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In the vacant lot at the corner of Willard and Shattuck Streets, the t-shirts and hats were homemade, the ink from new tattoos drying in the intermittent sun. Officially, it was called a rally; but, a block over, on the sidewalk of Maynard Street, one girl had asked another if she was going to the memorial.
After the jump, video of speeches by Mayor Sarno and City Council President Bud Williams.
Mayor Sarno (the music at the end of this segment is particularly powerful):
Toward the end of his speech, Bud Williams reminds the crowd of the origin of the term "snitch": In the 1960s, a "snitch" was someone who attempted to sabotage the work of civil rights leaders. | <urn:uuid:2173e36f-bc31-41b9-887f-e2d10fadf92d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.masslive.com/localbuzz/2008/05/youth_rally_in_memory_of_mario.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975182 | 157 | 1.5 | 2 |
Work steps up on London's most ambitious station redevelopment
As these incredible images detail, constructions works are picking up pace at King’s Cross Station in the heart of London’s Borough of Camden. Designed by experienced architects John McAslan + Partners, the multi-phase scheme takes a three-pronged approach: re-use, restore, and new build. The various train sheds and buildings across the Western Range are being re-used, the Station’s original Grade I listed facade from 1852 is being uncovered and restored to its former splendour, and an extensive new Western Concourse will be inserted above the London Underground Ticketing Hall.
Arguably the most arresting of the scheme’s attributes is a towering steel funnel which welcomes travellers to the Station through its metal tendrils. Rising 20m from the station floor, the white fluted structure spans the entire 150m width of the Grade I listed Western Range drawing attention to the beautiful heritage architecture beneath which has been uncovered for the first time since 1972.
Chairman of John McAslan + Partners, John McAslan comments: “It’s incredible to watch the reinvention of the station taking shape into a compelling piece of place-making for London. You can already see how the Western Concourse – Europe’s largest single span station structure and the heart of the development – reconnects this much-loved Victorian terminus to its context. It’s immensely satisfying to see the project move forward at such pace and we look forward to celebrating the project’s completion in 2012 for the London Olympics.”
With the official opening date of the station only seven months away, work is really pressing on to hit the deadline. The images to the left show just how much of the funnel structure is now in place, with restoration procedures well underway and large sections of rebuffed brickwork gleaming through the steel columns. The five buildings that form the Western Range are being fully renewed, with the Northern Wing rebuilt to its original design after it was destroyed many years ago during WWII, and the Main Train Shed and adjacent Suburban Train Shed are also being restored and exposed to the public view. | <urn:uuid:cbb5402e-2897-47fd-99b4-fc7758390a30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=17244&mjc=t | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948294 | 449 | 1.648438 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — Keynotes by Sir Richard Branson, the $4 billion Virgin serial entrepreneur, and global strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin. Panel after panel on mobile banking, peer-to peer-payments and the rules of engagement with social media. A tentative obituary for near field communication, an innovative payments technology around which enthusiasm seems to be crumbling.
The plain message at the mid-October BAI Retail Delivery conference was that a new day is dawning in financial services, it’s no longer your grandfather’s spread business and new tools bring new opportunities to those who figure out how to use them.
Probably no one talk so plainly hit the perils and the opportunities in today’s financial services as did Branson’s opening day keynote. At first glance an odd choice. He’s an innovator in music, aviation and telephony, but what does he know about financial services? A lot, it turned out because Branson now has over $1 billion of skin in the game with his purchase of the assets of Northern Rock, a failed English bank that had been taken over by the U.K. government in 2008.
Branson bought out those assets early in 2012, and his intent is plain. He plans to overturn the cozy and profitable leadership of the major British banks.
Branson believes the opportunity to overturn the established big banks is both historic and immense. “They have been badly damaged,” said Branson. And although he did not elaborate the implication was that the major banks have been tarnished by the present economic distress, significantly worse in the U.K. than the U.S., and also by repeated reports of the huge pay packets handed out to City of London financiers at a time when the institutions were near collapse.
Branson, who has made his billions by targeting industries where he can play a romantic David battling an evil, stodgy Goliath, now thinks that the public is ready to move a sizable chunk of their money into new banks, such as Branson’s Virgin Money network. “It’s a lot more fun being David,” Branson quipped.
Will he bring Virgin Money to the U.S.? At BAI he admitted he had a team of executives scouting for U.S. opportunities. He suggested he would come to the U.S. eventually. But he also said he had nothing definite to report at the moment.
His ultimate message was that the time is here to go on the attack against the entrenched banks because their vulnerability is huge.
And what might work for Sir Richard in the U.K., just might work for smaller institutions in the U.S. That was a take-away optimism expressed by at least some executives at BAI.
Branson may have turned on a packed house, but probably the biggest and longest buzz at this year’s BAI, the sessions that played to full houses, was anything mobile and at least one big idea seemed to start to take hold. The current crop of mobile banking apps just aren’t good enough anymore, not in a world populated with glitzy smartphone games and slick personal financial management tools. The antidote: mobile banking apps 2.0.
Apps developer mFoundry, a Larkspur, Calif.-based company with 800 mobile banking customers, announced at BAI that it was opening its app to include content from a range of third- party developers. mFoundry CEO Drew Sievers pointed to payments innovator Dwolla and prepaid card specialist Blackhawk Network as cases in point. Sievers claimed that not only will the more powerful app that results be more engaging for consumers, it will also produce new revenue streams for the financial institutions that hop aboard. He envisioned a three-way split of profits resulting from sale by Blackhawk Network on a prepaid card, with Blackhawk, mFoundry and the financial institution all sharing in the proceeds.
Similar splits would occur for other revenue generating tools put into the mobile banking app. “We will be the gatekeeper,” said Sievers, but he insisted there would be cuts for financial institutions that opted in.
Intuit joined in that open app party, also announcing at BAI that it was opening its apps to third- party content, either developed by financial institutions or others. There was less concrete detail in Intuit’s announcement, but it pointed to the same direction, giving financial institutions more freedom to architect apps that will truly engage mobile members.
At another panel, Matthew Wilcox, a senior vice president at Zions Bancorp., a Salt Lake City-based institution, tossed out a staggering figure that validates why mobile is gaining so much popularity with bankers. It costs on average $4 per in-branch teller visit versus 8 cents per mobile banking transaction.
Wilcox added that mobile banking customers are more profitable ($450 in annual profits per head at Zions versus $350 per online banking only customers). And they are far more loyal. In a year, only 1,5% will leave the institution compared to 4% of online banking customers. Add it up, said Wilcox, and not only is mobile the lowest-cost channel in banking history, it is producing good customers.
Near field communication, the short-range payments technology, meantime seemed to elicit growing skepticism about its future among BAI panelists. Multiple panelists cited Apple’s decision to keep NFC off iPhone 5. Others cited retail giant Walmart’s recent proclamation that it did not see NFC in its future. Bart Narter, a senior vice president at research company Celent, said, “I don’t see a clear path to NFC adoption in the U.S. The telcos won’t play unless they are compensated.” And, so far, no one seems eager to split off a slice of a shrinking payments pie to compensate them.
Narter allowed that maybe NFC would figure in as a technology to deliver well targeted offers, “but you don’t need NFC for payments to do offers.”
Another unsettled, and perhaps unsettling, idea put out by several panelists is that email marketing is on the rise. But email consumption is on the decline, according to Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer at Minneapolis-based US Bank. Another panelist indicated that by his institution’s count fewer than 2% of the emails his institution sent out were read. So the hunt is on for more effective contact points with today’s busy, on the go mobile consumers. That might include text messages on phones, custom pop ups during online banking sessions, possibly targeted offers during mobile banking sessions. This research remains in its early days, but the sense that something better needs to be put into the hands of marketers seemed strong at this edition of BAI.
More fire erupted at a panel on person-to-person payments that brought together John Feldman, general manager of clearXchange, the payments vehicle created by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo; Sanjeev Dheer, the lead executive at Fiserv’s CashEdge; and Arkady Fridman, a 14-year employee at PayPal. The fight was clear. Would there be a bank-centric P2P solution? Or would it, to quote Fridman, be consumer-centric? This brawl is in its early rounds but know that there probably will not be a more spirited fight in financial services over the next few years. And a fight it will be because there is no reason to declare an early winner in what will be a hard fought battle for consumer mindshare and loyalty.
Important as the technology component was at this year’s BAI Retail Delivery, there were strong reminders that finance, ultimately, is a human activity. General session speaker Jonathan Salem Baskin, a popular talking head on global marketing, hit exactly that note when he posited that as financial institutions scurry to get their customers more engaged with them on Facebook and Twitter, maybe they are in fact going about this exactly the wrong way. “What if you flipped the telescope around and asked, how can we get more engaged with our customers?”
Baskin’s suggestion is that when enterprises do that, good things happen, for their customers but also for the institutions. His core message, one with considerable resonance in credit union circles,- is that prosperity comes to those institutions that do well by their customers and their communities. “Customers are more engaged with the brands that are engaged with them,” he said. Flip the telescope, and just maybe that is the way to see the path to tomorrow’s successful business model. | <urn:uuid:dba38c25-d6e7-46e8-ba00-ec5af40362ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cutimes.com/2012/10/14/bai-retail-delivery-branson-wows-but-mobile-20-rul?t=technologytdebit-atm-shared-branching | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970278 | 1,795 | 1.585938 | 2 |
This is one of the best folksy walk-throughs I’ve read yet describing the process of inspecting a top bar hive. For newbeeks, it’s like that doddering professor who actually knows what he’s talking about:
If the entrance holes are at one end, I puff a small amount of smoke at the entrance, and wait perhaps a minute. If a good honeyflow is on and the weather is good, smoke probably would not be necessary with my Italian bees but I use a little anyhow. Some smoke is puffed underneath the arching top covers in case paper wasps have started a nest under the tin. Next I remove the covers and the strip that covers the rear half of the notches in my tb’s which lets me see how far the bees have drawn out comb. If the bees seemed to be alarmed because of inclement conditions in which I might need to work or some other factor, most of the notches can be kept covered .
Starting at the rear of the hive, I remove the first bar which will
probably not be drawn out completely, and place that bar in a holder.
I have made a cradle to hold bars as I work on them, but I also
use 5-bar nuc boxes or 5-bar “supers” to hold the bars that are removed.
Moreover, the stands on which I have placed my hives have supports that
are spaced far enough apart that they can be used to hold tb’s.
I remove a couple of bars, then work forward toward the brood area,
shifting the inspected bar to the rear. Only a small gap of a couple of
bars is necessary to give plenty of room to remove bars. Often there is
a small amount of comb attachment to the sides at the upper two inches of
the comb, but the attachments are easily freed with a hive tool. If the
bar is then place on a cradle, the rough sides where the attachments were
can be trimmed smooth with scissors after which the bees are less inclined
to reattach the comb to the sides. This is especially true if the wax is
scraped from the sides also. Rarely there may be a few places where a
comb is attached to the bottom of the hive in which case the hive tool
will free it also. All of the wax scraps go into the solar wax melter.
Proceeding on to the brood area, I make my assessment of the hive
conditions in the same way as with conventional hives. If a comb needs
replacing for any reason, I’ll move it to the back of the hive for the
bees to clear it after which the comb and bar go to my solar wax melter.
I will place a new bar with a starter strip of foundation between two
straight combs so that I get a good comb drawn, especially during a good
honeyflow. After finishing the inspection, I shift the bars forward and
replace the one or two bars I originally removed.
If the hive has holes down both sides, I start at either end, work to
the center, then replace the bars. After that the other side can be
examined or additional work postponed until the next visit.
After I finish inspecting a hive, I make notes about what was found by
writing in pencil on a 4 x 6 index card. The card is kept in a ziplock
plastic bag held by a clothes pin nailed to the back of the hive body.
If the hive needs some additional work, I’ll turn one of the bricks on
top on its side to get my attention. When I go back to the hive, a quick
glance at the record card shows immediately what needs to be done.
From Top Bar Hive FAQ | <urn:uuid:fdc44b27-d38e-4cd8-8579-21bdadd1e212> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mistressbeek.com/2008/06/08/work-it-girls-how-to-manage-a-top-bar-hive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933773 | 797 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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SpeedCon: An Unconference on Communication from the STC Carolina and NCSU SIGDOC Chapters
Saturday, October 29, 2011 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (EDT)
What's an unconference?
An unconference is a participant-driven conference. The content is generally diverse and tends to include some short presentations such as lightning talks (a series of 5-minute presentations, often unrelated to one another). Unconferences avoid aspects of conventional conferences such as high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization. (And hey, you can't get lower-cost than free!)
If you'd like to present, please sign up.
Registration and breakfast (provided by TPS and Scriptorium) will begin at 9:00 a.m. The program will kick off at 10:00 a.m. with the keynote address by John R. Kohl, author of The Global English Style Guide. We're planning a total of 20 breakout sessions, each 30 minutes long, with four sessions running concurrently. Some sessions may include two 15-minute presentations, and some may include five 5-minute presentations. We don't know for sure, because it's an unconference! But we do know that you'll have lots of opportunities to interact with and learn from fellow technical communication professionals about topics of interest to you.
Note: If you enjoy the event, and you'd like to show your appreciation, please consider donating to the Diane Feldman Scholarship Fund.
ACM SIGDOC NC State University Chapter
SIGDOC is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on the Design of Communication (DOC). Members of SIGDOC are interested in the potentials, practices, and problems of multiple kinds of communication technologies, such as Web applications, user interfaces, and online and print documentation.
As a student chapter, SIGDOC @ NCSU focuses on developing a social community for students, faculty, and alumni. All students interested in fields like technical communication, software engineering, information architecture, or usability are welcome to attend SIGDOC events. SIGDOC @ NCSU’s goal is to complement the classroom experience. We host programs and events focused on education, networking, and social interaction.
When & Where
STC Carolina Chapter
STC seeks to advance the arts and sciences of technical communication, promote awareness of the latest trends and technology in the field, and provide innovative services for the education and professional development of its members.
The Society's diverse membership includes writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, educators, students, engineers, and scientists employed in a variety of technological fields. With more than 11,000 members worldwide, STC is the largest professional organization serving the technical communication profession.
The Carolina Chapter currently serves more than 100 members in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, and in the Foothills region of North and South Carolina. The chapter is an STC Community of Excellence and a Pacesetter Award winner. | <urn:uuid:cee82199-838a-41b3-bc4f-3ff360cabca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://speedcon-comm-2011.eventbrite.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935761 | 646 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Remote Monitoring of your IT equipment is a simple and intelligent way to ensure the fundamental operations of your business is in good health. Services like your website, email, important servers for applications, your Internet connection, etc. Here are just five reasons you and your business will benefit from remote monitoring: Peace of Mind just [...]
Our NerdBox is the Nerds On Site appliance that suits a typical SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) of any sector as a behind-the-scenes technology that facilitates core essential services that every SME needs. IT administrators who have been through historical IT infrastructure cycles, sometimes tend to have comfort in the old way of doing IT. [...]
[thanks to one of our readers, Christine K. for sharing this with us]
“Describing a bandwidth hog is a matter of point-of-view and here is more to it than simple computations of amounts of usage. If someone uses a lot of bandwidth, but does so in off-peak hours, is that person any more of a hog than another user who uses less bandwidth but does so during peak usage hours? ISP’s are making big noises about bandwidth hogs, but some feel that is just a cover for raising rates. Price increases are seemingly inevitable, and, of course, it will be the consumer who bears the brunt of any price increase. Below are some of the debate points, along with a few ideas on more equitable distribution of costs.”
We are making this Twitter chat a weekly event. Since we’re in the beginning stage, we’re tweaking it as we go, and are always open to suggestions.
We fully encourage anyone on Twitter to join the conversation, or jump in with questions about technology topics or about Nerds On Site itself, or just to say hello!
“After having a meeting with the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi, discussing wireless internet access solutions, they agreed to my proposal of 45 units, 45 five year licenses, and 45 Power over Ethernet (POE) connections. They agreed to the proposal!
Many governments around the world offer support programs to businesses, especially ones in manufacturing and export, since those industries can have a larger economic impact. For example, in Ontario, Canada, in combination with the Federal Government, the SMART program is offered, see: http://www.cme-smart.ca/ Your regional or federal government may offer similar programs. If your organization [...]
[flv width="480" height="270"]http://bitcast-g.bitgravity.com/nerdsonsitecdn/nos_videos/nerdcast/NerdCast_Episode-17.m4v[/flv]
Today we have Rob Wolf interviewing one of our clients in Perth, Australia. PGSR. PGSR specializes in labour services. Our unique approach to labour for projects, derives from our absolute commitment to our customers’ needs. PGSR personnel integrate seamlessly into your project by applying our company policy of promoting our customer. Once again we talk [...] | <urn:uuid:2a8828b3-d2a8-449e-9f1e-615dc302865a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nerdsonsite.com/blog/category/united-states/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931013 | 620 | 1.5 | 2 |
The mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, schedules regular bike rides across her city’s various neighborhoods in order to meet her constituents and introduce others to a different side of town.
Last week, the mayor of Huntsville encouraged that city’s residents to join him Saturday for the fourth annual Mayor’s Bicycle Ride.
Clearly, these and scores of other City Hall cycling enthusiasts and promoters are not your father’s municipal chief executives. The reasons are as varied as the reasons anyone ever rides a bike.
For big cities, bike lanes offer one more way to reduce the carbon footprint and get more cars off the already clogged streets.
Then there are the fitness and weight-loss benefits of getting folks off the sofa and exercising outdoors. “Cycling is just another way we can stay fit and healthy,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said in a press release. “I just lost 18 pounds through diet and exercise as part of our Healthy Huntsville/Scale Back Alabama effort. Keeping active year-round is key to living healthy, and cycling is a fun way to do that.”
In Fort Worth, Mayor Betsy Price has — forgive me — spun a new way to meet the constituents, hear their problems and generally see and be seen. Her Tour de Fort Worth on Wednesdays during the warm months is designed for everyone; no one gets left behind and the pace is easy.
“It’s really interesting what people will tell you on a bike,” Price says on a promotional video hosted on the city’s website. “Because they get warmed up and they get loose and you feel friendly and accessible. That’s what we want. This is all about being real open and free with the citizens and letting them know we are here, and listening to their issues.”
Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell, an accomplished athlete before his election, said in an article in last week’s Wall Street Journal that he uses exercise as a way to de-stress. In order to preserve time for conditioning, he said, “I labeled workouts as ‘meetings’ in my calendar during the election.”
For others, a cycling-friendly culture fits with a region’s eco-tourism dreams. (We’re winking at you, Anniston and other cities in Calhoun County.) Our region is in a prime position to become a hub for outdoor recreation, especially cycling. Experts tell us Coldwater’s extensive network of mountain bike trails currently under construction will lure avid cyclists from across the country who are willing to spend days riding. They’ll also be spending money right here, on restaurants, hotels and entertainment.
A little concerted effort could link the Ladiga Trail from its end-point in far north Anniston all the way into downtown. Then, the trail could allow ambitious riders to travel from Anniston to Atlanta on a bike trail largely free of automobiles. And let’s not forget the other assets — our active running community with the nationally known Woodstock 5K, the Alabama Scenic River Trail, the countless hiking trails, the Sunny King Criterium, which attracts professional riders, the Cheaha Challenge and so on.
Yes, it seems like a few ambitious local politicians might consider the examples in Huntsville, Fort Worth, Ogden and elsewhere, and practice a little spin control.
Bob Davis is editor of The Anniston Star. Contact him at 256-235-3540 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Twitter: twitter.com/EditorBobDavis. | <urn:uuid:0a27fa2c-53b4-4ca5-bfcd-9100534e5bd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.annistonstar.com/view/full_story/18473804/article-Bob-Davis--Politics-on-two-wheels?instance=home_opinion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947311 | 745 | 1.671875 | 2 |
A Federal safety official investigating a crash at the airport here said today that air traffic controllers may have violated standard procedures when they cleared an Eastern Airlines jet for landing on an occupied runway.
One wing of the jet apparently sheared off the top of a private aircraft that had just landed on the runway Thursday night at Hartsfield International Airport. The pilot of the smaller plane, Eric Thomas, 30 years old, of Acworth, Ga., was killed and a passenger injured. None of the eight crew members or 141 passengers aboard the jet, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727, was injured. The Eastern flight had originated in Montreal, with a stop at La Guardia Airport.
Issue of Landing Clearance
Robert MacIntosh, the chief investigator of the crash for the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the pilots of both planes were communicating by radio with the air traffic control tower at the airport and that the Eastern Airlines plane had been given clearance to land even though Mr. Thomas's Beechcraft King Air had not yet turned off the runway.
''I am a pilot myself, and it is my understanding that the landing runway will be clear prior to a clearance for landing,'' he said.
Jack K. Barker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta, disagreed, saying that a controller may give clearance to several planes lined up in sequence to land on the same runway. Mr. Barker also said the air traffic controller in contact with both pilots was fully qualified and had eight years of experience. He added that the control tower was fully staffed and that the controller had been working for only a few minutes before the accident.
The F.A.A. operates the air traffic control system and employs the controllers.
At his news conference, Mr. MacIntosh declined to say that there was less than standard separation between the two aircraft and he declined to speculate on whether the accident should be attributed to air traffic controllers or either of the pilots involved.
The incident began about 7 P.M. when a DC-9 twin-engine jet aircraft operated by Continental Airlines landed on runway 26-right. Mr. MacIntosh said the pilot of that plane was instructed to turn off the runway but to stop his airplane short of a parallel runway just south of 26-right.
Mr. MacIntosh said the pilot of the Continental plane apparently did not immediately acknowledge receiving the instruction from the control tower.
In the meantime, the Beechcraft flying from a suburban Atlanta airport, was given clearance to land on 26-right. Shortly thereafter, Mr. MacIntosh said, the Eastern flight was also cleared to land.
Mr. MacIntosh said crew members on the Eastern flight told investigators that they were aware that controllers were trying to locate the Continental aircraft and that the Eastern flight crew was also trying to spot the Continental jet.
Mr. MacIntosh quoted Eastern crew members as saying they were unaware that the Beechcraft was still on the runway until a ''very, very short time'' before impact.
7 DIE IN ARKANSAS CRASH
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Jan. 19 (AP) -A twin-engine corporate jet crashed short of a runway at the Little Rock municipal airport today, runway in a storm late Friday, killing all seven people aboard, the authorities said.
The 21-seat Gulfstream II jet, carrying employees of a subsidiary of the Eastman Kodak Company, was apparently trying to land in a storm, witnesses said.
The plane left Longview, Tex., earlier today and was headed to Batesville, Ark., but was diverted to Little Rock because of bad weather, said Bill Edwards, a spokesman for the Eastman Kodak subsidiary, Tennessee Eastman in Kingsport, Tenn.
The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of their families, Mr. Edwards said.
QUESTIONS ABOUT TAKEOFF
The Philadelphia airport control tower reported Thursday that an Eastern Airlines jet took off from a taxiway instead of the runway parallel to it. But the pilots told an investigator that the report was wrong and that they had taken off properly from the runway.
While the runway and the taxiway are both more than 10,000 feet long, the taxiway is much narrower, only 75 feet wide, as against the runway, which is 200 feet wide.
The controllers in the tower will be interviewed Tuesday to try to clear up the matter, officials at the transportation safety board said. The board is conducting the official inquiry.
It could not be determined immediately why the controllers were not being made available by the Federal Aviation Administration for the interviews until Tuesday.
The twin-engine DC-9, Flight 121 bound from Philadelphia to Atlanta, was cleared to take off from runway 27-left, at about 6:50 A.M., with darkness beginning to lift. | <urn:uuid:38d0336b-3bdd-4a6f-abd6-03134b0214d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/20/us/possible-violation-of-air-rules-seen.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974338 | 988 | 1.601563 | 2 |
What is your immediate reaction when you come across the following words, “Bear Mace Eco Friendly”? You generally question yourself, really, are bear mace eco friendly products?
Most people would assume that the bear mace eco friendly is just another addition to the long list of useless eco friendly products, but it is not so. It sounds some what unmatched but, the truth is bear mace eco friendly is the one and only self defense product of its kind. Indeed bear mace eco friendly is like all other eco friendly products are very user friendly too. They are easy to use, can be carried along and are very effective on the bears. Let us assume, that you are on a weekend camping trip with your family or friends, what do you do immediately? You panic, recognizing the lurking danger in the close vicinity, and before you start looking around your camp or search for your firearm the bear charges on you. The more appropriate option would be to carry the eco friendly bear mace.
What makes this bear mace eco friendly, so important in our day to day life is the fact that, this product not only cares about you but also the environment that your predecessors would inherit from you. People living in the regions /area where there is even 0.1% chance of encounter with bears are advised to keep self defense products, because of the unpredictable nature of the bears, while the Grizzly bear is the most common type that is known for human attacks, in many cases black bears are also responsible for killing people in the forests as well as their homes. There are a wide variety of non lethal self defense product available in the market such as electric fences and fire arm. The electric fence requires a constant back up of electricity and the fire arm works on battery, thus both these self defense product not only require constant energy for their functioning but also adversely impact the environment. Apart from that there are negative consequences after the use of these products such as – the fire arm which scares the bear and forces it to back off, also burns the natural flora and fauna of the place thereby polluting the environment, the electric fence on the other hand is very dangerous, as it runs on electricity. Small children and pets should be kept away from it, any loop holes can lead to fatal electric shocks.
How exactly is the bear mace eco friendly?
Undoubtedly it is the nature and usage that make the bear mace eco friendly, which is very different from the above mentioned products. All you need to do is to keep a bear mace handy, and spray in the eyes or all over the face of animal. The constituents of the product are kept in a pressurized can generally made up of aluminum, which can be successfully decomposed or reused after use at any of the recycling plants. Independent of all forms of energy for its use, made up of non toxic and non inflammable substances, and last but not the least having a powerful impact on the bears indeed entitle the bear mace as eco- friendly products. | <urn:uuid:518858ba-02b6-414d-8943-038521fa5d2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bearmace.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967215 | 613 | 1.570313 | 2 |
According to RTE News, "Enda Kenny said people he spoke to would prefer not to see an income tax rise... He said he believes income tax increases would kill jobs and he wanted to get people off the dole and back to work".
Rather, the government have ingeniuosly engineered a completely different scheme in order to battle the deficit... they will increase VAT.
VAT, or Value Added Tax, will increase from 21% to 23% early next year.
"The Government has to rebuild the economy, which has fallen asunder and at the same time protect the vulnerable, front-line services and get people back to work", Enda Kenny said.
Funilly enough, a 2% VAT increase will manifest in several ways that will neither rebuild the economy nor protect the vulnerable. Here's how it will work:
a. Consumer prices will increase, passing on the tax burden to the customer. While there's no increase in income tax, the purchasing power of take home pay is now weaker, which is in effect the same thing. Also, Irish exports will drop, particularly to Northern Ireland.
b. Payroll hours will decrease. Rather than increase customer prices too much - workers will take a hit on the amount of hours they work, which amounts to lower wages. The same workload would be undertaken by less staff in a shorter time. But at least there's no income tax...
c. Slower employment rates. Businesses that had planned on hiring new staff next year might decide to hold off instead of rising their prices, particularly small businesses.
The secret economic principle that has elluded almost every popular economist and politician (even the great champion of the working class, Karl Marx) is that any tax implemented at any point in a business or corporation will always be paid by the lowest earners, through a mixture of higher prices and lower labour demand/wages.
At least the same tax percentages will be appear on workers' pay slips. Horray!
The Taoiseach said the VAT increase would not apply to food, children's clothing or services, but would apply to goods like televisions or washing machines. Yet. | <urn:uuid:fb717966-ae02-41e0-9bef-8b2e3588c902> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://subvertive.com/item/84-how-not-to-fix-the-economy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961302 | 439 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Poll 4 English
Survey Research Unit
Results of Poll # 11
WHILE THREE QUARTERS OF THE PALESTINIANS WELCOME SHARON'S PLAN OF WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA AND WHILE TWO THIRDS SEE IT AS VICTORY FOR ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST OCCUPATION, 58% OF THE PALESTINIANS PREFER TO SEE THE PALESTINIAN ATUHORITY AND ISRAEL NEGOTIATE THE WITHDRAWAL PLAN AND 61% BELIEVE SHARON IS NOT SERIOUS AND WILL NOT WITHDRAW
14-17 March 2004
These are the results of poll # 11 conducted by the
for Policy and Survey Research in the Palestinian Center West Bankand the Gaza Strip between March 14 and 17, 2004 (before the Israeli assassination of Ahmad Yasin). The poll deals with the plan for a unilateral evacuation of settlements, the separation wall and military checkpoints, the peace process and armed attacks, and internal Palestinian matters. Total size of the sample is 1320 adults (825 in the Sharon West Bankand 495 in the Gaza Strip) interviewed face to face in 120 randomly selected locations. Margin of error is 3%.
For further details, contact PSR director, Dr. Khalil Shikaki or Ayoub Mustafa, at Tel 02-2964933 or email firstname.lastname@example.org
Table of Contents:
4. Domestic Issues.
- About three quarters of the Palestinians welcome Sharon's plan to evacuate 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip and few more in the West Bank and two thirds believe it represents a victory for the armed struggle against occupation, but only one third believes Sharon is serious and will indeed withdraw and 61% believe he is not serious and will not withdraw.
- A majority of 58% prefers to see the PA negotiate with Israel Sharon's withdrawal plan, and 38% prefer to see the withdrawal being carried out unilaterally.
- 41% support and 54% oppose Israeli-Hamas negotiation of Israeli withdrawal from
- Withdrawal from
will increase the chances for a peace settlement in the view of 32% and will decrease the chances for peace in the view of 24%. Gaza
- In the view of the Palestinians,
's intentions are: first, to push the Palestinians toward internal infighting; second, to consolidate control over the Sharon West Bank; third, to frighten the Palestinian leadership of its opposition; and fourth, to maintain a Jewish majority in . Israel
- Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip will lead to a decrease in armed attacks against
from the Gaza Strip in the view of 41% and will lead to an increase in such attacks in the view of 30%. In the Gaza Strip, 49% believe it will lead to a decrease in the attacks. Israel
- After the withdrawal and the evacuation of settlements, 54% propose to give homes in settlements to those whose homes have been demolished by
, 22% want to give them to refugees, and 13% would like to demolish them. Israel
The polls shows that 73% of the Palestinians welcome
's plan to evacuate 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip and few more in the Sharon West Bank. Gazans are more welcoming of the plan (82%) than West Bankers (68%). Yet, the percentage of those who believe that the plan will increase the chances for a political settlement with does not exceed 32%, with 24% believing that it will decease such chances and 39% believing that it will have no effect on the peace process. The reason for the pessimistic assessment of the potential effect of the Israel plan is derived from the publics negative estimate of Sharon 's intentions. In the view of 37%, Sharon 's first goal is to push the Palestinians toward internal infighting; 33% believe his second goal is to consolidate Israeli control over the Sharon West Bank, and 28% believe his third goal is to intimidate the Palestinian leadership with loss of power to opposition parties. The percentage of those believing that his first goal is to maintain 's Jewish majority does not exceed 22%. Israel
Despite belief in
's malicious intent, two thirds of the Palestinian public see in his plan a victory for Palestinian armed struggle while only one third believes it is not a victory. Moreover, 68% believe that a majority of Palestinians sees the plan as a victory for armed struggle. Given the actual results, the assessment of the respondents is highly accurate which indicates that this is indeed the normative attitude prevailing among Palestinians. But the percentage of those believing that a majority of Israelis sees the plan as a victory for the Palestinians is 44%, with 48% believing that most Israelis do not see it as a victory for Palestinians. The belief that the plan is a victory for Palestinian armed struggle increases in the Gaza Strip (72%) compared to the West Bank (62%), in refugee camps (72%) compared to cities (61%), among men (70%) compared to women (62%), and among supporters of Hamas and Fateh (70% and 69% respectively) compared to the unaffiliated (59%). Sharon
Despite the welcome of the
plan and the belief that it represents a victory for Palestinian armed struggle, only one third believes that Sharon is serious and will indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip, while 61% believe he will not. This could be the reason why a majority of 58% prefers to see the PA negotiate the Sharon withdrawal with Gaza and only 38% prefer to see Israel withdrawing unilaterally. In other words, what the majority of the Palestinians sees as victory is not the unilateral aspect of the Israel plan but the evacuation of settlements. In this regard, the public prefers the evacuation and withdrawal to be the result of negotiations, but it still sees victory in both cases. Sharon
The survey sought to examine public perception of the legitimacy of a Hamas-Israel negotiation. When asked if they think
should negotiate its withdrawal from Israel also with Hamas, 41% responded positively while 54% said it should not. Similarly, when asked if Hamas should accept to negotiate with Gaza , 43% said it should and 50% said it should not. Yet only 36% of the respondents believe a majority of the Palestinians approves Hamas-Israel negotiations and 53% believe that most Palestinians do not approve such negotiations on the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. If Hamas accepts to negotiate with Israel , this would mean a change in the principled positions of the movement toward Israel and the recognition of Israel in the view of 55% of the respondents. The finding showing such support for Hamas-Israel negotiations indicates that a large section of the Palestinian public is dissatisfied with PA performance and wishes to introduce another Palestinian actor into the negotiations process. Israel
withdraws from the Gaza Strip, the level of armed attacks against Israelis from the Strip would decline according to 41% of the public, while 30% of the public believe it would increase the number of such attacks, and 24% believe it will have no impact. The percentage of those believing that withdrawal will lead to a decrease in attacks from Israel increases in the Gaza Strip (49%) compared to the Gaza West Bank(36%). It also increases among men (44%) compared to women (38%), among the oldest (45%) compared to the youngest (36%), among professionals, the retired, and farmers (60%, 56%, and 48% respectively) compared to students (33%), among those working in the public sector (51%) compared to those working in the private sector (44%), among the married (43%) compared to the unmarried (36%), and among Fateh supporters (45%) compared to supporters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (40% and 38% respectively).
After the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, a majority of 54% thinks that homes in the evacuated settlements should be given to those Palestinians whose homes have been demolished by
. But 22% think they should go to refugees and 13% think they should be demolished. Israel
- 55% believe the building of the separation wall will lead to an increase in armed attacks against
. 40% believe the best means for the Palestinians to fight it is by armed confrontations and bombing attacks inside Israel ; 27% believe in a ceasefire agreement and return to the peace process; 10% prefer popular non violent demonstrations; and 11% believe going to the international court of Justice is the best means of fighting the wall. Israel
- A majority of 61% believes that the International Court of Justice will be biased in favor of
and only 26% believe it will be neutral. Israel
- 41% believe that the best means of fighting Israeli military checkpoints is through reaching a ceasefire and returning to the peace process and 28% believe armed confrontations and bombing attacks are the best means, while 9% have confidence in popular non-violent demonstration.
A majority of 55% believes that the separation wall will lead to more armed attacks against
, 18% believe it will lead to less attacks, and 25% believe it will have no impact on attacks. But more than two thirds (68%) believe that a majority of Israelis does believe that the wall will reduce armed attacks. The best way to fight the wall in the view of 40% of the public is by the continuation of armed confrontations and bombing attacks inside Israel while 27% believe the best way is to reach a ceasefire agreement and return to the peace process. The percentage of those who believe non-violent demonstrations are the best means to fight the wall does not exceed 10%, and a similar percentage (11%) believes in the effectiveness of complaining to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). One reason why the level of confidence in the ICJ is so low is the surprising finding that 61% of the public believe the Court will be biased in favor of Israel , with only 8% believing it will be biased in favor of the Palestinians and only 26% believing it would be neutral. Israel
During the last three months, 48% of the Palestinians traveled through Israeli military checkpoints. The reasons for travel varied with 35% visiting family, 30% going to work, 23% seeking medical treatment, and 9% going to schools and universities. The frequency of travel varied too with 27% traveling once a month, 26% twice or three time monthly, 21% twice or three times weekly, and 17% daily. The extent of hardship encountered while crossing the checkpoints have been described as very large or large by 82% while 14% described it as medium and 3% as little. More than one third of the respondents said that family members had to locate to other areas because of the suffering at the checkpoints or because of their inability to cross them. The best way to fight the checkpoints according to 41% of the respondents is a ceasefire agreement and a return to the peace process, but 28% said it is the continuation of armed confrontations and bombings inside
. Only 9% said the best way to fight checkpoint is by non-violent demonstrations and 12% by complaining to international human rights organizations. Belief in the utility of armed confrontations and bombings inside Israel increases in the Gaza Strip (31%) compared to the West Bank (26%), among men (30%) compared to women (25%), among holders of BA degree (33%) compared to illiterates (26%), and among supporters of Hamas (38%) compared to supporters of Fateh (26%). Israel
- 66% believe the Roadmap has collapsed. Last December, 58% believed it had collapsed; and last October the percentage was 68%.
- Wide support for armed attacks: 87% support attacks against Israeli soldiers, 86% support attacks against settlers, and 53% support attacks against Israeli civilians.
- Despite that, 84% support mutual cessation of violence and 70% support a Hudna.
- 67% believe that armed confrontations have helped the Palestinians achieve national rights in a way that negotiations could not.
- After reaching a peace agreement and the establishment of a Palestinian state, 74% would support reconciliation between the two peoples, but 42% are convinced that such reconciliation is not possible ever.
- 80% believe that Hizballah came out a winner from the prisoners' exchange with
- In the occasion of the Arab Summit in
, 86% of the Palestinians believe that they cannot count on Arab States to support them in regaining their rights. Tunis
The findings show little optimism about the prospect for a return to negotiations and cessation of violence. Only 15% believe that violence will stop soon and the two sides will return to negotiations and 45% believe some armed confrontations will continue but the parties will be able to return to negotiations. More than one third, compared to less than one quarter last December, believes that violence will not stop and the two sides will not return to negotiations. Two thirds, compared to 58% last December and 68% last October, believe that the Roadmap has collapsed.
Support for armed attacks against Israeli soldiers remains very high at 87% and against settlers at 86%, and against civilians at 53%. These figures are similar to those obtained during the last six months except for the support of violence against civilians which stood at 48% last December and 59% last October. Two thirds (67%) of the public believe that armed confrontations have helped achieve Palestinian national rights in ways that negotiations could not. Last December, this percentage stood at 64%.
Despite the wide support for armed attacks, a large majority of 84% support mutual cessation of violence and 70% support a hudna in which the Palestinians stop using arms against the Israelis and the Israelis stop using arms against the Palestinians. If such agreement if reached, 57% of the public would support the PA in taking measures to prevent armed attacks against Israeli targets.
The findings show that a majority of the public does not blame Palestinian opposition groups for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement as only 11% do so, another 17% blame the PA for this failure, and 37% blame both sides. The rest of the public blames others, mostly
. The percentage of those blaming the opposition groups more than the PA increases among supporters of Fateh (9% blame the PA and 18% blame the opposition) compared to supporters of Hamas (26% blame the PA and 8% blame the opposition). Israel
After reaching a peace agreement between the two sides and the establishment of a Palestinian state recognized by
, 74% would support reconciliation between the two peoples. Despite this finding, 42% believe reconciliation is not possible ever, while 18% believe it will be possible only after several generations, 8% believes it to be possible in the next generation, 7% during the next 10 years, and 16% during the next few years. Regarding the modalities of reconciliation after reaching a peace agreement, 86% would support open borders between the two states, 65% would support joint economic institutions and ventures, 29% would support the creation of joint political institutions toward a confederation, 39% would support the enacting of laws that prohibit incitement against Israel, and only 7% would support the adoption of a school curriculum in the Palestinian state that recognizes Israel and teaches school children not to demand return of all Palestine to the Palestinians. Israel
An overwhelming majority of 80% views the Israel-Hezbollah prisoners exchange as a victory for Hezbollah, 9% view it as a victory for
, and 7% believe the two sides came out victorious. Israel
On the occasion of the Arab summit, originally scheduled for the end of March in
, PSR asked respondents whether they can count on support from Arab states in regaining their rights. Only 14% responded in the affirmative and 86% said Palestinians can not count on support of Arab states. Tunisia
- Only 20% to 25% believe that Prime Minister Abu
' has been able to achieve his four stated objectives of putting an end to internal anarchy, prepare for elections, carry out political reforms, and return to negotiations. Despite the low evaluation, only 39% believe that he should resign and 47% believe he should not. Ala
- 63% believe Israeli occupation is responsible for the chaos in the Palestinian areas and 25% put the blame on the Palestinian security services and the Palestinian leadership.
- 70% want to have Palestinian legislative and presidential elections after
ends its occupation of Palestinian cities and towns, but 27% support holding them now. Israel
- 91% support internal and external calls for fundamental political reforms in the PA.
- Positive evaluation of Palestinian democracy does not exceed 23%, with 84% believing that corruption exists in the PA, and 94% believing that one can not find a job without a wasta.
- Arafat's popularity stands at 38% as the case was last December.
- For the office of a vice president, Marwan Barghouti remains at the top with 16%, followed by Abdul Aziz Rantisi with 14%, and Saeb Erikat with 8%.
- Fateh's popularity stands at 27% and Hamas at 20%. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas has the support of 27% compared to 23% for Fateh. The popularity of the Islamists combined (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and independent Islamists) stands at 29% and the percentage of the non-affiliated stands at 40%.
The findings show little positive evaluation of the performance of the Abu Ala's government. When asked whether the Prime Minister has been able to deliver on what he promised regarding the elimination of internal anarchy, preparation for elections, political reforms, and return to the peace process with Israel, only 20% to 25% said he was able to deliver for each item while 65% to 75% said he was not. Despite this grim assessment, only 39% said the Prime Minister and his government should resign and 47% said they should not. One reason for this could be the finding that 63% of the public blame the Israeli occupation for the anarchy and lack of security while only 25% blame it on the failure of the Palestinian security services and leadership.
Demand for Abu Ala's resignation increases in the Gaza Strip (43%) compared to the West Bank (37%), in refugee camps (44%) compared to towns and villages (35%), among men (45%) compared to women (33%), among the youngest, between the ages of 18-22 years (45%) compared to the oldest, over 52 years old (33%), among holders of BA degree (41%) compared to illiterates (29%), among professionals, laborers, employees, and students (60%, 51%, 48%, and 46% respectively) compared to housewives and the retired (32% and 22% respectively), and among supporters of Hamas (49%) compared to supporters of Fateh (34%).
Less than one quarter (23%) gives Palestinian democracy a positive evaluation. But 50% believe people can criticize the PA without fear, and 49% believe that there is, or there is to some extent, press freedom in the Palestinian territories. Belief in the existence of corruption in PA institutions reaches 84%, and from among those 70% believe that this corruption will increase or remain the same in the future. More than three quarters (77%) believe that to a large extent jobs in the PA are obtainable through wasta, with an additional 17% believing that wasta is used sometimes. Only 2% believe employment is done without wasta. The percentage of those who say that conditions in the Palestinians areas forces them to seek permanent emigration reaches 15%.
Support for internal and external calls for fundamental political reforms reaches 91% in this poll. Support for holding general political elections after an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities reaches 70% with an additional 27% supporting the holding of elections today, under the current conditions of occupation.
Arafat's popularity remains unchanged as it was last December (38%). Regarding support for a vice president, Marwan Barghouti's popularity remains highest (16%) followed by that of Abdulaziz al Ranatisi (14%), Sa'eb Erikat (8%), Haidar Abdul Shafi (6%), Ahmad Yasin and Hanan Ashrawi (5% each), Farouq Qaddoumi (4%), Ahamd Quari'-Abu Ala' (3%), Mohammad Dahlan (2%), and Mahmoud Abbas-Abu Mazin (1%). In the Gaza Strip, Rantisi's popularity inceases to 17% compared to 12% in the
West Bank. Similarly, Dahlan's popularity increases in the Gaza Strip to 5% compared to less than 1% in the West Bank. Fateh is the most popular faction with 27% followed by Hamas with 20%. Hamas' popularity is the largest in the Gaza Strip (27%) followed by Fateh (23%). The combined Islamists popularity (Hamas, Islamic Jihad and independent Islamists) reaches 29% and the percentage of the non-affiliated stands at 40%.
[PSR Home] [This poll's next section] [Index of Polls] [ e-mail] | <urn:uuid:3a074326-b7ae-4d25-a2da-2bde3ec8081d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2004/p11a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951703 | 4,241 | 1.539063 | 2 |
One of the most important success lessons that I learned in my life is:
“The easiest way to become successful is to find someone who is already successful at what you want to do and follow his/her footsteps”
That’s why when I decided to start the Midway Simplicity blog, I reached out to the top simple living advocates with the following key question:
“Could you please share with us one of your
most practical simple living tips/ideas?”
I was looking for more mainstream ideas that are not too harsh for the lifestyle of an ordinary person who just wants to find peace and enjoy more with less, without becoming an extreme minimalist (i.e. the Midway).
I received awesome replies from 27 humble, wonderful and inspiring simplicity advocates (or as I prefer to call them: Legends).
In this post, you are going to enter and explore the world of simple living from the shoulders of inspiring icons who are making our lives more peaceful and joyful.
Leo Babauta - Zen Habits
Place limits on everything you do.
Limits force us to choose the important and eliminate the rest, so that the limits make what we do more powerful.
So only do email for 10 minutes, twice a day, for example, and only send out 5 sentence emails. Only own 100 things, or do three important tasks each morning. Only travel with 10 things, work for 6 hours a day, or go to a restaurant once a week.
Those are only examples, of course — you’ll have to find limits that work for you.
Courtney Carver - Be More With Less
My best tip to start living more simply is to stop checking email first thing in the morning. Instead, do your most important work first. That could be a yoga class, writing, or another work project. When you check email first, you do everyone’s important work besides your own. You react to messages and shift your schedule based on email. Instead, do what means the most to you first, and check email a few hours later.
Francine Jay - Miss Minimalist
When you’re decluttering, start with a clean slate: completely empty the room, closet, or drawer you’re working on. Then put back only those things you truly need or love. It’s much easier (and more fun!) to single out things to treasure, than to single out things to toss.
Joshua Becker - Becoming Minimalist
Schedule solitude into your life. Simplicity is a counter-cultural lifestyle. Advertisements bombard us from every possible direction calling us to earn more, buy more, and possess more. Their messages and imagery are powerful – far more persuasive than we realize. Simplicity requires turning off that noise, centering our hearts on what’s most important, and crafting a new life… often without completely disengaging from the existing one. Meditation and solitude provide that opportunity. The basic steps of simplicity will always look similar (slow down, live with less, focus on what’s most important), but they will only come into sharper focus when we set aside time to separate our attention from everything else competing for it.
Lorie Marrero - Clutter Diet
Think prevention. Most people focus on reducing what they have already accumulated—like cleaning out a closet—but they forget to look at the habits that made the closet crowded in the first place. Be very mindful of what you are bringing into your home. Don’t pick up things just because they are free, or because someone is giving them to you, or because they are “perfectly good.” We have printable “Clutter Prevention Wallet Reminder Sleeves” on our free tips page (www.clutterdiet.com/freetips) which are used for holding your favorite credit card in your wallet. They have printed on them the five questions you should ask before buying anything.
Allan Douglas - Simple Life Prattle
It’s OK to say NO
One of the greatest stress producers we have in modern life is the pressure put upon us to participate in social organizations, to be involved in activities, to “be there” for everyone who asks. These are worthwhile things, but *you* need to choose which ones to devote your time and energies to; don’t succumb to the notion that if you decline an invitation you’re a heel.
Of course if you decline all invitations so you can sit on front of the television, that’s another matter. Spend your time in worthwhile pursuits, but don’t hand control of your time to others. Make your own choices, don’t over-extend, then do your very best in those activities. Reserve sufficient time to be spent together with your family, as a family. Investing your time and attention in your children will pay large dividends as they grow up.
LJ Earnest - Simple Productivity
To me, the easiest way to simplify your life is to stop multitasking. By focusing on a single thing at one time, you get more done, and you lose the craziness of trying to maintain multiple tasks in your brain at once. It gives a feeling of space and peace that allows you to simplify other areas.
Erin Rooney Doland - Unclutterer
A simple change to make is to put a hook or bowl for your keys near your preferred entrance to the house, and then deposit your keys there every time you come home. It’s an easy habit to form, and in addition to saving you time so you never have to hunt for your keys, it might also help you in an emergency. If you’re ever in the position of having to leave your home quickly, you know exactly where to find your keys. If you live in a high crime area, be sure to store your keys in a place that isn’t immediately obvious to an intruder, like on a hook on the back of your coat closet door.
Robert Wall - Untitled Minimalism
If I could sum simple living up in one word, it would be “intention”.
Every time you start a sentence with “I have to….”, stop for a minute. Put that sentence under the microscope and ask, “why?” Is it because somebody else would do it? If so, you’re living somebody else’s life. Is it because somebody else expects you to? If so, then you’re chasing somebody else’s dream.
You’ll never be happy unless you’re living your life, and chasing your dreams. Figure out what those dreams are, and do your best to intentionally order your life around achieving them. That’s the core of simplicity.
Trent Hamm - The Simple Dollar
Build a relationship with your neighbors. If you have a good relationship with the people around you, they’re a constant resource for borrowing things, helping out in a pinch, keeping an eye on your place while you’re away, and often for friendship without having to go out. One of the first things I do when I move into a place is meet and build a relationship with the people around me.
Colin Wright - Exile Lifestyle
Focus on what’s important to you, and let that guide your decisions in life, your purchases, and your activities. Aim to reduce from your life the things you don’t enjoy at the same time. After a while of doing both of these things consciously, you’ll be in a much better spot, with less of what you don’t want or need, and more of what you do.
Joshua Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus - The Minimalists
Keep it simple, don’t live outside your means, and be true to yourself no matter what.
Tammy Strobel - Rowdy Kittens
When I walk in the door I immediately put my stuff away. For example, shoes aren’t allowed in the tiny house, so they either stay on the porch or sit by the heater to dry off. The same goes for my wet rain coat. I hang up my coat above the heater to dry and then it goes into the closet.
In addition, each of my belongings has a designated home. I have a spot for my computer, power cords, clothing, and books. Putting stuff aways saves me time because I don’t spend 15 minutes looking for my keys or iPod every morning.
If I don’t follow these simple steps, I can’t seem to find what I need and it’s frustrating to constantly look for the same belongings over and over again. The trick is forming a ritual of picking stuff up and putting it away.
Colleen Madsen - 365 Less Things
When it comes to this journey of living with less all you need is a little determination and a lot of resistance. Determination to reduce what you own and resistance to the temptation to replace it with something new. The first thing I did was to stem the tide of stuff coming in and then slowly but surely I have reduced the clutter that already existed. As time wears on I find I am prepared to release more and more things. Every day I reach a new level of satisfaction and one day, I know not when, I will reach my final destination. Right now I am happy to be somewhere midway.
Andrea Briggs - Inside Thread Studio
Love what you have.
One of the most helpful & motivating techniques I have used personally in my own life to simplify my habits and slim down my personal clutter & possessions is to truly love what I have.
I asked myself these questions over and over again…
- How much of what I own do I truly love?
- How much do I buy do I end up keeping? Or even really use?
- How much of what surrounds me is really necessary and used in my day to day life?
- How much of my stuff is secretly sucking my energy?
Over and over, I asked myself these questions and applied them to the stuff surrounding me through this slow and easeful practice, I ultimately re-shaped how I purchased, used, and kept my personally belongings.
I realized, I should never underestimate the positive or negative energy my things created and when stuff is shoved and piled around the living space it can truly effect daily energy and over all emotions. Simplifying can be easy, especially when you re-examine the attachment to your personal belongings and what all your things mean to you! Ask yourself those questions each day and see what happens!
Beth Dargis - My Simpler Life
My most practical tip is about the To Do list. Go over the lists of the past weeks. How many tasks did you accomplish each day? Now average it for the week. How many did you average for a day?
When you make your to do list for tomorrow – check to see what the average tasks accomplished was. If it was 10 a day, don’t have a to do list of 20. You will just feel badly when they don’t get done. If it was 3 a day, have the three most important things to do on your list. And everything else you do will be a bonus. The more realistic you are about how much you get done on an average day, the better planning you will do.
Andrea Dekker - Simple Organized Living
Do 15 minutes a day… every day. Turn off the phone, shut down the computer, give the kids a snack, and spend 15 minutes totally focused on cleaning and organizing. Don’t get distracted by anything, but instead, race against the clock to see how much you can accomplish in that short amount of time. We all have 15 minutes a day — and by doing 15 minutes every day, we can accumulate 90 hours of cleaning/organizing a year!
Tina Su - Think Simple Now
Set a date with yourself every day — for 30 minutes to an hour or longer — where you turn off the TV, the phone, computer. Take this time to read, to journal, or close your eyes and relax.
Simple living is a reflection from your inner state of mind into your external. It all starts from within. Doing this will help center us and re-group our souls from the noise that clutters our inner space.
Nina Yau - Castles In The Air
Examine closely what is in your life that you actually need in order to be happy, healthy and at peace. Genuine abundance is everywhere, most especially within yourself. After we’ve removed the extraneous, the unnecessary, we are left with the extraordinary.
I find questions are the best inner compass since everyone’s journey will be unique.
What do you use, consume and wear on a daily basis? Make a record of this for the next thirty days. Now of these things, what made you happy? What did you enjoy doing, wearing, using? What made you unhappy? Are you able to let these things go?
Neil Pasricha - 1000 Awesome Things
Embrace the 3 A’s of awesome!
Gary Foreman - The Dollar Stretcher
Many people are familiar with the concept of ‘zero based budgeting.’ That a budget where you don’t start with last year’s expenses as a baseline, but rather start at zero. Even dollar must be justified. A similar tool can be applied to our lifestyles. Sort of a ‘zero based lifestyle budget.’ Just because we did something last year doesn’t mean that we need to do it again. Adapt to changing times, changing needs and a changing personality. Take a look at everything you do and decide whether it adds value to your life.
Matt Madeiro - Three New Leaves
Make a swap. Each day of the week, take one thing you normally do (watch TV, surf Facebook, etc.) and shorten it by 30 minutes an hour. Spend that time on something with an impact: read a book, take a long walk, go to bed earlier, etc. These small changes alone can make a huge difference in your week, so imagine what would happen if you did them for a year?
Wanda Urbanska - Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska
In our busy lives, there is no better gift you can give yourself (and others) than building a cushion of time into your schedule. If you have an appointment and you calculate it’ll take you 30 minutes to get there, leave 45 minutes early. That way, if you’re delayed by traffic or other reasons, you won’t have to stress. When you arrive, you can compose yourself, drink some water and get ready for whatever is at hand. This simple step can make a big difference.
Miriam Ortiz y Pino - More Than Organized
The easiest way to keep things simple is to learn to ask yourself a couple of questions before you buy something. The first is “do I already own something that would do the same thing?” The second is “do I want to take care of this new thing for it’s lifetime?” These questions work for everything from snack food to new cars. There is no right or wrong answer, just what will work for you.
Pea Syne - Simple Humble
Everyday we are bombarded with choices and things that are supposed to improve our lifestyles and bring us more happiness. However, improved lives and contented, at ease people are the last thing I see on television, online or in public. In fact, when you do meet these calm, spiritual souls they really stop you in your tracks, because they STAND OUT.
Their strength of quiet resolve, trust in their own instinct and refusal to mingle in the affray of shallowness and the absurdity of the world can really take your breath away…just for a minute.
We all have this ability and innate self wisdom, most of us allow it to die from mis-use. We ask others for truths about us that we really already know. We follow trends instead of what is right and pure for us. We don’t listen to our gut feeling when someone points us in the wrong direction masquerading as a potential partner, friend or a financial advisor.
To opt for simple living in today’s world you have to re-tune your mind-set and to do that my simple advice is to run from the crowd for at least half an hour a week.
Turn off the noise, AKA the ‘news’, the demands, the worry, the grasping advertisers and desperate celebrities doing all kinds of PR stunts just for a slither of your attention.
Return the attention to yourself and ask yourself if you are where you need to be. Ask yourself if you are truly happy and find the answer to that question…don’t leave it hanging. If not, what are you doing to change it? Ask yourself if you are still interested in being exceptional and brilliant or sit there and explain to your disappointed soul why have you given that up. Ask yourself if you have picked the absolute best people to spend the remaining irretrievable years of your life with or should some of them hit the road.
That’s my simple advice. It isn’t about minimizing ownership of quantities of products. It’s far more important than that. It’s about maximizing time with yourself. Because if you are not happy with your answers at first, regular quality, quiet time will eventually reveal to you the best way to get the answers you wish for. It will also heighten the desire and understanding of minimizing for less quantity, more quality.
Tiffany Washko - Nature Moms
Revolving credit may be great for the economy, but it ties you down to payments for things that you probably didn’t actually need or even want but rather felt that you had to have. Paying off your credit cards is an important step on the road to living a minimalist lifestyle. The freedom that comes from not being tied to a financial obligation for your stuff is worth it in the long run. It will also likely help you avoid buying things you don’t actually need.
Leslie Cao - Radical Turtle
When going shopping, purchase clothes only made out of natural fabrics such as cotton, silk, wool, bamboo, and hemp, not polyester, rayon, or acrylic. Depending on the shop, it will probably eliminate at least half of your clothing choices. So, in the end, you purchase less and longer-lasting, better quality clothes, while reducing your environmental impact. These fabrics are able to biodegrade since they are not made from oil-derived plastic.
Thank you all for your awesome & simple insights that enlighten our lives.
Your lives inspire us to find peace and enjoy more with less.
What is your most practical simple living tip?
Please share at least one in the comments below. What you share adds a ton of value to the community!
* Featured Photos Credit: *~Dawn~*, Pink Sherbet Photography, audreyjm529 @ flickr CC | <urn:uuid:18d8b6ff-223f-4155-bcb2-4e574ec8cf7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://midwaysimplicity.com/27-legends-reveal-tips-to-simplify-your-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939523 | 4,005 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Tucson, nicknamed Old Pueblo, is a city in southeast Arizona on the Santa Cruz River with a mix of Spanish and Native American cultures and heritage. The name Tucson is derived from a Papago term for “foot of the mountain” and the city sits in a high desert valley that is popular with tourists who flock to experience Tucson's range of boutique hotels and upscale inns. Originally based on an old Spanish mission the city nowadays has two main centers, a historic core and a more contemporary district around the University of Arizona to the east.
When to visit TucsonThe tourist season extends from December to April and with the average January temperatures averaging around 63ºF it's the perfect season to travel to Tucson. The Fiesta de los Vaqueros, the Tucson Rodeo, in February and the Gem and Mineral Show in the same month are both popular. Visitors have more scope to book rooms in July when the average temperatures soar to 99ºF.
How to get to TucsonTucson International Airport (TUS) lies about 8 miles south of downtown, There are plenty of hotels on Tucson Boulevard, which runs north-south towards the airport. The city is bisected by the I-10 interstate, and Amtrak and Greyhound services stop centrally.
Tucson attractionsChief among Tucson attractions is the Old Spanish Mission, San Xavier del Bac, some 10 miles to the south. Fremont House is a building of original adobe construction. Tucson Convention Center is conveniently situated in downtown Tuscon and there is an array of convention center hotels to suit all needs. The Doubletree Hotel in midtown is convenient for Reid Park Zoo and the University of Arizona. Out of town amid the Santa Catalina foothills is the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort and nearby the luxury boutique inn Tanque Verde, actually a ranch, both excellent places to escape the summer heat of the city.
Where to stay in TucsonTucson hotels are widespread throughout the city, and whether you require a resort hotel or a pet-friendly establishment, Hotels.com can offer a great variety of accommodations to suit all budgets, Outside of downtown there are numerous apartments and motels. | <urn:uuid:8ecce52c-27e2-49b6-9b30-3e580ac43f2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hotels.com/de1470658/hotels-tucson-arizona/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945201 | 442 | 1.703125 | 2 |
It’s come to this. We have so utterly failed to turn the economy around that now were are turning to our dogs for help.
“Frankly, anything that develops economic activity right now is good,” Maryland Del. Dan Morhaim, D-Arf, told The (Baltimore) Sun.
I think we would all agree with that, so let’s move ahead to Morhaim’s solution: Allow dogs into restaurants with outdoor seating.
I don’t have any special problem with that — it’s just that I have two dogs, and you would not believe the amount of effort it takes to get them to pay for their own food, not to mention lodging, health care or entertainment.
They are two of the cheapest creatures I know. They still owe me for vaccinations back in 2008, so if they’re allowed in restaurants, they might hit on the staff for some free water and scarf up some fallen shrimp tails, but I don’t know that we can count on them to, by themselves, get the economy moving toward a sustained ...
Hold on a minute; it appears I might have missed the point.
Reading further into the story, which I admit maybe I should have done in the first place, it appears that Morhaim believes it is dog OWNERS who will be more likely to spend money at restaurants if they are allowed to bring their pets.
“Now, when people are outside and walking with their dogs, they’ll walk by a place where they’d like to stop and eat. But they won’t because they can’t,” he said.
To reinforce the point, The Sun quoted Graham Baker, the owner of La Paz, a Mexican restaurant in Frederick, Md., who recently had to be reminded that dogs were not allowed, even in open-air seating areas: “People feel very strongly about being able to have that ability to dine with their dog,” Baker said. “When the patio was open to dogs, we had people coming in regularly. But with the economy the way it’s been, if they had to leave their dog at home, they were staying home as well.”
We live out in the country, so I can’t really relate to walking my dogs past a restaurant. I’m not certain it would even be possible. Our dogs are nothing if not task-oriented, and if they were to walk past an establishment that smelled of pork chops and decided they wanted to dine there, I doubt there would be much that I, or the entire State of Maryland, could do to stop them.
Aside from that, I don’t have any problem with eating next to a dog. In Europe, they think we’re weird because we don’t bring our dogs along to the cafe.
I do understand that there is a segment of the population out there that will have a stroke at the thought of a filthy, contaminated, flea-bitten hound lying in an establishment where people are trying to eat. Of course, the dog owner’s answer to this is that he invariably would rather sit next to a dog in a restaurant than next to the type of person who would complain about sitting next to a dog. At least the dog is bound to be friendlier.
And then there is always the allergies argument. And I’m not totally insensitive to that point of view, but I’ve always felt that if people make your dog sneeze, you can always find a table off in the corner somewhere.
So in the end, I hope the bill passes. Just so long as it doesn’t give cats any bright ideas.
Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist. He can be reached at 301-733-5131, ext. 6997, or via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org. Tune in to the Rowland Rant at www.herald-mail.com, on www.antpod.com or on Antietam Cable’s WCL-TV Channel 30 at 6:30 p.m. New episodes are released every Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:2849e7a7-af2d-4ffe-b3f2-46991931dea7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.herald-mail.com/2011-03-07/opinion/28667521_1_dogs-restaurants-with-outdoor-seating-mexican-restaurant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974948 | 883 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Síminn, a telecommunications company in Iceland, has raised a few eyebrows with an advertising campaign featuring Jesus and Judas preparing for the Last Supper. Jesus and his disciples are all ready to start their meal when they realise that Judas isn’t there. He’s still out on the town, telling Roman soldiers a joke about the Pharisee and the Babylonian prostitute on their way to Mesopotamia. Jesus knows just what to do. He calls Judas on his Siminn 3rd Generation mobile phone and engages him in a video conversation. Judas is caught in the possession of thirty pieces of silver. The tagline: “3G – Changing the course of history”.
Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube
The idea and the script for the Siminn Last Supper came from Jón Gnarr at advertising agency EnnEmm. Gnarr, who plays Judas, is well known in Iceland as a comedian and a devout Roman Catholic. Gnarr submitted the script to the office of the Bishop of Iceland beforehand and was given a green light on the project, with a warning that the ad may upset some Catholics.
Filming in Portugal was shot by directors Samuel and Gunnar (Samuel Bjarki Petursson and Gunnar Pall Olafsson) via Sagafilm, with producer Jón Bjarni and director of photography Sebastian Pfaffenbichler.
The little twist in the campaign is the withdrawal of the ad not because of blasphemy but because Jesus and Judas are talking to each other using a Vodafone plan. A little slip up by the advertising agency that could change the course of history… | <urn:uuid:5f10b1d9-57e6-41fa-981a-24a6d5de9a67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/siminn-3g-last-supper/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9564 | 349 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Two parents are alleging that Durango High School’s head girls volleyball coach engaged in a 15-year pattern of bullying and retaliation against students, including their daughter.
James and Elizabeth Candaleria filed a notice of claim two weeks ago against Durango School District 9-R in relation to their allegations against coach Robin Oliger. If the district does not respond within 90 days, the Candalerias may file a lawsuit.
The Candelarias charge that the district has been negligent, ignoring parents’ complaints about Oliger for more than a decade.
Deputy Superintendent Bill Esterbrook refused to comment about the allegations, saying it was a personnel matter, and that he had forwarded the Candalerias’ notice of claim to the school district’s attorney, Darryl Farrington.
Farrington also refused to comment but said it was highly unusual for such claims to be filed.
DHS Principal Diane Lashinsky and Athletic Director Sheldon Keresey, who were also named in the notice of claim, did not respond to emails requesting comment.
Oliger, who also teaches physical education at Needham Elementary School, could not be reached for comment by phone or email.
James Candaleria is an assistant U.S. attorney and Elizabeth Candelaria is a homemaker.
Though the Candelarias seek damages in relation to Oliger’s alleged mistreatment of their daughter Rianne Candelaria over the last two years, affidavits included with their claim cite incidents dating back to 1996.
In an affidavit, Donna Nazario, parent of a player, recounts that at a volleyball team summer camp in 1996, Oliger became so angry with her daughter Carmen Small (who is now a world-class cyclist) that Oliger threatened “to rip” Small’s “face off,” using an expletive for emphasis.
Nazario writes that parents demanded Oliger’s termination in 1997, after a varsity volleyball match in Cortez ended in DHS’s defeat, enraging Oliger, who told the players that she did not “want to see any of their faces on the bus,” and abandoned them in Cortez.
Oliger resigned shortly afterward. But after an unpaid year of absence, the 9-R school district board renewed Oliger’s contract. The notice of claim alleges that Oliger was rehired on the condition that she would not return to the head girls volleyball coach position at DHS.
School officials who declined to be identified dispute that such a predication existed. Oliger was rehired as DHS’s head girls volleyball coach in June 2002.
The Candelarias allege that, from 2003-2005, Oliger “harassed, humiliated, and intimidated” player Breanna Pritchard before Pritchard left the team her senior year.
In an affidavit, Pritchard recalls that Oliger called her “midget” and that “informing Oliger’s supervisor was not an option because at the time, the Athletic Director’s daughter” – Colleen Keresey – “was also on the team.”
Pritchard wrote that Oliger provided special instruction to Keresey at practices.
Colleen Keresey, who went on to play volleyball at Colorado College, has since become DHS’s assistant volleyball coach.
The notice alleges that the district was again negligent in ignoring a formal written complaint presented to the school board in 2005 by Doyle Villers, whose daughter Jessica was a volleyball player at the time.
Villers’ complaint accused Oliger of picking teams before tryouts and of fostering the impression that summer camps were mandatory.
In an affidavit, Villers calls the district’s response utterly inadequate.
The Candelarias allege that in October 2010, Oliger retaliated against their daughter for taking the PSAT instead of arriving early to a junior-varsity volleyball match.
They allege that despite Colorado High School Sports Association rules, it is students’ common impression that volleyball summer camps are prerequisite to making the varsity team and that tryouts are mere show trials, as Oliger chooses the varsity team ahead of time.
The Candelarias allege that while at a summer volleyball camp in Denver, ahead of the 2011-12 school year, Oliger brought 12 girls, including their daughter, who was invited to the camp at the last minute, to a sporting goods store. Oliger arranged for the girls to purchase varsity volleyball shoes for the upcoming season. Though it was weeks before tryouts, Oliger bought a 13th pair of shoes for an absent player.
According to the Candelarias, Oliger later told Rianne Candelaria “not to wear her varsity shoes to tryouts because we don’t want to let anyone know that we have a team already.” After tryouts, Oliger told Rianne she had not made the team. The other 11 girls who attended the camp did wear their shoes to tryouts and made the team. So did the girl who had gotten the 13th pair of shoes. | <urn:uuid:cf994a9c-4d52-4b39-9031-549755582a98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120606/NEWS01/706069881/0/SPORTS01/Student%E2%80%99s-parents-call-foul-on-coach | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968972 | 1,102 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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Soul in the City: How to Stay Calm in the Big City
Big city living got you down? In a recent issue, Forbes magazine scrutinized six key quality of life indicators — housing affordability, unemployment rates, gas prices, air quality, number of sunny days and population density — to narrow down the top ten most stressful communities in America. With its skyrocketing unemployment rates and high gas prices, Chicago edged out New York for the number one slot (leading miffed Windy City-zens to inundate the Forbes comment boxes, claiming the creators of the study were “smoking something”). The Big Apple was a close second (thanks to untenable population density and unaffordable housing), followed closely by Detroit (9.4 percent unemployment rate and high pollution), Los Angeles (the most polluted city with expensive homes and low income) and San Francisco (high gas prices and even higher housing expenses).
So what’s an enlightenment-seeking urbanite like yourself to do? Quit the evil capitalist job, buy a healing drum and run naked to the sticks while clutching energy crystals? Going AWOL (or OM-WOL as the case may be) is not the answer, says American Zen master Genpo Roshi, author of Big Mind Big Heart: Finding Your Way. In fact, being too om’d-out can lead to a dysfunctional lifestyle. While we need inner peace and balance in order to be integrated functional human beings, we also need the competitive side that gets the job done. “If you can’t be calm and tranquil in the middle of the city,” says Genpo, “then what good is it if you can only do it beside a river?” The process of struggling to maintain your balance amidst urban angst, he adds, can be good mind/body training.
But how? We lined up a range of experts from across the country — everyone from yogis to psychologists, spiritual teachers to our friendly local bartenders — for their strategies on how to maintain balance in the face of whatever chaos city life throws your way.
City Stressor No. 1: Overcrowding is driving me up the wall
Forbes had it right that the sardine-like density in big cities foments stress. “The lack of parking, having to deal with street sweeping and living in a 480-square-foot apartment,” were some of the main reasons green business owner Katherine Racine-Jones recently fled San Francisco (home to the ninth highest population density in the country, according to Forbes) for the outskirts of Portland. Racine-Jones certainly doesn’t miss the hassles of shoulder-to-shoulder living. She describes her friends who still live there as high intensity people who don’t have time for balance.
Beyond just the physical discomforts, living closely among stressed-out friends and neighbors takes its psychic and emotional toll too, says Asha Praver, disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda and co-director of the Ananda meditation and yoga center in Palo Alto. “If you cut onions all day, your hands will smell of onions,” she explains. “Most people tend to accept what’s going on around them, and when the collective gets more tense, they become vulnerable.”
RX: Make time to chill. Schedule it into your CrackBerry, if that’s what it takes!
Praver recommends city dwellers seek regular doses of solitude in nature. Head right to the nearest body of water or hiking trail, any place where there’s more birdsong than traffic noises. A consistent meditation practice can be an even more effective stress-buster — as long as it’s done the right way. (Apparently, even meditation can cause anxiety for the beginner.) Says Praver, “Most people find it unbearable to sit down and shut your eyes in a quiet room. If ‘meditation’ is a word that sends you running for the hills, it may be beneficial to get some instruction.”
As a nice entry point for the meditation-curious, Roshi recommends putting the go-getter mind aside every once in a while and saying aloud to yourself, “I am the mind that is non-seeking and non-craving.” Our brains are like cars, explains Roshi, always in gear, always seeking and craving. Pausing for this type of mindful meditation serves to enhance your awareness, allowing you to respond wisely instead of hastily to stressors. “Instead of checking the BlackBerry, or reading the newspaper,” he advises, “take a couple minutes to take the brain out of gear.”
Just as tight living quarters and elevated psychic energy of others can adversely affect our stress levels, seeking and achieving a healthy emotional balance can ease the stress levels of those around us. A better, more blissful you will resonate positively throughout your relationships, your friends, your family, your business — even people you don’t even know, says Eugene Cash, a teacher at the Bay Area’s Spirit Rock meditation center. “Life is short,” Cash asserts. “We are the stewards of our own lives; how do we want to live them?”
City Stressor No. 2: The economy is plummeting, and it’s taking me down with it
Jay Michaels, a bartender at Monsoon Bar & Café in Santa Monica, CA, says that in these days of rising unemployment and faltering economy, money worries are topping the list of typical bar woes. “Bartenders for the most part feel like financial advisors; the focus has moved away from meaning or esteem needs having to do with relationships to more economic or safety needs.”
Gabriel Scheer, Executive Director of Seattle’s popular Green Drinks social networking events, notes the same. But in the Emerald City (which escaped Forbes’ top ten list) people are looking at the economic crisis as a chance to put ideals into practice. “A lot of people see it as an opportunity to change how the current systems operate,” says Scheer. “The financial crisis is a chance for us to reassess and look at new opportunities to do things differently, a time to rethink our energy use, the banking system (where do I put my money, what is it used for?) … pretty much everything.”
RX: Act to avoid reacting
In this economy, says Los Angeles-based eco-broker Jeffrey Fritz, it pays to have a financial plan in place for any kind of “just in case” scenario. Fritz sees countless clients in foreclosure situations behaving like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. “They don’t really want to deal with what’s happening in their life because it is extremely stressful,” Fritz explains. In the case of economic emergencies, Fritz recommends facing the music by seeking help from a trusted financial planner and methodically, logically strategizing your steps for getting back on track.
Even if you’re not in the red, staying on top of finances in a rocky economy requires a lot of situational awareness, long-term budgeting and saving. When it comes to housing, Fritz gives the plain and simple advice not to spend to your limit, but instead live below your means and save the rest. Avoid stressful surprises by knowing what your house is worth, or when and how much your rent is going up.
Of course, as our bartender Jay notes, “understanding that dark muddy line between the things you want and the things you need” is easier said than done. For guidance, Roshi points to the teachings of Buddha: “In Buddha’s final teaching, he made eight points and the first two are very important: Have few desires, and know how to be satisfied with what we have.”
City Stressor No. 3: The J-O-B is G-O-N-E
Los Angeles, with a whopping 7.5 percent unemployment rate, clocked in as the 4th most stressful city in America. Henry Cong, owner of organic coffee spot Infuzion Café in Santa Monica, sees a direct correlation between unemployment rates and the stress levels of his customer base. So does Bay Area-based career coach Britt Bravo. Says Bravo, even the laid-off CEO who is rolling in severance package dough “can still experience stress if the majority of her self-esteem came from her work.”
RX: Develop a game plan and stick to it
Unless you have a sloth-like fight or flight response, it’s nearly impossible not to stress out after losing a job. There are ways, however, to maintain your sanity while hunting for the next gig. Bravo suggests the following steps:
1) Get advice from a career counselor, or create your own support network with friends.
2) Break everything down into small tasks. “Part of the fear people experience when looking for new work comes from being overwhelmed. For example, if ‘update my resume’ has been on your to-do list forever, break it down into smaller steps, so it feels easy to achieve.”
3) Make a strict schedule. Decide how much time you are going to spend each day looking for work, and stick to it.
4) Make a fun to-do list of the things you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had time; once you’ve completed your looking-for-work day, go enjoy yourself.
5) Network, network, network. The best way to get your resume to the top of the pile is by knowing someone at the place you want to work. Go to networking parties and join social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.
City Stressor No. 4: Dirty, smelly, smoggy city living is skeeving me out
Some of the worst air quality in the country shot LA to the top of Forbes’ top ten list. But no city is free from pollution’s perils, which in and of themselves are major contributors to the stress of city living.
RX: Do what you can, and let the rest be water off a duck’s back
While significant policy changes are needed to decrease urban pollution, you can reduce your exposure to environmental toxins by using eco-cleaners and nontoxic interiors in your home, eating organic food and filling your home with potted plants that improve indoor air quality.
When noise pollution gets to be too much, celebrated yogini Cyndi Lee, founder of Om Yoga in New York City, likes to sit and relax her senses, so that noise moves by as if in a soundscape. “Sit quietly and go through each sensory organ, breathing, imaging your skin softening, relaxing the inner ear, jaw and temples, relaxing all of the muscles around your eyes,” instructs Lee. “We need to take sensory organs out of acquisition mode.”
City Stressor No. 5: I’m multitasking my way to mental breakdown
Pile money woes on top of our jobs, family and social life, mix in iPhones, IMs and email, and top it off with the holidays, war, the economy, global warming and the rush to make it to yoga class on time, and you’re left with a surefire recipe for multitasking misery. But shoveling everything on your plate into your mouth at once is guaranteed to give you mental indigestion. Not being present in the moment puts you at risk of being caught off guard when an unexpected situation arises.
RX: Practice the art of single-tasking
Dr. Jonathan Ellerby, Spiritual Program Director for Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, suggests that we “let go of the idea of always being productive, or the guilt that says you don’t deserve to rest. A better you makes a better world.”
Spirit Rock’s Cash jokes that he teaches the art of single-tasking at his meditation center. While he agrees that multitasking can be helpful at times, it can be more beneficial to slow down, gather oneself, and just do one thing in order to bring back the simplicity of life.
“If we’re stressed out all the time,” says Cash, “we can’t be our best. If we are more here, then we can react appropriately.” He recommends taking time for activities that allow you to breathe deeply, concentrate and relax all at once, such as yoga, meditation or swimming.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, notes Lee, it’s easy to bump “find balance” right off the list, just as you need it most. Don’t. “When the shit hits the fan,” says Lee, “come to yoga.”
Summer Bowen strives to stay centered as a green business owner (btcelements.com) and writer living in the fabulously smoggy City of Angels. | <urn:uuid:49b4bccb-2250-49c5-bef6-d07d23d48fb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://life.gaiam.com/article/soul-city-how-stay-calm-big-city | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936283 | 2,738 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Washington - Vice President Joe Biden has led a task force that has been advising President Obama culminating in today's proposals.
The president wants:
- A ban on the sale of assault weapons.
- Strict limits on the sale of high capacity magazines.
- More extensive background checks.
- Keeping data on the locations of guns.
- Stronger enforcement of existing gun laws.
Some of the new plans will come in the form of executive orders that won't need congressional approval.
However, much of it will require the support of Congress.
"He believes that the things that we can do as a nation together in a bipartisan way, when it comes to legislation, together outside of Washington, that yes, we can reduce gun violence but it's something we have to do together,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “It's something that cannot be done by a President alone."
The White House has received letters from children across the country in the days since the Sandy Hook School shootings, and some of the kids who wrote letters will be at the announcement today. | <urn:uuid:dca7da28-c3df-47e5-8a4a-053aa304b028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Presidential-Announcement-On-Gun-Control-Today/1CrIA5nZNECOeKbmIWTErg.cspx?rss=509 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967509 | 222 | 1.75 | 2 |
At A Glance
Mission and Philosophy
The nursing program at Ohio Northern is dedicated to providing students the guidance and education they need to fulfill diverse and changing roles as both professional nurses and committed citizens of the world.
As a discipline, professional nursing builds from a strong foundation in the humanities and sciences. Ohio Northern blends the science of nursing with liberal education courses to facilitate students' understanding of complex concepts, skills, and attitudes essential to the practice of professional nursing.
Nursing, as part of the healthcare profession, shares in the dynamic task of promoting optimal health, quality of life, and support to people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. Because communication and teamwork are crucial in the nursing field, the program strives to generate graduates who are able to work with interdisciplinary health teams to make a difference in the lives of others.
The nursing program emphasizes critical thinking, excellence of practice, and the life-long pursuit of knowledge.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Registered nurses held 2,655,020 jobs in 2010. Employment for registered nurses is expected to grow much faster than average through the year 2020, resulting in an abundance of opportunities for RNs. Consequently, registered nurses are projected to create the second largest number of new jobs among all occupations in the United States. | <urn:uuid:bcd0cff4-edaf-48f2-8e4f-15f31bc9b892> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onu.edu/academics/college_of_arts_sciences/academic_departments/nursing/at_a_glance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951163 | 264 | 1.617188 | 2 |
- 10 Hot Big Data Startups to Watch
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- How to Better Engage Millennials (and Why They Aren't Really so Different)
PC World - Forget all those rumors about Apple, Google, Microsoft or anyone else buying Twitter: The company's bosses say Twitter is not for sale. On Wednesday Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams were on ABC's The View as part of Twitter's current media campaign that has also included appearances on Oprah and The Colbert Report. Responding to a question from Barbara Walters about the rumors surrounding an imminent purchase of Twitter by a larger tech company, Stone responded with an unequivocal, "No. We are not for sale."
The same day that Stone and Williams were mixing it up with Walters and her chatty coffee klatch, Twitter's Vice President of Operations Santosh Jayaram was talking about the future of Twitter's search engine. Speaking on a discussion panel with representatives from Twitter and LinkedIn, Jayaram said Twitter was going to start indexing Web pages linked to in Twitter posts, according to CNET. The basic idea behind indexing web pages is not to compete against larger search engines like Google, but to supply a faster alternative for real-time information.
Jayaram also said that Twitter would institute a reputation ranking system for its users, in order to help Twitter's search engine rank search results. When you search a "trending topic" on Twitter--the list of Twitter's 10 most popular topics that appears in a Twitter user's sidebar--the reputations of people posting messages about your particular topic would be taken into account when ranking search results. Twitter's engineers are still trying to figure out how to determine a Twitter user's reputation, but hopefully they will not create some sort of Twitterocracy like Loic Lemeur has suggested. Instead, an effective reputation system could help push the numerous re-tweets and spam off the top of the results page so that users can capitalize on the wealth of real-time information on Twitter.
Twitter is gaining a lot of attention for its search capabilities, largely because of the numerous links to sites of interests that users post. While Twitter is not an alternative to Google when looking for a specific Web page or movie times, Twitter Search can help you find information about current events in real time. Twitter's effectiveness at finding information played out during last year's terror attacks in Mumbai. Many people caught up in the attacks used Twitter to report their experiences and let friends know they were safe. In the aftermath of Mumbai, questions were raised about whether Twitter was more effective than traditional news media for spreading information about the terrorist attacks. Twitter users are also turning to Twitter search for less dramatic information, like finding a link to a popular video or following a reporter like, The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, who posts a play-by-play of all Whitehouse briefings he covers.
It's all about data for the little micro-blogging company and Twitter's co-founders are quick to point that out. During his appearance on The View, Stone said that Twitter was not a social network like Facebook or Myspace, but an "information network" that allows you to curate and receive information in real time that is relevant and meaningful to you. | <urn:uuid:732d2757-2aa7-4491-a16e-e2e548bde58d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/050709-twitter-were-not-for.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 | 0.953484 | 683 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Training in Nicaragua
From Peace Corps Wiki
|Training in Nicaragua|
|Pre-service training will probably be the most intense period of your Peace Corps service, as you will need to gain the knowledge and experience necessary to successfully serve as a Volunteer in just 10 weeks. While the training period will be extremely busy, it should also be a time of excitement, discovery, and self-fulfillment. The effort and challenges of adapting to a new culture will draw on your reserves of patience and humor but will be handsomely rewarded with a sense of belonging among new friends.|
For information see Welcomebooks
Upon your arrival in Nicaragua, you will participate in a three-day orientation that will provide you with basic, pertinent information on living in Nicaragua. You will find out about Peace Corps administrative issues as they pertain to Peace Corps training. Additionally, you will learn what the Peace Corps expects from you during training and what you can expect from the Peace Corps. You will have the opportunity to speak with current Volunteers in your project and ask questions about any initial medical concerns. After this orientation, you will begin living with a host family, spending Saturday night and Sunday with them before beginning pre-service training on Monday morning.
Peace Corps/Nicaragua uses a community-based training model that was pioneered in Nicaragua in January 1995. Many Peace Corps training programs worldwide have since adopted this model, in which most training activities take place in the community where one lives during training. This type of immersion has proven more successful than other methods in preparing Volunteers for the realities of service.
Training will consist of several components, including Spanish language, technical skills, cross-cultural awareness, the role of Volunteers in development, and health and safety issues. You will attend Spanish classes and carry out technical and cross-cultural tasks in your community Monday through Friday. On Wednesday and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings, the entire training group usually will come together for more formal training sessions. During training you will be regularly evaluated on your ability to acquire and demonstrate the language, technical, cross-cultural, and safety skills needed to be a Volunteer.
You will live with your host family for the entire 11-week training period. Two or three other trainees will live in the same community with different families, and you will study Spanish and carry out individual technical tasks together. Even though the entire training group will be spread out among five or six communities, Peace Corps staff members will be present on a daily basis. The training director and other Peace Corps staff will make frequent trips to each community to ensure that training objectives are being met.
Technical Training
Technical training is competency-based. This component of pre-service training will prepare you to work in Nicaragua by building on the skills you already have and helping you develop new skills in a manner appropriate for your project goals. Peace Corps staff, Nicaraguan experts, and current Volunteers will facilitate the training sessions. Training places great emphasis on learning how to transfer the skills you have to community members at your site.
Technical training will include sessions on the general economic and political environment in Nicaragua and strategies for working within such a framework. You will review your technical sector’s goals and will meet with the Nicaraguan agencies and organizations that have invited the Peace Corps to assist them. You will be supported and evaluated by the training staff so you can build the confidence and skills you need to undertake your project activities and be a productive member of your community.
Language Training
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, you will find that language skills are essential to personal and professional satisfaction during your service. These skills are critical to your job performance, they help you integrate into your host community, and they can ease your personal adaptation to the new surroundings.
Therefore, language training is the heart of the training program, and you must successfully meet minimum language requirements to complete training and become a Volunteer. Nicaraguan language instructors teach formal language classes five days a week in small groups of three to four people.
Your language training will incorporate the community-based approach. In addition to classroom time, you will be given assignments to work on outside of the classroom and with your host family. The goal is to help you achieve a level of basic social communication proficiency so that you can continue to develop language skills once you are at your site. Prior to being sworn in as a Volunteer, you will work on strategies to continue language studies during your two years of service.
Cross-Cultural Training
As part of your pre-service training, you will live with a Nicaraguan host family. This experience is designed to ease your transition to life at your site. Families go through an orientation conducted by Peace Corps staff to explain the purpose of pre-service training and to assist them in helping you adapt to living in Nicaragua. Many Volunteers form strong and lasting friendships with their host families.
Cross-cultural and community development training will help you improve your communication skills and understand your role as a facilitator of the development process. You will be exposed to topics such as community mobilization, conflict resolution, gender and development, project sustainability, nonformal and adult education strategies, and working with youth.
Health Training
During pre-service training, you will be given basic medical training and information. You will be expected to practice preventive healthcare and to take responsibility for your own health by adhering to all medical policies. Trainees are required to attend all medical sessions, which include such topics as preventive health measures, and minor and major medical issues that you might encounter while in Nicaragua. Nutrition, mental health, safety and security, setting up a safe living situation, and how to avoid HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are also covered.
Safety Training
During the safety training sessions, you will learn how to adopt a lifestyle that reduces your risks at home, at work, and during your travels. You will also learn appropriate, effective strategies for coping with unwanted attention and about your individual responsibility for promoting safety throughout your service.
Special Note on Couples
Peace Corps/Nicaragua encourages married couples to participate in our program; couples have found service in Nicaragua to be very rewarding. More specific advantages and challenges to serving as couples are mentioned later on in this document. However, if you are considering service in Nicaragua, it is important to note that you will be separated during the 11-week pre-service training period. You will each live with a different host family and will most likely also be separated by training site. This will better enable you each to develop your language and technical skills separately, and to share in the rich cross-cultural experience of spending time with your own host family and community. The success in the training program will be due in large part to a couple’s willingness to put their individual learning objectives first, realizing that each person will need time and personal space to meet the challenges ahead and to fully engage in the training activities. Depending on the project, couples have varying opportunities to see one another as the training schedules permit. Please contact your placement officer or the country desk unit for more specific information.
Additional Training During Volunteer Service
In its commitment to institutionalize quality training, the Peace Corps has implemented a training system that provides Volunteers with continual opportunities to examine their commitment to Peace Corps service while increasing their technical and cross-cultural skills. During service, there are three primary training events. The titles and objectives for those trainings are as follows:
- In-service training: Provides an opportunity for Volunteers to upgrade their technical, language, and project development skills while sharing their experiences and reaffirming their commitment after having served for three to six months.
- Midterm conference (done in conjunction with technical sector in-service): Assists Volunteers in reviewing their first year, reassessing their personal and project objectives, and planning for their second year of service.
- Close of service conference: Prepares Volunteers for the future after Peace Corps service and reviews their respective projects and personal experiences.
The number, length, and design of these trainings are adapted to country-specific needs and conditions. The key to the training system is that training events are integrated and interrelated, from the pre-departure orientation through the end of your service, and are planned, implemented, and evaluated cooperatively by the training staff, Peace Corps staff, and Volunteers. | <urn:uuid:7154d0ed-5395-48a3-b548-de0e54cd02fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcwiki.peacecorpsconnect.org/Training_in_Nicaragua | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961086 | 1,693 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The two projects are Centrica's 580MW Race Bank and Warwick Energy's 560MW Dudgeon wind farm in the Greater Wash. The third, Centrica's 540MW Docking Shoal, has been rejected for environmental reasons.
In a statement, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said Docking Shoal had been refused as a result of the potential impact to Sandwich Terns, a seabird that is protected by environmental legislation.
Speaking about the decision, "These two projects will not only bring us considerable amounts of clean energy, but significant investment and jobs too.
"We have also shown that we are mindful of other consequences, such as the impact on bird populations, in deciding that it would not be appropriate to consent all three applications."
The three projects were part of five planned for the area, representing around 3GW of potential capacity and representing around £7 million investment. The other two wind farms are Sheringham Shoal and Triton Knoll.
In February, RWE Npower submitted an application for the 1.2GW Triton Knoll wind farm to the UK's Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).
The application will now pass into the IPC’s examination process. RWE Npower’s submission included details of the feedback from its 42-day consultation exercise.
In 2010, industry and government agreed to fund a new £20 million radar system for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The MoD had vetoed the offshore projects in the Greater Wash off the east coast of England, objecting to the clutter effect that the turbines' rotating blades would produce on its air defence radar screens. | <urn:uuid:81de8577-08ce-42ac-8f73-453290975c86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1139939/uk-boosts-offshore-1gw-approvals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958023 | 337 | 1.835938 | 2 |
[23 December 2003]
PopMatters Film and TV Editor
Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he is speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power.
—Robert S. McNamara, The Fog of War
“Forty years ago, this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died,” Errol Morris said on accepting his Academy Award for Best Documentary this past February. “I fear we’re going down a rabbit hole once again, and if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie, perhaps I’ve done some damn good here.” Sadly, the ideas presented in The Fog of War seem to have passed by unheeded by too many “people.” And so, this century’s first rabbit hole is looking dark and deep.
The documentary begins with a young Robert Strange McNamara, Secretary of Defense under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, prepare to lecture for reporters, a map of Vietnam behind him and a pointer in hand. He pauses, suggesting, “Let first me ask the tv, are you ready?” His attention to the performance, or more specifically, the means of transmitting that performance, is at once canny and telling. It reveals his understanding that meaning is a function of reception. In the film’s present, the older McNamara shows a similar interest in the mode of communication, checking his voice level before he speaks. Looking into the Interrotron, he recalls his actions. “My rule has been, try to learn, try to understand what happened. Develop the lessons and pass them on.”
Throughout The Fog of War, the 86-year-old McNamara talks about his life and career, a series of conversations with Morris edited into a seeming whole, such that the firebombing of Japan during WWII, the development of seatbelts, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the “quagmire” of the Vietnam War are related—as historical and political events. This connectedness evolves as the film lays out the “11 lessons” of McNamara, each a section titled with an aphorism uttered by the former Secretary. For instance: “Empathize with your enemy,” “Believing and seeing are both often wrong,” “Proportionality should be a guideline in war,” and “There’s something beyond oneself.”
The filmmaker says that he started thinking about this movie when he read McNamara’s 1995 memoir, In Retrospect. As Morris puts it, the ostensible “mea culpa” so often attributed to the book seemed more complicated, less clear: “It’s not so much an apology,” Morris offers, “as an attempt to understand how he and many others blundered into a disastrous war.” Though Morris initially wanted to find personal dimensions in the book’s efforts to understand, to discover where McNamara saw himself in history, whether he might actually “feel” responsible or sorry.
But The Fog of War is not quite that. Rather, it is a compelling meditation on human fallibility, tracing the many steps of a life and shifting set of beliefs in order to reach no fixed conclusions. To showcase such uncertainty might seem counterintuitive for a documentary. Consider that the film that made Errol Morris famous, 1988’s The Thin Blue Line, reached a clear conclusion—that the Dallas County, Texas justice system was wrong—with the help of a confession to murder by interviewee David Harris.
Attention to that film’s ending (and the real life effects it had, for the mistakenly convicted Randall Adams) can obscure its focus on how perspective, judgment, and inevitable error influence fact, the ways that stories become truth. Morris’ subsequent films—A Brief History of Time (1991), Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997), and Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)—have elaborated on this problem, revealing the layers of deception and desire that form their subjects’ self-images. In other words, his movies display “something beyond oneself,” multiple perspectives that emerge over time, shifting situations, expanding contexts.
The Fog of War is a most provocative, potent, and important film. And as the current war against and occupation of Iraq continue, the film looms like a kind of shadow, an increasingly alarming cautionary tale. Columbia’s DVD release includes 38 minutes worth of deleted footage, in scenes where McNamara discusses, for instance, the Kennedys, K.B Wolfe, the Ford Motor Company’s attention to accounting above all else, General Curtis LeMay, and plans for troop withdrawals from Vietnam. (Again, any of these topics seem relevant for today’s ongoing crisis, though the film as it was released to theaters is certainly tightly structured and utterly effective.)
Taking as its premise one of McNamara’s assertions (listed here as number 11), that “You can’t change human nature,” The Fog of War proposes that such “nature” is also, ironically, ever changing, at least in individual cases. (The broader drama has to do with the will to self-destruction demonstrated over centuries: are we fated to repeat mistakes, eternally?) McNamara’s roles in so many world-altering events of the 20th century grant him a singular viewpoint, that the documentary proceeds to fragment and rearrange. Comprised of McNamara’s exchanges with Morris (punctuated by the filmmaker’s offscreen questions), archival footage, documents (to underline the man’s interest in numbers and “data”), still photos, and taped conversations with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson (including examples of the latter’s notoriously “salty” language).
In his many positions—Harvard assistant professor (1941), founding member of the U.S. Air Corps Statistical Control School in 1942, president of Ford Motor Company (for five weeks, during which time he attended to what he calls the U.S. desire for “conspicuous consumption”), Secretary of Defense (1961-1968, during which time he was accused of being a con man, an IBM machine with legs”), and president of the World Bank (1968 to 1981)—McNamara has participated in more than his share of “historic” events and negotiated with many famous figures, from Fidel Castro and General Curtis LeMay (under whom McNamara strategized to firebomb 67 Japanese cities, killing thousands of civilians), to Special Vietnam Advisor to Kennedy and Johnson Maxwell Taylor and North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap (who revealed to McNamara in 1995 that the Gulf of Tonkin attack that motivated Johnson to enter into the Vietnam War in 1964, did not happen).
“Have you ever been wrong?” asks Morris. “Sure,” comes the answer, “On countless occasions.” But he’s not going to detail them. (He does offer, toward film’s end, lesson number nine: “In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.”) More revealingly, perhaps, McNamara at this point to what he did “right,” recalling his time at Berkeley, during the Depression, when he took a philosophy course that he thinks transformed his life. His arrival at a new understanding of “values” coincides here with his meeting Margaret Craig. This singular event leads to what McNamara calls a “marriage made in heaven” (though he later alludes to unspecific relationship difficulties during the Vietnam War).
Following his ethical revelation, McNamara serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force during WWII, reaching another conclusion, which the film deems lesson number four, “Maximize efficiency.” The calculations involved in the decision to firebomb Japan (and thereafter, to use nuclear weapons) have to do with comparing numbers of possible U.S. soldiers’ deaths to the supposedly lesser numbers of Japanese civilian deaths (here the film shows numerals dropping like bombs onto a map of Japan).
McNamara repeatedly poses “counterfactuals,” academic thought experiments about how history might have been different, as these support or challenge decisions already made. “The world has not really grappled with the rules of war,” he notes, adding, “LeMay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all be persecuted as war criminals.” The focus remains close on his face, though you’re hearing voiceover rather than sync sound as he adds: “What makes it immoral if you lose, but not immoral if you win?”
McNamara’s recollection of the Bay of Pigs raises related questions concerning the limits of knowledge, or, as it’s termed in political and military circles, “intelligence.” In 1992, he’s informed by Castro that, contrary to CIA reports in 1961 that Cuba harbored no nuclear warheads, there were in fact 162 pointed at the U.S. “Such is the logic of war,” he muses, if nations “clash like two blind moles, then mutual annihilation will commence.” This thinking leads eventually to McNamara’s indictment of U.S. unilateralism. “What makes us omniscient?” he asks. How can one administration, one point of view, or one presumption of moral ground, guarantee correct interpretation or action? Or, as he puts it concerning the Vietnam War, in language that surely resonates today, “None of our allies supported us. If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we’d better re-examine our reasoning.”
Though McNamara holds firm to his faith in rational thinking, he also admits that “reason has its limits,” because of lack of empathy as much as lack of information. During wartime especially, “the human mind cannot comprehend all the variables,” the inevitable misunderstandings and misreadings emerging from any engagement between cultures and sets of beliefs. When he says, “Any military commander who is honest will admit that he makes mistakes in the application of military power,” he also acknowledges that it’s rare for commanders to do so in public (see here: the current Bush administration’s resistance to any such admission, ever, even as it “readjusts” policy).
The film doesn’t posit judgment of the man or even his various contexts so much as it presents questions upon questions—about history, inevitability, and intentionality. Is it possible to comprehend a situation apart from its moment and the personalities involved? Can any single view engender accurate assessment? And can debate after the fact help understanding or change the future? When Morris starts pressing for more specific answers, some admission of culpability or regret, McNamara pulls back: “I am not going to say any more than I have.” Just how this reframes your reading of the film will depend on your own history.
Published at: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/fog-of-war-dvd/ | <urn:uuid:9e5d95cf-30c2-4e59-8c78-0f495e9f662a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/print/35614/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958747 | 2,403 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Complex periarticular knee trauma presents many challenges for both the patient and the physician. One of the most debilitating postoperative sequelae is knee stiffness. Although that complication is rare after elective knee surgery, Gaston et al.1 reported that 20% of the patients in their prospective study had stiffness (a residual knee flexion contracture of >5°) at twelve months after surgery for a tibial plateau fracture. Range of motion after both elective and emergency knee surgery has been shown in multiple studies to correlate with functional outcome. Although Miner et al.2 reported that knee flexion after total knee arthroplasty did not correlate directly with outcome, their findings did reveal a significant decrease in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores for patients with <95° of flexion. The WOMAC scores at twelve months postoperatively correlated with patient satisfaction and perceived improvement. In 2008, Ritter et al.3 studied the knee range of motion of patients after posterior cruciate-retaining arthroplasty and reported substantially worse outcomes in patients with <118° of total motion.
Although multiple factors have been identified as increasing the risk of stiffness following total knee arthroplasty4 as well as after sports medicine reconstruction5, there have been no previous significant studies examining the predictors for knee stiffness after treatment of knee fracture. The authors of the current case-control study attempted to describe these factors by examining patients requiring knee manipulation after periarticular knee fracture. Although it is not an exact measure of postinjury stiffness, knee manipulation was chosen by the authors as the identifying marker of knee stiffness. This benchmark clearly does not capture all patients with potentially function-limiting knee stiffness; however, its use as the defining element of knee stiffness, as opposed to trying to define a specific critical range of motion, allows a relatively clear delineation between patient groups to allow for comparison.
Despite a relatively small number of patients, the authors matched these patients with a control group with similar ages and fracture severity (as measured with the AO/OTA classification). The authors are to be commended for this effort and their success in carrying it out. Although patients treated with manipulation had a significant improvement in their range of motion compared with that before the manipulation, the final results revealed a significant difference between the final flexion of the case group compared with the control group (107° versus 124°). The factors associated with increased knee stiffness included extensor mechanism disruption, a need for fasciotomy, ongoing wound management, and three or more surgical procedures on the limb. Multiple factors found to have no impact on outcome included age, sex, side of injury, mechanism of injury, length of intensive care unit stay, head injury, use of continuous passive motion, and discharge to home versus to a rehabilitation facility. Finally the authors were able to conclude that late manipulation of a stiff knee after fracture is a worthwhile procedure, improving the range of motion by an average of 62°.
As do all studies, this one had limitations whose impact must be recognized. The retrospective chart review limited the ability to verify the accuracy of documented knee motion measurements. The exact timing and nature of physical therapy compliance, which could have affected the results, could not be measured. Finally, there was some overlap between the category of open wound management and presence of fasciotomy that leads to difficulty in identifying whether each factor individually predicts knee stiffness (or both do together). Despite these limitations, this study definitely advances our knowledge in an area of orthopaedics in which there is a dearth of published knowledge.
Simply put, this study will be very helpful to all orthopaedic surgeons who treat trauma patients. Clinically, this study has the potential to change how we view and treat periarticular knee injuries. Just as studies examining immediate intramedullary nailing of open tibial fractures ultimately led to a paradigm shift in orthopaedic trauma twenty years ago, this study may be the first step in changing how we manage these periarticular fractures in the future. A focus on closing wounds sooner, obtaining definitive fracture fixation sooner, and limiting the overall number of surgical interventions might improve patient outcomes after these very difficult injuries. Earlier identification of “at risk patients” could also lead to a decision to return to the operating room for manipulation and quadricepsplasty procedures earlier in the patient’s rehabilitation course. Furthermore, the study’s findings will enable orthopaedic surgeons to better counsel patients and their families with regard to expected outcomes. This additional knowledge should help most patients adjust more readily to their “new reality” as they proceed through the long and difficult rehabilitation process after major orthopaedic knee trauma.
Disclosure: The author did not receive payments or services, either directly or indirectly (i.e., via his institution), from a third party in support of any aspect of this work. He, or his institution, has had a financial relationship, in the thirty-six months prior to submission of this work, with an entity in the biomedical arena that could be perceived to influence or have the potential to influence what is written in this work. The author has not had any other relationships, or engaged in any other activities, that could be perceived to influence or have the potential to influence what is written in this work. The complete Disclosures of Potential Conflicts of Interest submitted by authors are always provided with the online version of the article. | <urn:uuid:2e3be629-7780-4fc8-b67b-4d6eb422545b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jbjs.org/article.aspx?articleid=1356701 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953405 | 1,124 | 1.507813 | 2 |
While I strive to keep things little in my life, there’s one big exception: dogs. We have two very large greyhounds—over 70 pounds, each. Big dogs are often overlooked as pets. Big dogs have strikes against them from the beginning because they're more expensive to take care of: food is charged by quantity, so are medications and flea treatments. I wish the pet industry would even out the cost of caring for big dogs by charging a bit more for little dog food and meds and reduce the price of bigger packages of kibble. Dogs can't help their size, afterall, but every dog deserves proper care and nutrition. Big dogs are just a gentle and sweet as little dogs—dare I say more so because they don’t overcompensate for a lack of mass by yapping, shaking and biting your shoelaces. Big dogs have more to love—there is nothing like giving them a bear hug or letting their sleek, soft heads rest on your lap. I admire people who dedicate time to taking in and fostering big dogs in need of safe, loving homes. Some of my local favorites are:
If you are seriously considering a dog, don’t overlook the possibility of adopting a larger animal. That big tail is wagging for you. | <urn:uuid:c1c6b644-4608-4694-8e1c-a59d16f4c4a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ittybittylife.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972826 | 266 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Travys company operates the rail system in the Yverdon-les-Bains region, offering service between Yverdon-les-Bains and Sainte-Croix, Orbe and Chavornay, as well as between Vallorbe and the Vallée de Joux. In addition, the CCF rail system offers service between Yvonand and Yverdon-les-Bains.
Yverdon-les-Bains - Sainte-Croix, by train
The train connects the plains of the Upper Lake Neuchâtel region with the Jura plateau. The railway line was created in 1893 to transport workers from Yverdon-les-Bains to Ste-Croix, the world centre of music boxes.
Between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. there is a train an hour from the Upper Lake Neuchâtel plain to Sainte-Croix (1,095 m) in the Jura. Sainte-Croix has been the centre of music boxes and precision mechanics since the beginning of the 19th century. Then the Grand Hotel des Rasses was built, which intensified the need for exchange between the plain and the mountains. Sainte-Croix needed a connection which horse-drawn carriages could no longer offer.
William Barbey, a deputy and businessman from the Lake Geneva Region, financed the railway line, which was inaugurated in 1893. To resolve the problem of crossing a considerable difference in height, the itinerary runs in a large loop above Vuiteboeuf, which offers an extraordinary panoramic view.
After workers and manufacturers, the train now transports tourists, as well as inhabitants and students of engineering schools, which gives it a pleasant local flair. The Travys Society offers countless connections in the region of Yverdon-les-Bains. In Sainte-Croix, five electric bikes can be rented. Incidentally, the train carriages are equipped for the transport of bikes.
“La Traverse” is an old Rhaetian Railway carriage. It has been completely transformed and restored by Travys. Its lounge-type area and a restaurant are ideal for company outings (advance booking required). | <urn:uuid:4fe48006-26fe-4883-9359-7139211a3eb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yvonand-tourisme.ch/en/transports/Rail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938512 | 467 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Production of Nailsea glass did not continue after 1874, but the works were leased from the owners from about 1855:
From 1855, the works were leased to Samuel Bowen. ... he was bought out by James Hartley ... he later sold the works to Chance Brothers.
Chance Expressions, p.4
It is also worth noting that Nailsea was not in the main a producer of fancy items and friggers, but its core business was producing sheet glass (window glass). I have a lot more to include in Chance Reflections
whenever that is published!
I'm no expert on Nailsea, and my 'expertise' is seriously limited as all my books on the subject are currently packed away (Margaret Thomas' book on the history of the works is one such), but it would be difficult to attribute this as Nailsea without a little more proof, as M and JP point out. | <urn:uuid:e66cf93f-125f-434f-ac08-3c63ba45b7cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,49315.msg278120.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988613 | 192 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Plutocracy passes through a perpetual cycle. It lobbies against the restraints that curb its destructive greed. It succeeds. As a result it collapses. It gets rescued, at enormous cost, by the forces it fought: regulators, planners, tax collectors, an interventionist state. It recovers, dusts itself down, then resumes its attack on the people who rescued it. This assault on planning belongs to the cycle. But the damage the plutocrats mean to inflict will not be reversible.
George Monbiot, The Guardian.
I've had a number of arguments, some heated, some reasoned, based around this proposition over the years. It's inherent in democracy, it seems, and hence in western society. It is almost independent of government - indeed you could argue that the election of one government or another is an indication of where a society is in this cycle of death and rebirth rather than a driver of it.
We're now fifteen months in to a Tory/Liberal coalition government in the UK. We're a few months in to an SNP majority administration in Holyrood. I don't think it would be fair to say that I'm happy with either proposition. But more than that, I don't think the British electorate are happy with the Westminster coalition government. However, it's a consequence of the British public and their demands for change.
It's easy to turn around, point fingers at politicians and bankers and blame them for all of the woes of the country, but it's missing about 90% of the facts. I don't have all the facts, I'm not going to go in to the ones I have here, mainly because they're statistical and historical, but also because I know I'd get bogged down in it. It's complicated. Way more complicated than you could expect to find in the Daily Mail or on a web page.
There will be economics treatises written about this period of time though, addressing the economic cycle that Monbiot sums up so succinctly. He's writing about planning law, but the same could be said for civil rights, education, financial regulation, urban riots. Groups within society fight against constraint, break that constraint and collapse. The wider society then imposes those constraints. It's entirely natural and understandable.
If I write an economic treatise (I won't), I will call it "no more boom and bust". | <urn:uuid:a8096182-7c88-407f-93dd-44a6130378dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oddverse.com/dz/archives/economic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969726 | 485 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Relying on routine can be the best way to build the running habit. As you develop, though, it can also quickly become the fastest way to get stuck in a rut. Here are five aspects of your running in which you should challenge your routines and bring a little variety to play.
Hill training can seem an intimidating concept for many runners – not just in the idea of running hills, but in figuring out the best way to do so. Fortunately, a recent study suggests there is little difference among types of hill workouts – the key is just to get it done.
A podcast interview with Alex Hutchinson brings an important lesson on how to avoid the quest for running perfection get in the way of doing the right things. Coming from a physicist with a bias towards precision, this is a powerful point.
Last month’s ten best posts cover the usual span of topics include injury prevention and recovery, training approaches, new approaches to flexibility, and lots of shoes – 100 pairs to be exact.
Like most pursuits, your running performance gains will take the shape of an S-curve if you continue to target incremental goals, using incremental improvements in methods, over time. This post covers how you can identify a plateau early and jump on to a new experience curve. | <urn:uuid:f4d37777-a989-454b-b69f-7a5d091eb66a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://predawnrunner.com/tag/training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940475 | 257 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Accused Colorado massacre shooter James Holmes posed with weapons
Self-portraits of accused Colorado movie house gunman James Holmes posing with firearms and body armor ended prosecutors’ pretrial case against the former graduate student on Wednesday, but defense lawyers declined to present evidence or witnesses of their own.
The pictures, which police said Holmes took of himself with an iPhone before his shooting rampage at a midnight showing of a “Batman” film last summer, capped three days of hearings in which prosecutors laid out their case for putting him on trial.
The onetime neuroscience doctoral student is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the 12 people who were slain and dozens of others wounded at the opening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Prosecutor Karen Pearson said in her closing arguments that Holmes would have killed more people had his rifle not jammed, adding, “He certainly had the ammo to do so.”
The July attack marked one of the most lethal mass shootings in U.S. history and one of a string of mass shootings last year capped by the massacre of 20 children and six adults in December at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Wrapping up the prosecution’s case against Holmes on Wednesday, Aurora police Sgt. Matthew Fyles ran through pictures Holmes took roughly six hours before the deadly assault on the Century 16 multiplex near his home.
In one picture, Holmes grinned while holding the muzzle of a handgun near his face. He stuck his tongue out in another photo.
His brightly dyed red hair was visible in both pictures, and he wore black contact lenses that made his pupils appear abnormally large. In another picture taken the same evening, his bed was strewn with guns, ammunition magazines, body armor, a gas mask and other gear.
In a self-portrait taken on July 5, Holmes posed with a semi-automatic rifle and wore the tactical body armor he was wearing when he was arrested.
A separate photo taken on July 16 showed the booby-trapped explosives Holmes is accused of rigging up inside his apartment, which according to police he had intended as a diversion to draw authorities away from the theater the night of the assault.
The explosives were safely dismantled after the shooting.
Holmes’ lawyers, seen by legal experts as preparing for an insanity defense, had been planning to call two witnesses to testify this week about their client’s state of mind around the time of the shootings.
But in a surprise twist to the proceedings after the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, public defender Daniel King told the judge his team had decided not to present its own evidence or testimony.
“This is a preliminary hearing and not the proper venue or time to put on a show or truncated defense,” King said. The defense also declined to make a closing statement before the hearing was adjourned.
Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester said he was taking evidence presented this week under advisement and scheduled a new court hearing for Friday that he said would serve as a “status hearing and/or arraignment.”
If the judge orders the case to proceed to trial, Holmes, 25, is widely expected to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Authorities have offered no motive for the slayings. Holmes’ lawyers have said he suffers from mental illness, but they have not been more specific. | <urn:uuid:79482230-7add-435a-a45d-19e24f2cff26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/news/national/2013/01/09/accused-colorado-massacre-shooter-james-holmes-posed-with-weapons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982766 | 708 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Direct verbal management is a lot more than telling the right person to do the right thing at the right time, it’s also about what you shouldn’t say or even suggest to your employees. The more glaring don’ts in these manager employee interactions involve forcing employees to do things against their will such as donating to a specific organization or joining a specific church. An article from CEO.com say to avoid forcing your employees to conform to any sort of extra-workplace expectations of them. These mandatory meetings or picnics or Saturdays in a soup kitchen will only breed resentment and will affect the employee-boss relationship in the long run.
Another thing to be avoided like the plague is getting too personal. Any team building exercise aimed at breaking down the walls between people or releasing their inner children all over the conference room is too volatile to be useful. Basically, think Michael Scott in “The Office” and choose the opposite of whatever he would have done. To read the full article on what not to make your employees do, click the link below | <urn:uuid:c7528d70-57c7-450a-b439-1f8c05906b50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accolo.com/blog/what-not-to-say-staying-out-of-tricky-situations-in-management/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947865 | 216 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Chesapeake Energy Corp. was denied a request for an emergency court ruling allowing it to start redeeming $1.3 billion in notes early without automatically incurring the risk of paying about $400 million in interest sought by Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Chesapeake had sought a ruling saying it could issue a notice to bondholders by tomorrow informing them it will redeem the 6.775 percent notes at par, or 100 cents on the dollar, six years before they mature. BNY Mellon, as trustee, said the company missed the deadline for such a redemption.
Chesapeake told the judge before the ruling was that they didn’t plan to redeem the notes if they didn’t get a favorable ruling.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan left open the possibility of a trial over the interpretation of the deadline. Chesapeake, the second-biggest U.S. natural-gas producer, argued that March 15 is the final date it can issue the formal notice of early redemption and avoid a so-called make-whole provision, while BNY Mellon said it’s the deadline by which the call would need to be completed, and thus it’s too late to start the process.
The judge also suggested that Chesapeake would have a good chance of defeating the provision that would automatically require Chesapeake to pay the $400 million in interest. He still refused to block the make-whole provision because Chesapeake hadn’t proved it would suffer irreparable harm if it was triggered. The judge was skeptical of the view of BNY Mellon and a group of investors that intervened in the case, that they could treat the call as a make whole redemption that would include the extra interest.
The $1.3 billion of 6.775 percent notes due March 2019 rose 2.5 cents on the dollar to 108 cents to yield 5.2 percent at 4:30 p.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Michael Kehs, a spokesman for Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, declined to comment when contacted by telephone after the hearing. The company’s outside spokesman, Paul Caminiti, declined to comment outside court after meeting with Chesapeake’s lawyer.
The judge asked the parties to report to him by March 18 what they plan to do in light of his ruling. He offered to have a trial completed within 60 days.
The case is Chesapeake Energy Corp. v. Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co., 13-cv-01582, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). | <urn:uuid:bf566349-5d78-49f3-a7a3-84dbf27ecb63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treasuryandrisk.com/2013/03/14/chesapeake-loses-bid-for-injunction-in-bond-disput?t=fireapps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961802 | 551 | 1.507813 | 2 |
‘Nonprofit?’ Donors have no idea what you do with their money. And, frankly, they suspect the worst.
By Tom Ahern
How loyal is the average donor?
Not very, it seems.
‘In many large national programmes fuelled by direct mail’, Mal Warwick observed in 2005, ‘no more than 25 to 35 per cent of newly acquired donors ever give so much as a second gift.’
And that was then. These numbers never go up; they always get worse. A 2012 report from the Direct Marketing Association in the USA found that response rates to direct mail had dropped ‘nearly 25 per cent over the past nine years’.
It’s relatively easy to get a first gift. It’s consistently hard to get a second gift, especially during a worldwide economic downturn that leaves everyone feeling poorer.
There’s more bad news. ‘Public confidence in charitable organisations ... continues to stagnate and shows no signs of recovering [from a 2001 decline], according to ... the Brookings Institution,’ the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in September 2004.
Only 11 per cent of Americans thought charities did a ‘very good’ job of spending money, said Brookings. The other 89 per cent had their doubts. In fact, more than one-quarter of Americans in 2004 believed charities were inept at managing money, according to the report.
And that was before the Great Recession made everyone grumpy. As I said, these numbers never get better.
Be aware: charities are guilty until proven innocent
Part of the problem is the name, I suppose. We call ourselves ‘nonprofits’.
And what does that label say subliminally to the layperson? That we really don’t care about money.
UK researchers once asked donors to guess, ‘What percentage of your gift does your favourite charity spend on its fundraising activities, rather than on programmes?’
Donors – yes, donors – believed that most of their gift, fully 65 per cent, never went into the field. It was instead ploughed back into fundraising and related overheads, leaving only a small share, a mere 35 per cent, for changing the world.
And yet they still gave.
Imagine how much more they might have given had they only known the truth.
Prime messaging opportunity
Of course you’re protesting, ‘That's so unfair! We pour almost everything we’re given directly into programmes. We spend as little as possible on fundraising.’
You know that. I know that. But your donors don’t know that.
You have to remind them of your organisation’s dedication to transparency, accountability and financial health frequently: on your website, in your direct mail, in your face-to-face solicitations and in every issue of your newsletter.
Go ahead, check right now. I’ll wait.
Bruce Campbell, a pioneering researcher into donor attitudes and behaviour, found that ‘information regarding how finances are used’ was among donors’ top concerns. They wonder, ‘Did you spend my money on paper clips and business lunches? Or did you really use my gift to change the world?’
Don’t leave your donors guessing on this point. They will guess wrong...and not in your favour.
One real reason renewal rates, retention rates and long-term loyalty stubbornly remain so abysmally low is because donor scepticism has been left to fester.
What an opportunity....
How you can win
I teach that: the charities with the best ‘thank yous’ win.
But it’s the same with trust: the charities that establish a strong sense of trustworthiness amongst their donors will win in the long run. | <urn:uuid:f3a897b5-3410-4184-805c-451a0bbf12ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sofii.org/node/1109 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950014 | 798 | 1.78125 | 2 |
It’s rare to find a quality movie outside of the documentary genre that is actually informative and factual about real life events. I recently watched “Even the Rain” (Tambien la Lluvia) and I highly recommend it. The movie is about a film crew shooting a movie in Bolivia in 2000 when they get caught up in the Water War. The Bolivian Water War is exemplary of so many struggles world wide of peasants facing giant corporations who are taking away their right to clean drinking water. For an account of the actual events, click here. Below is the trailer for the film. It’s a must see!
I can’t see any glaciers from my window. Maybe if I watched them shrinking month by month like the farmers in Bolivia do who are losing their water supply, I might be worried. But as I sit on my couch that was made in China, typing on my Japanese computer, drinking coffee brought to my cup from one of those unseen third world countries, I’m not too preoccupied about glaciers. I recycle, I buy organic, I line dry my clothes blah blah blah but if I counted how many minutes per day I dedicate to thinking about big chunks of ice, it would amount to…well, almost nothing. Why is it sometimes difficult to make the connection between my life and that of a polar bear’s? I’ll probably never see a glacier from my window and I won’t meet a polar bear outside of a zoo; but that doesn’t give me an excuse to ignore climate change. The beauty of living in an age when we have a thousand different ways to watch the world beyond the view from our windows is that we now have a chance to see what global warming means on a grander scale. The video above puts a face on climate change. It helps to make the connection between my couch and the global part of global warming. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch it. It’s worth it, I promise.
Privatization and corporate take-over of public utilities is happening on an international scale as the World Bank and other powerhouses of persuasive governance force poor states to turn water from a social good into an economic good. Only the privileged few benefit from this global water grab while millions of the world’s poorest people suffer without equal access to basic human needs.
That’s how it went down in Bolivia in 2000. Basically the Bolivian government (and this is the story of lots of other countries in Latin America as well) were so strapped for cash that they were forced to give away ownership of the country’s natural resources in their search for sound economic investment from the World Bank and Bechtel, the largest contractor in the U.S. But when the Bolivians started to feel the effects of this “exchange” –i.e. limited access to clean drinking water, increased poverty due to newly instated price hikes on utility usage (a 200% increase in some areas), and widespread hunger/disease—they made their voice heard.
Bolivians standing up to police in a fight over their right to water
So this all started in 1996 when the World Bank began to aggressively pressure the Bolivian government to privatize its water services as a way of increasing economic development. The Bank made it perfectly clear in these under the table negotiations that a failure to do so would mean an end to international debt relief and infrastructure development loans. In April of 2000, violent citizen revolts erupted in the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third-largest city.
Citizens shut down Cochabamba, a city of over 1/2 a million people, while protesting in 2000
After a valiant uprising that cost the life of one seventeen year old boy, blinded two youths, and injured 175 others, Bechtel finally agreed to withdraw their contract at the request of the Bolivian government. To add insult to injury, the major corporation filed a $25 million claim with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Oh, but did I mention that the ICSID is actually a branch of the World Bank and that the lead judge on the case was appointed directly by World Bank officials? In America, the judge and jury are not allowed to have any link to the person being tried… so then why does the World Bank get to sentence its’ brother organization? The good news is that in 2006, Bechtel agreed to drop these charges. However, Bolivia is still reeling from the damaging effects of privatization and struggles to improve water allocation in the public sector. | <urn:uuid:49caa583-63d3-42d0-b4ac-c964c9ab301c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bluegranola.com/tag/bolivia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95652 | 958 | 1.65625 | 2 |
President Obama Speaks on Clean Energy Today at MIT; Here’s How to Watch
[Update, 12:05 p.m., 10/23/09: The time for President Obama's speech has been pushed back to 12:25 p.m., according to the White House. It appears that MIT's video servers are being overwhelmed by traffic; if you want to watch the speech online, we recommend trying the White House's own live video stream.]
When Air Force One touches down at Logan Airport at 11:30 a.m. today, there will already be a small crowd of students, faculty members, and local technology leaders waiting inside MIT’s Kresge Auditorium for President Barack Obama to arrive.
In his noontime speech at Kresge, announced just three days ago, Mr. Obama is expected to call for stronger U.S. leadership on clean energy research and press for passage of the Senate energy bill, S. 1733, co-sponsored by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and California Senator Barbara Boxer.
Invitations to the MIT speech are the most coveted tickets in town today. While Kresge seats some 1,300 people, only about 60 students and 40 faculty members have been invited, according to estimates by The Tech, MIT’s student newspaper. The White House has also issued invitations to a hand-picked group of local leaders in energy entrepreneurship and investing.
The President will meet briefly before the speech with a select group of MIT energy researchers, according to the MIT News Office.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will be on stage with the President, who is expected to attend a campaign fundraising luncheon for the governor at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston before returning to Washington. In a video published on his campaign website this week, Governor Patrick said, “In many ways our agenda here in Massachusetts is very closely aligned with the agenda of the Obama Administration.” He included a reference to “our work to expand innovation industries that will create the opportunities for tomorrow, like IT and clean energy and biotech.”
If you weren’t one of the lucky few who won an invitation to attend the President’s speech in person, here are a few ways you can follow his visit:
—MIT will share a live webcast of the speech at http://amps-web.mit.edu/public/amps/webcast/2009/obama-2009oct23/
—If you can make it to Cambridge, MIT will be showing a closed-circuit broadcast of the speech in various rooms around campus (4-237, 1-190, 26-100, 32-141, 32-155, and E51-315) as well as the MIT Museum.
—Xconomy has recruited a posse of local students, investors, and technology leaders who scored tickets to the speech to write to us with their impressions of the event, and we’ll be compiling their contributions in a post early this afternoon.
—Finally, MIT will post a recording of the speech late this afternoon on its video portal site, MIT World.
According to the MIT News Office, today’s visit marks only the second time a sitting U.S. president has visited MIT. President Bill Clinton was MIT’s commencement speaker in 1998. | <urn:uuid:8aba7d8a-02b5-453f-8eb8-66f42fc67930> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/10/23/president-obama-speaks-on-clean-energy-today-at-mit-heres-how-to-watch/ | 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 | 0.952403 | 685 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Mississippi Newspaper Defends Gay Wedding Despite Homophobic Backlash
The LGBT community found compassion and understanding in perhaps one of the most hostile environments for gays: rural Mississippi.
The Laurel Leader-Call, a small newspaper that serves Jones County, issued a letter backing its decision to run a front-page story featuring the wedding of a lesbian couple.
On Feb. 7, the newspaper published the story of Jessica Powell and her partner Crystal Craven, who decided to exchange vows in a marriage-like ceremony; gay marriage is illegal in Mississippi.
The paper ran the story on its front page under the headline "Historic Wedding." Soon after, calls and letters asking the editors why they had allowed such story to be on the front page started to pour in. Fifteen people canceled their subscriptions, according to SheWired.
Then on Feb. 16, Leader-Call owner Jim Cegielski penned a response to reader defending the paper’s position to run the story on the front page:
"I took the bulk of the irate phone calls from people who called the paper to complain. Most of the complaints seem to revolve around the headline, ’Historic Wedding,’ and the fact that we chose to put the story on the front page. My answer to the ’Historic Wedding’ headline is pretty simple. You don’t have like something for it to be historic. The holocaust, bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Black Sox scandal are all historic. I’m in no way comparing the downtown wedding of two females to any of those events (even though some of you made it quite clear that you think gay marriage is much worse). I’m just saying that whether you liked the story or not, the first gay wedding to take place in Jones County is still historic," Cegielski wrote.
The owner added that the paper had never received a complaint about children seeing stories on "child molesters, murders and all kinds of vicious, barbaric acts of evil committed by heinous criminals," which the paper had printed several times.
Besides gay marriage being illegal, gay can’t adopt children and there are no legal protections for hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity. | <urn:uuid:82ae2ec3-6674-4816-bfc3-d178c841ec01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edgechicago.com/news/national/142039/mississippi_newspaper_defends_gay_wedding_despite_homophobic_backlash | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955503 | 461 | 1.773438 | 2 |
FCRC, Inc., a private, non-profit organization, officially began operations on January 2, 1978, and has continued as the only program in Allegany County, Maryland that provides comprehensive services to victims of domestic violence and sex crimes. It was a grass-roots effort initiated by the tireless efforts of local agency and lay people who saw a need sorely lacking in resources. That was 30 years and thousands of victims ago.
The agency is dedicated to the elimination of domestic violence, sexual assault/abuse and rape through intervention and prevention by providing shelter and counseling and maintaining a pro-active role in advocating for change in societal attitudes and in systems which permit and promote such violence and abuses.
24–Hour Helpline: 301-759-9244 | <urn:uuid:b88e0751-e916-4845-8e06-64d6d92e456f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familycrc.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967223 | 155 | 1.648438 | 2 |
March 13, 2013 | 3:31 am
To Read: Former senior military advisor Sarah Chayes qualifies Vali Nasr's high-profile provocative account of the White House foreign policy mechanism:
Nasr is correct that civilian instruments of power, including intelligence and economic interaction as well as diplomacy, must play a more robust role in U.S. foreign policy. But for them to do so, it is not enough for the military's role to shrink, or for the White House to be nicer to the secretary of state. Diplomats have to up their game. And some candid introspection might be a good place to start. A joyous cacophony of talented youngsters is not sufficient to develop high-level policy on our country's longest war. Civilian agencies need to cultivate and empower deep area expertise. They need to shatter the brittle bureaucratic rigidities that characterize their systems, and provide graduated autonomy to rising leaders. They need to advocate aggressively and effectively for increased resources. But most of all, they need to be willing to take moral and political risks when it really matters.
Quote: “Every time the pressure gets to the Israelis they go to Congress. He wants to find a way around that, that’s why he wants to talk to the Israeli public directly", an anonymous source who participated in Obama's meeting with US Arab leaders.
Number: 45%, the partisan gap in public opinion about US aid to the world's needy.
To Read: According to Ari Shavit, while the peace process as we know it may very well be dead, a 'new peace' may be a cause for optimism:
The New Peace will be very different from the Old Peace. There will not be grandiose peace ceremonies in Camp David or at the White House, no Nobel Prizes to be handed out. The New Peace does not mean lofty declarations and presumptuous vows, but a pragmatic, gradual process whereby the New Arabs and the New Israelis will acknowledge their mutual needs and interests. It will be a quiet, almost invisible, process that will allow Turks, Egyptians, Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Israelis to reach common understandings. The New Peace will be based on the humble, pragmatic assumption that all the participants must respect, and not provoke, one another, so that conflict does not disrupt the constructive social reforms that all seek to promote.
New Peace might have all sorts of manifestations. A real Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank rather than a romantic Israeli-Palestinian final status agreement which is not feasible at the moment. An Israeli-Egyptian water-supply development project that would reinforce the fragile peace between the countries. An Israeli-Turkish gas deal that would bring together two of America’s most reliable allies and encourage them to work as regional stabilizers. A Saudi-Israeli-Palestinian program that would channel some of the riches of the Persian Gulf to keep the peace in Palestine. A secret Israeli-Hamas deal that would give Gaza more autonomy and prosperity while halting its rearmament.
Quote: "This proposal is aimed mainly against the Arab parties. This is revenge against the small parties, and we will fight the decision", Arab Israeli MK, Ahmed Tibi about the proposal to raise the Israeli electoral threshold to 4%.
Number: 36, the percentage of Israeli Start-up entrepreneurs who served in Technology units in the IDF.
The Middle East
To Read: John Bolton believes President Obama's recent decision to offer non-lethal assistance to opposition forces in Syria is nothing but a PR stunt (and a poor one at that):
Predictably, President Obama’s recent decision to provide additional nonlethal military aid to the opposition Syrian National Coalition and its military wing has pleased almost no one. Those who want to provide arms and ammunition to the rebels see Obama’s step as weak and insufficient, while those who oppose any aid to the increasingly dubious opposition see it as another step toward just such lethal assistance.
Despite these divergent criticisms, however, the decision announced by Secretary of State John Kerry, now belatedly converted to opposing Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, is at bottom simply another half-step, a compromise, further evidence of President Obama’s chronic national security indecisiveness. There is no coherent politico-military strategy at work here, only an effort to appease domestic and international critics of a Syria policy badly misguided from the outset.
Quote: "We will be able to block distributors of the movie, force them to apologise and challenge them to confess that the movie is nothing but a sheer lie", French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who is going to help Iran sue Hollywood and the filmmakers of Argo.
Number: 6, the percentage of children in Aleppo who are attending school.
The Jewish World
To Read: Simon Yisrael Feuerman writes about the age-old custom of Rabbis telling their wealthy congregants to part with some of their money-
Across the centuries and through the annals of time, rabbis and prophets alike have tried to persuade their flocks to let go of some of their riches. “To me belong the silver and the gold, sayeth the Lord,” preached Haggai the prophet in the days after the First Temple. “Charity saves from death,” King Solomon famously wrote. Yet very little can persuade a man in this area of his life. There are great, nearly impervious forces in a person that make him hold his money close. The Talmud famously says a man is born with a reflex: If you give him an object, his hands clench tight—he wants to grasp and hold on to everything and keep it. Valiantly, the rabbis try with their eloquence, their call to the spirit, their assurances of long life and a glorious afterlife to loosen that grip. The cycle continues as predictably as the sun rises and as night follows day. We make money, some of us lots of it, and the blandishments of the prophets and the words sprinkled on us by the rabbis help us to part with some of it.
And maybe we not only need the occasional reminding that money is not the highest and noblest aim; we might actually relish such nudging, smiling a little bit inside as we are persuaded to unclench our fists for a moment. This clenching and unclenching, perhaps, is our way of realizing that we are successful enough to accumulate wealth, and yet success and money do not a life make. We want the rabbis to remind us of purposes that are higher and nobler, and that we may ultimately have more and be more by giving some of our wealth away.
Quote: "But only wounds that are cleaned can heal without risk of infection. And the cleaning of this wound was a long time coming", Austrian President Heinz Fischer about Austria's Nazi past, on the 75th anniversary of the Anschluss.
Number: 12 million, the surprisingly huge number of Americans who buy Kosher food.
5.24.13 at 4:04 am | We bring you a daily round-up of the interesting. . .
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Walter Russell Mead | <urn:uuid:77099522-e3e0-4b92-844c-8be3d535a390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/item/headlines_reads_2m_syrian_youth_afflicted_us_arabs_obama_blames_israeli_gov/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937737 | 1,801 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When it comes to creating and designing a website, there are a lot of different paths you could take. However, no matter what design direction you take your website, the site will be practically useless if it isn’t user friendly. Below take a look at three tips that will help you make your website look great – and useful for the reader.
1. Keep it clean. It’s easy to get wrapped up in fancy design concepts. However, you must design with your average user in mind. This means that too many images and graphics will actually distract your reader. You want to keep the design clean so the reader doesn’t get a headache when visiting your site.
2. Create great copy. The copy on your website needs to be compelling and relevant. Make sure your visitor can find what he needs when he comes to your website by giving clear direction and direct copy.
3. Make sure links work. There’s nothing more frustrating that visiting a website only to find that the links don’t work. Be sure that you are testing all of your links and that they are all current and relevant. After all, having up-to-date information on your website will help you appear legitimate to your reader.
There are a lot of different areas that will affect your web design. But the three tips mentioned here will be the most useful in creating a successful website. Keep these tips in mind as you start up your new website.
Will your website be user friendly? | <urn:uuid:02be28df-1258-431c-a204-4e3bf89edf58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prothon.org/tag/usability | 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 | 0.952728 | 307 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Ecotourism is an exotic word in the Philippines, and it is a slow conversion for someone to give up a livelihood of spearing fish and instead take tourists to look at the very same fish and to let them slip away into the coral.
Tridacna gigas has been harvested almost to extinction in the Philippines, and at an easy-to-miss tourist attraction on Camiguin Island, just offshore from Mindanao, a small group of women are doing what they can to re-establish this formidable bivalve in their local waters—not for food or church ornamentation, but for the sheer value of its importance to the ecosystem.
The women of the giant clam nursery project—a small, local effort with a tiny bit of government funding and a handful of pesos from tourists—are extremely religious and protecting the clams is their charity. A sign at the entrance to their small facility prohibits "immoral activity" and spells out such activities in a list that includes drug and alcohol use as well as hand-holding. There is only one changing room and my husband and I are expected to take turns while we put on our swimsuits.
The giant clam’s superlatives promote its comic book reputation as a man-eater. It can live for hundreds of years and grow to almost two meters across. When we get a close-up look of one in a tank, I am impressed by both its fleshy mantle glowing in violets and yellows as well as its razor-sharp scalloped smile. The resident three-legged dog is a testament to the clam’s superpowers.
We are guided through the small shallow sanctuary by a woman in a floor length skirt and long-sleeved blouse. It isn’t a stretch to think of her as a specter as we follow her eerie flowing robes through the water. She points silently at the nursery clams, just a few years old and already fist-sized. We are sometimes less than a foot above the baby limb-crushers, hyperventilating into our snorkels as we fight a strong current that makes the shimmering colors of the clams even more surreal.
When we emerge from the water there are men with long black guns standing on the shore. Our guide—dripping wet and looking like a shipwreck victim—thanks us for coming. While I shake her hand my eyes shift between her dedicated gaze and the men with guns. When it’s clear that she isn’t going to explain, I ask her directly what’s going on. "They are here to keep the fishermen out," she says. These are the only protected waters on the island, which subsequently hold the best fishing around.
I wince at the thought of these local men shooting another local over how best to use the island’s resources. I mean, I am all for protecting an integral part of the local ecosystem, but at the cost of human life? Just as quickly as I was swept up into the magic of the giant clam, I change my tune. It’s just a clam, right? A slimy muscle between two dull shells.
The giant clam sanctuary seems to represent very well the ocean in its entirety. The ethical questions brought up here are big ones. Ones whose answers I won’t be able to wrap my head around for awhile…if ever. The men with the guns smile and wave at me. They are typical friendly islanders with a cushy job patrolling the beach. I don’t believe they would shoot anyone or at least I don’t want to believe they would.
The giant clam makes a giant meal on an island where there isn’t always enough to eat. I honestly don’t know what Jesus would do if he visited this mission on Camiguin Island. Would he thank the sisters for their charity and pat the men with guns on their backs? Or would he bring the local children with their empty bellies and tell them to feast on the delicious flesh of this mythical beast, plucked freshly from the generous sea? I don’t believe in Jesus and I’ve lost my appetite. When I close my eyes, the fiery colors of the clam come back vividly. I am astonished at their beauty and slightly afraid. | <urn:uuid:619b8b2e-078e-4614-aac6-8975444246ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-02/giant-clams-giant-statement-camiguin-island-philippines-asia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965818 | 893 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Response: Neuberg on Golemo on Neuberg
Of course Karl Golemo (BMCR 94.2.11) is entitled to his opinions of my JACT Greek hypercard exercise stack system, but promulgation of incorrect information about it, without consulting me nor, apparently, having read the documentation, does no one any service.Matt Neuburg's JACT Greek software (which is distributed without fee over the Internet) provides exercises designed to accompany the first sixteen sections of the textbook Reading Greek: the Joint Association of Classical Teachers' Greek Course.
What is provided is really an authoring tool whereby teachers can easily make their own exercises to go with the textbook; but as a courtesy, to save time and to get you started, I have also included the exercises that I have written with that tool and which I currently use. They can quickly be modified or replaced at will, to suit your own tastes or needs.Each exercise includes...
This description treats a purely contingent fact as a given of the system. Each exercise includes whatever you want it to include. It happens that for my purposes I have found it best to computerise all the (b) and (c) exercises (Mr Golemo does not make this fact clear) from sections 1-16 of the JACT, plus all the vocabulary and paradigms the student is asked to memorise, plus some extra exercises where I felt the JACT did not provide sufficient practice; and I have included all this in my online release. But you are free to accept, reject, modify, replace any or all included exercises.Using the Macintalk Pro system extension, the program can pronounce all of the Greek words and sentences in a variety of voices.... [But] certain syllables (especially where vowels adjoin) are wrongly pronounced and stress accent is entirely haphazard. This ... limits the useability.
These problems are due to the nature of the phoneme repertoire and encoding system of Apple's Macintalk Pro, which is oriented to English only; for example, no French -u- can be produced. If you look at the stack script you will see that (although it slows down the program) I have included the pronunciation routine, which translates Greek letters to Macintalk Pro phonemes, as HyperTalk rather than as an XCMD. This, as a comment in the stack script makes clear, leaves you free to study my routine and write a better one if you think you can. Instead of carping, let Mr Golemo set his hand to it.There are also limitations within the main program. First, the responses judged correct by the program are too restrictive in some cases. For example, for the word A)POFE/RW, the program will not accept "carry off" or "carry away" but only "carry back" as a reply.
An odd use of "will not"; it will if you wish it. Mr Golemo scarcely notices that you (the teacher) determine what any exercise "will accept". Further, the correct answers which you have entered may incorporate a syntax permitting alternate student responses to be seen by the computer as right. In this instance, the teacher's entering "[I carry off, I carry back, I carry away]" would cause the computer to find any one of the three acceptable. I didn't do this myself merely because the JACT defines APOFERW only as "carry back".Similarly in many instances the program does not allow for alternate spellings. For example, the program will accept only "saviour" for the word SWTH/R, which will be confusing to American students who are, of course, used to writing "savior".
Ditto: just replace "saviour" with "[saviour, savior]". My students happen not to be American, and the JACT says "saviour", so no problem has arisen locally.
This flexibility, of which Mr Golemo seems ignorant, is one of the system's salient features, and revolves around an XCMD, written in C, which evaluates the student's responses. The available syntax for the teacher's correct answer is simple but quite powerful: one may specify the answer as a single word, a list separated by commas, or a list separated by spaces (e.g. a sentence); may require fixed order or allow free order; may be strict or lax about accentuation; may supply equally acceptable alternates; and may even include optional items. Thus, for example, "[position, office], [start, }], [rule, }]" (as a definition of ARXH) tells the computer to accept such replies as "position" or "office" or "position, start" or "rule, position" -- but the reply "start" by itself will be regarded as incomplete. Further, the evaluation routine distinguishes between student responses that are right, wrong, or incomplete; it highlights the particular word that is wrong; and distinguishes between wrong absolutely and wrong in accentuation alone.
Mr Golemo mentions none of this, so the reader never hears about it -- and neither does Mr Johnson, who believes Mr Golemo, and so might be wrongly including my program when he writes: "Even more deplorable is the general ability of most programs to understand the most rudimentary synonyms in processing the user response. Our reviews are sprinkled with complaints on these sorts of inflexibility." But are those complaints justified? My program is quite flexible in evaluating the correctness of the student's response, and yet produces that evaluation with lightning speed.Secondly, some will find the vocabulary offerings meager, since the program only uses the words from the Vocabulary to be Learnt section of the textbook rather than from the entire vocabulary of a given chapter. An option to include the wider base of vocabulary would be helpful.
This makes no sense to me personally; why train the student to learn words the book does not say to learn? However, de gustibus, and you can create or modify any exercise you like, so it seems to me this "option" is very much present.These limitations, admittedly, are not very great.
Nor particularly real. What is "limited" is Mr Golemo's knowledge of the stacks.One ... wants some scoring mechanism so that the students can get a sense for how well they are doing and so that the instructor can properly monitor the students' progress. (The advertising is somewhat misleading when it says, "Why waste time checking the results of the student's exercises when the computer can do it for you?")
The first sentence is personal and philosophical. As for me, I monitor my students' progress through quizzes, and feel that scoring mechanisms tend to be Big-Brotherish and off-putting to the student. If Mr Golemo asked me for a version of the stacks that incorporated scoring, though, I would write him one.
Second, I do not promulgate "advertising"; I'm not selling anything. I do occasionally distribute by email a notice reminding folks of the stacks' free availability, it does include that sentence, and the sentence seems to me true: the stacks do check the students' answers, and they have freed considerably my time as a teacher without loss in student achievement. If Mr Golemo has taught from the stacks and his experience differs, let him say so; but to speak of misleading advertising is inappropriate and offensive.
Mr Golemo has appreciated very little of what these stacks are up to, in fact or in spirit. He shows familiarity neither with the JACT textbook, nor with HyperCard, nor with the documentation. He has not appreciated the nature of my stack system, the extent of its customisability by users and, on request, by me, the nature and power of the evaluation routine, the fact that the stacks are free, or even, it seems to me, the fact that it is a computer program.
For example, his suggestion that I make the stack's ability to pronounce Greek more obvious and available to the student (a button rather than a menu) is a good one. But instead of trumpeting this as a shortcoming of the stacks, why not make the suggestion directly to me? I could implement it, for him if he is serious or in the online version, in a few moments. This isn't a frozen entity like a book; it is entirely mutable, revisable, and in-progress -- and always will be. That is part of the wonder of this new computer age.
It is right and valuable to describe to readers the available CAI packages; but to describe them so very misleadingly is dreadful, and to punish them is gratuitous. I know, much more accurately than Mr Golemo, that my stacks have shortcomings and what they are, and I am not averse to criticism; but such criticism needs to be appropriate to the spirit and nature of what is under discussion. I develop a teaching tool over many years, then share it at no cost with any wishing to avail themselves of my labour, and Mr Golemo greets it as he might the publication of a pompous $80 book claiming to solve the Homeric Question. Yet these stacks, which I use constantly, I have placed online, in their present state, and have continued to support and revise, neither for glory, nor for tenure, nor for financial remuneration, but from a motive Mr Golemo seems unable to conceive or respond to -- to be helpful. I really wish now I had not done so.
Still, those wishing to discover what the stacks are really like may wish to know how really to obtain them -- since Mr Golemo gets this wrong too. For ftp, use Fetch or a mainframe (not Anarchie); Fetch is best. Ftp to cantva.canterbury.ac.nz, and login anonymous. You will enter at root level /public; now, cd mac; then, cd classics (that is, get to /public/mac/classics). They are called [.MAC] and [.CLASSICS] in Fetch's listing. Then get jactgreekpt1.hqx and jactgreekpt2.hqx. For gopher, set your gopher to delphi.dur.ac.uk, and take the following path in: Academic Departments and Faculties; Departments Listed P-T; Theology; Theology and Computers; Software for Theologians; An Archive of a Selection of Software. You will then see appropriate folders.
While there you may also wish to download my Greek Verb Help hypertext app. This was not reviewed, though it is far more widely useful (and, from what I hear, popular), as it relies neither on Hypercard nor on any particular textbook. | <urn:uuid:06879bae-5116-4ee2-ba54-f2f26f15b2d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1995/95.03.05.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954234 | 2,225 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Saturday, 09 February 2013 15:19
AL-TIWANEH: The Israeli military prevented Palestinians from setting up an encampment on Saturday to protest at Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, land where they seek statehood.
With peace talks stalled for more than two years, grassroots Palestinian activism has been on the rise. Four tent camps - dubbed nascent Palestinian towns by the activists - have been erected and swiftly dismantled by the Israelis since last month.
A military spokeswoman said soldiers evicted around 20 Palestinians on Saturday morning as they tried to erect a cluster of steel-framed tents near Al-Tiwaneh, a Palestinian village south of the city of Hebron.
"We came here to build a Palestinian village upon Palestinian land, and to freely use our land in the way we want as Palestinians have rights and own this land," activist Younis Araar said.
Hebron and its surroundings have Jewish settlements whose growth Israel views as its biblical and security prerogative.
Most world powers deem Israel's settlement of land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war illegal, and Palestinians fear the hilltop enclaves will deny them a viable state.
Copyright Reuters, 2013 | <urn:uuid:136592cd-a2ba-4179-b433-1e34d8dda8ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/108-pakistan-top-news/105449-israeli-troops-block-palestinian-protest-camp-near-hebron-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949058 | 243 | 1.632813 | 2 |
William MERRILEES OBE (1898-1984)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - William Merrilees, Chief Constable of Lothian and Peebles Constabulary since 1947, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Kings Cross railway station.
William joined the police force in 1924, and worked his way up the ranks. He became Scotland's best known policeman due to his flamboyant career which involved disguise, celebrated court cases and tireless charity and welfare work.
He was known as Scotland's Pocket Battleship due to his height of only 5 ft 6 inches and his tough reputation.
William Merrilees recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, The Short Arm of the Law...
One Sunday evening in October, on returning home from one of the two cottages which I now use for hospitality to old folks and crippled children, I found a message awaiting me to telephone London, to Chief Superintendent Perkins, the Queen’s private detective. I did so, to discover that I was being invited to my friend’s silver wedding celebration in eight days’ time. Much as I would have liked to accept this invitation, I had regretfully to inform him that I was so much occupied that my diary was completely filled up until the end of March. He asked me to check. I said it was a waste of time.
However, on consulting my diary I discovered that date was free (having been rigged by my secretary), and I informed him that I would come down to the silver wedding on the condition that he got me an early plane back the following morning as I was speaking to the Rotary Club in Glasgow, about forty miles away, at lunch-time, and at Largs Businessmen’s Club, a distance of another forty miles away, in the evening. He then asked me to cancel those engagements but I said I wouldn’t.
He informed me that a letter was in the post to my friends William MacPherson and his wife, Chris, inviting them to the silver wedding too. I immediately got on the telephone to Mr MacPherson and told him of this, but on learning the date he said he could not go (he was in the pie too). Half an hour later Ex-Provost William Griffiths, Whitburn, rang me to say that coal would be going to my cottages for the old folks. I told him about the invitation to the silver wedding and he expressed surprise at the short notice and I explained that Mr Perkins had been ill. He said he would be in London that day and I suggested that he come along. He replied that he couldn’t gate-crash. I asked him to leave it to me and I phone Mr Perkins, who said he would be delighted to have him (another waste of time and money because he was in the pie also).
On the appointed day for the silver wedding, Mr Griffiths, Mr MacPherson and I went to the station and as we boarded the train the show was nearly given away by a ticket inspector who said to me ‘Good luck for tonight!’
I remarked to my friends, ‘What did he mean by good luck for tonight? I am going to a silver wedding, not to be married.’
A quarter of an hour before reaching London I went along to another compartment to have a word with an Edinburgh lawyer whom I had seen passing in the corridor. I was barely seated beside him when my two friends appeared at the door beckoning me out.
‘What’s wrong?’ I demanded.
‘Nothing. It’s time we were getting ready.’
‘I’ll get ready at the Palace!’ I replied.
‘It’s time you got washed.’
‘I’m not washing in any dirty basins. I’ll wash at the Palace.’
‘The basin’s clean, I washed it out myself,’ the Provost replied. Astonished, I declared that he was getting extraordinarily clean and hygienic.
Mac was now muttering about it being time I got dressed, which struck me as sheerest nonsense, since I would be dressing at the Palace. Actually we were now running into King’s Cross Station, and looking out of the window I pointed out that there must be some big shot on this train. There were TV cameras waiting there and railway police in dress uniform.
My friends hurried me along to the end of the corridor, and when I made to pick up my luggage the Provost dug me in the ribs and somewhat testily told me to leave that to the porter.
I made a grab at least at my wedding present, and when told to leave that also for the porter, I said, ‘No damn fear! It cost twelve guineas wholesale.’ I was staring at him and demanding to know what the hell was going on, when I realised that the man standing on the platform beside me was Eamonn Andrews the television celebrity. I apologised for my language and reminded him that we had met several years before at a boxing function.
Eamonn turned to Mac and asked, ‘What are you down in London for?’
In a high-pitched voice, like a small boy at a Sunday school soiree, Mac answered, ‘I am going to a silver wedding.
‘What time is it?’
‘Half past eight.’
Eamonn Andrews then mentioned that he was throwing a little party himself at seven-thirty. Would we come along?
‘Sorry – I’m going to the Palace,’ I pointed out, and turned to collect my twelve guineas’ worth.
At this Eamonn announced, ‘William Merrilees, OBE – This Is Your Life!’
Strange as it may seem, I was taken wholly by surprise, not the least inkling of the true situation had entered my mind. My immediate reaction was to feel an utter fool for not having cottoned on to it – me, a trained detective officer and observer! I am afraid that I looked at my two friends and called them a ‘pair of kipper-hipped blighters.’
From the railway station we went to Buckingham Palace, where, instead of a wedding celebration, Chief Superintendent Perkins and his good lady had arranged a cocktail party, at which most of the guests seemed to be friends of my own, including Jimmy Logan and his wife, a long-time collaborator with me in my social work; Ian Tully, a close friend who has compered my charity shows for years, and some Yard officers.
I am not a nervous type, but I will confess that during that cocktail party I did worry over who was likely to confront me out of my past life, in the forthcoming TV programme. My imagination conjured up various people whom it might be difficult for me to enthuse over, as I am afraid that I am not good at social hypocrisy. However, I need not have worried over this; everything was in good, capable and considerate hands.
When the time came for us to leave the Palace and go to the theatre, I almost automatically started to organise the car arrangements – but was smartly put in my place, being informed that this was one time when I had to stand by and do what I was told. When I joined Eamonn Andrews in the dressing-room of the theatre I quickly saw the reason for his success in this sphere. His imperturbable manner and placid demeanour could be guaranteed to put anyone, no matter how excited, at ease – a notable gift. I shall never forget my feelings as I walked on to that stage in a blaze of lights. While being in no doubt as to the great compliment being paid to me, I was afraid that I might not be able to control my emotions, while millions of people were looking on, and I could not help thinking of the possible effect of this on any of my old criminal acquaintances who happened to be watching.
It was an extraordinary sensation to sit alone on that stage before so many people, and the probing cameras, and listen to Eamonn Andrews saying that as Chief Constable of the Lothians and Peebles for a number of years, I have been known by the somewhat doubtful titles of ‘The Pocket Battleship,’ ‘The pint-sized Detective with the Gallon-sized Reputation,’ the terror of criminals but the friend of all who heeded or needed friendship.
He referred to my early struggles in life, then switched to a day in August 1916 when I was working on the conversion of a paddle steamer into a hospital ship. On this occasion I had sent a boy to fetch tools. He had got thus far when suddenly from the back of the stage came the sound of a great splash of water, and a cry of ‘Help, he’s fallen overboard.’ At this point, William Brock who was not the first person whose life I had saved, but the first for whom I had been given an award, came on to the stage. He gave details of how he had fallen and smashed his head on the side of the ship and of the subsequent rescue.
Eamonn then went on to detail more of that trying period of my life when I was unemployed, stressing my football and boxing activities, and bringing in my old friend Andrew Dalziel to recount some incidents. He related how, through continual appearances before the Lord Provost of Edinburgh for life-saving awards, I had, by special dispensation from the Secretary of State for Scotland, eventually been accepted into the police force.
Detective Inspector Donald McLeod then appeared to tell of some experiences when we had worked together, and raised a laugh when he mentioned the occasion when I agreed to do a radio appeal to the people of Britain to Save, Save, Save – I who had never managed to save a ha’penny in my life. The emotional upset I had feared began to make itself felt when two of my little blind girls were brought on, Ann and Marie Macrae. I found it most difficult to sit there with equanimity while they told how on their birthdays and my own, I took them out, bought them clothes and other presents, took them to the theatre, and so on.
The next to appear was Miss Charlotte Haldene MBE, Court Missionary, who has done wonderful work in helping and reforming prostitutes. She gave details of the work I had done in aiding many of these girls, mentioning that every Christmas I received presents from a number that have made good.
Reference was then made to my fondness for disguise and some of the many cases instanced in which I had used this device. Thomas Ferguson, the porter who had lent me his uniform in the spy case in Edinburgh’s Waverley Station, was produced, to describe the arrest and struggle with the German spy Walti.
Then came other aspects of my life, dealing with such differing characters as Old Willie Turnbull, who, although living only 300 yards from Holyrood Palace, had not seen a sheep, a tree or a blade of grass for over thirty years; the Teddy-boys of Musselburgh whom I had had somewhat forcibly to subdue; the Paddy Hyland, the safebreaker, who had that day made his first visit to London to be present.
Perhaps the highlight of the evening on television was a long telerecording from America in which Dale Evans, the wife of Roy Rogers the film star, spoke most kindly about me and my activities. This pleased me particularly, not only on account of what she said, but because she and her husband had adopted in 1955 Marion Fleming, one of my girls from the Church of Scotland Home, and taken her back to the States with them.
Marion had always been a favourite of mine. She used, in the Home, to sing ‘Won’t you buy my pretty flowers’ in a way that touched my heart. She was now married to a young man in the US Marines and living in Hawaii and herself had a lovely little girl. My heart swelled as, at the close of Dale Evans’ message, I heard Marion’s recorded voice singing again ‘My pretty flowers.’ The tears began to come into my eyes, and I had to struggle to control myself.
Eamonn Andrews said, ‘Yes, that is Marion Fleming’s voice – but not from Hawaii. She has flown across the North Pole to meet you, and is here now.’
As Marion came on the stage I was just at breaking-point and when she ran forward into my arms I was careful to keep my face turned from the audience.
Eamonn gave us a few moments to recover and then announced that he had one last surprise for me. ‘Marion,’ he said, ‘as this person is an American citizen, I think you’re the best person to bring her on.’
Marion disappeared and came back with her little daughter Laurie, one year old.
The audience roared, and Laurie looked frightened. Taking her I blew lightly on her face, and she turned her attention to me. Nevertheless, thereafter she stole the show, waving her hand to the crowd as they cheered ad applauded.
We had a private dinner-party that night in a Piccadilly hotel, and five of us, dressed in kilts, had one pair of spectacles between us – I got to bed at 3.30. I rose at 5am to catch the early plane back to Edinburgh, and so managed to keep my two engagements at lunch in Glasgow and dinner in Largs. There had been bets, I must say, about the likelihood of this taking place.
I must pay tribute to all concerned in the preparation of this programme. It could not have been more thoroughly or thoughtfully done. Nickola Stern, who was in charge of research, is wasting her time, to my mind, not being employed as a true detective. As for Eamonn Andrews, so well known and liked, no praise of mine will add to his stature.
As a result of the programme I had over 700 letters from people wanting to adopt children, to become ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles,’ and to help in the causes in which I was interested.
on the guest list... | <urn:uuid:c9729b17-3a83-411c-9613-b4c458d08d01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bigredbook.info/william_merrilees.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986627 | 3,030 | 1.625 | 2 |
Course reserves are located at the front of the library, on the shelves next to the Reference collection. Books are tagged by class with colored labels.
Items are placed on course reserves at the request of OSU instructors. Reserve items commonly include sample tests, homework solutions, videos, library books and journal articles. The items on reserve remain until the corresponding class is over for the term, or until the instructor asks to have the material removed.
Unlike course reserves at our main library, Guin Library reserves are non-circulating. Materials are available for students to use and return to the Reserves shelves when they are done. Reserve materials are not to leave the library.
All materials currently available on course reserve are listed in the library's library catalog. You may search by class or instructor. | <urn:uuid:c369b197-5520-4e9d-840f-ea6e174a8a13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guin.library.oregonstate.edu/course-reserves | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936565 | 160 | 1.640625 | 2 |
For decades Sinaloa has been Mexico's breadbasket. Its fertile fields have produced huge crops of soybeans and sesame seeds--and vast amounts of marijuana and heroin destined for U.S. markets. Sinaloa's poor campesinos have made it big--growing and selling these narcotics and networking their way from the foothills of the Sierra Madre to become major players in Mexico's drug cartels:
Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseca, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, Guero Palma, Amado Carillo Fuentes, Ismael"El Mayo" Zambada, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, Manuel Salcido Uzeta a.k.a. Cochi Loco and the Arellano Felix brothers.
They are all Mexico's most infamous narcotraffickers. And they all have made
Culiacan, Sinaloa's state capital, their hometown.
These drug lords live in luxury homes in the hills of Culiacan-- a city of 600,000 which seems prosperous and modern compared to the rural villages that dominate Sinaloa. The drug business is so ingrained in Culiacan, its souvenir shops sell items with emblems commemorating the outlaw culure: marijuana leaf belts, machine gun buckles, embroideries of airplanes, like those used for smuggling.And, there's even a patron saint of drug smuggling--the legendary bandito Jesus Malverde-whose image is seen dangling from the chain necklaces of many young Culiacan men.
Malverde's chapel is in downtown Culiacan, in a glass brick building just across the street from the Government Palace. On the day FRONTLINE's production crew visited, a string and horn band played Mexican ballad songs--"corridos" --glorifying Mexican traffickers and the miracles of their patron saint, Jesus Malverde.
It was unclear who hired the band until a late-model gold Ford pick-up pulled up and three men emerged, one wearing shiny snake skin cowboy boots and carrying a giant wreath of flowers. He placed it inside the chapel at the foot of Malverde's image. Onlookers and local journalists told FRONTLINE that this was a prosperous narco-trafficker giving thanks for a good harvest--a successful run north.
His tribute joined dozens of others; the chapel walls are crowded with
plaques bearing the names of known trafficking families or pictures of men and
their trucks, all paying tribute for "safe passage from Sinaloa to Sacramento"
and other journeys north.
According to legend Jesus Malverde was a thief who robbed the rich to give to the poor. He was hanged in 1909 by Sinaloa's governor. But the legend of this bandit's defiance and style of justice was passed along through corridos which helped turn him into a people's saint. A wedding party, for example, pulled up outside the chapel while FRONTLINE was filming. The bride in her white dress entered the inner sanctuary to kneel before the glossy plaster bust of Malverde. Soon after, a short, graying matron purchased a necklace containing his image, whispering quietly in prayer.
According to the DEA, Malverde's believers--who usually come and go in pickup trucks--have carried his image as far as Florida, Texas and California.
And although belief in Malverde is a mixture of Catholicism and Animism the local diocese says the Malverde chapel is an embarrassment. "Nobody has become a saint robbing and killing, he was a bandito," laments Father Antonio Ramirez.
Many trace Sinaloa's first narcotics crop--opium--to the numerous Chinese settlers who arrived in the last half of the 19th century. "It was a good agricultural place for it. And generation after generation the people just did it, they perfected it," explains Edward Heath, former Country Attache for the DEA in Mexico. But large scale production of opium didn't start until the 1940's and World War II. Japan gained control of the Asian opium supply and the U.S. military needed morphine for its soldiers. So the U.S. turned to Mexico for help. "We were concerned that our supply of opium or morphine would be cut off because the world was at war. So we needed a supply close by. But,that was one of those black box things. Who knows when it happened, who did it, and why." says Edward Heath. During this period of a government-tolerated opium trade, many Sinaloans made their fortune. "Everybody was growing it, it was institutional. Some government officials bought the harvest from the farmers to export themselves. There were even soldiers up in the hills caring for the plants," explains Dr. Ley Dominguez, a 77-year-old life long resident of Mocorito, one of Sinaloa's most notorious opium regions. After Japan's defeat, however, the U.S. no longer needed Sinaloa's inferior strain of opium. But many farmers continued to produce opium and heroin; operations became more clandestine, and a smuggling network was set up.
In the mid-1980s, Sinaloa's marijuana and heroin smugglers turned to a new product: cocaine. Colombia's drug traffickers were finding it increasingly difficult to bring cocaine into the U.S. through South Florida. So they began looking for alternate routes--and found willing partners in Mexico's smugglers.
The relationship lasted a few years until the Mexicans tired of just smuggling cocaine for a fee and began demanding payment in cocaine. The Mexicans soon set up their own distribution networks in the U.S. and greatly increased their profits and power. "From that moment on, the power of corruption definitely increased," said Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni. "The organizations became much richer, much more powerful, with much more control. Now it wasn't one million or two million, it was 15, 20, 30, 40 million dollars that they could make off a single payment. "
And so the gangsters from Culiacan became world famous kingpins of complex criminal enterprises--many resembling multi-national corporations in structure.
"They're not the common criminal that you're going to see with a golden tooth,
black shirt and a white tie with a .45, just standing in a corner. They're not
like that anymore. They have another type of thinking. They work with
computers, with the best technicians in every field. They have the best
chemists in the world. The best lawyers. The best architects. They have the
best of the best," said Juan Ponce Edmondson of Interpol.
Since the 1940's, competition in Sinaloa for the huge, easy profits of the drug business has been violent and pervasive. A neighborhood within Culiacan was called early on "a new Chicago with gangsters in huarache sandals" because of frequent gun battles. In the 1970's, the violence forced the Mexican military to launch Operation Condor, which flooded streets and countryside with soldiers. Face-offs between traffickers and the military were brutal and eventually gang-leaders relocated to other areas of Mexico-- Guadalajara, Mexicali or Tijuana--where they were unknown and safe. But the tradition continues.
Today, local newspapers cover an average of two drug-related murders a day.
Young men drive Sinaloa's highways and streets in new trucks and SUVs.
They're seen at the chic honky tonk bars wearing snakeskin boots, cowboy hats,
gaudy silk shirts with jeans and gold necklaces sporting AK-47s or marijuana
medallions. Some are very young. But a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy in
Sinaloa "is already a bully, a gunman, a man," says former police commander
Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni. "They [the traffickers] were made there. And
that is where they are being made everyday."
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web site copyright 1995-2013 WGBH educational foundation. | <urn:uuid:74a5ff0b-e2f2-46a2-9e7d-ab00abb7288a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/business/place.html | 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 | 0.960129 | 1,725 | 1.710938 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (August 29, 2006)—The first African National Eucharistic Congress will be held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and at the Catholic University of America, September 2-3.
The event has been planned by African pastoral leaders in collaboration with the Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, Migration and Refugee Services, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). It is open not only to Africans but to members of all ethnic groups.
Objectives of the African National Eucharistic Congress include providing an opportunity for African Catholics in the U.S. to reflect on the significance of the Eucharist in their faith life, to deepen their faith through celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
A related objective is to gather African Catholic newcomers to experience mutual support and renewal of their life and their African values and cultures, which they can then bring back to their dioceses and share in their various homes and ministries.
According to Nigerian-born Sister Joanna Okereke, Coordinator of Ethnic Ministries at the USCCB office, more than 500 persons from throughout the United States are registered to participate. Sister Okereke also noted that African priests and religious now constitute a substantial portion of the U.S. Church's ministry force. She said that over 1,000 African nuns and 900 African priests are now ministering in this country.
"This is a momentous occasion in the life of the Church in the United States — to bring Africans from all over the country to pray and break bread together towards solidifying spiritual unity firmly grounded in the love for our Lord who is constantly whispering to us to gather around the table and 'eat as one family," the event program says. "Come and be part of history."
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago, Episcopal Liaison for African and Caribbean Communities, will give the keynote address, entitled "Eucharist: Source of Unity, Solidarity and Reconciliation," at 9:45 am, Saturday, September 2.
Most Reverend Augustine Shao, CSSP, Bishop of Zanzibar, Tanzania, will be presider and homilist at a Eucharistic celebration beginning at 3 PM on Saturday. This will be followed by a procession of nations, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and a cultural celebration featuring a banquet with an assortment of African foods. In keeping with the African custom of putting on their best attire for the occasion, participants have been invited to wear the native dress of their African homelands.
Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington will be the presider and homilist at a Eucharistic celebration in the Crypt Church of the Basilica at 9:30 am, Sunday, September 3.
Concurrent workshops will be given throughout the two-day celebration on such topics as Mary, "Woman of the Eucharist"; Eucharist and African Culture; Youth and the Eucharist; and Enculturation of the Eucharist.
Special activities will be provided for children ages 5 to 12 on both days.
Preceding the Eucharistic Congress will be the 7th National Convention of the African Conference of Catholic Clergy and Religious in the United States (ACCCRUS). With the theme "Breaking Bread Together: The African Experience," the convention will be held August 31-September 1 at the Best Western College Park Inn in College Park, Maryland. At the conclusion of the convention, participants will proceed to the African National Eucharistic Congress at the Basilica. | <urn:uuid:f48193aa-1949-44ae-b174-fab4d513ba44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://old.usccb.org/comm/archives/2006/06-168.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946235 | 747 | 1.59375 | 2 |
First, Keele University is advertising a series of studentships for postgraduate research (mainly PhD) and applications from those interested in Philosophy are welcome. The Keele Forum for Philosophical Research is placed in the Research Centre for the Study of Politics, International relations and the Environment, which is part of the Research Institute for Social Sciences. For more information, see the section corresponding to the Research Institute for Social Sciences in the studentships ad. To apply, click here and select “Philosophy” from the list of areas.
Secondly, I note below some details concerning the final 2011 Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture in the Keele series, which proved to be a very successful event. Professor Matthias Klaes delivered a talk on “Moral Sentiments: Economic Philosophy and the Financial Crisis”, on Tuesday, 13 December. Matthias Klaes holds a first degree in business studies, economics and engineering. He obtained his PhD at the Science Studies Unit of the University of Edinburgh before spending two years as a University Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He was the first Director of the Stirling Centre for Economic Methodology (SCEME) at the University of Stirling and joined Keele in 2005 as Professor of Commerce. Widely published in economic methodology and history of economics, he currently works on a re-interpretation of Keynes’s concept of probability. Areas of teaching include philosophy of the social sciences, economic methodology, and business ethics.
The lecture began with the observation that, at the time of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, moral philosophy circumscribed a cosmos of what today have become rather disparate fields of scholarly inquiry: natural theology, ethics, jurisprudence, and political economy. During the following two centuries, political economy evolved into that ‘inexact and separate science of economics’ (Hausman), enshrining as it were the central insight of Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ as a sophisticated formal theory of general economic equilibrium. This theory, as an embodiment of modernist economic philosophy, has seen numerous generalisations seeking to account for the uncertainties that have remained characteristic of market economies to date. The typical starting point for these attempts have been more or less demanding assumptions regarding the economic rationality of market participants. At the same time, alternative economic philosophies have proceeded from radically different conceptions of economic judgement. Prompted by the ongoing economic crisis, the work of John Maynard Keynes in particular has received renewed attention. The lecture explored Keynes’s vision of decision making under radical uncertainty in the context of a conventionalist critique of economic neo-behaviorism.
Happy New Year and many thanks for your support! | <urn:uuid:65f539b9-f02d-44ec-b517-afb930ed68b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philosophyk.wordpress.com/2011/12/ | 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 | 0.932625 | 558 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Food is a topic of much discussion these days. Umpteen channels on the television talk, discuss, present and even produce insane competitions;all on food. There are millions of blogs and websites all over the internet bursting with tantalizing food and bulging with information. There are hundreds of opinions churned out every day about what food is good and bad for you. There are umpteen lists about "Five Foods to Never Eat" and as many about "Five Foods to ace an interview". You would think "Five" would be an easy number to handle ? Naah.
All around me there seems to be a Food bubble. And I do hope earnestly that the bubble does not burst. I am enjoying it.
But as much as I love this gastronomical propaganda I must admit I am also highly confused. There is too much information which is hard to assimilate and even trust these days. There is too much of competition about making food faster, prettier, healthier, better and while one day that means oodles of butter, on the other none of it.There are studies being churned out faster than the dollar bill and when it comes to food it is hard to ignore them even in my standard lackadaisical mode. Why my family's health might be affected by the brand new study, that still smells of fresh ink and crisp paper hot from the printer. My child might grow up to be a psycho because she was deprived of Himalayan acai berry juice as a toddler.
Local or Organic, Paleo or Vegan, Chinese Study or American, South Beach or Calangute, your garndmother's or mine ? The questions are just too many. And honestly if you notice the core of each of these studies and sum them up it might just be what your Mother had been saying all along and you blindly ignored. Ahhh, what does she know after all. Now grandmothers might be more knowledgeable.
When I was a child growing up in India, food was not a media darling. Few recipes in the Sunday newspaper and a couple of half hearted food pictures in the Bengali magazine was all we had to be satisfied with. Glossy magazines like Femina did not talk about food. News Magazines like India Today stayed far away from recipes and if at all, talked about the dearth of food or the high price of it. "Eat it, all of what is in your plate. Food is precious and there are people who are doing without it" was my Mother's common refrain.Food was revered and recipes were all hand me down or shared with neighbors. My Ma would sometimes cut out of recipes from the Sunday papers and with years they would begin to look like fragile parchment.
Food was a mainstay of the middle class household though. Starting with the morning bazaar routine, getting fresh supplies of seasonal vegetables and fish every day, cooking 3 meals from scratch each day without fail was the norm. We discussed food with love and passion, as something to be cherished and thankful about. Each time my Thama lamented the milk that the milkman got, comparing it with the creamy, almost reddish hued warm milk from the cows in her parent's home in Munger, we collectively sighed. When my Baba said that nothing tasted as good as his grandmother's ghee parathas and mohonbhog we imagined days dripping with drops of grainy tassar silk ghee.
My Ma's cooking usually bordered on the healthy where it was never oily or too spicy for comfort. Yet it was flavorful, always had a vegetable, a fish and grains. The vegetables and fish changed along the season, the dishes varied from light to rich with the temperature. Meat was cooked once a week. I lived my entire childhood yearning for an omlette made with 6 whole eggs which she steadfastly denied spreading the quota over the entire week instead. She or none in her generation stopped to think if it was right to feed this or that. The everyday diet was naturally balanced.
All her life my mother's food style remained the same unlike mine which jumps from no-grain in one week to brown rice only in another and raw salad one day to junk food the next. While she lived with maybe three main kinds of grains, my pantry has branded as well as un-branded packs of brown rice, quinoa, daliya, couscous, semolina, flax seeds, wheat germ and other un-inventoried item which I amass because the recent study said so. Needless to say I forget about many of them.
I don't know whether her style was correct or whether it worked because the raw food products then were not maligned by harmful chemicals. I am not justifying anything, all I am saying is it was much more easier to think of food and plan a meal then. There were set choices.
Now,every week we run around three different grocery stores. For what purpose I do not know. Organic spinach and strawberries from Whole Foods, flax seed from Wegman's, Bitter Gourd and hot green Chiles from Patel Bhai. And then someone comes and says "Local is far better than Organic" and so I again run around, driving 35miles, getting Zucchini from the farm stand which said "Local Produce". In between I have spent an hour debating whether the more expensive wild caught salmon is less contaminated than the farm raised.Thankfully Organic Milk and Eggs is now mainstream and so we can get that anywhere but now they say Milk is not at all necessary for the diet anyway so there my precious 265 hours were wasted.
Finally when I am home, drained both physically and financially I decide I need some rest and order a processed cheese artisan pizza from Domino's, glug down a splenda infused coke and try to think of the most edible way to cook the couscous so that I can contribute more food to the world wide web.
Of all the "gyaan" that is out there I probably like Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments best.
Minimal processed food. Cook more.
Eat at the table. Though I don't follow them strictly, they make sense.
But here is where I stumble.
"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food".
Ideally eating what my Grandmother recognized would have been right because I guess that is what my body was suited for but then came globalization and messed it all up. I eat pasta and broccoli in abundance, and I am guessing she would too if she lived with me in the US. Also when I eat some of what she ate like this "Potol" I am actually committing a crime by not eating "local". I have no idea where my Patel Brothers get their potol from but I am sure it grows nowhere in my backyard.
Potol was a vegetable I was never fond of but summer heat brings back memories of patol and grandmothers. I however did not buy potol again, twice in one summer is enough I decided. This recipe of Doi Potol -- PointedGourd in a Yogurt sauce is a recipe sent by my Mother. I haven't cooked it yet but the recipe I see is pretty universal and might go well with even eggplants. So that is what I am going to do with this recipe next, cook it with eggplants. You can do the same or if you have access to plentiful potols you can make one more dish with the same boring veggie.
1. Potol - 6 pc
2. Onion - half
3. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
4. Green chilli-- 4/5
5. Cumin/Jeera powder - 2 tea spoon
6. Ginger - 1 table spoon
7. Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon
8. Chilli powder - half tea spoon
9. Sugar - 1 tea spoon
10. Salt- according to taste
11. Garam masala - 3 elaichi, 1/2 " dalchini, 4 cloves
12. Tejpata - 1
13. Rosun - 1 koya /1clove
Prothome potol take bhajar moto ga ( body ) ta cheche niye ektu haldi & salt lagye bheje nite hobe. Then potol ta tule rekhe in that oil, garam masala & tejpata phoron debe. Then ote onion & rosun debe and ginger paste & sugar diye bhjte hobe. Now 1 cup doi ( curd ) haldi, lanka & jeera powder diye bhalo kore phetiye nite hobe. Onion bhaja hole or modhye ei curd diye debe and gas sim kore bhalo kore nere niye ote potol guli diye nara chara kore salt debe. Tarpore jal ( water ) diye dhaka ( lid ) debe. Potol boil hole green chilli long size chire (cut ) ote diye namiye nebe.
Scrape skin of potol/parwal and toss in salt and little turmeric powder.
Heat Mustard Oil in a Kadhai.
Fry the patol lightly, remove and keep aside.
Temper the same oil with Whole Garam Masala and TejPatta.
Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and saute. Next goes in the ginger paste. fry with a tsp of sugar till onion is soft and browned.
Meanwhile in a bowl add the yogurt, Cumin Poder, Chili powder and littel turmeric powder. Beat well.
Once the onion is done, take the kadhai off the heat and slowly add the yogurt. At low heat cook add the fried potol and mix well with yogurt and masala.
Add water for gravy, add salt, cover and cook till the potol is done. Once the potol is done add the green chili and switch off heat. | <urn:uuid:63303672-b436-4a82-bae6-bef1eaa2121b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bongcookbook.com/2012/08/mas-doi-potol-no-choices-there.html?showComment=1344608016012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961031 | 2,084 | 1.539063 | 2 |
American journalist missing in Syria
In April 2011, Foley and two other reporters were detained by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war. They were released six weeks later. South African photographer Anton Hammerl was shot during their capture and left to die in the desert.
"I'll regret that day for the rest of my life. I'll regret what happened to Anton," Foley told The Associated Press at the time. "I will constantly analyze that."
The U.N. said Wednesday that more than 60,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria's conflict in March 2011. This number represents a large jump from death tolls previously given by anti-regime activists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Syria was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2012, when 28 reporters were killed.
Those who lost their lives include award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, photographer Remi Ochlik and Britain's Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin. Also, Anthony Shadid, a correspondent for The New York Times, died after an apparent asthma attack while on assignment in Syria.
Last month, NBC correspondent Richard Engel and his crew were detained by pro-regime gunmen near where Foley was kidnapped. After his release, Engels said they escaped unharmed during a firefight between their captors and anti-regime rebels.
Associated Press writer Elaine Ganley contributed reporting from Paris.
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Here are the main elements of the user interface.
The biggest part of the user interface is the editor area. Because Bluefish has a so-called “Multiple Document Interface”, there are actually many editor areas in Bluefish, accessible via the tabs. By default the tabs are on the bottom.
Notice that the current document's tab may be raised by the Gtk theme, and if the document has been modified, its name on the tab is coloured in red. The changes are also noted with red on the open document list, accessible by right-clicking on the tab. | <urn:uuid:c71c85d1-b265-4390-87a8-5bfce09784f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/manual/ch04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935633 | 121 | 1.65625 | 2 |
India’s nascent probiotic market is expected to grow at 11% till 2016, but only if manufacturers are able to increase the awareness about these products locally.
“The domestic probiotic market, which is comparatively nascent now, valued at US$12m in 2011, is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 11% by 2016,” said a report by global research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
“The future of probiotic foods is bright, as Asian consumers perceive these products to be indispensable in nature, specifically for enhancing health and wellness.”
Customisation is needed
According to the report, there is a need for developing customised probiotic strains for specific applications to promote growth in the country.
But it is equally important, it said, that the advantages of consuming probiotic-fortified foods are explicitly communicated to end-users, specifically in nascent regions like India.
India specifically has an inherent bug of sorts in the market as products like probiotic supplements are treated like pharmaceutical drugs by consumers. This results in prescription-based consumption trend, the report said.
“The current market trend is to use probiotic cultures to address specific conditions like allergy and travellers’ diarrhoea and lower the risk of nosocomial infections in children in the Asia-Pacific region,” the report said.
Young to drive growth
The report also pointed out that the early adopter segment of the population has driven consumption of probiotics in yoghurt, beverages, ice creams, and other food products.
“With boosting immunity being its prime USP, the probiotic market is primarily focused on promoting consumption in this population segment, which includes children and young families,” it said.
“When coupled with hectic working lifestyles and shifting food habits from homemade food to readymade processed food, the youth represents a huge market opportunity for health and wellness product manufacturers, especially probiotic manufacturers,” the report said.
The report recommended that to fulfill the rise in demand, different manufacturers would need to come together and develop strategic relationships to synergise their strengths and thus overcome any individual weaknesses.
“Such alliances have been successful for some of the largest market participants in APAC, and could be replicated by other companies, too,” it added. | <urn:uuid:6a009944-afe0-453a-942e-645a15773d4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dairyreporter.com/Trends/Functional-Dairy/Probiotics-in-India-to-grow-11-yearly-Report | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952012 | 475 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Bearly Alone Babies
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Jim Henson's Muppets were animated for the first time in this highly creative, action-packed show. Kermit and friends were now babies, growing up together in a nursery under the watchful, yet kindly... (more)
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This page has been viewed 27 times this month, and 176 times total. | <urn:uuid:03f45a23-0afb-4c00-a9ef-8539f3c236d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/31947-Bearly_Alone_Babies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943606 | 233 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Translate Website | Traducir Sitio Web
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Attorney General Bill Lockyer today requested that the Glenn County Superior Court set the date of January 17, 2006 for the execution of San Quentin Death Row inmate Clarence Ray Allen. The Superior Court likely will consider and act on the Attorney General’s request during a public session on November 18, 2005.
The United States Supreme Court today denied Allen’s last available legal appeal by rejecting his petition for writ of certiorari. In 1982, Allen was convicted and sentenced to death for masterminding the 1980 triple murder of Bryan Schletewitz, Josephine Rocha and Douglas Scott White at Fran’s Market in Fresno, California.
At the time of the Fran’s Market murders, Allen already was serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison for orchestrating the 1974 murder of Mary Sue Kitts. Bryan Schletewitz testified against Allen at the Kitts murder trial. While in Folsom Prison, Allen conspired with fellow inmate Billy Ray Hamilton to murder witnesses who had testified against him, including Schletewitz. When Hamilton was paroled from Folsom Prison, he went to Fran’s Market where Schletewitz worked. He murdered Schletewitz and fellow employees Rocha and White with a sawed-off shotgun and wounded two other people, Joe Rios and Jack Abbott. When Hamilton was arrested five days later he carried a “hit list” with the names and addresses of witnesses who testified against Allen at the Kitts trial, including Bryan Schletewitz.
In 1981, the Attorney General filed charges against Allen and prosecuted the trial in Glenn County due to a change of venue. The trial lasted 23 days, and 58 witnesses were called to testify. Ultimately, the jury convicted Allen of triple murder and conspiracy to murder eight witnesses.
As special circumstances making Allen eligible for the death penalty, the jury also found that Allen had previously been convicted of murder, had committed multiple murder, and had murdered witnesses in retaliation for their prior testimony and to prevent future testimony. During a seven-day penalty phase, the Attorney General introduced evidence of Allen’s career orchestrating violent robberies in the Central Valley, including 10 violent crimes and six prior felony convictions. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of death, and the Glenn County Superior Court sentenced Allen on November 22, 1982.
In 1987, the California Supreme Court affirmed Allen’s death sentence. Associate Justice Joseph Grodin’s opinion referred to Allen’s crimes as “sordid events” with an “extraordinarily massive amount” of aggravating evidence. Earlier this year, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal denied rehearing in Allen’s case. In her opinion for the panel, Judge Wardlaw concluded:
“Evidence of Allen's guilt is overwhelming. Given the nature of his crimes, sentencing him to another life term would achieve none of the traditional purposes underlying punishment. Allen continues to pose a threat to society, indeed to those very persons who testified against him in the Fran's Market triple-murder trial here at issue, and has proven that he is beyond rehabilitation. He has shown himself more than capable of arranging murders from behind bars. If the death penalty is to serve any purpose at all, it is to prevent the very sort of murderous conduct for which Allen was convicted.”
The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted Allen due to a conflict of interest held by the Fresno County District Attorney. The Chief Deputy District Attorney for Fresno at the time (1980-81) was Stephen Carlton. Prior to joining the District Attorney’s office, Mr. Carlton was in private practice and was appointed to represent Allen in a previous murder trial; creating a conflict which required the Attorney General to prosecute the case.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Attorneys General Ronald Prager and Ward Campbell. Prager is currently a judge on the San Diego County Superior Court, and Campbell is a Capital Case Coordinator in the Attorney General’s Office.
Although all the courts which have heard his case have denied Allen’s challenges to his conviction and sentence, he still may seek clemency from the Governor. | <urn:uuid:ad356c1b-f446-4c83-9469-ddf2bd4037bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-seeks-execution-date-convicted-fresno-county-murderer-clarence | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966094 | 878 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Célébrons! le 14 juillet
Bastille Day is July 14 - so here are some items to get you in the mood if you aren't flying to Paris this weekend!
some of my favorite picture books set in France:
Everybody Bonjours "Bonjour" is the French way to say "hello".
Crepes by Suzette Suzette pushes her street cart making crepes with yummy fillings through Paris.
Adele and Simon Adele's little brother Simon loses things on their walk home from school.
A Spree in Paree A farmer and his livestock visit Paris for a holiday.
The Mice of Bistrot de Sept Freres Petite Michelle comes to the rescue when the chef at a famous Parisian restaurant for mice runs out of the secret ingredient in his prize-winning cheese soup.
And a chapter book: The King in the Window Eleven-year-old Oliver, an American boy residing in Paris, discovers, much to his astonishment, that phantoms live within the windowpanes and have selected Oliver to lead a war against the "soul-stealers" that inhabit mirrors.
and some good music --the Putumayo disc: French Playground has got longs of fun French songs. | <urn:uuid:36d74487-ad32-4217-8b42-10b793462424> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hcpl.net/content/c%C3%A9l%C3%A9brons-le-14-juillet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935483 | 267 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In this country we have some of the finest economists in the world. Many of them, including Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers and Austan Goolsbee work within government to steer economic policy in the right direction.
Representative Paul Ryan is not one of them. He is in government, but he is not one of the nation’s finest economists. He has no advanced education in economics at all, and while one might say that neither did FDR, Harry Truman or LBJ…they did have advisors who were learned economists. And they listened to them.
What prominent economists like Drs. Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Reich, Jamie Galbraith, Bradford DeLong, and Mark Zandi will tell you but you will not read in newspapers or see on television–that we cannot survive with only cuts in government. That is the Paul Ryan formula.
You have other economists also, like Dr. Douglass Holtz-Eakin, who was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for President George W. Bush (Bush #2, the dumb one.) Dr. Holtz-Eakin maintains that cutting taxes is a good way to stimulate economic growth.
He does so today even though while he was head of CBO under the first President Bush (the smart one), he had a study done which proved that tax cuts do not improve government revenues and earn a return of only from 1% to less than 20% of the amount of money they cost the government.
So let’s be very, very clear. You cut taxes by one trillion dollars (which Bush II, the dumb one, did) and you get back a return of between $10 billion and $200 billion. In other words, not only do tax cuts not stimulate enough production to increase revenues but they reduce revenues by at least 80% to 99% of the amount cut…while providing no stimulus at all. That’s how you create deficits of $5 trillion in 7 years from a budget surplus.
The problem is even worse than merely the numbers. We have a supposedly learned economist, Holtz-Eakin, lying to the people. He knows what he is saying is false…because he supervised the study. But because of financial and political pressure, he lies about it.
The economy, according to Ryan’s theory, requires austerity, cuts in spending. That comes from the Neocons, the Right Wing of the Republican Party. The problem is that it is not an economic but a political argument. The idea of cuts in government spending comes from those in the camp of the Koch Industries, Cato Institute and Chamber-of-Commerce wing of the Republican Party that wants to gut all social services, leaving the upper classes with all equity in corporate America. By telling you we need cuts, they think you will be diverted from raising their minimal tax rates.
This is not a plan for the future. Today, the wealthiest 1% of the population owns 67% of all non-real estate equities all stocks in other words. And with ownership of all this corporate wealth comes also the ability to control the national message. Through the leverage of national advertisers, the national television networks are controlled by the super-rich and by international corporations. This is a plan by those groups to control the message by controlling media.
Most recently, we see that Keith Olbermann, a commentator who challenged the Right Wing lies and propaganda was fired from NBC, when it is about to be merged with more conservative Comcast, the nation’s troublesome, largest cable system. The Right Wing are able to eliminate the truth-tellers and keep the brazen liars, and hate mongers like Glenn Beck on the air even in the face of 200 advertisers who canceled his program in protest.
In addition to the television networks, most radio networks are actually owned by Right Wing corporations. Of every 10 radio talk shows, 9 are hosted by acknowledged Right Wing talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Savage, Ingraham, and numerous others. There is no strong Liberal movement because the Neocons, the Right Wingers, are suppressing free speech through simple ownership of the means of distribution of ideas…television and radio. They will not allow Populist ideas on the air.
With corporate wealth comes the ability to buy the Presidency and the House and the Senate. Once in office, the Administration can put into place its own U.S. Attorneys in every state in the Union, plus Federal judges, plus members of the Supreme Court.
If you can find judicial hacks…political hacks… like Antonin Scalia, John Roberts and Sam Alito, hacks who seek and accept a Federal or Supreme Court judgeship purely for ideological political and financial reasons, not for the honor of implementing a just judicial. As former corporate lawyers…they have already made it clear that they rule for corporations.
Once you control the judicial system you control the entire political system. Once you have done that you have total control…a totalitarian state. One should remember that the theme of “Judgment at Nuremburg,” was that the greatest disdain by the American judges who tried the Nazis was held for those German Judges who did not stand up against a totalitarian regime when they were the last hope of oppressed citizens.
So in the context of a looming totalitarian state, here is the Ryan economic plan.
1. Health care.
Ryan wants to do away with the government involvement in health care entirely for those not on Medicare. He wants to do away with Medicaid completely. Health care will cost what it costs and people will pay what is demanded by the for-profit insurance companies.
In the Ryan plan, every family would have a credit on their tax bills of $5,700. That’s all. His plan does not tamper with the “free enterprise system” like all the other countries of the world. This minimal $5,700 that we would all have to purchase health insurance is almost exactly like the Health Savings Accounts which we have now that almost no one uses because they are virtually useless. Those who do have them are those who could afford to pay for health care out-of-pocket.
The Medicaid and SCHIP programs subsidize health care for low income families on a sliding scale. The poorest would get $5,000. Under our current system, the funds would probably last a family about three months. Nothing apparently covers catastrophic illness because nothing prohibits rescission or refusal of health insurance. If it did, Ryan would not favor repealing the existing program, which does prohibit these practices.
In summary, Ryan’s plan moves the burden onto the backs of the citizens but asks nothing of the health insurance industry. Nothing of significance is done to reduce costs and planned subsidies or tax breaks are far less than needed to make the plan work. In short, it is a gift to the health insurance industry and a slap in the face to consumers.
2. Social Security
This is pretty simple. Ryan would end Social Security as we know it in 2021. In 2012, he would begin a ten-year phase in for all those under age 55. With certain adjustments to see that older workers do not have retirement incomes that are too low, the plan would allow for workers to have minimum retirement incomes based on 5% of income plus more if they desired invested in retirement. They would be basically 401K programs similar to those that federal employees have.
The question is not the policy but the people. The people applauding this idea are the same people who caused the Wall Street crash and the Republican Senators who recently tried to prevent workers from getting unemployment insurance.
These are the same people who, in 2005, tried to push through a privatization plan that would have turned your Social Security over to Charles Schwab and Goldman, Sachs. Do you know what kind of Social Security you would have now? Virtually none.
Paul Ryan thinks the same way, votes the same way and has the same attitude towards his fellow citizens as do the Republicans in the Senate. He votes with them, is a leader among them and works with them as they have vetoed every jobs bill that the Democrats proposed. He wants to repeal…not improve…health care reform.
They received $400 million in campaign contributions—some would say bribes—during the health care reform struggle from the health insurance industry. You would have to be totally brain-dead to believe that they are sincere. They work for the health insurance industry that is trying to charge more premiums, pay fewer claims, and let you die.
3. Tax revisions.
Ryan would reduce the top rate to 25% and the next rate to 10%. What does that tell you? He will say that the outcome is the same as currently. OK, even if it were the same as today…today we have an annual structural deficit of $500 billion created by the old Bush tax policies…ones that Ryan voted for. He hasn’t left the Republican Party to become a monk. He is the head of the Budget Committee, and was a leading member of the Republican Party that created $13 trillion in deficits!
This rate is ten percent lower than the current rates, which are already too low. Even if you cut out all deductions, you will still only come up with revenues of 17-18% of GDP and we will be in the same mess we are in now. What we really need are higher top rates. When we were solvent, we had top rates of 97% and later 74%. We should have a top rate of at least 50%. Thanks to Clinton and Gore’s cuts we could now balance the budget on those kinds of rates. But not on half that amount.
We need to cut our military budget to only double the total of what China, Russia, North Korea and the Western European states spend. That would mean a cut of approximately 50% in the military budget. Then we need to bring our troops all home from Iraq and Afghanistan. If we do all these things we will have a—big—surplus.
Ryan creates a business consumption tax. He takes all purchases and subtracts them from all sales and assesses an 8.5% tax on the difference. That is ok, if it is real. The problem is: what are considered purchases? And what are considered sales? And can we assess a minimum alternative tax of simply 5% of sales on all corporations should there be some kinds of deductions or exclusions brought into the law?
Ryan wants to add a tax on imports by American corporations. Again, we should believe this when we see it proposed in actual legislation. But it is a good idea.
4. Training programs and Budget Reform
These are minor issues, involving streamlining of government training programs, consolidating them. That makes sense. And the budget portion simply says that we should have a process whereby we do not spend more than we take in and budget for what we legislate.
That’s it. That’s the Ryan Plan. The plan itself is fine except for one simple fact. It does not get to the point that Ryan says he wants to reach…budget solvency. Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, by most academics and economists, the most respected American economist today, a long time Nobel laureate, seems to indicate that Ryan’s plan is far too simplistic, like an arrow that not only misses the bulls eye but the target itself.
Our problem with it should be that it is produced, welcomed and lauded by the very people who clearly are bought and paid for by the super-wealthy, by the corporations and by the Right Wing in government and the military. This may be…some would say definitely is…an attack by the Right Wing on the Middle Class. Not necessarily as it is, but as it could be, if the wrong people are elected.
We would be one simple step from Ryan’s plan to the elimination of financial support for health care for the elderly and the poor. We would be a few votes in the Senate and one Republican President from doing away with any kind of meaningful retirement program or financial support for the disabled.
It goes even further. It takes the concern for our fellow man and puts it back in to charitable organizations, so that if you have some misfortune, you need to rely on charity. This turns the clock back 100 years.
The very definition of a Fascist state is one where the government, the military, the large industrialists combine to create a total government, all combined to do only the will of the political party that runs the country. In really severe Fascist states, those governments also controlled the judicial system, indicting, convicting and imprisoning their political enemies.
The concern about Fascism is its insensitivity, even cruelty, towards the People. The Ryan plan is potentially the first step in that process and we need to achieve many of the same goals but do so with politicians we can trust because we know that they have worked in the past, not for the rich, not for corporations but for the American People. | <urn:uuid:f8a3bd87-1668-472c-a511-c2f547a010f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.populistdaily.com/politics/paul-ryan%E2%80%99s-yellow-brick-road-to-oblivion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970121 | 2,677 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Government vs. Corporations
That same logic could be applied to government, according to the reply in Friday’s edition in a letter from David S. Holland of Alexandria, Va. Holland took several of the Welches’ sentences and substituted the word “government” for “corporations,” producing the following: “Governments are people working together toward a shared goal.” He added, “And yes, governments may employ some bureaucrats, jerks, cheapskates and even nefarious criminals.” And finally, “But most individuals working in governments are regular people, people just like you and your friends and neighbors. People who want to make a living and want to make a difference.”
Many federal employees probably feel they couldn’t have said it better themselves. | <urn:uuid:0625b268-9bda-4860-b01c-710df222f643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2012/07/government-vs-corporations/56915/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96161 | 171 | 1.710938 | 2 |
According to the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, Valparaiso University's Community Research and Service Center (CRSC) is a model for how a small private college can combine human assets (faculty and students) with private funding to have an impact on its community.
In the CRSC undergraduate students not only learn basic research methods, but gain practical experience in working for and dealing with government, business, and other organizations in Northwest Indiana. As a means to achieve these goals, the CRSC forges partnerships with various community organizations from Northwest Indiana. Over 75 projects have been completed for over 50 different organizations and over 400 students have been involved in these projects.
Students can become involved in the CRSC in a variety of ways. Many of the projects are done as part of community-based learning built into courses. There also are paid Research Associate positions available, as well as unpaid and paid internships. Research Associates work part time during the school year, and we also have full-time, 10-week positions in the summer. The responsibilities of a Research Associate include helping with designing studies, preparing questionnaires, developing and drawing samples, conducting surveys, coding and analyzing data, writing reports, and presenting the results of the research. Research Associates have come from disciplines as varied as Sociology, Political Science, Education, Engineering, and Communications. Internships are often project specific, single-semester activities undertaken for credit. Internship opportunities have included projects such as community mapping, neighborhood association development, community organizing, and studies of bias incidents in the region. Departments represented through internships include Geography, Education, German, English, Communication, Sociology, Political Science, Business, Economics, and others.
Following is a list of projects that the CRSC has worked on this year:
1. Porter County Drug and Alcohol Report. 2010-2011. This is our part of the Strategic Planning Framework – Strategic Initiative grant put together by the Porter County United Way and the Porter County Community Foundation. It is available on the United Way’s web page.
2. Funders Study. 2010. A study for the community foundations of Porter, Lake, and LaPorte Counties focusing on the effect of the recession on the operation of organizations across the region funded by these foundations. The data is used to assess and alter the funding strategies of these organizations.
3. Safe Harbor Report. 2010. This is our 5th year of involvement with the Michigan City Schools on this project. We provide quarterly and summer reports evaluating all the after school programs in Michigan City.
4. Youth Bereavement Study. 2010. This is a study done for the Visiting Nursing Association (VNA) to determine the need for a youth bereavement center in Porter County. The data helped move the project forward and the bereavement center is already operating.
5. Quality of Life Study for the City of Valparaiso. 2010. This is our third quality of life study for the City of Valparaiso. This year’s was a survey of 2700 households in the city that asked residents to evaluate city services and other conditions. The results were presented formally to the City Council and the report is available on the city’s web page.
6. Strategic Plan Survey for Valparaiso Community Schools. 2010. The school board did a series of focus groups to determine school district concerns, and we then did a survey of a sample of 3000 households in the school district to determine the extent that the concerns uncovered in the focus groups were shared by the rest of the community. The data here was used to develop the school system’s strategic plan. The report is available on the Valparaiso Community School’s web page.
7. Hobart to Chicago Bus Study. 2010. A study for the City of Hobart to test the feasibility of cooperating with the Valpo to Chicago Bus and create either a stop in Hobart or a separate bus that would take residents to Chicago daily. This was also tied into similar studies that we have done for other places such as Valparaiso, Schneider, Cedar Lake, Highland, Crown Point, Lowell, Munster, and Winfield. These all were done as part of our partnership with the Regional Bus Authority (RBA).
8. Crusader Connection. 2010. For the Valparaiso University Career Center and as a part of their grant, we surveyed Valpo alumni about their experiences with internships.
9. RDA Study. 2010. A study with the Times Media Company on attitudes towards regionalism and the Regional Development Authority. This was a survey of 3500 households in Porter County. The results appeared in the Times on November 14th.
10. Ethics Study for City of Valparaiso. 2010. A questionnaire was designed on ethics for the City of Valparaiso to use to examine the commitment to ethical principles by employees of the city.
11. Administrator’s Survey for Department of Education. 2010. We are cooperating with the VU Department of Education on a survey of principals who have had our students teach with them.
12. Porter County Women’s Study. 2010. This is the second in a series of studies for the Porter County Community Foundation on the conditions of women in Porter County.
13. Bias Motivated Incident Study. 2010. This is an ongoing project that tracks bias motivated incidents in Northwest Indiana. The results are available on the CRSC web page. | <urn:uuid:55e10130-70ac-484b-ae17-4ee10fe45b33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.valpo.edu/politicalscience/opportunities/crsc.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950206 | 1,117 | 1.84375 | 2 |
My wife Katherine recently pointed me to a very cool website that produces a historical graph showing the popularity of a name through time. The interactive graphing feature, the NameVoyager, is really well done and fun to play with. “What should we name our child?” is a common conversation today among our peers, many of whom are now firmly enagaged in the procreation phase of life.
When I was born in the 70′s, my name was on the rise in popularity, peaked around 1980, and has been falling steadily ever since, though it is still more common today than when I was born.
Since Katherine had already ruled out my suggestions that we name our son Agamemnon or Klaxtor5, we named him Quinn, aiming for a name that was relatively uncommon, yet not so rare as to be strange or difficult to spell or pronounce. Being word nerds, we also wanted a name with a high Scrabble score. (Never mind the fact that proper nouns don’t count, please.)
Update: Hunter Walk, the AdSense Partner Manager at Google, pointed out to me that another consideration when naming your child should be how easily discoverable they will be when using a search engine. I’m embarrassed I didn’t think of that myself, though I did reserve quinnmcintyre.com on his behalf.
Technorati Tags: Baby Name | <urn:uuid:1c116dec-5ac7-477c-8708-1837a33a8c69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ryanmcintyre.com/wp/archives/category/miscellaneous | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967204 | 295 | 1.710938 | 2 |
is a company that continually monitors the Internet and its usage -- they keep track of Internet outages and site visits on a global scale. They just recently released a report of when traffic peaks in the evenings around the world
, and at least one of their results is about the game we're all playing, none other than World of Warcraft
. In terms of just general consumer traffic online, the numbers tend to peak, according to the report, at around 8-11pm -- the time right before bed when most Americans are done with dinner, and have a little free time to jump online and browse around. In terms of what they're doing when online, simple web browsing makes up most of that traffic (52%), what's the rest of it? Gaming, including WoW
More than any other gaming service (they also take a look at Steam), WoW
's chart is extremely interesting -- it peaks solidly at 8pm every night, and then falls back down just as sharply around 11pm. In other words, the biggest audience for WoW
(during this time period -- this is over ten days in July of this year) is raiders, who show up on time at 8 and end the raid around 3 hours later. In other words, if you want to avoid the crowd, show up after 11. Or even better, raid in the mornings. Interesting stuff -- certainly Blizzard has much more detailed information on when people log into the game (and where they go when they do), but as an overview of traffic patterns, Arbor's research all makes sense.
[via Network World
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Instances | <urn:uuid:051b8d8a-12f5-4901-be56-0271879c9c53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/july/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954195 | 344 | 1.609375 | 2 |
EE Gender Gap is Widening
What do women want?
Walk into a classroom of environmental engineering students and odds are nearly half of them will be women. Now head next door to the electrical engineering class, and you’ll likely find eight men for every woman. The number of women getting electrical engineering degrees is steadily dropping. Spectrum’s Prachi Patel-Predd spoke to experts to find out why. | <urn:uuid:5b700043-f7df-41bd-82f7-5ad85e45bea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/education/ee-gender-gap-is-widening | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941884 | 85 | 1.765625 | 2 |
A UC San Diego student admitted Friday to hanging a rope noose from a campus library bookcase in an act that triggered more protests at a school already roiled by other recent racially charged incidents.
Angry students responded to the incident by storming and occupying the office of UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. The sit-in continued for about six hours Friday and ended without arrests, and a sympathy protest at UCLA lasted about an hour, officials said.
UC San Diego police confirmed that the student contacted them Friday morning and acknowledged responsibility for placing the noose the night before on a lamp fixture atop a seventh-floor bookcase in the campus' main library. Police did not release the woman's name or race or provide any information about a motive.
The incident was the latest in a series of events sparking racial tensions and concern at the San Diego campus. On Feb. 15, an off-campus party, described as a "Compton Cookout," mocked Black History Month, leading to large student protests. A few days later, a campus satirical group defended the party and used a derogatory term about blacks on a campus television show.
Fox said she suspended the student who hung the noose pending further investigation.
Under state law, hanging a noose, a symbol of racism and lynchings for many African Americans, if done with "intent to terrorize," is considered a misdemeanor that can bring up to a year in county jail and a $5,000 fine.
Although the motive was not known, the incident elicited strong concern across the University of California system.
"Whatever the intent of the authors of this act, it was a despicable expression of racial hatred, and we are outraged. It has no place in civilized society and it will not be tolerated -- not on this particular campus, not on any University of California campus," UC President Mark G. Yudof and Board of Regents Chairman Russell Gould said in a statement that also promised punishment.
On the San Diego campus, about 300 students gathered for a protest rally at which Fox condemned the noose incident. But some students then occupied her office, complaining that recent events prove that UC San Diego's climate is hostile to blacks. They noted that African Americans make up just 1.6% of the school's undergraduates, a proportion administrators say they will try to raise.
Later, in evident solidarity, a group of black UCLA students organized a brief sit-in outside UCLA Chancellor Gene Block's office. It ended after Block met with them and read a message from all 10 UC chancellors decrying the noose and other "acts of racism, intolerance and incivility." A UC spokesman said the incidents at issue included the recent carving of a swastika on the dorm room door of a Jewish student at UC Davis.
Meanwhile, at UC Berkeley, protests against recent student fee increases turned violent early Friday, as a crowd fought with police and set trash cans ablaze.
About midnight, the Berkeley protesters broke into a former library facility under renovation and shattered some windows and sprayed graffiti inside, police said.
Then a crowd that grew to about 200 moved to the Telegraph Avenue shopping district just off campus and threw bottles and rocks at police, according to Berkeley city police spokesman Andrew Frankel. They set a large dumpster and several trash cans ablaze and shattered a shop's glass door, he said.
One current UC Berkeley student and a former one face charges that include inciting a riot. Authorities said many non-students were involved as well. | <urn:uuid:aec6dd70-775a-4458-9326-9e463470fc2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/27/local/la-me-uc-protests27-2010feb27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958166 | 718 | 1.523438 | 2 |
This is a NON-PARTISAN video produced by an accountant, Hal Mason, who retired after 27 years with IBM.
In this video, Mason does something that all the handsomely-paid economists and pundits you see in the media seem unable to do.
Mason looks at the federal government’s budget, revenues and expenses, and very clearly and simply explains our national fiscal and debt problem in 5½ minutes.
My only disagreement with Mr. Mason is that he left out one thing in his proposed recipe to fix America’s Titanic-sized nightmare:
In addition to drastically cutting spending and drastically reducing the size of government, we must also grow the economy by creating more jobs, which means more Americans work, which means they’ll pay taxes, which translates into more revenue (income) for government.
That’s what Romney-Ryan propose to do. The POS will make our disaster even more disastrous by propelling us over the cliff, faster. That’s the real meaning of his campaign motto of “Forward.”
Alas, too many Americans are willingly blind, deaf, and in a massive state of denial. It’s a blindness so massive it’s no longer simply a psychological phenomenon. The blindness is rooted in spiritual darkness.
“…you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.” -Ezekiel 12:2 | <urn:uuid:abda0d88-c37a-44e2-81b8-86e2f7e4bb97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/accountant-explains-u-s-budget-debt-disaster-in-5-min/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957306 | 313 | 1.5625 | 2 |
for the dough: - 150 gram flour
- 20 gram yeast
- one yolk
- 100 gram butter
for the filling: - one tin of tuna
- cream cheese
everything else: - small biscuits
- vegetables for decoration
Creating some "Pastry-Swans" is very easy. Start with mixing some dough. Just put the flour, the butter, the yeast and one yolk in a bowl and mix it together. When finished put it on a warm place and wait for about one hour to let the dough brew.
Cut pieces from the dough and use them to produce small worms. Bend them on two sides to create the heads. Heat the oven to 175 C° and bake them in it for 20 minutes.
For the body of the swans you have to cut the biscuits in two pieces. Use the lower piece for the body and cut the upper piece so that you have two wings in the right size.
For the filling I like to mix some tuna with some cream cheese but you can add whatever you want. It's up to your own taste.
Drape everything so that it's looking nice!
Ready are your filled pastry-swans! | <urn:uuid:e17fdb07-02b1-4b0f-8f7a-671a00f18248> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instructables.com/id/Filled-Pastry-Swan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935795 | 243 | 1.71875 | 2 |
English wine is no longer a joke. This week English vineyards collected a record haul of medals at the world’s biggest blind-tasting wine competition, the International Wine Challenge, winning 21 medals, compared with 16 in 2006 and ten in 2005. Sparkling wines are doing particularly well, and especially in Surrey, Sussex and Kent, which share almost identical weather and soils to the Champagne region in northeastern France.
Climate was always seen as the Achilles’ heel of English vinegrowing, and it not just a question of good summer weather. A late frost in April can hit the vine flower buds as | <urn:uuid:9238140f-10e8-4474-b6ac-2dfbde843441> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/weather/article2034452.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956269 | 124 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The scam involves someone calling the victim on the telephone and telling them they are going to be receiving a new Medicare card in the mail, according to a statement from the police department. The caller is asking the victim to verify their information by telling the caller their Social Security number and bank account information.
“If you feel that the call may be a scam get as much information about the caller as possible and call police to make a report,” the release states. “Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. Don’t fall victim to scams by giving out your personal information” | <urn:uuid:52a7b015-92a4-4b73-b220-ae27ce7b68ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20130306/NEWS01/130309884/0/FEATURES11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952032 | 124 | 1.59375 | 2 |
June 15, 2005
Parkinson Patients Lose in Court
The United States District Court in Manhattan recently denied a request by two people with Parkinson's disease to order Amgen to continue to give them a discontinued drug used in a clinical trial. Amgen stopped giving the clinical trial patients the drug (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor ("GDNF")) after concluding that it did not produce better results than a placebo and might even be dangerous. Two patients were seeking a preliminary injunction to force Amgen to make the drug available while the suit proceeded. They claim the drug is beneficial to their condition and eased their symptoms. According to the New York Times, the two patients have accused Amgen of treating them as "mere guinea pigs" and argued that the company had a legal and moral obligation to continue the treatment. In his ruling, Judge Castel states that Amgen was under no contractual obligation to continue supplying the drug and that the informed consent forms signed by the patients before participating in the trial explicitly acknowledged Amgen's right to terminate it.
Michael Hutchinson, M.D., Ph.D. of NY University School of Medicine has issued a statement claiming that the majority of GDNF investigators were in "total disagreement with the sponsor Amgen" and that even though early studies of GDNF demonstrated no clear benefits, "the study nevertheless showed definite trends suggesting drug efficacy." See the legal memo and complaint for his additional arguments. [tm]
June 15, 2005 | Permalink
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Parkinson Patients Lose in Court: | <urn:uuid:27358689-4902-4549-a39e-a6cc6be3a8a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/healthlawprof_blog/2005/06/parkinson_patie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960061 | 324 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Three state Supreme Court justices showed a disturbing lack of judgment by jetting off to Puerto Rico after jettisoning Pennsylvania's plan for the legislative districts that were supposed to be used in the April primary.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision - without providing specifics - that the redistricting plan passed by the Legislature was unconstitutional. It was the first time in 50 years that the decennial process of redrawing legislative districts to address population changes has not been affirmed, Capitolwire reports.
The decision was stunning and has thrown the election process in limbo.
Until the majority justices issue their opinion that provides specifics on what they found unconstitutional, the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which is responsible for developing a redistricting plan, cannot determine how much time might be required to address the problems.
It could be days or months.
That's a problem for candidates, who are supposed to be circulating nominating petitions, even though they don't know who might wind up in their districts or even if their districts will still exist.
Nominating petitions are to be filed in less than three weeks.
Given the urgency of the issue and the need to provide guidance quickly, it's disturbing that three of the Supreme Court justices decided to attend a Pennsylvania Bar Association conference in Puerto Rico that ran from Thursday through Saturday.
Chief Justice Ronald Castille of Philadelphia, Justice Michael Eakin of Mechanicsburg and Justice Max Baer of Mount Lebanon were panelists at the conference, the Tribune-Review reported. Castille and Baer were two of the four justices who voted to reject the new legislative districts.
Instead of heading to sunny San Juan, the justices should have been burning the midnight oil in Pennsylvania working their colleagues to finish the majority and minority opinions on this case.
Given the ramifications of their Wednesday ruling, working to quickly issue the formal opinions on the redistricting plan should have been the justices' top and only priority. Clearly, it wasn't. Otherwise, they would have jettisoned their Puerto Rican jaunt. | <urn:uuid:c4ec95fe-d7b4-45a8-bf6a-24e155d9b0a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/557666/Justices-jettison-judgment.html?nav=728 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96769 | 415 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A Night to Remember – Proms and Special Needs
Yesterday, I read this great article about Spalon Montage in Minnesota, which provided free makeovers to girls with disabilities who were attending a prom. The program was started in 2007 by Spalon’s president, Teresa Jackson, whose daughter with autism wanted to attend her prom.
Although attending the prom is considered a rite of passage for most high school students, many special needs students are not able to participate. Below are a few inspiring stories from parents in our community whose children were able to attend prom (and other formal dances) and, indeed, had a night to remember.
September 26 may have been just an ordinary Saturday in September for some, but it was an extraordinary day for a few students at Gardner Edgerton High School (GEHS) in Gardner, Kan. Erin Easley, Communications Teacher at GEHS, arranged for her communication students, along with Kristen Kearney’s life skills class, to attend the Homecoming Dance.
As the parent of two teenagers with autism, Corinne and Cameron, I wanted them to experience typical teenager opportunities such as a Homecoming Dance, but I was prepared for it never to happen. In Ms. Easley’s social skills class, the students went over how Saturday was going to be, what they would be wearing, where they would go to eat and how they would dance the night away! She even organized transportation so they could all go out to eat at Pizza Hut and then head to the dance together. Evening approached accompanied by excited nerves, as I helped Corinne and Cameron get ready for “the Big Dance” (as Corinne would say) Ms. Easley pulled up in a van full of beaming faces who were all ready for the evening. As I snapped pictures and they drove off, I thought how lucky my children are to have such wonderful, caring teachers as Ms. Easley, Ms. Kearney and Ms. Ek. Teachers who go out of their way to organize all of this on their own time, to make sure that my children get the same experience as other students, do by going out with friends and having a good time.
When the van finally returned at 11 p.m., I was so excited to see how the night went. I kept waiting for a phone call to ask me to come get them because they were ready to go, but I never got one. They made it the whole time! I met them outside and was able to still see their faces, still beaming with joy! A major milestone happened in my children’s lives that Saturday night – they attended their first high school homecoming dance!
- Submitted by Jennifer Smith-Currier of Gardner, Kan.
When our children are born, there are many milestones that we daydream about. For my family, some of our dreams for Daniel have been different than they were for his brother, Aron, and some are very much the same. One of my dreams for Dan (and Aron – who didn’t go to his as I recall) was to have a chance to go to the senior prom. Well, a few years ago on a Friday night, Dan went to his prom with a girl named Jacquelyn, a very special young lady – beautiful inside and out.. Jacquelyn has a brother with autism – similar to Dan – and offered to be his date. When she heard I wanted him to go, her response was, “Everyone deserves to go to prom; I’ll be his date”.
Dan and Jacquelyn both had a great time and it was a perfect evening. As I watched him walk her to the door and give her a kiss goodnight on the cheek, I smiled through my tears of joy and knew that a dream had come true for Dan and for me. We are both still flying high.
- Submitted by Jackie Merens of Boca Raton, Fla.
I remember when Megan was about 12 and she attended her first non-family Bar Mitzvah. Megan was jumping up and down on the dance floor and having the time of her life. I recall thinking that she is entitled to experience the same rites of passage as her typical peers and I would assure that she did so. That led to a decision to have Megan become a Bat Mitzvah. Now to prom … the preparation started with selecting the appropriate dress, getting her hair, nails and makeup done and deciding who is going with who. On the day of the prom, all the kids and their parents celebrated at our house for the “pre-prom party.” The kids, of course, were transported to the prom in a black stretch limo. When they got to the prom, they hung out with their friends, danced and ate whatever junk food they could get their hands on. The most important thing for them, as well as their parents, that night is that they are treated no differently than other teenagers who just want to have fun.
- Submitted by Lisa Helfend Meyer of Los Angeles, Calif.
My son, Zach, will be attending prom again with his beautiful prom date, Megan Meyer of Encino, Calif. (referenced in the above submission). These two kids have known each other since they were about eight years old. They’re both on the autism spectrum and do several activities together including skiing in Mammoth and most recently, whitewater rafting on the Kern River! Zach thinks Megan is the prettiest girl at his school, The Help Group in Sherman Oaks, Calif., which makes her his obvious choice of dates! To insure a most magical evening, the school goes as far as teaching prom etiquette and dancing lessons several weeks prior to prom! This year’s event is themed California Dreamin’ and the two will again attend together on June 4!
- Submitted by Priscilla Picard, Autism Speaks Los Angeles Chapter Board Member
Thank you to the members of our community who shared their children’s stories and photos with us. It is my hope that every student who wants to attend a prom has the opportunity to do so, and has a positive experience. Is your child attending the prom this year? I’d love to see photos – send them to email@example.com.
If you have a story you wish to share about your personal experience with autism, please send it to firstname.lastname@example.org. Autism Speaks reserves the right to edit contributions for space, style and content. Because of the volume of submissions, not all can be published on the site. | <urn:uuid:bb42a49a-10a5-4115-ae07-95dcaca81cfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2010/05/13/itow-prom/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=1241f9cf41 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986002 | 1,369 | 1.648438 | 2 |
North Port wildlife
Explore North Port, where it is natural to feel vital and potential is unlimited
For those who enjoy exploring a new, up-and-coming Florida community, the city of North Port is located in Sarasota County between Tampa and Fort Myers. The Southwest Florida city is tucked beneath a thick oak and pine canopy and is rich with archaeological history, beautiful natural springs and more than 95 miles of freshwater canals.
Incorporated just 50 years ago, the city's population has a median age of 38 and is one of the youngest in the Southwest Florida region. This city is known for its youthful mind-set and unique natural environment. Visitors and residents in this city can enjoy mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, bird watching and more.
In North Port, it is natural to feel vital and potential is unlimited. Explore North Port. | <urn:uuid:f43ba28e-424c-4af4-a213-6b870dd29758> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitsarasota.org/article/north-port/?loc=header | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947069 | 175 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Cauliflowers and Beetroot
8th Sep 1999
Prize-winning exhibition vegetable seeds give you the advantage whether growing for show or just for the family. You can see our range of top quality selected seeds and horticultural sundries in our online shop
Cauliflowers are an extremely difficult vegetable to grow to
perfection for a given show day and you need to have a few staggered sowings
if you are to have some element of success. As my garden is now nearly all raised
beds, the bulk of the cauliflowers are grown in a field which is at least 700
feet above sea level and the plants are usually kept free from aphids with no
need to spray them. The remainder of the plants are grown in my onion polytunnel,
being planted into the same planting holes as the onions when they are removed.
There's no doubt that cauliflowers require nitrogen early on in their development in order to build up a large framework of strong leaves and mine are usually given a scattering of Nitram around each one twice in the season. The first feed will be applied when the plants are well anchored into the soil and really starting to grow away. The second application will be given immediately after the second batch of weeds are removed and when the plants are a foot or so high. I always try to make sure that the Nitram is applied when the weather forecast predicts that some heavy rain is imminent and the difference to the growing pattern and colour of foliage is immediately noticeable.
About two weeks before a show, I walk through the rows having a good look down into the heart to see if there is any sign of curd development. Cauliflowers are often slow to start developing, but once the curd is there to be seen, they very quickly develop into maturity in a matter of a few days. I was discussing this with a commercial grower of cauliflowers a few weeks ago and he says that if the ground is moist with warm weather, a 4 inch diameter cauliflower can be very near to six inches in diameter in 48 hours. I then check the schedule to make sure of the societies' requirements regarding staging. Some will ask for the cauliflowers to be staged with roots attached, other schedules will stipulate that they are to be shown with a 3 inch stem. Failure to comply with the schedule usually ends in disaster with your exhibit being awarded the NAS card (not according to schedule). I know all too well, it happened to me last year! It"s not a pleasant experience, particularly when the judge tells you that you would probably have won that class.
In my case, as the field is a few miles away from home, I pull the best cauliflowers a day before the show and when I get home each cauliflower is placed in a bucket of water so that they are fully charged with moisture prior to cutting before leaving for the show. Pack the cauliflowers very carefully as the least bruising on the curd will downpoint the exhibit. Once you are happy that you have a good set for the class, tie the foliage back together for transporting to the show.
At the Showground
At the showground, trim off all the outer foliage to slightly above the diameter of the curd so that when the cauliflowers are staged on the bench, they will be sitting on the stalks with the curd clear of the bench. If the cauliflowers have been treated right and well charged with water, the curd will remain solid and firm for a few days, so there is no need to spray the curd with extra water. I have pulled some from a field on a Wednesday to stage at Chelsea, they were judged the following Monday and the curds were still firm on the Thursday of the same week, eight days after being lifted from the ground. Once you are happy that you have staged them with their best face ready to greet the judge, cover them over with some black cloth to totally exclude the light and leave your exhibitors card face down. Leave your variety card close to your entry as well which helps other growers who are visiting the show to see what varieties are winning so that they can grow them next year.
Round beetroot are relatively easy to grow but you can improve your chances of winning in what can often be the most contested class in a show by making sure that the interior colour of the beet is good with no visible white rings. I learnt a trick from my father to improve the colour of the flesh by leaving the selected entry in a bucket half full of water to which a good handful of table salt has been added and well stirred in. The beetroot are then kept in the bucket for about four hours at which point they are removed. The salt certainly helps to bring out the colour and when cut, the flesh will be uniformly dark red throughout, enhancing your chances of winning that red card.
A Word of Caution
One word of caution, don't forget to remove them from the bucket. My father forgot to do so some years ago and left them overnight. The following morning they were dried and placed on the white paper that was covering the show tables. When he returned to the tent after judging there was no red card, only a red patch underneath his exhibit where the beetroot had continued to bleed having been left in the salt water far too long! | <urn:uuid:fac38937-5f35-4237-b5de-08f1a16604f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk/articles/24/cauliflowers_and_beetroot | 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 | 0.975047 | 1,104 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Variety is something I consider to be important to keep things fresh in order to prevent stagnation (whether physically or mentally). I have been practicing martial arts for a few years now, and it never feels like it is getting old. I am continuously learning new things, refining my techniques, and applying those details to material I learned in the past. In our classes, we tend drill different things that physically affect different parts of our bodies. Practicing martial arts does get easier with time, but I am still finding myself faltering when I learn unfamiliar physical movements. It throws both my mind and body off, and forces me to adapt to what I'm doing.
Setting small goals (while keeping the overall big picture goal in mind) helps keeps things realistically attainable. By breaking things up into little steps, I find myself applying little tweaks to fine-tune my performance so that I can reach the next level of where I want to be. All those small performance jumps contribute to the type of person I want to be at a later point in time. Having a time frame to reach your goal prompts me to work more, but even if I don't complete what I want in that span, the effort I have put in will not have gone to waste. Asking myself who I want to be in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or whatever also motivates me to do more. I never want to be stuck on making any progress; the thought of being the same person in the future as now screams, "LOSER!" to me, something I do not want to be.
Looking up to other people has also motivated to become a better performer. I have only been practicing martial arts for a few years, but there are many others who have been practicing far longer than I have. Watching older martial artists serves as an inspiration for me to be better and to challenge and push myself beyond what I can currently do. That itself can manifest in various ways, but it also feeds into the mental effort I put in for tweaking my performance and setting goals for myself.
These are all very intrinsic factors that make exercise personally interesting to me. Conversely, one extrinsic thing that has helped to keep things interesting is to have someone else or a group of people to join you in exercise. They can be friends, random workout people, group classes, teachers, mentors, or whomever. Find people who will push you or train you harder. I like to be around more experienced people who can help provide guidance and insight to how I can strive for excellence in what I'm doing. Without that type of support system and the kind of person I am, I wouldn't be in the state I am today.
After years of martial arts training, I am also finding myself to be very capable in other physical activities. Going back to variety, I am starting to experiment with other things like running (for the Warrior Dash) and rowing (particularly Dragon Boat) and have an interest in pursuing climbing and snowboarding. The physical development I have gained is making me more aware and conscious of what my body is doing, and I am eager to try new things and test myself out in different capacities. You can get a feel of what you would like to do from the ample amount of opportunities available to you.
Aside from that, when I used to "run" many years ago (being terribly out of shape and not knowing what I was doing), I would pretend to chase people around the track and then run away from them when I passed them. Sometimes I would count in my head to see what pace I was keeping; other times I just liked to make imaginary stories up about other people at the gym. As an very introverted person, it put away any self-conscious issues I had regarding exercising in public. | <urn:uuid:b69125cf-7209-49ec-8303-b3b3f3790b20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/1558/how-can-i-make-exercise-more-interesting/1724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973725 | 770 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Now that the exciting transit is past, Venus will become a bright star in the morning. Here is what the bible says about the Morning Star.
2 Peter 1:19
And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star .
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star ."
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
Maybe this "sign in the heavens" portends the great event of 2012 that we have all been waiting for. Keep looking up!
in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one
another with these words. 1 Thes 4:17-18 | <urn:uuid:413ffc67-f4cf-4dd5-9c5a-06de4d12cde3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://raptureintheairnow.com/rita-main-discussion-forum/venus-will-become-our-morning-star | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958124 | 245 | 1.554688 | 2 |
About a year ago, Susan and I went out to our old stomping grounds of Wesleyan University and saw the premier of Noah Baerman’s “Know Thyself”. Susan and Noah met back in grad school, and Susan was renting an apartment from Noah and his wife earlier on when we were dating. Susan said Noah was premiering a new work at Wesleyan, and we should make the trip out to see it. It was something different, and I’d never actually seen Noah perform, so it sounded like a good idea.
The piece premiered in the second half of the performance, after intermission. It ran about an hour, during which time I was completely mesmerized. I can best describe it as a Jazz symphony, though I’m sure those words don’t do it justice. I turned to Susan after the event and said “wow, I wish you’d told me in advance it was going to be this great, I’d have invited along some other folks”.
Now, I can share it. Noah’s released a recording of the piece, which you can stream for free from his website. I encourage you to take the time to check it out, I think you’ll find it well worth your investment.
The newest issue of the journal Intelligence has the largest review ever of research on the so-called Mozart Effect, the popular idea that listening to classical music can enhance the intelligence of people in general and babies in particular.
The review is titled “Mozart Effect, Schmozart Effect,” which should give you some idea of its conclusion: there ain’t no such thing.
But even if listening to Beethoven won’t make us smarter, the history of how the Mozart Effect ultimately became fashionable does have something to teach us. It’s a story about careful science, less careful journalism, and of course, death threats.
And so kicked off a decade of people believing that Mozart makes them smarter because people jumped far too early to broad conclusions based on a very simple very specific investigation.
Radio Paradise played this late this afternoon, and I was hooked. You can even see it in clamation glory on youtube:
Cows With Guns (music by Dana Lyons, www.cowswithguns.com)
One of the constant tensions that exist is the new media age is between preservation of culture and copyrights. Personally this doesn’t get summed up any better for me than the fact that Schickele Mix is now lost to us.
Peter Schickele produced 175 episodes of a radio show that explored concepts in music in a very accessible way. I heard it by accident on our local NPR station 7 years ago, and fell in love with it. This was already during one of it’s many encores, as new shows had stopped being produced the last 90s. Even though I possess no real musical talent (or perhaps because of that), the show was facinating, and taught me incredible amounts about music. I only wished it was still running somewhere.
Because the show was about music, it played full length songs. The royalty rates for those on broadcast radio were something that was payable at the time, but those rates are substantially higher for online distribution. Hence, there are no archives, and a big piece of culture, one that could get people really excited about music, is now unpublishable due to copyright.
When I was in college, I was always fascinated by the fact that all that still remained of Ancient Greek Theater were 40 some odd plays. How could culture like that get lost? In a digital age it seems incredible that it would be possible to loose important parts of our culture.
For those that don’t know Jonathan Coulton (the man that brought use Code Monkey, Re: Your Brains, and The Portal Song) wrote a quite awesome song by that name. Listen to it here, though I’ll warn you it’s probably not safe for work.
You’ve been warned. | <urn:uuid:ff2abd53-e2ba-4eae-a14b-6240243414ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dague.net/tag/music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981786 | 852 | 1.835938 | 2 |
March 29 - Create a free Footnote Page or a Genealogy Trading Card at Big Huge Labs for a female ancestor. Some of you may have created your own card back in September 2009 following Sheri Fenley’s post over at The Educated Genealogist. This time, the card is for your female ancestor. Tell us about who you’ve selected and why and then post a link to what you’ve created.
I’ve created a Footnote Page for my great aunt Annie Sophia Read nee Ridgway. There was no particular reason for choosing her to make a Footnote Page other than that I have a little more information about her and some photographs which I don’t have for many of my other female ancestors.
The link to the Page I have created in the name of Annie Sophia Ridgway is as follows: http://www.footnote.com/footnotepage.php?id=284387740
I have more to add to Annie’s Page but just wanted to get a Page done quickly for this topic. | <urn:uuid:e40c6b08-9c74-418d-995d-6f09c504fb3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rootsresearcher.wordpress.com/tag/footnote/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94158 | 225 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Sustainability certificate helps students create green careers
UCLA helps grad students build credentials to tackle a pressing problem.
By Alison Hewitt
Originally published in UCLA Today
When a UC-wide MBA emphasis focusing on corporate environmentalism was canceled two years ago, Professor Charles Corbett knew UCLA had lost a valuable program.
"It had been suspended rather abruptly, and we had grad students entering UCLA, in part for that program," Corbett recalled. "So I said, 'Why not have one on our campus?' Initially, it was just getting something together quick and dirty."Students turn sustainability schooling into green jobs.
Now two years later, the "quick and dirty" pilot program has flourished into the Leaders in Sustainability certificate, a four-class series open to all UCLA graduate students who are interested in adding this increasingly important focus to their resumés. The certificate program boasts a solid and growing stable of course listings, and a wide-ranging core class will be introduced in winter quarter.
Corbett, a professor at the Anderson School of Management and director of the program, teaches the popular "Business and the Environment" class, and notes that the certificate isn't just about tackling a pressing problem. It also looks good on a resumé.
"The students find that it's helping them more and more in interviews," Corbett said. "A couple of our graduates went to the World Resource Institute in D.C. Some go straight into an environmental job, while others took a conventional first job, but were quickly promoted to more environmentally driven jobs."
Corbett also emphasizes the importance of getting grad students to take classes outside their main field. The certificate program requires students to take at least two sustainability classes outside their home department. That not only gives them a broader understanding of sustainability, but also forces them to learn to talk with students from other fields and consider new perspectives.
"For instance, say you understand environmental law, but you can't have a coherent conversation with an urban planner or a scientist. It's harder to be effective," Corbett said.
Classes range across disciplines: green energy entrepreneurship, environmental politics, sustainable architecture, environmental economics and more.
Nurit Katz graduated with the certificate in addition to her MBA and master's in public policy in June '08. She not only helped create the program, she also parlayed her experience into becoming a UCLA staffer, first as the program coordinator for the Center for Corporate Environmental Performance, and now as the campuswide sustainability coordinator.
"What's neat is the program is a complement to student's regular degree, so they don't have to pursue a separate degree," she said. "And it definitely helps prepare them to become leaders in their field."
Some of her fellow students have taken jobs in environmental law, nonprofit consulting or affordable housing. At first glance, many people don't associate fields like affordable housing with sustainability, but that's because they're only thinking about the environmental component, she said.
"Sustainability is about the integration of the environment, the economy and social concerns," Katz explained. "It's about how you meet the needs of future generations without compromising our needs today."
As part of the Leaders in Sustainability program, she traveled to Mexico and consulted for Mattel on what indicators the company should rely to measure their sustainability. Other students have worked on micro-finance projects in India and on drafting parts of L.A.'s climate change plan, Corbett said.
"Students have fantastic ideas about how to tackle these problems," Corbett said. "If you put them together, they do great things."
Learn more about the Leaders in Sustainability program by reading up about it online, or contact program director Professor Charles Corbett.
Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008 | <urn:uuid:2b72ca3a-1a11-4366-ad30-8830a9f17285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.ucla.edu/news/article.asp?parentid=1487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970911 | 777 | 1.820313 | 2 |
NEW YORK CITY (The Huffington Post) -- It's sort of a Dungeons & Dragons for jocks. Fantasy football players (or "owners") draft their own teams from NFL rosters and compete head-to-head each week for the length of an NFL season.
On its own, fantasy football is a a $1 billion business powered by 24.3 million players, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. And with buy-in often involved, attention to one's fantasy team—along with a lot of luck—could mean a lucrative payout to fantasy league members.
But how much time is spent managing fantasy teams when employees should be managing their real-life work?
After taking unemployment into account, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that 22.3 million employed fantasy football owners spend at least an hour a week managing or tweaking their rosters—a conservative estimate. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, $19.33 is the average hourly wage, so that comes out to $430.9 million per week lost, or $6.5 billion across a 15-week fantasy season. Despite the cost of lost productivity, Challenger, Gray & Christmas swear the effects of fantasy football are merely a blip on the economic radar, noting the study is "non-scientific" and "very rough."
"Employers will not see any impact on their bottom line and, for the most part, business will proceed as usual," CEO John Challenger noted in the firm's blog post about the study. "However, even if the economic impact is faint, it is important to acknowledge fantasy football's overall impact as a societal and workplace phenomenon. Companies that embrace the growing popularity of this activity could actually see a positive impact, particularly in terms of employee sentiment and loyalty."
So let your fantasy football flag fly.
KKCO firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKCO 11News. | <urn:uuid:cc433452-12e3-41ba-84f2-1f1f80252ea3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc11news.com/news/regionalnews/headlines/Studay-fantasy-football-costs-employers-billions--168843806.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947891 | 432 | 1.53125 | 2 |
I’m guilty of usually seeing the world through a rigid prism of right vs wrong. But I think that’s understandable since I’m often writing about clear-cut issues such as the corrupting nature of big government or the foolishness of class-warfare tax policy.
But I periodically come across topics where I’m not sure about the right answer. So I throw these topics out there to see what other people think.
Previous editions of “you be the judge” include: Putting politicians on trial, vigilante justice, brutal tax collection tactics, child molestation, sharia law, healthcare, incest, speed traps, jury nullification, and vigilante justice (again).
Now I’ve come across another example. Over in France, the socialist government says it wants to impose pay caps on corporate executives. That seems like a very bad idea, but there’s a catch. The proposal applies to government-owned companies.
Here’s a description from the Financial Times.
France’s new socialist government has launched a crackdown on excessive corporate pay by promising to slash the wages of chief executives at companies in which it owns a controlling stake, including EDF, the nuclear power group. …According to Jean-Marc Ayrault, prime minister, the measure would be imposed on chief executives at groups such as EDF’s Henri Proglio and Luc Oursel at Areva, the nuclear engineering group. Their pay would fall about 70 per cent and 50 per cent respectively… The government also wants to pressure other companies in which it owns a stake to follow its lead, even though it has no legal power to force such a change. France is unusual in that it still owns large stakes in many of its biggest global companies, ranging from GDF Suez, the gas utility; to Renault, the carmaker; and EADS, parent group of passenger jet maker Airbus. Mr Ayrault said he “believed in the patriotism” of company leaders and their willingness to share the country’s economic pain.
The analogy that pops into my mind is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those government-created entities (before the crash) were used as piggy banks by members of the political elite, who would take a break from climbing the ladder in Washington and spend a couple of years raking in millions of dollars by overseeing subsidized mortgages.
So even though I’m completely opposed to salary controls on the private sector, I don’t view government-owned and government-subsidized companies as being part of the free market.
But I also worry a lot about slippery slopes, so here’s my thought process.
- I fully support pay caps for government-owned entities, such as the Postal Service. Indeed, I assume those already exist.
- And I like the idea of pay caps for government-subsidized entities, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I don’t know if there is a limit now, but if one exists, it’s way too generous if this story is any indication.
- But I get nervous about subsidies being an excuse for government regulation of executive pay, even when I’m disgusted when big business gets in bed with big government. This is why I was so conflicted in this interview about pay caps for banks getting TARP bailouts.
- Moreover, I’m instinctively opposed to pay caps on companies that have contracts with government, though obviously my views are affected by whether a contract deals with a legitimate function of government (buying a tank) or whether it’s a festering waste of money (paying a politically connected PR firm to boost the image of the IRS).
- Last but not least, I get very scared that politicians inevitably will take a good idea and turn it into a bad idea. In other words, if we give them the power to do something reasonable, like regulate pay at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they’ll probably get intoxicated by power and decide they should be able to control compensation levels at genuinely private companies.
So what’s the right answer? If we’re allowed to fantasize, the obvious decision is to shrink government to its legitimate size so there aren’t any government-owned or government-subsidized companies.
But if we’re forced to deal with the world as it is today, then the choice is much more difficult. If we oppose pay caps, then political insiders can use cronyism to get undeserved payouts. But if we endorse pay caps, then we’re giving politicians power that almost surely will be abused.
If you put a gun to my head, I guess I would oppose pay caps. But I hate saying that since few things are as outrageous as rich people using the coercive power of government to take money from those with less. | <urn:uuid:abda9c55-baae-46c4-8e21-00087f249d4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/tag/executive-compensation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957466 | 1,011 | 1.65625 | 2 |
9 Decimus, 10528
Emperor George II this week hosted a two-day private visit to Atlantium’s Province of Aurora by Kieran Bennett and friend, of Wodonga, Victoria.
The visitors thus became the first to Aurora whose presence was officially designated as being for “private tourism purposes”.
Aurora visitor Kieran Bennett raises the flag of the micronation of Lavalon over Capital Hill.
The visit included a walking tour conducted by His Imperial Majesty, which took in all of the province’s major natural and modern man-made features, as well as several historical sites, including Capital Hill, Castle Hill, the Foundation Monument site, Constitution Hill, Lake Carla, the Via Concordia, the Old Taylors Flat Road cutting and the Battery Flat archaeological site.
The visitors also enjoyed a day trip taking in the town of Cowra, with its unique joint Australian-Japanese War Cemetary, and nearby Wyangala Dam, the current condition of which serves as a powerful demonstration of the environmental impacts of climate change.
The dam was built between 10447 and 10490 (1928 and 1971 CE) to control the flow of the Lachlan River, near whose headwaters Aurora is situated. In recent years the Lachlan has effectively ceased to flow due to the effects of a prolonged decade-long drought affecting southeastern Australia, and the dam currently holds barely 5% of its intended capacity.
Wyangala Dam is currently at barely 5% capacity.
The Wyangala visit was of particular interest to Mr Bennett, who is an active environmetalist, political progressive and former member of the Australian Greens party. In addition to standing unsuccessfully as a Greens candidate in the most recent Victorian municipal elections, he has worked as campaign manager for Greens candidates in several elections in both the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.
He also maintains an active interest in the phenomenon of micronations and unrecognised statelike entities, and currently serves as an administrator of the List of Micronations Forum - the world’s leading online micronation discussion group. The LOM Forum is owned and managed as a private concern by His Imperial Majesty – who is widely recognised as an international authority on the subject.
Mr Bennett is the founder of his own micronation – the Republic of Lavalon - which currently exists as a largely theoretical exercise, strongly grounded in liberal, progressive, environmental and social justice concerns.
As a unique courtesy offered to Aurora’s first official tourists, the Emperor personally authorised the raising of the Lavalonian flag over Capital Hill by Mr Bennett on the second day of his stay.
The visitors pronounced themselves impressed with Aurora’s natural beauty, and the abundance of its wildlife – as well as with the plans for the Province’s future environmentally-sensitive development as an eco-tourism destination that were outlined at length by their host.
At the conclusion of their stay the visitors expressed a desire to return for further visits, and were issued an open invitation to do so.
The Empire of Atlantium’s Province of Aurora is located 310 kilometres southwest of Sydney, in the Southwest Slopes region of the Australian state of New South Wales.
Aurora welcomes one-day or short-stay visits by private individuals or travel groups. All visits must be scheduled in advance through the Office of the Emperor. Email email@example.com, or telephone +61 420 55 49 49 for further information. | <urn:uuid:0e3fddec-3e66-4fb3-8b2a-5a43958c633d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aquilaaudax.wordpress.com/ | 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 | 0.964599 | 721 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Long Range Plan sets out the aspirational goals for NACDL during the next five years. Each of its Goals is intended to fulfill the Association’s Mission Statement: to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime; to foster the integrity, independence and expertise of the criminal defense profession; and to promote the proper and fair administration of justice. Each Goal in the Long Range Plan is intended to maintain and enhance the Association’s position as the preeminent organization, both nationally and internationally, providing assistance to criminal defense attorneys in the protection of the rights of the accused.
As adopted on October 27, 2012
To Work for Rational and Humane Criminal Justice Policies in America through Federal, State, and Local Efforts.
A. Protect the Presumption of Innocence, Due Process and the Right to Counsel.
NACDL will promote, on the local, state and federal levels, policies that preserve the most cherished and fundamental individual rights and protect against unfair and false charges, prosecutions and convictions.
Recognizing that the right to counsel protects both the innocent and the guilty alike, and that the assistance of counsel, enshrined in the Sixth Amendment, is essential to maintaining liberty, NACDL will vigorously oppose any effort by prosecutors to consider consultation with counsel or assistance by counsel as reflecting guilt or “lack of cooperation.” NACDL will continue to fight efforts by the government to prevent the accused from obtaining counsel of his or her choice as well as policies or actions by government officials that in any way interfere with or chill the attorney-client relationship or privilege. NACDL will diligently work to preserve the constitutional rights of all persons through legislative reform at the state and federal level, advocacy before the courts, and dialogue with the Department of Justice and other state and federal law enforcement agencies. NACDL will continue to forge coalitions with other organizations where there is a commonality of interest and a mutual desire to work together to advance common goals. NACDL will continue to educate its constituents on actions they can take in their local communities to promote a fair, rational and humane criminal justice system.
NACDL will champion legislative reform of the grand jury process, so that it is returned to its historical and rightful status as a check against government excess, rather than a captive of the prosecution. Among the grand jury reforms for which NACDL will advocate, are the following: witnesses’ right to counsel in the grand jury room, the disclosure of all exculpatory evidence, the exclusion of unconstitutionally obtained evidence, the right of a target or subject to testify with reasonable notice of that right, and the right of a witness to a transcript of his or her testimony.
NACDL will support all meaningful reforms to minimize the risk of wrongful convictions and prevent the introduction of unreliable evidence. These efforts shall include, without limitation, reform of eyewitness identification procedures to improve eyewitness accuracy and reliability, mandatory electronic recording of all custodial interrogations and statements to guard against false, manipulated, or coerced “confessions”; reform of the practice and oversight of forensic science disciplines, including the use and presentation of forensic science evidence, and the elimination of “junk science”; and strong curbs on the use of inherently untrustworthy jailhouse and other “informant” testimony. In conjunction with these efforts, NACDL will support the admissibility of expert testimony on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony and statements that are the product of coercive or deceptive interrogation techniques, and will promote enhanced safeguards on the use of testimony from cooperating witnesses.
NACDL will advocate for more open and fair discovery procedures such as the right to depositions and interrogatories, the provision of witness lists, and timely pre-trial access to all evidence, including grand jury testimony.
NACDL will continue to issue ethics opinions that protect the right to counsel, and that oppose any intrusions by courts, prosecutors, or military authorities on the attorney-client privilege and work product.
B. Expose and Correct the Convictions of Innocent Persons.
NACDL will continue to promote Innocence Projects at law schools to assist the wrongfully convicted and support all innocence efforts throughout the nation.
NACDL will promote innocence protection legislation to eliminate procedural hurdles to defense access to probative evidence and expert witnesses who can help exculpate the wrongfully convicted.
NACDL will promote legislation to fairly and promptly compensate persons wrongfully convicted of crimes.
NACDL will work with its partners to improve the work product, oversight and independence of crime laboratories and to preclude prosecution reliance upon evidence that is the product of unreliable forensic “experts” or any other purported scientific opinion evidence that is untested, unvalidated or unverified.
C. Promote Restoration of Habeas Corpus.
NACDL will promote the restoration of the Writ of Habeas Corpus to its traditional and essential role as a curb on criminal justice system abuses, wrongful conviction and incarceration and will oppose onerous barriers to post conviction review. At a minimum, actual innocence and new exculpatory evidence must be cognizable at any time on collateral review.
D. Eradicate overly punitive measures to cure social ills.
NACDL will strive to abolish unjust, inefficient and counter-productive laws, such as those providing for mandatory minimum sentences; the prosecution of children as adults and the prosecution of those with mental illness, addiction and intellectual and developmental disabilities. NACDL will oppose inflexible habitual or repeat offender laws. NACDL will vigorously oppose assertions of unchecked executive authority and other unconstitutional encroachments on cherished rights and liberties under the guise of national security, such as the use of military commissions instead of Article III court trials, warrantless searches and surveillance, “sneak and peek” searches, third party disclosure of electronic communications, and general warrants.
NACDL will advocate for the reduction of unnecessarily harsh terms of incarceration, and for the preservation of the judicial independence necessary to ensure that all sentences are appropriately tailored to the individual offender
NACDL will seek fundamental reform of criminal laws based upon ill-conceived drug control policies Current drug enforcement policies have increased crime and disorder arising from the illicit drug market, compromised constitutional guarantees, increased prison populations due to harsh mandatory minimum sentences, clogged court systems, disproportionately targeted the poor, persons of color and other minority populations, and have diverted essential resources from programs necessary to treat substance abuse. NACDL believes that substance abuse should be treated as a health problem rather than as a criminal justice issue.
Specifically, NACDL will continue to advocate for the decriminalization of marijuana for the treatment of debilitating, painful diseases. NACDL will support organizations seeking the legalization of marijuana and will support the use of marijuana for medical purposes, consistent with longstanding NACDL policy. NACDL will support various states that have enacted medical marijuana legislation and will advocate for the delisting of marijuana as a Schedule One drug.
E. While Public Health Options for Rehabilitation Remain Unavailable, Ensure that Problem-Solving Courts are Open and Fair.
NACDL stands by the resolution by the Board of Directors adopted in November of 2000, calling “upon federal and state governments to end the War on Drugs by declaring all drug use to be a health rather than a criminal problem and immediately repeal all laws criminalizing the possession, use, and delivery of controlled substances.” NACDL maintains that conduct that is a symptom of drug abuse or mental illness should not be criminalized, but rather treatment should be universally available. However, until that goal is reached, drug and other problem-solving courts will have a role in the criminal justice system. NACDL recommends that the criminal justice community implement the recommendations contained in its report, America’s Problem Solving Courts: The Criminal Costs of Treatment and the Case for Reform.To that end, NACDL believes that a defendant should not be required to plead guilty before accessing treatment. Admission criteria to treatment programs must be objective and fair, and prosecutors must be relieved of their role as gatekeeper. Defense attorneys must not abandon their ethical role as zealous advocates and merely become members of a treatment team. Problem-solving courts must not cherry-pick, that is, reject repeat and violent offenders. Problem-solving courts must be open to all people regardless of race, economic status, or immigration status.
F. Eliminate Bias in our System of Criminal Justice.
NACDL will continue to work for equal justice in the criminal law. Because the death penalty has historically been applied in an arbitrary fashion with a disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities as well as the poor, NACDL will support abolition of or a moratorium on the death penalty. NACDL will seek the complete elimination of harsh and racially discriminatory disparity in penalties for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. NACDL will promote policies to prohibit racial profiling, disparate enforcement of drug and forfeiture laws and the death penalty, as well as inhumane immigration measures.
G. Oppose Over-Federalization of Local Crimes.
Over-federalization of the criminal law results in unduly harsh penalties in inappropriate cases. NACDL will vigorously oppose or seek the repeal of laws that expand the federal role in historically local crimes such as domestic violence, local fraud, local theft, unlawful firearms possession, witness intimidation, and other matters which should more appropriately be addressed by the civil justice system.
H. Oppose Excessive Use of Overbroad Federal Laws.
NACDL will support narrowing the increasingly overbroad application of money laundering, continuing criminal enterprise, RICO, forfeiture, and similar criminal provisions. NACDL will advocate against this trend, namely the expansive reading of criminal fraud statutes to prosecute conduct that has been historically addressed through regulatory proceedings and civil litigation. NACDL’s advocacy will focus on the federal level, with attention to state practices where appropriate. To this end, NACDL will continue to partner with other groups that seek to narrow federal criminal jurisdiction and require strict construction of federal crimes, including the preservation of a strong mens rea element in all criminal statutes. NACDL will systemize successful working relationships and partnerships with like-minded groups in areas of mutual interest, as well as other groups, irrespective of their ideology, that agree with NACDL’s position on specific issues.
I. Mens Rea Requirements.
NACDL will work to ensure that all federal and state statutes are drafted to provide adequate and precise intent requirements as to every element of all offenses so as to avoid any reasonable possibility that an innocent person may be convicted. NACDL will also oppose the overcriminalization and overly expansive use of criminal laws to regulate personal and economic behavior.
J. Oppose Repressive Procedural and Ethics Rules.
NACDL will continue to vigorously oppose procedural and ethics rules that weaken the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
K. Promote Reform of the Nation’s Misdemeanor Courts.
NACDL will seek to eliminate injustice in the nation’s misdemeanor courts by supporting reclassification of petty regulatory and quality of life offenses as non-criminal matters, and by working to ensure that every person facing the prospect of a misdemeanor conviction has prompt access to independent defense counsel and that no guilty plea may be accepted without a knowing and voluntary waiver of rights after consultation with counsel.
L. Protect Fourth Amendment Rights.
NACDL will continue to take a leading role in the protection of Fourth Amendment rights, the breach of which inevitably leads to the illegal seizure of evidence that is used against criminal defendants. Through public advocacy and litigation on behalf of the organization or individual clients, NACDL will work to safeguard individual rights in this age of increasingly technologically sophisticated intrusions, searches and seizures, by working to preserve the guarantee that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment must be excluded in in all criminal prosecutions.
M. Promote Diversion, Expungement, and Restoration of Rights.
NACDL will promote a broader application of diversionary programs, probation without adjudication, expungement of records, and restoration of civil rights to those previously convicted.
N. Promote Pretrial Justice Reform
NACDL will seek to implement the policies adopted by the Board of Directors adopted on July 28, 2012 (Pretrial Release and Limited Use of Financial Bond) in pursuit of broad national reform of pretrial justice practices
To Further Achieve and Safeguard Respect and Support for Due Process of Law in the United States and Territories.
A. NACDL will develop public policy and briefing papers on topical criminal justice issues and in support of reforms that will advance the Association’s mission. When appropriate, committee reports and recommendations will be presented to the Board of Directors for consideration and eventual adoption as official NACDL policy. NACDL will use all responsible and appropriate means in furtherance of its policy objectives, including advocacy in the legislative and executive branches of state and local government, as well as litigation and communication strategies.
B. NACDL will continue to develop a forceful grassroots movement among members willing to discuss criminal justice issues in their own communities.
C. NACDL will encourage members to share with the national office noteworthy victories, as well as examples of injustice and corrections of unjust results, including exoneration of the innocent, baseless accusations against innocent persons, corrupt and unreliable police laboratories, police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, and other evidence of abuse in the criminal justice system.
D. NACDL will work with print, broadcast media, and internet news sources to provide qualified legal commentators on important cases and issues, and to maintain NACDL‘s status as the best source for informed explanation of the defense position. NACDL will seek to enhance the communication skills of the Association’s members in media relations and ensure that members have accurate and up-to-date information on current topics so that they may speak in an informed manner. Additionally, NACDL will communicate directly with the media to clarify legal developments.
E. NACDL will augment relationships with policy makers, professional journalists, researchers, editorial boards, and reputable commentators to promote the education of the American public and its elected representatives concerning the criminal justice system.
F. In addition to its legislative and amicus efforts, NACDL will continue, through its Lawyers Assistance Strike Force, to come to the aid of lawyers who are targeted by prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, courts or other government entities for vigorously representing their clients.
G. NACDL supports the fundamental, constitutional principle of an independent and impartial judiciary. NACDL will speak out in defense of judges when they are subjected to serious, unjust criticism that fosters misunderstandings about the role of the judiciary or the justice system, and tends to undermine judicial independence. In addition, NACDL deplores the use of money to influence elections, particularly when candidates, their supporters or other entities issue statements that deprecate the rule of law and impartial justice.
To Expand NACDL’s Leadership Role in Elevating the Quality of Indigent Defense and the Effective Assistance of Counsel, beyond the Minimal Requirements of Strickland v. Washington, and Consistent with the Expectations to which every Person Accused of a Crime is Entitled.
Through the efforts of its Indigent Defense Committee, Indigent Defense Counsel, and its national strategic network of NACDL affiliates NACDL will:
A. Develop a strategy and work with affiliates and federal, state and local political bodies to promote public respect for and recognition of the value of indigent defense services and providers , and fair treatment of indigent defense providers by all three branches of government. This strategy will be grounded upon the principle that defense providers must be assured independence in the discharge of their duty to provide high quality representation.
B. Pursue a vigorous program of strategic litigation and support for legal challenges that address the systemic lack of resources available to defend those in need. NACDL’s strategic litigation program will recruit volunteer attorney and organizational resources to support systemic litigation. NACDL supports parity in compensation for public defenders, court – appointed counsel, and prosecutors.
C. Pursue legislation that insists on no less than proportional parity of resources for both government and defense representation. Such resources must include, but are not limited to, ancillary services of investigators, experts, paralegal and administrative staff, compensation and cost of living increases, training and CLE services, and access to electronic legal research databases. NACDL will support legislation requiring the full funding of the Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act and similar legislation to support and encourage lawyers to enter and to remain in public service. NACDL will pursue legislation that provides adequate compensation and funding for defense services and lawyers on a continuing and reliable basis, and that supports and encourages lawyers to enter and remain in public service.
D. Develop and/or assist indigent defense agencies in the creation of detailed performance standards to ensure the highest quality of legal services.
E. Oppose any local, state, or federal legislation that has the effect of encouraging anything less than excellence in zealous advocacy in any system of indigent defense services, or which places the defense at a systemic disadvantage because of the lack of resources for support services such as investigators and experts.
F. Support the use of strategies and methodologies for evaluating indigent defense agencies or providers that appropriately account for considerations such as a lawyer’s training, experience and expertise; the quality of representation; the complexity of cases; prosecutorial policies and practices; the amount of time allowed by the courts to prepare; and other circumstances unique to the jurisdiction. NACDL will oppose any strategy or methodology for evaluating an indigent defense agency or attorney that fails to fulfill the promises of the Sixth Amendment and Gideon v. Wainwright.
To Abolish the Death Penalty, to Assist in the Representation of Those Charged with or Convicted of Capital Crimes, and to Develop the Expertise of the Defense Bar in Defending Capital Cases.
A. NACDL will work with groups and individuals opposing capital punishment and with those fighting the death penalty in individual cases. NACDL will work with coalition partners in national and state legislatures to reform or abolish the death penalty, assist international coalitions to abolish the death penalty, help foreign lawyers fighting the extradition of their clients to the United States in capital cases, and target specific states and localities for concentrated legal efforts. NACDL will direct its members and the public to materials that educate the public about the arbitrariness and unreliability of the death penalty, its discriminatory imposition, its high cost, the frequency of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, and the need for high quality and fully compensated counsel, mitigation specialists, investigators, defense-initiated victim advocates and expert witnesses in capital litigation.
B. NACDL will have a Death Penalty Counsel. The Death Penalty Counsel, in conjunction with our affiliates and coalition partners, will serve as a resource coordinator, obtaining and distributing information from other groups, and helping to recruit attorneys and their firms to represent persons facing the death penalty. NACDL will support and work toward the full funding of the defense function for all individuals charged with or convicted of capital crimes and for the creation of an independent appointment authority. NACDL will continue to support the restoration of Death Penalty Resource Centers.
C. Through the services of its Death Penalty Counsel, NACDL will assist defense teams in providing high quality legal representation by training attorneys, mitigation specialists, and investigators in uncovering and presenting an affirmative case for a life sentence through training lawyers in capital voir dire, and by supporting the development, training, and use of defense-initiative victim outreach specialists. NACDL will work to have the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases (2003) as well as the Supplemental Guidelines for the Mitigation Function of Defense Teams in Death Penalty Cases (2008) adopted in every death penalty jurisdiction.
To Ensure Justice for Juveniles.
NACDL, through its leadership and Juvenile Justice Committee, will:
A. Provide continuing legal education and training for lawyers who represent juveniles in state and federal proceedings whether the proceedings are in juvenile or adult court. This shall include education through publications, stand-alone and regular seminar programs, and joint seminars with other juvenile advocacy groups.
B. Educate the public and legislators regarding direct and collateral consequences of juvenile dispositions.
C. Support legislation that ensures the minimum age of 18 at which a child may be tried as an adult, allows meaningful and regular parole review for juveniles serving lengthy criminal sentences, houses accused and convicted juveniles in strictly juvenile facilities until they reach the age of 18, confers discretion on judges and juries to consider the age of a juvenile offender and any mitigating circumstances at the time of transferability, trial and sentencing, ensures the right of a juvenile to effective and competent counsel, and provides for data collection to ensure that juvenile justice practices do not have a disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities.
D. Encourage the federal government to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), to increase federal authorizations and appropriations for the JJDPA grant programs and restore the authority of the federal Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
E. Ensure that juveniles and their guardians are educated as to their constitutional and statutory rights.
F. Promote more humane juvenile sentencing practices and promote full understanding and implementation of the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Graham and Miller cases.
To Continue to Develop and Enhance NACDL’s Reputation Internationally.
A. NACDL will work to maintain its Non Governmental Organization (” NGO “) Special Consultative Status with the “Economic and Social Council of the United Nations” and fully participate in relevant UN mechanisms.
B. NACDL will identify opportunities for international participation consistent with its mission. For example, NACDL will continue to approach governments and NGO’s to coordinate efforts to end the death penalty.
C. NACDL will continue to support, as well as to participate in leadership roles, in international criminal defense attorneys associations.
D. NACDL will continue its participation in training criminal defense lawyers throughout the world.
E. NACDL will support the right to counsel, fair trials and due process in international criminal justice systems throughout the world.
F. Domestically, NACDL will assist criminal defense lawyers in understanding international issues and laws that affect criminal justice and will promote educational opportunities in the legal and political community which concern, in domestic criminal defense matters, the importance of respect for international law.
G. NACDL will continue to participate in international forums consistent with NACDL’s mission.
H. NACDL will continue to seek international members and encourage criminal defense attorneys from throughout the world to participate in NACDL activities.
To Provide Innovative CLE Programs that Meet the Varied Needs of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Raise the Standards of Advocacy for Criminal Defense Lawyers.
A. NACDL has established a CLE Institute that is comprised of staff and volunteer leaders of the Association with a demonstrated interest in continuing legal education. The mission of the Institute is to develop and execute NACDL’s CLE curriculum in a manner that maintains the integrity of its programs and its status as the preeminent CLE provider to the criminal defense bar. The Institute shall ensure the viability, efficiency, continuity, quality, and profitability of NACDL seminars by overseeing, planning, and implementing cutting-edge programming to foster excellence and high ethical standards in criminal defense practice.
B. NACDL will continue to produce innovative and timely high-quality CLE programs that raise the standards of practice of criminal defense lawyers. NACDL will present a spectrum of CLE programs targeting its diverse membership and recognizing its members’ different areas of practice. NACDL will make its programs accessible and relevant to all of its members. CLE programs and association meetings provide an excellent forum to foster affinity among members and promote collegiality.
C. NACDL will solicit and advance participation by local affiliates and local public defender offices in program development and event planning to increase CLE attendance by members, local affiliate members, and non-members. NACDL will endeavor to provide scholarship assistance to support attendance by lawyers of limited means.
D. Site Selection: Site selection for programs conducted outside of the Washington, DC metropolitan area shall be coordinated with the CLE Institute to maximize outreach and financial viability. NACDL must select meeting and CLE sites with an eye toward member recruitment, accessibility and the financial success of each program. NACDL must consider whether certain yearly events would be more effective if held in the same location each year or rotated among fixed locations. NACDL should avoid meeting and CLE sites that are difficult to reach or require extraordinary expenses for attendees.
E. NACDL will work to provide creative, innovative and effective continuing education programs that raise the level of advocacy for criminal defense lawyers in all practice areas. NACDL will offer diverse programs that can benefit all members, as well as seminars in more specialized areas of practice. The CLE Institute will identify and recruit talented presenters. Presenters need not be nationally prominent, but they must represent a broad spectrum of legal expertise. There must be a strong emphasis on diversity of speakers based on age, gender, nationality, race, and sexual orientation. To the extent that funds may be available pursuant to an annual budgetary allocation, the CLE Institute will have the authority to provide speakers with reimbursement for costs of participation. The CLE Institute, in conjunction with the appropriate staff, will present an annual budget request to the Budget Committee that will include justification for the request.
To Support Membership Recruitment and Retention, and to Promote Diversity within the Association and the Profession, NACDL will Develop Specific Assessable Efforts towards increasing Board, Officer and Membership Diversity, Particularly with respect to Age, Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation.
A. NACDL will expand diversity in Board representation with respect to age, gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation by proactively identifying, recruiting, and retaining new members of diverse backgrounds throughout the membership , and on committees, the Board of Directors and among the officers. NACDL will mentor such persons for leadership position within NACDL.. NACDL will develop metrics to assess its progress in achieving this goal.
B. NACDL Directors, Officers and past Presidents will contact lapsed members in their communities when asked to do so by the national staff or Membership Committee.
C. NACDL will encourage all committees and, through the efforts of the Affiliate Council, NACDL’s affiliates to recruit and retain young lawyers, women, persons of diverse ethnicities and cultures, and sexual orientation. NACDL will also encourage committees and NACDL affiliates to address issues of concerns to those groups.
D. NACDL should conduct a comprehensive survey of members and prospective members at least every five years to inquire into their needs and expectations. To assess efforts toward diversity, a comprehensive membership survey should inquire into and analyze responses by gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, years of legal practice, years of criminal defense practice and years of NACDL membership. NACDL will periodically conduct targeted surveys to quickly respond to the changing legal environment.
E. NACDL will expand benefits and services to meet member needs to include all forms of insurance, healthcare, financial planning, as well as the provision of childcare during CLE, Board and committee meetings.
F. NACDL will develop innovative events, such as annual special events and CLE options that focus on issues of interest to young lawyers, women, persons of diverse ethnicities, and sexual orientation.
G. Where opportunities may arise consistent with NACDL core principles, NACDL will coordinate efforts to interact with bar organizations including minority bar organizations specifically serving or addressing issues pertinent to racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation diversity.
H. NACDL will encourage law students to join and become active in the organization. Law students of diverse ethnicities, age, gender and sexual orientation will be regularly invited to attend board meetings and activities associated with CLE training. NACDL will continue and seek to expand its diversity-focused internship program.
To Evaluate NACDL’s Organizational Structure.
To ensure that NACDL’s structure continues to meet its goals, the Board of Directors, in conjunction with the Executive Director, shall evaluate the manner in which NACDL operates. Recognizing that the growth of the Association impacts its ability to function, the Board in conjunction with the Executive Committee shall from time to time determine whether NACDL’s structure and operations are consistent with its goals and size.
A. Board Membership.
Under NACDL Bylaws, Art. VI, Sec. 2, the Board consists of thirty-five Directors elected by the membership, and four Affiliate Directors elected by the Council of Affiliates. The Nominating Committee under Art. VII, Sec. 5, is directed to “recruit and to nominate candidates for election as Directors and Officers of the Association.” The Nominating Committee is further directed to “endeavor to ensure at least two directors from each circuit, and to ensure heterogeneous minority and gender representation on the Board of Directors.” Furthermore, the Nominating Committee is directed by the bylaws to annually review and adopt guidelines for its operation. NACDL’s Nominating Committee will consider in its annually adopted operational guidelines how it will recruit and nominate candidates in such a way as to advance NACDL’s commitment to cultivating a diverse leadership. Diversity among private and public defender practitioners is of paramount importance to enable NACDL to function as a bar association that represents all criminal defense attorneys. In addition, the Nominating Committee will endeavor to nominate Directors and Leaders who bring a wide variety of talents to the Association.
Nomination to a second term on the Board of Directors will not be automatic. When considering the question of whether to nominate a Board member to a second term, the Nominating Committee should consider the member’s participation in recruitment of new members, attempts to retain current members, mentoring of new members, committee involvement, and support of the Foundation.
B. Responsibilities of Board Members.
The Board of Directors shall be charged with responsibility for committee participation. Directors shall act as NACDL liaisons in their affiliate(s) and participate actively in member recruitment. Directors will actively participate in budget oversight and development, fundraising activities, and support for the Foundation for Criminal Justice.
C. Promoting Leadership Development through Leadership Succession.
To promote leadership continuity and development, committee vice-chairs will be appointed with the expectation that they will become chairs in a later year. The President and President-Elect will confer on appointment of committee vice-chairs. One member of the Executive Committee shall be assigned to be a member of each active committee to promote coordination of the goals of the committee with the long range objectives of the organization.
D. Planning for Committee Work.
Each committee will have a mission statement, an annual working plan and, if appropriate, a budget request. Each budget request must be submitted in accordance with the annual budget cycle as determined by the Treasurer and the Executive Director. The plan will be submitted by the committee chair(s) and vice-chair(s) to the Budget Committee prior to its annual meeting to develop a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The plan will detail the committee’s anticipated efforts for the upcoming year, how the efforts will contribute to NACDL’s long range goals, anticipated staffing needs/staff assistance, and likely costs, if any. Committees are encouraged to submit quarterly reports to the Board that not only detail the workings of the committee, but which reflect the committee’s progress in relationship to the goals identified in the committee plan. The Executive Committee is encouraged to hold frequent meetings with all committee chairs and vice-chairs to assess committee progress toward the goals of the current administration as well as the long term goals of the Association. Committees should explore meetings by conference call and video link when necessary and feasible. Committees should meet at least four times per year, preferably in person, and if not, electronically.
E. Sunset Provision for Committees.
NACDL’s President and President-Elect will confer, and the President shall discontinue committees that are not contributing to the Association’s goals.
F. Staff Level Planning.
As part of the budget forecast, the Executive Director will identify to the Budget Committee and the Board foreseeable changes in the number and composition of NACDL staff. All staff members shall be accountable to the Executive Director. The Board shall consider the feasibility of hiring additional staff members to work in the areas of military law, training, CLE resources, fundraising, diversity recruitment, and international affairs.
G. Strengthen Affiliate Relations.
The Council of Affiliates is crucial to the implementation of organizational long-term goals. A separate committee shall be formed to undertake the task of reviewing the role and function of the Council of Affiliates and the goals stated below.
NACDL must work with Affiliates to strengthen the network. To do so, NACDL and the Affiliates must:
Devise strategies that allow both the Affiliates and NACDL to derive maximum benefit from affiliation with each other;
- Strengthen areas of mutual benefit, including but not limited to state legislative outreach, CLE training, strike force assistance, resource counsel support, and grassroots organizing;
Improve communication between NACDL and its Affiliates.
Encourage NACDL members to attend affiliate meetings in their states to discuss the benefits of NACDL membership and affiliation.
H. Headquarters Site.
NACDL will evaluate whether to purchase a building, continue to rent space, raise the necessary funds to purchase a building or, if appropriate, to relocate the headquarters outside Washington D.C.
I. Site Selection.
NACDL must consider meeting and CLE locations that will benefit the greatest number of members and recruitment efforts.
To Use New Technology for Members’ Benefit and to Improve Delivery of Member Services.
A. NACDL will promote members’ access to technology by seeking affinity group partnerships that will offer members technological equipment and services at affordable prices.
Since maintaining a free, private and secure internet is essential to all NACDL goals, NACDL’s legislative initiatives must be consistent with the goal of maintaining a free and secure internet
NACDL will continue to educate members and affiliates about emerging technologies and the potential for those technologies to improve members’ practices.
B. NACDL will enable Members to Electronically Access NACDL Resources.
NACDL will make available to members, where practicable, teleconferencing and video conferencing so as to further member participation in NACDL.
NACDL will expand online training programs and seminars covering a range of practice specialties and topical criminal justice issues.
- NACDL will continue to maintain a robust online Resource Center.
- NACDL will continue to develop forums on the website geared toward each committee topic.
C. NACDL will use Technology to Educate the Public. To meet the public education goal established in this Long Range Plan, NACDL will use available technologies to channel information to the media and to the public.
D. NACDL will make its membership directory available in the public section of its website in order to serve as a resource for those seeking criminal defense representation.
To Enhance Non-Dues Revenue Streams.
NACDL must increase all revenues if it is to fund its policy objectives and augment its capacity to fulfill its mission. There must be a sustained commitment to cultivate program-specific funding sources, as well as general support for the organization. NACDL will work in partnership with its supporting 501 ( c ) (3) organization, the Foundation for Criminal Justice, to sustain short and long-term fundraising initiatives including an annual campaign, an endowment fund campaign and planned giving. Board members and other leaders will participate in all aspects of these initiatives as an ongoing responsibility. A committee will be established to work in conjunction with the Foundation to develop strategies for increasing revenue, with a particular emphasis on increasing fundraising for the Foundation.
To Achieve Continuity in the Long Range Plan.
To meet the goals set for the association, the Long Range Planning Committee (“LRPC”) shall report as necessary on NACDL’s progress toward fulfilling its goals. In its monitoring and advisory efforts, the committee’s membership will be staggered to allow for both continuity and for renewal. Four members will be appointed each year to three-year terms.
NACDL will revise its Long Range Plan every five years, with necessary updates and adjustments approved by the LRPC at other times as the LRPC deems necessary.
The Long Range Plan will be posted on NACDL’s website. Each NACDL committee chair will revise mission statements as required to reflect the evolving mission of each committee.
The LRPC will periodically consult with Board and other committee members with an eye toward necessary Long Range Plan revisions. Moreover, to ensure the direct flow of information and Plan integration and consistency with NACDL’s operations, the LRPC chair or co-chairs will attend each Executive Committee retreat and meetings of the Budget Committee. | <urn:uuid:edf7b15c-a2d3-458e-8f54-205fa918c6fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nacdl.org/About.aspx?id=10373&libID=10346 | 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 | 0.932631 | 7,718 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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A piece of Erie maritime history is for sale.
The fishing tug vessel Jo-Ann M sits in a berth in the East Canal Basin just southeast of East Dobbins Landing.
A placard atop the boat lists its price: $110,000.
It's owner, Ron Zielinski, 70, of Erie, has owned it for 15 years. He's been trying to sell the vessel for the past three years.
"Whoever gets it will get a great deal,'' said Zielinski, who bought the vessel in 1998.
"I'd sure love to see it stay in Erie. If whoever buys it made it a tour boat or part of a museum, I'd donate all kinds of historic artifacts. I'm sure a museum would take it if they could get a grant for it.''
The steel-hulled vessel, built in Erie in 1980 as a commercial fishing vessel, is 58 feet long, 18 feet wide and weighs 23 gross tons.
"It cost about $318,00 to build,'' Zielinski said. "It would probably cost $500,000 or more to build that boat today. I'd love to see it stay in Erie because it's a big part of Erie history.''
The Jo-Ann M was built by the former Paasch Marine Services, of Erie. The vessel's original owner was the Erie-based Munch Fisheries Inc.
Zielinski bought it from William Munch Jr. in 1998. Zielinski said the boat is named after Munch's mother.
"It was the last boat ever built on the south shore of Lake Erie for commercial fishing and the last one built in Erie,'' Zielinski said. "It was built by a renowned boat-builder -- Harold Paasch. He passed away in 1980 while they were building the boat.
"Paasch built the best boats, renowned over the world," Zielinski said.
The Jo-Ann M served as a commercial fishing vessel primarily on Lake Erie from 1980-96, Zielinski said.
A lifelong Erieite, Zielinski said he began working on a commercial fishing vessel when he was 9.
"I started around the docks in Erie in 1951 or 1952,'' he said.
Zielinski worked as a commercial fisherman until 1996, when Pennsylvania banned the use of gill nets.
"I bought it because I thought the Fish Commission would rethink this thing,'' he said. "It's a tragedy that all the commercial fishing is done.''
Zielinski has owned Captain Ron's Quarters, a bar at 401 W. 18th St., since 1996. Zielinski and his wife, Tena, 68, operate the tavern.
"To my husband, commercial fishing was his livelihood,'' Tena Zielinski said. "To him, to not be able to fish took a big toll on him. He's a born fisherman and captain.''
Ron Zielinski estimates he has spent about $130,000 in ship upgrades.
"I took it to Canada a couple times to get the bottom reworked,'' Zielinski said. "I've had it painted, I had skylights put in, the propeller redone, and new bearings on the shaft. The boat is in good condition.''
He said he took the boat out into the lake in the spring and fall.
"I still dream about fishing,'' he said.
Zielinski said he has had people look at the boat, and has received some offers, but just not the right one yet.
If he sells it, keeping it in Erie is his biggest wish, he said. He believes the vessel would make a great museum catch.
"It's the only chance that people would have to look at a fish tug firsthand,'' Zielinski said. "It's a tug ready to go fishing, except for the nets and the crew. There isn't any legacy for the people who worked the lake for 150 years.
"A lot of people today don't even know what a commercial fisherman was," Zielinski said. "They have no idea.''
RON LEONARDI can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail. | <urn:uuid:7013cf63-3872-4988-803b-a3c6dd224101> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130316/NEWS02/303169967/0/-comes-to-Erie-Playhouse/GREAT-CATCH | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983993 | 869 | 1.640625 | 2 |
This chart from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget shows the U.S. situation could be considered the most dire:
Today’s WSJ op-ed by Jeb Bush and Kevin Warsh is hardly startling in its policy recommendations, as wise as those recommendations happen to be. What I really like about the piece is that its authors gave us the “why” as well as the “how.” And the “why” is not just about making CBO numbers add up:
Stronger economic growth is not just about economics. Growth unleashes human potential. It turns personal aspirations into positive achievements. And it lays the predicate for a better, stronger, more prosperous and opportunity-filled America. Our weak economic recovery has dashed the hopes and dimmed the prospects of too many of our citizens. And it has put America’s place in the world at risk.
We should resist the temptation to wrangle with the green eyeshade folks who question our prospects. Instead, we must take actions that demonstrate our resolve and resiliency. We must restore our faith in growth economics and reform our policies accordingly. This will bring strength to our markets and reaffirm our place in the world. | <urn:uuid:97a95b7e-93bb-4a8e-ac13-9cb6a443ba44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2011/08/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956583 | 250 | 1.679688 | 2 |
CNN is reporting that under the new mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is scheduled to be unveiled today, religious organizations will be able to opt out of providing their employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives.
"Religiously affiliated organizations will be given the option of exempting themselves from the requirement of providing their employees with contraceptive access or service that they are morally opposed to," one source told CNN.
If an organization opts out of paying for contraceptive coverage, employees will be able to get coverage paid for by the insurance company through a third entity, CNN reports.
President Barack Obama's administration has been under fire from religious groups since the mandate, which was part of the Affordable Care Act and required all employers to provide contraception for no cost to their employees, was announced Jan. 20, 2012. On Feb. 10, 2012, Obama announced he had revised the mandate to say that insurance companies would be required to offer contraceptive coverage free of charge when a religious organization declined to provide coverage.
Some religious organizations denounced the revision, and numerous lawsuits are pending in courts, including one filed in May by 43 Catholic organizations.
CNN notes that the policy proposals are not final and could change depend on public reaction. An official announcement from the Obama administration is expected later this morning. | <urn:uuid:d012dc50-1684-449c-88bb-4f270a114b68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/blogs/ncr-today/cnn-sources-religious-organizations-can-opt-out-contraceptive-coverage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975963 | 263 | 1.625 | 2 |
A healthy life begins with proper prenatal care. St. Bernard’s team of obstetricians will guide you through each step of your pregnancy, from helping you maintain a proper diet to preparing for delivery. Once your baby is born, we’ll connect you with a pediatrician to ensure that your child continues to receive the care he or she needs. If your child needs extra medical attention after delivery, our neonatologists are ready to diagnose the issue and properly care for your baby.
To find an obstetrician or gynecologist, check out our list of physicians by specialty.
St. Bernard Hospital has combined state-of-the-art technology with the care and compassion that you expect in our Obstetrics Department to provide a nurturing, welcoming environment for mothers and their newborn child.
Our family-centered delivery room is designed for privacy and comfort. Computerized fetal monitors and HALO infant security ensure your child’s well-being.
Attentive staff and on-site neonatologists are sensitive to your needs and the health of your newborn child.
Before and after childbirth, St. Bernard Hospital offers outstanding support services, including prenatal classes, breastfeeding instruction, and social services for young mothers.
Learn about changes in your body, nutrition, baby care, and the delivery process, including a guided tour of our birthing unit.
Classes are arranged at the mother’s convenience.
Mothers who complete all prenatal classes receive a free car seat for their child!
To schedule classes, call (773) 962-4015.
Contact one of our obstetric professionals to help bring your baby into the world! From prenatal to childbirth, to learning to care for your newborn, our staff is here to help you every baby step of the way!
Gift Packages for New Moms!
After your delivery, new moms are given a gift package of supplies for their newborn.
In addition, the mom and one guest are treated to a celebration meal in her hospital room, with a special lunch or dinner menu of her choice. | <urn:uuid:b1525f9b-0052-4d26-99a6-9b50bdbc07ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stbh.org/our-services/obstetrics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933834 | 427 | 1.5 | 2 |
It all started with a not-so-young lady offering me her seat for a three-minute bus ride to the aircraft. My God, do I look so old, I thought to myself. I had been offering a seat to others for decades and now the boot is on the other foot! Last month, my driving licence was renewed for only five years, instead of 10. The premium for my overseas travel insurance was doubled (a privilege for senior citizens). A well-meaning relative advised “Derisking” of investments. At work, I was asked to recommend a smart, intelligent, industrious neurosurgeon some fortyish, for an opening!! Should I read between the lines? My children bombard me with “enough is enough, you have taken night calls for 38 years –it’s time that you started enjoying life.” Why is there a perception that a senior citizen cannot ‘do’ a 100-hour week and revel in life? Just 2000 years ago, life expectancy was 28. Today, Shakespeare certainly would not have inscribed: “The sixth age shifts: sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
In developed countries, life expectancy is 83. Every sixth individual in Japan is an octogenarian. According to WHO, those born in 2030 in developed countries could become centenarians. A life span of 125 in the next century may not be impossible. In just 15 years, every fifth Chennaite will be over sixty. How do you communicate to those around you that the process and concept of getting “old” is not what it was.
“Ageing” is a state of one’s mind! Middle age to me has never been static — it is one’s current age plus five! The most significant aspect of ageing is one’s attitude. A glass can be viewed half-full or half-empty. My late father at 93 would literally jump with joy, every time Sachin dispatched the ball to the ropes. Of course, he would also switch of TV when the ball hit the wicket. Life in the seventh decade and beyond requires a raison d’être. Centenarians are active optimists, with a sense of humour, coping skills and a strong sense of purpose. One does not stop laughing when one becomes old; one becomes old, because one stops laughing. As one wag put it, “It is not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years.” The traditional view has been that wear and tear causes ageing. Markedly different life spans in species, with similar wear and tear, suggest otherwise. The Canada goose lives for 23 years but its kin, the emperor goose, only six years. Engineers know that devices do not age. They function reliably but ‘die’ instantly when a critical component fails. Complex machines have multiple layers of redundancy — with backup systems, and backup systems for the backup systems. Is that why we have an extra kidney, an extra lung, extra teeth, even extra copies of a gene? Longevity is significantly (25%) based on one’s Methuselah gene (Methuselah is a Biblical personality 969 years old). Modifying this gene increased the life span of the Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) 30 times. The genome of Homo sapiens does overlap the genome of the fruit fly, so who knows! The DNA of centenarians suggests that for those with the “right” Methuselah gene a master check up is less important.
Epilogue: Chivalry not being dead, I accepted the seat in the bus, deciding not to dye my hair or get a Botox job but to capitalise on my new status as a junior senior citizen. After all, middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle. There is no old age. There is, as there always was, just you.
(The author is a telemedicine specialist and Chennai-based neurosurgeon. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org)
Keywords: laughter therapy | <urn:uuid:8cb04292-fd5f-489f-9111-4d8547d277c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article3589255.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953063 | 862 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The Cedar City District Office put 350 people to work successfully last year alone, all of whom are in employment situations where they are expected to stay and be successful, according to Mindy Jepson, counseling supervisor for the Vocational Rehabilitation Cedar City office. Many of their clients are receiving education and training as students at Southern Utah University or Southwest Applied Technology Center.
Jepson is quick to add that Voc Rehab is not an entitlement program but an eligibility program so people who qualify may get what they need to be successful and be self-sufficient in the long term.
Vocational Rehabilitation provides help and services all focused on a specific career goal including, but not limited to, medical services and treatment, assistive technology – such as providing a simple automatic door opener for a quadriplegic, or an ergonomic chair that allows someone to sit at a desk.
They also provide training and education, job placement, and any other services that may be innovated as counselors learn what would work with particular clients’ career goals and specific disabilities.
Vocational Rehabilitation can be contacted by going into their offices at 925 S. Main St. or by calling (435) 586-9995.
Jepson said what she loves about the service they provide is that they see so much success because they have the flexibility to tailor services to the specific needs and goals of each client so each can achieve on-going independence.
“It’s so gratifying to know that the people who finally walk out of our doors have learned skills to advocate for themselves and be successful on their own,” she said. “If people come back, it’s to tell us how well they are doing.”
One unique Voc Rehab success story that proves the efficacy of the flexibility and innovation of the service is the local business Mountain Meadows Bath and Body Essentials, started by former Voc Rehab client Teresa Jackowich.
Like many VR clients, Jakowich had a career for many years in which she could no longer work because of a disability, and she went to VR in order to obtain assistance in creating a new way to support herself.
Because of her worsening autoimmune disease and severe anxiety disorder, she could no longer work as an LPN, and a traditional work week and schedule would not be possible.
In 2010 Teresa sought help from Vocational Rehabilitation in starting a successful home-based business. Vocational Rehabilitation referred her to the Southern Utah University Small Business Development Center where she constructed a business plan and the center helped her determine if the business would be viable.
Upon the Business Center approving the plan and verifying the potential success of the business, VR helped Teresa purchase supplies and equipment to become an entrepreneur and provide an income compatible with her limitations.
Teresa has established a popular line of products that can be purchased on Etsy.com and delivered locally for free, or by calling her at (435) 275-5193.
Her business fulfills her goal of supplying customers with the highest quality lotions, lip care, body scrubs and soaps free of all chemicals, using essential oils and plant-based products for a price everyone can afford, she said.
Teresa is now seeking to expand her business as her repeat costumers are growing. She said her lotions, lip care line and scrubs are increasingly popular as are her lotions that are successful in treating conditions like chronic dry skin and eczema without the chemicals and petroleum that eventually contribute to illness.
The services provided by Vocational Rehabilitation vary widely and are dependant upon the needs of its clients such as Teresa.
Vocational Rehabilitation offers assistance to those with varying disabilities including mental and physical ailments including Down Syndrome and like characteristics, physical disabilities, debilitating diseases or medical conditions, mental and emotional illness including anxiety disorder, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder.
Learning disabilities such as ADD, ADHD, reading disorders such as dyslexia and learning disabilities in math also qualify an individual for VR services.
Clients must meet a criteria determined by tests offered by professionals in the community to benefit from VR services, but Mindy said they are able to help most people who seek a path to independence.
“There are so many skills, like a quadriplegic being able to open a door and leave her house – you need to do your job, that you don’t even think about until you have a need for them,” Mindy said. “And sometimes people lack those skills or lose skills they have always had due to illness or accident, and that is where we can help someone start over and still have a great career and enjoy independence.”
Mindy added that her office has helped many nurses become registered nurses with the aid of Vocational Rehabilitation and the number of success stories in her office alone are so plentiful it is difficult to single a few out.
Vocational Rehabilitation also works with employers to pay for job training and job coaching to motivate businesses to hire one more person or hire a person with special needs such as Down Syndrome who may need longer on-the-job-training before he or she can work alone. | <urn:uuid:e4439fd2-7300-4b63-b3af-f132803258e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ironcountytoday.com/view/full_story/21900704/article-Vocational-Rehab-offers-long-term-solutions?instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974004 | 1,064 | 1.710938 | 2 |
NLRB Rules School Bus Strike Legal
The National Labor Relations Board announced earlier this morning that the Amalgamated Transit Union's school bus strike is indeed lawful.
A group of 20 bus companies filed a charge with the NLRB arguing that the ATU Local Union 1181 violated NLRB regulations when its bus drivers and matrons went on strike Jan.16.
The companies argued that the strike violates the National Labor Relations Act, which prevents unions from striking against secondary employers as a means to pressure primary employers. But, the NLRB ruled that both the bus company and the New York City Department of Education are primary employers of the union.
With the NLRB ruling, it's difficult to see an end in sight for the strike. Earlier this week the union announced that the city rejected its offer to suspend the strike in an exchange for a delay in the new bus contracting system and a promise from the city to come to the table to negotiate.
We'll keep you updated on the strike as new developments become available. | <urn:uuid:a9041d81-335a-49ea-a2ed-e72d575efaf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/02/nlrb_rules_scho.php | 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 | 0.967978 | 207 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Are you breaking your back to get the job done?
Recently we hosted a Blackberry Bionics event at a major financial services company in NYC. In 3 hours, more than 360 employees made their way to the station, learning how to take care of hands, wrists, elbows and necks from massage therapists. We were amazed that 1 in 3 employees were already at a point of needing doctor referrals because their conditions were so pronounced.
Consider that the furniture you rely upon when you work is much harder and less yielding than the soft tissues of the human body. As a result, when you’re interacting with these hard surfaces in the course of getting the job done every day, if something is going to give way, chances are it’s going to be your body. Imagine phone call after hunched-shoulder phone call, concentrated moments typing slumped over, one little key stroke after another – over time your body is a semblance of its former self. And it’s not just working professionals. I remember going to the high school graduation of a friend a few years ago and reeling with shock watching curved-over young people saunter across the stage like a digression in the evolutionary chart.
Our massage partner, Licensed Massage Therapist Donna DeFalco, CEO of Health Enhancement Company, noted that because humans are so driven to compensate and do what it takes to “get the job done,” it rarely occurs to us to pay attention to our bodies. This is an age-old problem, far from flash-in-the-pan hype.
“Although ergonomics is a science based on the body’s natural alignment, the problems we experience are driven by habits developed over many years. Most of our misalignment is so unconscious, we are shocked when a professional shows us what it feels like to put our bodies in proper position,” she says.
Her advice: “Ask a friend to take a picture of you sitting at your desk, preferably at a moment when you are unaware.” Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. She says to look for specific alignment issues:
- Are you leaning forward as if the weight of the world on your back?
- Is your arm reaching for the mouse that looks as if it is running off your desk to get some cheese?
- Are your chair arms dictating how close you can get to your desk?”
Here are some tips to avoid musculoskeletal injuries:
- Use a headset or speakerphone to reduce neck tension. Don’t crunch your neck.
- The top of your computer screen should be slightly below eye level, with your chin center. This position keeps you sitting straight and reduces tension in the mid-back between the shoulder blades.
- Avoid wrist discomfort by making sure you have a gel cushion reducing force on the edge of the desk. Make sure the height of your wrist is equal to the “home row” height of the keyboard.
- Avoid awkward postures. Make sure your monitor is directly in front of you, i.e. 18-23 inches and not in the corner of your desk which also helps reduce stress on the lower back and neck.
- Follow the 90 degree rule. Avoid reaching more than 90 degrees (think “right angle”). Stay close to your workstation and make sure your elbows are close to the body, reducing upper back strain.
If you need further inspiration, look at a baby’s natural posture and how erect they sit and how relaxed their spines are. Then contrast it with a computer game fanatic’s posture – again, a picture is worth a thousand words! | <urn:uuid:c1d57800-5ac7-4697-b77e-2f943bfcaa54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.webmd.com/life-works/2010/03/work-injuries-how-ergonomics-can-help.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957679 | 761 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Antonio Tajani, EU Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, is due to present the ‘Cars 2020’strategy to reporters on Thursday (8 November).
In the draft document, seen by EurActiv, the EU executive says it intends to support the growth of the automotive sector into 20 % of European GDP by 2020, from its current level of 16 %, laying out a number of financing mechanisms for the sector.
The document earmarks a share of the planned €80 billion ‘Horizon 2020’research and innovation fund and the €2.5 billion Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs programme, as well as support for workers laid off as a result of “industrial adjustment” in the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.
It also calls for backing from the European Investment Bank. “The Commission will continue working with the EIB in order to ensure that financing for automotive research and innovation projects is available, ” the document reads.
But environmental groups have been left unsatisfied by what they view as the draft’s relative lack of focus on van emission reductions and consumer awareness.
Greg Archer of Transport & Environment told EurActiv the action plan “fails to implement key opportunities to reduce emissions from freight [and] provide consumers with understandable reliable information about fuel costs from low-carbon vehicles. ”
In the draft the EU executive bars out a paragraph referring to emissions from HDVs - heavy-duty vehicles - as well as references to consumer awareness and harmonisation of labels for fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Franziska Achterberg, an EU policy advisor at Greenpeace Europe, told EurActiv she thought Tajani was giving too much of a “regulatory break” to carmakers, saying more emphasis should have been put on developing green technologies.
“The European industry will only be competitive if it develops and markets new environmental technologies, ” she said adding : “This isn’t going to happen without pressure from regulation”.
Tajani has said he wished to impose a regulatory moratorium on the car industry to ensure the survival of sector after the economic crisis.
“The funding is not matched with the right conditions to make sure it is going in the right direction, ” she said.
Archer also said the paper “fails to recognise the benefits of smart regulation”, influencing the EU’s ability to grow and create jobs.
But Jean-Marc Gales, chief executive of the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, which was involved in drafting the document, told EurActiv that this did not necessarily mean doing everything that is “technically feasible”.
“You do what is necessary for what will keep [Europe’s] lead in the automotive industry, ” he said, adding he did not think that the EU needed to impose regulations on freight.
Fuel efficiency « is the first purchasing criteria” for commercial vehicles, he said. “The market pushes for lower fuel consumption. “Will it still be smart regulation if the market pushes for it ? European trucks are the best worldwide for fuel consumption. ”
He said he supported the regulation proposed by Tajani and that the essential ‘green’element - a ceiling of 95g/km of CO2 - was included. “A cost-benefit analysis… has found the best compromise”. | <urn:uuid:b2e2f543-d7ab-4db7-9b4d-ba847d5b604d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.euractiv.fr/autres/lue-devoilera-un-plan-de-soutien-pour-lindustrie-automobile-17130.html | 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 | 0.937264 | 707 | 1.710938 | 2 |
PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Among U.S. adults who make less than $24,000 a year in household income, 34 percent say they will vote for Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a survey indicates.
An analysis of Gallup Daily tracking data for the three-week period from Aug. 27 to Sept. 16 showed income was correlated with voter support, but it is not a total determinant of vote choice.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has a substantial voting edge over Romney among low-income Americans -- two-thirds of adults said they would vote for the president, but although Romney does better with those with incomes $180,000 or more, about 40 percent of U.S. adults who make $180,000 a year or more favor Obama.
A newly released video clip of Romney at a fundraiser shows him saying Obama's base supporters -- "47 percent" of Americans -- are people who pay no income tax and depend on government services.
Older Americans who have low incomes are those who have the highest chance of paying no income tax, but Gallup data for Aug. 27 to Sept. 16 showed among those voters age 65 and older who have $24,000 a year in income or less, Obama was favored by 49 percent and 43 percent supported Romney.
Recent Gallup Daily tracking data showed Romney had significant support among those with the lowest incomes, the young, the old, and the older voters who have low incomes -- the groups most likely to pay no taxes.
The Gallup Daily tracking survey conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 16 of 9,839 registered voters has a margin of error of 1 percentage point.
|Additional U.S. News Stories|
DAMASCUS, Va., May 19 (UPI) --Police in Damascus, Ga., said the driver of a car that plowed into a crowd during a parade, injuring about 60 people, may have suffered a medical emergency.
WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) --Television actress Christine White has died in Washington, her representatives announced. She was 86.
MIAMI, May 19 (UPI) --The Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade said he wanted to make a Miami teen's prom "a memorable moment," so he surprised her by showing up at her senior prom. | <urn:uuid:7d4fc3ec-6607-4fa3-8739-877218806d17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/09/19/Romney-favored-by-34-percent-of-low-income/UPI-98821348031036/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966094 | 477 | 1.609375 | 2 |
After three weeks of exploring the world of Fish production and consumption we are ready to move on to another product from on our Animal Farm – Beef.
Looking back, we covered the broader consequences of over-fishing, fish species facing extinction, the poor condition of marine life and pollution.
We addressed the trappings of by-catch; we left our readers with solutions and in our final words on Fish we looked at the social issues connected to the industry. It honed in on the inequality between developed countries and developing countries and the negative effects that it in turn has on traditional fishermen including migration, fish-for-sex and child labour.
While tackling this broad issue we shed light on the unfair working hours and dangerous working conditions that many fishermen face in their countries of origin.
We now put Fish to rest, make a brief detour to Pig Business before moving on to Beef. Keep abreast of the burning issues in the food and beverage industry on our website.
Image: Laura Purdy< Back | <urn:uuid:05fb7d66-7369-48ee-b936-841e61838d2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fairfood.org/2012/09/time-for-beef/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93926 | 206 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Graduate Theological Union
In Memoriam: Nicholas V. Riasanovsky
May 14, 2011 - Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky, an emeritus professor of European history at the University of California, Berkeley, and a leading authority on the history of Russia, died May 14 in an Oakland, Calif., nursing home following a long illness. He was 87.
Riasanovsky had close ties to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and was a founder of its Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, serving as an institute board member from 1986 to 2005. | <urn:uuid:d4bbd3b1-0548-4827-b662-b6c3c151b9bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gtu.edu/news/in-memoriam-nicholas-riasanovsky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957488 | 115 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Each Thanksgiving travel season, there are stories that range from slightly odd to truly bizarre. This year was no exception.
On November 25th, a female called the Miami-Dade Police with information about a bomb aboard an American Airlines flight from Miami to Honduras. The police also received an e-mail saying there was a bomb on the same flight.
All bomb threats are taken seriously, and the police department and TSA conducted searches of the plane. The flight was delayed by about four hours. No bomb was found on the plane, and after it was cleared by law enforcement authorities, the flight left for Honduras.
Most of us know that e-mails can be traced, but apparently not everyone does. Law enforcement authorities traced the bomb threat e-mail back to a woman who told them that she made the claims because she was late for work and was concerned that her tardiness would cause her boss to be late for his flight. Apparently, she made the threats to buy him some time. Here’s a link to the local media coverage.
As strange as this sounds, it’s not the first time something like this has happened. I’ve seen other reports of people calling in bomb threats when they’re running late for their flights to keep the plane on the ground until they get there. We’ve also had more than a few people say “what if there’s a bomb in my bag?” when they get to the gate too late to board their flight and want to get their checked bag back. Besides being incredibly selfish, it’s illegal, and when caught, these folks are arrested and face hefty fines.
TSA Blog Team | <urn:uuid:557252c8-c2b9-48b8-8277-c089788dc9bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.tsa.gov/2009/12/what-was-she-thinking-true-thanksgiving.html?showComment=1260292186198 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986265 | 348 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The information contained in the Organizational Database (ODB) is provided for informational purposes only. There is no implied endorsement by NORD. NORD does not promote or endorse participation in any specific organization. The information is subject to change without notice. Every effort is made to ensure that the details for each entry are as current as possible.
Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
60 Cutter Mill Road, Suite 404
Great Neck, NY 11021
The Brain and Behavior Research Foundation formerly known as National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia & Depression is a national non-profit organization dedicated to research into causes, treatments, prevention, and the eventual cure of schizophrenia and the various forms of depression. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that makes it difficult for a person to distinguish between reality and fantasy; to think logically; to have appropriate emotional responses to others, and to adapt to social situations. People with schizophrenia may also have difficulty in remembering, talking, and behaving appropriately. Bipolar Manic Depression is a mental illness in which intense mood swings occur, usually with remissions and recurrences. Depressive symptoms may be most common and can last at least a full day and perhaps several weeks or longer. Manic symptoms may involve hyperactivity and feelings of invincibility, happiness, and restlessness. Established in 1986, BBRF was founded by family members and professionals with the primary objective of raising funds to find the causes, cures, improved treatments, and prevention of these mental illnesses. BBRF publishes a newsletter entitled "Research Newsletter," which focuses on the newest developments in treatments. It also provides several educational brochures including "Conquering Depression," "Understanding Schizophrenia," "The Search for Cures," and "Finally, 18 Million Americans Suffering from Depression Have Something to Look Forward to." In 1995, BBRF launched its "Depression...A flaw in chemistry, not character" educational campaign to enhance public understanding of this disorder. BBRF also awards two prizes each year for outstanding progress in research into schizophrenia and depression.
The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) web site, its databases, and the contents thereof are copyrighted by NORD. No part of the NORD web site, databases, or the contents may be copied in any way, including but not limited to the following: electronically downloading, storing in a retrieval system, or redistributing for any commercial purposes without the express written permission of NORD. Permission is hereby granted to print one hard copy of the information on an individual disease for your personal use, provided that such content is in no way modified, and that credit for the source (NORD) and NORD’s copyright notice are included on the printed copy. Any other electronic reproduction or other printed versions are strictly prohibited.
NORD's Rare Disease Information Database is copyrighted and may not be published without the written consent of NORD. | <urn:uuid:71aabc07-f3ed-4344-987e-5ad0b5eb5fed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rarediseases.org/rare-disease-information/organizations/byID/1719/viewDetail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935647 | 589 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A fact sheet created by the New York City Charter School Center that provides information on New York City charter schools for the 2012-13 school year. See demographics, achievement numbers, and much more.
What choices are charter schools providing? What are their results? Who are their students? And what is the outlook for charter schools' future? Read the Charter Center's new, data-rich report to find out.
When charter schools receive more applications than available seats, they admit students by random lottery. Based on a spring survey after the lottery season, the Charter Center produced estimates of the number of applications and unique applicants for charter school enrollment in Fall 2010. | <urn:uuid:df060e8d-e493-46e1-9463-9f7f5612f58b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyccharterschools.org/resources/list?f[0]=field_issues%3A166&f[1]=field_issues%3A141 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954272 | 132 | 1.710938 | 2 |
EDITOR’S NOTE - Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the second of a two-part series.
A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico.
But since then, Big Pharma has been satisfying the steady desires of U.S. users and abusers, including many who take the drug in the false hope of delaying the effects of aging.
From 2005 to 2011, inflation-adjusted sales of HGH were up 69 percent, according to an AP analysis of pharmaceutical company data collected by the research firm IMS Health. Sales of the average prescription drug rose just 12 percent in that same period.
Unlike other prescription drugs, HGH may be prescribed only for specific uses. U.S. sales are limited by law to treat a rare growth defect in children and a handful of uncommon conditions like short bowel syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome, a congenital disease that causes reduced muscle tone and a lack of hormones in sex glands.
The AP analysis, supplemented by interviews with experts, shows too many sales and too many prescriptions for the number of people known to be suffering from those ailments. At least half of last year’s sales likely went to patients not legally allowed to get the drug. And U.S. pharmacies processed nearly double the expected number of prescriptions.
Peddled as an elixir of life capable of turning middle-aged bodies into lean machines, HGH — a synthesized form of the growth hormone made naturally by the human pituitary gland — winds up in the eager hands of affluent, aging users who hope to slow or even reverse the aging process.
Experts say these folks don’t need the drug, and may be harmed by it. The supposed fountain-of-youth medicine can cause enlargement of breast tissue, carpal tunnel syndrome and swelling of hands and feet. Ironically, it also can contribute to aging ailments like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Others in the medical establishment also are taking a fat piece of the profits — doctors who fudge prescriptions, as well as pharmacists and distributors who are content to look the other way. HGH also is sold directly without prescriptions, as new-age snake oil, to patients at anti-aging clinics that operate more like automated drug mills.
Years of raids, sports scandals and media attention haven’t stopped major drugmakers from selling a whopping $1.4 billion worth of HGH in the U.S. last year. That’s more than industry-wide annual gross sales for penicillin or prescription allergy medicine. Anti-aging HGH regimens vary greatly, with a yearly cost typically ranging from $6,000 to $12,000 for three to six self-injections per week.
Across the U.S., the medication is often dispensed through prescriptions based on improper diagnoses, carefully crafted to exploit wiggle room in the law restricting use of HGH, the AP found.
HGH is often promoted on the Internet with the same kind of before-and-after photos found in miracle diet ads, along with wildly hyped claims of rapid muscle growth, loss of fat, greater vigor, and other exaggerated benefits to adults far beyond their physical prime. Sales also are driven by the personal endorsement of celebrities such as actress Suzanne Somers.
Pharmacies that once risked prosecution for using unauthorized, foreign HGH — improperly labeled as raw pharmaceutical ingredients and smuggled across the border — now simply dispense name brands, often for the same banned uses. And usually with impunity.
Eight companies have been granted permission to market HGH by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which reviews the benefits and risks of new drug products. By contrast, three companies are approved for the diabetes drug insulin.
The No. 1 maker, Roche subsidiary Genentech, had nearly $400 million in HGH sales in the U.S. last year, up an inflation-adjusted two-thirds from 2005. Pfizer and Eli Lilly were second and third with $300 million and $220 million in sales, respectively, according to IMS Health. Pfizer now gets more revenue from its HGH brand, Genotropin, than from Zoloft, its well-known depression medicine that lost patent protection.
On their face, the numbers make no sense to the recognized hormone doctors known as endocrinologists who provide legitimate HGH treatment to a small number of patients.
Endocrinologists estimate there are fewer than 45,000 U.S. patients who might legitimately take HGH. They would be expected to use roughly 180,000 prescriptions or refills each year, given that typical patients get three months’ worth of HGH at a time, according to doctors and distributors.
Yet U.S. pharmacies last year supplied almost twice that much HGH — 340,000 orders — according to AP’s analysis of IMS Health data.
While doctors say more than 90 percent of legitimate patients are children with stunted growth, 40 percent of 442 U.S. side-effect cases tied to HGH over the last year involved people age 18 or older, according to an AP analysis of FDA data. The average adult’s age in those cases was 53, far beyond the prime age for sports. The oldest patients were in their 80s.
Some of these medical records even give explicit hints of use to combat aging, justifying treatment with reasons like fatigue, bone thinning and “off-label,” which means treatment of an unapproved condition. In other cases, the drug was used “for an unknown indication,” meaning that the reason for treatment wasn’t clear.
Even Medicare, the government health program for older Americans, allowed 22,169 HGH prescriptions in 2010, a five-year increase of 78 percent, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to an AP public records request. And nearly half the increase came in one year: 2007.
“There’s no question: a lot gets out,” said hormone specialist Dr. Mark Molitch of Northwestern University, who helped write medical standards meant to limit HGH treatment to legitimate patients.
And those figures don’t include HGH sold directly by doctors without prescriptions at scores of anti-aging medical practices and clinics around the country. Those numbers could only be tallied by drug makers, who have declined to say how many patients they supply and for what conditions.
The AP approached every U.S.-authorized manufacturer to ask what efforts they make to market responsibly and prevent abuse. Only one HGH supplier, Novo Nordisk, agreed to an interview.
“We’re doing our level best to make sure that the right patients are getting the right medicine at the right time,” said company spokesman Ken Inchausti.
He said the company is aware of the abuse issue. He said if patients apply for assistance from the company’s patient-support hub, prescriptions will be flagged for review if they are missing the most rigorous test or an endocrinologist’s signature. He said the company won’t sell HGH directly to doctors accused of bad practices and does not deal with anti-aging clinics.
Representatives of other FDA-approved HGH makers insist they do not encourage use by bodybuilders or athletes or wealthy baby boomers trying to recapture their youth. But some said they are largely powerless to control who uses their medications or why.
“Lilly cannot restrict the actions of distributors, pharmacies or doctors,” Eli Lilly spokeswoman Kelley Murphy said in a written statement.
That argument doesn’t fly for critics like Dr. Peter Rost, a retired Pfizer executive who filed a whistleblower lawsuit over the HGH marketing practices of Pharmacia, which later merged with Pfizer. He said drug companies are simply looking the other way and betting that their profits will eclipse the cost of any fines.
They view it as “good business,” he said.
PEDDLED ON INTERNET
Type “human growth hormone” into any Internet search engine, and it will spit back countless websites with overblown promises of smoother skin, better sex, weight loss and even renewed body organs.
Any doctor who actually prescribes the drug for those purposes is taking a legal risk.
FDA regulations ban the sale of HGH as an anti-aging drug. In fact, since 1990, prescribing it for things like weight loss and strength conditioning has been punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison.
Such marketing claims are routinely made at hormone clinics like Palm Beach Life Extension, whose owners are among 13 people now awaiting trial on federal charges in Florida in a steroids and HGH distribution case brought last year.
“Grow YOUNG with Us!” screamed a banner on the company’s now-defunct website, which advertised that HGH can reduce body fat, improve vision, strengthen the immune system, aid kidney function, lower blood pressure and enhance memory and mood.
The clinic arranged to have its clients’ prescriptions filled at Treasure Coast Pharmacy, in Jensen Beach, Fla.
In 2009, the FBI recorded a phone call between the pharmacy’s owner, Peter Del Toro, and a doctor in Elkton, Md., who was cooperating with agents after being implicated in a related steroid-distribution case.
Their talk, documented in a court filing, illustrates how things often work in the networks of pharmacies and clinics that drive HGH sales.
Patients submitted a medical history form by mail and took a blood test. But in most instances, the indictment said, the evaluation was a sham: One doctor was charged with giving a clinic a pad of blank, signed prescriptions to save him the chore of signing off on each diagnosis. He got $50 for every drug order bearing his name, the indictment said.
Dr. Rodney Baltazar, the Maryland physician cooperating with the FBI, sometimes consulted briefly with patients via webcam. But he made it clear in the call that those evaluations were perfunctory at best.
Baltazar was a gynecologist, not an endocrinologist. He said he knew “a little bit” about HGH and testosterone, which are often prescribed in tandem, but he relied largely on clinic salespeople to set doses.
The pharmacist coached the doctor: Keep detailed medical charts documenting that patients are taking the drug for at least some kind of health problem, just in case the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ever came calling.
“Because somebody questions you, you want to be able to say, ‘Here, look at his chart. You know, he’s got fatigue. He’s got, you know, a decreased sex drive. He’s got increased body fat. He has some — some slight depression, probably.’ Whatever his signs and symptoms are.”
None of these conditions is a legal reason to prescribe HGH. But the pharmacist said that most investigators will be satisfied and move on “because there’s guys that are just selling stuff basically like a boiler room.”
Del Toro was arrested along with 12 other people in September 2011 on charges that they distributed steroids and human growth hormone to people who had no legitimate medical need. He is awaiting trial. His lawyer declined to comment. Baltazar was sentenced to six months in prison for involvement in steroid distribution schemes.
At the height of the crackdown in 2007, the federal government went after Pfizer in a case involving anti-aging clinics. The company paid $34.7 million in fines to settle the case — 11 percent of the company’s annual revenue from the drug.
Blockbuster U.S. sales of HGH represent the latest frustration in 25 years of government efforts to control abuse of the growth drug made infamous by sports scandals.
First marketed in 1985 for children with stunted growth, HGH was soon misappropriated by adults intent on exploiting its modest muscle- and bone-building qualities. Congress limited HGH distribution to the handful of rare conditions in an extraordinary 1990 law, overriding the generally unrestricted right of doctors to prescribe medicines as they see fit.
Despite the law, illicit HGH spread around the sports world in the 1990s, making deep inroads into bodybuilding, college athletics, and professional leagues from baseball to cycling. The even larger banned market among older adults has flourished more recently.
For years, cheaper supplies from unauthorized foreign factories, particularly in China, fed the market via direct and Internet sales that sidestepped the medical establishment.
Though such shipments were banned under other law, the imports initially attracted little attention because they were usually labeled as raw pharmaceutical ingredients, which compounding pharmacies are allowed to bring into the country.
That flow began to be curtailed in 2006, when U.S. drug authorities stepped up efforts to block shipments at the border.
A handful of pharmacies across the country were hit with criminal charges over their handling of HGH. Federal prosecutors charged China’s biggest HGH maker, GeneScience Pharmaceutical, with illegally distributing its Jintropin brand in the U.S. The company’s CEO pleaded guilty in 2010.
With illicit supplies crimped, many pharmacies stopped selling unauthorized HGH. But tens of thousands of adult abusers began buying pricey U.S.-approved HGH that remained available in abundant supply, the AP found in its analysis of sales data.
Thus, pushed by a powerful demand, sales of U.S.-approved brands have swelled far beyond expected levels for a drug approved in just a handful of rare conditions.
Dr. Robert Marcus, a retired hormone specialist who left HGH manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co. in 2008, said that company was bent on stopping foreign counterfeits, not on cutting off abusers. “That’s where their major level of frustration was — pharmaceutical fraud — rather than focusing on people who were using growth hormone illegitimately,” he said.
Dr. Jim Meehan, of Tulsa, Okla., who has used HGH to treat aging problems and sports injuries, said the federal clampdown “never seemed to affect my patients and their ability to get Omnitrope, Tev-Tropin” and other government-approved brands.
The big drug companies have applauded the foreign crackdown and urged the government to do even more to combat sales of fake or fraudulently labeled HGH. In 2004, Bruce Kuhlik, speaking for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told a federal task force that unauthorized drug importation “is inherently unsafe” and industry representatives used Chinese HGH imports as their poster child.
In 2007, as the HGH embargo gained momentum, authorized makers picked up 41 percent more HGH orders, raising their annual total from 245,000 to 345,000, according to the analysis of the IMS Health data. Similarly, most of the drug’s sales boom happened in the first two years of the crackdown, with 46 percent inflation-adjusted growth in yearly sales to $1.1 billion.
Steve Kleppe, of Scottsdale, Ariz., a restaurant entrepreneur who has taken HGH for almost 15 years to keep feeling young, said he noticed a price jump of about 25 percent after the block on imports. He now buys HGH directly from a doctor at an annual cost of about $8,000 for himself and the same amount for his wife.
Despite higher prices, the business has expanded in recent years largely on the strength of sales to healthy adults who can afford to indulge their hope of retaining youthful vigor.
Many older patients go for HGH treatment to scores of anti-aging practices and clinics heavily concentrated in retirement states like Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California.
These sites are affiliated with hundreds of doctors who are rarely endocrinologists. Instead, many tout certification by the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine, though the medical establishment does not recognize the group’s bona fides.
The clinics offer personalized programs of “age management” to business executives, affluent retirees, and other patients of means, sometimes coupled with the amenities of a vacation resort.
The clinics insist there are few, if any, side effects from HGH. Mainstream medical authorities say otherwise.
A 2007 review of 31 medical studies showed swelling in half of HGH patients, with joint pain or diabetes in more than a fifth. A French study of about 7,000 people who took HGH as children found a 30 percent higher risk of death from causes like bone tumors and stroke, stirring a health advisory from U.S. authorities.
For proof that the drug works, marketers turn to images like the memorable one of pot-bellied septuagenarian Dr. Jeffry Life, supposedly transformed into a ripped hulk of himself by his own program available at the upscale Las Vegas-based Cenegenics Elite Health. (He declined to be interviewed.)
These promoters of HGH say there is a connection between the drop-off in growth hormone levels through adulthood and the physical decline that begins in late middle age. Replace the hormone, they say, and the aging process slows.
“It’s an easy ruse. People equate hormones with youth,” said Dr. Tom Perls, a leading industry critic who does aging research at Boston University. “It’s a marketing dream come true.”
Some scientific studies of HGH have found modest benefits: some muscle and bone building, as well as limited fat loss, but nothing like the claims of the anti-aging industry. And some of the value credited to HGH may instead come from testosterone, which is routinely provided with HGH by anti-aging doctors and sports suppliers.
Endocrinologists say it’s natural for the body to produce less growth hormone as people age beyond their early 20s, because they aren’t growing anymore. Only a tiny number of adults with extraordinarily low HGH levels — perhaps several thousand of them — are believed to suffer real deficiencies that can properly be treated with the hormone.
Still, anti-aging doctors routinely diagnose otherwise healthy middle-aged people with an HGH deficiency, simply because their levels are lower than in young adults. “Basically anyone going through midlife,” can benefit from the drug, declared one prescriber, Dr. Howard Elkin, of Whittier, Calif., who has himself competed as a bodybuilder.
Dr. Kenneth Knott, of Marietta, Ga., said HGH helps his older patients feel “more vibrant” and look “more alive.”
Like many anti-aging doctors, he diagnoses patients by testing for a blood component called insulin growth factor, which is indirectly tied to HGH. Endocrinologists use a more authoritative test that stimulates the pituitary gland to make HGH itself. Nearly all insurers insist on this stimulation testing, and that’s why clinic patients almost always pay for HGH out of their own pockets.
Bob Vitols, a 50-year-old lab assistant at a veterinary medicine company in Lincoln, Neb., is a rare exception. His unusually generous health plan isn’t allowed to challenge a doctor’s prescription.
Four years ago, Vitols began feeling run down. So he Googled his symptoms on the Internet, decided he had a hormone deficiency, and sought out a clinic.
One doctor put him on testosterone replacement therapy. A second clinic added HGH after diagnosing him with osteopenia, a mild bone thinning common in aging adults. It is not, however, a condition that can properly be treated with HGH.
Despite the diagnosis, the treatments — which can cost $10,000 per year — have been covered by his health insurance, he said. He takes Genotropin, the HGH made by Pfizer. His prescriptions are filled via mail order by CVS Caremark Corp., one of the largest dispensers of prescription drugs in the U.S.
Vitols said the drug changed his life: his mood is better, and he isn’t burning out every day at 2 p.m. “I feel like I could walk outside and just walk through a fence — and come out fine on the other side,” he said.
His experiences with the drug haven’t all been positive, though. Vitols said he initially developed elevated liver enzymes and went to a specialist, who told him to stop taking hormones immediately.
Instead, Vitols said, he adjusted his dosage, and the problem disappeared.
He also dumped the specialist:
“I could tell he was against hormones right at the start,” Vitols said.
Associated Press Writer David Caruso reported from New York and AP National Writer Jeff Donn reported from Plymouth, Mass. AP Writer Troy Thibodeaux provided data analysis assistance from New Orleans.
AP’s interactive on the HGH investigation.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:1af09a39-c7fc-4898-8e6d-4c4cc7b271b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cherokeetribune.com/view/full_story/21280471/article-Big-Pharma-cashes-in-on-HGH-abuse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956922 | 4,432 | 1.625 | 2 |
Average Medical Malpractice Insurance Rates
The average fee of medical negligence insurance is rising every year. Many doctors make it a point to know about the regulations and laws around malpractice insurance. This varies from state to state. Sometimes a doctor chooses to practice in a place based on its rates of insurance. These rates vary drastically between states. These variations are created by several factors.
Every insurer fixes its premiums on its own. This is based on general appraisal of the situation and instances of litigation. This translates as the companies look for the possible malpractice charges in that state, within that particular medical branch and fixes insurance rates accordingly.
Different branches of medicine have different costs. This depends on the risk levels and prior litigation charges. The more chance of harm due to medical negligence, the higher insurance rates will be.
Minnesota is currently the state with the least costs of malpractice. However, this depends on the particular specialty. Obstetrics, internal medicine, and general surgery are three most expensive areas. These are supervised by the GOA. In the year 2009, the mean cost for surgery malpractice insurance was $10,000 per annum; internal medicine cost $4000 per annum and obstetrics cost nearly $17,000 per annum. Minnesota falls into the category of lesser cost states.
In mid-bracket, one can find Pennsylvania. Rates differ on the basis of claim differences and demographics. In the year 2009, the general surgery rates were between $28,000 and $50,000 per annum. Internal medicine costs ranged from $6,000 to $11,000.
Gynecologists found themselves short of about $64,000 for coverage.
High fee states include Nevada. In 2009, gynecologists were expected to pay a compensation of anywhere between $85,000 and $140,000 per annum. While the annual salary of the Nevada doctors is higher than usual, about $180,000 for gynecologists, the malpractice insurance is not an easy thing to pay. In Florida, doctors of internal medicine paid about $65,000, general surgeons were made to pay about $90,000 to $175,000. Gynecologists paid astronomical rates of $100,000 - $200,000 per annum in the year 2009.
More Articles : | <urn:uuid:55e5eeee-93b4-4ce5-bce7-926044c9111a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freelegaladvicehelp.com/malpractice-law/medical-malpractice/Average-Medical-Malpractice-Insurance-Rates.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966023 | 471 | 1.554688 | 2 |
323 Cedar Avenue,
1 person favorited this theater
The Princess Theatre building, formerly known as the Imperial and the Palace, on Cedar Avenue in downtown South Pittsburg, Tennessee, has been a landmark within this community for more than 82 years. The theaters operated here over those years entertained the local population since the days of the silent movies. Those days have long since past with the last movie being shown here in the early 1980’s.
The historic structure, with the exception of serving as a church for a short time, has, for the most part, sat vacant since that time with little or no maintenance. Decay set in once the roof started leaking, which took the once proud two-story structure to the brink of total collapse. Even the marquee over the front street entrance was not immune as time faded its paint while mischievous children and vandals broke out the neon lights surrounding it.
South Pittsburg was no stranger to motion pictures before the construction of the Princess Theatre building. In fact, the city not only had a theater operating here as early as 1908, but also had a direct connection with at least two of the big screen movie stars. Tom Mix, who starred in dozens of early westerns, once worked in security and management at the local Penn-Dixie cement plant before leaving here for Hollywood. Jobyna Ralston, a native of the city, played the leading lady in many early films with many having been shown in South Pittsburg. This connection with early films and the need of a suitable building to house a motion picture establishment would lead to the construction of the Imperial (Princess) Theatre building.
In February 1920, Mr. R. F. M. Kirkpatrick acquired two lots fronting Cedar Avenue in the downtown block #3 with each measuring 25 by 140-foot for the construction of a theater building. Construction began a short time later on a two story brick structure, which was designed and built by local architect, Mr. Reece B. Patton.
On or before Friday, July 29, 1921, the Imperial Theatre opened for business in the new building, under the management of Mr. O. C. Ogg. The opening film was the silent motion picture “Tank Town Follies”, starring South Pittsburg native Ms. Jobyna Ralston. The new theater was an instant success and drew patronage from both, young and old alike.
The theater continued operations under the Imperial name and management of Mr. Ogg until he sold it to Mr. H. G. Jenkins in 1924. One of the first orders of business for the new owner was to give the theater a new identity by changing its name to the Palace Theatre. The theater opened under her new name the week commencing Friday, November 14, 1924 with the first feature movie being a serial titled “Beast of Paradise” chapter six.
In September 1929, the Palace Theatre along with the new Jackson Theater at Bridgeport, Alabama six miles away, merged and began to show the same movies on the same days. Both theaters continued operations under their original names. That same year the first movie with sound, “Carnation Kid”, was shown at the Palace Theatre.
In August 1931, the Palace Theatre, which was still under the management of Mr. Jenkins, was closed for a short time by its owner so that a new Western Electric sound system like that of Chattanooga’s Tivoli Theater could be installed. The Palace Theatre at South Pittsburg formally reopened on August 18, 1931 with its new sound system and new seats, which were installed during the shutdown.
In April 1934, Mr. R. T. Hill, the general manager of the Cumberland Amusement Company, announced that his company had recently acquired ownership of the Palace Theater and that it would be operated after that as part of that company’s chain of one dozen theaters located throughout middle and east Tennessee. The company closed the theater at South Pittsburg on June 1st for one month while conducting extensive repairs and remodeling. This included the beautification of the building’s front and the erection of a neon-lighted marquee. Other improvements included a modern sound system, reworking the interior walls, new lighting system, new cushioned seats, new big screen along with many other changes.
The theater, under the management of Herman McDowell, formally reopened as the new Princess Theatre on Monday night, July 2, 1934 with a showing of “Sadie McKee” starring Joan Crawford. Also showing with this main feature was the “Pathe News” along with the cartoon, “Willie Whopper”.
After changing ownership a few times, the Princess Theatre continued operation until 1963 when management closed its doors for the last time. It is believed that a combination of factors lead to the steady decline in patronage, which ultimately forced the theater to close. The first of these was the opening of the South-Port Drive-In theater near Bridgeport a few years before, which was more popular with teenagers and young adults who comprised the majority of the movie viewer market. The second factor in the closing of the Princess Theatre was television. By 1963, most families in the local area owned at least one television set and with nearby Chattanooga being the home of three television stations, each being affiliated with a different network, a variety of viewing entertainment could be seen by the local population with minimal expense.
In 1976, Mr. Frank Trippe of Fort Payne, Alabama bought the old Princess Theatre and began conducting extensive equipment updating and began extensive repairs for reopening the historic landmark as a family theater. On Friday evening, October 29, 1976, the old theater was reopened after thirteen years of sitting idle as the new Valley Cinema. Its first feature film was “Ode To Billie Joe” starring Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Conner. The admission price was one dollar for children under the age of twelve and two dollars for everyone over the age of twelve.
This operation only lasted a few years before closing. The historic building from this point onward received no additional restorations and very little maintenance. It sat vacant until the 1990s when a church rented the structure for worship services. The use of the old theater building by the church only lasted a short time, before the church moved from the decaying structure.
By 1999, after sitting vacant for several more years, the two-story building had deteriorated to a point that the roof collapsed and a portion of the north wall was in danger of doing the same. This prompted officials to condemn the building, which would be razed if the local populace and officials did not mount an effort to save the historic theater building.
Was there any hope of salvation for this local piece of Americana? Could it be saved and a new use found? Would anyone step up to the challenge and prevent a gapping hole from being torn into the downtown business block if the structure was condemned and razed? The answer to all three questions is yes!
That same year, 1999, a group of concerned citizens began a drive to salvage the historic theater building for a community arts center. The City of South Pittsburg purchased the theater from its Alabama owners and then appointed a commission of local officials and citizens to develop and execute a plan for the building’s restoration. At the same time they were to formulate plans to acquire the necessary funds to achieve their goal.
Since that time the commission has evolved into an independent non-profit organization known today as the South Pittsburg Historic Preservation Society, Inc. This preservation group, through various fund-raisers, grants and donations, has stabilized the theater building.
Unfortunately, the damage to the building from several years of unchecked deterioration was so severe that restoration will take several years. The Society has expended thus far in excess of $100,000 in its efforts to restore the Princess. Included in these expenditures are: securing the site and cleanup of debris from roof collapse, rebuilding of north brick wall, installation of footings, supports, joist and decking for a new roof, acquisition of four hundred theater seats and two projectors along with the hiring of an architect to develop construction drawings. In 2003 and 2004, a new roof, repairs to the facade and marquee along with the rebuilding of the rear wall have all been completed or are in the process.
To learn more about the Princess Theatre in downtown South Pittsburg, Tennessee and other projects of the South Pittsburg (Tennessee) Historic Preservation Society, Inc. please visit our website at:
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater | <urn:uuid:238f8a84-fc12-475a-8f8f-9c9a96315959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/10607 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972331 | 1,756 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Note: Small picture is small, like looking for a Wall-E in a scrap-metal stack -- click HERE for the full-res version.
This is a piece by Richard Sargent (SIR, YES, SIR!) called 'Where's Wall-E' that contains pretty much every robot ever made (I see you, Twiki from Buck Rogers!). It took me a lukewarm minute to find the little metal-packer in question, but I eventually did. Admittedly, I never was very good at those 'Where's Waldo?' books. Magic Eye ones either. Plus a friend slapped me on the back while I was trying to concentrate and now I'm crosseyed.
Artist's Website (with a "name them all" contest running for a free poster)
Where's WALL-E of the Day [geeks.thedailywh.at]
Thanks to Mike, who named them all without cheating, making him a robotics expert and a liability. 007 -- do your thing.
Jerks at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a robotic snake that can wrap itself around objects when thrown at them. Cool, here -- grab a hold of this volcano.
The idea is to create a robot capable of slithering into tight spaces, perhaps for scouting or search-and-r... / Continue →
Because building our future killers is all the rage right now, this is a video of a quadrocopter fitted with a 3-D printed claw modeled after an eagle's so it can grab things in flight. You know, things like YOUR HEAD. Then drop you from really high up. Like my high school p... / Continue →
Ever wanted to own your own full size Omni Consumer Products Enforcement Droid 209 (ED-209) from Robocop before? Well now you can because Hollywood Parts is selling one on eBay for $25,000. Granted it's not how I'd spend 25-grand, but a lifetime supply of bourbon isn't for ev... / Continue → | <urn:uuid:243d8f4a-006b-4c2b-89d0-1862de8d5eab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geekologie.com/2011/08/wheres-walle-or-every-robot-ever-made.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949012 | 415 | 1.679688 | 2 |
HARRY, Hugh 1 2 3
- Born: 1662, of Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire, WLS
- Marriage: BRINTON, Elizabeth on Apr 12, 1686 in Chichester, Chester, PA, USA
- Died: After Sep 28, 1708, Birmingham Twp., Chester, PA, USA
UA Record #:2338
The Welsh name Harry was spelled Harri or Hari. Hugh Harry, sometimes called Harris, was a Quaker being noted in Pennsylvania Quaker records in 1671, 1680, 1681, 1682, and 1685. He was a weaver who immigrated with his brother, Daniel, from "Maukinleth" (Machynlleth) in Montgomeryshire aboard the "Vine of Liverpoole", William Freeson, Master. They arrived in Philadelphia on the 7 month, 17th day, 1684 from "dolyserne nere dolyules in Merionethshire." He settled in Birmingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on two hundred and fifty acres of land given to him by his father-in-law, William Brinton, two months after the Quaker Records say he and Elizabeth Brinton "were free to proceed" with their marriage plans (2nd month, 12th day, 1686 and 4th month, 12th day). They were members of the Radnor MM. Hugh and Elizabeth were witnesses at Elizabeth's brother William's marriage in 1690. On Nov. 19, 1707, he bought an additional 430 acres in Marlborough, Chester Co, PA which can be verified in Deed records. (C-2139)
He died probably in late September 1708 leaving the following will. "To all Christian people to whom these presents may come, whereas, I, Hugh Harris of Brumingham (Birmingham) in the County of Chester, West Randolph, greeting this twenty fourth day of the first month called March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eight, being sick and weak in body, but of sound and perfect memory, prayse be to God for the same, and knowing the uncertainty of this life on earth & being disposed to better things, I do hereby make this my last will & testament in manner and form following - that is to say - First and principally I commend my soul to almighty God, my estate & my body to the earth from whence it was taken. To be buried in such decent & Christian manner as my Executrix here after named be thought wise and convenient, as touching such worldly estate as the Lord in mercy hath sent me. My will and meaning is the same shall be employed and bestowed as hereafter by this my will is expressed, that is to say - I make and certify my well-beloved wife Elizabeth Harris my whole and sole Executrix of my last will & testament. Item - I give to my sonn Evan:Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one yeras. With my weaving loom, the gears thereunto belonging. Secondly - I give to my sonn William Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Thirdly - I give to my sonn Hugh Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Fourthly - I give to my sonn John Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Fifthly - I give to my daughter Elizabeth Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Sixthly - I give to my daughter Ann Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Seventhly - I give to my daughter Jane Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Eighthly - I give to my daughter Lois Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Ninethly - I give to my daughter Olive Harris the sum of five pounds to be paid at the age of twenty one years. Tenthly & lastly - I give full power to my well-beloved wife, Elizabeth Harris, which I have hereby constituted my whole and sole executrix of this my last will and testament. To sell, & dispose of all & all manner of my real & personal estate, to the best advantage as may be. To pay my funeral charges & my just debts, with the legacys herein mentioned. In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand & seal the day of year above written. Hugh Harris (H for his mark) (Seal) Witnesses: Richard Webb, Jonathan ?, William Brinton, John Bennett. (Photostats of Original Philadelphia Wills & Inventories, 1681-1710. GSP, PH:13 Will #96:1708., or Philadelphia Will Book C, p. 126 #96:1708, GSP XW Pennsylvania PH 2.
He is buried at Radnor MM in Pennsylvania. (C-956)
It is widely published that this Hugh Harry's ancestry goes through many Royal lines. However, a Harry Family Association Newsletter dated 1995, has cast serious doubt on this. Hugh's father, Hugh Thomas Owen, was the son of a Thomas Owen. A researcher has found a second Thomas Owens in Machynlleth who could be this Harry Thomas's father. He believes this Thomas who was not prominent in English affairs, to be Harry Thomas' father because 1) Hugh Thomas was a weaver when he came to America and 2) The Quaker minutes after he arrives mention that his parents were having financial trouble. The sons promised they would pay any member back who could help send money to their parents on March 13, 1686. (This would not have been true for the son of the affluent Thomas Owen. [FN:Thomas Underwood, 1650 Immigrant:FN]
The support for Hugh being the grandson of Thomas Owen, of Royal Lineage, is that 1) Harry Thomas Owen became a Quaker, was imprisoned and heavily fined, making impoverishment for his family a likely occurrence. This would explain the lower station and practical trades of his sons. 2) It is an accepted, published line in [UL:Ancestors of American Presidents:UL].
Noted events in his life were:
• Immigration, Jul 17, 1684. This is his arrival date in Philadelphia, PA. (C-437 pps. 1 & 574)
• Will, Sep 28, 1708. 2 This will was written Mar. 27, 1708 and proved in Philadelphia on
Sept. 28, 1708.
Hugh married Elizabeth BRINTON, daughter of William BRINTON and Ann BAGLEY, on Apr 12, 1686 in Chichester, Chester, PA, USA. (Elizabeth BRINTON was born on Aug 9, 1665 in , Worcestershire, ENG 1 4 and died after Nov 8, 1727.)
or March 1, 1686. (C-956) | <urn:uuid:71f9a2a4-f900-4ff9-841a-78208852aef7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ancestrees.com/pedigree/2145.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963838 | 1,469 | 1.625 | 2 |
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