of the discourse on Iraq, the top United Nations envoy in that country told the Security Council today that preparations for next month’s general elections were nearly complete, and with close to 19 million Iraqis expected to cast their ballots, even those determined to disrupt the poll and derail national reconciliation through violence could not reverse Iraq’s progress.
“The determination of the Iraqi people to resist the return to the perils of the past is real and strong -- stronger than the heinous forces behind the attacks,” said Ad Melkert, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), as he briefed the Council on the Mission’s activities, and highlighted the support the United Nations was providing the Independent High Electoral Commission ahead of the 7 March ballot, which would mark the transition to the second full term of a democratically elected parliament.
Infrastructure was in place to enable approximately 18.9 million Iraqi’s to vote at some 48,000 polling stations on election day. Preparations were under way to enable Iraqis in 16 countries with large Iraqi communities to vote overseas. He cautioned that security was vital both for the integrity of the election process and voter confidence, and that electoral monitoring was important to ensure credibility and oversight. The United Nations was helping civil society take on that role by funding the training of more than 29,000 domestic election observers. UNAMI would not observe the elections, but it would send teams to locations throughout the country as a confidence-building initiative, he added.
Mr. Melkert said there had been much attention on the “debaathification” of the election process -- the decision to separate candidates with links to Saddam Hussein’s regime from a new democratic order. While the lack of transparency in that process had made the preparation of free and fair elections a complex matter, he said decisions made on the candidate lists should be assessed in the context of the electoral process as a whole. “What eventually will matter most is the acceptance by the Iraqi people of the election result,” he said, adding that the United Nations would continue to “advise and remind all stakeholders to respect fundamental standards and to strive for consensus building”.
Acceptance of the election results would be the litmus test for the electoral process’ success, he said. UNAMI was helping the Independent High Electoral Commission to develop a robust, timely complaints mechanism to ensure that the credibility of the election results was not impeded by delays in adjudicating complaints. While preliminary results would be published within days of the 7 March election, he said publication of the final results could take considerable time and be certified by the Federal Supreme Court only after all appeals had been resolved.
While it was easy to note imperfections and gaps in the ongoing process, such scepticism did not get to the heart of the matter, especially when the current progress was balanced against decades of conflict and crimes that had gravely affected Iraqi society, economy, administration and international standing. “The crux is now to see whether there is a genuine effort under way to reconstruct and innovate,” he said, stressing that that was indeed happening in many different ways throughout the country and therefore deserved to be properly recognized.
While more international attention was needed to assist the Iraqi people in the weeks and months ahead, for UNAMI it would also be important and highly relevant to advise the new Government on electoral legislation and parliamentary procedures, as well as to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the three powers (legislative, executive and judiciary), in order to strengthen those institutions’ authority.
He said UNAMI was also preparing to advise and support the new Government on adoption of its budget, in cooperation with the World Bank, he said. “ Iraq needs less projects and more strategic advice; it needs to be connected to global standards of governance that will be of great benefit to the business climate,” he said. It also should urgently respond to the social deficits and make achievement of the Millennium Development Goals a matter of priority as a moral imperative and an economic necessity.
Furthermore, full transparency and combating corruption in the oil industry would greatly impact the future and improve investor confidence. He welcomed the move by the Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister, Barham Saleh, to address the issue of transparency concerning contracts. Clarifying ties between the federal and regional governments was essential for the transition process.
Looking ahead, he said that with a new Government starting its work during the course of the year, there would be an opportunity for the United Nations to transform its support from primarily humanitarian tasks into a more development and policy reform oriented advisory role.
“‘Integration’ will be the name of the game of UN contributions,” he said, adding that the Organization’s programmes and agencies working in Iraq had identified four key areas where they had specialized knowledge and demonstrated experience, including post election activities, including census and civil registration; broader engagement in the disputed internal boundaries areas in the context of economic and social development; reform of the public distribution system and the development of social safety nets; and water resource management and other transborder cooperation issues.
As for the future presence of the United Nations in Iraq, he said the Iraqi Government, with its National Development Plan, would count on enlarged United Nations support, increasingly operating from and inside the country. Against the backdrop of the drawdown of USF-I security and logistical support, there would be considerable implications for the way the United Nations could organize itself to respond to the future demand for its presence and programmes.
“In close cooperation with United Nations Headquarters, we are currently exploring the arrangements for the future,” he said, noting that continued presence, let alone increasing the Organization’s footprint in the different parts of Iraq, would come with a higher price tag. For the plans of a new Government, and the Organization’s own operational preparations, it would be important to count on the Council’s attention and guidance.
Following that briefing, Ambassador Hamid Al-Bayati of Iraq delivered a lengthy overview of the situation in his country, touching on political and security matters, socio-economic developments and Iraq’s relations with neighbouring Kuwait. “The Iraqi people has overcome many difficulties and challenges and are determined today to benefit from this experience which gives them a strong motive for broad participation in the upcoming elections and to wisely select their representatives,” he said.
He said the approval of the amended election laws proved the ability of Iraqi politicians to overcome their differences through dialogue in order to resolve outstanding issues through peaceful means. “They were able to lift the last obstacles and pave the road for the Iraqi people to make an epic campaign to strengthen national unity, build the rule of law and institutions, consolidate the democratic experience and to achieve their national aspirations.” He told the Council that his Government was now working on a security plan for the March elections so the ballot could be carried out despite the determined efforts of Iraq’s enemies, such as Al-Qaida and remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The broader security situation continued to improve, despite occasional attacks against civilians, he said. The latest statistics from the Ministries of Defence, Interior and health indicated that 196 Iraqis had died in such attacks last month, a decrease of some 56 per cent from December, when there had been 306 casualties. He pointed out that the recent deadly attacks that had targeted civilians visiting the shrine of Imam Hussein bin Ali bin Abi Taleb proved that Al-Qaida and remnants of the former dictator’s regime would not hesitate to kill innocent men, women and children, “and there is no alternative for the Iraqi Government but to fight and destroy them to preserve the lives of its citizens”.
Turning to socio-economic matters, he recalled that this past December, the Government had held the second cycle of its competition to receive and open offers for oil field service contracts. Fifteen international companies had subsequently won oil and gas contracts, thus marking a turning point in the process of building and reconstructing through open, transparent investment of oil wealth. It was also in the interest of the Iraqi people who had not been able to share in that wealth due to the policies of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
He said it was expected that field development would boost Iraq’s oil production over the next six years to about 6 million barrels a day, and to some 12 million barrels a day by 2020. Studies indicated that the average person’s annual share of Iraqi oil revenues would rise from $1,534 to $3,361 by 2015, and to $9,488 by 2020. On other matters, he said that within the framework of Iraq’s efforts to resolve outstanding issues with Kuwait, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs had published at the beginning of the month a public announcement requesting that all Iraqi citizens possessing documents or any other Kuwaiti property seized by the former regime during its occupation of Kuwait in 1990, to deliver such property to the Ministry for submission to the Kuwaiti Government.
The meeting began at 10:11 a.m. and ended at 10:55 a.m.
* *** *For information media • not an official record | <urn:uuid:be55af8d-f0f7-4e5d-8999-565af69d9f5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9862.doc.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969727 | 2,003 | 1.617188 | 2 |
At the G-20 Conference in Pittsburg last Friday, a lot of protesters gathered outside. Since it was a major economic conference featuring leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies, there were many protesters advocating for better wages and working conditions, unemployment rate and hiking violence at the US-Mexico border, clean energy, etc. There was one group of protesters who called attention to sexual assault, establishing procedures and safe spaces for people who are assaulted at the conference or in the crowd. Furthermore, they made a clear statement that sexual harassment and sexual assault will NOT be tolerated.
The following is the G20RP Sexual Consent Guidelines that they disseminated to the crowd. I think it’s pretty awesome! The definitions are thorough and well-informed. Check it out for yourself:
|Announcing the G20RP Sexual Consent Guidelines. Please disseminate widely.Perpetrators of sexual violence, assault, and harassment are not welcome in Pittsburgh or any G20 protest organizational spaces.
Support Structure for Survivors of Sexualized Violence and Assault:
If you experience harassment, abuse, sexual assault, or any other kind of consent violation while resisting the G20 this September, or if a perpetrator of sexual violence is interfering with your participation in the G20 resistance movement, or for any other reason you need support to deal with sexualized violence, please come to us.There will be trained and experienced advocates and support people for survivors of sexual assault at the WELLNESS SPACE (located in the clinic).
G20RP Sexual Consent Guidelines: No Perpetrators Welcome!
Perpetrators of Sexual Assault, Abuse, and Harassment Are Not Welcome in G20 Resistance Spaces
Perpetrators of sexual violence/assault/harassment are not welcome in Pittsburgh or any G20 protest organizational spaces. This includes people who have perpetrated in the past*, people currently engaged in or running away from accountability processes, and people who refuse to respect the ResistG20 consent guidelines. People who violate consent guidelines will be directed to leave G20 organizational spaces and housing arrangements. Given the short time frame, lack of people resources, and likelihood of state repression we don’t have the ability to deal with these situations in this artificially constructed community.
Perpetrators’ presence should not hinder survivors’ participation in G20 mobilizations (Perps: You are not welcome regardless of the survivor’s plans). We are resisting the G20 in large part because the G20 acts WITHOUT accountability to or consent of the people it fucks over. Don’t replicate the same paradigm of domination and abuse that you’re claiming to want to smash.
*We understand and respect that other communities have engaged in their own processes around these incidents. If you have gone through an accountability process and the survivor, joined by the community, feels you have sufficiently dealt with your shit, this statement does not include you.
Support Structure for Survivors of Sexualized Violence and Assault
If you experience harassment, abuse, sexual assault, or any other kind of consent violation while resisting the G20 this September, or if a perpetrator of sexual violence is interfering with your participation in the G20 resistance movement, or for any other reason you need support to deal with sexualized violence, please come to us.
There will be trained and experienced advocates and support people for survivors of sexual assault at the WELLNESS SPACE (located in the clinic). People staffing housing and other spaces, as well as medics and (A)-minded legal observers (note: not the ACLU kind) should also be able to put you in contact with us.
We can offer you:
*Support, caring, and listening
*Advocacy on your behalf, including the removal of perpetrators of violence
*Emergency housing changes to quiet, safer space housing
*Transport to the Pittsburgh rape crisis center
*Medical, herbal, and wellness (massage, acupressure, music therapy) resources
*Resources for further support and/or action
*Support, with the legal team, to document sexual abuse by law enforcement
Consent Guidelines for G20 Resistance Spaces and Housing
Consistently asking for consent and listening to your sexual partner at every step in every sexual encounter, regardless of length, history, or specific situation, is the only way to prevent sexual assault from happening. Consent includes asking, listening, and respecting; it does not include coercion, expectations, or assumptions.
Consent: Consent is actively and voluntarily expressed agreement. Doing personal work to consistently seek consent and respect the times when it is not given helps to combat rape culture, and informed consent, sexual and otherwise, is necessary in the building of strong, healthy anti-authoritarian communities. The following do not qualify as consent: silence, passivity, and coerced acquiescence. Body movements, non-verbal responses such as moans, or the appearance of physical arousal do not, necessarily, constitute consent. Further, if someone is intoxicated, they may not be in a position to give you consent. Consent is required each and every time there is sexual activity, regardless of the parties’ relationship, prior sexual history, or current activity.
Sexual Assault: Sexual assault is any non-consensual sexual interaction. Sexual assault happens, and it happens in activist and radical communities as much as anywhere else. Sexual assault can be perpetrated by a complete stranger, but is often perpetrated by someone known and trusted by the survivor and community. Sexual assault is a tool of domination, of taking power, and can rob someone of their self respect, self worth, and autonomy. Sexual assault is rooted in broader systems of oppression- such as patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, homophobia, and colonialism- and is not separable from them in how and why it is perpetrated, experienced, and dealt with.
Rape Culture: Rape culture is the culture in which sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence are condoned, excused and even encouraged. Rape culture is part of a broader culture of violence, wherein people are socialized to inhabit different positions in hierarchical relationships, to commodify their fellow human beings, and to relate to each other through violence and coercion.
We are survivor centric and survivor oriented. When a decision needs to be made to give “benefit of the doubt” to a perpetrator or support to a survivor, the preference will be to support the survivor. State language which serves to cast doubt onto survivors experiences (eg referring to experiences as “allegations”) has zero space in radical support and communities.
Thank you G20RP, Antioch College Consent Policy, Denver on Fire, Unconventional Denver, and the RNC Welcoming Committee | <urn:uuid:17ed31a2-71d6-4bd1-bb61-c8c2d499df89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegenderblenderblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/g20rp-sexual-consent-guidelines/ | 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 | 0.937988 | 1,361 | 1.59375 | 2 |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has been elected co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission by the governors of the 13 states that make up the ARC.
Tomblin will serve a one-year term that began Jan. 1 and will work closely with the commission's federal designated co-chair, Earl F. Gohl, who was appointed to the position by Congress.
The commission was created by Congress in 1965 to improve the quality of life and promote economic development in the Appalachian region.
Tomblin says he will work to continue the economic development and infrastructure improvements the commission has facilitated throughout Appalachia.
The ARC is a partnership of federal, state and local governments. All 55 West Virginia counties are located within the region and are eligible to receive funding from the ARC. | <urn:uuid:c3b82bf0-c268-4e7c-8283-6b5c3981a565> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/201301190041 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976598 | 172 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Quoth The One, alias Barack the Taxer:
"The reason that we want to do this, change our tax code, is not because I have anything against the rich. I love rich people! I want all of you to be rich. Go for it. That’s the America dream, that’s the American way, that’s terrific...
"John McCain and Sarah Palin they call this socialistic. You know I don’t know when, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness."
In the first place, Barack the Insufferable Sophist misrepresents both his opponent's position and his own. He has repeatedly railed against "tax cuts for the rich". His case has been one of playing the dissatisfaction and envy of those who have less against those who have more. He knows he isn't going to make anyone rich by giving them $500 or $1000 of someone else's money. The point is "fairness", not the creation of wealth, and it makes a lie out of your claim to love the rich.
It would be far too cynical a reading of that statement to accept it in the only sense in which it could be true. Barack the Five Year Planner wants everyone to be rich so that he can tax them all.
But in the end it isn't to make someone rich that Barack the Disingenuous Windbag wishes to give them money; it's to make them dependent. Wealth comes from risk and work, and there is neither risk nor work when people vote themselves mammon from the treasury. There is only abuse of the democracy for the purpose of gaining and maintaining power.
Taking money from one group and giving it to another is socialistic. It just is.
Giving out checks is not the way to get people "rich", even as Barack the Slider variously tries to redefine richness down from $250,000 to whatever figure he needs at the moment. If by some perverted definition of richness he claims that he is bringing wealth to those who don't have it, he is engaging in a get rich quick scheme.
People get rich on their own, when the grubby little hands of government are kept out of their pockets.
But then comes the insult: Barack the Weasel implies that anyone who doesn't want to give him money to give to others is "selfish".
Government is not the best judge of how I should use my money. I am. Without Barack the Thief's stinking taxes, I would be in a much better position to give to others.
Barack the Tempter is urging others to be envious. Envy is a vice, not a virtue, and those who encourage others in vice bring peril on themselves. Better to have a millstone tied around one's neck, in fact. As Jeremiah Wright would say, "That's in the Bible."
Sphere: Related Content | <urn:uuid:5058b7a1-50e0-416f-a6a6-e6990fa914a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://socratesbox.blogspot.com/2008/11/barack-sophist-makes-personal-attack-on.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976242 | 602 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The 70 Knight Community Information Challenge projects funded so far have led to collaborations with nearly 450 organizations - from libraries, to tech groups, universities, legacy and new media and more.
Partnerships are so prevalent, that community and place-based foundations often ask for tools and tips in making them effective. So Knight and the consulting firm FSG talked with the leaders of successful projects, gathered their insights into a new report - and organized a panel discussion at the Media Learning Seminar offering lessons learned.
With less resources available for community news and information projects, collaboration and partnerships are more valuable and necessary than ever before, said Joaquin Alvarado, senior vice president, digital innovation, American Public Media.
But what creates some of the most successful partnerships? Alvarado says it’s about getting people from different communities active and engaged, earning their loyalty and providing long-term commitment to the partnership. It’s also about using technology to really engage with residents and making sure they feel their voices are heard in the communities.
Alvarado knows a thing or two about partnerships. The Public Insight Network, a service of American Public Media funded by Knight Foundation, has more than 70 partners. It provides journalists with access to a network of more than 130,000 citizen sources for stories, to help inject fresh voices and perspectives into coverage. The network also recently merged with Spot.us, another Knight grantee.
Recently, Public Insight Network partnered with community members and WDET Detroit to cover the issue of truck traffic in residential areas of Southwest Detroit. The increased truck traffic was leading to an increased rate of asthma in area kids. If community members see a residential truck on their street, they’re encouraged to text the word “TRUCK” to 30644 to alert Public Interest Network reporters. The website also offers opportunities for residents to share how truck traffic is affecting their neighborhoods.
Alvarado says these partnerships allow for the sharing of content and reporting on issues that matter to communities all over the country. By leveraging resources, they’ve been able to amplify their impact to do high-quality journalism in undeserved communities.
His takeaway: Never stop working on relationships. “Relationships and partnerships don’t happen accidentally. When you engage people in the process, you need to ensure their voices are heard. The bottom line is to build a level of trust.”
Partnerships are particularly essential in low-income communities, noted Mary Lou Fulton, program manager, The California Endowment. Fulton shared several emerging themes she and her team learned from funding projects that involved partnerships, like Coachella Unincorporated.
The project, which included an investment in youth media, was done in collaboration with New America Media, a network of and advocate for 2,000 plus ethnic news organizations.
What’s on Fulton’s do-over list? If she could, Fulton said she’d focus on creating relationships with partners first, then work on building and creating content second. She’d also focus more clearly on how to define the scope of work from the beginning of a project. Marketing, and plans for distributing content, she said, can’t be stressed enough. | <urn:uuid:4240890e-91c2-4504-ac90-3f9bdaaf2fdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2012/2/22/lessons-and-insights-learned-building-community-partnerships/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958947 | 659 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
Deep down, I think we all have a hero complex: we want to save the world. Wanting to save the world is a good thing! After all, God does call us to proclaim the Good News, help the less fortunate, fight to end injustice, love our neighbor. But often times, I think we forget where this call comes from and by Whose power (grace) we perform it. We forget that, although we want to save the world, we are not the Savior of the world. That title belongs to Jesus.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get caught up in wanting to be all things, for all people. I get in my head that since God gave me this mission, this call, it all depends on me. Then I get overwhelmed at how daunting the task at hand seems. I start to question myself: I can’t do this; I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have the gifts and abilities for this. What if I fail?
The burden of trying to hold up the world is just too much.
God just looks down and smiles, reaches out his hand, and says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
It is not our job to hold up the world by ourselves. God has that under control. As the song says, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” And whatever calling, mission, vocation God has given each of us, we do not have to do that by our own power either. God is walking with us, helping us bear the load, leading us, working with us to accomplish His work. God will provide. What is most important is that we are living our lives in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and in tune with the Spirit.
In the First Reading, Isaiah reminds us that “Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth”; for it is God who has “accomplished all we have done.” It is not about what we can do, but what God will do through us. We are but instruments, through which God sounds the melodies of His message.
So today, be humble. Let go, and let God be the hero.
- Tricia Lothschutz | <urn:uuid:3a7d3f1e-170b-403d-9f9a-a882fc5da6ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepassionists.org/reflections/let-god-be-the-hero/?wpmp_switcher=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970139 | 559 | 1.78125 | 2 |
“Does this mirror make me look fat?”
Body image and weight are extremely controversial subjects. On the one side we have a fashion and entertainment industry that feels that even celebrities, professional full-time good-lookers, need improvement. On the other side we have a vicious pushback against the prevailing body image ideal, encouraging people (women in particular, as is always the case) to love their shapes.
Now, I believe that today’s prevailing body image is a little warped, and I’m strongly against retouching models to create an artificial, unrealistic standard of beauty. But I’m going to have to come out against the “fat pride” movement here, for a few reasons:
The “fat is beautiful” body image is the one that’s warped. Fat has been a luxury throughout most of human history. The average person could hope to have enough food to survive, maybe even live healthily. Today’s widespread obesity in the first world is an aberration caused by the availability of cheap food in abundance, the prevalence of unhealthy food in larger-than-life portions, and sedentary lifestyles with little-to-no physical activity. Being fat is as unnatural as being rail-thin like the much-derided size 0 models.
Fat equals unfit and unhealthy. Comparing body image isn’t just a question of aesthetics. A fat-celebrating ideal is objectively inferior because it promotes an unhealthy and incapable lifestyle. Now, there are healthy, fit people with love handles. I’m not talking about that at all; that’s just another shape of fit. I’m talking about having a shape that inhibits health and fitness, and that includes being too thin. Whatever shape we strive for should be healthy and in good physical shape.
Being fat is indicative of a character flaw. Pro-fat advocates often to paint an overweight body as “just the way I am,” and play the persecution card when criticized or made to feel less than ideal. Being fat isn’t a birth shape. It’s a choice, one that reveals a character flaw. Lest we forget, gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, conceived far before obesity became a widespread phenomenon. An inflated physical shape can reveal a lack of discipline, self-control, and self-respect, or deeper issues such as eating as a form of escapism from past trauma or daily struggles. Judging someone based solely on what’s on the inside is perfectly fine. Let’s just not forget that the outside can reflect the inside, and some outside symptoms can only exist if something inside is amiss.
Ideals are by definition outside the mainstream. A common complaint is that models don’t represent normal people. While I would like to see a greater range of shapes and sizes reflected by fashion models, I’m fine with them looking like something outside of what’s normal. That’s the point. Models represent an ideal, an ultimate goal to strive for, and forcing them to look like the average person removes the goal. One way or another, human society will esteem certain people as more attractive than others, whether or not it’s politically correct to do so publicly and openly. We should makes sure our ideal is a noble and healthy one, not try to dismantle the concept of an ideal altogether.
Now that I’ve risked coming off as a hater of the average person who has never had to deal with the real-world problems and insecurities plaguing the overweight, I should probably come clean and mention my struggle. Ever since I was a small child I’ve been overweight and out of shape. Part of it was due to a slow metabolism and a body that matured much later in life than the average person, but most of it was the simple, hard truth that I ate too much and exercised too little. I’ve struggled with my weight for decades. Been called cruel nicknames, the worst of them being Jabba the Hutt. Felt like a total failure for being unable to succeed at any sport. Lost a romantic partner of many years. After crying myself to sleep over it one too many times, I decided to change that. Now I’m finally in good shape, but my daily struggle isn’t over. It never will be. But it’s one that needs to happen. One must always struggle against one’s failings. Not celebrate them, and expect the world to join in the great lie that being fat is good.
Beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes. Society may have overreacted to the obesity crisis by worshipping unnaturally-thin models, but it is readjusting now. We as a society need role models to look up to and aspire to imitate in every area of life, and physical fitness is no exception. Naturally, we should always scrutinize this ideal and make sure that it is worthy of imitation. But we should never seek to destroy it when we fail to live up to its standards, even if it causes us to feel less than ideal from time to time. After all, is recognizing our flaws always a bad thing? | <urn:uuid:8de6f378-48f5-4458-8aec-9afa52672b59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedesertlynx.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964859 | 1,085 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Hundreds of hooded, masked protesters rampaged through Rome in some of the worst violence in the Italian capital for years Saturday, torching cars and breaking windows during a larger peaceful protest against elites blamed for economic downturn.
Police repeatedly fired tear gas and water cannon in attempts to disperse them but the clashes with a minority of violent demonstrators stretched into the evening, hours after tens of thousands of people in Rome joined a global "day of rage" against bankers and politicians.
Smoke rose over many parts of the neighborhood between the Colosseum and St John's Basilica, forcing many residents and peaceful demonstrators to run into buildings and churches for shelter as militant protesters ran wild.
After police managed to push the well-organized radicals away from the St. John's area, they ravaged a major thoroughfare, the Via Merulana — building barricades with garbage cans and setting the netting of the scaffolding of a building on fire.
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Discontent is smoldering in Italy over high unemployment, political paralysis and 60 billion euros ($83 billion) of austerity measures that have raised taxes and the cost of health care.
The violence at times resembled urban guerrilla warfare as protesters hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police, who responded by repeatedly charging the demonstrators.
Around 70 people were injured, according to news reports, including one man who tried to stop the protesters from throwing bottles.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno blamed the violence on "a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe, who infiltrated the demonstration." Some Rome museums were forced to close down and at least one theater canceled a show.
Protesters also set fire to a building, causing the roof to collapse, reports said. The Defense Ministry denied reports it was one of its offices.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi called the violence a "worrying signal," and added that the perpetrators "must be found and punished."Story: Anti-Wall St. movement grows to dozens of cities
Berlusconi barely survived a confidence vote Friday, with many questioning his leadership. Italy's debt burden is second only to Greece in the 17-nation eurozone and the country is rapidly becoming a focus of concern in Europe's debt crisis.
At one point radicals surrounded a police van near St John's Basilica, pelted it with rock and bottles, and set it on fire. The two occupants managed to escape, television footage showed.
Some peaceful demonstrators also clashed with the militants and turned some of them over to police.
A day of worldwide protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States began Saturday with the hundreds of people gathering in cities from Japan and South Korea to Australia.
Organizers had hoped to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.
In the continental Europe's financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank, while in London, around 500 people marched from St. Paul's cathedral to the nearby stock exchange.
A website called 15october.net urged the people of the world to "rise up" and "claim their rights and demand a true democracy."
"Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end," the website says.
About 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.
"I think people want real democracy," said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org. "They don't want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable."
The crowd cheered a speaker who shouted, "We're sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!"How does a group like Occupy Wall Street get anything done?
Danny Lim, a 67-year-old immigrant from Malaysia, said he moved to Australia 48 years ago in search of opportunities.
Now he no longer trusts the government to look after his best interests. He thinks Australia's government has become too dependent upon the U.S. for direction.
"The big man — they don't care. They screw everyone. Eventually we'll mortgage our children away," Lim said.
Where the ongoing nuclear crisis dominates public concerns, about 200 people joined the global protests Saturday.
Under the light drizzle, the participants marched outside the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, chanting anti-nuclear slogans, while opposing the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade bloc that Japan is considering joining.
"No to nuclear power," the marchers chanted as they held up banners.
Over 100 people gathered at the Taipei 101 skyscraper, home to the stock exchange, chanting "we are Taiwan's 99 percent", saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and healthcare costs.
They found support from a top businessmen, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp Chairman Morris Chang, who told reporters in the northern city of Hsinchu that Taiwan's income gap was a serious issue.
"I've been against the gap between rich and poor," Chang said. "The wealth of the top 1 percent has increased very fast in the past 20, 30 years. 'Occupy Wall Street' is a reaction to that. We have to take the issue seriously..."
About 100 members of various groups under the Philippine left-wing alliance, Bayan, marched on the U.S. Embassy Saturday morning to express support for the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States and to denounce "U.S. imperialism" and U.S.-led wars and aggression.
They carried a large banner that said, "Resist imperialist plunder, state repression and wars of aggression," and another expressing "Solidarity action for Occupy Wall Street."
They also chanted "U.S. troops, out now!" in reference to the presence of hundreds of U.S. soldiers, mostly in the southern Philippines, involved in anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops. One man carried a placard saying "Genuine people's democracy lives in the streets."
In South Korea, activists gathered on the streets of Seoul.
The Korea Herald newspaper reported that a coalition of 30 local civic groups planned to hold a two-day protest in the main financial district of Yeouido and other parts of the capital.
The protesters, who have adopted slogans and imagery used by those in the U.S., say the rally is designed to motivate "99 percent of Koreans" to complain about the actions of the wealthiest "1 percent," the paper said.
"The situation is the same in South Korea (as the U.S.), where the financial institutions have speculated to earn high profits in a short time, creating victims," the coalition said in a statement, the Herald reported.
The protesters want compensation for people who lost money in the banking crisis.Slideshow: Occupy protests go global (on this page)
Seoul police warned that damaging public facilities, occupying roads and assaulting police officers would not be tolerated, the Herald said.
"We will arrest those who stage illegal protests on the spot and also seek legal action even after the rally ends," the Seoul Metropolitan Agency said in a release, the paper reported.
The call for mass protests around the world Saturday originated a month ago from a meeting in Spain, where mostly young and unemployed people angry at the country's handling of the economic crisis have been demonstrating for months.
It was reposted on the Occupy Wall Street website and has been further amplified through social media.
Protesters in London vowed to occupy the London Stock Exchange Saturday. Nights of rioting rocked the British capital in August after the fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old man.
"We have people from all walks of life joining us every day," said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has grown to some 12,000 followers in a few weeks.
Spyro, a 28-year-old who has a well-paid job and did not want to give his full name, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system."
Protests were planned for Saturday in cities including Montreal and Vancouver. In Toronto, demonstrators plan to gather at Canada's main stock exchange.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he doubted Canadians would be as angry as their neighbors to the south as Canadian banks have not received a U.S.-type bailout.
He declined to comment when asked if he was concerned about a possible repeat of street violence that Toronto experienced at the G-20 summit last year.
In the United States, the hundreds of protesters at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park — site of the original Occupy protest — called for more people to join them.
Politicians in both President Barack Obama's Democratic Party and the Republican Party struggled to come up with a response to the growing nationwide movement.
Democrats have been largely supportive but also wary of endorsing criticism of Obama's rescue of big banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank bailout was launched in the last months of President George W. Bush's administration.
Republicans at first criticized the demonstrations but have shifted their tone in recent days.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned of "growing mobs" but later said the protesters were "justifiably frustrated."
© 2013 msnbc.com | <urn:uuid:d7c65be2-7924-491b-abfd-1432b20b62d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.today.com/id/44912532/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959041 | 2,062 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologised to Turkey on Friday for a deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla and announced a full resumption of diplomatic ties as well as compensation.
The breakthrough, which ends a nearly three-year diplomatic rift, was engineered by US President Barack Obama at the tail end of a historic three-day visit to the Holy Land, the first of his presidency.
Speaking soon after Air Force One departed for Amman, a senior US official said the Israeli leader had apologised to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a special telephone call from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
"On behalf of Israelis he apologised for any deaths those operational mistakes might have caused," the official said.
"Prime Minister Erdogan accepted the apology on behalf of Turkey," he added, saying Obama had also spoken with the Turkish leader.
Israel and Turkey both confirmed the apology, with Netanyahu's office announcing a resumption of full diplomatic ties between the former close allies.
Erdogan's office said the premier had accepted the apology "in the name of the Turkish people" and had underlined the "vital and strategic" nature of the relations between the two countries.
"The two prime ministers agreed on concluding a compensation deal" for the victims' families and on "working together to improve the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories."
Ties between Israel and Turkey plummeted in May 2010, when Israeli commandos staged a botched pre-dawn raid on the six-ship flotilla to Gaza headed by the Mavi Marmara, in which nine Turkish nationals were killed.
The assault triggered an international outcry and a bitter diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel, with Ankara demanding a formal apology and compensation for the families of the victims.
Until now, Israel had refused, in part for fear that it could open the way for the prosecution of commandos who took part in the raid.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commented: "It has been of great concern to the United States for some time now that our two allies Israel and Turkey were not getting along well with each other.
"In virtually every meeting that every senior American has had with the Israeli side or the Turkish side, we have encouraged them to try to work this through."
A senior official in Netanyahu's office said the two leaders spoke and "agreed to normalisation between the countries including returning ambassadors, and cancelling legal proceedings against IDF (army) soldiers."
He was referring to the high-profile trial in absentia of four top Israeli military chiefs by an Istanbul court that opened in November.
The Israeli leader "made clear that the tragic outcome of the Mavi Marmara incident was not intended by Israel and that Israel regrets the loss of human life and injury," his office said in a statement.
"In light of Israel's investigation into the incident which pointed to a number of operational mistakes, the prime minister expressed Israel's apology to the Turkish people for any mistakes that might have led to the loss of life or injury and agreed to conclude an agreement on compensation/nonliability."
The Islamist Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, said the apology "showed Israel's fear of the regional changes" under way since the Arab Spring of 2011 that have seen Islamists brought to power in Egypt and Tunisia.
"Netanyahu's apology was late, and he should immediately end the siege on Gaza," Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
A Hamas official said Erdogan phoned exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Friday evening and briefed him on the details of Netanyahu's apology.
Former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who for years opposed an Israeli apology, called Netanyahu's move a "grave mistake".
"Such an apology demoralises IDF soldiers," said Lieberman, who now heads the parliamentary foreign and defence committee.
But armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz welcomed the move, saying he hoped it would boost the countries' security and strategic ties.
Newly sworn-in Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, who in the past was opposed to an official apology or direct compensation, on Friday supported the apology, his spokesman told AFP. | <urn:uuid:e489f3b0-4c06-4267-a291-68d13827cae1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130322/netanyahu-apologises-turkey-flotilla-raid-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969594 | 856 | 1.53125 | 2 |
It has been said that if you laid 500 economists side-by-side they still wouldn't be able to reach a conclusion. Perhaps the same can be said for semiconductor industry analysts. For instance, will an Iraq war derail a semiconductor recovery? Are we even in a recovery? Doug Andrey of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) claims that the semiconductor industry is recovering, and that this recovery is strong enough to survive a second Gulf War. He believes that the industry will average 8% growth for the next several years. On the other hand, a survey of economists indicated that a real job market recovery probably won't happen until 2004. They also voiced concern that an Iraq war could postpone any recovery. There does seem to be an industry consensus that volume production of 90 nm parts will begin next year, primarily because the necessary tools for 90 nm production are now available. There is also confidence that Moore's Law will continue for another decade, but some are now arguing that Moore's Law should define transistor shrinking, not scaling. In other words, we shouldn't measure Moore's Law based on how many transistors we can fit on an IC, but rather how small we can get individual transistors.
USER COMMENTS 7 comment(s)
|recovery won't happen soon (3:18pm EST Tue Feb 25 2003)
With bush running the economy. Here's why i say this, he's giving tax cuts on dividents. So people who have stocks, large bank accounts and mutual funds, the people who need money the least, get the refund. Reagen did it with the capitol gains tax and the poor suffered while stock brockers got rich. Trickle down economics tried doing the same thing and that failed. The upperclass had no reason to curb spending, they have enough to go around. A tax credit won't do anything but put more money in there accounts and raise interest rates which will slow Job growth in the small and start up business sectors, which is that largest one. New tech means nothing when you have no money. - by neuromancer
|can you say … retard? (5:41pm EST Tue Feb 25 2003)
Rich people spend tend to spend more than we do. It's no longer the days when they would stock money in bonds all the time. There's a whole lot more rich to poor stories these days. So I don't get where you are saying it won't help the economy? … Yes, it would be great if they made a tax cut that was just for us small guys, but I don't see any democrats gearing up one for us either. Go BUSH !!!! ….
Now, away from politics and back to technology.
Why must we keep talking about Moore's Law if there is so much doubt about it now? Just forget it and concentrate on technical improvements as they come. - by Right?
|use your brain…neuromancer (8:00pm EST Tue Feb 25 2003)
Keyansian theory states that more money added to the economy will rasie the GDP by a factor of the inverse of the marginal propensity to save. It's also called the multiplier effect.
What this all means is that if people save 110 th of their money, an infusion of money into the economy will mutiply by a factor of ten. If you add ten dollars to the economy you get one hundred. Considering that that is about the right rate of savings in the US we have a large multiplier effect.
A tax cut will add money to the economy. That money will raise the GDP. GDP is total good and services. More GDP means more jobs. Jobs are good. Therefore, a tax cut is good.
If we use simple logic and economics, we can see that Bush's tax cut is really good.
This is also why high taxes are bad and big government ruins the economy. This is also why you should vote libertarian.
- by Big Cheese
|hey stupid (2:00am EST Wed Feb 26 2003)
poor people spend 100% of their money all they time
do rich people do that?
|There are better ways (2:11am EST Wed Feb 26 2003)
if you want to create Jobs, help the small business. I don't know if you understand what i was saying. He is reducing tax on dividents, which means those who save money will get the credit. This will only put more money in the banks. They will either have to raise the federal reserve or the interest rates to slow the inflation. That will slow growth of small business. Which is the number one group of employers. This money will be small unless you have a lot saved, then these businesses are more likely to save it to weather a slumpt economy. Its good on paper, crap in practice. And don't call me stupid. And i do vote libertarian. - by nueromancer
|All I want … (2:41am EST Wed Feb 26 2003)
is my bus speed to keep pace with my processor speed.
Sounds easy enough, but no, it seems impossible. I'm fed up with ever faster processors that sit around doing nothing most of the time.
|NOBODY KNOWWWS !!!! (12:14pm EST Fri Jun 13 2003)
NOBODY KNOWWWWWS !!!!!!!! - by JEFF | <urn:uuid:b8f426d7-b2cd-4e11-91af-cc90e14e6d4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geek.com/chips/quicks-no-industry-consensus-on-recovery-551829/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964531 | 1,108 | 1.625 | 2 |
Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category
Utilization of social networking (social media) such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in the activities of the business not just a promotional medium.
“Should companies use social networking as a social business that is to empower them to productivity,” said Manager Software Group IBM Indonesia, Nina K Wirahadikusumah, in a press conference here on Friday.
Nina says era of social business began when a growing number of organizations or companies who consider social media as a way to win the competition and earned a profit.
“One of the ways to improve the productivity of the company is carried out by adopting a social networking model to establish interactions with employees (internal), customers, and partners (external),” said Nina.
Internal company interaction, according to Nina, not only requires a system, but also requires a culture of communication within the company.
“Why after someone can communicate openly with his friends in social networking, he is not able to open with colleagues to be more productive,” said Nina seraya described the open communication that should be based on responsibility.
Meanwhile, the interaction of external enterprises, further, means the company sued by Nina for more creative to communicate with customers and business partners through the social networking model.
“In order to keep customers loyal, companies can link messages on the social networking site with companies through special software especially messages that are complaining,” said Nina.
Nina says IBM offers solutions for companies or organizations to utilize social networking interaction model as a tool of development and business opportunities.
About online trading
Advances in technology have brought a major impact on many sectors, ranging from education, business, and how to interact with others. Technological developments, especially the Internet has changed the way many lives. we can pay some bills online, shop online, bank online and even on to online dating.
As with any online store, with advances in Internet technology, we can sell and buy stocks online, the ability to see the account at any time in want. Many companies that offer online trading.
One thing about the online trasing, it usually costs and commissions are often lower, meanwhile, online trading is very nice and of course also has some drawbacks. If you are one of those people who are new to investing you should be more careful. consult with the experts, because if you do not stock market savvy, online trading may be a dangerous thing for you. If this happens, make sure that you learn as much as possible about trading stocks before you start trading online.
If you are a broker and does not have a computer with Internet access attached. Means you will not always have the ability to get online to trade. You must be sure that you can call and speak with a broker if this happens, use an online broker. This applies whether you are a merchant who has long or beginner.
This is an idea for you to go on an online brokerage company that has good credibility. Online trading is a wonderful thing – but not for everyone. Think carefully before you decide to trade online, and make sure that you really know what you are doing! | <urn:uuid:4987dcce-1101-4140-882c-f00dfbbf8221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.basicneeds-ctx.org/category/internet-marketing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960226 | 651 | 1.617188 | 2 |
New Bayer CEO calls for greener revolution
The time is now for a Greener Revolution in Agriculture, to increase the productivity of farming in a more sustainable and environmentally compatible way, said Bayer CropScience’s new CEO Liam Condon in his keynote address at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin Monday.
"We need to recognize that we are reaching the ecological limits that our planet can bear. We must cultivate new ideas and answers to freeze our environmental footprint and farm better the land we have available," Condon urged.
Condon emphasized the importance of forging closer collaborations between the various stakeholders. "If we want to make sustainable progress towards our goal of enhancing food security and nutrition, driving growth, and protecting the environment, it is critical that we forge closer collaborations between the private and public sectors," he said.
Five-point plan to a Greener Revolution
Condon outlined a holistic five-point plan to propel a Greener Revolution, which encompasses strategic innovation investments, the long-term empowerment of farmers and particularly smallholders, a stronger focus on climate-smart solutions, enhanced nutrition and improved partnerships.
Speaking on the first step to ramp up investment in innovation, Condon said investing into agricultural R&D was the most productive way to support agriculture long-term.
"At Bayer CropScience, we recognize the ongoing need for innovative solutions to help feed and protect the planet," Condon said, reiterating the company’s commitment to invest EUR 5 billion in R&D from 2011-16. While investing significantly in cutting-edge chemistry, the company is increasingly channeling its R&D investment into new areas of innovation, including plant-breeding techniques that focus on stress-tolerance, and biological crop protection. "It is crucial that we pursue all available technologies to make a sustainable difference in helping to ensure food security," added Condon.
In the second step, Condon discussed the need to enable farmers to become "agripreneurs", armed with the knowledge and technology needed to sustainably pilot their own farming success. "My favourite example of empowering farmers in a developing country is our Model Village concept in India," he revealed. The program - planned to be rolled out across 400 villages across the country - offers farmers a host of benefits including training and tools to boost their agricultural productivity and access to markets. | <urn:uuid:e4cc7890-21af-4066-b384-35a6e337fa9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agprofessional.com/newsletters/dealer-update/articles/New-Bayer-CEO-calls-for-greener-revolution-187731891.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938044 | 483 | 1.820313 | 2 |
View Full Version : Introduction; help with film?
Greetings. I'm expecting my first rangefinder to arrive any day now, so I thought I'd introduce myself and ask a question.
I'm from the digital world, which is a great place for snapshots, but I wasn't able to find a fixed lens 1's-and-0's camera that offered the sort of control and presence--not to mention glass--that manual film bodies offer. I could stretch to afford a DSLR, but I prefer the portability and unassuming appearance of rangefinders anyhow. I've also become enamored by the idea of physical capture of an image on film. Last, because I'm a student, the incremental costs associated with film are more appealing than the up-front costs of digital. So, an Olympus 35 SP is trudging its way through the UPS system to my door. Thing is, I don't know much about film itself.
What I'd like help with is a reality check on my approach to using film, and any help finding Cheap Stuff(tm) would be great, too. Let me tell you how I expect to use the film: rarely. To be more precise, I don't spend much time looking at my images. I enjoy hunting them down, capturing them, and learning from what I've done, but I don't make many prints and I'd rather be out making more than fussing about with the old. (Sort of like babies.) Admittedly, I hope to be taking more pictures worth enlarging, and may find myself wanting more prints. Mostly, though, I expect to be looking at my images on the film itself without having any prints made.
That said, here's my plan: first, run a few rolls of el-cheapo print film ($?), and have it processed with no prints at the drugstore ($?)--mostly for the experience of shooting the new medium and to test the camera. Then shoot a few rolls of slide ($4/36 exp?), and have it processed with a Fuji mailer ($4.25 @ B&H)...and compare the results. If I like the negatives, would move on to better film (I've been looking at the photo.net page (http://www.photo.net/equipment/film), but still $?) processed at a dip and dunk lab (cheapest I've found is $2.75/36 exp. roll). And go from there.
My impression is that prints from slides or negatives, given a pristine image, will basically be the same, as most prints come from digital scans and I doubt I'll pony up to have an optical enlargement made. Negatives allow more latitude for exposure errors, but slides--not being as flexible--will help me learn to make better exposures. Or can I see those errors on a negative, even though the printing process can correct for them?
I think I've said enough. :) Certainly don't hesitate to point out what might be a bad assumption, as I openly admit that I'm ignorant about this stuff but I enjoy learning. Any pointers to good reading material would also be appreciated. And any pointers on how to save money would be wonderful!
based on your plans, i'd suggest you to use slides and/or traditional black and white if you are up to developing your own film.
And welcome to rff.
Hello, I basically did what you plan to do exactly this time last year. I started with a Kiev 4 (bad choice) and spend money on bad cameras until I finally ended up with my current setup, which is a Bessa R and a Jupiter 3. Here are a few tips (from one broke student to another):
I was reluctant to spend the money at first, but there is nothing like the freedom of bulk loading film and developing your own black and white film. Both save you money in the long run and allow you to stop worrying about money and focus more on taking pictures. Its a little expensive at first, because you will need:
-developer (I recommend diafine because its easy to use, and it lasts forever)
-a few containers
-a graduated beaker
-a tank (patterson super system, or whatever its called, you can get it at any photo store)
-changing bag (I though I wouldnt need this at first, but fumbling around in a dark closet can get frustrating)
-silk gloves (Also thought I wouldnt need these at first, but they are quite important)
-something for hanging the negatives (I use some of those heavy duty paperclips for weights)
-bulk loader ($20?)
-100' of film ($30ish)
I think thats it, but I could be forgetting something.
There is a lot of stuff I could say, I will think and probably come back to this thread.
But I have to say, if there is one thing that I have learned during my short stay in the realm of film (besides things having to do with my actual pictures), its that bulk loading and developing my own pictures is aweseome.
if you don't do your own development then ilford xp2 400 is a pretty good c-41 black and white film, it's a little grainy but cost's a fraction of true black & white film to develop if you don't do it yourself. It's about a third of the cost. it's £2.99 per 36 exp roll, or less if you buy in bulk.
All labs that process colour film can develop it, but try to use a decent lab so they don't print it with a colour cast.
hope this helps
I'm going to add another vote for slides. If you intend to mostly develop the film and print only certain frames, then it's more logical to just shoot slides and look at them through a magnifying glass or cheap projector. With negatives you need to pay for either prints or scans to CD, because the negs are sort of useless on their own -- you can't judge color or exposure. So you might re-think the assumption that you'll be able to tell what's on your film just by looking at the negatives, I've spent a couple years shooting negatives and I still can't discern much until I've gotten it scanned or put into the enlarger.
So far your plan is pretty good. Shoot the cheap stuff first, move on to better films when you can tell the difference. Budget for a scanner, though, down the road - it's likely you'll want to get scans of your work, and pretty soon even the cheap scan-to-CD service will seem like highway robbery. :) Flatbed scanners are cheap and probably Good Enough for starving students, even for 35mm. I think I've paid mine off several times over in a year.
Also, bear in mind that once you have a scanner, you can shoot and develop your own b&w film for peanuts compared to lab-processed film, so that might be a possible outcome for you as well. I think my cost per roll of bulk-loaded tri-x is less than two bucks for the film and chemistry combined.
And hey, welcome to the site. :)
I hadn't considered developing my own B&W, because I don't have access to a dark room ... but, on reflection of my high school photo class, I guess the darkroom was only necessary for making prints. I like brewing my own beer, why not process my own film?
Are B&W negatives as difficult to read as color negatives? I had hoped that looking at a negative, like looking at an in-progress painting with a mirror, helps one look more at the technical than subjective aspects of the image. And I like the idea of cheap shooting. :)
Thanks, all, for your replies!
B&W negatives are easier to read than their color counterparts, because you don't have to mentally invert the colors and compensate for that dreaded orange base tint. Still, it's hard to judge how the print or scan will come out - remember that the b&w tonal scale is an extremely malleable curve, so what you see on the negative is not what you're likely to get on the print. For this reason, there's only so much you'll be able to discern by checking the negative. Obviously, you'll be able to judge composition and focus to some extent, but after the first couple of rolls, you'll need to see a scan or print to really judge more than the basics. Besides, people in color negatives look sort of freakish with their pale-blue skin, gleaming white smiles, and piercing pinpoint eyes -- like corpse aliens or something. :)
You're right about not needing a darkroom for b&w negatives - any room that you can seal off with towels under the door or weatherstriping in the doorframe will work, or you can just get a changing bag. You only need to load the tank in the dark, everything else can happen in the kitchen. Myself, I just wait for the sun to go down, turn off all the lights, wedge a towel under the door of the bathroom, and load my tank. Have a beer, soup some negatives - is there any better way to spend an evening? :)
Also, if or when you start to look into bulk loading, you can get away without the bulk loader yourself, if you're patient and not afraid to hand-roll your film cans in total darkness.
As Tetris says, b&w negatives are a lot easier to "read" than colour negs. Once you have experience with b&w negagtives and printing some of them (use a community or school darkroom for that), you will be able to tell a lot from a negative just by looking at it. Ansel Adams made a decision to become a photographer rather than a concert pianist when he saw Paul Strand's negatives. The negatives were so well made and so beautiful, he didn't even need to see the prints.
As you inferred, shooting slide film will help with exposure accuracy. The nice thing about the SP in this regard is the spot meter. I got some Kodachrome 64 slides back recently that were exposed in the SP, and they are beautiful. I found that rating the film at EI 80 yielded great results when using the spot meter. On auto a rating of 100 would be even better under certain lighting conditions. Kodachrome isn't normally available at a bargain price, but I got lucky and found a bunch of K64/24 at local drug stores for $1.87/roll, so I bought as much as I could.
Assuming the SP is in good shape and the meter is accurate, you'll love it. I have two and don't expect to ever sell them.
I'm from the digital world . . .
By that do you mean . . . the F U T U R E ?!
Hm. This stuff sounds great. I can't wait to stop pondering and start mucking about in it all.
By that do you mean . . . the F U T U R E ?!
Well, that depends on what you mean by that. If you follow one alignment of history, you have the modern period, followed by the postmodern, then the neomodern; in that schema, I'm more from the preneopostfuture than the F U T U R E itself, but reasonable minds could differ.
I don't think this introduction gave me any help with film! ;)
By that do you mean . . . the F U T U R E ?!
I thought exactly the same, Poptart!
Don't let our ocassional smart-assiness fool ya, Jon. Welcome to RFF :D
Don't let our ocassional smart-assiness fool ya, Jon.
I don't know if that was an intentional typo, but I like it anyway.
And if it isn't more than occasional, maybe I'm in the wrong place. I expect people who spend the equivalent amount of money of a month long vacation on a little dark box that can be made slightly less dark for brief periods of time to have a not-overly-serious grasp on reality. ;) I might need to add a bit of moisture to my text-based humor, though.
vacation? what's that?? who makes it, cosina or leitz wetzlar?
Welcome aboard, Jon. I too do a fair amount of digital shooting but nothing beats seeing a well-done slide or B&W negative. I use Kodak Elite Chrome almost exclusively in 35mm, it's just lovely. Slowly but surely, though, I'm gravitating over to black-and-white. Hopefully, Santa knows I've really tried to be good and will leave a darkroom kit under my tree this year.
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A successful CIT program takes the work of many individuals and organizations. CIT in Action is featuring question and answer articles with individuals involved in CIT programs--you may have noticed recent articles featuring an academic researcher and a CIT training officer—to provide a variety of perspectives on CIT and promote better understanding between partner organizations.
We want to get the word out about the perspectives of:
If you’d like to be considered for an article in CIT in Action please email Laura at email@example.com with a one-paragraph description of your role with your local or state CIT program and why you think your story should be included in the newsletter. To be considered for the next edition of CIT in Action, contact Laura by Dec. 1, 2011.
CIT leaders in New York have announced the newly formed Police-Mental Health Crisis Intervention Network (PMHCIN), an organization devoted to promoting development and improvement of specialized policing responses to individuals with mental illness in New York. PMHCIN is actively seeking input and collaboration with all interested stakeholders including those that are currently affiliated with (or hope to develop) a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), a law enforcement-mental health co-response program, and/or other police-involved jail diversion approaches. Potential members of the network include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
For more information, please contact Don Kamin, Ph.D., chief, clinical and forensic services at the Monroe County Office of Mental Health in Rochester, N.Y., at firstname.lastname@example.org.
The 2012 NAMI Annual Convention will be in Seattle June 27-30, 2012. Registration will open Nov. 15. Register early to get the lowest rate! You are also invited to submit workshop proposals. The workshop deadline is Dec. 1. NAMI is particularly interested in workshop proposals that incorporate skills-building and that help youth and adults living with mental illness and/or caregivers advance along a continuum of resiliency and recovery. To learn more, visit www.nami.org/convention.
The National Organization of Forensic Social Work (NOFSW), with the support of National Association of Social Workers (Md. chapter), will hold its 29th Annual Conference April 15-18, 2012 at the Tremont Plaza Hotel and Grand Historic Venue in Baltimore, Md. The conference will provide a unique opportunity to network with forensic social workers and other allied professionals from around the world and participate in educational programs from the leaders in this rapidly advancing field. For more information, go to the NOFSW website.
In August, the National Institute of Corrections released a new issue of the electronic newsletter, Corrections and Mental Health. This issue features several articles about NAMI Maine’s corrections CIT program as well as a variety of other topics. To read the newsletter, or to subscribe, visit the Corrections and Mental Health website. | <urn:uuid:7b48f87c-1650-47bb-a749-c9b5891f45a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=CIT&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=129726 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932605 | 600 | 1.5 | 2 |
On 30 June, the European Parliament’s industry, energy and research committee (ITRE) is due to vote on the EU’s Raw Materials Initiative, establishing guidelines for Europe's future policy on natural resource use. The Parliament’s report could effectively give the green light to mining in protected European nature reserves as well as a resource grab in Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Arctic.
The vote follows fierce calls from a number of MEPs with close links to industry for European big business to be allowed to exploit other countries’ raw materials without any restrictions – via trade, development and even military policies. MEPs have also tried to block strong language in the report on the need to stop corporate abuse in the extraction sector and to reduce Europe’s over-consumption of raw materials.
Several of the MEPs pushing this aggressive agenda are from the European People’s Party (EPP) and have close links to industry sectors which have a vested interest in the raw materials debate (Bendt Bendtsen – Denmark; Herbert Reul and Daniel Caspary – Germany).
Others such as Paul Rübig MEP (EPP, Austria) seem to have clear conflicts of interests. Rübig profits from companies which depend heavily on the access to cheap raw materials. He also has close connections with industry lobby groups which have tried to shape the EU’s Raw Materials Initiative. Nonetheless, Rübig is one of the lead persons in the debate in Parliament and has set up a cross-party group of MEPs, the European Raw Materials Group, which will follow the issue, working closely with a parallel industry group.
Another MEP who appears to have a distinct conflict of interest is Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany) who has argued for military backing for the EU's resource policy. Brok is employed by media giant Bertelsmann, the parent group of Arvato Services Technical Information, which sells IT services to clients in the military sector.
Following the Parliament’s cash for influence scandal earlier this year, when three MEPs were caught accepting cash in return for amending laws, MEPs lobbying links have been under close scrutiny. A parliamentary working group, chaired by the President of the Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, was established to develop a code of conduct for MEPs and is scheduled to conclude its deliberations this week. The findings of this report underline the importance of tackling the issue of conflicts of interest in the Parliament. In particular, it is vital that the new code of conduct for MEPs bans all second jobs that involve lobbying or which require an MEP to act in another's interests ie. by being a board member of a company. There also needs to be regulation of all cross-party groups, including MEP-industry forums.
Read the full report: | <urn:uuid:54070daa-7762-4f46-b1e5-4011aa595770> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://corporateeurope.org/es/publications/europes-resource-grab-%e2%80%93-vested-interests-work-european-parliament?page=0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C0%252C5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957125 | 577 | 1.523438 | 2 |
On 20 May 2010, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a ruling on a reference from a French court concerning the recovery of state aid granted to Scott SA and Kimberly Clark SAS in the form of a preferential land price and preferential rate of water treatment levy. Following the European Commission’s decision in July 2000 that the aid was illegal, the French authorities ordered repayment of the aid in 2001. Scott and Kimberly Clark took a series of appeals against the recovery orders before the national courts. The appeals had the effect of suspending the assessment for repayment of aid under national law. In 2006, the ECJ ruled that France had failed to comply with the obligation to recover the illegal state aid. Scott and Kimberly Clark repaid the aid but sought annulment of the orders alleging procedural discrepancies. The national court stayed proceedings and sought advice from the ECJ on whether EU law precluded annulment of the orders for recovery in the light of a procedural defect, where that defect could be rectified. In its response, the ECJ held that EU law does not preclude having a national law which would annul an assessment for the recovery on the grounds of a procedural defect which can be rectified, provided that the annulment does not lead to the repayment of illegal aid, even provisionally, to the beneficiary.
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ECJ rules on the recovery of aid from Scott and Kimberly Clark where there was a procedural defect
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Published in Pain and Central Nervous System Week, November 12th, 2007
In the foreword to a special supplement on anaesthesia in the developing world, published by Anaesthesia, The Duke of York says that this situation is in stark contrast to the UK where patients undergoing surgery "receive a first-class anaesthesia service from highly trained and motivated physician anaesthetists."
He points out that anaesthesia has fallen behind other medical specialities in the developing...
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Forum: Battle Tests
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- Autoplay Videos: Do not place a video that autoplays in your signature or profile intro and do not post one in any thread. | <urn:uuid:4120f4d0-67aa-46cf-8882-7249fcaf4d17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://narutobase.net/forums/announcement.php?f=528 | 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 | 0.951989 | 2,602 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Infineon on India’s e-passport and semicon industry
If you have ever been a resident of Hong Kong, you’d know what an e-passport looks like! You would have even used it! For example, if you were crossing over into Shenzhen, China, from Lo Wu, which is on the borders of Luohu district within Hong Kong and the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, China, [having reached there via the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Railway)] — you can easily use your Hong Kong e-passport to get past the immigration point and enter China!
It is really easy! Simply drop your e-passport into the e-passport reader slot and place your finger on the fingerprint reader for it to scan and read. Once your e-passport comes out, move over to the other side to another e-passport reader, repeat the same exercise, and you’re done! All it takes is less than a minute!
All Indians could soon have e-passports!
Well, such an e-passport can become a reality in India soon! If you haven’t heard it, Infineon Technologies recently supplied contactless security microcontrollers (MCUs) for India’s electronic passport (e-passport) program! The Indian e-passport rollout started with Indian diplomats and officials being issued e-passports — around 30,000 to be issued in phase one. It is likely that by September 2009, the e-passports will be extended to the general public.
The rollout has started with the issuance of electronic passports to Indian diplomats and officials. It is expected that in this first phase, up to 30,000 electronic passports shall be issued. By September 2009, the program is likely to be expanded to include passports used by the general public. Today, around 6 million passports are being annually issued in India. I believe, the government of India has invited a new tender for interested stakeholders to bid for 20 million e-passports.
So, being a Hong Kong e-passport holder, I was interested in knowing whether the Indian version is as smart as that particular one? By the way, Hong Kong’s e-passport also doubles up as your Hong Kong ID (HKID) card. If you don’t have one, you simply cannot do business in Hong Kong! Your HKID number is unique and remains unchanged!
Dr. Rajiv Jain, Vice President and Managing Director, Infineon Technologies India Pvt Ltd, said that both Hong Kong and India are using the same product family from Infineon. “The security levels of both e-passports are based on the Common Criteria EAL 5+, the highest possible security certification for MCUs. In addition, both comply to ICAO requirements, the international standard for e-passports.”
Infineon’s SLE 66CLX800PE security MCU provides advanced performance and high execution speeds, and was specifically designed for use in electronic passports, identity cards, e-government cards and payment cards. Sounds very interesting!
Highlights of Infineon’s security MCU
The security MCU features a crypto-coprocessor and can operate at very high transaction speeds of up to 848kbits/s even if the elevated encryption and decryption operations have to be calculated.
The SLE 66CLX800PE offers all contactless proximity interfaces on a single chip: the ISO/IEC 14443 type B interface and type A interface, and both used for communication between electronics passports and the respective readers; and the ISO/IEC 18092 passive mode interface, which is used in transport and banking applications. The SLE 66CLX800PE features 80 kilobytes (kb) of EEPROM, 240kb of ROM, and 6kb of RAM.
The SLE 66PE contactless controller family, which includes the SLE 66CLX800PE, is certified according to Common Criteria EAL 5+ high (BSI-PP-0002 protection profile) security certification. Infineon’s security in MCUs used in e-passports builds on the underlying hardware-based integral security, with data encryption, memory firewall system and other security mechanisms to safeguard the privacy of data.
The SLE 66PE product family comprises a whole product portfolio designed for use in basic-security to high-security smart card systems, with the EEPROM sizes ranging from 4kb to144kb, and covering different applications including government ID, transportation and payment.
Infineon’s perception of Indian semiconductor industry
So much about the e-passport! I can’t wait to get my hands on one! Since I was in a discussion with Infineon, it naturally turned toward the Indian semiconductor industry and what needs to be done!
Dr. Jain said: “The Indian semiconductor industry has seen its share of successes and misses. The in-depth technical talent required for design and development is omni-present (TI, Intel, Infineon, Wipro, etc., to name a few). For example, we are doing critical R&D in the areas of automotive electronics, broadband, mobile communications and secured ID solutions at Infineon India, and the fact that it is one of the largest centres in Infineon’s global R&D network, is a testimony to India’s importance as the destination for cutting edge research. This has also led to creation of home-grown design houses offering services to the larger companies.
“We are also seeing in some small, but growing numbers, products and ideas for local markets. As the local markets evolve, so will the ability of these companies to deliver innovation for these local markets, which can then be taken globally.”
He added that an area of debate has been the need for semiconductor manufacturing in India. For example, having fabs, test and packaging plants, and EMS. “There have been government initiatives with a few successes. However, financial, tax-related and custom-related investment in these areas needs to come together and be centrally driven from a long-term perspective, as these institutions, which can provide a stable manufacturing base, need larger efforts to be successful.”
Hopefully, we will finally get to see some action on all of these areas post the Indian general elections due shortly.
PS: Just to let all of my friends know, I am no longer associated with either CIOL or its semiconductors web site. | <urn:uuid:ef89b8f1-3d4f-472c-949a-7f79fcbae2b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pradeepchakraborty.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/infineon-on-indias-e-passport-and-semicon-industry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944141 | 1,376 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Vietnam has failed to reap expected benefits from joining the World Trade Organisation and has in fact seen slower growth since, experts say.
Their assessment was made at conference held earlier this week by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) to review the nation’s socio-economic situation five years after joining the WTO.
During the 2007-2011 five-year period since it joined the WTO, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 6.5 per cent, down 1.3 percentage points over the 2002-2006 period, the conference heard.
Delegates agreed that after it gained WTO admission, the country had come under strong pressure caused by tough competition with foreign companies in both the domestic and world markets.
They said that some companies operating in the insurance and distribution sectors had lost their shares in the domestic market.
During the post-WTO admission period, the service sector grew by just 0.1 percentage points to 7.5 per cent.
Pham Lan Huong, a CIEM expert, said that the service sector was not strongly affected because it had not been completely opened up to foreign investment.
Moreover, world recession has prevented foreign firms from investing in Vietnam’s service sector, she said.
The industry and construction sectors had also failed to reach growth targets. They were expected to grow by 9.5-10.2 per cent per year, but the actual rate was seven per cent, Huong said, adding that the average growth rate of the sectors in 2002-06 was 10.2 per cent.
Experts attributed this slow growth to strong competition from foreign companies and weak domestic production in terms of quality and efficiency.
Huong affirmed that the highest growth during the 2007-2011 period was recorded by the agriculture-fisheries-forestry sector.
She said average growth of this sector during this period was 3.4 per cent per year, 0.4 percentage points above expectations.
Overall investments during the post-WTO period grew by 8.3 per cent as against 13.4 per cent in the previous five years.
As expected, foreign-direct-investments (FDI) in Vietnam increased after it joined the WTO, with the number of FDI projects increasing 1.5 times and the registered capital up by 5.1 times over the 2002-06 period.
To reach higher growth in the near future, experts said it was necessary to further perfect the investment environment and improve competitiveness by using modern technologies.
Cooperating with foreign-invested companies to join regional distribution systems was another recommendation made at the conference.
Dinh Thu Hang, another CIEM expert, said Vietnam would continue to face challenges and slow growth in the coming months.
She said the government needs to adjust import-export policies towards increasing the quality of exported goods and limiting the export of raw materials. She stressed the need to find big import partners that can help stabilise exports.
Other experts at the conference spoke of the need to restructure Vietnam’s retail sector, ensuring greater transparency as well as creating conditions for domestic firms to increase their competitiveness. | <urn:uuid:70f6fe01-efbe-49ae-b8f8-b59505263e59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intellasia.net/wto-entry-disappoints-vietnam-224093 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968773 | 642 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Showing 1 - 3 from 3 entries
> PFN Volunteer in Palestine
> Virtual Voyage to Palestine— No Visa Required
> Paradox, Perversity and Promise
An article from November 2006
Welcome to the palestine-family website!
My name is Mila. I am a Czech volunteer who came to Palestine nearly a month ago to spend here one year (contact: firstname.lastname@example.org, Skype-nick: aei.mila). I work at the Arab Educational Institute (AEI) in Bethlehem and the topic of my work is the documentation of the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people and writing articles for www.palestine-family.net about Palestinian culture, history, the contemporary political situation, daily life and of course also about my personal experiences here.
I have just started the fifth week of my stay in Palestine. I have a lot of very interesting impressions and stories which I would like to share with you.
At first, let me introduce myself a little so that you know about my social and educational background, something about the reasons why I came to Bethlehem, what exactly I do here and then I start to tell you about the amazing life in Palestine.
I am a postgraduate student of the Charles University in Prague where I finished my master studies in the subjects ethnology and history. I am 25 years old, an emancipated woman, living in Prague. During my master study I was interested above all in religious minorities and comparative research of historical textbooks. For one year I studied also in Germany, mainly at the Leipzig University. Formally I am Catholic but I refuse to belong to any church. I don´t consider myself to be a non-believer but refuse to be a member of a religious organisation. I defy each kind of dogmatism and fanaticism and don´t believe in „universal right rules“ for human life. I am interested in philosophy, the questions of multiculturality and the situation and developments in the Near East, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My hobbies are writing stories, reading, many kinds of sports, making photos, speaking with people and of course travelling.
PFN Volunteer Mila
I made the decision to go for a long time to the Near East to have the possibility to observe the situation here in detail myself I already had some experiences with doing voluntary service in Europe and when the possibility appeared to be sent as a volunteer by the European Voluntary Service to a Mediaterranean country I didn´t hesitate and started to search for contacts in Arab countries in the Middle East, as there were no contacts with organisations able to engage a volunteer. I had good luck to come in contact with the Arab Educational Institute in Bethlehem (AEI-Open Windows, affilated to Pax Christi International), which was not only able to conduct all the bureaucratic formalities but above all offered a very interesting project to me, which raised my already high motivation and interest.
As mentioned above the focal point of my work here is the documentation of the Palestinian cultural heritage and helping to develop the website www.palestine-family.net (PFN). The work includes a broad range of activities such as the notation and description of genealogy trees of local families with many branches, the collection of Arab recipes, descriptions of material culture, documentation of architecture and cemeteries, many kinds of handicraft, the notation and recording of personal real-life stories. They are often very moving because of people’s suffering under the hard political reality but they also show admirable joy in life. I observe here the local customs, religious and social occasions, popular practices in and outside the home, and how normal family life looks like. I am also interested in Palestinian Art and folklore traditions; of course I monitor the actual political events and study the history of this terrible conflict. I live at a hosting Arab Palestinian Christian family and I have become one of the family members. My participation in the normal daily routine makes an immediate personal contact with the Palestinian people possible. It helps me to observe the family relations over a long time, and every time I can ask for an explanation when I am not sure to have understood something quite well. Every three months I will shift from hosting family so as to have a variety of experiences. Then I will have become a member of the „AEI family“ (see: www.aei.center.org)
At AEI I can come in contact with youths groups of different age levels, and with the women´s group, and I can share their activity programs. AEI often hosts foreign visitors. For example during the first week of my stay in Palestine I could travel with a group of ten Dutch women coming to observe the contemporary situation in the West Bank and preparing a future exchange visit for Palestinian women in Holland. In addition to observing and having talks I am making a lot of photos. The photo-documentation will be one of the most important parts of my work and I will also use a dictaphone. I would like to scan old photos from family archives to show family life in a lively way. I hope to bring some real benefits to Palestinian society.
Now, after one month in Palestine, and in spite of the very sad events as a result of the Israeli occupation, I gained passion for my work and a strong sympathy and a certain admiration for the Palestinian people. I was surprised by many things and changed my outlook in many ways. I think many people in Europe have a lot of misjudgements about Palestine and carry distorted images about the life of the Palestinian people. Some of these prejudices may seem to be ridiculous but unfortunately they can have fatal consequences.
I would like to point out above all the following facts:
1. Palestine is not only an Islamic country. The territories under the Palestinian authority consist of the West Bank (5 655 km2) and the Gaza Strip (about 365 km2). In these territories live both Arab-Palestinian Muslims and Arab-Palestinian Christians for centuries together. Christians represent a religious minority, in the Gaza Strip about 3-5 000 Christian believers, in the West Bank about 100 000 people. There are no official statistics available, and the estimates vary. In the West Bank the most numerous Christian populations live in the Bethlehem urban area (Bethlehem – about 30%, in Beit Jala some 50%, while in Beit Sahour Christians are the large majority), Ramallah and some villages north of Ramallah, Nablus – Rafidiyah district, while there are also some Christian families who live in Jericho and Jenin. As a whole Christians represent less than 1,5% of Palestinian population. In Nablus there is a small group of Samaritans (about some hundreds of people) who are religiously similar to Jews but don´t sympathize with the occupation and are part of the Palestinian nation. Generally Muslims and Christians live together in very good relations, in an harmonic way and in respect to each other. They share an Arab Palestinian identity but are different in religious dogmas, and in some social and cultural aspects. I have seen good Muslim-Christian friendships. On the other hand, they keep their borders and usually don´t marry with each other. I think it is very logical to protect own’s society from melting and disappearing, especially for a small Christian minority surrounded by a Muslim majority. The definiton of cultural specificity and care for it is something what we Europeans have forgotten, and now we face many so-called multicultural problems and the threat of the disappearance of „old Europe.“ Actually only few Europeans know of what they can be proud and what „European identity“ means. I asked AEI director, also member of my hosting family, Fuad Giacaman, what it means for him to be an Arab Palestinian Christian, because he defines his identity in such a way. It means for him to belong to a certain historical, traditional and cultural heritage. Fuad is happy to be an Arab Palestinian Christian and is proud to come from the country where Jesus was born, where He suffered and was crucified. He believes in Jesus’ return. This expected coming back makes him stronger and gives him hope for the future and energy to surmount the worries in his life. „Jesus will come back and save me, He´ll save me from tyranny, oppression, injustice, occupation, from economical, social and politican challenges. We have to wait and be prepared for his return. Sometimes I feel painful, hurt, tired, exhausted, nervous but I have still hope and keep the spirit of Sumud (steadfastness and resilence) .“ Fuad doesn´t wait passively; on the contrary he´s waiting and working hard for salvation and the making of good deeds. He believes that two thousand years ago Jesus came from heaven to earth where he was born from the Virgin Mary, sacrificed Himself for all people and left for us a message of love. He´s the God of love, justice and peace and Fuad wants to follow this model. „Jesus is a loving father and I am also a loving person. Jesus never gave up, He was never fed up, He´s a symbol of resilience and gives me belief in human dignity.“ Fuad sees in Jesus the first martyr and the first social reformer. „Jesus´ peace is for me the only solution.“ Fuad’s belief in Jesusreturn keeps him optimistic and working for development and freedom. „With Jesus light will come to the world, He´s the path, He´ll establish peace in the whole world.“
To be an Arab and Palestinian involves a belonging and a commitment to Arabism and the Palestinian nation. „This sense of commitment and belonging to the land helps me to defend and save it.“ Fuad tries to combine his Christian and Arab-Palestinian identity and to be a follower of Jesus, a good Christian and also a good citizen who has his rights and duties. Fuad loves his country and tries to save its heritage and develop it. My work should support this effort. Fuad is aware of a big responsibity for the next generations and says „What we have we received from our ancestors and now we must work for our grandchildren and their children.“ Plenty of people from Palestine have already emigrated and many of them intend to do it. This trend is exceptionally strong in Palestinian Christian families. Fuad says: „It annoys me that the Palestinian Christian community becomes smaller and smaller and I try my best to stop the emigration and hope the importance of the Christian presence will be not in its quantity but in its quality.“
My hosting family and me
Fuad Giacaman, his wife Silvana and grandchildren Fuad and George and me
Fuad and his family
Fuad Giacaman, his son Teddy, daughter-in-law Rawan and grandchild Lourdes. The photo was taken in Hindasa, Bethlehem.
2. The Palestinian people is not a nation of terrorists and religious fanatics (as they are often presented by Western media). Most Palestinians are normal civilians who want to have a normal life and who dream about peace. The educational level in Palestine is of a good quality and the people understand well the history and context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have been present in discussions with pupils at a high school in the village of Bir Zeit. There were both Christians and Muslims in the classroom and they were speaking about their desire to end the occupation, the checkpoints, the domination of Israeli soldiers in Palestine, equality in rights, respect and peace. They lack security and safety and look for a way to help achieve these dreams. They were discussing nonviolent forms of resistance demanding their rights and freedom. For example, they discussed Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King as peace and nonviolent activists. They were also taught what their religions say about peace. They agreed on both Jesus and Mohammed as models of peace and treating others well. When the Muslim wants to say „good day“ to you, he says „assalaamu ´alayykum“ which means „peace upon you.“ They were telling their experiences how to overcome the hard political, economical and social reality in common daily life and how they try to fight the Israeli occupation through peaceful resistance. They mentioned as nonviolent activities the writing and drawing about their feelings, singing, acting, dancing, praying or cooperating with each other.
Peace-disccusion with pupils
At the institute where I work the members hold meetings in which they discuss peace and non-violent ways of resistance. For example, on Wednesdays a woman´s group meets and speaks about different themes and events. They learn English because the discussions and talks are conducted in English. The main theme of one such meeting was the following quotation: „We have all known the long loneliness and have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.“ (Dorothy Day). A discussion developed about the sharing of problems, mutual help, mutual communication, learning from each other, the importance of community life, the consequences of long-lasting solitude and how to overcome loneliness, for example by keeping oneself busy and doing something useful for other people. From my experience, life here in comparison with Europe is really much more communal. I will write later more about this. The meeting was held on 8.11.2006, on the day of a very brutal Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, at Beit Hanun. On this day eighteen Palestinian civilians were killed, including women and children (on the Israeli side nobody died). Eleven of the dead were from the same family and another forty people were wounded during the shelling. I observed these horrible events on 8.11. in the morning, at Fuad´s son Teddy´s shop while watching the TV news. It was for me a very strong and painful experience to see innocent children dying after being shot. I couldn´t help shedding tears and I had to think about these pictures many days afterwards. After the woman´s group meeting at the AEI most of the women decided to march in silence carrying posters calling for peace and an end of the occupation. They went to the Church of the Nativity where according to the biblical tradition Jesus was born. They stopped in front of the Church and sang peace songs. It was their way to demonstrate. Some of them joined a bigger demonstration at midday organized by students of Bethlehem University (I estimate more than 100 people). They marched through the center of Bethlehem, had a lot of posters and flags and called for justice and the stopping of the killing of Palestinians. The whole demonstration happened without any kind of violence. All participants stopped in front of the building of the Red Cross office and peacefully finished the protest. One woman said to me: „ The Israelis want to kill all Palestinians and say that we are terrorists but it is them who are terrorizing us.“
Protest against Occupation
Student` s protest
Palestine is an occupied country, not a real autonomy. Palestine is a territory where Israelis openly violate the human rights of the civilian population. Palestiniens are discriminated in many ways, they are considered to be „people of a second category.“ Israelis contravene rules of international law. Through the building of the Wall Palestine has become one big prison, separated from the neighbouring world, without a chance for economic development and a normal life for the inhabitants. It was the second day of my stay in Palestine when we were woken up by shooting in the middle of the night. I was concerned for my hosting family but it turned out to be nothing new. Israeli soldiers were looking for a young man who was active in anti-Israeli resistance. He was shot dead in his house and half of the house was demolished. During this operation another two were killed and a third person, an old woman, died in hospital of a serious injury. In the next days a tent was built beside the destroyed house and hundereds of people sent their condolences and offered their sympathy to the surviving relatives. After a few days posters appeared in many places in Bethlehem with the picture of the 23-year old man who was killed. There are many posters for such „martyrs.“ You can watch pictures of these people who lost their life during the many Israeli attacks. Not every victim was active in anti-occupation resistance. For example, one of the recent martyrs was a 12-year old boy who was shot by mistake on Manger Square (the main square in Bethlehem) in September 2006.
Israeli soldiers come to Bethlehem regulary, at least once a week, and look for Palestinian freedom fighters. During such invasions the Israeli forces behave inresponsibly towards the civilian population. It often depends on the mood of the individual soldier whether he kills somebody or not. Things are quickly a „state of emergency“ and the smallest suspicion is sufficient for killing innocent persons or to capture somebody and put him into prison. Nobody is able to change this situation and to help the Palestinian people – certainly not until the US government stops its massive support for Israel, its ambiguous behavior and its use of the right to veto while the rest of world condemns the shameful events in Palestine. Israelis can do everything in Palestine. In the meantime no power exists which limits the Israelis’ violent actions. Last Monday (20.11.) at noon Israeli soldiers came to Bethlehem near Manger Square with their tanks and machine-guns to look for a suspected man and encircled a whole quarter. Pupils returning from school started to throw stones at the tanks and the soldiers started to shoot at the crowd of children. They aimed at the lower part of the bodies and about ten children were injured. At that moment I was at the Institute, approximately 300 meters from this place and could watch live TV and hear the shooting. Later in the evening I went home with Fuad through Manger Square. On the ground were a lot of splinters and stones. The Israelis were still in town. In one corner of the square were noisy groups of Palestinian youths, in the other corner Palestinian policemen seemingly doing nothing because of their powerlessness and irrelevance. In other parts of Bethlehem normal life continued and out of some windows we could hear nice music.
Thinking about the Wall the association with the former Berlin Wall come to mind. What in Europe is over, here has begun. Palestine is one big ghetto. The Wall has far-reaching consequences for many kinds of problems for the Palestinian people. First it is psychologically hard to live „behind a concrete monster.“ Some factories had to close (e.g. one man possessing a stone-cutting factory lost his business after the building of the Wall, as he lost access to the stone supply). Many families have been divided because it is now very difficult to cross the Wall into Israel. The only possibility is to come to Israel through a checkpoint. As a Palestinian you need to have a special permit and an important reason to go to Israel, e.g. medical treatment. You need written confirmation from the doctor with the exact date and hour of your appointment but even in serious cases you have no cetainty to be admitted into Israel. Many people lost their work in Israel.. Before the building of the Wall there were about 150 000 people working there; today only about 30-40 000 receive a labour permit (the permit is given for three months maximum; after that period it has to be extended).
The Israelis solve the shortage of workers by inviting and employing Russian and Rumanian workers some of whom are Christians. Palestinians work in Israel almost only as manual workers with no social and health security. (Some Palestinian women also work in Israeli houses). But because there is a large unemployment in Palestine, people are interested to work in Israel in spite of these bad conditions. (Some of them collaborate with the Israeli occupation so as to get a work permit). The people who used to go for work in Israel earned a salary of some 100 NIS (1 Euro = 5.2 shekel) per day. In Palestine you can earn between 1-2 000 NIS per month, but it is also common to work e.g. for 20 NIS per day (picking olives). One young graduated man said to me: „We have a problem to find an income; there is no work, the people are willing to work for 5 dollars per day but then another ten people are willing to work for three or four.“
The control at checkpoints takes a lot of time. Workers stand up very early because of the long queues where they might wait several hours. The behavior of Israeli soldiers and officers at checkpoints depends on their character and mood. It isn´t unusual that they treat people without any basic respect and it isn´t extraordinary when somebody is killed or injured at a checkpoint. In the meantime about 600 km of the Wall has been built. At the end it should stretch approximately 700 km. At the rest of the border a barbed wire will be placed (especially in areas not so densely populated). In the process of the building of the Wall, the Israelis ignore the real legitimate border. Based on their power, they illegitimately confiscate large parts of the Palestinian territories and build there their settlements. I visited a house of one Palestinian family (near Rachel’s Tomb) which was faced at three sides by the Wall. The family literally faces the Wall on three sides. The only view from the windows is towards the Wall. The apartment became quite dark and they have to light the rooms also during the day. Palestinians are limited through the many restrictions they face also inside the so-called Palestinian autonomous areas. The Israelis control the water resources in Palestine and the access to many sites. There are two types of roads: roads which can be used only by Israelis and bypass-roads used by Palestinians.
The control in front of the Abraham Mosque in Hebron
At the beginning of November we undertook a trip to Jericho and the Dead Sea. We had to use the bypass roads. The biggest surprise was waiting for me at the Dead Sea. For Palestinians acces to the Dead Sea is forbidden. We had however luck to be considered all as European tourists because we were in the bus with a group of Dutch women and it happened that our passports weren´t checked. Then it turned out that you cannot go to the sea for free but that you must pay a lot for it. The Israelis wanted the half-empty bus to pay a fancy price of 1 300 NIS! (about 250 Euro) Finally we paid 800 NIS and stayed at the Dead Sea for two or three hours, in rather cold weather.
On the way home our bus was controlled by an Israeli soldier. It was for me an intense experience: a very young boy, maybe 18 year old carrying a machine-gun and going through the bus where the Dutch ladies, our Palestinian hosts and I were sitting. Everybody was absolutely quiet and I was thinking about this young Israeli man. I felt very interested about what he felt, whether he felt any joy about his power over us or whether he was sick of this situation too.
4. The Palestinians live in an autonomy which is no real autonomy and in a ‘state’ which is no real state, without any sovereignty. Seven months ago democratic elections were held and the Hamas party won, but this party never started to rule. After the elections nobody was ruling. Because of the international boycot the state employees did not receive their salaries for seven months. Till now post offices barely function in the whole of Palestine. And not only employees at post offices, but also the teachers at government schools didn´t receive their income for five months. They went on strike. All state schools were closed for two months at the beginning of this school year. The schools have recently been opened again (after the teachers received a payment in advance) but the future is still uncertain. Medical services are costly because not all sections of the society have insurance while many patients have to go to a private doctor because the quality of the state clinics is not good enough in many cases. In Palestine the courts don´t work, many cannot be punished because the courts often cannot deliver a verdict. According to the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, in October 2006 78.6% of the Palestinians living here were worried about their personal security, 80.9% about the naked survival of their families, 62.3% were pessimistic about the improvement of the political and economical conditions, and 62.1 held the USA, Israel and other donor countries responsible for the deterioration of the economic conditions in the Palestinian territories.
The Palestiniens live without any social security, they cannot expect payments of old-age pensions, social benefits or health care guaranteed by the state. University education has to be privately paid too. The Palestinians are aware of the necessity to earn enough money for their old age because they cannot rely on state help. It is important to have sons who care for the parents when they are old. The feeling of togetherness in the Palestinian families is admirable. Firstly, the mentality of the local people is not individualistic like in Europe and, secondly, they need each other to be able to live under such hard circumstances. The members of my hosting family share the care for the household and work from morning till night six days a week to keep their life standard. Teddy told me: „We don´t want more than we have but it becomes harder to keep the same level, we must work more and more... and then I want to save something for my children when they grow up.“
5. Palestine is not years behind, it is not a backward country. Such standards as having a bathroom is quite common also in a village. I was surprised at the very nice houses and the furniture which could be considered by many Europeans as luxurious. At first I could not believe that people living in such nice houses were poor. Then I started to understand that you have to apply here quite different criteria for wealth. If you own a big house and a car in Middle- and Western Europe, most people will think about you as a rather rich person. But here many families possess a house; it is a source of some security in an unstable country and building a house is a great priority for many. They do not spend on travelling and entertainment but save for building their house. Several members of the family help saving for the house and the people here are accustomed to help the extensive family and neigbours as well. But also: if you own a house you may not have enough money to eat. For example: in some suburbs of Bethlehem the price for 1000 m² of land is about 4 000 dollar, but the town center is much more expensive and the prices move there between 200-300 dollar for 1m². For about 65-70 000 dollar you can build a good house. If you want to rent a flat the monthly bill ranges from 300 till 600 dollar, the monthly costs for electricity are 600-700 NIS, a water bill is about 120-150 NIS)
In the shops in Bethlehem you can buy western goods. However, the monstrous globalisation you can see in supranational commercial chains haven´t reached Palestine yet - what I enjoy very much. Here are still a lot of small businessmen and shopkeepers, no mega-Tescos, Carrefules etc. It makes life warmer, more personal and human. And these small businesses are mixed with the eastern, oriental disorder which helps to preserve a special local charm.
Industry in Palestine is very light. The most important branch is tourism but now the situation is very bad. The tourists (supported by Israeli propaganda) are afraid to visit Palestine. Tourism is much weaker than before the building of the Wall. The Palestinians produce olive oil, make religious figures from olive wood and sell the wood, work with mother-of-pearl and other small handicrafts, and grow fruit trees near Jericho and in the Gaza Strip (but they cannot export the fruit). A big problem are the water resources. These are under Israeli control. There is also not enough land. Palestine has a lot of graduated young people but they do not have a chance to get a job. This is the most serious reason behind the decision of many to emigrate. On one income from one small olive-wood shop depends the livelihood of sometimes twenty family members (and there are no customers). One woman told me: „I would never emigrate because of the economic situation, I love my country, even if I would have a last shekel I would stay... but if it is a question of shooting, life and death … I don´t know...I am not sure.“
6. The women in Palestine are not considered to be less then men. Of course, the mentality about relationships between men and women is very different from the European one.
Nobody forces me to be covered from top to toe. It is quite common to wear jeans and by far not all women wear a scarf (including all the Christian women). But a miniskirt wouldn´t be accepted. I have only quite rarely seen Muslim women covered completely. Generally Palestinian women take care of their appearance quite in a western style and tey wear nice dress. Most Palestinian women are housewives but a lot of women work because of the economic situation. In the majority of cases they have many children (the average is 5-6 children for one woman in the West Bank; Muslim families have on the average more children then Christians). They look after the children, take care of the house and help their husbands. Absolutely normal are the women who drive a car or discuss with men like an equal partner. I met here many inteligent, educated, courageous, hardworking and good-looking women.
The family is for the Palestinian people value number one. Actually, another life style than family life is not common. To get married and become a mother before the mid-twenties is the most usual woman´s deal (even if more and more people stay living alone because they do not have money to establish a family). Couples get divorced very rarely. The rules for family life and life generally are clearer here than in Europe. The objective social-economic conditions and the traditional conservative society create a strong mutual bond and responsibility for family matters.
Absolutely socially unacceptable is living together with a partner before marriage. It is not tolerable to have a boyfriend or girlfriend and to practise premarital sex. There are also very limited chances to meet a partner. Young people (above all young women) don´t go out alone and most of them spend their free time with their family and by visiting friends of their family. In this circle of family and friends the girls usually meet their future husbands. If you fall in love with somebody you will get engaged with him. Before engagement the future husband and his father visit the girl’s family. The boy´s father proposes to the girl’s father who is expected to agree. It is usual that after the engagement period the wedding follows. The engaged couple cannot stay alone without the presence of other people. To have a boyfriend or a girlfriend is not very common and it is a secret matter. If such a secret relationship would come public the girl would be discredited. On this point the local society is very rigid and conservative. Palestinian society is not anonymous like the European city. The people are interested in what others do and social control is very strong. If a Palestinian man looks seriously for a wife, it is a basic condition to get married with a virgin. I miss the quite normal category „male friend“ with whom I have no sex, no physical contact but with whom I can spend my free time alone, discuss with him, have fun, go to cinema, listen to music, dance, make a trip, visit him at home or he me... Such friendship between woman and man is here unknown and abnormal. People here cannot imagine a friendly relation between boy and girl without suspecting promiscuity. The woman would gain a bad reputation. And actually while the European boys are used to have also female friends, Palestinan boys do not and probably would expect something more then having a good talk or to have fun without touching and so on. The society and the mentality here is in this way quite different. Youths in Palestine usually do not have sexual education and things related to sex and relationships are generally tabooed.
7. At last I would like to mention the wonderful Palestinian hospitality. The behaviour to the guest is really very kind and generous. One woman told me: „Also if I wouldn´t have something to eat I would borrow from the neighbour and give it to my guest.“ People are used to help each other, are not negligent, phlegmatic or disinterested in others. For instance, my hosting family cares for me in a very hospitable, friendly and warm way and I feel like being a family member. In spite of the permanent political uncertainty, Israeli attacks and discrimination, social and economic insecurity, despair and suffering, the Palestinians are very sympathetic to one another and feel a deep national solidarity. The hard conditions bring them together. They care to have good families, are very human and helpful, and stay admirably strong. Fuad says often in the face of troublesome circumstances: „We will manage ...“ or „We will triumph.“
8. And of course Palestine is a beautiful country, with unique, not only biblical sights.
The coming year I will write many items and articles about Palestine. If you have any idea or comment and would like to contact me, write me please a mail.
The article is rather too long that should have been abridged for the readers. What is the core point in this conflict is that Zionist creators of Israel are atheists so they violated the God's decree not to crate a state during exile but to wait for the Messiah to redeem the Jews from exile. The anti-Zionist orthodox Jews reject the creation of Israel and fear a severe infliction from the heavens. In this light the whole subject of conflict needs a review to seek a peaceful way out. Jews have lived with Islam through its whole history and more recently in Ottoman Empire. | <urn:uuid:27c7f9d6-0fba-483e-91ea-06db34dc6902> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palestine-family.net/index.php?nav=8-181&hits=20&did=3567 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969702 | 7,030 | 1.578125 | 2 |
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.edu Administration covers policies and processes for managing the .edu Internet domain, which EDUCAUSE administers under contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce. | <urn:uuid:0286de0e-888d-4fe7-b01e-36411549ecd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://net.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9329 | 320 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Patients should get:
|Very low risk|
Patients should get:
The most explicit call to date for expanding the use of active surveillance in the treatment of prostate cancer was made last week by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers. Updated guidelines from the group urge clinicians to offer active surveillance to their patients with prostate cancers that are at low risk of progressing to life-threatening disease. Read more > >
Guest Director's Update: Targeting Barriers, including Insurance Coverage, to Improve Clinical Trial Participation
by Andrea Denicoff and Dr. Jeffrey Abrams
Lack of health insurance coverage for the routine cost of care for patients taking part in clinical trials—including doctor visits, hospital stays, clinical laboratory tests, and other expenses—is a major barrier to participation. Read more > >
The president of the Oncology Nursing Society describes initiatives in oncology nursing that may be a model of the health care system Read more > >
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Physicians Urged to Consider Active Surveillance in Prostate Cancer
The most explicit call to date for expanding the use of active surveillance in the treatment of prostate cancer was made last week by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers. Updated guidelines from an NCCN panel urge clinicians to offer active surveillance to their patients whose prostate cancers are at low risk of progressing to life-threatening disease.
Active surveillance—in the past also called “watchful waiting” and “expectant management”—refers to a strategy of forgoing immediate treatment after a diagnosis of prostate cancer in favor of regularly scheduled testing and clinical exams to closely monitor the disease. Active surveillance can include prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, digital rectal exams (DRE), and prostate biopsies. If, at some point, there are indications that the disease is progressing—such as significant growth in the tumor or a rapid increase in PSA level or higher tumor grade on biopsy—definitive treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy can be pursued.
Of the more than 192,000 estimated prostate cancer cases diagnosed in 2009, about half may fall in the low-risk category, explained Dr. Bhupinder Mann from NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis.
How the NCCN Guidelines Define Low Risk
Under the updated guidelines (available online with free registration), active surveillance should be recommended to men with low-risk prostate cancer who have a life expectancy of less than 10 years. Men with low-risk cancers have a relatively low PSA level and their tumors are small, confined to one side of the prostate, and have a low tumor grade, or Gleason score (see sidebar). The guidelines also established a new category of very-low risk, or clinically insignificant prostate cancer. In men with a life expectancy of up to 20 years who fall into this new category, the guidelines recommend advising only active surveillance as the preferred management approach.
“The entire [prostate cancer] treatment committee is concerned about the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer,” explained the panel’s chair Dr. James L. Mohler from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The impetus for the update, Dr. Mohler continued, was the publication last year of results from two large clinical trials of prostate cancer screening that showed there was significant overdiagnosis and overtreatment of cancers that likely would have never been a cause for concern.
“Most men find out that they have prostate cancer and what do they want? They want it gone,” Dr. Mohler said. “There are too many men suffering the side effects of treatment, and society is bearing the costs of those treatments. And too much of it is unnecessary.”
To that point, a study published last September estimated that, since 1986, as many as 1 million men have received definitive treatment for a prostate cancer (diagnosed as a result of PSA screening) that would have never threatened their lives. Despite the concerns about overtreatment and the call to expand active surveillance, Dr. Mohler stressed that it’s still an individual decision that patients must make in consultation with their physicians.
Although there are clear benefits to active surveillance in the appropriate patients, the guidelines panel noted that choosing this treatment approach is not a simple process or decision. In addition to the need for frequent exams and tests, from a disease perspective, waiting to see if the cancer progresses could eventually mean having to treat a more aggressive tumor, with a lower likelihood of cure and a greater risk of serious side effects.
The risk of such progression, Drs. Mann and Mohler agreed, is low. According to Dr. Mohler, the risk of a significant tumor grade increase is around 5 percent, and the risk of an increase in PSA is between 16 and 25 percent.
No data have been published from randomized clinical trials directly comparing active surveillance to immediate, definitive treatment. But based on the available evidence, Dr. Mann said, “In low-risk patients, active surveillance with delayed curative intervention is an acceptable strategy.” That contention is supported by two recently published studies (here and here) which both reported equivalent long-term cancer mortality outcomes in men who opted for active surveillance compared with those who received immediate, definitive treatment. (See the cancer research highlight in this issue on a comparative effectiveness study released last week.)
Dr. Paul Godley, a medical oncologist at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the recommendations are overdue. However, he noted, there are still questions about active surveillance that need to be worked out, including the appropriate trigger for transitioning to definitive treatment. “I think that will still be fairly subjective based on what the patient and his physician are comfortable with,” he said.
There’s also the matter of how clinicians will react to the updated recommendations, given that immediate, definitive treatment appears to be a fairly ingrained practice. An online poll conducted January 2009 via the New England Journal of Medicine, for instance, presented a case example of a 63-year-old man with low-risk prostate cancer. Among the respondents from the United States (not all of whom were clinicians), approximately 70 percent chose either radiation therapy or surgery over active surveillance as the preferred management option.
It is unclear, Dr. Godley said, whether the recommendation “will make the trend lines change a whole lot.” But, he continued, “it may make some physicians more comfortable with doing active surveillance themselves or referring patients to a group that is using it in their low-risk patients.”
Cancer Research Highlights
Study Weighs Comparative Effectiveness of Low-risk Prostate Cancer Treatments
When it comes to the treatment of low-risk prostate cancer, a new comparative effectiveness study has concluded that the various approaches—including active surveillance, surgery, and radiation therapy—result in similar overall survival and tumor recurrence rates. However, compared with the immediate treatment options, active surveillance yields both a comparable net health benefit and more quality-adjusted life years for men age 65 and older, according to the economic model used in this study.
Researchers at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which is based at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute for Technology Assessment, examined the published evidence on different approaches being used to manage low-risk prostate cancer and the results of a simulation model that can project the long-term effects of each approach for large populations. Their review also included a comparison of the relative economic cost of each approach. The literature review and analysis were aided by an evidence review group of nearly 50 members that included top prostate cancer specialists from across the country, patient advocates, and representatives from medical device, pharmaceutical, and health insurance companies.
Their task was complicated, the reviewers acknowledged, by a lack of published trials that compared the different options head-to-head, as well as other factors. In addition to traditional open surgery (or radical prostatectomy), they assessed the clinical and cost effectiveness of robotic and traditional laparoscopic prostatectomy, as well as of brachytherapy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy. Because of the limited published data on proton beam radiation therapy, a treatment for localized prostate cancer that has gained popularity, the reviewers called it “premature” to offer any “judgments about its relative benefit or inferiority to other options.”
Lenalidomide Helps Delay Progression of Multiple Myeloma
Initial results from a phase III trial testing lenalidomide (Revlimid) as a component of multiple myeloma treatment indicate as much as a 58 percent reduction in the risk of disease progression for patients who used the drug, according to a news release issued by NCI. The trial was stopped early because the independent data and safety monitoring committee overseeing the trial found that the study demonstrated a longer time before the cancer progressed following autologous blood stem cell transplantation for those patients receiving the study drug than those receiving a placebo.
Lenalidomide was developed as a more potent yet safer version of thalidomide, and it has been approved by the FDA to treat myelodysplastic syndromes. The drug has also been used as a first-line induction therapy for multiple myeloma, a cancer that begins in plasma cells. Following induction therapy, myeloma patients typically receive autologous stem cell transplantation, which, if successful, may be followed by use of another drug as maintenance therapy to prevent disease recurrence or progression.
In this clinical trial (CALGB-100104), between 100 and 110 days after successful treatment with melphalan and transplantation of the patient’s own stem cells, which were harvested prior to chemotherapy, 460 patients who had no progressive disease were randomly assigned to receive lenalidomide or a placebo and took the drug until their disease began to progress. Most of the patients who received lenalidomide showed no evidence of progressive disease, while progression occurred in half of those taking a placebo within 778 days. Because of the trial’s early termination, there is no proof yet of an overall survival benefit.
“This study answers the important question for multiple myeloma patients regarding maintenance lenalidomide therapy starting at 100 days following transplant,” said the trial’s principal investigator Dr. Philip L. McCarthy, Jr., of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. “We now know that prolonged maintenance therapy with lenalidomide when compared to placebo will delay disease progression.”
The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network also participated in this research.
Genetic Study of Lymphoma Tumors Points to Possible Therapies
A genetic study of lymphoma tumors has revealed the importance of a signaling pathway long suspected of playing a role in certain forms of the disease. DNA mutations were found in two components of the B-cell receptor signaling pathway in a subset of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL). In additional experiments, the researchers showed that drugs could kill these lymphoma cells by blocking signals from this pathway.
Reporting their findings January 7 in Nature, Dr. Louis Staudt of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research and his colleagues estimate that the mutations are present in approximately one-fifth of the activated B-cell-like (ABC) subtype of DLBCL. Although the mutations are rare or nonexistent in the other subtypes, they appear to be important in the development of the disease for those patients who harbor the mutations.
The mutations affect two components of the B-cell receptor—the proteins CD79B and CD79A. DLBCL originates in B cells, which are part of the body’s immune system. When normal B cells encounter a foreign substance, proteins on the cell surface called B-cell receptors activate a cascade of signals that help the cell to survive and proliferate. In tumors with the mutations, the researchers observed “chronic active” B-cell receptor signaling, in which the tumor cells spontaneously activated this pathway.
“We have found mutations that affect a key signaling pathway in certain lymphoma tumors, and these mutations represent a genetic smoking gun that reveals the importance of this pathway in this type of cancer,” said Dr. Staudt. The findings suggest that future clinical trials of agents targeting this pathway should focus on patients with ABC DLBCL, he added.
In laboratory experiments, several compounds selectively killed lymphoma cells with chronic active B-cell receptor signaling, including dasatinib (Sprycel), which is approved for treating chronic myelogenous leukemia. The drug turned off the signaling pathway by inhibiting a component of it, and, as a result, the mutant cells died, the researchers said.
“This is a fascinating and elegant paper,” wrote immunologist Dr. Klaus Rajewsky of Harvard Medical School in an e-mail message. “A role for the B-cell receptor in lymphoma development, progression, and maintenance has long been suspected, and it will be interesting to see whether other signaling cascades downstream of this receptor contribute to these processes in other contexts.”
Vaccine Kills Residual Leukemia Cells in Patients Treated with Imatinib
In an early phase clinical trial testing a therapeutic vaccine in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who were taking the drug imatinib (Gleevec), no cancer cells could be detected in 7 out of 19 participants for a median period of 22 months. The trial results were published in the January 1 Clinical Cancer Research.
Although imatinib has greatly improved survival for patients with CML, in most cases it does not entirely eradicate cancer cells in the body. Residual cancer cells can eventually cause a relapse.
The experimental vaccine was constructed from a CML cell line engineered to express a protein called granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which helps draw immune cells to the site of the vaccination. These immune cells then encounter proteins (called antigens) found on the surface of the engineered CML cells. The researchers, led by Dr. B. Douglas Smith of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, hoped that, after encountering the antigens, the immune cells would be able to locate and kill CML cells elsewhere in the body.
Nineteen patients with chronic-phase CML enrolled in the trial; all of them had been taking imatinib (for a median of 37 months) but still had measurable tumor cells in the body. Patients continued to take imatinib during the trial. All patients received four vaccinations spaced 3 weeks apart. Side effects were mostly mild, although three patients experienced painful reactions at their injection sites.
After a median of 33 months of follow-up, 74 percent of the patients had a major molecular response (a major reduction in the number of CML cells in the bloodstream), and 37 percent had a complete molecular response (no CML cells detectable). CML cells remained undetectable in several patients at the time of publication (between 20 and 44 months after vaccination).
The researchers are planning a follow-up trial to determine if the benefits of immunotherapy persist after patients stop taking imatinib.
Cancer Cells Use Stored Fats to Fuel Aggressive Growth and Spread
An enzyme that is best known for breaking down stored fats in cells may be co-opted by cancer cells so that they can become more aggressive, Scripps Research Institute investigators have reported. Blocking the activity of the enzyme, MAGL, in cell lines of several aggressive cancers and in mouse models derived from the cell lines significantly tempered cell migration and tumor growth, Dr. Daniel Nomura and colleagues reported January 8 in Cell.
In the same mice in which MAGL levels were reduced, the research team found that a high-fat diet could kick start tumor growth. This latter finding, they wrote, “has provocative implications for the crosstalk between obesity and tumorigenesis.”
To conduct the study, the researchers first analyzed the expression of certain types of enzymes in cell lines of aggressive and non-aggressive melanoma, breast, and ovarian cancer. They found that MAGL levels were significantly elevated in the aggressive cell lines. They also found that when they increased MAGL levels in the non-aggressive cancer cell lines, the cancer cells became more aggressive.
MAGL promotes this aggressive posture in cancer cells, the researchers discovered, by unleashing free fatty acids (FFAs), which are integral components of cell membranes and other molecules in cells. The increased production of FFAs, in turn, stimulates the activity of a communication network of signaling lipids known to enhance the growth of tumors and movement of cancer cells. In the mice with inhibited MAGL expression fed a high-fat diet that led to increased tumor growth, the researchers noted, the tumors had significantly elevated levels of FFAs.
The study’s findings provoke “many exciting new questions,” wrote Drs. Jessica Yecies and Brendan Manning from the Harvard School of Public Health in an accompanying editorial. Among them is whether MAGL levels could “be used as a biomarker to predict the influence of dietary fats and obesity on tumor progression.”
Guest Director's Update
Targeting Barriers, including Insurance Coverage, to Improve Clinical Trial Participation
Lack of health insurance coverage for the routine cost of care for patients taking part in clinical trials—including doctor visits, hospital stays, clinical laboratory tests, and other expenses—is a major barrier to participation. Some insurance companies have chosen to deny coverage for the routine medical care a patient would receive whether or not he or she is participating in a clinical trial, thereby creating an out-of-pocket expense burden for patients who want to participate in a research study.
Recognizing the threat that this burden poses to the individual care of patients, clinical trial participation, and in turn the improvement and advancement of cancer treatment, a number of state legislatures have worked with their regional insurance federations to draft laws or agreements that ensure standard care coverage, even when provided in a clinical trial, will not be denied.
The state legislatures of Texas, Oregon, and New Mexico recently passed laws that require this level of improved health care coverage for their residents. And in Nebraska, a voluntary agreement for insurance coverage was signed with the Nebraska Insurance Federation on November 6. Three Nebraska institutions in NCI’s Community Cancer Centers Program—Saint Francis Medical Center, Saint Elizabeth’s Regional Medical Center, and Good Samaritan Hospital—worked closely with many in the cancer advocacy community to help craft this agreement with insurers that will enable them to better serve their patients.
SCLD and Insurance Laws
Over half of states have added a routine health insurance provision for patients who are enrolled in clinical trials, as there is currently no federal legislation mandating such coverage. But that could soon change.
A clinical trials amendment was included in the health care reform bill passed late last month in the Senate. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) negotiated an agreement to include their amendment requiring insurers to cover routine care costs associated with clinical trials in the Senate health reform legislation (H.R. 3590). The provision covers cancer and other life-threatening diseases or conditions and applies to clinical trials funded or approved by the federal government, which includes NCI-funded and NCI-approved trials.
Cancer patients receiving health care coverage through federal programs—including the Department of Defense’s TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration, and Medicare—have had their routine care covered when participating in federally sponsored cancer treatment trials for the past decade, and more private insurance companies are following the trend.
In addition to the routine coverage of care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asked NCI to join in a pilot program several years ago that gave beneficiaries rapid access to promising new uses of technologies under controlled clinical trial conditions. The agency issued a National Coverage Determination (NCD) to cover the off-label use of certain anticancer drugs in nine specific NCI-sponsored clinical trials of colorectal cancer, as well as other cancer types.
This pilot has been successful because, as intended, it attracted more elderly patients to clinical trials; approximately one-third of the patients participating in these nine trials have been age 65 or older, representing a significantly larger proportion of older patients on trials than is typically seen. Inclusion of these older individuals in clinical trials is critical for developing evidence-based treatments for the large number of older Americans who suffer from cancer.
It has been challenging to recruit older adults to clinical trials, despite the increasing incidence of cancer with age, and the results from this pilot suggest that has been due in some part to lack of insurance coverage. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and geriatric oncology leaders have been actively encouraging oncologists to increase enrollment of older adults in clinical trials, and having Medicare explicitly provide details of the medical coverage for the nine trials appears to be a strategy to analyze for broader adoption.
To further heighten the critical component of recruitment issues such as these, NCI and ASCO are jointly sponsoring a scientific meeting on April 29–30 in Bethesda, MD, with special emphasis on strategies for targeting minority and underrepresented populations, including older adults, for enrollment in clinical trials. The “Cancer Trial Accrual Symposium: Science and Solutions” will feature key experts in the clinical trials arena who are actively conducting research and implementing strategies to improve physician and patient participation in clinical trials.
In addition to publishing the results of the symposium, NCI’s Office of Communications and Education plans to use the evidence presented at this meeting to help develop a new online resource, AccrualNet, to assist physicians and staff at clinical sites with trial recruitment.Results from clinical trials form the basis for the modern oncologic therapies that are prolonging survival for many with cancer. Future advances could come more quickly if more patients participate in research. We encourage individuals who are leading efforts to improve accrual to consider participating in this novel symposium. Abstracts are due February 19, and further information can be found online.
Andrea M. Denicoff
Nurse Consultant, Clinical Investigations Branch, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program
NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
Dr. Jeffrey S. Abrams
Associate Director, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program
NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
Guest Commentary by Brenda Nevidjon
This is the second article in a series of stories related to oncology nursing. Look for the symbol on the left in an upcoming issue for the next article in the series.
Health Care Changes: How Cancer Care Initiatives Can Help
New year’s greetings from the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS). Depending on your perspective, 2010 is either ending a decade or beginning a new one. Nevertheless, we have begun a new year and one that brings hope that Congress will indeed come to consensus regarding health care reform.
In the discussions, debates, and deliberations about reform, nursing organizations, including ONS, have actively communicated with Congress and the White House about meaningful solutions to health care reform. As health care providers who spend the most time with patients, nurses know what their patients need and want and recognize that all of the health care disciplines must work together to increase access, ensure quality, and contain cost.
Five initiatives in cancer care could model solutions to challenges in the health care system: interdisciplinary care, patient navigation, survivorship planning, advanced practice nurse-led services, and expanding the science and its translation into care. ONS and our more than 37,000 members are focused on these initiatives.
Cancer care is built on a foundation of interdisciplinary respect and collaboration at the personal and organizational levels. Every day, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other professionals contribute their expertise to develop and deliver care plans. At the organizational level, ONS, along with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, Association of Community Cancer Centers, Association of Oncology Social Work, and many other cancer professional organizations find common ground in advocating for people with cancer, in developing collaborative projects, and in educating our future oncology health care specialists.
The complexity of care and insurance coverage policies can be overwhelming to patients and families. Thanks to Dr. Harold Freeman’s vision, patient navigation is evolving and being integrated into many organizations. Other specialties are viewing this model as well. At a recent meeting of specialty nursing organizations hosted by ONS, the idea of navigators made sense to many whose members care for patients with chronic diseases. So, too, does a focus on survivorship, and the cancer community is leading the way in developing approaches to living with, through, and beyond a cancer diagnosis. Integral to survivorship is attention to the psychosocial care of patients that is often lacking because of insurance issues or the lack of staff with expertise. Nurses have a holistic approach to patient care, but a recent survey conducted by ONS shows that nurses do not have the time to spend with patients to provide psychosocial support. Whether the mental health parity legislation that has been passed will help people with cancer is yet to be determined.
The goals set by the National Priorities Partnership reflect the heart of nursing and provide opportunities for advanced practice nurses (APN), both nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, to lead a transformation in cancer care delivery. APNs are not only partnering with oncologists in their practices but are leading specialized clinics, such as survivor follow-up, or services, such as palliative care or pain management. ASCO’s study, funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, on how nonphysician practitioners (such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants) can provide services to patients with cancer has the potential to confirm what APNs can offer as we face an increasing shortage of oncologists. This study is an example of translating health services science into practice just as basic science is translated into clinical care. Since 1981, the ONS Foundation has provided nursing research funding so that our nurse scientists can continue to seek new knowledge and innovative solutions to gaps in caring for patients with cancer.
In the next 10 years, health care is going to change and so will cancer care. What will not change is the need for highly qualified, well-educated, and compassionate oncology nurses. ONS will continue to provide the resources for nurses caring for patients and will collaborate with our colleagues to ensure that health care changes deliver quality and access for all with a cancer diagnosis.
President, Oncology Nursing Society
Ovarian Cancer Study Tests Lead Time of Potential Biomarkers
Teams of scientists around the world are working to develop ways to detect early signs of ovarian cancer in blood. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the disease, but as yet there are no proven effective biological markers or panels of biomarkers for early detection.
For the most promising markers to date, a critical issue is the question of lead time. That is, how long before the disease is diagnosed can the biomarkers distinguish individuals with and without the disease? A new report provides some answers and illustrates just how difficult it can be to find markers for this relatively rare and deadly disease.
In one of the first such studies, Dr. Garnet Anderson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and her colleagues tested the lead times for six promising markers, using prediagnostic blood samples from 34 women with cancer and a matched comparison group. All were participants in a cancer prevention study called the Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial.
The analysis revealed changes in three markers several years before diagnosis, but the markers typically did not give a strong signal until less than a year before diagnosis. By the time they were diagnosed just a few months later, most women had advanced tumors, the researchers reported online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on December 30.
“These three markers have the potential to move diagnoses of ovarian cancer a few months earlier, but we also found evidence of changes as early as 3 years before diagnosis,” said Dr. Anderson, who co-led the study with Dr. Nicole Urban.
The study demonstrates one reason that screening regimens based on markers—or panels of markers—can fail: because the blood levels of markers do not increase early enough, said Dr. Patricia Hartge of NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics in an accompanying editorial. This information could inform the design of future early detection programs of ovarian cancer, she wrote.
“The good news is that this study shows you can find informative markers within an interval of about a year of diagnosis,” Dr. Hartge said in an interview. “The bad news is we don’t have a foolproof marker that will be put into clinical use and save women’s lives.”
The three informative markers were CA-125, HE4, and mesothelin. (The others tested were B7-H4, decoy receptor 3, and spondin-2.) While CA-125 performed the best of the three, the combination of the three markers was more informative than CA-125 alone. Doctors routinely track blood levels of CA-125 in women with ovarian cancer to monitor a treatment or see whether the cancer has come back. Levels of the marker can rise for reasons other than cancer, however, and they are not always elevated in the disease.
CA-125 and HE4 were the top performers in a validation study reported last spring. “The new findings reinforce the idea that these two markers are currently the best and should be evaluated in future studies,” said lead investigator Dr. Daniel W. Cramer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who is supported by NCI’s Early Detection Research Network. The study was a joint effort and was cosponsored by NCI's Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs). The lead investigator among ovarian SPOREs was Dr. Urban.
Dr. Cramer cautioned against being too pessimistic about the current results, noting that the study had limitations that could be avoided in future studies. For instance, blood from the women was not drawn annually on a regular schedule as would happen in formal screening studies. The study was also small and the women were all past or current heavy smokers, so it is not clear how the findings would apply to other groups.
“When it comes to early detection for ovarian cancer, we’re not there yet,” said Dr. Anderson. “But we’re still working hard, and we still hold out hope that we’re going to find something with a significant impact for women. We think the three markers are a reasonable core we can build on and add other markers to.”
Some creative new approaches might be needed for finding informative biomarkers. Most potential biomarkers to date have come from studying the blood of women with advanced disease, but this may not be the best approach for finding markers that are elevated early in the disease, the study authors said.
Many experts agree that ovarian cancer screening will eventually involve testing biomarkers as well as an imaging component. Two ongoing trials are evaluating combinations of CA-125 and transvaginal ultrasound. The UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening requires both CA-125 and transvaginal ultrasound to be positive before referring women to surgery; the NCI-sponsored Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial requires that one or the other is positive.“Most of us believe that multimodal screening will be needed and that means combining biomarkers with some sort of imaging technology,” said Dr. Anderson. “But we will need improvements in both imaging technologies and in biomarkers to meet our goals of developing effective screening strategies.”
––Edward R. Winstead
This is the third article in a series of stories related to oncology nursing. Look for the symbol on the left in an upcoming issue for the next article in the series.
New Cancer Drugs Bring New Side Effects, and Nurses Respond
It’s a consistent finding among patients who take cancer drugs known as EGFR inhibitors: Those who develop a severe rash, often on the face, tend to have better outcomes than those who don’t. But this rash is not inconsequential. Along with other dermatologic side effects associated with these drugs, which include increasingly popular agents such as cetuximab (Erbitux) and erlotinib (Tarceva), the rashes can produce such significant discomfort, distress, and even life-threatening infections that either the physician or the patient often decides to delay or stop treatment.
For oncology nurses, who, along with physician assistants and nurse practitioners, often take the lead on managing related side effects from cancer treatments, the skin toxicities induced by EGFR inhibitors represent a significant clinical challenge: addressing the unique toxicities of the expanding arsenal of targeted therapies. To date, unfortunately, there are few evidence-based treatments for these side effects.
“We’ve traditionally done a good job of managing problems like myelosuppression, mucositis, and nausea,” said Ms. Pamela Hallquist Viale, an oncology nurse practitioner and nursing consultant in Saratoga, CA, referring to some of the side effects common with traditional chemotherapy. “The targeted therapies work differently, so they have different side effects. And now we’re just starting to become more familiar with how to best manage them.”
How and How Much
As for why the skin is unduly affected by these agents, certain components of the epidermis also have an abundance of receptors to the epidermal growth factor, as do the tumors for which these drugs have proven effective. Blocking the receptor causes a torrent of events—including inflammation and thinning of the skin—that can produce skin damage, most often the telltale rash on the face and upper torso, but also delayed effects such as eyelash lengthening and cracked fingernails. The rash has yet to be validated as a prognostic marker of response to these drugs.
As EGFR inhibitors have transitioned from clinical trials to the clinic, a more accurate assessment of the incidence and severity of the rash is beginning to emerge. The vast majority of patients will experience some form of rash following treatment with an EGFR inhibitor. And according to one survey of oncologists, up to one-third of patients had to have their EGFR inhibitor treatment discontinued as a result of a rash.
Dr. Lori Williams, a researcher and oncology nurse at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, has a related concern. As EGFR inhibitors begin to be used in patients with earlier stage disease, she said, “I’m worried that there will be patients trying to carry on a normal life, and they might stop taking drugs because they’re scared of what they look like,” she said. “Facial rashes can be just as devastating as hair loss.”
Although there is a better appreciation for the side effects that EGFR inhibitors can inflict on patients, in relative terms, these are still early days for the drugs and very few randomized trials have been conducted to provide insight into how best to manage their side effects. Results from two trials have been published, with one study conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) demonstrating modest efficacy in decreasing the severity of rash when patients use the oral antibiotic minocycline.
In the absence of published evidence, explained Ms. Beth Eaby, an oncology nurse at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, the oncology community has leaned heavily on guidance from dermatologists about how best to handle the skin toxicities, which, in addition to the so-called papulopustular rashes on patients’ faces, also include severely dry skin.
“We have taken a lot from what the dermatologists have taught us, and what they say has worked in patients receiving these drugs,” she said.
Even so, managing these side effects often has come down to trial and error. The papulopustular rash is a case in point, explained Ms. Viale. Although it has been referred to as an “acne-form rash”—a term that is now widely discouraged—this severe irritation does not respond to traditional acne medicines, she said. Some acne medications actually make the problem worse, drying out the skin and abetting the development of infections. Clinical experience has shown that thick emollient creams, however, can be quite effective.
Because of the quality-of-life impact of skin toxicities and the potential to interfere with life-extending treatments, several groups have developed recommendations and algorithms on how best to manage them, including a 2009 report developed by a multidisciplinary working group convened by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
The data that are available suggest that prophylactic approaches to managing the rashes may have promise. In addition to the MSKCC trial, there are also the findings from a small, single-center clinical trial presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Patients in the trial had metastatic colorectal cancer and were to receive the EGFR inhibitor panitumumab (Vectibix). They were randomly assigned to receive either a reactive treatment after therapy had begun or a prophylactic approach initiated just before treatment that included a 6-week regimen of hydrocortisone, moisturizers, a moderately protective sunscreen (SPF 15 or higher) when needed, and the antibiotic doxycycline. Patients in the prophylactic arm had a greater than 50 percent reduction in severe skin toxicities and reported a better quality of life.
Dr. Williams, meanwhile, is working with dermatology colleagues at M.D. Anderson to better characterize these rashes. Although there is an established NCI-supported system for reporting and categorizing “adverse events,” including rashes, during the course of clinical trials, the work is part of an effort to establish reporting criteria for dermatologic toxicities that may be more effective in helping to gauge the seriousness of the rash and the impact of therapies on it. One idea under consideration, she explained, is using pictures of actual rashes that could help more precisely establish the different degrees of severity.
Because many of the targeted therapies are oral and taken at home, an image-based system for patients to record their symptoms could be valuable. “The fact that so many [of the targeted therapies] are oral is a big issue,” Dr. Williams noted. The increased availability of oral chemotherapy agents, she continued, “to some extent, has given health professionals a sense of loss of control over side effects.”
So, perhaps more than ever, the need to educate patients about how to understand and cope with potential side effects is critical. “We’ve got to reinforce to patients how important it is to do things like moisturize frequently or use a high SPF sun screen if they’re going to be in the sun for an extended time,” Ms. Viale said. “We’ve got to integrate that teaching component into our care, and we’re seeing progress there.”
A Closer Look
This is the first article in a new series of stories related to cancer communications. Look for the symbol on the left in an upcoming issue for the next article in the series.
Video Eases End-of-Life Care Discussions
Despite the extraordinary progress made in cancer treatment over the past several decades, the disease remains the second-most common cause of death in the United States. Every year, more than 500,000 people with cancer are confronted with the need to make end-of-life care decisions. These decisions can be complex, not only in terms of the emotional issues but also in terms of the wide range of medical options, which can have different goals.
These discussions can be further hampered by poor communication between physicians and patients, and by the fact that patients often have limited understanding of medical terminology. Uninformed decision making can lead to patients choosing end-of-life care that is not in line with their values or with how they picture their last days of life, which in turn can cause distress for them and their loved ones.
“Often when these conversations about end-of-life care are held in the abstract, we’re asking our patients to imagine things that are often unimaginable, and with which they have very little experience,” said Dr. Angelo Volandes, an internal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We want to make sure that patients have all the information required to make an informed decision.”
Dr. Volandes and his colleagues from several hospitals in Boston and Pittsburgh are studying what role patient education plays in the types of end-of-life care that are ultimately chosen by patients. Broadly, end-of-life care can be grouped into three categories: life-prolonging care, which includes extreme measures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of mechanical ventilators; basic medical care, which includes medicines for infections or other treatable problems; and comfort care, which aims to keep patients pain free and relieve their symptoms but does not include life-prolonging treatment or medications for treatable conditions.
Many patients with advanced cancer choose life-prolonging care, in spite of its limited benefits for seriously ill people. (For example, CPR fails in more than 90 percent of people with advanced cancer. And of the less than 10 percent that do survive CPR and mechanical ventilation, most experience medical complications from the procedures.)
“I fear that many people may have been misinformed about the reality of what these medical interventions can provide,” said Dr. Volandes. “I think, when we’re having these conversations, often the words that our patients are using or the images in their mind are more reflective of the media, of television, of the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, or other such programs, rather than the clinical reality.”
Recently, the researchers tested whether a video depicting end-of-life treatment options would be better than traditional verbal explanations in helping patients understand the types of medical technology used in end-of-life care. They enrolled 50 patients with malignant glioma into a randomized clinical trial, assigning patients to a verbal explanation group (27 patients) or to a video group (23 patients). Patients in the verbal explanation group listened to a narrative describing the three categories of end-of-life care and the limitations of each type of care. Patients in the video group listened to the same verbal narrative and then watched a 6-minute video that included the same narrative, but matched to visual images of the care being described. The results appear in the January 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The video included simulations from all three categories of end of life care, including CPR and intubation, administration of intravenous antibiotics, oxygen use, and receipt of pain medication. The appropriateness and accuracy of the simulations were reviewed by 10 oncologists, 3 critical care specialists, 3 palliative care physicians, and 3 medical ethicists, and edits to the script were made as needed.
Each patient’s preference for type of end-of-life care was recorded after exposure to the narrative or the video, as well as their willingness to undergo CPR. The researchers also asked about their understanding of the types of care described and their comfort with the video experience.
Truly Informed Decisions
Participants in the video group reported a larger increase in knowledge of the medical interventions being discussed. “Patients told us ‘I heard you, but I didn’t understand you. But once I saw the pictures, I understood what you meant by those words,’” recounted Dr. Volandes. All of the participants in the video group said they would definitely or probably recommend the video to another cancer patient.
After listening to the verbal narrative, 11 participants said they were willing to undergo CPR and 16 declined. After watching the video, only 2 were willing to undergo CPR and 21 declined.
Among those who only listened to the verbal narrative, 7 people preferred life-prolonging care, 15 preferred basic medical care, and 6 preferred comfort care. After watching the video, no participants preferred life-prolonging care, 1 preferred basic medical care, 21 preferred comfort care, and 1 was unsure of his preference.
“When you have these difficult conversations with patients, it’s not just about what they want and how they feel—the psychology of this devastating disease,” commented Dr. Ann O’Mara, head of Palliative Care Research in NCI’s Community Oncology and Prevention Trials Research Group. “We have to teach patients because, even at the end of life, there are pieces of knowledge that they need in order to make informed decisions.”
“I think what videos allow us to do as physicians is to broach difficult topics in a way that patients can understand what we’re talking about,” said Dr. Volandes. “We need to adapt to how our patients learn today. We’re a media society. We’re visual learners, and video is one additional means by which we as physicians can educate our patients.”
The researchers are beginning a large multicenter study in 2010 that will test use of the video in a diverse group of patients with different types of cancer, from both rural and urban hospitals.
Featured Clinical Trial
PARP Inhibitor and Metronomic Chemotherapy for Refractory Cancer
Name of the Trial
Phase I Study of ABT-888 and Metronomic Cyclophosphamide in Patients with Refractory Solid Tumors or Lymphoma (NCI-09-C-0048). See the protocol summary.
Dr. Shivaani Kummar, NCI Center for Cancer Research
Why This Trial Is Important
Many chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells by causing damage to DNA. However, cells can employ a number of mechanisms to repair this damage. When cells experience drug-induced breaks in their DNA strands, proteins called PARPs bind to the DNA at the sites of the breaks and recruit other proteins involved in DNA repair. This process can allow cancer cells to continue to survive and grow despite the damage caused by chemotherapy treatment.
The oral drug ABT-888 blocks the activity of PARP proteins, thereby interfering with the ability of cancer cells to repair their DNA. Combining ABT-888 with a chemotherapy drug that causes DNA strand breaks, such as cyclophosphamide, may result in a greater antitumor effect.
In this clinical trial, patients with solid tumors or lymphomas that have not responded to previous treatment (refractory cancer), or for which no effective treatment exists, will receive ABT-888 and metronomic cyclophosphamide. The term metronomic refers to the administration of drugs at lower than normal doses more frequently than usual. Metronomic chemotherapy may work differently from treatment with the same drugs at higher doses. Metronomic cyclophosphamide still causes DNA damage, but also exhibits an antiangiogenic effect, is less toxic, and can be given in pill form daily, making it more convenient for patients than intravenous cyclophosphamide.
Doctors will assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of this combination, as well as establish the maximum tolerated dose of ABT-888 and examine the effects of treatment on molecular markers in blood and tumor samples.
“Our goal with this study is to come up with a regimen that is not only effective but also well tolerated and orally available,” said Dr. Kummar.
HPV Vaccine Added to Adult Immunization Schedule
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has updated its 2010 Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule to include either of the FDA-approved human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for women ages 19 to 26 who have not been immunized previously against HPV. The updated recommendations appeared January 5 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
As of October 2009, the FDA had approved two different vaccines to prevent infections from two strains of HPV associated with more than 70 percent of cervical cancers. The vaccine Cervarix protects against HPV-16 and HPV-18, the two most common cancer-causing strains of the virus. The second vaccine, Gardasil, protects against HPV-16 and HPV-18 and against two strains of HPV that cause genital warts.
According to the schedule, either HPV vaccine would optimally be given to girls between the ages of 11 and 12, but women up to age 26 may benefit from “catch-up” vaccination. Both HPV vaccines are most effective when given before a woman becomes sexually active.
In addition, for the first time the CDC included a permissive recommendation that young males ages 9 to 26 may receive Gardasil for the prevention of genital warts, although questions remain “about whether vaccinating men will aid the development of herd immunity to reduce the societal burden of HPV-associated disease,” explained Drs. Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., and Keyur S. Vyas of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in an accompanying editorial. Herd immunity results when enough members of a population are vaccinated to provide protection to unvaccinated members because a disease will have few opportunities to spread.
No studies comparing the effectiveness of Gardasil and Cervarix head-to-head have been published to date.
In Memoriam: NCI's Dr. James W. Jacobson
Dr. James W. Jacobson, acting associate director of the Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP) in NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), succumbed to complications from leukemia on December 23, 2009. Dr. Jacobson joined NCI in 1991 as a program director for genetics. In 1997, he became the chief of what is now the Diagnostic Biomarkers and Technology Branch and continued to hold that position when he became acting head of CDP in 2008.
Dr. Jacobson made many important contributions to NCI and the cancer research community through his leadership in developing and implementing major translational research initiatives. Most recently, he spearheaded NCI’s effort to initiate a national laboratory effort to characterize patient tumors at the molecular level and to validate predictive molecular assays in phase III clinical trials.
“He was a guiding light in developing the Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures (SPECS) initiative, which has allowed large collaborative research groups to define the critical components of comprehensive molecular analyses and begin incorporating them into clinical practice,” said Dr. James H. Doroshow, DCTD director. “SPECS could not be accomplished under the traditional R01 grant, and Jim was instrumental in setting up a new type of award to push the program forward. He was an incredibly generous, kind, and encouraging leader who leaves a legacy of researchers who will continue his pursuit of reliable molecular information that will inform clinical decision making for people with cancer.”
Dr. Jacobson also played a major role in the development of the Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) program, and he developed and led the Director’s Challenge initiative. Dr. Jacobson received an NIH Award of Merit for his role in the early implementation of the extramural component of the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. Throughout his career, Dr. Jacobson convened workshops to bring scientists from different research areas in industry, academia, and government together to discuss how to improve technology development and application for patient benefit.
Dr. Jacobson graduated from Dartmouth College, earned his doctoral degree at the University of Utah, and did post-doctoral research at Yale University prior to joining the faculty of the University of Georgia. He worked for the Genex Corporation for 12 years prior to joining NCI.
NCI Sponsors Symposium on Glycomics in Cancer Detection and Diagnosis
On January 19, NCI will sponsor a meeting of the Alliance of Glycobiologists for Detection of Cancer and Cancer Risk, titled “Integrating Glycomics with other ‘Omics’ in Cancer Detection and Diagnosis.” The open symposium will be held at the Stanford University School of Medicine Bechtel Conference Center. In addition to the university, collaborators include SRI International and the OMICS Publishing Group. The Alliance is a trans-NIH initiative to discover, develop, and clinically validate cancer biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis by targeting complex carbohydrates. View the agenda and register for the meeting online.
NCI Symposium Addresses Biospecimen Quality in Cancer Research
Registration is now open for the NCI’s 3rd Annual Biospecimen Research Network Symposium, “Advancing Cancer Research Through Biospecimen Science.” The event will be held March 24–25 in Bethesda, MD.
The symposium will address the significant impact biospecimen quality has on cancer research and molecular medicine. Participants will hear presentations and engage in interactive discussions about the issue of biospecimen variables and ways to address it. Hosted by NCI’s Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research, the meeting will bring together leaders in the fields of biospecimen research, genomics, proteomics, oncology, pathology, biobanking, hospital administration, and pharmaceuticals, as well as patient advocates.
Go online to register and to get the latest information about speakers, topics, and participation.
NCI's Recovery Act Web Site Showcases Funded Researchers
NCI’s Recovery Act Web site is bringing ARRA-funded research to life through a new feature on the people behind the science. The Impact on Communities page showcases work being done in cancer research and the impact stimulus funding is making in communities across the country. Under the heading Funded Researchers, visitors can scroll through profiles and photos of various researchers funded by the Recovery Act and learn about the projects that are shaping the future of cancer care.
If you are a recipient of Recovery Act funding and would like to add your profile to the site, contact the staff that update the site with new submissions. | <urn:uuid:98754cd3-d222-42d2-8119-ceddf80ad4b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancer.gov/aboutnci/ncicancerbulletin/archive/2010/011210/page6/AllPages/Print | 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 | 0.951078 | 11,569 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Infinite Yums made this amazing gingerbread Ewok village for charity. It took a month to complete.
The Death Star was a giant Rice Krispies Treat covered in grey fondant. Inside the Death Star is a battery pack to power the super laser. The laser beams are made from fiber optics and green LEDs.
Here are some more pictures of the Death Star:
The Ewok huts are gingerbread. The roofs are Shredded Wheat. The trees are wooden dowels, covered with royal icing, Rice Krispies Treats, and fondant. The tree branches are cinnamon sticks.
The main platform that the Ewok huts sat on was so big, it kept cracking. The final solution was to make the main platform two piece of gingerbread, secure them, and then glue them together with royal icing.
Once all the trees and platforms were in place, everything was painted to help it look more realistic.
Here are a bunch of photographs of these amazing trees and platforms.
While the trees, platforms, and huts are amazing. The star of the show is the Ewoks. These adorable Ewoks were made from chocolate and fondant.
Here are bunch of photos of these wonderful Ewoks:
If all that wasn’t enough, Infinate Yums has a tradition of including "hidden" giggles for people who take the time to look closer. Hiding under the main hut is Yoda, Chewbacca, and the crash site of a hang gliding Ewok.
R2-D2 (sporting a cool Santa hat) and C-3PO were also hidden in the Ewok village. | <urn:uuid:535786b4-1699-4759-a7ca-6e18bd124d5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://betweenthepagesblog.typepad.com/between-the-pages-blog/2011/12/stunning-gingerbread-ewok-village.html | 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 | 0.960816 | 350 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Move on up! For parents, a move is often the result of something positive — a new job or a new baby on the way — but for a kid, whether across town or across the country, a move can be a truly frightening experience. A first move, when tots are leaving the only home they have ever known, can be especially scary when all of the unknowns lead to anxiety. Books are often a great way to get the conversation started. These books are all about kids who also didn't want to move, how they got through it, and how they wound up happy in their new homes.
Aug 2 2011 - 5:27am | <urn:uuid:fc662762-6d94-4257-90cd-557babf52b33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lilsugar.com/Children-Books-About-Moving-18529377?fullsite=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968679 | 133 | 1.835938 | 2 |
I saw this post from a blogger about making this little piggy pizza that was just made into piggy bread first. http://cafechocolada.blogspot.com/2008/02/this-little-piggy.html
and this link to Dr. Oelker recipe for Piglets for happiness at http://www.coolinarika.com/recept/709874
which was translated by google to English. I think the recipe for the Dr. Oetker recipe comes from an old Dr. Oetker cookbook and was made by oblakica.
What I am wondering if it matters if plain white yogurt is used replace the sour cream in Dr. Oetker recipe. I also wondered what is meant by whole meal flour in Dr. Oetker recipe. I donít know what a dl is either in the Dr. Oetker recipe, but in the blogger recipe I guess she translated what a dcl was and hope that is correct for the yogurt and milk.
I also wondered if the1 pack of dry yeast is ADY.
I never tried any kind of dough that two doughs were mixed together, but I find that interesting.
I sure donít know, but think one of this recipes with applewood smoked bacon, pizza sauce and mozzarella would be good. Maybe also a little bit of oregano added. I guess almost any fillings would be interesting.
I might try one of these recipes on Saturday to see what happens. I guess these little pig heads can be called pizza.
This is the recipe that was translated to English from oblakica. The translation isnít complete though.
From these ingredients first knead dough and leave in a warm place to rise. Meanwhile zamijestite crisp batter and mix them well together to create a lightly floured surface. Roll out dough and cut into mold or glass circles (mine were 7-8 cm in diameter but can be smaller and larger, if desired).
Grate cheese, add the tomato sauce and oregano. This part you can change as you see fit. For example, to add to that mixture some salami or ham or vegetables (peppers, onions ..) or change the cheese (gorgonzola would be perfect), etc. Fill piglets those you love.
3 / slika/38057 /
Arrange half circles on the baking sheet (on wax paper best) and put the stuffing on it as you want. The edges of the pastry brush with beaten egg white, cover the remaining rounds and a good squeeze. From the dough, cut out smaller circles (some app. 4 cm) cut to get the 4 triangles, brush with egg white and "paste" ears. Also make small circles of snout. Toothpick make the eyes and nostrils, and insert, if desired, cumin and grains of pepper and cloves. When all this is a little brush rebooted yolk, beaten with a little milk. Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 170-200 degrees Celsius. slika1 pic2
Maybe this recipe looks complicated, so I thought, but it really is not. It was almost really fast, and kids went crazy, eat almost everything away before midnight
Oh yeah, I turned them 20 pieces in this recipe.
Bon appetit everyone and Happy New Year
400 gr wholemeal 1 pack of dry yeast 1 egg 2 dl sour cream 1 dl warm milk pinch of salt
150 grams of flour 100 gr margarine a little salt
optional cheese (eg Gouda) optional tomato sauce optional oregano
For joining and coating
1 egg white 1 egg + milk | <urn:uuid:4947755f-4d69-45f9-8583-4eee58a2d9a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=23202.msg236962 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941612 | 760 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Commercial Architectural Excellence
The new visitor centre at ZEALANDIA was conceived of as a high tech bivouac leaning back against the bush clad hill at the entry to the sanctuary.
It’s primary role was to house the purpose designed exhibition that tells the story of the destruction and reconstruction – as showcased in the sanctuary – of natural habitat in New Zealand. It also provides ticketing, retail and café amenities.
The small footprint of useable land available necessitated a three storey structure to meet the spatial needs. As this threatened to overwhelm the diminutive but historically important existing boat shed and valve tower that it overlooked, in alignment with the concept, the building leans back, deferentially, against the hill. It’s western face is fully glazed so that visitors are constantly orientated to the boatshed and valve tower as they journey through the building. This positions these elements as the proper symbols of the sanctuary. | <urn:uuid:e49efd93-07a6-4d0d-89b1-841213761d22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzwood.co.nz/industry-news/timber-design-awards-2011-entrants/zealandia-visitor-centre/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955781 | 193 | 1.820313 | 2 |
From staff reports
Ohio University and eight historically black colleges and universities will meet Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to officially announce a new educational partnership -- The Interlink Alliance. The unique alliance will address some of the most pressing issues facing these and other higher education institutions.
Members of the alliance have pledged to work cooperatively in three key areas: faculty development, student leadership and an African-American male initiative that engages and motivates prospective college students as early as middle school.
"There is nothing more important to all our institutions than figuring out how to reach, retain, educate, graduate and facilitate the success of students -- especially those who continue to be underrepresented despite other efforts. And we want to make sure that all our students have everything they need to be competitive at the highest levels," Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis said. "To do that, we must give our faculty the tools to be exceptional. In addition, our institutions must be better at building our infrastructures and conducting business."
The alliance includes small, medium and large institutions, all with different characters. Chancellor Charlie Nelms of North Carolina Central University thinks that's one of its greatest strengths.
"A lot of times, institutions partner with others most like them. This is the only partnership that we've been involved in with this kind of diversity. There are opportunities to connect in ways that would not otherwise be possible," he said.
The Interlink Alliance includes Ohio University in Athens, Ohio; Spelman College in Atlanta; Hampton University in Hampton, Va.; Wilberforce University and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.; North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C.; South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C.; and Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va.
Although many consortia pair traditionally white schools and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), they have tended to focus on specific research areas or projects. Or they have been recruitment conduits, primarily funneling undergraduates from HBCUs into post-baccalaureate programs at traditionally white institutions. The Interlink Alliance core group put special emphasis on a peer structure that benefits all participating institutions and offers collaboration opportunities for multiple institutions at once.
"This agreement represents something new in higher education," McDavis said. "Every institution in this alliance brings talent, successes and research expertise to bear on these challenges. We're only successful if every member benefits."
The real beneficiaries of the alliance, which Wilberforce University President Patricia Hardaway calls "a pivotal opportunity," will be students and faculty.
"The distinctive element of this commitment is that it will be ingrained in all levels of the university. It will give opportunities to faculty to learn and grow and also give them the opportunity to help others. It will bring synergy around research," Hardaway said. "... And students will be able to communicate with students at other institutions. ...They will be able to go to other universities where they'll have different research and classroom experiences."
McDavis said that although alliance members would like the group to remain a manageable size in order to conduct projects nimbly, they hope other HBCUs and traditionally white institutions will join in once the alliance is fully up and running.
Among outcomes members have discussed so far are increasing the number of students earning graduate degrees, increasing campus diversity at all institutions, and sponsoring faculty and student exchanges that foster deeper understanding of cultural perspectives on educational policies, laws and resources.
Consortium initiatives include, but are not limited to:
- Initiative for African-American males -- Establishes partnerships with K-12 schools, focusing on projects to support access and opportunity for African-American males to pursue a college education.
- Faculty development -- Integral to the consortium is the opportunity for faculty training, advancement and the pursuit of doctoral degrees.
- Student leadership development -- This initiative will pursue a multipronged approach to preparing students for high-level careers in educational institutions, corporations and governments in the global economy.
- Research collaboration -- This alliance will bring researchers together from multiple fields, with special emphasis on cancer and biomedical research.
- Infrastructure -- Member institutions will collaborate on infrastructure improvement through sharing best practices of successful programs, services and partnerships.
If you wish to speak with an Interlink Alliance representative, contact Tyrone M. Carr, Ohio University Interlink Alliance director, at 740-593-1641 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:6be959a6-b8d2-4eec-91c2-31df1e36b8fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohio.edu/outlook/08-09/October/154.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937938 | 927 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Tips For Acquiring A Small Business Loan
There are some areas that a loan applicant might want to leave off the original loan request. Lenders don’t necessarily need to know what insurance covers, collateralized items or lease documents. If a loan officer asks for that information, provide it, but don’t bring it up unless asked---it can slow the process.
Small Business Accounting and Small Business Lenders.
Lenders will want to examine small business accounting methods---they pay close attention to balance sheets. They will also comb through a business owner’s personal financial records, including how credit cards are used and if installment loans are up to date. An uncertainty connected with any of those lending elements could be enough to derail a potential small business loan.
Once the small business loan paperwork is ready for a lender to consider, what’s next? Finding the right institution is a good place to start. Begin with those outfits you already know well. In fact, let a potential lender know that in six months, or a year down the road, your small business might need money for expansion or some other reason. Present your lender with periodic reports about your business. Let your lender examine your small business accounting records, which will help expedite the actual loan making process. Also, check out credit unions. They operate on a smaller scale and lead to the potential of faster loan decisions.
Preparation is a vital element for anyone looking to obtain a small business loan. Before granting a loan, lenders need to know that the money will be repaid. Lending entails some risk for the lender and a smart small businessperson will have prepared a business plan that shows realistic potential, with a notation about what to expect from possible competitors. Any history of success should also be presented to the lender. | <urn:uuid:f74ef24d-69a5-436d-aea6-bcc1a7b5de4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indevia.com/tips-acquiring-small-business-loan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949835 | 367 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I found a whole bag of these great multicoloured sea shells at a flea market and for about a year I was debating what to do with them, until I had the idea of using the shells like mosaic tiles. In a nutshell what I did was cover the shells in jointing compound and then partially dig them out again. Here is a more detailed tutorial:
What you need:
a plate or bowl (made of cardboard or wood)
lots of sea shells
joint compound used for mosaics
a paint brush and white paint (which I forgot to include in the picture)
a mixing bowl and some water
Step 1: Figure out how you want to arrange the shells on the plate. If necessary you can break some into smaller pieces with a hammer.
Step 2: Mix the joint compound with water to create a thick paste. Cover the shells (and especially their edges) with that mix.
Step 3: Immediately after that start cleaning off the tops of the shells with water so only the edges are covered with the joint compound. Smooth out the areas between the shells. This might take some time, prepare to feel like an archeologist (at least I did). Let everything dry overnight.
Step 4: Paint the joint compound with white paint. Make sure to blend the paint into the edges of the shells.
I love DIYs, feel free to send me any cool ones you find or made yourself. | <urn:uuid:10ee2fd6-b607-46e3-a9ab-ab5e83427986> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://into-mind.com/2011/12/09/diy-sea-shell-mosaic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960275 | 293 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Sherman Museum is giving visitors a lesson in Texas history this month.
The museum is presenting "Annexation, Celebrating Texas Statehood."
The exhibits takes visitors through the once-republic of Texas' path to joining the United States.
Museum Director Dan Steelman said his favorite part of the exhibit is its comprehensiveness.
"It really gives you an in-depth look at that time period," he said. "It looks not only from the Texas viewpoint, it also looks at it from the mexico view point."
The display runs until the end of September. | <urn:uuid:b47363fd-551b-4de2-8336-d90c4da53583> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxii.com/fox/home/headlines/Sherman-Museum-presents-Annexation-Celebrating-Texas-Statehood-168195496.html?site=mobile | 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 | 0.971702 | 122 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Since I first wrote about (and shared many photos of) the ingenious, shelter-on-a-shoestring known as the Lānaʻi Animal Rescue Center back in 2009, it has only improved — in its facilities and community outreach.
The 20,000-square-foot, open-air enclosure, on land donated by the company of the island’s then-majority owner David Murdock (who subsequently sold to Larry Ellison), includes all sorts of feline-friendly nooks in pallets, sleeping cubicles, large plastic irrigation pipes and climbing jungle gyms. The two Four Seasons Lānaʻi resorts encourage guests to help care for the inhabitants — many of whom are quite sociable and ready for petting — through its Kōkua (“Help”) voluntourism program. And the center has embraced social media, with a presence on Twitter (@larclanai), Facebook and Pinterest.
But with the constant demand for pet food and medicine, monetary donations are also needed. Consider the case of Cupid, who was brought to the center last year after being found with an arrow running through the entire length of her body. As LARC co-founder and executive director Kathy Carroll recounts in a recent fund-raising plea:
“Don’t remove the arrow,” we were warned.
The last ferry for the vet clinic on Maui had left for the day. All night, we had to comfort poor Cupid. But in the morning, it was off to Central Maui Animal Clinic, where thank goodness, they discovered that the arrow had not hit any vital organs, and it was safely removed.
Now, Cupid’s enjoying the good life here at LARC’s outdoor sanctuary, bathed in soft breezes and sunshine. She enjoys being pampered at the sanctuary “salon,” and she’s making all kinds of new friends.
The nonprofit center has set up the Cupid Fund in her honor to help animals in need of urgent care, according to Carroll, who noted a bride in Canada asked guests to make donations in honor of Cupid instead of sending gifts. (Follow the link for information on online donations or where to mail a check if you’d like to support the center.)
Efforts to develop community support for the center (and its spay/neuter programs) have also increased since I last checked in. Every month, Lanai High and Elementary School student volunteers provide assistance with weeding, raking, painting kitty condos, “or the most important job of all petting/socializing the cats,” according to the center’s Web site. Volunteer Matt Glickstein made the musical video below with the island’s fourth-graders at the center. Be warned: It’s a double dose of cuteness, but all for a good cause. | <urn:uuid:5af659c3-231d-4a1c-a20b-2b52f6632a2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.sfgate.com/hawaii/2012/11/27/video-celebrates-little-lions-of-lanai-animal-rescue-center/?gta=commentlistpos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956985 | 609 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Stephen Roach argues in this article that the "current medicine being applied to America's economy" is wrong. The real disease is a "protracted balance-sheet recession that has turned a generation of America’s consumers into zombies – the economic walking dead. Think Japan, and its corporate zombies of the 1990’s. Just as they wrote the script for the first of Japan’s lost decades, their counterparts are now doing the same for the US economy".
This is an argument that has been used before during the current crisis: we are trying to fix a structural problem with medicine that can only deal with cyclical misalignments. Using Roach's words: "Steeped in denial, the Federal Reserve is treating the disease as a cyclical problem – deploying the full force of monetary accommodation to compensate for what it believes to be a temporary shortfall in aggregate demand."
There is no doubt that asset bubbles and excessive optimism during the pre-crisis years are now reflected in weak balance sheets that will take time to fix and will represent a drag on growth. And this clearly is not a mere cyclical issue. But there is something else that is going on: advanced economies have gone through a deep recession and are still producing below potential. This is not structural, this is cyclical. And finding a solution to the structural problem in the middle of a recession is not easy. While households have to reduce spending to repair their balance sheets, doing so at the same time that income is below potential just becomes more painful. Monetary and fiscal policy cannot eliminate the effort that is associated with deleveraging but they need to ensure that this happens in the least painful way. And this requires producing a path for output and income in the short run that is as close as possible to the level of potential output. We can debate about what this level should be but it is hard to argue that given current economic conditions and high levels of unemployment we are close to potential. | <urn:uuid:bb2fd0b6-f97a-4364-b717-b0cf686e58cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fatasmihov.blogspot.com/2012/10/cyclical-zombies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96358 | 398 | 1.601563 | 2 |
In our latest photo essay made in collaboration with Magnum Photos, Chien-Chi Chang presents us with a collection of photographs taken between 1992-2011 illumintating the visible and invisible worlds of Chinatown, New York City.
"The men of Fuzhou, China leave their wives and families to work as dishwashers, cooks, carpenters and day laborers in New York City’s Chinatown. Their little leisure time is spent in overcrowded dorm like apartments where they cook, eat, sleep and dream of prosperity and of home.
The women of Fuzhou raise their children with the money absent fathers send back to China. Such bifurcated lives mean that many families spend their time waiting for the men of the household to either send for them or return home. In the end, it’s all about the essential human need to hold hope in your hands and having the willingness to sacrifice your own happiness to realize the dream of giving children a better life." - Chien-Chi Chang
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Re: License question
Posted by: Allan Hardy
Date: May 13, 2005 04:56AM
I too am trying to work out MySQL licensing and advise my company and customers. You seem to have a tough job on this, one that I would have thought was well documented by now.
Where you said:
-- See fsf.org for interpretations of the GPL.
Why? I mean your the copyright holder. Its your interpratation and enforcement thats relavent, not FSFs. They can only advise you.
(Which they have done a poor job of advising anyone with this issue of collective works and linking, so they put you in a bind. )
In any case they can't take action against me for any improper use of mySQL, only you can. So your a much more important source of information then them.
Ed asked some great questions about 'linking' a few posts back. Any Comments?
If we do look to FSF for any help, consider that their compliancy lab guidelines say these types of connections/linking would cause an issue, in thier minds:
1-Static linking with a GPL'ed component
2-Dynamically linking at runtime with a GPL'ed component, through a system such as dlopen(), insmod, or a generally equivalent system.
3-Communication with a GPL'ed component via a rich, non-standard IPC or network interface that gives all the same functionality normally given by static or dynamic linking
4-Distribution of a component that is explicitly designed to link with a specific GPL'ed component. (For example, distributing object code for a GCC front-end and telling the user: "To make this work, get GCC yourself" is considered a violation, but distributing a binary component that requires a standardized, commonly implemented POSIX API is not considered a violation.)
Notice in #3 it points out using non-standard interface to a GPL'ed product is linking.
However SQL is a standard? JDBC, ODBC, are standards?
Notice #4 says using a standard interface is not linking
(for now I am interpreting this as a POSIX API as a meaning a common, standardized API, or interface, like say SQL) and not The POSIX API specifically and only)
So If I implement my commercial app using JDBC, and the customer decides to implement Connect/J and MYSQL, as one of several database options 'they' have, under which definition of linking would my commercial app become a GPL violator?
Perhaps there is a much finer discusison on interfaces and drivers to be had.
Thanks for your time and patience on this. I guess you can tell that some of us find it important. Though I do understand the 'jeez just spend a few bucks on commercial license' idea and hence the question of why spend time and resources. But if you would just do it once it would help. On the other hand you (MySQL AB) choose GPL, with all of its warts and open issues, so sympathy doesn't run to deep :) | <urn:uuid:ac580c72-9ab9-4998-88ed-3a9939d29b9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?4,1988,25882 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938409 | 645 | 1.507813 | 2 |
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
SOMALIA: Hundreds of thousands killed in years of war, says new president
KAMPALA, 5 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - The new Somali leader, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said on Friday it was estimated that hundreds of thousands of his countrymen were killed during 14 years of war that devastated the Horn of Africa country, but added he believed the country could be pacified again.
"Up to 300,000 people were killed during the war, while about two million were displaced - some living here in Uganda," Yusuf told a joint news conference with President Yoweri Museveni at the end of a two-day visit to Uganda. "National institutions including the cultural norms of the Somali people were destroyed."
Museveni said the Somali president had expressed preference for an African force to help restore law and order in his country.
"The opinion of the president is that the force that will help restore law and order should be an African force supported by the international community," Museveni said at the news conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
"They prefer an African force [because it] could easily be compatible to the culture of Somalia. Uganda will be ready to offer any force the African Union would like to help our brothers to stand on their feet," Museveni added.
Yusuf has appealed for 20,000 peacekeepers to help restore order in the devastated country and disarm about 55,000 militias that roam the country carrying more than two million small arms. He said Somalia faced an enormous task of rebuilding institutions, including the police and called for support and resources to get the country moving.
"In order to undertake the huge task ahead of us, like disarmament, re-integration and restore the rule of law, we need support from African brothers as well as the international community, without which we cannot achieve much," he said.
"We promise that we shall accelerate programmes in Somalia as much as we can. It is my belief that if we (Somalis) work together, the time frame for pacifying Somalia will be very short," he added.
On the recent clashes in the north of the country, Yusuf said: "I will not blame any side because I am now the president of the whole of Somalia. But a new civil war in Somalia is totally unacceptable and we have advised them what to do and they should take that advice. If they refuse, the Somali people will take them on."
On Thursday, an expert warned against a hasty imposition or deployment of a peacekeeping force to war-ravaged Somalia. Alejandro Bendana, team leader of the European Union (EU)-backed Somalia Strategic Demilitarisation Unit, said: "There is no question about going in there to impose something. This is not Iraq. No one has a right to go and impose on another government - on a people that has not solicited it."
"Whatever action the international community takes has to be sensitive to the reality on the ground," he continued. "There are pre-conditions for a deployment. Along with the question of numbers, there has to be political conditions and understanding and dissemination of what that external deployment should be."
Yusuf was sworn into office on 14 October after Somalia's 275-member transitional parliament elected him in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to lead the Horn of Africa country that has been divided into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords since 1991.
On Wednesday, he named Prof Ali Muhammad Gedi as his new prime minister, 10 days ahead of a deadline set by the country's interim constitution for the president to name a prime minister. Gedi was a prominent member of the political arm of the United Somali Congress, one of the armed groups that overthrew former president Muhammad Siyad Barre.
Somalia ceased to function as a modern state in 1991 when armed groups overthrew the regime of Barre, precipitating a ruinous civil war that saw numerous warring warlords and their militias carve the country into fiefdoms.
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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Hoist your glasses to a trusted companion! He disappeared at the youthful age of 28. Not Hendrix, not Winehouse, but… the pixel.
Largely born in the 1980s desktop publishing revolution with the first 1984 Mac computer, the pixel was at birth very declarative: he was either on or off. Very quickly he grew to 16 shades of gray and later became a rebel, waving 256 colors and finally matured into 16 million colors.
Two weeks ago, his “parents” at Apple effectively killed him with the launch of the MacBook Pro Retina display laptop, that jaw-droppingly beautiful notebook with 2-1/2 times the number of pixels of that 50-inch HDTV in your living room.
Birth of the High-Resolution Web
With the new MacBook Pro Retina laptop (technology also found in the new iPad, Android phones and the iPhone 4S), the pixels are now sooo small, so teeny, that we can no longer design around them. Web practices like creating a web page at 1024 x 768, or creating a 2″ x 2″ banner ad, and anything that used to be WYSIWYG are all going to be obsolete in the future.
Retina Mac early adopters are already complaining that websites which were created using standard size graphics and images (that would be 99.999% of all current websites) look fuzzy on these new devices. You can’t take little images and icons and just blow them up as Apple’s new flagship is doing. They get blurry and jaggy.
How can you plan for and design around something you can’t see? The short answer is you need a new web toolkit (and vernacular) to create new high-rez friendly websites. The good news is the geeks (hey, I count myself as an honorary subject in their unruly legion) are already on it.
Quashing Fuzzy Web Graphics: “Retina” Graphics Primer
Following are three tips, technologies and best practices you’ll need to think about before embarking on creating your next website.
1) Kick the Pixel Habit. This will be the hardest one for designers — we all love our Photoshop images. By learning about new web image technologies like SVG (scalable vector graphics), web designers need not rely on JPEG and GIFs of things like arrows, charts and smooth headers. The current problem with the SVG file format is that not every web browser supports it. Most modern browsers do, but Internet Explorer 8 and below, and Android 2.3 do not.
2) Icon Fonts. This is the tech that has us jazzed at Right Hat. Icon fonts take small line graphics like arrows, icons and so on, and embed them into CSS3-compliant web page code. Awesome. Icon fonts successfully avoid many of the backwards-browser issues that SVG faces.
3) Responsive Images. While the two technologies above deal with line art and icons, dealing with photos is more complicated. Retina-ready images should be treated “responsively”, that is to say your images will need to be four times the size they are currently. (While this is frequently referred to as 2X images, it is in reality 4 times the number of pixels). There are currently several web developer “hacks” and discussions about how to best deal with higher rez images, so talk with your developer about the best plan.
One image downside: if you have a practice of purchasing royalty-free images in the smaller “web” image sizes, that won’t cut it in RetinaLand. High resolution-frindly websites mean higher image budgets.
What can you do to get ready for the emerging presence of high rez laptops and iPads? For starters, monitor your web logs and visitors’ screen resolutions. At the sky high prices of these Apple products, it will take a while for these stats to register. However, once the Retina resolution stats approach double digits, it’s time to start reformulating your graphics approach using these new technologies.
The good news is that there is nothing in these new high-resolution computer and tablet screens that’s going to break your current site. I’m sure the folks with more-money-than-God who can afford the new MacBook Pro Retina are already getting used to fuzzy graphics.
But the high-resolution future is coming. That much is clear. | <urn:uuid:495670c3-5639-43ac-9195-7f1daaf847da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.righthat.com/category/technology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93277 | 931 | 1.703125 | 2 |
For all grief South Carolina Democrats give Gov. Mark Sanford about the Palmetto State’s economy, it’s important to remember that things are worse, sometimes much worse, in other states.
Take Rhode Island. According to a story in The Economist, “People are leaving the state in droves to find jobs. Others are being taxed out. The state government has been putting more pressure on a dwindling pool of taxpayers. The state has only 1 million residents, of whom only 465,000 are working. Some 8,300 families, with incomes of around $485 million subject to tax, left the state between 2005 and 2006.”
Rhode Island has a budget gap of $372 million for the year that ends on June 30th, among the highest in the country, according to Council of State Governments.
The future looks even bleaker, The Economist reported. Revenue collections are down by $13.8 million. The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, an independent research group, says the state faces long-term deficits over the next decade.
The 2011 fiscal year will probably show a $156 million deficit. The gap will continue to widen to a potentially crippling $482 million in 2014.
The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan public-education outfit based in Washington, DC, has consistently judged Rhode Island’s tax climate to be one of the worst in the country.
Just how bad is the economy in “Little Rhody?” Pretty bad, according to The Economist:
“Today almost no homes … are being built in Rhode Island. Only 16 permits for single-family dwellings were issued in February in the whole state. In March 633 homes were in foreclosure. The job front looks even worse. Last September Rhode Island had the highest unemployment rate in the country, exceeding even Michigan. In March the rate was the sixth-highest in the country, 10.5%, compared with 8.5% nationally.
“Almost every sector has been affected. Jobs are so scarce that 200 people turned up recently at a job fair hosted by Foxy Lady, a Providence strip club. But the current misery comes on top of long-term decline. The state’s once thriving manufacturing industry has been fading for decades, with production slowing and working hours cut. Manufacturing lay-offs were persistent, even during good times; and good times have not been seen in the state for almost two years. Rhode Island entered the recession six months before the rest of the country.”
All of which is food for thought the next time the anti-Sanfordites take the governor to task for his strict adherence to fiscal conservatism.
Paying down debt, laying the groundwork for a sound business environment and trying to set aside money for a “rainy day” doesn’t win you a lot of fans in the legislature, but it sure beats the heck out of watching your state become an economic wasteland.
First Reliance Bancshares of Florence, SC, saw its net income drop sharply during first quarter 2009, to $13,865 from $826,123 during the same period in 2008.
The company’s provision for loan losses rose to $1.3 million from $501,603 in 2008, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The net result available to shareholders was a loss of $58,403, representing a loss of 2 cents a share.
“The commercial and real estate construction industry in our coastal region has been the hardest hit causing us to be prudent and build up our loan loss provisions,” Chief Executive Rick Saunders said in a statement. “We are taking a very conservative approach to our business until we see more consistent and positive trends in our communities’ economic indicators.”
First Reliance stock closed Tuesday at $4.50 a share. The company’s 52-week high is $12.90.
The slumping economy has been hard on the Myrtle Beach real estate market, so it should come as no surprise that Beach First National Bancshares is feeling the impact of the downturn.
The Myrtle Beach-based parent of Beach First National Bank lost $4,958,314 during the first quarter of 2009, compared to a gain of $883,713 a year earlier. For all of 2008, Beach First lost $3.7 million.
Total non-performing assets rose to $34.4 million by March 31, 2009, compared to $6.7 million a year earlier. Total non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets now stands at 4.73 percent and non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans is more than 5.25 percent, according to information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It was a difficult first quarter for Beach First as we continued to work through the challenges of the economic crisis which began about 18 months ago,” Chief Executive Walt Standish said in a statement. “The coastal South Carolina markets have been significantly hard hit by declining real estate values that have impacted our customers and in turn, our results.
“We have taken significant steps to improve our performance, continuing to increase the reserve for loan losses and implementing cost control measures,” he added.
Beach First stock closed Tuesday at $3.05 a share. It’s traded as high as $12.07 over the past year. | <urn:uuid:c2d06701-6913-45b7-be6e-173b64d51c84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://southcarolina1670.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963221 | 1,121 | 1.6875 | 2 |
About This Guide
Internet and electronic information, with no print equivalents, present new challenges to scholars. Increasingly information is being published only in electronic formats, and questions about how to cite these sources in academic papers have become frequent at library service desks.
This guide is written for students at the University of Alberta and is not meant to be definitive. Comments are very welcome. Please click on the tabs above to see examples of style guides. | <urn:uuid:fbed1318-6803-44a7-ac54-e68fdd0c608c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/citation_internet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946453 | 88 | 1.757813 | 2 |
uskegon County officials, the Montague City Council has decided to reverse its motion to leave Mark Freeland’s seat open, and appoint someone at their next meeting.
When Freeland resigned in September 2012, the city council asked for applications for the vacant seat, and received six applications.
After roughly two months of deliberating over the six candidates, the board decided to keep the seat vacant until the next election in November 2013. The board made a motion at their board meeting on Nov. 19, 2012 to keep the seat open.
According to Montague City Manager John French, there was no time limit to choose a person to fill the seat. The only spot they would have to fill would be the mayor’s seat, which would have to be filled within 30 days.
In December 2012, Muskegon County Clerk Nancy Waters contacted the county’s legal council, Ted Williams, to ask if the City of Montague could legally leave the seat vacant. The county found that because the city council made an official motion to leave the seat open, the city violated the city’s charter. Technically, the city council could have just not chosen someone, but by making the motion, the charter was violated.
The city council then decided to seek its own legal council for another opinion, and based on that opinion by City Attorney John Schrier, the city decided they will now appoint someone to the open seat.
Councilman Calvin (Hap) Cederquist made a motion to reverse the motion to not appoint someone, and to revisit the appointment. The motion passed 5-0 (council member Lisa Kiel was absent from the meeting).
Mayor Kevin Erb previously stated that the council had a hard time choosing a candidate because each were highly qualified. He also stated that the person would only serve for less than one year, so the council thought it would be best to just leave the seat open and wait until the next election.
Councilman Jeff Auch suggested that the council members rank their top three candidates for the seat. Each candidate who receives a first place vote will receive three points, candidates who receive a second place vote receive two points and candidates who receive a third place vote will receive one point. The candidate with the highest amount of points will be chosen to fill the seat.
While Cederquist suggested that the council not rush into a decision, Erb said that the council has had quite a while to think about the candidates, and that they shouldn’t wait too long.
Audience member Roger Scharmer urged the council to appoint someone and proceed quickly.
“We need more people on the board,” Scharmer said.
The council members will return their sheets with their top three candidates into City Clerk Laurie Robillard at the next meeting, which will be on Monday, Feb. 4. | <urn:uuid:0a4b7855-fd64-4c3a-8e3c-70adb29c26e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whitelakebeacon.com/print.php?story_id=29332 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975503 | 587 | 1.539063 | 2 |
If you are looking for something to do on June 16, you should head up to Robbers Cave State Park north of Wilburton between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. for the Antique Tractor and Implement Show. Registration is from 7 to 9 a.m. A people's choice award will be given to the categories of tractor, implement and miscellaneous.
There will be several family activities including an antique hay bailing demonstration, a horseshoe tournament, Dutch oven cooking demonstrations, old fashion “Tom Walker” stilts and stick and hoop rolling games. It will be fun for all, so plan to attend.
— — —
Last summer, I saw a river otter while fishing in Wister Lake, and decided to do a little research on the critter. Here is what I found out about the little weasel.
You might say that the river otter (Lutra canadensis) “slides” through life. One of the more lively wildlife species, river otters play frequently, diving for objects, socializing, swimming, and, yes, sliding on their stomachs across ice or mud. River otters are sleek, dark brown mammals with a tan or golden blaze on the face and chest.
Their narrow bodies can be longer than four feet, much of which is tail length, and weigh 15 to 20 pounds. However, they stand less than a foot at the shoulders. Females are slightly smaller than males. They prefer seclusion, so they are often alone, and found far from civilization. It has been said that one otter could easily have a 20-mile range all to itself, though it will find and socialize with other otters.
Otters rely very little on fat stores for warmth, as their fur will sufficiently accomplish the task. Harsh weather poses little threat to this hardy member of the weasel family. Here in our part of the state, there is no need to worry about a harsh winters, however, those harsh summers can be rough!
There is little threat of predation for river otter, either, making it easy for them to enjoy their sliding and diving sessions. They are big enough that few predators will attempt an attack, though bobcats, coyotes and some others will occasionally be able to catch one.
The river otter is a predator, actually, of fish, frogs, turtles, crayfish and even the occasional egg of a ground-nesting bird. Other supplements find a way into the otter’s diet, from animals to insects to vegetation, but they rely heavily on frequent catches of fish. They will eat several species fish, such as carp and sunfish, but smaller fish make the easiest meals.
During the spring, otters travel and find mates. They use a wide vocabulary of sounds to communicate with each other. After almost a year, females give birth to two or three offspring, which are born helpless, usually in the seclusion of another animal’s abandoned den. After learning to swim, the young begin learning to hunt their own food, and eventually begin to travel. At two years old, the young otters will breed their own litters. A river otter can live 15 to 20 years.
If you spend enough time near a river or pond, you may spot a river otter enjoying a day of diving, fishing or sliding. However, you may not see the otter in the same place again for a while, as his travels take him on frequent journeys.
Have a great week!
— — —
Email questions or comments to email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:22cabc10-de1b-490b-8308-7964b2af4e3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poteaudailynews.com/content/tractor-show-coming-robbers-cave-june-16-and-tidbits-about-river-otters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962521 | 789 | 1.5625 | 2 |
U.S. automakers, including Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, are facing a tough road ahead. They are looking for ways to stay afloat in down economy, while keeping an eye on the future of the industry as a whole. This topic covers the most important developments and analysis on the automobile industry and many of its key players.
U.S. Automakers is part of Business Exchange, suggested by Tara Kalwarski. This topic contains 4,665 news and 932 blog items. Read updated news, blogs, and resources about U.S. Automakers. Find user-submitted articles and reactions on U.S. Automakers from like-minded professionals.
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Croatian President Stjepan Mesić received credentials from James B. Foley, the new United States Ambassador to Croatia.
Ambassador Foley said that Croatia and the United States were friends and, as of late, allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He stressed Croatia's contribution to international peace operations and role in stabilising Southeast Europe, adding that he would be working on strengthening economic ties between the two countries.
President Mesić stated that Croatia welcomed with great enthusiasm "the new highlights of US foreign policy" introduced by President Barack Obama and that he personally appreciated the fact that "the US today is open to dialogue with everyone and respects the special characteristics of individual countries or regions."
"Croatia particularly respects peace, because in the first days of its independence it had to experience the horrors of war, and remains committed to the fight against global terrorism," Croatian President emphasized. | <urn:uuid:eba16155-1a22-4cef-b172-cc31b433947a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.predsjednik.hr/Default.aspx?art=16566&sec=929 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965431 | 181 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Alumnus Earns Outstanding Teacher Award
Monday, June 29, 2009
Lee Finds Career in Classroom
Lori McGinnis, IANR News Service
It didn’t take long for Don Lee to realize while growing up in Sioux Falls, S.D., that he wanted to be a teacher.
“I probably knew pretty early I wanted to be a scientist,” he said. “I discovered as I went through school that when I learned something new I got excited about trying to explain it to somebody else. I think that’s a good sign you should be a teacher.”
Lee was wise to follow his young instincts. He is one of this year’s recipients of the Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award.
Lee, professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, teaches entry-level genetics, biotechnology and plant science.
These are areas, Lee said, that are critical to Nebraska’s environment and agricultural sector. He is grateful for the opportunities to work with colleagues who make discoveries that impact the state and the chance to teach those discoveries to students for them to use in their future professions.
He attributes his interest in genetics to high school biology teachers who helped him learn how to connect what he was learning in class to the real world. At Augustana College in Sioux Falls, he found that genetics was the most interesting part of biology for him.
Lee set out to discover how he could be a scientist in genetics, and plant science was a perfect fit, so he focused his graduate studies on that. He got his master’s degree in plant science in 1985 from South Dakota State University and his doctorate from Montana State University in agronomy in 1988.
He said he started his UNL career 20 years ago, “when I didn’t have any gray hair.” He also didn’t have much access to technology. The biggest change in the last two decades, he said, has been the development of technology that helps students envision the appearance of molecules and cells, he said.
“Before that you had to rely on pictures and chalk boards,” he said. “I’m not a very good artist so everything I drew looked the same. In the last 10 years it’s been amazing what kinds of resources a science teacher has to make their teaching more effective.”
Lee’s use of computerized Flash animation in his teaching was cited by his nominators as evidence of his creativity.
“Don is probably the most creative instructor in our department,” said Stephen Mason, agronomy and horticulture professor and co-nominator with fellow department professor Dennis McCallister. Lee is able to use that creativity with different audiences – his in-class and distance students and UNL extension audiences, Mason said.
Lee said his use of animation is important because the majority of his students are visual learners. Seeing an animated corn stalk on their computer monitors helps the students visualize how words like molecules and cells connect with real objects, he said.
Lee is about much more technology, however. He firmly believes a “hands-on” approach to teaching is the most important way for students to learn. Even so, he has led efforts to advance distance education, which he calls more “brains-on.”
“My philosophy is that my job is to help everybody learn as much as they can in the time that I have with them as a teacher,” Lee said. “Sometimes you have to use different strategies and approaches to teaching to try to give everybody a good chance to learn the importance of the science you are teaching.”
One of Lee’s students, Andrew Schlichtemeier, a sophomore agronomy major, praises Lee for maintaining high energy in class.
“He presents class. He does not lecture,” Schlichtemeier said.
Lee said he appreciates being a part of a major research institution that also recognizes the importance of teaching.
“You need people who are mostly teachers who are part of the team and then you need to recognize how important their contributions are,” Lee said. “They need to have full citizenship in the university and that’s what I’ve experienced here in the last 20 years.”
Pictured above right: HANDS-ON TEACHING – Agronomy and Horticulture professor Don Lee talks to students Laura Vinopal and Sam McInturf about DNA and gel electrophoresis. | <urn:uuid:46c44621-9ad7-4fda-988a-b4e04b615751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://augie.edu/news/2009-06/alumnus-earns-outstanding-teacher-award | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978679 | 966 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
By Matt Hongoltz-Hetling firstname.lastname@example.org
BENTON — The death of a 6-year-old girl from Benton is the first pediatric flu fatality in Maine since 2010.
"My heart goes out to the family, the community and the school that has suffered this tragic loss," said Dr. Sheila Pinette, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control.
In a health alert released Tuesday, Pinette said there have been a steadily increasing number of influenza cases in November and December, with 13 outbreaks recorded so far. Some of the cases have resulted in hospitalization, which Pinette said is an indicator of the severity of the illness this season.
Pinette urged all Maine residents to get flu vaccinations this year.
"It is very rare for a child that's healthy to die from the flu, but this is a reminder," Pinette said.
The girl, Avery Lane, a first-grade student at Benton Elementary School, died last week. Her grandmother, Pam Souzer, called Avery "very kind, very loving."
"Like the children you've seen in the Connecticut shooting, she was a wonderful little girl," Souzer said.
The death of Avery, who has five siblings, sent waves of shock throughout the school community. Principal Suanne Giorgetti sent a letter to parents Dec. 12 that said the school had "experienced the unthinkable."
The death is a reminder that influenza is a health concern for people of all ages.
"Flu is often seen as a disease that takes the life of the elderly and frail, but children are also vulnerable," said Pinette in a prepared statement.
Pinette said it is the first flu death in the state since 2010, when a child died of the flu and other complicating factors.
Pinette said parents are often faced with a judgment call when trying to figure out whether their sick child has a simple cold or the flu.
She said the symptoms of flue are more severe than a cold, and often include upper respiratory congestion, headaches, difficulty breathing, muscle aches, fatigue and fever higher than 100. The flu can also accompany another diagnosis, such as strep throat, she said.
"If they have a fever not responding to Tylenol or Advil and they can't get out of bed, they should at least give their primary doctor a call," Pinette said.
The best defense against the flu, Pinette said, is taking preventive measures to control the spread of infectious agents.
The most important step, she said, is that everyone aged six months or older be vaccinated against the flu.
She also said people should wash their hands, cover coughs with tissues or sleeves and stay home when sick.
Two flu strains, influenza A/H3 and influenza B, have been confirmed in the state so far this year. According to the center, the vaccine appears to be a good match to those strains, which can make vaccination more effective.
Nationwide, there have been six flu-associated child deaths so far this year, according to the national Centers for Disease Control.
Statistics show that last year, 34 child deaths were reported nationwide, the lowest total in years. In the 2010-11 season, 122 child deaths were reported, while in the 2009-10 season, 282 child deaths were reported.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling — 861-9287 | <urn:uuid:d0c809e2-4f75-4895-9893-347bc033e2dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/Benton-girl-is-Maines-first-influenza-death-since-2010.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975353 | 717 | 1.664063 | 2 |
President Barack Obama has dropped a water balloon onto No Child Left Behind.
“In my State of the Union address this year I said Congress should reform No Child Left Behind law based on principles that have guided Race to the Top,” Obama said Friday morning at the White House. The President stamped his approval onto new education performance guidelines that the administration says were developed by governors and educators nationwide.
“I want to say, the goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable,” Obama said during a carefully crafted appearance that allowed for no questions. “President (George W.) Bush deserves credit for that. Higher standards are the right goal. Accountability is the right goal. Closing the achievement gap is the right goal. We’ve got to stay focused on those goals.”
But he continued, “Experience has taught us that in its implementation No Child Left Behind had some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping.” Obama said, “I have urged Congress for a while now; let’s get a bipartisan effort, let’s fix this. Congress hasn’t been able to do it. So, I will. Starting today we’ll be giving states more flexibility to meet high standards.”
The White House released a two-page single spaced description of new guidelines that were developed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan with input from school system leaders nationwide. One feature is common core standards that 44 states including Georgia will use next year.
Another feature would grant waivers from the NCLB mandate that 100% of students nationwide achieve reading/language arts and mathematics proficiency by 2014. Duncan has said 82% of schools nationally could fail to achieve NCLB goals next year, which means they would be labeled “failure schools” regardless of any other academic achievements.
Many educators who include Georgia state Schools Superintendent John Barge agree the 2014 goals are unattainable. This week Barge and Georgia U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson delivered the state’s NCLB waiver request to Duncan during a meeting in Washington D.C. Isakson and Barge also delivered the state’s proposal that would replace dreaded Annual Yearly Progress reports with a new model to measure performance over multiple years and also using other data.
No Child Left Behind could still be rewritten by Congress but the administration is placing its new bet on an enhanced Race to the Top style model. “Show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money,” President Obama said Friday. “We want to provide you more resources but there’s also got to be a commitment on your part to make the changes that are necessary so we can see actual results.”
The President was introduced by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam who said, “As a Republican I might not always agree with this administration on some policy issues or maybe even the role of federal government, but when there are some things that we can work together on then we should. This is one of the issues that we can work together on.”
During opening remarks Obama noted that Duncan who lurked tall behind him is “probably the finest basketball player ever in the Capitol.” We will allow just a little wiggle room here for his long-time Chicago pal, although the President clearly overlooked former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley whose 1983 election to the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame capped a stunning career.
The lanky Bradley was NCAA Player of the Year at Princeton and a 1964 Olympian before he won two NBA championship rings during ten years with the New York Knicks. Bradley earned the NBA nickname “Dollar Bill” for his uncanny ability to hit big shots under pressure. The President can only hope Race to the Top is as successful as Bill Bradley playing basketball.
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
Michelle Rhee, the innovative founder of StudentsFirst and former chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools, spoke about the new Obama administration No Child Left Behind waivers when she appeared on CNN on Wednesday morning. “American Morning” host Christine Romans asked, has NCLB been a bust?
“I don’t think so at all. Let me be clear that the law is not perfect. I think everyone knows there are some changes and modifications that need to be made, but I don’t think that anyone can doubt that it has brought a new level of accountability to American schools,” Rhee said.
“We are looking at data in a way that we never have before, we are paying attention to sub-groups of kids and saying that it’s not okay for certain groups of kids in your school or school district to be failing and in those ways, it’s incredibly important.”
On Monday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan used the White House briefing room to announce that all 50 states could apply for waivers from the No Child Left Behind requirement that 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Georgia will apply.
Michelle Rhee again on CNN: “We want kids to meet the standards. Now, is that all that should be happening? No. One of the things you see is tests only test certain subjects, often mat and reading, and sometimes what schools do is go overboard and they just try to jam reading and math down the kids’ throats. That’s not the answer.
“The research shows that kids who have access to a broad-based curriculum are the ones who do better academically. But also, we shouldn’t go to the other direction to say testing is evil, testing is bad. We have to be able to, in a very objective and consistent way, know whether or not kids are learning and meeting the standards. The way to do that is a standardized test.
“One of the things that drive people nuts about No Child Left Behind is that it sets certain benchmarks for proficiency. X percent of your kids have to be at proficiency and it goes up every year until 2014 when 100 percent of your kids are supposed to be proficient. People look at that and say, it’s not realistic.
“We have to be able to look at growth. Is the school moving student achievement in the right direction? Are the students growing to meet certain targets? Instead of having a binary distinction of either met Adequate Yearly Progress or you have not, what has the growth looked like? We have to modify the system so that achievement and growth can be taken into account without there being this strict binary yes and no.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
No Child Left Behind has moved one step closer toward No Longer Totally Relevant.
President Barack Obama‘s administration used the White House briefing room on Monday afternoon to announce that states may apply for waivers to avoid 2014 testing mandates in NCLB. State school superintendent John Barge said Georgia will apply for the waiver.
No Child Left Behind was the education initiative of President George W. Bush. It was modeled on a program enacted when he was Texas governor. It requires that 100 percent of public school students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. NCLB is blamed for creating a “Teach the Test” mania as schools struggled to make AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress.
“No Child Left Behind, in those terms, we’re not going to see that again,” Barge said when we spoke on Monday afternoon. “Certainly it’s not the death knell for accountability, but does it put the actual terms AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) and No Child Left Behind in question, possibly. We will still have accountability. It will just look different.”
Addressing the White House press corps, Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes described NCLB as “a punitive system that does not allow for reform.” Barnes said the administration moved forward with its own NCLB changes because Congress has not rewritten NCLB.
“No Child Left Behind is four years overdue for being rewritten,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “It is far too punitive. It is far too prescriptive. It led to dummying down standards and narrowing curriculum … We can’t afford to have the law of the land be one that has so many perverse incentives or disincentives to the kind of progress that we want to see.”
Barnes and Duncan made clear that states will become eligible for NCLB waivers if they embrace reforms that the administration believes are necessary to move education forward. States that do not agree must continue to abide by the current No Child Left Behind legislation.
Whereas NCLB was a top down federal mandate on states, Barge said the national Council of Chief State School Officers has been working on a replacement for NCLB’s single-minded reliance on standardized testing as the principal measuring stick for education success.
“We all know that a student can pass a test but that student may be anything but prepared to be successful,” Barge said. The model being proposed to Washington by the state education chief executives will rely on some two dozen or more indicators, Barge said, including SAT and ACT scores, college credits earned during high school and other measurements to evaluate success.
NCLB is sometimes identified as the reason for a surge in test cheating scandals.
The Atlanta Public Schools test cheating scandal made national news when 178 educators were identified as participants in falsifying tests to improve school performance. Atlanta is not alone. Duncan has said federal officials will look into other possible cases nationwide. On Monday, he singled out Tennessee for taking the right approach to measuring achievement.
“The state of Tennessee like many states had a low bar under No Child Left Behind,” Duncan said. “They were in fact lying to children, lying to parents. They were saying that 91 percent of students were proficient. They did the courageous thing. They raised the bar significantly.
“Tennessee went from 91 percent of children proficient in math to 34 percent. That was a very tough lesson but for the first time, they are telling the truth. The current law provides lots of penalties for that kind of courage,” Duncan said.
“We want to move those (penalties) and reward states that are telling the truth … Everywhere I go, teachers, parents, principals, school board members, state superintendents are asking for flexibility to do the right thing.”
(Mike Klein is Editor at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation)
State schools superintendent John Barge believes chances are “slim” that Georgia will meet the federal government’s No Child Left Behind 100 percent proficiency requirement in three years. The first-year superintendent made that clear Thursday when the Department of Education released 2011 AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress – and graduation rate reports.
Notably, the state did not release 2011 AYP results for the Atlanta Public Schools system which is embroiled in a test cheating scandal. The DOE website said results are being withheld until it “can determine which data are impacted by the investigation findings.” Some 179 educators were identified as possible test cheaters after a ten-month special prosecutors’ investigation.
AYP is the national education measuring stick created by No Child Left Behind. President George W. Bush signed controversial legislation into law nine years ago. It mandates that schools nationwide improve math, languages and graduation percentage rates in successive years for schools to be judged as having met Adequate Yearly Progress expectations.
During the 2002-2003 academic year an elementary school could meet AYP if 60 percent of third graders passed reading and language arts standardized tests. Today the minimum is 80 percent, next year 86.7 percent, one year later 93.3 percent, then 100 percent in 2014. The formulas are similar for all elementary, middle and high school AYP standardized tests.
In a statement that accompanied the report, Barge said, “The goal of 100 percent proficiency for all of our students by 2014 is well meaning, but because there are so many variables in the lives of children that schools cannot control, the likelihood of achieving this goal is slim. There is so much more to a school’s and a child’s progress than one test score at a single point in time.”
The state DOE reported the 2011 initial high school graduation rate was 79.5 percent, nearly identical to last year, but that bears discussion later. DOE said the percentage of schools statewide that made AYP declined to 63.2 percent from 71 percent last year. The percentage of schools graded “Needs Improvement” increased to 17.5 percent from 15.4 percent last year. Read more »
This article was published by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.
An independent investigation under the direction of a blue ribbon commission has cited 109 Atlanta Public School principals, assistant principals and others for alleged cheating on student standardized tests. Cheating evidence was cited in 58 of Atlanta’s 84 public schools.
Investigators focused on 2009 tests that had abnormally high numbers of erasures and changed answers. The most serious violations were identified in one dozen schools where 78 educators were cited, though not by name because of possible legal action. The panel did not have authority to impose discipline that could range from reprimands to loss of teaching license. Read more »
Georgia education headlines are too often made for wrong reasons. National test scores that disappoint, high schools that under perform and the Atlanta public schools cheating scandal do nothing to recommend Georgia as forward thinking and a place to create a business and raise a family. Embracing an aggressive plan to fast forward online education would seem like a no-brainer.
Last week two major online education companies said they will cancel plans to operate Georgia online high schools. Provost Academy and Kaplan Academy believe they cannot operate on $3,500 per pupil funding from the Georgia Charter School Commission. Those funds would have been state dollars; no local education dollars would follow the student. Read more »
- Why School Teachers Are No Longer “Sage on the Stage”
- ALEC: Here’s How Georgia Could Improve Competitiveness
- “Data Is An Onion … You Have to Begin to Peel Back the Onion”
- Big Brother Knows Best Mentality Works Against School Choice
- Georgia’s Intense Focus on Children Sold for Sexual Services
- This Should be Obvious: Fix Families First to Fix Kids
- Broken Families … Parents Without Skills … Kids in Juvenile Justice
- Digital Learning, Re-Entry Lead List of Criminal Justice Priorities
- Second Adult Criminal Justice Reform Bill Becomes Law
- Pew Poll: Solid Real World Support for Juvenile Justice Reform
- Georgia Public Schools Employ More Staff Than Teachers
- Georgia House Passes Juvenile Justice Bill 173-0 | <urn:uuid:790634df-3caf-4e99-a163-d02ad8ffa699> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mikekleinonline.com/tag/no-child-left-behind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960202 | 3,112 | 1.8125 | 2 |
It is the second time the US President has been given the annual accolade, having previously won it in 2008.
Obama was awarded the title for "finding and forging a new majority, for turning weakness into opportunity and for seeking, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union," according to Time editor Rick Stengel.
"Obama is the first Democratic President since FDR to win more than 50% of the vote in consecutive elections and the first President since 1940 to win re-election with an unemployment rate north of 7.5%," Stengel added in a statement.
"He has stitched together a winning coalition and perhaps a governing one as well. His presidency spells the end of the Reagan realignment that had defined American politics for 30 years.
"We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America."
Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was this year's runner-up, followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Egypt president Mohamed Morsi and Italian particle physicist Fabiola Gianotti.
In an interview with the magazine, Obama said of the past 12 months: "2012 may have been more satisfying a win than 2008. I think it was easy to think that maybe 2008 was the anomaly, and I think 2012 was an indication that, no, this is not an anomaly.
"We've gone through a very difficult time. The American people have rightly been frustrated at the pace of change, and the economy is still struggling, and this President we elected is imperfect, and yet, despite all that, this is who we want to be. That's a good thing."
Last year's 'Person of the Year' was given to the 'The Protestor', to represent the many global protest movements over the previous 12 months. | <urn:uuid:08a94cf3-2a90-43a3-964e-c0eb5731ec72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a446363/barack-obama-named-time-magazines-person-of-the-year-for-2012.html | 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 | 0.985193 | 376 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Bali's governor Made Mangku Pastika has declared that Bali must become more selective in receiving investors in the future, accepting only those who demonstrate a shared concern for the island's environment.
Speaking to the press on March 8, 2011, and quoted in Beritabali.com, the governor said his real hope is that the investors in Bali would be Balinese who truly understand the environmental problems of Bali. Said Pastika: "I hope that Bali will produce new investors who are Balinese. People who know Bali and have lived a long time in Bali. Those with lots of money must not necessarily come from outside, what's important is that they are able to create new employment opportunities through their investments."
The governor added that he also hoped that Bali's current investors would not exploit Bali, but also contribute to improving the local environment. The governor said this was essential given the fact that Bali is only a small island with limited carrying capacity. The governor also sadly noted that at the present time Bali is losing 1,000 hectares of agricultural each year, diverted to non-agricultural uses.
Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced
if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. | <urn:uuid:f5778097-0765-47de-b25c-8a6dffb3f67f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=6821 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972185 | 258 | 1.703125 | 2 |
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Frogtown Mountain Puppet Show Visits LER
Frogtown Mountain Puppet show was a huge hit at LER today!! Our students enjoyed the show, Everybody Loves Pirates, which was a story about 2 eight year old children who find a treasure map. The two children, with the help of two crustaceans, must escape 3 pirates who steal the treasure.
The 3 actors had the children's attention throughout this hour long show! For more information about this production, please visit: | <urn:uuid:e8e55d95-bd2d-47cc-9219-5c21af0d06ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.msad11.org/node/4266 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943151 | 113 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Millions of people have a queasy feeling that something is not right in the global economy – but they struggle to put their fingers on what exactly the problem is. Treasure Islands at last tells the real story of where it all went wrong. This is the great untold story of globalisation.
Tax havens are not exotic, murky sideshows at the fringes of the world economy: they lie at its centre. Half of world trade flows, at least on paper, through tax havens. Every multinational corporation uses them routinely. The biggest users of tax havens by far are not terrorists, spivs, celebrities or Mafiosi – but banks.
Tax havens are the ultimate source of strength for our global elites. Just as European nobles once consolidated their unaccountable powers in fortified castles, to better subjugate and extract tribute from the surrounding peasantry, so financial capital has coalesced in their modern equivalent today: the tax havens. In these fortified nodes of secret, unaccountable political and economic power, financial and criminal interests have come together to capture local political systems and turn the havens into their own private law-making factories, protected against outside interference by the world’s most powerful countries – most especially Britain. Treasure Islands will, for the first time, show the blood and guts of just how they do it.
Tax havens aren’t just about tax. They are about escape – escape from criminal laws, escape from creditors, escape from tax, escape from prudent financial regulation – above all, escape from democratic scrutiny and accountability. Tax havens get rich by taking fees for providing these escape routes. This is their core line of business. It is what they do.
These escape routes transform the merely powerful into the untouchable. “Don’t tax or regulate us or we will flee offshore!” the financiers cry, and elected politicians around the world crawl on their bellies and capitulate. And so tax havens lead a global race to the bottom to offer deeper secrecy, ever laxer financial regulations, and ever more sophisticated tax loopholes. They have become the silent battering rams of financial deregulation, forcing countries to remove financial regulations, to cut taxes and restraints on the wealthy, and to shift all the risks, costs and taxes onto the backs of the rest of us. In the process democracy unravels and the offshore system pushes ever further onshore. The world’s two most important tax havens today are United States and Britain.
Without understanding offshore, we will never understand the history of the modern world.
Poverty in Africa? Offshore is at the heart of the matter. Industrial-scale corruption and the wholesale subversion of governments by criminalised interests, across the developing world? Offshore is central to the story, every time. The systematic looting of the former Soviet Union and the merging of the nuclear-armed country’s intelligence apparatus with organized crime, is a story that unfolds substantially in London and its offshore satellites. Saddam Hussein used tax havens to buttress his power, as does North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il today. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s strange hold over Italian politics is very much an offshore tale. The Elf Affair, Europe’s biggest ever corruption scandal, had secrecy jurisdictions at its core. Arms smuggling to terrorist organisations? The growth of mafia empires? Offshore. You can only fit about $1 million into a briefcase: without offshore, the illegal drugs trade would be a fraction of its size.
Private equity and hedge funds? Goldman Sachs? Citigroup? These are all creatures of offshore. The scandals of Enron, Parmalat, Long Term Capital Management, Lehman Brothers, AIG — and many more? Tax havens lay behind them all. The rise of multinationals, the explosion of debt in advanced economies since the 1970s is substantially an offshore tale. Complex monopolies, frauds, insider trading rings — these corruptions of free markets always have tax havens at their heart. As Treasure Islands explains in vivid, thrilling, horrifying detail, every big financial crisis since the 1970s – including the great global crisis that erupted in 2007 – has been a creature of the tax havens.
These problems all have other explanations too. Tax havens are never the only story, because offshore exists only in relation to elsewhere. That is why it is called offshore.
Without understanding the tax havens, or the secrecy jurisdictions as I often prefer to call them, we cannot understand the world. Treasure Islands at last starts to fill this gigantic hole in modern history.
In short, it is the most important exposé of tax havens ever published. | <urn:uuid:df3105da-28aa-424d-b397-4216f7d47136> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://treasureislands.org/the-book/ | 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 | 0.9362 | 948 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Starts: May 08, 2012 - Ends: May 11, 2012
FMX was initiated as an event for students labeled "Film and Media Exchange" (FMX) in 1994 and was supposed to take place every two years. As early as 1996 it became an annual event . When the first FMX took place in 1994, the industry did not even dare to dream about the creative possibilities within computer animation and digital effects that exist today. Throughout the past fifteen years of its existence, FMX kept up with the developments and trends and has grown to become an important networking platform for those working with digital imagery.
In 2012, FMX tracks are, among others, dedicated to Virtual Production, Cinema of the Future, Animation, Visual Effects, Games, Tech Talks, Focuses on Montreal and Vancouver, Poland, Estonia, Transmedia, Virtual Humans and Controlling Complexity.
Confirmed presentations include subjects such as Worldbuilding, Previsualization, Capture Space, Framerates, Stereo 3D, Animation Wild ‘n Strange, VES Exchange, Visual Effects in India, Germany and Europe, Visual Arts, Games made in Germany, Industrial CG, Cloud Computing, Siggraph and Eurographics Papers, Young Guns | <urn:uuid:58670ed8-b793-46f6-a240-49f380aef4a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.awn.com/creative-focus/stop-motion?page=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956501 | 250 | 1.5625 | 2 |
My son is not a happy camper right now. His birthday happens to land on His First Day Of School, as in, he's-going-to-kindergarten-at-the-big-school-first-day-of-school. It's a big deal for him and kind of over whelming at the same time. Two big mile stones in his life wrapped up in one day...so, yeah, he's not happy.
So in order to make His day super special, I made him a shirt to wear for His birthday on His first day of school.
My inspiration was this shirt from Boden.
First thing I did was pick-off the pocket from the $1 shirt I bought on clearance.
I used freezer paper to make a pattern. Looking at the picture in the catalog, I drew my version of the dragon on freezer paper (not on the shiny side). Can you see all the semi erased lines? I had a hard time drawing the feet but I finally drew feet that I was happy with.
Using the hand drawn dragon as a template, I placed another piece of freezer paper on top and copied the spikes, eyes, hands and teeth.
I cut out my pattern
and ironed it (shiny side down) onto the t-shirt fabrics that I used. These came from t-shirts that don't fit my kids anymore. See the grey fabric? It's the picked-off pocket and it became part of the eyes.
Then I ironed fusible web to the back of the t-shirt fabric. So, basically, the top has the freezer paper ironed on and the back has fusible web ironed on. Then, cut out the pattern on the freezer paper. Here is the dragon pieced together.
Remove the freezer paper. An easy way to do this is to use a pin and make a slit in the middle. Just run your pin across the paper and peel the paper off. (I did this for both the freezer paper and the fusible web.)
Now this step you can skip if you want but I did it because my son does not like interfacing on the inside of his shirts. In order to add some sort of stability and make it easier to sew, I ironed on the dragon to a thin piece of white felt. Here is the dragon with the fusible web ready to be ironed onto the felt.
Once the dragon was securely ironed onto the felt, I ironed fusible web to the back of the felt. I cut the dragon again, this time leaving a small trim. Ironed on the entire applique to the shirt
and sewed ALL the edges. I think this was the hardest part for me. There was a lot of stopping and pivoting the needle to get the spikes, hands and feet done.
By the time I got to the eyes, I wasn't too worried about making perfect circles...
My son was happy with his new shirt and his bribe...you know, just to stand still for a good picture.
This is his response to, "Mijo, give me a big smile"...
Minus the sharp teeth, I think he was trying to imitate the dragon's smile...love it! | <urn:uuid:71042f5f-68b3-41dc-9861-3e7a7bf160bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rocaandcompany.blogspot.com/2011/08/dragon-applique-t-shirt-boden-knock-off.html?showComment=1313622988336 | 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 | 0.969425 | 675 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It could be normal
Tunisia is getting back on track
MUHAMMAD BOUAZIZI's grave is marked by a Tunisian flag and a martyr's epitaph. Sidi Bouzid, a small town in Tunisia's unloved interior, is proud of its revolutionary son, whose self-immolation sparked the uprising that brought down the regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Mr Bouazizi's picture hangs in the main street, now named after him. Banners promise to keep his memory alive and stress that Tunisia's revolution began here, in December, not in Tunis in January. Graffiti splashed across the walls exhort the people of Sidi Bouzid to stand up for their rights and to fight for their freedom.
The feverish excitement of January, when Mr Ben Ali fled the country after 23 years in charge, has been replaced by a mood of eager if anxious anticipation. An election for a constituent assembly is due on July 24th. It will be the first to have the legitimacy of a popular vote. It should provide for a new constitution, parliamentary and presidential elections, and a blueprint for a new Tunisia.
At least 44 political parties have registered for the elections, and more are expected to do so. Few have laid out clear policies. All deride the old regime but few manifestos spell out what they would do instead. Tunisia's main Islamist party, Nahda (Awakening), which was banned under Mr Ben Ali, and the liberal Democratic Progressive Party (known by its French initials, PDP), may, for the moment, lead the pack. With no proper opinion polls, no one knows who will win.
One of the few groups with a national network, Nahda may benefit from a dispersal of votes among the rash of new parties. Its leaders say it wants to be part of a modern democracy with a separation of powers, independent courts and a free press. It endorses a presidential and parliamentary system in which power is not concentrated in the hands of one person.
Ajmi Lourimi, a Nahda notable imprisoned for 17 years under Mr Ben Ali, says Tunisia's capitalist system does not work, but is quick to stress that his party is neither communist nor against privatisation. Tunisia should trade more with its Arab and African neighbours and focus less on Europe, he says. Its interior needs developing. Exiles should come home and invest.
The economy has certainly been hurt by the disruption following Tunisia's revolution and the strife in neighbouring Libya. In February the authorities said they expected growth to dip by 2-3%. Tourism, a big source of income, is down by 40% compared with this time last year. Trade with Libya, on which the south depends, has dried up. Cheap Libyan goods have disappeared. Some 70,000 Tunisians who worked in Libya have fled home.
Still, Noureddine Zekri, the head of Tunisia's Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, says he is optimistic: of the 3,200 foreign companies operating in Tunisia, only 35, he says, have withdrawn since the revolution. FDI has decreased by 22% in the past two months, but confidence will rebound and a broader range of countries will invest, Mr Zekri predicts.
Above all, he says, corruption must be reduced. “With democracy, and all those people watching, we won't have any choice.” Yet the focus on corruption has already begun to fade. Some Tunisians give the impression that the removal of Mr Ben Ali and his grasping family has solved the problem. Yet few structures are in place to prevent it from reappearing. The courts still need reforming.
So do the police. Under Mr Ben Ali their main job was political surveillance. During the protests in January and February Tunisians attacked the symbols of oppression, especially police stations. Many were looted and burned. In the revolution's aftermath the police all but vanished; even now you see few of them on the beat. On independence day, March 20th, many cafés on Avenue Bourguiba, the capital's main street, had their chairs stacked away by 9pm as anxious customers, nervous about rising crime, drifted home.
For the moment the army is doing some police work, protecting government offices and other prominent buildings. Signs have appeared telling drivers to honk their horns if they love the army. But democracy campaigners worry that the army may feel forced to intervene in running the country.
The omens are still generally good. Tunisia is a small country of fewer than 11m people with a fairly big and well-educated middle class. The wave of strikes after Mr Ben Ali's fall has died down. The economy could bounce back. The transitional government is unlikely to take forceful measures in the run-up to the election. But a genuine democracy is still in the offing.
From the print edition: Middle East and Africa | <urn:uuid:c8077523-4eec-4124-b297-21efec29200a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/18491692/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976663 | 1,002 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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